Post by dans on Feb 20, 2024 1:16:11 GMT
Made some minor changes regarding the village on Grimoire Island - now named Witherward, which comes and goes, sometimes existing on Grimoire Island and sometimes... 'elsewhere'.
“You may go in, now, Miss Prescott,” Mr. Pennyworth, Administrative Assistant for Grimoire Academy, said to the young lady dozing in the outer office, pointing to the plain inner door. She jerked upright and her eyes snapped open. “It is somewhat unusual for Headmaster Gallowglass to see a student regarding academic leave. Usually such requests are handled by our Guidance Counselors, and Counselor Lovell has already recommended against such a leave in your case?”
Although his tone was neutral, he seemed to disapprove of something about Olga. Perhaps it was the brunette student’s casual attire, or perhaps her strong build, or maybe it was the points on the tips of her ears which occasionally peeked through her curly hair. Or perhaps he simply disapproved of a student who had scheduled an appointment with his boss against the recommendations of her Guidance Counselor. The slightly rising inflection at the end of his sentence invited Olga to tell more of her story – but she didn't seem inclined to explain.
"Be sure you don't nod off again in his office!" Pennyworth added officiously as she bounced to her feet.
“Thanks, Jeeves!” Olga said with a smirk, and then ignored the look of disdain she received after calling Pennyworh by the nickname commonly used for him by the student body.
She knocked on the inner door to announce her arrival, peeked in cautiously, and finally stepped slowly inside. She’d been prepared to retreat if Headmaster Gallowglass had seemed angry, but she was very surprised and relieved to see that instead of the stern visage he normally sported, a welcoming smile shaped his lips and his single, icy blue right eye looked intriguing, rather than like a weapon. Olga wasn’t scared of much, but the last time she’d been face to face with Gallowglass, it had been during a disciplinary hearing. And the annoyed Gallowglass who she’d faced during that hearing was one of the things that DID scare her.
Olga and some of the other Grimoire students had ignored a strict school restriction and gone rafting on the Rip Roaring River, on the other side of Grim Island from Grimoire Academy. And the Rip Roaring River had more than lived up to its name. In a stretch of Class VI rapids, the three rafts had gone over a waterfall and several students had almost drowned and eventually ended up in the school infirmary.
Harry Flashman the 5th, the student leader of the expedition who had talked the others into joining him, had almost been expelled; only the fact that his home universe had been destroyed in the recent Crisis on Infinite Earths and they had nowhere else to send him had saved him from expulsion. Olga’s own heroic rescue and resuscitation efforts had likely saved several lives, so other than a stern lecture she had avoided punishment. (Actually, she knew that she had been placed on Academy Double-Secret Probation, although it was supposed to be a secret from students that this status even existed. But it was very hard to keep secrets from Olga Prescott. Mr. Pennyworth was surely aware of the probation, though; perhaps that was the reason for his disapproval.)
“Thanks for seeing me, Master Gallowglass!” she greeted him. “I know you’re really busy!” Even with the smile on his face, she felt like his single eye could see right through her. She decided again that it was probably less use trying to keep secrets from this man than from her.
‘But,’ she reflected, ‘he seems to be very good at keeping other peoples' secrets. As are the rest of the faculty and staff. Even though they probably all know my secrets, none of the other students know...’
“Come in, Miss Prescott. I trust you are well. Please be seated. Sounds like you've managed to annoy Collin again, somehow?” He winked at her, then gestured to indicate an open folder on his desk as he continued to speak.
“Regarding your request for an academic sabbatical, I’m sure you realize that if it takes too much time, taking such a leave in the middle of a term may interfere with your current studies and delay your graduation?” She nodded, he continued. “As you might guess, with the type of students we admit to Grimoire, such a request for an academic sabbatical is not really unusual. What IS unusual is Counselor Lovell turning down a request of this type. Why do you think that is?”
“To be honest, Master Gallowglass, Mr. Lovell is probably anxious to be rid of me by getting me to graduation as soon as possible. I haven’t been a very good student since, well…” she got a little choked up and had to pause; he waited patiently. “Well, since that awful Crisis destroyed my universe!” she rushed through that, practically shouting at the end, then paused again to compose herself. “And I haven’t exactly been ‘on my best behavior’ since then either. In fact, I’ve been pretty wild…” She didn’t know exactly how to continue.
He let her off the hook, nodding gravely. “I’d heard reports about your behavior and academic issues, even before your disciplinary hearing, and I was actually wondering what could be done about you. You were on pretty thin ice, as they say.” He frowned as he said this. “But your heroic actions rescuing your fellow students from drowning in the river, and your exemplary behavior and academic results since then, have steered you back to solid ground, if I may mix some metaphors.” He smiled once again. “I’m very glad you straightened yourself out. Most students won’t believe this, but I find administering student discipline to be painful. It is much more pleasant administering praise.” He paused for a second, and watched her closely as he asked: “What caused you to change your behavior?”
“Harry Flashman the Fifth was treating me like a plaything on the raft – crawling all over me and pawing me in front of everyone – and I realized that not only was that the way everyone expected me to behave, but they all expected that they’d sooner or later get their own turn, sometime in the future, based on my recent prior behavior. I realized I didn’t like it anymore, and I needed to change. And then, we were in the water and people were drowning and I just had to help. And after, knowing that I had probably saved some lives, that was the Best. Feeling. Ever! And I’ve been a new person since then."
“Thanks for being honest, Miss Prescott. Now, let’s discuss your request. Tell me why it is so important for you to go to Earth 4 right now.” If she hadn’t been honest, he had been prepared to summarily dismiss her request on the basis of her past behavior.
“From my records, you know I’m majoring in 'Autonomous Operations'." He nodded again. "I had originally intended to work for the Royal Intelligence Service in my grandmother’s kingdom.” She paused for a minute and sniffled, thinking of her grandmother Margot, who had been practically immortal, already well over 30,000 years old and still just a young adult, and now gone, more completely than if she had never existed since her universe had been erased.
“I don’t know any longer what I’m going to do when I graduate, but I figured I might as well finish the AO program since I was almost to the end anyway. And I’ve been taking some of the Academy’s more ‘active’ electives since then as well.” Particularly some of the most difficult courses such as ‘Focus’ (learning more about your powers and their limits, and how to strengthen them through mental discipline and use them more effectively through rigorous training) and ‘Advanced Unarmed Combat’ from Mrs. Peel (just what it sounds like – plus a lot of ‘dirty tricks’).
“Anyway, I'm taking Professor Peril's “Advanced Analytics” elective during the break, and we analyze real world data collected by the school’s agents from the various Earths that are accessible from Grim Island.” Gallowglass nodded, a look of intense interest on his face. He regularly reviewed a summary of that same data himself, searching for the faintest clues of any pending threats to his Academy from any of those adjacent universes. All Advanced Analytics students were required to report anything they found suspicious to their instructor, Professor Johnny Peril, who was then supposed to review their concerns and provide his comments and summary to the Headmaster for his own review. Had Olga noticed something that both he and Peril had missed?
“It’s also in my records that my grandmother Margot was the Queen of Venus in her universe and betrothed to the First Prince of Mars in order to stop a war between Mars and Venus. And that back in the 1820s, she’d been overthrown by a revolution led by someone named Ombo and fled to Earth, where she and some loyalists established an underground realm. And in the late 1930s, she finally returned to Venus and reclaimed her throne with the help of my mother Olga, Rod Prescott, Olga’s future husband and my father, and Margot’s lover Shag, who died in the action that finally captured Ombo and returned Margot to the throne.”
Gallowglass hadn’t studied her record to that extent, but as she talked he made a minute gesture with his hands, twirling his little fingers just so, and in the dark place in his mind where he’d used to see through his left eye, a ‘movie’ of those past events played out, skipping from scene to scene to match her ‘narrative’. “So your maternal grandmother wasn’t human, but Sitnaltan, the native race on Venus in your universe, as were Shag and Ombo. And your mother Olga was born with super-powers as a result of experiments performed on Margot by your mad scientist grandfather, Hugo. So that’s where your powers come from?”
