As all this happened Bel frowned, blinked, and snapped out, "Nia, recalibrate tetcron composition for Terra Realm, set age to 16, 25% natural power as max, restrict to 5%."

A massive binding spell materialized in front of Bel and shrunk down, entering his chest when it reached the size of a fist.

[Seal initiated and completed.] Nia's melodic but neutral voice echoed out from the silver earring.

"Roll back 3.30087 seconds to mark."

Instantly the shaking stopped, as did the falling rocks, the diving Charlie, and everything else in the tunnel. From the ruined temple in the jungle a ring of energy spread out across the planet in a millisecond, expanding until everything had frozen. For a moment the world hung, completely still.

And then it blinked.

Brock found himself scrutinizing the young man who had just stepped forward with his hand outstretched. Broad shoulders tapered to a narrow waist, shown off by the blue tailored suit he wore and his tan skin contrasted sharply with perfect white teeth and his grey eyes. Just under six feet tall and almost too handsome for words with a single silver earring, the young man looked truly otherworldly. With an odd sense of deja vu Brock grasped his hand.

"Hello, my name is Bel."

"Brock." With a furrowed brow Brock tossed a glance at Morgana who was reassuring the other's that she was perfectly fine. When she had disappeared after touching the door a minute ago they had been worried that she had been pulled into a trap of some sort. No matter what they did they couldn't figure out what had happened and were just about to contact her father when she was back with a handsome boy in tow.

"Heeeey," Maz wiggled his eyebrows while poking the beautiful young lady in the ribs. "Look at your mad skills. Disappear in mid air and come back out with a hottie. Good job."

"Knock it off Max, you're making our lady blush." Zeb pushed him aside and looked over her carefully. "You okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine." Morgana's cheeks flushed slightly at Max's comments and Zeb's care. Turning to Brock her eyes sparkled with excitement. "Brock, this is Bel. I found him in there. Behind the door is an extra-dimensional space. Bel is coming with us to meet dad."

"Sounds good to me, boss. You need us to do anything else here?"

Morgana looked at Bel, deferring the question to him who just shrugged and smiled. Seeing that they were ready to go the team packed up all their stuff and headed back out of the temple. When they got to the car Duke Berith tapped Morgana on the shoulder and drew her a little bit away from the group.

White faced he stared at Bel who was casually chatting with Zeb about his equipment and then, wiping his face with a handkerchief he turned to look Morgana deep in the eyes. Morgana couldn't help but notice that his hands were shaking slightly.

"Mistress, please be careful around tha....him." It did not escape Morgana's notice that ever since finding out who Bel was Duke Berith had been exceedingly polite, not only to Bel but to her as well.

"Do you think he is dangerous? He seems perfectly fine to me." Now Bel was cracking jokes with Max.

"Dangerous does not even begin to describe him, mistress. It would comfort me greatly if you would permit me to leave now that you are about to travel?" A hopeful light appeared in the Duke of Hell's eyes and it was obvious by the puppy-like look his face took on that he was quite desperate to leave.

"Yeah, that is fine." Morgana waved her hand distractedly and Berith vanished in a puff of smoke. Pondering his strange behavior she walked back to the humvee to travel back with the team.

Two days later a sleek black car pulled up to the curb of a high rise in New York city and Charlie, decked out in a slick black suit stepped out of the front passenger seat to hold the door open for Morgana and Bel. Morgana had changed but Bel was still wearing the same suit, just minus the jacket. Morgana pointed toward the building in front of her Bel nodded. Before following him in, Morgana asked Charlie to come and pick them up for dinner in an hour.

Walking toward the high rise she could see Bel looking up at the building with his hands in his pockets and couldn't help but blush as his broad back brought the tantalizing memory of his muscular body to mind. With a firm shake of her head she dismissed the thoughts and stepped up next to him.

"Do you like it?"

"Hmm, oh the building? It certainly is interesting. Either the architect is terribly lucky or they know Feng Shui." He favored her with another of his broad smiles and she felt her heart skip a beat.

"Oh, they know Feng Shui alright." She mumbled quickly to avoid the sudden confusion his smile brought. Motioning with her head for him to follow she walked into the building, throwing back over her shoulder, "You'll get to meet the architect tonight at dinner. But first let me show you where you will be staying."

