We found one of the cots occupied. The lump under the blanket appeared too familiar. "Cynthia?"

She turned looking like the end of a three day bender. Her eyes, clouded at first, cleared when she saw me. "Macy?"

"Who else would it be?" I chuckled.

"I thought you were dead. When you didn't come back, I feared the worst."

"Sorry, it took me so long. Had a bit of a confrontation with Mordok."

"The magician? I'm surprised you made it out alive."

"No one is more surprised than me." I sat on her cot. "Are you okay?"

"Fine. Existing on bread and water. Literally. She thought it funny."

"She's cracked is what she is. Do you know she took the dirt off my arms to be analysed?"

"OMG, Macy. You are filthy."

"Yeah. I know. Any chance Celia will let me take a shower?" We chuckled at that.

Cynthia peered around me. "Hello."

I glance at Mom who sat on the other cot patiently listening to us babble on. "I'm sorry. Cynthia, this is my Mom, Lyra. Mom, this Cynthia."

"Hello," Mom said curtly. "I need to talk to you Macy."

"Be right back," I said to Cynthia. "That was rude."

"You should not have told her who I am," Mom scolded.

"I didn't say your name."

"She will figure it out."

"Celia isn't that smart. How would you know anyway? You just met her."

"I know her."

"You do?"

"Yes. She is very familiar to me. As she ought to be to you."

"Will you stop talking in circles and speak plainly?"

"Did you not see it? You spent some time with Mordok. Tell me you did not see the similarities."

"Not getting any plainer."

"Celia is Mordok's daughter."

"Why didn't you just say that in the first place?"

"We Alluvians are not plain speakers. We allude, we circle as you say, we dance around the topic."

"Fine. Now what? Does it mean Celia has had powers all along?"

"How else was she to build the portal?"

"Do you think Celia has magical abilities?" I repeated with a glare of my own.

"She is the daughter of a magician, she most certainly does."

"You are that certain she is Mordok's daughter, Mom?"

"Yes. The uplift of her chin, shape of her nose and her haughty attitude about she is so much better than everyone else. They all speak to Mordok's genes. I'm surprised you didn't see it."

"That's just Celia. She's always had delusions of grandeur. Oh. I see it now."

"About time."

Cynthia eyed us both curiously. "Do you two always talk like this?"

"Ever since I found her in the cave," I quipped. Mom elicited a glare that could have melted wax.

Cynthia grinned. "You two are a riot."

"Tell me about it. Celia treating you okay? Aside from the bread and water thing."

"She asked me all kinds of questions about you and Alluvia to which she told me I wasn't much use to her. I played dumb thinking it was the better way to go."

"You did fine. I'm glad you're okay." We hugged. I looked over at Mom. "I still can't believe she's Mordok's daughter. How did I not see it?"

"It makes sense. Mordok can't use his magic here but she can. He's using her to gain a foothold into this world."

"So, he must have come through the portal the same time you did. Spent some conjugal visits with Celia's mother then left."

"That is essentially it."

"I have a question," Cynthia interjected.

"Go ahead," Mom answered.

"What purpose would it serve your world to have magical children here?"

"You mean why Mordok deliberately infected, I mean, impregnated a human woman?" I asked, face heating at my slip of the tongue. Mom arched her eyebrow at me.

Cynthia snickered at me, enjoying my faux pas. "Something like that."

"You haven't met Mordok," I said. "Or you would get it. Think Celia but ten times uglier and a hundred times more grandiose."

"I see what you mean. I guess my question is to your Mom. Why did you come here? To earth. Were you running away or being rebellious or am I being too nosy?"

"Yes, you are delving into personal matters but I will answer your question in part. I suppose curiosity was the motive. I had heard the stories of the other realm. Many Alluvians believed it to be a myth, couched in fairy tales as told to children at bed time. But I believed it to be real. My quest in finding your world did not escape Mordok's notice. When I did find a way to cross over, he exploited it by doing the same. I chose to remain here after I met and fell in love with Macy's father. We sired a child and I gave birth. I was quite content to live out the rest of my days here. Mordok's threats to kill Macy was all the incentive I needed to go back to Alluvia."

"So you left her here?"

"I believed her to be safer here. Mordok wanted her dead because he believed Macy to be a threat to him. He wants our world joined back together so he can make the humans his slaves."

"When were you planning on telling me of Mordok's plan to conquer our world?"

"When it became relevant. As it did now."

"No, the time to tell me would have been back in the cave."

"We were fighting for our lives," Mom pointed out. "I did not have the necessary time to inform you."

"I remember. By the way, you owe me a thank you for saving your life."

"I will do nothing of the sort. You have not yet saved my life." Mom gestured to this cell. She had a point. We were stuck in an almost impossible situation once again.

"Just asking for a show of human manners. After all, you lived here."

"When you begin to display manners as well then I will reciprocate."

Cynthia laughed. "You guys should take it on the road. You're hilarious."

I changed the subject. "Those guns the guards had didn't look familiar."