Olga nodded, and continued sadly. “Although she knew better, Margot always insisted that Hugo had really been trying to cure her of amnesia that was the result of injuries she sustained escaping from Ombo, rather than using her for torturous experiments. But yes, the radioactive potions he forced on her put her into a coma and almost killed her, and mutated her body to give her powers – which she passed to mom Olga. And my Dad, Rod Prescott, had similar, though lesser powers, which manifested after he received a life-saving transfusion of Olga’s blood. And since both my parents had these powers, I inherited stronger powers than those of either of my parents or Margot."
She continued, more confidently. "Powers that I’ve mostly kept secret since I’ve known enough to keep secrets. And,” she smiled at him, “powers that you, your faculty and staff have never revealed to anyone else. Everyone knows I have enhanced strength and durability, but only a few members of the faculty know about my X-Ray eyes. Thank you for that!”
He nodded gravely in acknowledgement. She continued, “Well, the last data dump from Earth 4 that we studied included a video, taken by a very brave student from Smythe College in Massachusetts, of a hero named Thunderbunny, who appears to be a giant anthropomorphic rabbit with super powers, battling a super-powered ogre. Parts of the video are clear enough that I can recognize the ogre as the villain Ombo who led revolutions against my grandmother. I don’t know how he survived the Crisis or how he got to Earth 4 – but it’s definitely him. Whatever he’d doing, I must stop him! I owe it to Grandmom Queen Margot!”
Indeed, Johnny Peril HAD reported this incident, and Gareth had already seen the video, since it involved a visitor from outside the barriers around the 5 Earths, which was VERY unusual. But the current Earth 4 Monitor, the Super Wizard, had dismissed the incident since the extra-universal visitor had been incinerated. Based on this, even though Peril had flagged the incident, Gareth had deemed it as not relevant to the security of Grimoire Academy. “I don't see why you want to take a sabbatical and possibly delay your graduation. Ombo was vaporized. There's no reason for you to go to Earth 4."
"We didn't see the body, did we?" she asked skeptically. "Ombo is very tough!"
"But Son of Vulcan searched for him for almost an hour, and found no sign of him," Gallowglass protested again.
"But I know something I'll bet Son of Vulcan doesn't know," she said triumphantly. "Margot ruled an underground kingdom on Earth for a couple of hundred years after she and some of her followers escaped from Venus after Ombo's rebellion. They colonized a vast cavern system they discovered under the Green Mountains in Vermont. And the original entrance they found was on Bald Mountain in Vermont!"
"So," the headmaster mused slowly, stroking his beard. "You think this same cave system may exist on Earth 4, as well as your own Earth, and that Obmo may have somehow escaped from the spaceship before it was destroyed and disappeared into this giant, so far undiscovered cavern system." He nodded. "It's possible - it wouldn't be the first time some villain has escaped from an 'inescapable' death trap."
He thought for a few seconds. "But if he somehow survived, he is very powerful. He battled this local super-powered action hero, Thunderbunny, to a draw and then was able to escape from a seemingly deadly trap. Are you certain you want to face him alone? I could send Professor Shiva with you…”
“No, this is my fight and mine alone!” she interrupted him – and then looked abashed at what she’d done. “I’m sorry, Master Gallowglass. I shouldn’t interrupt, but Ombo is the enemy of my family – MY enemy! He drove my grandmother away from Venus and stole her throne there - and then he followed her to Earth and led a rebellion in her new kingdom. And I have my own powers, PLUS I’ve been training here at Grimoire Academy for almost 7 years. Mrs. Peel says I'm the one of the best fighters she's ever trained. And I have my own powers! I can do this myself – I MUST do this myself.” She got ready for further arguments, but Gallowglass surprised her.
“Your application for academic sabbatical is granted.” He pulled out a feathered quill pen, dipped it in an inkwell, and signed the paper with a flourish. “Are you ready to go, or do you need more time to make your preparations?"
"I've been making preparations for the last few days." Gallowglass already knew that; it was one of the reasons he'd granted the request. "I'm ready to leave today. Since Whitherward is aligned right now, I checked with Mr. Goldfinch and he's willing to take me from Port Sentinel to one of the Earth 4 islands nearby, where I'll try to find transportation to some bigger place where I can catch a plane to Hawaii, and then a long-distance flight to the East Coast of the US."
Whitherward was a village that magically appeared and disappeared on Grimoire Island. It was not permanently attached to the island; it would magically appear, exist for some time, then move on to other locations. Some retired staff from Grimoire Academy now resided in Whitherward including Skylark Goldfinch, who had once been the sailing instructor. In recognition of his faithful service, Gallowglass had granted him an exclusive license - when Whitherward was aligned with Grimoire Island, Goldfinch was allowed to sail out of Port Sentinel to 'nearby' islands outside the mystical cloudy barrier that separated Grimoire Island from the outside Earths - provided he cleared such expeditions with Gallowglass first.
Gallowglass frowned as he tried to estimate her travel time. "That could several months even if you have no trouble finding connections," he mused, "delaying your graduation for sure. And it would give this Obmo character extra weeks or months to escape and cause trouble. We can do better than that. I'll ask Mr. Belmont to open a portal directly to Bald Mountain, Vermont, Earth 4. Be there at exactly 4:30. You know how testy Belmont is; if you're late, no telling WHERE he might send you. Professor Burgess won't travel via Simon's portals any longer after..." He paused, smiled at the memory of Burgress's embarrassing trip, concluded that the details didn't need to be shared with a student, and then continued... "Well, anyway, we all learned that it doesn't pay to be on Simon's bad side. So be on time!"
"He'll send my bags with me, right?" she asked, and he nodded. "Then, yes, I'll definitely be there and ready to go at 4:30!" She was nodding vigorously. "Thank you, Headmaster Gallowglass!" She bounced up and turned to reach for the door handle. Behind her, Gallowglass stood up, and before she could turn the doorknob...
"Miss Prescott?" She stopped and turned. Gallowglass raised his right hand and made a strange gesture - with his ring finger and pinky curled, he rubbed his thumb across the balls of his first two fingers - and a stack of green bills appeared between thumb and fingers. A plain leather purse with a long strap appeared on his desk, he picked it up, opened it, and dropped the bills into it, then held it out to her. "Wouldn't do to have a Grimoire student arrested for vagrancy. Don't spend it all in one place!"
"Is this real? It's not counterfeit, is it?" she wanted to know.
He smiled at that. "Thanks for checking. I approve of your ethics! No, it's not counterfeit. We have a reciprocal and very secret agreement with a dealer of precious metals in Boston on Earth 4. She keeps some cash in a vault in her subcellar, and occasionally we magically swap some of that cash for an equivalent amount of gold and silver. That's real money, valid at your destination."
He paused for a minute, thinking... "Each student has a mundane contact on their own Earth, in case they are away on leave and need to contact the Academy... except Miss Prescott's own Earth no longer exists." He made a quick policy decision, then snapped his fingers. He handed her a card that hadn't been there an instant ago. "Keep this card with you; it's the business card for the Boston agent. If you need to contact the Academy for any reason while you are away, or you need to return sooner, she can help you. And don't worry about losing the card - there's no way to connect it with Grimoire Academy."
She was almost overwhelmed by his kindness, and almost (but not quite) speechless. "Thank you, Mr. Gallowglass! I'll do my best to be a proper representative of the school!" She glanced quickly at the card before she put it in her pocket:
"I have no doubts, Miss Prescott, that your best will be just fine. Remember, there will be place here for you to return to when you are ready to complete your studies. Best of luck on your quest!" She nodded and left his office, softly singing to herself the catchy refrain from the school's fight song:
In a small, cluttered dorm room across campus, a small boy used an oversized douter to put out the large, spherical flame that had been burning above the small magical candle on his desk. He sat back and contemplated the scene he’d just watched in the flame. “I’ll be there too, Olga! You might need my help!”
"So Olga is part Sitnaltan?" In his dorm room, fifth year student Atom Blake, apparently 6 years old and small for that age, was very intrigued by what he'd seen, as well as sounding somewhat sad. "I wonder what universe she originally came from? When I got to Venus in my universe, the Sitnaltans were extinct, for around 550 years as best I could figure. They had an advanced civilization, had even made an interplanetary flight to Earth - and then they were wiped out by some kind of disease they'd never seem before and couldn't find a cure for in time..." Atom hadn't quite put together the timing - the Sitnaltans from Venus in the Earth S universe had visited Europe during the Black Death plague in the mid-1300s and taken it back to Venus with them, and even with their advanced civilization, they hadn't managed to find a cure in time...
