Seeking the key of the Lock family history

Amy stared at Maudre for a while, wondering why she didn't continue talking. She wasn't sure if she had to ask about it or continue waiting. When the silence had continued long enough she decided to break it herself.
"What did you find out?" she asked.

"Well," Maudre started, a smile curling around her lips, "do you remember I said our family is rather old?"

"Of course," was Amy's answer, it had had made a far too big impression on her to forget, "that our family is one of the oldest magical families there are. Why?"

Maudre smiled, both mysterious and excited. "I'm glad you remembered," she said. Then she went on asking: "do you also recall me telling you that it's not certain how old our family actually is, due to a great war that hazed about 6 millenia ago, in which mostly anything was destroyed?"

Without waiting for Amy's reply she went on; "it's not entirely certain but... it would seem that one of both our ancestors was indeed a very important person in this war."

Amy was glad when Maudre didn't waited for an answer to check if she remembered the things they had discussed before she had left. It did very much got her attention when Maudre said that their ancester had been a very important person during the war 6 millenia ago.
"Can you please just tell me?" she asked, "I'm really curious."

Maudre looked a little apologetic now; "well actually," she started hessistant, "there's not much more to say. For now at least!"

She smiled again though when she started telling: "a party of wizards, mostly compiled of those specialized in earth magic, had appearantly found an ancient badge, a seal of sorts, underground very near to where my family's old house used to be." She rolled her eyes before continuing; "it seems they SOMEHOW forgot to inform me of this, though when I arrived it 'suddenly' occurred to them that this magical object might be connected to me in a way."

When she went on talking her mood cheered up again, as she told Amy; "as soon as I held it, there was a connection - a connection that no one else had been able to accomplish. Also, the markings on this seal seemed to resemble some old family heirlooms I recall seeing around the house when I was young."

She pauzed for a second before continuing; "several historians agreed that this seal was a custom-made one, only given to those who'd proven themselves exceptional - those few who had really made a difference." She smiled, clearly excited about this newfound development herself, curious to Amy's reaction.

Amy rolled her eyes at the same time Maudre did it, having a fairly good feeling how they could have 'accidently' not have thought of that. Her attention got heightened when Maudre said that she made a connection with the badge, something nobody had succeeded at. Her attention peaked though when she heard that the badge was only given to those who had really made a difference. Suddenly she felt really special to be a decended of someone who had made a real difference during one of the biggest magical wars yet.
"Can I see the badge?" she asked curious, "Or did you have to leave it behind?"

"Ow, I'm sorry dear," Maudre said, resting hir elbows on her desk as she leaned forward a little, "they wouldn't let me take it just yet."

Then, rolling her eyes, she explained: "they felt that - since the badge was found during their search, by their hands - they at least had the right to keep it for another fortnight. They were quite 'convinced' that they could find out some more about it in that time," she added cynically. "No doubt convienently having forgetten that they've already kept it to themselves for over two months now, and all they found so far was that it's a rare kind of badge, given to war-heroes of sorts."

She sighed tiredly, and a brief silence followed. Finally she smiled again though, or grinned rather, as she said: "Anyway, they said I didn't have the right to take it, one way or another, as I couldn't really prove it rightfully belonged to me." She let out a condescending chuckle and added: "I said I'll give them a week at most and they should consider themselves lucky with that."

She then smiled up at Amy and asked; "would you like to come with me if I go pick it up? I already made a portal nearby there, so wouldn't even take up a day."

Somehow Amy wasn't in the least surprised that Maudre hadn't been allowed to take the badge with her. She could pretty much see the discussion between Maudre and the archeologists.
When Maudre said that she was going to go back over a week, max, and asked if she wanted to come along she grinned as well. She was very curious to actually seeing Maudre claim the badge. Though when she mentioned a portal she tilted her head slightly. Trying to wrap her head around creating a portal.
"I would definately want to come along," she answered, "but how does a portal work? And how do you make one?"

"Alright then," Maudre said concludingly, smiling at Amy's decision to come along.

The question that followed, about the portal, didn't really come as a surprise. She remembered being quite fascinated by the idea of them herself when she first learned of them.
"It's a very advanced form of Vortex magic," she said,"a simple explanation of it would be that you get sent, instantly, from one place to another. So I could use that spell here, right now, and we could be there - in my hometown - in a split second."

