The Doorway
Aldric Valenford had always known he was different. His parents, while competent magicians, had perished in an attack when he was only an infant—an attack they might have survived had they possessed even a fraction of his power. Instead, their deaths became a defining moment in his life, a mystery and a tragedy that left him to be raised by his formidable grandparents, surrounded by an extended family that never let him forget how special he was.
And special he was. More powerful than most royal magicians, more reckless than any scholar, Aldric had a knack for getting so absorbed in his studies that he failed to consider the consequences. He had caused explosions that left craters in the royal gardens, accidentally set his own hair on fire more times than he could count, and once—after a rather ambitious polymorph experiment—spent an entire afternoon as a very grumpy cactus.
Yet, for every catastrophe, there were just as many triumphs. He had mastered spells that others considered impossible, created enchantments that defied logic, and theorized about concepts that even the oldest scholars dismissed. But none of his past discoveries compared to what he was about to attempt today.
Aldric was convinced that other worlds existed. He had dreamed of them—places with towering metal structures, glowing symbols, and strange contraptions beyond his understanding. They felt too real to be mere imagination. He had spent years theorizing, studying old texts, and crafting a spell that might allow him to bridge the gap between his world and another.
"This is either going to be a masterpiece or a catastrophe," Cam, his ever-loyal assistant, muttered as he observed Aldric chalking the final rune onto the stone floor of the underground lab.
"Probably both," Aldric admitted, stepping back to admire his work. The runes pulsed with energy, the air humming with latent magic. He could feel it—this was going to work.
With a deep breath, he placed his hands over the central sigil and spoke the incantation.
The reaction was immediate. Magic surged through the room, crackling like lightning, pulling at the very fabric of reality. The runes flared impossibly bright, and for a moment, Aldric thought he had succeeded in tearing open the veil between worlds.
Then, just as suddenly, the light dimmed.
Silence fell over the lab.
Aldric blinked, adjusting his eyes to the dim glow of the remaining embers of magic. Where he had expected a swirling portal of brilliant energy, there was instead... a door.
A completely ordinary-looking door, made of a smooth, unfamiliar material, standing upright in the middle of his lab. It had no grand magical aura, no shifting lights or runes. It was just there, as if it had always belonged.
But the strangest thing was the inscription. Right at the top, etched in a language he had never seen before, were the words: Laboratory.
Aldric felt his heart hammer in his chest.
"Cam," he said slowly, eyes locked onto the door. "Tell me you see that."
Cam swallowed. "Oh, I see it. Question is—are we about to open it?"
Aldric took a step forward, hand hovering over the handle. He had spent his life searching for proof of other worlds. Now, standing before this impossible door, he realized the choice had already been made.
He turned the handle and stepped through.
At the same exact time Aldric was being born and living his life in his world, Naomi Takahashi was growing up in hers. A woman of high intelligence and deep skepticism, Naomi was the middle child of two renowned geneticists, destined to follow in her mother's footsteps.
Her path had been set early—science was her foundation, logic her guiding principle. She excelled through school, eventually becoming a geneticist in the very company her parents had built. But life had a way of throwing unpredictable variables into even the most controlled experiments.
She had never planned to fall in love, let alone marry, but that changed the day she locked eyes with Kieran at their graduation ceremony. Though they had unknowingly spent years in the same program, their schedules had never aligned. Yet in that one moment, everything clicked. By the end of the night, they had exchanged numbers. The rest, as they say, was history.
Their life together was brilliant, full of discovery, love, and ambition. But fate was cruel. A terrible accident in the lab took Kieran's life, along with two others, in an explosion that left Naomi shattered. Four years had passed since that day, and Naomi had rebuilt her world around her daughter, Hana, now seven years old. She threw herself into her research, balancing work and motherhood, determined to keep moving forward.
She and Hana practically lived in the lab, the very place her husband had once worked. She knew every inch of it—every hall, every room. Which is why, on this particular morning, when she arrived at her office and found a door that had never been there before, she froze.
It was positioned at the opposite side of her office, separate from the rest of the building where the main labs were. There had been no construction. No blueprints. No discussions of renovations.
And yet, here it was. A door where no door should be.
Just as Naomi was about to turn around and head toward her mother's office to demand an explanation, the door creaked open.
Aldric and Cam stepped through.
