The immortal wizards were the most powerful humans ever to walk the planet Tharia, but the wars between them devastated the planet and the whole world breathed a sigh of relief when the last of them was killed. In an attempt to cheat death, though...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
They had so expected to see buildings and wizards and green fields on the other side of the door that it took a moment for the stark bare corridor that greeted them to register on their consciousness.
"What the Hell..." began Thomas.
For once it was Matthew who was first to realise the truth. "Of course!" he said, chuckling with relief. "Grand Central."
"Grand Central, of course," agreed the wizard, relaxing as the brief moment of panic faded away. "I should have known we'd come here first. I should have remembered."
"Why?" asked Stone in confusion. "Where are we? What's Grand Central?"
"The centre of the Agglemonian teleportation network," replied Thomas, staring around in wonder. "A central nexus that allows you to go from any point in the Empire to any other. Me and Matt've been here before, in our own time. It was all in ruins then, of course, and only a handful of the cubicles still worked. I don't recognise this corridor, though. I thought we'd explored them all, looking for a way out."
"This area is probably reserved for wizards only," said Matthew, and Thomas was astonished to hear the edge of bitterness in his voice. "Can't have mere mundanes getting into the Towers of Sorcery. Who knows what they might do."
Looking around, Thomas saw that his friend was right. The short stretch of corridor they were in had three doors on either side, each with the name of a city engraved above it. Another door at the end had the word 'Lexandria' carved in impressive, ornate lettering. That was the door they wanted. Thomas found his eyes drawn to the other end of the corridor, though, where another corridor crossed theirs. Sounds were drifting in from it; the sounds of people talking and strolling lazily from one door to another. As they watched, a man and a woman walked past, members of a noble house by the look of them. The four visitors from the future must have been plainly visible to them, but the couple walked past without a glance in their direction. Are we that uninteresting? thought Thomas curiously. He found himself walking in their direction.
"Hey!" called Matthew, running to catch up with him. "We should be going that way!"
Thomas ignored him and carried on walking until he reached the junction with the cross corridor. He could sense magic, over and above the background clamour of so many teleportation cubicles so close together. There was magic of some kind guarding the entrance to the corridor they were in.
He crossed the threshold and looked back. There was nothing but a wall of rock where he'd just come from. "Matt?" he called.