Still looking with interest at everything around him, Bel followed her in. An elevator took them to the seventy-fifth floor and opened into a wide hall that split the building almost in half. There were only two doors off of the hall and Morgana led him to the one on the right. Entering into a massive apartment suite decked out in the latest modern fashions, Bel was pleasantly surprised by the cleanliness of the air and energy circulation. Feng Shui indeed.

Morgana showed him through the suite pointing out all the amenities that the luxurious apartment held before opening a door into a private room.

"This is your room. You have a bathroom, walk-in closet and a balcony that is connected to the balcony for the rest of the suite." Pointing to another door in the suite her voice took on a strange tone, "That is my room, don't go in it if you value your life."

Bel laughed. "Scary."

Growling at him, her face pink, Morgana checked her watch and changed the subject quickly.

"Now, we have dinner with my dad and some friends in forty-five minutes. Why don't you get changed and meet me in the living room in half an hour."

"Uh..." Bel looked down at his blue pants and vest. "I didn't bring anything but what I am wearing."

Slightly puzzled Morgana looked at him. "Can't you just snap your fingers and make clothes?"

"Ha, no. What do you take me for? Some sort of all powerful mage?"

"Yes." Stated Morgana bluntly.

"Oh." Bel scratched his nose and looked away sheepishly.

[Master, may I have permission to speak?] Nia's voice interrupted the slightly awkward atmosphere.

"Oh, yeah, sure Nia. Go ahead."

[Thank you master. Miss Bartimaeus...]

"Call me Morgan please."

[As you wish Miss Morgan. Master is currently unable to manifest material objects in the way you witnessed previously in the tower due to a self-imposed power restriction.]

Morgana gave the still sheepish Bel a strange look.

"Eh? Why would anyone restrict their power like that?" Silence reigned for a moment as Bel shrugged his shoulders.

[Extra-dimensional Mass Transference into a sub-realm.]

"Extra what?"

[Extra-dimensional Mass Transference into a sub-realm.]

"Yes," Morgana shot the silver earring a dirty look, "I heard what you said. What is extra-dimensional mass transference. And for that matter, what is a sub-realm?"

[A sub-realm is a classification for any realm that has a tetroisic value of less than 4.87 tetcrons per square inch.]

"Uh...okay?" Morgana didn't understand a thing Nia was talking about, and looking over at Bel it was obvious that he had no clue either.

[In layman's terms, a sub-realm is one in which reality cannot support a high level of energy congregation without breaking. Extra-dimensional Mass Transference is the principle that governs what happens when an object from a more stable realm crosses over into a sub-realm.]

"Oh," Morgana blinked as her brain caught up. "Objects from a higher realm probably have a higher density of tet...whatevers than the same object in a lower realm and so, when they cross over, those tet things cause problems with reality."

[Correct. You may think of tetcrons as having a significant weight, causing reality to bend around them. You could, in a sense, use the modern understanding of gravity, where space is a rubber sheet and all bodies with gravitational pull are on that sheet. While this explanation is not accurate for gravity, it will suffice for our purposes. If something that had enough weight were to abruptly come into existence it would simply tear through the sheet.]

"What is the tetcron value of a higher realm?" This was starting to get really interesting as Morgana knew little to nothing about any other reality or dimension.

[Terra Realm is near the bottom but the range goes from 0 tetcrons per square inch to over 1000.]

"And Bel, you know none of this?"

"Kinda? I mean, I could know it if I wanted to." Bel flashed Morgana another smile. "But what is the fun in that?"

[Master, you will only confuse Miss Morgan more. Remember to trust your companions please.]

"Haaa, okay." Bel let out an exasperated sigh. "You are currently looking at a version of me that is sixteen years old. Remember what I told you about controlling age? I can do the same thing with any part of myself. I've restricted my knowledge and power so as to be able to fit into society in this particular time and place. Otherwise I could cause damage and then I would have to spend a long time fixing it which is a total drag.

"Because," Bel huffed, "I don't want to screw this world up, I have restricted myself to things known in this world up until last year. This means that I cannot give you lessons in extra-dimensional theories because they don't exist in this time or place except in Nia who, being a unique existence is not subject to the rules."