Maudre paused for a second to think that over, to finally decide that was a awfully incomplete explanation. There was actually a lot more she needed to explain about this very complex spell, before taking Amy along. This was partially because it was - probably - just interesting to know, but mainly because traveling by portal could very scary if you didn't know what to expect.

Finally, Maudre started by explaining why she hadn't used a portal before; "in order to travel like this from one way to another," she said, "you need to have already been to the place you want to go to. In my case, for instance, I first had to travel there and do the first part of the spell there, so I can make the connecntion. Without having been there, trying to travel there would be like trying to send a letter without an adress or location you're sending it to*."

"How the spell works, and why it is so very advanced, I can't explain without telling you all about the spell, so you might want to decide right now if you want to know."
She paused for another moment, and was about to tell further, but first wanted to see if Amy could understand it so far, and even wanted to know more; "it's all a little abstract, I know, but don't worry," she said with a faint smile, "it gets worse."

* A better comparison would be a phone call (though you probably understand why Maudre doesn't use that analogy when explaining it to Amy). You can't make a phone call if either you, or the other person doesn't have a phone. You need both ends to have a phone to make the connection. Likewise, to be able to travel via portel from one place to the other, both places need to have an active portal spell.

Amy listened intently as Maudre explained the portal spell. It did gave her a bit of a headache as she tried to really wrap her head around it all. She let out a small chuckle when Maudre told her that she didn't have to worry that everything was going to get more abstract if she asked for a more detailed explanation.
"No I think I'm fine for now," she answered rubbing her forehead a little, "except what is it like to travel by portal?"

"Well," Maudre replied, stroking her chin for a moment to think about how best to explain it. Then she replied: "what happens - basically - is that you are taken apart particle for paricle, and are rebuilt somewhere else."

For a moment, she wondered if she should continue, but instead she decided to give Amy a chance to speak, if she wished.

Amy pulled a weirded out face when Maudre told her that she would be taken apart particle by particle. That just sounded terrifying.
"Will it hurt?" she asked, her voice betraying her worry and fear, "what if something goes wrong? Has something ever gone wrong? Is it really save? Should I do something before we go or don't do?"

Maudre couldn't help but smile a little at Amy's fearful reaction - it was a sympathetic and understanding smile though, mind you.

"I realise it sounds scary, but I trust you it's not all that bad. For starters, I should tell you it doesn't hurt a bit." She smiled kindly and assuring at that.

After that, her expression turned a little more serious. "And I should tell you very honestly, yes, it has gone wrong in the past. With terrible reprocusions at times... The point is that a lot of unexperienced people have tried this, charmed by how impressive it sounded, and not minding the fact that they didn't understand how it worked."

She got up, and said in a calm tone; "I'll be doing all the magic, so you don't need worry about that. All you need do is stay calm, and by all means not panic."

It was a relieve to Amy to hear that the transport wasn't going to hurt. And she very much appriciated the fact that Maudre was honest with her and admitted that it had gone wrong in the past. She was somewhat more at ease though when Maudre said that she was going to do all the magic. She trusted Maudre, knowing that her magic wouldn't fail. But then she said that she should not panic by all means and she got worried again.
"What happens if I do panic?" she asked, afraid of the answer, but still wanting to know it anyway.

"It's not panicing so much," Maudre replied, her expression still serious, "that does the harm. The only point is that you have to stand very, very still, for something in between 5 and 10 seconds. In the past, there have been some situation in which people started panicing, and started moving around like crazy - in some very stupid instances just because the person transporting them hadn't informed them properly, mind you."

After that she smiled more kindly though; "I fear I may have frightened you a little unnesecairy," she said, "mostly all accidents that happened with this form of magic have happened because people didn't know what they were doing, or they were ill-prepared. As long as you can stay calm while you see yourself disinsintegrade in front of your own eyes, then be rebuilt again... you'll be fine."

As Maudre explained that it only went wrong when people where being stupid Amy relaxed. She was confident she would be capable of standing still for ten seconds. Until the mentioning of disinsintegradtion that is. She swallowed and stared at her for a few moments.
"I'not sure I can not panic over that..." she honestly answered, "and more importantly keep still..."