He stood up and walked over to a bookcase that was jammed full of big, leather bound books, many of which were elegantly decorated with gold or silver leaf on the spines, some even set with small chips of gems and jewelry. He snapped his fingers, and floated upward until he could reach the top shelf, which was over a foot above his head. He pulled out a hefty volume, then snapped his fingers again and slowly drifted back to the floor. The book's title and author were embossed on the spine and the front cover in gold leaf in a highly decorative script:
He quickly skimmed through several pages of handwritten notes. "Hmm... a species with an unusually high degree of sexual dimorphism..." He giggled and smirked like a 6 year old at the word 'sexual'...
"Males humanoid, similar to ogres of legend, females visually virtually indistinguishable from human except for somewhat pointed ears. Males aggressively belligerent and about as strong as gorillas, females more intellectual and a bit stronger than human. A matriarchal society in which the males were virtual slaves." The scholarly words sounded very strange in the high piping voice of a 6 year-old boy. "I always wondered how they did it?" He closed the book and stood up.
"Better pack..." Then he swayed from side to side and yawned tremendously. "Well, maybe a soda first..." He pointed at the small refrigerator in the far corner of the room and made a 'come here' gesture. The door swung open and a red soda can floated across the room to his hand. He downed the drink, and instantly looked much more energetic. "THAT'S what I'm talkin' about!! NOW to pack!"
He touched his belt buckle and was suddenly holding a travel bag that hadn't been there an instant ago. He opened it and set it on his bed, then walked around the room, stopping in front of some cabinets and dressers. A couple of gestures and drawers and doors swung or slid open; he considered for a few seconds, then would point at an item and then point at the bag, and that item would float up into the air, diminish instantly in size, and then float into the bag. Finally he was satisfied. He touched his belt again and the bag vanished.
"I think I'll stop by and ask Mr. Frankenstein what he knows about ogres on my way to the Clock Tower," he mused, then headed off across campus toward the bestiary.
***
Olga hurried back to her dorm room, mentally reviewing everything that was already packed in her two medium-sized suitcases. She'd been ready to go ever since she'd submitted her request to Counselor Lovell three days ago. But she'd been expecting to travel for almost 2 weeks, much of it on board an ocean-going freighter. She didn't want to take the bags with her through the portal - not that the portal couldn't handle them, but what would she do with them when she arrived on the wooded side of a mountain in Vermont? She'd take a minimal kit; anything else she needed, the bankroll Mr. Gallowglass had gifted to her should cover it. She was pulling open her bags and throwing stuff onto her bed within a few seconds after arriving back at her room.
It took about half an hour to repack her backpack. "I hope Mrs. Peel has a few minutes to talk to me before I have to head for the Clock Tower. I wonder if she's ever fought an ogre?" She pulled on her pack and headed for the gym.
In his first 'incarnation' as a space-traveling hero, Atom Blake had never figured out why the Sitnaltan males, who were much larger, stronger, and more prone to violence than the females, had not ruled the Sitnaltan civilization. Thanks to our own status as omniscient observers, here's what he was never able to learn:
Sitnaltan males and females almost seemed to be two different species, sharing the same gene pool. The males were big and burly, standing well over 7 feel tall, covered with bristly hair, as strong as gorillas, with long, pointed ears that extended above the tops of their heads, and fangs, and they were fiercely independent with violent tempers. The females appeared to be identical to human women except for pointed tips to their ears; though they were not as strong as the males, they were stronger than almost any human. The males weren't interested in much other than wars, food, and reproduction, and their constant violence seemingly doomed the species to living in caves forever. But many tens of thousands of years ago, a Sitnaltan female was born with a mutation that changed the destiny of the entire species.
This mutant produced pheromones that 'tamed' the male Sitnaltans. Once a male had sampled these pheromones, he became supremely submissive, and would do anything the female who exuded the pheromones would tell him to do. The mutation bred true, and female descendants of the original mutant became the Sitnaltan Royal Family.
One of the sacred duties of each of the members of the Royal Family was to periodically go on a Royal Tour - visiting various cities and villages around the Sitnaltan civilization (which wasn't that large, being confined to an extensive system of caves and caverns on Venus - and ceremoniously greet all the adolescent males of a certain age - 'taming them', as it were. This ceremony was called the 'Rite of Presentation'. The adolescent males going into the ceremony were 'wild', the males coming out were generally 'tame'. Occasionally a young male had been born with no sense of smell - anosmia - and couldn't be tamed. These wild adolescent males were released into the surface swamps of Venus; though many of them died, some survived and were able to form tribal groupings.
Obmo was one such male who was afflicted with ansomia; his taming hadn't worked and he'd been released into the swamps, and survived. Eventually he'd infiltrated the underground society and fomented rebellion, forcing Queen Margot to flee from Venus to Earth.
After consulting with Mrs. Peel, Olga walked along the wide, magically-maintained Tower Pathway that led from the main Grimoire campus to and beyond the Bell Tower. She smiled as the Tower bell rang 4 o'clock. "Good, that gives me time to stop at the Map House!"
The Map House was a medium-sized bungalow and was set close to the Pathway, while the ancient stone building called the Bell Tower was much larger, almost the size of a Renaissance cathedral, set well off the path, and almost hidden amidst a copse of majestic old trees. The square Bell Tower easily topped the tallest trees, with a pointed spire stabbing the sky above the square Clock Room. Each outside wall of the Clock Room was set with the face of a giant clock, the hours marked with ornate Roman numerals, but none of the clock faces had hands. And yet, if you could see any one of the faces, which were large enough to be visible from miles away, you always knew exactly what time it was, to the minute. If you couldn't see the Tower, well, you were on your own as far as knowing the time was concerned...
Olga cheerily greeted the curator of the Map House, Professor Emeritus James Half, a slender man with a martial bearing who was clad in his customary green military uniform, his green beard reaching midway down his chest. She'd been a frequent visitor here over the past week. "Howdy, Jimmy Half!" Olga was very much into nicknames, and most of those she gave pet names to approved of her choices. 'Jimmy Half' gave her a welcoming smile.
"Headmaster Gallowglass approved my request - I'm leaving for Vermont on Earth 4 in half an hour. I wonder if you could make me a couple maps to take along?"
Professor Half was a widely-famed, highly skilled cartographer, whose magical maps provided the viewer with much more than just a flat, static, two dimensional representation of the territory involved.
"Please come in, Olga, and we'll see what we can do."
He led her into the spacious main room, which had a stunning array of colorful maps of every kind covering the walls, dozens of cabinets and shelves spread about the room, and a number of tables throughout, including several sand tables. They passed one section which held several globes, floating in the air and spinning slowly, each revealing a similar geography, each representing one of the existing Earths inside the magical border that had appeared after the Crisis. Floating above each globe was a glyph; the glyphs were automatically translated to symbols familiar to each viewer. Olga knew from her prior visits to the Map House that a visitor in the Floating Worlds section could call up the globes of other planets, including some of the worlds destroyed in the Crisis. She had once spent a couple of hours closely studying the globes of the Venus of her grandmother and the Earth of her birth but had given that up as the evoked memories were too painful.
The two went to a table that was already crowded with books and maps with a spinning globe of Earth 4 above. "I'm sorry I haven't put this stuff away, Jimmy H," Olga apologized. 'I've gotta leave in just a few minutes, and I don't know how long I'll be away."
"Think nothing of it, my dear," he replied. "That's what Magick is for!" He pointed at an open book on another table and made a sweeping gesture; it rose from the table, closed by itself, and floated to one of the bookshelves, where it gently inserted itself into the row of other books. He turned back to their table. "What maps would you like to take with you?"
"Maybe a terrain map of Earth 4 Bald Mountain, a map of the area around Rutland, Vermont, and a road map of New England? Can you make a map of the cavern system under the Green Mountains, too?"
