by Mr. David Reese Dorrycott

Chapter Twenty-One

The Dragon Marcus watched as the two young women left for their University classes, the air around them taking on a soft green light as they stepped through the portal. Green, yet another indication that the two belonged together, yet nothing he was permitted to do to or for his Apprentice would even begin to change young Amanda’s mind. He sighed, returned to his ‘male mouse’ form and retired to his room with the Chemistry text that Sara had loaned him for today, she didn’t have any classes in that subject until Friday so he had asked if he could read it.

Opening the book he quickly realized one thing, it used an archaic mathematical language that he had no understanding of. “Now what do I do” he asked himself as he slowly paged through the book. Not too long later he started to close the book only to discover a strange graph printed on the in-covers, the periodic table it was labeled. Now this was something that he did have experience with though this one was much more complex than he was used to, it was also set up in a strangely different way. After a few hours determining what was there Marcus shuddered, slowly closing the book to look out of his rooms single window.

It was a shattering awaking for the mustard colored dragon, his table ended with Bismuth, this table continued on for thirty-five more elements with weights of some he knew had to be theoretical. This world was not only more advanced scientifically, it was a fair guess that it was too dangerous to allow into the Great Guild. Taking a deep breath he opened the book again, located the index and started reading about every element that he had no knowledge of. As he read he learned, as he learned he became more concerned.

When Sara returned late that afternoon, she had one more class than Amanda she found Marcus, in his miniature dragon form and Amanda waiting on the porch. “Okay” the black furred mouse said, studying the two. “What did I do this time?”

“No a thing” Marcus answered. “I need you to explain many things to me, please.”

“Uh huh, finally decided that you are going to throw me out of Amanda’s life?” Sarah asked, though there was a smile on her face when she made that statement.

Amanda looked at her friend and slowly shook her head no. “He just realized that everything I have been telling him is real Sarah. Our world may have to be locked away from all magic, he needs to be ceratin that he understands what he read in your chemistry book.”

Sarah turned to the mustard colored dragon. “If you do that, what happens to Amanda” she asked, there was no humor in her voice now, there was the beginning of fear.

“I’ll die” Amanda answered softly.

Sara sat, the black furred mouse completely stunned by that calm announcement. “My Amanda, dead again?” she whispered. “I couldn’t take that, not again, I almost followed you the first time.”

Marcus realized what was happening so with a gentle nudge of his right wing he sent Amanda towards the seated mouse. “Go to her, she needs you” he whispered. This he had seen before, normally though when a mate was informed of the death of their partner they reacted differently, Sara’s reaction was the nail that sealed everything. She was not just in love with her white furred companion, she wasn’t even in lust with her. Sara, a black furred creature that in this world was never allowed to even be friends with a white fur, Sara had made Amanda her entire universe. Wisely he stepped back into the cabin, this was something that only his apprentice could deal with and if she wasn’t willing to open her heart even just a little for the other mouse even she could do nothing.

Returning to his room the out-world dragon sat on his bed in thought, here he had found a world so technologically advanced that they had already visited their own moon three times now. Though magic was known, it was rare, almost as though it were the wisps of what had been left after some massive war so far back in history as to be nothing but legend. What even Sara could do with science was almost beyond his races dreams for where his, and most worlds he knew of used majik to do their work this world used machines, fossil oil, steam... These were technologies that a few alchemists on each world played with, but only one race had learned how to transmute one element into another.

Marcus had seen first claw in his youth the effects of a spell that converted carbon to oxygen, if this world could do the same he would have to leave and report it to the Council of Worlds. One world had been sealed forever from magic, would this one be the second? It would be hours before Sara came to see him, rapping on his rooms door with her knuckles.

“Enter Sara, you have come to talk?” the dragon asked gently.

Opening Marcus’s door Sara stepped in, her eyes showing the results of hard crying and something else. She looked around and nodded to herself, “It’s settled Marcus” she announced, “If Amanda dies I follow her, no if and or but, my soul cannot survive another tearing like the last one, it almost didn’t survive that one so tell me great Master Wizard, why the HELL do you think our world needs to be locked away from magic, especially since we are just discovering it.”

Marcus had expected the question, just not quite with the emotion Sara gave it. “The truth my beautiful young mouse? Very well, you deserve that, certainly your world deserves that. The answer is not very simple in most cases but your world already knows enough to give me a base, you are aware of your hydrogen bomb?”

“Aware?” Sara shivered, “Damn thing scares me to death, what has that got to do with magic? We don’t need magic to make those demon things.”

Marcus smiled, though in his dragon form it was hard for Sara to see that emotion, his eyes though gave away the expression. “There was a world once my dear Sara, a world where one Chaos Master stepped too far. He split carbon into oxygen, only a tiny amount of carbon but can you think of what that would do?”

“Don’t you mean Oxygen to Carbon?” the black furred mouse asked, “Oxygen is higher up the table than carbon, splitting carbon would only lead to say Boron. I don’t think you could change carbon to oxygen without putting a lot of energy, and I mean a LOT of energy into the equation.”

Sitting on his bed the little dragon pointed to his rooms one chair with a wing. “Sit, and listen.” He waiting until the mouse had settled down before he spoke again. “I did not miss speak” he started. “There was a world, I was a Journeyman when the ripples of destruction triggered my Masters equipment. We went to that world, it was fairly well known by then and found it ruined. Not destroyed, ruined. Life still existed in small patches but it would be a thousand years or more before a city could be born again. What happened was as I said, a Chaotic Master made a mistake, that world had no Periodic Table, no science beyond that of the Bronze Age. We found him, frozen in a block of ice ten miles thick, we found him because he was in the center of the destruction. From the papers my Master recovered, then burned we discovered that he had wanted an undersea base, such a base would need oxygen of course and since carbon is so dense. Well he found a way to convert carbon to oxygen and it froze four fifths of his planet. That world was blocked from magic forever by the Guild, they will have to discover science and technology now but your world already has that knowledge and so very much more.”

“So how did this madman get the energy to convert oxygen to carbon in the first place” Sara asked.

“As far as I can guess, and sweet Sara this is only a guess, he split helium to hydrogen and used that power to convert carbon to oxygen.”

“Energy and mass are the same” Sara agreed, “But the numbers are off, way off. There would be a lot of left over energy if the masses were the same, or...” she paused, “If they weren’t... that carbon reaction would continue until there wasn’t any carbon left, it would draw energy from wherever it could find it. Marcus, I’m going to go make love to Lollypop now, you can lock us out of magic after I show her what a woman can do for a woman, just leave me with a gun.” She started to stand when a peanut hit her forehead, looking over to the grinning dragon she became confused.

“What would happen if you turned Mercury to Gold” he asked.

“Depending upon the mass there would be one snarkin huge explosion with about half the planet missing once the smoke cleared” Sara answered, “What has this got to do with my love dying.”

“Everything, your race through you have just proven it to me is to smart to try something like that. Theoretically you could prove it could be done but you have just proven that you can also see the danger in such actions. Sara your race plays a dangerous game, but it is a game you seem to know how to win. If I ask the Guild to lock off all magic from your world a balance will be lost, somehow, someway the mages in this world have learned how to cripple dangerous people. It works, I will still have to report to the Guild after I am done with Lollypop but I no longer envision huge ships flying between worlds turning magical civilizations into dust with one shot.”

Sara laughed softly, “You should write science fiction” she near whispered. “Sure, there are some who would dream of that but more who would be horrified. Are we done now?”

“Sadly no” Marcus admitted. He picked up the borrowed book, opening it to the periodic table printed on the in-covers and held it out to her. “Explain each of these please.”