They led us down the path we'd taken in to get out, and most of the pale-scaled Agarthins cleared the way before us as the light struck their sensitive eyes. One didn't scatter quite quick enough, and their cloaked shoulder bumped into mine.
It reminded me of the non-agrarian presence I'd noticed earlier. I scowled, thinking of the apparent difference in treatment. "Who is the other human you have here?"
Our navigators froze, and Persephoenix turned to look at me. "What do you mean?"
"I sensed them in this hallway earlier."
Ninelithe answered firmly. "There's none. You two are the only human visitors allowed here at the moment."
"Visitors?" Did that mean there were other humans here?
Persephoenix and Ninelithe both ignored my question.
We made it a few feet further before a sudden static spark raced up my spine. Uncertain about what I was feeling or how I knew, I glanced over at Cove, who looked back, panic-stricken.
"Someone's messing with the portal!" He turned on his heel and raced back to the portal room, Ranch clinging to his shoulders. Persephoenix caught up to him, her legs moving in great strides, stepping once for every three of Cove's steps.
"What on earth?" Uneasily, I clutched Ani closer and followed, Ninelithe hot on my heels. He overtook me as the door to the portal room entered my sight, rushing forward to help Persephoenix lift the bar and push open the doors.
They opened smoothly into the dark room, and the hovering spheres of light flew in to cast light on all walls. The room was empty.
Persephoenix and Ninelithe were shocked, looking almost human with emotion–eyes wide open and slackjawed.
In horror, Cove whispered, "The amount of power it takes to alter someone else's spell…"
Persephoenix was the first to recover, moving in a predatory, snakelike manner. Her tongue reached out to taste the air. "I can only smell the four of us."
Ninelithe mimicked her, confirming her words. "Me as well. Whoever did this was not only powerful enough to alter another individual's spell but proficient enough in magic to completely erase traces of their presence in the air. Ninelithe and Persephoenix moved quickly through the room, inspecting it for signs of any other alterations. Their presence brushed against mine, alerting me of their status as they reached out.
I could tell by their faces that they'd received no new information there, as well.
Their moist presence vanished after a few seconds, and Ninelithe turned on me, his eyes hard and glinting. "Describe to me the human you claim you felt."
"They changed their presence as soon as they noticed me," I warned, implying the data I was about to give them wasn't accurate, "their presence was like a flame."
Persephoenix and Ninelithe were almost as pale as the sun-lacking Agarthins outside. Persephoenix hissed a low, frustrated sound.
"If he discovered a human, that human would have had not only find their way through the twisting tunnels, but they would have had to force their way through the barrier. A human mage powerful enough to break through the barrier without alerting anyone would, by nature, have to be powerful enough to alter the portal," Ninelithe explained, speaking mainly to Persephoenix.
I wondered if Cove could if he wanted. Said mage ushered me over to the portal, already working on another aspect of the crime. "Can you feel it? The change?"
I shook my head.
"They shrunk it," Cove clarified, confused, "so only one person can go through at a time."
Now that he told me, I could see the change in the thread connecting it to the other portal. It was a little thinner than the rest, only a hair's width.
Why did they gain by such an act?
The question haunted us as we headed back to our lodgings, snacking and whispering quietly amongst each other on the way. The only logical answer seemed to be it was a trap, but for whom? For Cove and I, on our return from Agartha?
Cove tossed a wrench in the more nefarious ideas. "There's no way of knowing whose portaling, through. They'd have to keep our destination under constant surveillance."
It didn't seem feasible. After all, our destination portal was used by hundreds of people every day. The chances of someone in Agarthia being able to warn a third party before we traveled without alerting someone on the other side seemed slim.
A trap for the Agarthians seemed equally unlikely.
So, why?
And who? Cove and the Agarthians both agreed that whoever did this must have been powerful to alter a spell Cove and I cast together. Typically, they explained, only the caster could alter it. Sometimes, the original caster would 'key in' another individual, handing them editing rights, but neither Cove nor I had even gotten the chance to. The number of mages we knew of who could overpower Cove's magic could be counted on one hand. Or finger, in any case. Ava. Had she really grown so powerful under Jacob's careful watch without anyone realizing it?
A final question wormed its way into my brain; or, is it the other party at play? They'd proven to be quite powerful themselves, with a strong future sight. Was there a magical loophole they'd used to alter both spells?
I threw myself back onto my bed, laying spread-eagled as I still pondered the questions, searching high and low for answers.
Ani jerked me out of my thoughts, prodding me with his paw and crying for the attention I hadn't bestowed on him the night before.
Pushing my spinning thoughts out of the way for now, I obliged. He pawed at me again, wanting something more. In his eyes, I saw he wanted a closer connection. With an exasperated sigh, I reached out, glancing across his spark. He flared up, sharing his thoughts and his memories. He didn't think in language, but I got the feeling he wanted to show me something relevant to what we'd just witnessed. I opened the connection future. Ani shoveled memory after memory after memory of the places in Agartha he'd explored into my brain. It was too much to handle at once, and I pulled back. A paw jabbed my face again.
"Fine. Slower this time, though, Ani."
Reaching back out, I was grateful to find he had understood and heeded my words, the story he wanted to tell unfurling in my head like a newspaper, allowing me to shift through them at will. Most of them were simple, warm pieces of memory where Ani stuck his nose into trouble and somehow managed to convince the stuck-up Agarthians to let him loose. A few made my lips quirk up in amusement as Ani slipped his way into the Agarthians' good graces, convincing a few to smile and pat him on the head.
It was good to know that the Agarthians were as pathetically weak to Ani's cute face as I'd been from the beginning, despite my protests.
I relaxed, sinking into his pleasant memories as he trotted around the bright city, hunting bugs and begging for attention.
In the memory, Ani got himself lost, circling back around to the entrance we'd used to get to Agartha just as a cloaked figure stepped through the door. Through Ani's memory, I caught the faintest glimpse of pink and swollen human skin beneath the shadowed hood before his short attention wandered.
That was what he'd wanted to show me.
My eyes shot open, and I flew out of bed, sprinting past the protesting Ani into the shared living area where Cove was playing with Ranch.
"Did something happen?"
"That human I mentioned? Ani saw him walk through the entrance to Agartha."
Cove's eyebrows skyrocketed to his hairline. "How'd a human manage to open that? He'd have to be bear-y strong."
I shook my head. He wasn't understanding. "Not through the doorway. Through the closed door."
The string he'd been using slipped to the floor. "We can do that?" Said the supernaturally powerful mage to the novice.
"He did."
Cove scrambled off the couch for the door, where a female Agarthan stood guard over our doorway. His voice faded as he explained my findings to her in the hall. Hers rose as she answered back scornfully. "A human. Walking through walls? Sounds like one of your fictional movies."
Cove said something in response.
Whatever he said set her off. "Don't bother me with such tales again," she responded, forcefully shoving him back in and locking the door.
"You know what? I won't." Cove responded, livid as she locked the door behind him, imprisoning us in our extravagant cell. "Why are we even bothering to help them in the first place?" he asked rhetorically, turning to me. "Maybe the human was tired of Agarthian attitudes and wanted to limit how many could scoff at us in our own cities at a time."
If Agarthians had contact with more than a few humans over the past few thousand years, I could almost believe it. They were infuriating. Asking us questions about the culprit and then dismissing our additional evidence.
I yawned, the exhaustion of the past few days catching up with me. We tried to warn them. Anything further that happened would be on them.