Maudre nodded slowly in reply, thought about it for a moment, then smiled as an idea came up into her head.
"You know, you're smart to admit that," she said, "because that's actually what could cause someone to lose out; not knowing how it'll be or what to expect."

She walked around her desk, towards Amy, then leaned back at her desk as she asked; "would it help if I showed you what it looks like? I can just transport myself from here to the other side of the room or something?"

After that question she hessitated for a moment; "I should also add that I'm not trying to push you into doing this," she said carefully, "if you don't feel confident about this, I'm just glad that you tell me now and I'll leave it be. I just don't want you to pass up on it, if the only problem is that you don't know what to expect."

Amy thought about that proposal for a few moments. It did sounded like a good idea, it would not be the same as experiencing it yourself, but it would give her a better idea.
"I think that might help," she answered with a small nod, "and I would still like to come along so I'm all for getting to know more about what will happen..."

"Alright," Maudre said in a nod, smiling at Amy. She then walked over to a far corner of the room, took in a deep breath, at starting muttering some kind of spell under het breath. While doing so she extended her arms in front of her, holding them out as if she was holding a small, invisable ball between them.

After a couple of moments of this she raised her voice, and while she did so her arms spread, as if the 'invisable ball' she seemed to be holding was growing in size. By the end she had her arms wide-spread, and she was still speaking in a slightly raised tone. Then, suddenly, she stopped, and both her voice and her stance returned to normal. There had been no detectable magic, not visable, hearable or even sensible, and to anyone who didn't know Maudre's magic capabilities, it would've looked as if she'd just failed epically at whatever it was that she'd been doing.

Maudre seemed pleased though; she turned around to Amy and explained: "I only have one portal in this room, so I had to make another - otherwise I can't travel from the one to the other after all. She then closed her eyes, inhaled calmly, then said in a soft but clear voice: "prosus."

For the first couple of seconds, it seemed like nothing was happening. All that betrayed the spell had worked was a low, buzzing noise that came up, louder and louder as the seconds went by. A keen eye would notice that Maudre's extremities (her fingers and toes) had started to disappear; it was like she was disappearing molecule for molecule. By the time most of her fingers had disappeared the phase at which this happened started to speed up rapidly; the next second, most of her arms and legs had disappeared, and also a little bit of her nose.

While the disappearing sped up, the buzzing sound got louder too. Also, the atmosphere in the room seemed to be getting electric. You could see tiny sparks flying back and forth metal objects that were near each other, and Amy might also notice her hair becomming static.

Then, one blink of the eye beyond this, Maudre was less than a torso and half a head, and within the next micro-second she had completely disappeared.
Amy might in the mean time have noticed something happening on the other side of the room too, by the other portal; with every particle of Maudre disappearing in the one place, one appeared again across the room. So as soon as Maudre had disappeared in the one place, she'd completely reappeared in the other. At this exact moment, the buzzing stopped as well, rather abruptly.

"There," Maudre said cheerfully, as if it was nothing, "piece of cake."

Amy waited patiently while Maudre walked over to one side of the room and started casting a spell. When nothing really seemed to have happened she just remained patient. She knew Maudre well enough by now to know that something must have happened even though she didn't notice anything. When Maudre told her that she had created another portal it became clear to her why she hadn't noticed any change.
Then the teleporting started. At first Amy thought that the buzzing was just a ringing in her ears, but as it grew louder she figured it was something else. She didn't really notice anything else until her hands where dissapearing. Her mouth fell open a little at the sight of it, it pretty much freaked her out especially with the buzzing that kept on getting louder. From the corner of her eyes she saw something happening on the other side of the room and was just capable of suppressing a yelp seeing a pair of arms hanging in midair. She looked back at where Maudre was, mostly, still standing and then back at the spot where she was reappearing.
When Maudre had completely reappeared on the other side of the room and said piece of cake Amy raised her brows. It had been rather terrifying just to look at, let alone experience it yourself while having to stand completely still.
"Yeah..." she answered a little hessitant, "I don't really think I can not freak out during that..."