The Budding Metalinguist

XLVIII

When Dakota let Lillian in, her first reaction was to smirk. He cocked his head in question.

"What happened?"

"You are very lucky," Lillian answered. "I was in an interview yesterday with Rolf's sister. Galena asked her whether she'd seen someone who looked like you, but the phrasing was just right and Ingrid assumed you were out of the question because you were a professor."

"Oh, yeah, I heard about that," Dakota responded offhandedly. "We were lucky. It would have been really hard to fix it if Galena had heard anything."

"Because she's a metalinguist," Lillian confirmed.

Dakota nodded. "That's right," he answered quickly, gesturing toward the mirror. He grabbed a black zippered case off the couch and strode into its surface. Lillian followed. Once they entered the Alin Gap, he unzipped the case, revealing two identical circular mirrors. He set both carefully down on the slipstone.

"More Idea of Opening?" Lillian wondered in a frustrated tone.

"This is the Idea of Transportation," Dakota corrected. "Direct teleportation isn't possible, but objects can be transferred through mirrors. There are two ways to do it. One of them is direct transport, and the other is more akin to a portal."

"So which should I use?" Lillian picked up.

"Direct transport," Dakota answered briefly. "There are problems associated with the other approach." He demonstrated by using the Idea of Transportation to link the two mirrors. He spread them a few feet apart and stepped on the surface of one. Instantly, he was transported to the exact same position, standing atop the other.

"Useful," Lillian commented quietly.

"You try." Dakota abruptly removed the link from the pair of mirrors.

Lillian implemented the Idea of Transportation. Although she could sense that there was another, more complicated way to link the mirrors, she settled with the simple "direct transport" option Dakota had suggested.

When she placed a finger on the surface of one of the linked mirrors, all she noticed was a change in her field of view. There was no external effect to the transportation. She was impressed.

"You should practice," Dakota prescribed.

Lillian concurred. She definitely would.

❦

Ashley sauntered casually into the office. "It worked."

"It worked?" Dakota repeated in excitement.

"Dr. Hests is telling Professor Perid not to ask you out. She was disappointed. I don't think she's disappointed enough not to be in a professional relationship with you, but she won't be asking you to lunch anytime soon."

"Good," Dakota answered distractedly. He wasn't worried. The fact that Ashley thought it had worked was incontrovertible evidence that he wouldn't have to stress over Dr. Hests any longer.

"Did you get a chance to fix the bowl after you ate dinner?"

"I didn't."

Ashley glared. "Did it have any words on it?"

Dakota shook his head. "It didn't."

"Not even 'dishwasher safe' on the bottom?" Ashley continued probingly.

Dakota sighed. "I didn't check."

Ashley glared. "I recognize that you're probably not going to be in this situation again. But next time you are, if you are, will you please take care of all these things?" She sounded in equal measure infuriated and exasperated.

"I will," Dakota admitted.

"And in the meanwhile," Ashley suggested, "you should have breakfast."