18

Timbella hadn't said a word for several minutes. She used the toilet, and brought back a glass of water, but kept quiet. Deeter supposed she didn't want to believe the evidence of her eyes.

The telephone rang. She got up, almost automatically, and answered it. "Hello? Oh... Yeah. You, uh, you don't want to know. I know... I know... It was not my idea. We're both very sorry... ok, if you don't want to deal with him, that's fine. THAT'S FINE! .. OK. Right. Game on. Forget it happened. I sure am trying." She hung up the phone and resumed her silence.

Deeter hazarded a guess. "The Professor?"

"Gee, you think?" She seemed to snap out of it for real. "What the fuck were you fucking thinking, Deeter? You could have just taken me outside, or near the shop where we met, why the fuck did you bring me there?"

"I - I - wanted t-to tell him."

"The Professor isn't just some jackass! He's a fucking criminal! He doesn't take fucking kindly to people showing up unannounced in his private sanctuary, ok? He was gonna fucking shoot us before your stupid fucking gemstones could have brought us out, ok?" Tears began to roll down her face. "Oh, what am I saying, you don't even know what the fuck a gun is," she sniffled.

He shook his head. "Long range weapon?"

"Uh, yeah. Instant reload and attack. Kills men dead where they stand. It ain't magic, neither. That taser you bought is kiddie stuff compared to lead bullets."

He put his hand against his forehead. "And now he won't meet with us?"

"Oh, he doesn't really believe the story we gave, and we weren't gone long enough for me to be home and answer my phone, so he's intrigued to the point that he wants a real explanation. But instead of what we originally said, he's gonna come here tomorrow night and get a full explanation, then take us to the guys." She frowned. "Why the hell do you need smugglers if you can travel anywhere?"

"Well, clearly these things are not easily hidden. The portals, I mean. Anytime I make one, the Watchers can track me."

Her face lit up. "Oh! And you never tried traveling any other way?"

"No, I was mostly visiting older-tech worlds like my own. Only the first few, before I realized I couldn't really handle places like this, or more advanced."

"So you just ... tell them? Where you want to go?"

"I mainly try concentrating on the sort of place I would like to go," he explained. "But this last time, I was with a Watcher, so it was a bit rushed."

"Woah you got caught?"

"Not exactly," he said, and explained what had happened. "So he lulled me enough to get me to show him the gems, and... he figured out how they had been created."

"By 'magic'?"

"I'm not sure," he admitted. "He claimed that Ariel didn't perform magic, so I don't see how a blood ceremony would have worked." At her blank look, he added, "Ariel was my great-great-great-grandmother, who fled our realm. This is a fact, but what few know is that before fleeing, she created these jewels. At first I assumed that she created more than these, and fled with one pair, but..."

"Why would she create an extra pair to leave behind?"

"That's what I can't figure out," he admitted. "Or how she did it without magic."

"May I hold one?" Deeter gave her the one in his right hand, and they both stared at the gems. "Red from blood. How would this guy know she wasn't able to use magic?"

"I did not stay to find out. He simply said 'we thought you were like Ariel at first.'"

She toyed with the gem, admiring the way the light shone upon it. "Maybe she had a scientific way of doing it?"

"I don't think that's possible. Prosstig was nearly convinced I used 'magic' till he realized it was Ariel's blood. There must be something strange in her blood."

"Something strange? It let her travel through space and time!"

They gaped at each other.