As she spoke, Half made mystical gestures. Some maps unfolded, some books opened, the pages of the books flipped and came to a stop. A point on the floating globe began to expand, the image changed to focus on North America which gave way to New England which expanded to Bald Mountain. It seemed to the viewers that they were diving from orbit into the mountain - and then they passed through the side of the mountain and were inside a dark cavern. The view lightened, then stopped changing.
Above the table and the view of the caverns, a number of sheets of heavy paper materialized, and then drawings and writing appeared on the pages, duplicating the maps beneath them. Then they floated together and arranged themselves into book form, with a white spiral binding and colorful covers. Half pulled the book from the air and handed it to Olga.
"Unless you need the magical maps, this will appear as a mundane, but very useful, Hugstorm Road Atlas," he told her.
"Thanks, Professor Half! I've gotta run now, if I'm late, who knows WHERE Mr. Belmont might send me?" They both laughed as she slipped the Atlas into her bag and then skipped out the door.
Simon Belmont was seated at a desk in an office just off the entrance to the Clock Tower. "At least you are on time, Miss Prescott," he grumbled at her. "This request to send you to Earth 4 is well outside normal procedures." He definitely wasn't pleased to see her and his voice clearly indicated his distaste for this procedural breach. He led her briskly up the great stairs to the large Clock Room, never looking back to see if she was keeping up. While the walls of the big empty room showed clock faces without hands to the world outside, from inside they were transparent.
"Do you mind if we just take in the view for a few minutes before I go through?" she asked shyly as she walked to the western-facing window of the room. "I just love the view from here - and whenever we come through on a field trip, the instructors are always in too much of a rush to let us just stop and enjoy it."
He grunted in begrudging approval. Apparently today was his day for dealing with unusual requests... She turned back to the window, while he watched her closely.
Grimoire Academy spread out below them, most of the campus and facilities to the west of the tower. Closest to the tower were the academic buildings, with the classrooms, labs and auditoriums. Just beyond that, the three massive student dormitories formed three sides of a square around the 'Quad'. Past the student living quarters was a row of administrative buildings and offices, and behind those, on a bluff overlooking Constantine Bay, were the spacious, airy bungalows where most of the instructors lived. On the north side of campus were the the vast athletic fields and golf course. The campus was largely deserted during the November Break; she could see a few people walking, riding or just milling around the neatly tended campus. An intramural game was being contested on the soccer pitch, and there was apparently an impromptu race on the aerial obstacle course.
Farther west she could see the town of Port Sentinel. "This is awesome!" she exclaimed in glee and clapped her hands. "I can count the ships at the docks. I'd be boarding that big one with the red hull right now, if I wasn't here. The water is so beautiful, sapphire blue and sparkling in the sun." She changed her focus to the tropical jungle farther across the bay. "I promise I'm going to explore there sometime... I wonder if it's as beautiful from the ground as it is from here?"
She turned to Belmont, a look of pure joy on her face. "It would make a fantastic series of postcards, one with the scene from each window. When I get back, would it be OK if I come up for the view every once and awhile? I'll bet it is awesome being up here during a storm!"
"Not many appreciate the view like you do," Simon replied quietly. He was definitely pleased with her reaction. Then his expression twisted as he continued."Like you said, everyone's always in a rush when they get here: 'Mr. Belmont, we're going on a picnic. Send us to the picnic planet!'; "Simon, we need to get to Waypoint as soon as possible!'; 'There's an academic conference on the Library Planet that we CAN'T MISS!'; 'There's an emergency on Witch World!'. It's always 'Simon, send us here!' or 'Simon, send us there!', 'right now!' with no concern for my time - and nobody ever stops to enjoy the view!"
He had started quietly, but he was almost yelling when he finished. Then he realized he wasn't angry with Olga, and he shook his head violently before he continued, in a much more pleasant tone. "Thank you for taking the time to look - and not demanding anything!" He tilted his head and regarded her. A sly smile kept coming and going from his lips - almost as if he were resisting his urge to smile, and failing...
"Would you like to know a secret?" Of course, she nodded!
He took a few steps to to the center of the northern window. They looked out over a wide, shallow bay to the Stainless Steel mountains. "Watch the the peak of Black Star Mountain." Black Star Mountain was the tallest peak in the Stainless Steel Range. Even from miles away they could see that its peak was covered in brilliantly glistening ice. "If there's anything that you can see through any one of these windows, and you want to see it better, you can do... this!"
The mountain range began to grow, as if they were flying slowly toward them. Their 'flight' shifted slightly and they 'flew' directly towards the peak of Black Star Mountain, and then they slowed and stopped at maybe a distance of a hundred yards. Black Star mountain was the peak of an ancient, dormant volcano. This sides were covered with snow, boulders and ledges sticking through the ice, and the caldera appeared to be filled with black ice.
"Wow! What an AWESOME skating rink that would make." Then she paused as she thought about the enlarging view. "How did you do that? Can ANYONE do that, or just you?"
"Anyone who takes the time to appreciate the view," he responded, clearly pleased with her wonderment. "Though probably only me and Gareth ever use it. He comes up here a lot. He never sleeps, you know..."
She wasn't surprised; most of the student body already figured the same thing.
"Say, do you have an appointment right now?" she asked. "Doctor Mortale and Johnny Peril are downstairs, talking about their trip to the..." she stopped and cocked her head as if listening closely to something he couldn't hear. "Uh...Rave World, I think?"
"You can hear that?" he was startled. She nodded and smiled, and touched the point of her left ear. "Yes, after I send you off, I'm supposed to send them off to 'Rave World'." He paused and shook his head a bit. "I doubt if Johnny knows what he's getting into... or maybe he does? There's a lot more to Dr. Mortale than meets the eye."
Suddenly Simon looked mildly alarmed. "Uh oh - students aren't supposed to know about Rave World..." She zipped her finger across her smile and nodded. "Anyway - it's time for you to go," he got back to the reason for her visit and once again was all business.
He walked toward the big door to the great stair. "You know the drill." He repeated the instructions she'd heard several times before, at the beginning of every field trip. "Stay in the center of the room, the room will start to change into your destination, don't move until the changes stop. One I start the process, I can't stop it, so if you don't want to go, get out of the Clock Room right now. Be back at your entry point at the specified time, or you'll need to find some other way to get back." He stopped, then added, "That's one week, for you." Then he stepped down one stair and was out of sight from the Clock Room.
She stood quietly in the center of the room, the her view started changing gradually. She could see the floor changing to grass and fallen leaves, and not far from her, suddenly there were trees fading into view, and... WAIT! What's THAT?
Something flashed into the room from the stairwell - something flying, something that had been invisible until it passed into the Clock Room and which then quickly faded into visibility - a small boy riding a small broom!
"It's about time!" he squeaked emphatically. "Do you know how HARD it is to keep up that 'invisible and silent' spell?"
"Atom Blake - get out of here!" she yelled at him.
"It's too late - we're there already!" he replied triumphantly.
And they were. They were in a clearing on a path that climbed a wooded mountainside. Though they had left Grim Island in mid-afternoon, the sun was just barely beginning to peak over the horizon, indicating that here in Vermont, USA, Earth 4, it was very early morning. It was cold and the ground was covered with an inch or so of crusty snow, occasionally cratered with the footprints of various forest creatures. Not far from them, something had dug a gouge into the clearing, throwing mounds of dirt to either side. At the far end of that gouge was something that once had been a puddle of molten metal, now cooled and hardened.
*See: Thunderbunny: The Bunny Hops Tonight
Though she'd been through the portal several times, Olga was always just a little astonished at having been <there> one second and <here> the next. “Toto, I’ve a feeling we’re not in Kansas anymore!”
Olga Prescott and Adam Blake: Academic Sabbatical
Meeting with the Headmaster
“You may go in, now, Miss Prescott,” Mr. Pennyworth, Administrative Assistant for Grimoire Academy, said to the young lady dozing in the outer office, pointing to the plain inner door. She jerked upright and her eyes snapped open. “It is somewhat unusual for Headmaster Gallowglass to see a student regarding academic leave. Usually such requests are handled by our Guidance Counselors, and Counselor Lovell has already recommended against such a leave in your case?”