Naomi's breath caught in her throat. Two men—dressed in what could only be described as medieval robes—stood in her lab. Her lab. Her mind raced. Who were they? How had they gotten in?
"Who are you? What are you doing here?!" she demanded, instinctively taking a step back. Her pulse pounded in her ears.
Aldric raised his hands in a placating gesture and spoke. But Naomi couldn't understand a word. The language was unlike anything she had ever heard, and that sent a fresh wave of panic through her.
Meanwhile, Aldric and Cam were equally frustrated. They were clearly trying to introduce themselves, attempting to calm her down, but the barrier of language made it impossible.
Realizing this, Aldric focused and whispered an incantation, the air around them shimmering with magic. The moment he spoke again, his words shifted midair, reforming into something Naomi could understand.
"We mean no harm. My name is Aldric Valenford, and this is my assistant, Cam," he said carefully, watching her reaction. "We… may have made an error in our experiment."
Naomi's eyes narrowed, but she was no longer on the verge of screaming for security. Instead, she exhaled sharply, gripping the edge of her desk. "Give me time to think. We will discuss this later."
Aldric nodded. "Agreed."
The tension lingered, but the immediate panic had subsided. Naomi took a deep breath, her mind still spinning, as the two strangers took a step back toward the door, awaiting their next encounter.
"
The moment the door shut, Naomi's breath came in short, shallow gasps. Her hands trembled as she pressed them against the desk, trying to steady herself. What had just happened? Who were those men? More importantly—how had they gotten into her lab?
Her rational mind screamed for answers, but one thought overshadowed all the others.
That man… Aldric…
He had Kieran's face.
Not exactly, no—the eyes were different, sharper, filled with an energy she had never seen in her late husband. Kieran had been a scientist, a man of logic and careful calculations. He had never spoken in a language she couldn't understand. He had never wielded magic.
But it was him.
Or it should have been.
Naomi forced herself to move. She couldn't sit here spiraling. If she stayed in this room alone with her thoughts any longer, she would drive herself mad. There had to be an explanation. Maybe she was hallucinating. Maybe she was overworked.
Or maybe she wasn't.
She grabbed her coat and strode out of the lab, heading directly for her mother's office.
"Mom, I need you to come with me. Right now." Naomi barely gave Debora Takahashi a chance to look up from her desk before making the demand.
Debora arched a brow, setting down the paperwork she had been reviewing. "Well, good morning to you too, Naomi. What's wrong? You look pale."
Naomi hesitated. How could she explain this in a way that didn't make her sound completely insane? "I just—please, I need you to see something. I swear, I haven't lost my mind, but I need another set of eyes on this."
Debora sighed but stood, already used to Naomi's stubborn streak. "Alright, alright. Lead the way."
As they walked through the corridors, Naomi kept glancing at her mother, debating whether to warn her about what she was about to see. In the end, she simply said, "Just... keep an open mind."
Debora shot her a wary look but nodded.
When they arrived at the lab, Debora stopped abruptly, staring at the door at the far end of the room. "Naomi," she said slowly, "why does it look like you built a new office without telling me?"
"I didn't." Naomi stepped forward, pressing her palm against the cool surface. "This door wasn't here yesterday. It appeared—just like that. I need you to see what's on the other side."
Debora frowned but nodded. "Alright, then. Open it."
Naomi exhaled sharply and twisted the handle.
The door swung open silently, revealing not the hallway or an office—but something entirely different.
A sprawling room lined with towering bookshelves, filled with thick tomes and unfamiliar symbols carved into their spines. Strange glass containers sat on heavy wooden tables, filled with glowing liquids and bubbling concoctions. The scent of aged parchment and something vaguely metallic filled the air.
A library? No… no library she had ever seen had beakers and alchemical tools scattered across the surfaces.
It was a lab.
But not one from this world.
Naomi took a hesitant step inside, Debora right behind her. Before she could begin to make sense of what she was seeing, movement caught her eye.
From behind one of the shelves, two figures emerged.
Aldric and Cam.
They stopped when they saw her, their expressions unreadable. Naomi felt her heart hammer in her chest.
This wasn't over. It was only the beginning.
Debora inhaled sharply the moment her gaze settled on Aldric.
For a brief second, she thought she was looking at her son-in-law. But no—this was different. The resemblance was uncanny, yet the way he carried himself, the way his eyes gleamed with something almost otherworldly, sent a chill down her spine. It was like looking at a ghost from a world that should not exist.
