Fearing they would be separated forever after they found evidence that the evil Elgarin was definitely on his world, David West had used the Portal Stone Sandra carried as a blueprint to open something he called a “Prismatic Gate” to her world, and now he and his lover were there. They had just met several residents of the Temple, including the very mean-spirited Dalrinjian, Sandra’s assigned mate.

  Several minutes after that encounter, David was now wearing a gold trimmed red robe that almost fit perfectly and a pair of sandals. He and Sandra had just grabbed a light meal in the Temple's rge, cafeteria style mess hall, and sat down to eat when a man in the gold trimmed green robes of a High Magister approached their table.

  “Do not mind me,” he said by way of introduction, "I enjoy watching people eat. Parkidden told me we had an interesting visitor and that the first of our scouts was back. I am High Magister Quorin,” he finally expined as he pulled up a seat at their small table.

  He then took a piece of bread out of a pouch and took a bite out of it. “Please, continue your meal,” he offered.

  David looked over at Sandra and then at Quorin. “I think I’m good,” he said.

  “Excellent! Then we shall walk a bit,” he told David. He then turned to Sandra and added: “but you, Thellissandra, should remain here my child; we will return when it is time for you to join the conversation.”

  She looked surprised but nodded and resumed eating, much more slowly than before.

  David rose and followed the High Magister. As they walked out into a small courtyard, several people who had been training, reading or meditating there immediately rose and left.

  As soon as the two were alone, Quorin turned to David and said “Hmm. I must admit I share some of Dalrinjian’s skepticism. I have never before met a true Mage who had seen fewer than thirty years yet you seem to have barely seen twenty.”

  David replied: “I am twenty-one, or at least was back on my home. I believe the years here are about five days longer so I would have my birthday next week here.”

  “Ah so you were born there? To exiles?” the High Magister asked.

  “As far as I know, yes. Dad was big into genealogy though, so maybe he knew something more.”

  “Ah well, truth will out, I suppose. You have met Dalrinjian, right?”

  “I have had that misfortune.”

  Gravely, the High Magister said: “You have made a powerful enemy in him. When he first came here, as one of our older Apprentices, in his eighteenth year, he saw her training and desired her. She was too young to be partnered but he began a campaign to guarantee he was next in line when she became eligible. He was successful. Their first meeting did not go well, as she emerged with some cuts and bruises while he had a broken arm. She was sent out on several assignments since, and I suspect they have only been together five or six times in total - a very low number for a pair not deemed incompatible. He sees her as his and will likely try to discredit you or drive you off. He may even do worse! Though nothing was ever proven, there were rumors about some of the men who should have been in line ahead of him to be assigned a mate.”

  David considered this for a second, then asked: “Ah so you only seek to give me a friendly warning?”

  “Oh, no,” Qorin said, “You, as a Grand Mage, understand how the Seven Forces work, correct?”

  David thought back to the rule books for Dungeoneers; one thing that set the game apart from others was that everyone had the potential to use “magic,” though few received the training to do more than a minor effect or two. “Most are born with access to one or two of the Forces. Usually Spirit, though there seems to be a genetic link on Fire and Metal, so that men are more likely to have Fire if they do not have Spirit, and women to have Metal. I believe the Battle Sisters are all Metal linked?”

  “That is correct. You have studied the teachings of The Traveler? He brought us that word ‘genetics’ as well as some elements of what he called ‘plumbing'.”

  David had studied genetics as part of high school biology but was not sure that answer would make much sense to the High Magister, so simply nodded.

  “Now you are aware that those who can access two or three types of Forces become Magisters or Healers?”

  “Yes, and those who can access more become Mages, the only cssification shared by men and women,” David replied.

  “And to be a Grand Mage or Arch Mage one must tap all seven.”

  David suddenly suspected he knew where this was headed and simply nodded agreement, and then added “And to become an Arch Mage one must be able to open a Gate and access the Trials”

  “Excellent! Now what I need you to do is to show me that you can access all Seven Forces.”