Although his tone was neutral, he seemed to disapprove of something about Olga. Perhaps it was the brunette student’s casual attire, or perhaps her strong build, or maybe it was the points on the tips of her ears which occasionally peeked through her curly hair. Or perhaps he simply disapproved of a student who had scheduled an appointment with his boss against the recommendations of her Guidance Counselor. The slightly rising inflection at the end of his sentence invited Olga to tell more of her story – but she didn't seem inclined to explain.
"Be sure you don't nod off again in his office!" Pennyworth added officiously as she bounced to her feet.
“Thanks, Jeeves!” Olga said with a smirk, and then ignored the look of disdain she received after calling Pennyworh by the nickname commonly used for him by the student body.
She knocked on the inner door to announce her arrival, peeked in cautiously, and finally stepped slowly inside. She’d been prepared to retreat if Headmaster Gallowglass had seemed angry, but she was very surprised and relieved to see that instead of the stern visage he normally sported, a welcoming smile shaped his lips and his single, icy blue right eye looked intriguing, rather than like a weapon. Olga wasn’t scared of much, but the last time she’d been face to face with Gallowglass, it had been during a disciplinary hearing. And the annoyed Gallowglass who she’d faced during that hearing was one of the things that DID scare her.
Olga and some of the other Grimoire students had ignored a strict school restriction and gone rafting on the Rip Roaring River, on the other side of Grim Island from Grimoire Academy. And the Rip Roaring River had more than lived up to its name. In a stretch of Class VI rapids, the three rafts had gone over a waterfall and several students had almost drowned and eventually ended up in the school infirmary.
Harry Flashman the 5th, the student leader of the expedition who had talked the others into joining him, had almost been expelled; only the fact that his home universe had been destroyed in the recent Crisis on Infinite Earths and they had nowhere else to send him had saved him from expulsion. Olga’s own heroic rescue and resuscitation efforts had likely saved several lives, so other than a stern lecture she had avoided punishment. (Actually, she knew that she had been placed on Academy Double-Secret Probation, although it was supposed to be a secret from students that this status even existed. But it was very hard to keep secrets from Olga Prescott. Mr. Pennyworth was surely aware of the probation, though; perhaps that was the reason for his disapproval.)
“Thanks for seeing me, Master Gallowglass!” she greeted him. “I know you’re really busy!” Even with the smile on his face, she felt like his single eye could see right through her. She decided again that it was probably less use trying to keep secrets from this man than from her.
‘But,’ she reflected, ‘he seems to be very good at keeping other peoples' secrets. As are the rest of the faculty and staff. Even though they probably all know my secrets, none of the other students know...’
“Come in, Miss Prescott. I trust you are well. Please be seated. Sounds like you've managed to annoy Collin again, somehow?” He winked at her, then gestured to indicate an open folder on his desk as he continued to speak.
“Regarding your request for an academic sabbatical, I’m sure you realize that if it takes too much time, taking such a leave in the middle of a term may interfere with your current studies and delay your graduation?” She nodded, he continued. “As you might guess, with the type of students we admit to Grimoire, such a request for an academic sabbatical is not really unusual. What IS unusual is Counselor Lovell turning down a request of this type. Why do you think that is?”
“To be honest, Master Gallowglass, Mr. Lovell is probably anxious to be rid of me by getting me to graduation as soon as possible. I haven’t been a very good student since, well…” she got a little choked up and had to pause; he waited patiently. “Well, since that awful Crisis destroyed my universe!” she rushed through that, practically shouting at the end, then paused again to compose herself. “And I haven’t exactly been ‘on my best behavior’ since then either. In fact, I’ve been pretty wild…” She didn’t know exactly how to continue.
He let her off the hook, nodding gravely. “I’d heard reports about your behavior and academic issues, even before your disciplinary hearing, and I was actually wondering what could be done about you. You were on pretty thin ice, as they say.” He frowned as he said this. “But your heroic actions rescuing your fellow students from drowning in the river, and your exemplary behavior and academic results since then, have steered you back to solid ground, if I may mix some metaphors.” He smiled once again. “I’m very glad you straightened yourself out. Most students won’t believe this, but I find administering student discipline to be painful. It is much more pleasant administering praise.” He paused for a second, and watched her closely as he asked: “What caused you to change your behavior?”
“Harry Flashman the Fifth was treating me like a plaything on the raft – crawling all over me and pawing me in front of everyone – and I realized that not only was that the way everyone expected me to behave, but they all expected that they’d sooner or later get their own turn, sometime in the future, based on my recent prior behavior. I realized I didn’t like it anymore, and I needed to change. And then, we were in the water and people were drowning and I just had to help. And after, knowing that I had probably saved some lives, that was the Best. Feeling. Ever! And I’ve been a new person since then."
“Thanks for being honest, Miss Prescott. Now, let’s discuss your request. Tell me why it is so important for you to go to Earth 4 right now.” If she hadn’t been honest, he had been prepared to summarily dismiss her request on the basis of her past behavior.
“From my records, you know I’m majoring in 'Autonomous Operations'." He nodded again. "I had originally intended to work for the Royal Intelligence Service in my grandmother’s kingdom.” She paused for a minute and sniffled, thinking of her grandmother Margot, who had been practically immortal, already well over 30,000 years old and still just a young adult, and now gone, more completely than if she had never existed since her universe had been erased.
“I don’t know any longer what I’m going to do when I graduate, but I figured I might as well finish the AO program since I was almost to the end anyway. And I’ve been taking some of the Academy’s more ‘active’ electives since then as well.” Particularly some of the most difficult courses such as ‘Focus’ (learning more about your powers and their limits, and how to strengthen them through mental discipline and use them more effectively through rigorous training) and ‘Advanced Unarmed Combat’ from Mrs. Peel (just what it sounds like – plus a lot of ‘dirty tricks’).
“Anyway, I'm taking Professor Peril's “Advanced Analytics” elective during the break, and we analyze real world data collected by the school’s agents from the various Earths that are accessible from Grim Island.” Gallowglass nodded, a look of intense interest on his face. He regularly reviewed a summary of that same data himself, searching for the faintest clues of any pending threats to his Academy from any of those adjacent universes. All Advanced Analytics students were required to report anything they found suspicious to their instructor, Professor Johnny Peril, who was then supposed to review their concerns and provide his comments and summary to the Headmaster for his own review. Had Olga noticed something that both he and Peril had missed?
“It’s also in my records that my grandmother Margot was the Queen of Venus in her universe and betrothed to the First Prince of Mars in order to stop a war between Mars and Venus. And that back in the 1820s, she’d been overthrown by a revolution led by someone named Ombo and fled to Earth, where she and some loyalists established an underground realm. And in the late 1930s, she finally returned to Venus and reclaimed her throne with the help of my mother Olga, Rod Prescott, Olga’s future husband and my father, and Margot’s lover Shag, who died in the action that finally captured Ombo and returned Margot to the throne.”
Gallowglass hadn’t studied her record to that extent, but as she talked he made a minute gesture with his hands, twirling his little fingers just so, and in the dark place in his mind where he’d used to see through his left eye, a ‘movie’ of those past events played out, skipping from scene to scene to match her ‘narrative’. “So your maternal grandmother wasn’t human, but Sitnaltan, the native race on Venus in your universe, as were Shag and Ombo. And your mother Olga was born with super-powers as a result of experiments performed on Margot by your mad scientist grandfather, Hugo. So that’s where your powers come from?”
Olga nodded, and continued sadly. “Although she knew better, Margot always insisted that Hugo had really been trying to cure her of amnesia that was the result of injuries she sustained escaping from Ombo, rather than using her for torturous experiments. But yes, the radioactive potions he forced on her put her into a coma and almost killed her, and mutated her body to give her powers – which she passed to mom Olga. And my Dad, Rod Prescott, had similar, though lesser powers, which manifested after he received a life-saving transfusion of Olga’s blood. And since both my parents had these powers, I inherited stronger powers than those of either of my parents or Margot."
She continued, more confidently. "Powers that I’ve mostly kept secret since I’ve known enough to keep secrets. And,” she smiled at him, “powers that you, your faculty and staff have never revealed to anyone else. Everyone knows I have enhanced strength and durability, but only a few members of the faculty know about my X-Ray eyes. Thank you for that!”
