A day before our party, we were setting up the treehouse, but of course, nothing was going right. The decorations I bought were stolen, so I had to make some myself, and the school won't provide food so I'll have to make it myself. On top of it all, we aren't allowed to hand out invitations on school grounds.
"Arg! I'm totally swamped!" I said while slumping down next to my many wooden decorations.
"I feel you, I'm dead tired," Devin said, he spent a lot of his Eneru making the materials I used to make the decorations.
'Both of you need a nap, you're suffering under the effects of Eneru exhaustion.'
"Spirit says you need a nap, I'm going to go bend the rules."
Devin took his nap and I ignored Spirit's protests, opting to instead tell people about the party via word of mouth, which didn't go well because I was tired and not very popular.
"Denny, repeat this every time you see a person: Come to Laura and Ingen's birthday tomorrow at the treehouse."
"Orin, please take me to bed, I'm tired."
"You're the boss."
Orin loaded me on his back but I was sleeping long before we arrived at my room.
--------
"Are we ready? All we need to do is put Orin to sleep, remember not to hurt him, he's done nothing wrong."
"I'm ready."
"Let's go."
It all happened before Orin noticed. Even with his enhanced senses, he was off guard. One little dart stuck into his side and he felt drowsy. Orin was not without repose, however, and he manipulated the air around him into a pressure bomb.
--------
CRACK!
"Ahh!" one of Orin's assailants shouted in pain.
The bomb made snap audible throughout the school, yet left the walls of the school intact. Almost instantly, Professor Lana appeared through a portal on her guard, looking for the cause of the disturbance. Another dart flew from the corner of the hall, but a portal opened and swallowed it up.
"WHO GOES THERE?" Professor Lana shouted
Her attention was drawn to Orin and Ingen's unconscious bodies, as they fell through a portal of foreign creation. She almost dispelled the portal, but that would have likely cut Orin in half so she decided instead to stop all future portals.
She drew three runes Nue (Negative), Jente (Stable), and Vand (Void). With these three runes, she cast Dimensional Repulse, a taxing spell that stops all portals. She still couldn't see the enemy so she called for backup with an emergency whistle.
--------
"This is crazy! I'm out of here!" The smallest ambusher shouted over their mind-link.
"We still need you if we all want out!" The largest retorted using the same link.
"Too bad, my leg is probably broken." The small one cut off their mind-link.
"It's just you and me Big Red," The largest said to their partner.
"I'll get that coward later." The smaller of the two snarled "For now we need to beat a professor and get out."
"Split both ways."
--------
Professor Lana saw two figures dart from shadow to shadow at inhuman speeds in opposite directions.
"Oh no you don't!"
She drew one rune, Tet (Tangle), and the stonework of the school snapped ineffectually at the larger figure's ankle, it went right through.
--------
As quickly as it began, the encounter ended, and no one was caught. Professor Lana ended Dimensional Repulse and a portal immediately opened and a figure dashed through.
"Damnit! There were three?!" Professor Lana's failures made her frustrated to no end. "Whatever, there's always breadcrumbs."
Professor Lana pressed a button on her amulet and established a mind-link with the headmaster.
"I am reporting a kidnapping. Ingen and Orin of Gond have been abducted by an estimated three assailants, one of them definitely has the spatial manipulation sub-affinity."
"Got it, any more details?" Over the mind-link Headmaster Sivor was calm, but outside of it he was swearing and cursing Ingen's name.
"They seem to have a strange ability to be invisible and it seems to be tied to shadows."
"Come see me in my office soon, I will assemble the Constables."
"Understood. I will study the residual energy from the rifts and report to you after."
The mind-link ended and Professor Pei'ye appeared through a portal.
"Sivor told me to help you track these bad kidnappers, yes?"
"I get that you're on edge because everyone's favorite student is captured, but please control that annoying tic of yours."
"Yes ma'am." Pei'ye showed no signs of his "yes?" trademark.
'Scary' Pei'ye added inwardly
"You have three affinities, right?" Lana asked
"Yes, Detection, Spatial Manipulation, and Aura Reveal, they are the perfect combination for rift tracing."
"You're right, start casting."
Pei'ye's left eye glowed a deep cyan, his right glowed a bright orange, and his fingers glowed purple.
"There were five spells cast that effected the dimensional fabric. First was a simple portal, probably just to keep a tracker off of the group before they get to the ambush point. Then there was another that you cast. Soon after there was a Warp Portal which took Orin and Ingen somewhere far, otherwise a simple portal would have sufficed. Then there was your Dimensional Repulse. Last was a simple portal that let the last assailant escape. You had Dimensional Repulse active, yes?"
"Yes, but I let it down when I thought the threat had passed."
"No, no, I mean Dimensional Repulse makes it harder to track portals."
"Can we track the Warp Portal?"
"With time and potions, yes."
Lana pressed on her linking amulet "It will take longer than expected to track Ingen so I won't be able to attend the Constable's meeting."
"That is no problem, I'll fill you in later."
The mind-link ended.
"Perfect, let's get started." Lana's eyes and hands glowed purple.