27. Preparations #2
“I wasn’t pushed into the military the way you were.
Instead, they let me study. I majored in whatever I chose, and no one even noticed that everything I studied gave me the best chance of escape from that hell hole.
In fact, I’m willing to bet that they intentionally chose to ensure you didn’t study anything more than the basics of magic. Correct?”
Fred thought back to that time in his life. He had studied magic for the standard thirty years, and passed all his exams, but the idea of more study had never appealed.
“I never thought of it like that,” he said. “I wanted my life to get started, and I thought I could always return to studying if I wanted to.”
“Well, I hope you want to today! Unfortunately the knowledge is too complex to be swallowed like a Driving Draught, but if I send you away with a Portal Pill, I want to know you’re able to make yourself more. I don’t want my nephew trapped anywhere!”
“Can’t you come with us?” Fred asked.
“No. No, I need to be here for the aftermath of whatever happens. I don’t trust your father. Now he knows I’m here, and you’ve been here, he won’t just forget about the Earth.”
Fred was half relieved. He didn’t want to leave his uncle behind, and there was so much Bob could do that he couldn’t, but it would be good to step away from the control of his family, at last.
“If this is a ‘high-grade Portal Pill’, can we make it any more accurate than the one that brought me here? I asked for it to take me to freedom, but I don’t think that’s quite what I’ve found!”
“We can’t specify exactly where it will take you in terms of geography, or even history, but we can make it fulfil your desires more accurately.
I wonder if your Portal Pill brought you here because this is how I escaped.
Maybe you weren’t specific enough about whose freedom you were chasing.
Or maybe this is the first chapter of your search for freedom, and you will make it there in the end.
The lower quality your Portal Pill, the more leprechaun-like the interpretation of your desires tends to be. ”
“How do you make it more secure?” Fred asked. “This time I don’t want my father turning up and ruining everything.”
“A portal can be set to only accept people with certain emotions regarding the person who took the portal pill. It can also be set to leave no trace. Your original portal must have left a kind of snail-trail right to my bar. We won’t let that happen this time.
Not only will that trace disappear instantaneously, but we can engineer the pill so that it knows to take you somewhere where you will be harder to find.
Tracking people is a doddle right here and now, as demonstrated by Dina bugging your phone, but there are parts of the world where it would be a whole lot harder. ”
“What if I wanted to get back here though?” Fred asked. “Is that something we could build into the pill?”
“Let’s stop with the questions now, and I’ll talk you through building the Portal Pill. In fact, let’s go one step further. I’ll watch you read your way through making the Portal Pill.”
Bob pulled a slender volume from one of the book shelves lining the walls. It was entitled “Perfect Portal Pills For Dummies”.
“As soon as the humans came up with typewriters, I started typing up my knowledge, just in case I needed to pass it down someday. And that day has come,” Bob said, passing over the booklet with both hands, and bowing his head.
Fred took it with equal care, acknowledging the enormity of this moment.
“I always dreamed of having an apprentice. I guess an apprentice for a day is better than none…”
They worked together well. Bob took a backseat, allowing Fred space to make some mistakes, but watching out for any that would slow them down too far. Fred marvelled at the range of materials his uncle had managed to amass in a completely different realm.
“Have you actually used any of your Portal Pills?” Fred asked, as he fused the materials together. “You seem pretty settled here.”
“Two hundred years is a long time to be an alien for. There were definitely times when I thought I wanted to go home, but I guess I can’t have wanted it that bad, as my Portal Pills kept me within this realm every time,” Bob mused.
“It’s also useful to have one on hand for quick escapes.
Sometimes I feel like Portal Pills do as little work as possible to fulfil your wants and needs.
I’ve taken one to escape a fight and only ended up a few streets away.
” Bob chortled at the memory. “So where do you want this one to take you? What do you really want?”
“I want to understand,” Fred answered, resting his chin on his hand, brow furrowed.
“I want to understand why my father is behaving like this. Why would he be willing to expend so many resources on bringing me back? I could have understood if he’d had me quietly kidnapped, but he didn’t.
He chose to make this into a great, big, world-altering deal.
Why? He never showed much interest in me before, so why now? ”
“Understanding it is then! Your desire is better honed this time round.” Bob sighed.
“It would be so tempting to give you the easy answer, to tell you that your father did all that out of love, but it doesn’t ring true.
A heartless bastard doesn’t suddenly become father of the year.
I know I’ve changed a lot in two hundred years, but had I never left, I would have stayed in that same role forever. ”
Fred understood. Deep inside he knew how much leaving home had changed him. Not only leaving home, but meeting Cara and Shandy, feeling so much more than he had ever felt before, and having those feelings reciprocated.