  David suddenly recalled an obscure rule for a less popur but very powerful css in the game: “ah because I may only be an Artificer, for they can open a Gate with only four forces while a Mage requires six?”

  Quorin cpped his hands together in delight: “You understand! Now show!”

  David had never done anything like this, but the person he was pretending to be, his Dungeoneers character Grand Mage Thengarian, had frequently faced such trials. He quickly thought of minor spell effects to attempt and called them out as he did so:

  “Fire: Caressing Lights,” he called out as he touched the fire sigil in his mind and a red-gold nimbus suddenly enveloped the Magister.

  “Air: Sweetening Breeze!” This caused a small whirlwind that removed unpleasant odors and minor allergens from the area to materialize and sweep through the courtyard. It took him a second to remember the next one,

  “Water: Cooling Mist!” He called out and a light mist that lowered the temperature in the courtyard slightly lowered before it was gone.

  “Pnt: Sudden Bloom!” He called out next and several of the pnts around him formed buds that immediately opened into beautiful flowers.

  The next few would be tougher. Most Metal effects were used in combat or to enhance physical abilities, but David had brought a coin from Earth and hoped the alloys used would respond as well as less “imperfect” metals would; he tossed the coin in the air and called out: “Metal: Reshaping.”. The copper of the coin rippled and flowed, turning jet bck and shifting into a crude form reminiscent of a tiny crow; it spiraled down to the ground.

  Now he had to use two of the toughest to demonstrate, Spirit and Void. As Void was usually used to counter other effects, he decided to use it st and called out : “Spirit: False Fiend!” - one of his favorite in-game spells as it created the illusion of a nightmare creature that could inflict real damage or simply frighten away others. The creature that appeared lived up to the nightmare aspect - standing three times taller than David, it had deep red skin, bck bat-like wings sprouting from its back two pairs of powerful arms, one set ending in crab-like pincers. One of the other sets bore a human-like hand, though on a rger scale and ending in bck, hooked cws instead of fingernails. The fourth arm ended in a mass of tentacles, as if a squid grew out of the thing’s elbow. Where the creature should have a head, instead sprouted several smaller tentacles ringing a pair of eye stalks. The thing took a step towards the Magister as David tapped the final Force: “Void: Dispel Illusion!”

  The creature froze in pce, then suddenly shattered as if it were made of gss and struck by a rge hammer. As the fragments rained down, they dissolved into dust

  The Magister cpped at this and several of those at the edge of the courtyard joined in. “Either you are the finest illusionist I have ever met and faked all of that or you truly deserve to be at least a Mage if not a Grand Mage. As nothing you showed was above rank six, and to be a Grand Mage you need to show either one Rank Nine or multiple Rank Eight effects, I will consider you a true Mage, but nothing more or less until proven otherwise.”

  “Fair enough, sir,” David replied, bowing.

  “Now we should return to your charming companion for any further discussions,” the Magister stated, and the two headed back to where they had left Sandra.

  From one corner of the courtyard, Dalrinjian gred after them, then turned to one of the young men at his side: “he’s a chartan. I know it. Find proof or find a way to get him out of here. Bribery, accidents. Anything that gets him out of the way.”

  The other figure, a rat-faced young man with a very wiry frame and limp brown hair, nodded darkly and said: “is assassination on the table too?”

  “Not while he is a guest of the Temple. Once he leaves, if it looks like he might come back, or she might go after him, then it is.”

  “Excellent. I will inform Kolvat and Tharx and we will begin. How much of a bribe should I start with to test him?”

  “One hundred gold. Thellissandra is a prize worth any price.”

  “She’s a pretty one, to be sure. Even more so with those braids gone, and you deserve her, regardless, sir.”

  Delrinjian let out a bitter ugh. “Well, she deserves the best and that fraud certainly is not it.”