Rather than saying anything, Gulamendis scooted over a few feet to the base of the device and opened the base, revealing the crystal. He removed it, then opened the small bag on his belt and took out a crystal he had taken off the dead galasmancer on Hub. He inserted it into the receptacle and closed the latch. Looking at Laromendis, he said, “Now try.”

Laromendis came to his feet, put his fingertips on the depression, and instantly was overwhelmed by images. He closed his eyes and said softly, “I see things.”

Gulamendis said, “That shock you received was designed to let anyone operating the device know that the crystal lacked sufficient energy to make the device work.”

Laromendis took his fingertips away and laughed. “Of course. There are no symbols, no markings, nothing else.” He took a deep breath, closed his eyes, and saw tumbling landscapes. “It’s as if I’m flying over…worlds….” he said softly. “Desert, mountains, oceans…”

“Try to steer it. Like a ship at sea.”

“I’ll try.” Laromendis first started by imagining he was halting and suddenly the image around him was motionless, as if he hung a few feet above the ground. It was a meadow, with trees that almost looked familiar but were just different enough to inform him this was not a world he knew. He willed his mind to take them to the vale near the burned out Villa Beate on Sorcerer’s Isle, where he had been reunited with his brother.

There was resistance, as if the device did not wish to go somewhere not already known to it, or so far away, but suddenly there was a wrenching and he was apparently speeding among the stars. He felt an almost overwhelming sense of vertigo and his stomach knotted, but he kept his grip on the device and his eyes closed. Then he saw a world and it looked at first as if that world was hurtling at him, then abruptly it seemed as if he was falling toward it, seeing a vast ocean, with masses of land, and a sea with islands in the middle! Then he was heading straight for a small island, northwest of the coast, and he willed himself to slow down.

Fearing to open his eyes, he softly said, “I think I’ve found it.”

His brother spoke in hushed tones. “Open the portal, Laro.”

He willed the portal to open, imagining a way between the worlds, and felt a shock up his arm, not as he had before, but rather a physical vibration as the air made a loud whooshing sound and then a sizzle of energy. He opened his eyes.

“You did it,” Gulamendis said softly.

Laromendis said, “This is amazing. This is a better portal by…many times, than our own. Or the humans’, from what I’ve seen.”

“The builders were humans,” reminded his brother.

“The humans on Home.”