I Married A Dragon (Prime Mating Agency)(31)

“Wow!” Kaida exclaimed in a hushed voice when she took in the main hub of the black gate.

The vast—somewhat circular—space had multiple large portals lining its shadowy walls. And in-between them, long corridors led to even more doorways.

“This is the main hub of the black gate,” I explained. “Each of these portals leads to a specific destination. Unlike the rift you got trapped in yesterday, these portals and pathways never change. We Shadow Lords make sure of it.”

“They do look stable compared to where I was, but how do you know where they lead?” she asked, sounding concerned. “All I see are black vortices lining the wall. At least, in that rift, I could see what was on the other side.”

I nodded. “You could see the other side because the destination was a very short distance away. These portals take you very far. Only a Shadow Lord is powerful enough to see to the other side. But there are markings all around the portals that we’ve woven in. Your human eyes simply cannot see them. Put on the visor Kayog gifted you.”

Kaida complied, sticking the two small magnetic disks on each side of her temples. She then simultaneously pressed their centers to activate them. A bluish, translucent beam shot out of each disk, curving in front of her eyes and connecting in the middle, forming a sort of holographic goggles. Kaida gasped, her face brightening with awe.

“This is so badass! I can see it now. It looks like glowing runes made of shadow flames,” she said in an excited voice. “But I can’t read what they say.”

“Right. The visor only enhances your vision so that you can perceive things we can. There was no time to upgrade it enough to integrate a translator that could fit it and not interfere with its other functions. But the compass will fix that,” I explained. “Rub your thumb over the central interface to activate it, then point the compass at the gate.”

Kaida did as I instructed.

“Oh, my God! That’s awesome! The runes changed into normal letters. It says ‘Plains of Kolvar’ on this one!”

I grinned, pleased to see it work flawlessly. “That’s correct. Any other portal you point at will display its name on your visor. But you want to look at the gate you are targeting with the compass or you may get overlapping text.”

“Okay, that makes sense,” Kaida said, pivoting to look at each of the portals while pointing the compass at them. “Why does the text turn yellow on some of them?”

“Good observation, my Ejaya,” I said proudly. “This means that the portal’s destination either isn’t on solid ground or has very little landing surface. Therefore, you want to fly through that portal or be ready to do so as soon as you exit on the other side.”

“Oh shit. Well, good to know. They should have made it red.”

I shook my head. “No, red is for dangerous or restricted destinations. Derakeens only enter such portals if they’re ready for battle or with a hunting party. You should never enter one of them. There is no reason for you to do that. You do not want to face off against aqrats alone.”

“Fair enough,” she said in a chastised tone.

I smiled, relieved she didn’t argue. “The main hub has the principal destinations in the Oddran region, as well as direct gateways to the other major cities and regions of Dramnac. But for more specific locations within those regions, just follow the pathway next to that portal, and you will find much smaller portals along that corridor.”

“Oh, that’s super cool!” she said excitedly. “But it also sounds like I could traipse around for a while looking for a specific one.”

I chuckled. “You could traipse around for days without having seen them all. You might even end up exploring the same one repeatedly because some names can be quite similar.”

I laughed at her horrified expression.

She glared at me before giving the compass an assessing look. “Surely this little guy can help?”

I nodded. “Yes, my Ejaya, it can. If you know the name of the destination you want to go to, you can either speak it to the interface, type it, or select it on the holographic map. I would avoid the map for now since you do not know the regions well enough. It can get very confusing. Go ahead and try it. Take us to Mehuro’s portal. The command is ‘set destination’ followed by the name of the place where you want to go.”

Eyes sparkling, Kaida smiled at me and raised the compass to her lips. “Set destination: Mehuro,” she said in a firm voice.

The compass flashed, and the luminous needle pointed to our right. Buzzing with excitement, Kaida immediately started walking in that direction, leading us into one of the large pathways between two portals. We walked about fifty meters before reaching the smaller portal.

“Right here!” she said proudly, pointing at the gate. “And it’s a safe destination. The text is blue.”

“Well done, my Kaida,” I said approvingly. “Now, how would you go back home?”

Her face fell. She chewed her bottom lip while pondering, then resolutely backtracked to the main hub. She looked at the various portals around us before casting a glance upward at the swirling black mist above our heads.

“Don’t we need to fly out through that ‘shadow ceiling’ up there, just like we flew in when we arrived?” she asked.

I nodded. “That is indeed what most of us do. But should you find yourself stranded without a jetpack, or for those of us who cannot fly—be it because of a wound or any other impairment—there is an alternative way. Every city has a permanent gateway you can walk out of and that will take you to its marketplace. You only have to ask your compass for Oddran Market here. But in any other city main hub, you could simply say ‘market’ to yield the same result for that city if you do not know its name.”