He nodded gravely in acknowledgement. She continued, “Well, the last data dump from Earth 4 that we studied included a video, taken by a very brave student from Smythe College in Massachusetts, of a hero named Thunderbunny, who appears to be a giant anthropomorphic rabbit with super powers, battling a super-powered ogre. Parts of the video are clear enough that I can recognize the ogre as the villain Ombo who led revolutions against my grandmother. I don’t know how he survived the Crisis or how he got to Earth 4 – but it’s definitely him. Whatever he’d doing, I must stop him! I owe it to Grandmom Queen Margot!”
Indeed, Johnny Peril HAD reported this incident, and Gareth had already seen the video, since it involved a visitor from outside the barriers around the 5 Earths, which was VERY unusual. But the current Earth 4 Monitor, the Super Wizard, had dismissed the incident since the extra-universal visitor had been incinerated. Based on this, even though Peril had flagged the incident, Gareth had deemed it as not relevant to the security of Grimoire Academy. “I don't see why you want to take a sabbatical and possibly delay your graduation. Ombo was vaporized. There's no reason for you to go to Earth 4."
"We didn't see the body, did we?" she asked skeptically. "Ombo is very tough!"
"But Son of Vulcan searched for him for almost an hour, and found no sign of him," Gallowglass protested again.
"But I know something I'll bet Son of Vulcan doesn't know," she said triumphantly. "Margot ruled an underground kingdom on Earth for a couple of hundred years after she and some of her followers escaped from Venus after Ombo's rebellion. They colonized a vast cavern system they discovered under the Green Mountains in Vermont. And the original entrance they found was on Bald Mountain in Vermont!"
"So," the headmaster mused slowly, stroking his beard. "You think this same cave system may exist on Earth 4, as well as your own Earth, and that Obmo may have somehow escaped from the spaceship before it was destroyed and disappeared into this giant, so far undiscovered cavern system." He nodded. "It's possible - it wouldn't be the first time some villain has escaped from an 'inescapable' death trap."
He thought for a few seconds. "But if he somehow survived, he is very powerful. He battled this local super-powered action hero, Thunderbunny, to a draw and then was able to escape from a seemingly deadly trap. Are you certain you want to face him alone? I could send Professor Shiva with you…”
“No, this is my fight and mine alone!” she interrupted him – and then looked abashed at what she’d done. “I’m sorry, Master Gallowglass. I shouldn’t interrupt, but Ombo is the enemy of my family – MY enemy! He drove my grandmother away from Venus and stole her throne there - and then he followed her to Earth and led a rebellion in her new kingdom. And I have my own powers, PLUS I’ve been training here at Grimoire Academy for almost 7 years. Mrs. Peel says I'm the one of the best fighters she's ever trained. And I have my own powers! I can do this myself – I MUST do this myself.” She got ready for further arguments, but Gallowglass surprised her.
“Your application for academic sabbatical is granted.” He pulled out a feathered quill pen, dipped it in an inkwell, and signed the paper with a flourish. “Are you ready to go, or do you need more time to make your preparations?"
"I've been making preparations for the last few days." Gallowglass already knew that; it was one of the reasons he'd granted the request. "I'm ready to leave today. Since Whitherward is aligned right now, I checked with Mr. Goldfinch and he's willing to take me from Port Sentinel to one of the Earth 4 islands nearby, where I'll try to find transportation to some bigger place where I can catch a plane to Hawaii, and then a long-distance flight to the East Coast of the US."
Whitherward was a village that magically appeared and disappeared on Grimoire Island. It was not permanently attached to the island; it would magically appear, exist for some time, then move on to other locations. Some retired staff from Grimoire Academy now resided in Whitherward including Skylark Goldfinch, who had once been the sailing instructor. In recognition of his faithful service, Gallowglass had granted him an exclusive license - when Whitherward was aligned with Grimoire Island, Goldfinch was allowed to sail out of Port Sentinel to 'nearby' islands outside the mystical cloudy barrier that separated Grimoire Island from the outside Earths - provided he cleared such expeditions with Gallowglass first.
Gallowglass frowned as he tried to estimate her travel time. "That could several months even if you have no trouble finding connections," he mused, "delaying your graduation for sure. And it would give this Obmo character extra weeks or months to escape and cause trouble. We can do better than that. I'll ask Mr. Belmont to open a portal directly to Bald Mountain, Vermont, Earth 4. Be there at exactly 4:30. You know how testy Belmont is; if you're late, no telling WHERE he might send you. Professor Burgess won't travel via Simon's portals any longer after..." He paused, smiled at the memory of Burgress's embarrassing trip, concluded that the details didn't need to be shared with a student, and then continued... "Well, anyway, we all learned that it doesn't pay to be on Simon's bad side. So be on time!"
"He'll send my bags with me, right?" she asked, and he nodded. "Then, yes, I'll definitely be there and ready to go at 4:30!" She was nodding vigorously. "Thank you, Headmaster Gallowglass!" She bounced up and turned to reach for the door handle. Behind her, Gallowglass stood up, and before she could turn the doorknob...
"Miss Prescott?" She stopped and turned. Gallowglass raised his right hand and made a strange gesture - with his ring finger and pinky curled, he rubbed his thumb across the balls of his first two fingers - and a stack of green bills appeared between thumb and fingers. A plain leather purse with a long strap appeared on his desk, he picked it up, opened it, and dropped the bills into it, then held it out to her. "Wouldn't do to have a Grimoire student arrested for vagrancy. Don't spend it all in one place!"
"Is this real? It's not counterfeit, is it?" she wanted to know.
He smiled at that. "Thanks for checking. I approve of your ethics! No, it's not counterfeit. We have a reciprocal and very secret agreement with a dealer of precious metals in Boston on Earth 4. She keeps some cash in a vault in her subcellar, and occasionally we magically swap some of that cash for an equivalent amount of gold and silver. That's real money, valid at your destination."
He paused for a minute, thinking... "Each student has a mundane contact on their own Earth, in case they are away on leave and need to contact the Academy... except Miss Prescott's own Earth no longer exists." He made a quick policy decision, then snapped his fingers. He handed her a card that hadn't been there an instant ago. "Keep this card with you; it's the business card for the Boston agent. If you need to contact the Academy for any reason while you are away, or you need to return sooner, she can help you. And don't worry about losing the card - there's no way to connect it with Grimoire Academy."
She was almost overwhelmed by his kindness, and almost (but not quite) speechless. "Thank you, Mr. Gallowglass! I'll do my best to be a proper representative of the school!" She glanced quickly at the card before she put it in her pocket:
The Cosmic Shop Gloria Silvermoon, Proprietor 123 Charles St. Beacon Hill, Boston Dabbler in Comic Books, Mystical Artifacts, and Rare Metals |
"I have no doubts, Miss Prescott, that your best will be just fine. Remember, there will be place here for you to return to when you are ready to complete your studies. Best of luck on your quest!" She nodded and left his office, softly singing to herself the catchy refrain from the school's fight song:
Grimoire Academy, our foundation strong and true,She felt as if she were walking on air as she returned to her dorm room.
We'll bind the realms together, in all that we pursue.
With hearts united, we'll stand tall, against the darkness' call,
In our school's sacred halls, freedom shall never fall.
In a small, cluttered dorm room across campus, a small boy used an oversized douter to put out the large, spherical flame that had been burning above the small magical candle on his desk. He sat back and contemplated the scene he’d just watched in the flame. “I’ll be there too, Olga! You might need my help!”
Preparations for a Trip
"So Olga is part Sitnaltan?" In his dorm room, fifth year student Atom Blake, apparently 6 years old and small for that age, was very intrigued by what he'd seen, as well as sounding somewhat sad. "I wonder what universe she originally came from? When I got to Venus in my universe, the Sitnaltans were extinct, for around 550 years as best I could figure. They had an advanced civilization, had even made an interplanetary flight to Earth - and then they were wiped out by some kind of disease they'd never seem before and couldn't find a cure for in time..." Atom hadn't quite put together the timing - the Sitnaltans from Venus in the Earth S universe had visited Europe during the Black Death plague in the mid-1300s and taken it back to Venus with them, and even with their advanced civilization, they hadn't managed to find a cure in time...
