Chapter 4: Portals Here and Portals There

“The talents of the Baran-Dak-Toi are amazing, but as her abilities grow, so do those of her enemies and it is unclear what effect this will have on the world.”

Excerpt from the diary of Panpar

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“Jill be nimble, Jill be quick! Jill jump over EVERY HOOP I SET BEFORE HER,” Isolem shouted with delight. He leaned back in his rocking chair, slapping his knee and cackling with delight before he got up from his chair and began to pace.

The flames in his fireplace danced in their flicker. The shape of the flames resembled Whitney and depicted her battle against the terrorist. Isolem snapped his fingers and watched Tommy as he sent his terrorist through the roof of the mall. It was always best to study your enemy and know what they were going to do before they knew it themselves.

“Portal here and portal there, make your portals everywhere!” he mocked into the fireplace. He stuck both of his hands behind his back and continued to pace in front of his fireplace. So far, he couldn’t ask for a better result. He felt closer to his goal with every portal they made. He could sense the barrier preventing him from leaving Nethermore completely, weakening every time they took the easy route, and going from one place to another by creating a magical doorway, instead of getting there the hard way.

“And how appalled would you be my two young little friends, if you knew your plan failed so miserably? Hmmm? How disgusted would you be, knowing you may have imprisoned my body on Bolimar, but my mind is no longer completely contained within my skull? I can’t wait to see your reaction, Prim. I can’t wait to face you again.” Isolem snapped his fingers again, changing the flames within his fireplace so Decker’s face formed in the flames.

“You have proven to be a useful idiot, my friend,” Isolem informed the flames. “But I fear that your stupidity will become more of a liability than you are worth.” Isolem reached up toward the flame, positioned his fingers as if he were going to squeeze Diggers head, and did it. The flames obeyed his command and changed, panning out so that he could see more around the Digger flames. Digger was sitting on his couch with a remote control in one hand and a beer in the other. “Do you see what I mean?” He asked nobody. “Poisoning your mind so early in the day, are we? It’s not even noon yet and already you have a beer in your paws!”

The Digger flames pointed the remote and pressed a button. Isolem snapped his fingers, changing the flame again so he could see what his useful idiot was watching. He was delighted to see the news was beginning to cover the event he triggered. He snapped his fingers again so he could watch Digger’s reaction.