She took a cautious step forward, her voice steady despite her confusion. "Who are you?" she asked, eyeing Aldric carefully. "You look like my daughter's late husband."
Aldric and Cam exchanged glances. Then, as if realizing that honesty was their best option, Aldric cleared his throat and inclined his head slightly in greeting. "I am Aldric Valenford, a scholar of magic. This is my assistant, Cam. I understand that our arrival must be unsettling, but I assure you, we mean no harm."
Debora crossed her arms. "Then explain. How did you get here? And why does my daughter claim this door appeared out of nowhere?"
Aldric nodded. "I will explain everything. But first, allow me to ask—what do you know of other worlds?"
Debora blinked. "Other worlds?"
Aldric gestured around them. "I have spent years researching magical transportation, theorizing that there must be places beyond our own. My goal was to create a transfer portal—something to bridge two distant locations within my world. But instead..."
His lips curled into a half-smile, tinged with excitement. "Instead, I discovered a way to cross into another world entirely. Yours."
Naomi's breath hitched. "So you didn't mean to come here?"
"Not exactly," Aldric admitted. "But now that we are here, I believe we have much to learn from each other."
Debora exhaled, still grappling with the impossibility of the situation. Her scientific mind rebelled against the explanation, but standing here, in a place that shouldn't exist, she couldn't deny the evidence before her.
"Alright," she finally said, looking from Naomi to Aldric. "Let's talk."
Aldric and Cam stood before Naomi and Debora, the air thick with unspoken questions. The lab—Aldric's lab, yet not—stood in eerie silence, lit by the glow of enchanted lanterns. Naomi's hands clenched at her sides as she took in her surroundings. This was impossible, but there was no denying what was in front of her.
Debora's voice cut through the quiet. "You claim to have opened a portal between worlds. That's not something we can just accept without proof."
Aldric inclined his head. "I understand your skepticism. I would be just as doubtful were I in your position. However, the proof stands before you." He gestured to the shelves of ancient tomes, the bubbling potions, the very structure of the room that did not belong in a modern laboratory. "This is my workspace, my world's study of magic. And yet, here we are, able to speak across dimensions."
Naomi folded her arms. "You used magic to translate your speech before. Do it again. I want to hear it."
Aldric obliged. A soft shimmer rippled through the air as he murmured an incantation, the syllables foreign yet strangely melodic. The magic settled, and he spoke again. "Now, you should understand me."
Debora exhaled sharply. "That's… fascinating. And concerning. If what you say is true, then you have created something that defies every law of physics as we understand them."
"Not physics," Naomi muttered, rubbing her temples. "Magic. As ridiculous as that sounds."
Cam finally spoke up, shifting uneasily. "We didn't mean to cause alarm. The door was an accident. But now that we've made this connection, we need to decide what comes next."
Aldric nodded. "I wish to understand your world. To learn about your science, your advancements. Perhaps we can exchange knowledge."
Naomi studied him. The resemblance to Kieran was haunting. Yet, this man—this magician—was not her husband. He was something else entirely. "We can't just let you roam free," she said at last. "This is classified territory. If the government found out about you—about this—there's no telling what they'd do."
Debora frowned. "And if this door works both ways, the same applies to us. If word of this reaches the wrong people in your world, how would they react to the existence of ours?"
Aldric's expression darkened. "There are those who would seek to exploit such knowledge. The wrong hands could twist this discovery into something dangerous."
A heavy silence fell between them.
"Then we keep this contained," Naomi said finally. "For now, only the four of us know about this. No one else—on either side. Agreed?"
Aldric exchanged glances with Cam, then nodded. "Agreed."
Debora sighed. "This is reckless. But shutting the door isn't an option, is it?"
Aldric hesitated before shaking his head. "No. The spell was experimental. I do not yet know how to reverse it without destabilizing the connection. Until I do, this door remains."
Naomi clenched her jaw. "Then we make sure it stays under our control. No one uses it unless we all agree. Understood?"
Cam smirked. "You're acting like you're in charge."
Naomi met his gaze without flinching. "In my world, I am."
Aldric chuckled, intrigued. "Then it seems we will have much to discuss."
The four of them stood at the threshold of something unprecedented. The door was open, the worlds connected. What lay ahead was uncertain, but one thing was clear.
Nothing would ever be the same again.