He stood up and walked over to a bookcase that was jammed full of big, leather bound books, many of which were elegantly decorated with gold or silver leaf on the spines, some even set with small chips of gems and jewelry. He snapped his fingers, and floated upward until he could reach the top shelf, which was over a foot above his head. He pulled out a hefty volume, then snapped his fingers again and slowly drifted back to the floor. The book's title and author were embossed on the spine and the front cover in gold leaf in a highly decorative script:
Theoretical Astralphysicsbut as he placed the book on his desk, the cover changed, becoming less ornate; in fact, tattered and discolored by splatters, and the almost illegible title appeared to be handwritten:
With Practical Applications
Dr. Sunset Aeon, ThD
Captain Cosmic: The Space Travels of Atom BlakeHe opened it to the middle. then sat back and thought for a few seconds. "Hmm.... Exploration of Venus, please..." The pages began flipping by themselves, and in only a few seconds, the page-turning stopped. On the facing page, across the top it said "A Quick Exploration of the Lost Cavern Civilization of Venus" in bold, neat handwriting. "October 1947"
He quickly skimmed through several pages of handwritten notes. "Hmm... a species with an unusually high degree of sexual dimorphism..." He giggled and smirked like a 6 year old at the word 'sexual'...
"Males humanoid, similar to ogres of legend, females visually virtually indistinguishable from human except for somewhat pointed ears. Males aggressively belligerent and about as strong as gorillas, females more intellectual and a bit stronger than human. A matriarchal society in which the males were virtual slaves." The scholarly words sounded very strange in the high piping voice of a 6 year-old boy. "I always wondered how they did it?" He closed the book and stood up.
"Better pack..." Then he swayed from side to side and yawned tremendously. "Well, maybe a soda first..." He pointed at the small refrigerator in the far corner of the room and made a 'come here' gesture. The door swung open and a red soda can floated across the room to his hand. He downed the drink, and instantly looked much more energetic. "THAT'S what I'm talkin' about!! NOW to pack!"
He touched his belt buckle and was suddenly holding a travel bag that hadn't been there an instant ago. He opened it and set it on his bed, then walked around the room, stopping in front of some cabinets and dressers. A couple of gestures and drawers and doors swung or slid open; he considered for a few seconds, then would point at an item and then point at the bag, and that item would float up into the air, diminish instantly in size, and then float into the bag. Finally he was satisfied. He touched his belt again and the bag vanished.
"I think I'll stop by and ask Mr. Frankenstein what he knows about ogres on my way to the Clock Tower," he mused, then headed off across campus toward the bestiary.
***
Olga hurried back to her dorm room, mentally reviewing everything that was already packed in her two medium-sized suitcases. She'd been ready to go ever since she'd submitted her request to Counselor Lovell three days ago. But she'd been expecting to travel for almost 2 weeks, much of it on board an ocean-going freighter. She didn't want to take the bags with her through the portal - not that the portal couldn't handle them, but what would she do with them when she arrived on the wooded side of a mountain in Vermont? She'd take a minimal kit; anything else she needed, the bankroll Mr. Gallowglass had gifted to her should cover it. She was pulling open her bags and throwing stuff onto her bed within a few seconds after arriving back at her room.
It took about half an hour to repack her backpack. "I hope Mrs. Peel has a few minutes to talk to me before I have to head for the Clock Tower. I wonder if she's ever fought an ogre?" She pulled on her pack and headed for the gym.
Interlude: The Sitnaltan 'Rite of Presentation' (aka the 'Taming of the Males')
In his first 'incarnation' as a space-traveling hero, Atom Blake had never figured out why the Sitnaltan males, who were much larger, stronger, and more prone to violence than the females, had not ruled the Sitnaltan civilization. Thanks to our own status as omniscient observers, here's what he was never able to learn:
Sitnaltan males and females almost seemed to be two different species, sharing the same gene pool. The males were big and burly, standing well over 7 feel tall, covered with bristly hair, as strong as gorillas, with long, pointed ears that extended above the tops of their heads, and fangs, and they were fiercely independent with violent tempers. The females appeared to be identical to human women except for pointed tips to their ears; though they were not as strong as the males, they were stronger than almost any human. The males weren't interested in much other than wars, food, and reproduction, and their constant violence seemingly doomed the species to living in caves forever. But many tens of thousands of years ago, a Sitnaltan female was born with a mutation that changed the destiny of the entire species.
This mutant produced pheromones that 'tamed' the male Sitnaltans. Once a male had sampled these pheromones, he became supremely submissive, and would do anything the female who exuded the pheromones would tell him to do. The mutation bred true, and female descendants of the original mutant became the Sitnaltan Royal Family.
One of the sacred duties of each of the members of the Royal Family was to periodically go on a Royal Tour - visiting various cities and villages around the Sitnaltan civilization (which wasn't that large, being confined to an extensive system of caves and caverns on Venus - and ceremoniously greet all the adolescent males of a certain age - 'taming them', as it were. This ceremony was called the 'Rite of Presentation'. The adolescent males going into the ceremony were 'wild', the males coming out were generally 'tame'. Occasionally a young male had been born with no sense of smell - anosmia - and couldn't be tamed. These wild adolescent males were released into the surface swamps of Venus; though many of them died, some survived and were able to form tribal groupings.
Obmo was one such male who was afflicted with ansomia; his taming hadn't worked and he'd been released into the swamps, and survived. Eventually he'd infiltrated the underground society and fomented rebellion, forcing Queen Margot to flee from Venus to Earth.
The Map House
After consulting with Mrs. Peel, Olga walked along the wide, magically-maintained Tower Pathway that led from the main Grimoire campus to and beyond the Bell Tower. She smiled as the Tower bell rang 4 o'clock. "Good, that gives me time to stop at the Map House!"
The Map House was a medium-sized bungalow and was set close to the Pathway, while the ancient stone building called the Bell Tower was much larger, almost the size of a Renaissance cathedral, set well off the path, and almost hidden amidst a copse of majestic old trees. The square Bell Tower easily topped the tallest trees, with a pointed spire stabbing the sky above the square Clock Room. Each outside wall of the Clock Room was set with the face of a giant clock, the hours marked with ornate Roman numerals, but none of the clock faces had hands. And yet, if you could see any one of the faces, which were large enough to be visible from miles away, you always knew exactly what time it was, to the minute. If you couldn't see the Tower, well, you were on your own as far as knowing the time was concerned...
Olga cheerily greeted the curator of the Map House, Professor Emeritus James Half, a slender man with a martial bearing who was clad in his customary green military uniform, his green beard reaching midway down his chest. She'd been a frequent visitor here over the past week. "Howdy, Jimmy Half!" Olga was very much into nicknames, and most of those she gave pet names to approved of her choices. 'Jimmy Half' gave her a welcoming smile.
"Headmaster Gallowglass approved my request - I'm leaving for Vermont on Earth 4 in half an hour. I wonder if you could make me a couple maps to take along?"
Professor Half was a widely-famed, highly skilled cartographer, whose magical maps provided the viewer with much more than just a flat, static, two dimensional representation of the territory involved.
"Please come in, Olga, and we'll see what we can do."
He led her into the spacious main room, which had a stunning array of colorful maps of every kind covering the walls, dozens of cabinets and shelves spread about the room, and a number of tables throughout, including several sand tables. They passed one section which held several globes, floating in the air and spinning slowly, each revealing a similar geography, each representing one of the existing Earths inside the magical border that had appeared after the Crisis. Floating above each globe was a glyph; the glyphs were automatically translated to symbols familiar to each viewer. Olga knew from her prior visits to the Map House that a visitor in the Floating Worlds section could call up the globes of other planets, including some of the worlds destroyed in the Crisis. She had once spent a couple of hours closely studying the globes of the Venus of her grandmother and the Earth of her birth but had given that up as the evoked memories were too painful.
The two went to a table that was already crowded with books and maps with a spinning globe of Earth 4 above. "I'm sorry I haven't put this stuff away, Jimmy H," Olga apologized. 'I've gotta leave in just a few minutes, and I don't know how long I'll be away."
