Castle has portal to Docks

I glanced over to her, then down at the pendant. It looked vaguely like a piece of opaque, blue crystal, almost like lapis lazuli, laser carved with a precision that was impossible for normal tools. The cutaway sections reminded of the jagged cliffs of a mountain or the tiers of a pyramid.

Or a key.

“It’s our way in,” I told her.

“Wait, really?”

I didn’t answer her directly. Instead, I reached into myself and focused on the pendant in my hands. I grabbed at the well of warmth and power that rested inside of me, pushing it down through my arms and my fingers and into the key.

“Let there be a pathway through the ocean.”

Light shone. On the churning sea in front of me, a steady pattern of glowing lines and arcane symbols drew themselves. Despite the undulating waves lapping at the pillars of the pier, the designs that sat atop them were clear and steady. Circles, circles within circles, triangles and stars. An ancient, flowing script that Nimue referred to as “Fairy Letters.”

After a moment, the lines and symbols bled together, and what was left behind was a circular disk of light.

I turned to Lisa and gestured towards the disc. “After you.”

She blinked. “Huh?”

“That pendant also has a permission function,” I told her. “As long as you know where the doorway is, you just need to tell it to open and pass through it.”

I’d added it after some thought, last night. If I was going to be showing Lisa this place anyway, then I might as well give her an impregnable fortress to retreat to if things ever got that bad or Coil decided to come after her. In spite of everything, I still wanted her as my friend, and I wasn’t about to skimp on ways to protect her.

“Huh. You know, your powers really are bullshit.”

I fought down the slightest of grins.

“Well.” She stepped up to the front of the pier and looked down warily. She grimaced. “Nothing for it, I guess.”

Lisa took a deep breath and visibly mustered her courage, then leapt off of the pier, curled her legs into her chest, and shouted, “Cannonball!”

I rolled my eyes, and there was no splash following her jump. I just took the last couple of steps and walked off the edge of the pier and into the portal.

I came out with a jarring landing on my feet. I hadn’t found a way to make it any more comfortable, but I’d learned to deal with the disorientation of coming to so sudden a stop, and Lisa obviously hadn’t. She was standing a few feet away from my own spot, rubbing gingerly at her tailbone and cursing under her breath.

“Could’ve warned a girl, you know,” she griped.