"Wait a second. You mean to tell me that you could simply choose to know what will happen in the future?" Morgana's eyes narrowed as she looked at Bel suspiciously.

"Could, yes. But will not. First, me coming here could change what I know since it isn't like I've experienced dinner yet. Second, there are some tricky paradoxes that can occur when you try to re-experience an experience that I simply don't want to have to deal with. Now, we've already wasted ten minutes. We will have plenty of time for these conversations in the future, what do you want to do about my suit for now?"

Shaking her head Morgana pulled out her phone and dialed a number. A brief conversation later she told Bel to wait and rushed to her room to get changed.

By the time Morgana had finished her shower and struggled into her form-fitting dress, Charlie had arrived with a suit. Tossing it to Bel he smirked and said, "I took this off of Max. You two shouldn't be too different in size."

Coming out of her room still drying her hair Morgana was slightly shocked to see Bel in a pale pink suit with a black lapel. He was standing casually by the room's bar, sharing a drink with Charlie who seemed to be trying to stifle a laugh. The two men looked over and couldn't help but draw a breath.

Morgana stood, absolutely stunning, in a little black dress trimmed with light pink of the same color as Bel's suit. Hugging tight to her form, the dress complimented her emerging curves perfectly. Whistling his appreciation, Charlie nodded in approval.

"Good looking little boss."

Frowning at him, she grabbed his drink and finished the last mouthful he had been nursing in the bottom of the glass.

"Hey," he made a halfhearted swipe for the glass which she easily dodged, "you can't be drinking that."

"And he can?" Morgana waved the now empty glass at Bel while she grimaced. "Ugh, that is gross."

"Oi, that is $60 worth of scotch you just drank. It is not gross!" Charlie said, feigned horror covering his face.

Enjoying their little spat, Bel just leaned up against the bar and finished his drink. "Phew, that was excellent! 18 year Macallan you said? The sherry casking does make a difference."

"Yeah!" Charlie loved his scotch and couldn't help but be excited to find a like minded spirit in Bel. "Next time I'll bring a bottle of Ardbog I've been meaning to open and we can compare. It's quite a different taste, almost like a day spent sailing, but I bet you'll like it!"

"Come on, we've got to go. Ugh, I can still taste it." Making gagging sounds, Morgana chugged down some water and then grabbed a small clutch, walking to the door, Bel and Charlie trailing behind.

A ten minute car ride saw them downtown on a grimy, neon-infested street littered with trash. Large groups of people stood on the sidewalk waiting to get into a large building whose garish blinking sign showed a badly done hieroglyph of an eye. Just like before, Max pulled the car up to the curb by the door and Charlie got out to open the door for Morgana who led Bel past the crowd and into the club without so much as a glance at the bouncers.

The pulsing music was so loud that Morgana had to yell over it for Bel to keep close as she wove a path through the crowded bar to the back of the first floor. Steps led up to the second and third floor balconies which were just as packed as the dance floor and everywhere you looked skimpy dresses and nice suits mixed.

Their winding way eventually brought the two of them to an elevator where Morgana showed a card to one of the imposing looking human doorstops and they went down. The elevator, which had no buttons and seemed to be controlled remotely, stopped eventually and the doors opened up into a scene that was the antithesis of the noisy club upstairs.

Quiet music played gently in the background and luxurious carpets and marble gave the feeling of a private mansion. Greeted by a bowing man in a tuxedo, Morgana and Bel were led back to a table tucked in a corner where a number of others were already seated. As they approached, a thin, older man stood with a huge smile and hugged Morgana.

"Daddy! How are you feeling?" Morgana held her father at an arm's length and scrutinized him.

"I'm feeling much better, it was just a little cold. I can't wait to hear about your trip! Why don't you introduce me to your friend?"

"Oh, of course. Everyone, this is Bel. He is an acquaintance I met on my trip and I invited him to come back and stay with us for a bit." With a broad smile she latched onto Bel's arm and pulled him forward, looking up at his handsome face with a bit of a dreamy look, a look that no one at the table missed. Shooting her a slightly annoyed glance Bel turned his smile on those around the table and observed them carefully.