"Think nothing of it, my dear," he replied. "That's what Magick is for!" He pointed at an open book on another table and made a sweeping gesture; it rose from the table, closed by itself, and floated to one of the bookshelves, where it gently inserted itself into the row of other books. He turned back to their table. "What maps would you like to take with you?"
"Maybe a terrain map of Earth 4 Bald Mountain, a map of the area around Rutland, Vermont, and a road map of New England? Can you make a map of the cavern system under the Green Mountains, too?"
As she spoke, Half made mystical gestures. Some maps unfolded, some books opened, the pages of the books flipped and came to a stop. A point on the floating globe began to expand, the image changed to focus on North America which gave way to New England which expanded to Bald Mountain. It seemed to the viewers that they were diving from orbit into the mountain - and then they passed through the side of the mountain and were inside a dark cavern. The view lightened, then stopped changing.
Above the table and the view of the caverns, a number of sheets of heavy paper materialized, and then drawings and writing appeared on the pages, duplicating the maps beneath them. Then they floated together and arranged themselves into book form, with a white spiral binding and colorful covers. Half pulled the book from the air and handed it to Olga.
"Unless you need the magical maps, this will appear as a mundane, but very useful, Hugstorm Road Atlas," he told her.
"Thanks, Professor Half! I've gotta run now, if I'm late, who knows WHERE Mr. Belmont might send me?" They both laughed as she slipped the Atlas into her bag and then skipped out the door.
View from the Top
Simon Belmont was seated at a desk in an office just off the entrance to the Clock Tower. "At least you are on time, Miss Prescott," he grumbled at her. "This request to send you to Earth 4 is well outside normal procedures." He definitely wasn't pleased to see her and his voice clearly indicated his distaste for this procedural breach. He led her briskly up the great stairs to the large Clock Room, never looking back to see if she was keeping up. While the walls of the big empty room showed clock faces without hands to the world outside, from inside they were transparent.
"Do you mind if we just take in the view for a few minutes before I go through?" she asked shyly as she walked to the western-facing window of the room. "I just love the view from here - and whenever we come through on a field trip, the instructors are always in too much of a rush to let us just stop and enjoy it."
He grunted in begrudging approval. Apparently today was his day for dealing with unusual requests... She turned back to the window, while he watched her closely.
Grimoire Academy spread out below them, most of the campus and facilities to the west of the tower. Closest to the tower were the academic buildings, with the classrooms, labs and auditoriums. Just beyond that, the three massive student dormitories formed three sides of a square around the 'Quad'. Past the student living quarters was a row of administrative buildings and offices, and behind those, on a bluff overlooking Constantine Bay, were the spacious, airy bungalows where most of the instructors lived. On the north side of campus were the the vast athletic fields and golf course. The campus was largely deserted during the November Break; she could see a few people walking, riding or just milling around the neatly tended campus. An intramural game was being contested on the soccer pitch, and there was apparently an impromptu race on the aerial obstacle course.
Farther west she could see the town of Port Sentinel. "This is awesome!" she exclaimed in glee and clapped her hands. "I can count the ships at the docks. I'd be boarding that big one with the red hull right now, if I wasn't here. The water is so beautiful, sapphire blue and sparkling in the sun." She changed her focus to the tropical jungle farther across the bay. "I promise I'm going to explore there sometime... I wonder if it's as beautiful from the ground as it is from here?"
She turned to Belmont, a look of pure joy on her face. "It would make a fantastic series of postcards, one with the scene from each window. When I get back, would it be OK if I come up for the view every once and awhile? I'll bet it is awesome being up here during a storm!"
"Not many appreciate the view like you do," Simon replied quietly. He was definitely pleased with her reaction. Then his expression twisted as he continued."Like you said, everyone's always in a rush when they get here: 'Mr. Belmont, we're going on a picnic. Send us to the picnic planet!'; "Simon, we need to get to Waypoint as soon as possible!'; 'There's an academic conference on the Library Planet that we CAN'T MISS!'; 'There's an emergency on Witch World!'. It's always 'Simon, send us here!' or 'Simon, send us there!', 'right now!' with no concern for my time - and nobody ever stops to enjoy the view!"
He had started quietly, but he was almost yelling when he finished. Then he realized he wasn't angry with Olga, and he shook his head violently before he continued, in a much more pleasant tone. "Thank you for taking the time to look - and not demanding anything!" He tilted his head and regarded her. A sly smile kept coming and going from his lips - almost as if he were resisting his urge to smile, and failing...
"Would you like to know a secret?" Of course, she nodded!
He took a few steps to to the center of the northern window. They looked out over a wide, shallow bay to the Stainless Steel mountains. "Watch the the peak of Black Star Mountain." Black Star Mountain was the tallest peak in the Stainless Steel Range. Even from miles away they could see that its peak was covered in brilliantly glistening ice. "If there's anything that you can see through any one of these windows, and you want to see it better, you can do... this!"
The mountain range began to grow, as if they were flying slowly toward them. Their 'flight' shifted slightly and they 'flew' directly towards the peak of Black Star Mountain, and then they slowed and stopped at maybe a distance of a hundred yards. Black Star mountain was the peak of an ancient, dormant volcano. This sides were covered with snow, boulders and ledges sticking through the ice, and the caldera appeared to be filled with black ice.
"Wow! What an AWESOME skating rink that would make." Then she paused as she thought about the enlarging view. "How did you do that? Can ANYONE do that, or just you?"
"Anyone who takes the time to appreciate the view," he responded, clearly pleased with her wonderment. "Though probably only me and Gareth ever use it. He comes up here a lot. He never sleeps, you know..."
She wasn't surprised; most of the student body already figured the same thing.
"Say, do you have an appointment right now?" she asked. "Doctor Mortale and Johnny Peril are downstairs, talking about their trip to the..." she stopped and cocked her head as if listening closely to something he couldn't hear. "Uh...Rave World, I think?"
"You can hear that?" he was startled. She nodded and smiled, and touched the point of her left ear. "Yes, after I send you off, I'm supposed to send them off to 'Rave World'." He paused and shook his head a bit. "I doubt if Johnny knows what he's getting into... or maybe he does? There's a lot more to Dr. Mortale than meets the eye."
Suddenly Simon looked mildly alarmed. "Uh oh - students aren't supposed to know about Rave World..." She zipped her finger across her smile and nodded. "Anyway - it's time for you to go," he got back to the reason for her visit and once again was all business.
He walked toward the big door to the great stair. "You know the drill." He repeated the instructions she'd heard several times before, at the beginning of every field trip. "Stay in the center of the room, the room will start to change into your destination, don't move until the changes stop. One I start the process, I can't stop it, so if you don't want to go, get out of the Clock Room right now. Be back at your entry point at the specified time, or you'll need to find some other way to get back." He stopped, then added, "That's one week, for you." Then he stepped down one stair and was out of sight from the Clock Room.
She stood quietly in the center of the room, the her view started changing gradually. She could see the floor changing to grass and fallen leaves, and not far from her, suddenly there were trees fading into view, and... WAIT! What's THAT?
Something flashed into the room from the stairwell - something flying, something that had been invisible until it passed into the Clock Room and which then quickly faded into visibility - a small boy riding a small broom!
"It's about time!" he squeaked emphatically. "Do you know how HARD it is to keep up that 'invisible and silent' spell?"
"Atom Blake - get out of here!" she yelled at him.
"It's too late - we're there already!" he replied triumphantly.
And they were. They were in a clearing on a path that climbed a wooded mountainside. Though they had left Grim Island in mid-afternoon, the sun was just barely beginning to peak over the horizon, indicating that here in Vermont, USA, Earth 4, it was very early morning. It was cold and the ground was covered with an inch or so of crusty snow, occasionally cratered with the footprints of various forest creatures. Not far from them, something had dug a gouge into the clearing, throwing mounds of dirt to either side. At the far end of that gouge was something that once had been a puddle of molten metal, now cooled and hardened.
*See: Thunderbunny: The Bunny Hops Tonight
Though she'd been through the portal several times, Olga was always just a little astonished at having been <there> one second and <here> the next. “Toto, I’ve a feeling we’re not in Kansas anymore!”