"They are particle beam guns," Mom answered startling us both into stunned silence. After a minute, I found my voice. "How do you know?"

"Because I invented them."

"W-what?" I stammered.

"Yes. I was an engineer. The military wanted me to come up with specs for a possible gun that could emit particle beams instead of bullets."

My jaw couldn't have dropped any lower. Mom was full of surprises. I scrambled to come up with a witty comeback. "Now you know they work."

"They should not be in use at all. After one hundred rounds, they explode."

"Oh boy. Actually, we could use that," I mused. "Not sure how just yet."

"I would not recommend it." And that was that, idea dismissed.

"Our next course of action would be to retreat and regroup."

"Impossible to do locked up," I pointed out.

"Then we must plan our escape."

"We may not get that chance." Truer words were never spoken. I no sooner uttered them when the guards burst into our cell. They aimed their guns at me, fingers on the trigger. "You. Come with us."

"Be careful, Macy."

"I will Cynthia."

I was shackled, hands jutted out, arms straight. I couldn't help but think of Princess Leia when the storm troopers took her to Darth Vader. Not the same I know, but then I didn't know what Celia was capable of doing. She could be light years ahead of me in terms of her magical abilities.

My throat tightened as we went for a ride up to her office. Just a few short days ago, I had attempted to gain access and now I was being taken there by force. I wondered for a brief moment, which one of these helmeted guards was the one I talked to. 

Celia bid us entry. Her office was blindingly over the top owing to her eccentric tastes. She had black marble flooring, columns in black marble trimmed with gold. Her desk was of the brobdingnagian style which is British for the huge monstrosity that took up the whole space before the windows.

Celia sat in an gargantuan chair too big for her small frame. If Mordok was a self promoting narcissist then she was ten times that. Her hair was styled into a french knot. Her clothes were impeccable, hand tailored and fit her frame wonderfully well. Money suited her as well as the accolades the world must heap upon her head. She wrote on a yellow note pad, a style I adopted in college to help me think when I was stuck on an equation. This woman has never had an original thought in her head. I bet her whole get up was from some fashion magazine.

Celia ignored us, making us wait while the enormous clock on the wall ticked away the seconds loudly enough to set my head to ringing. She did it deliberately, letting me know she was running the show. Finally, she set aside the pen, capped it and placed it and the notepad in a drawer leaving her desktop meticulously neat. She stood and walked over to the mini bar and poured herself a scotch. "Leave," she said after draining the glass and pouring another.

"Okay," I said, my nerves getting the better of me.

"Not you." The guards about faced and marched out of there. Seriously, did she hire them from the Empire?

Celia's five inch tall heels clacked on the marble floor as she went back to her desk. She sat down and folded her hands. "You've caused me a lot of trouble," she said.

"I aim to please," I quipped. With her hands still folded, she gestured with them toward a lone chair. I sat down sitting slightly off the to side and was it my imagination, or was I lower than eye level? 

"Now," she began. "You and I both know why you went through that portal."

"Do we?"

"Yes. We do. Your Mother comes from the other side. So does my father."

Right out of the gate, Celia was not messing around. "And what other side is that? The seedy side of San Francisco?"

"Do not mock me, I will make your stay very unpleasant." Her fingers sparked, fueled by her anger. She took a deep, calming breath. "You know I am speaking of Alluvia, do not try to deny it."

It was at that moment that I realized Celia has never used contractions. Never in all the years I've known her. "You're one hundred percent Alluvian aren't you?"

"No. My mother was human. I was reared by Mordok when she died."

"By Mordok's own hand I'll bet."

"He could not tolerate her rudeness and neither will I tolerate yours. Speak ill of my father again and I will kill your mother." 

Her threat had an effective deterrent. I went silent, not willing to see my mom perish at the hands of this madwoman. "Why did you build the portal?"

"I built it to unite our realms once again. As it was in the beginning."

"How very noble of you."

"Thank you."

"I was being sarcastic."

"My thanks were sincere. At least I have better manners."

I clamped my lips shut once more. I do have the tendency to ramble on when nervous. It would bode well for my mom if I said the wrong thing now. "I'm sorry."

She accepted my curt apology with a nod. "Unlike you I was brought up to revere Alluvia by the man who only sought to protect it from this realm. Humans are savage creatures at heart. They work hard and play even harder. Their carelessness will be Alluvia's undoing unless I can find a way to unite both realms."

I adopted a respectful tone. "And how is this to be accomplished? Last I heard, humans weren't too receptive with the idea of other realms."

"The glut of movies, books and comics humans figuratively devour, suggest otherwise. If prodded in the right way, they will be more than accommodating."

"Your father seems to feel differently."

Her hands became fists with which she slammed on her desk cracking the expensive wood. "You know nothing about my father!" She ran her fingers along the crack pensively, mood changing like lightning. "Oh, dear, I shall have to buy another desk. No matter. I am a billionaire after all." She clapped her hands. "Guards, take her to room 12-C. I will be there shortly. And see to it that I get another desk."