Chapter 5

The sensation on Jinji’s body was nothing like he’d felt before, as a mysterious force tugs him forward. The Gengar was intimately familiar with both teleportation and crossing between realms, having done both many times over countless years, but never had he done both at the same time. As for stepping through portals, the concept was one Jinji had studied many times — but in all his studies, they’d always been limited to connecting different parts of the same realm. A scaled up version of teleportation, if you will. The idea of a portal crossing between realms was, so far as he could tell, not something anyone had ever even considered possible…

Before Jinji could think any further about the academic implications of this strange sequence of events, the destination came into view. Jinji steels himself, ready to face whatever emerges.

With a bright flash, Jinji finds himself floating above the floor in a large room adorned with magical artefacts and shelves filled with all sorts of strange books and scrolls, with a cauldron bubbling away in its centre. But barely has his gaze scanned the room before he locks eyes with the Delphox standing a few feet in front of him, her flaming brush raised, while a nervous Braixen cowers behind her.

“What is your business here, Gengar?”, Madame Delphi asks in a serious tone. The sound of her voice and the defiant pose makes it abundantly clear to Jinji that the Delphox perceives him as a threat. He considers his response carefully, trying to decide whether to respond in kind or to take a more diplomatic tone, knowing his response is likely to influence the next action the Delphox takes. After a brief moment, he decides to answer with a single word.

“Answers,” Jinji responds in a straightforward tone.

The response surprises Madame Delphi, and she lowers her guard in confusion. “Answers?”, she repeats back.

“I come from the realm of Spirits — a reality where all the souls who have passed away here, or who have never experienced life to begin with, live together for all eternity. Earlier today, my brethren were simply playing games with one another, when suddenly I was approached in a panic. Their play was disrupted by a strange warping of reality in my garden; and I came down to observe this strange rip in reality, which led me here. My question is simple — what happened, and why?”

Madame Delphi listens to Jinji’s explanation carefully, and her face changes to one of concern. It’s now clear to her what’s happened.

“Gengar…”
“Jinji. And you are…?”
“Madame Delphi, a teacher in arcane magics. And this is Brianna, my student.”

Madame Delphi turns to Brianna, and speaks with a voice that is commanding but calm.

“Brianna, I think you need to explain to Jinji here what you did.”

Still shaking in fear, Brianna slowly rises to her feet, and turns to face the scary Gengar. Her voice wobbles as much as her legs, but she knows Madame Delphi is not to be ignored. With a nervous gulp, she starts to explain the situation to Jinji.

“We had just… started today’s lesson. I tried out this… new spell… and suddenly… the cauldron went haywire. Then there was this loud crash. The next thing we knew, there was this… tear in space. And we found ourselves… looking at…”

Brianna’s sentence trails off as she struggles to think of how to best explain the sight of the portal, but her words have already told Jinji enough.

“So this… thing… is the result of a spell?”

Brianna simply nods.

“…Could you show me the spell, please?”, Jinji inquires curiously.