Chapter 83 - Discussions In Bed

That day had been almost exactly the same as all the other days for Julia and me, apart from having to relocate all of the refugees that had filtered in over the previous days.

Initially we had thought that Bronwyn’s group would be the only ones that would come to Lofie Village, but every day after that new groups of refugees had arrived one after another.

In a way this would do the village good, Daniel had mentioned at several occasions that the village needed to find a way to increase its population, but I doubt he intended for that to happen through a massive influx of refugees.

Some of the newer refugees had also made the same decision as Bronwyn’s group, and were now training with Julia and I. Our little training group had now passed the fifty mark.

After a full day of trying to get everyone settled and organised, working on the different businesses, and training everyone, Julia and I had finally ended the day where we had ended it every day for the past more than a week, working in the bar.

But that night things seemed a bit... off.

Every time we turned our backs on the customers to do something, and we turned back, a few of them were rubbing the backs of their heads looking around with pained expressions.

Now at first I didn’t understand why that was, until the bar emptied out, and I suddenly found myself in an invisible embrace. An embrace that at first made me want to burn the entire place to the ground, until I felt the comforting familiarity of it.

"Daniel?" Julia whispered, immediately we felt the embrace around us tighten slightly, but noticeably.

For a moment both of us just stood there, savoring the invisible embrace of our husband, until a strange portal opened behind us, and we were pulled through it.

For a split second it felt like everything in existence just... stopped.

And in the next instant we found ourselves in our room, still clinging to a no longer invisible Daniel.

"How?" I asked, looking around at our surroundings with wide eyes.

"Simple, really," Daniel smiled down at us, that fake cocky arrogance of his just making me laugh.

"No really," Julia said between giggles. "How are you here?"

"I missed you, so I came back." Daniel said, still wearing the same smile.

"That’s very cute," I said, pinching him. "But you still haven’t told us how you did it."

"Fine, fine, my love, I’ll tell you everything," Daniel said, his eyes turning almost predatory. "But first—"

I’m not going to share with you what happened over the next few hours, or any specifics of our reunion, just know that a few hours later the three breathless people lay down snuggling on a bed.

Feeling a warmth in that bed that had been missing for what felt like weeks.

Julia and I each rested a head on one of Daniel’s shoulders, I was hugging his arm like I feared he would disappear if I let go.

"So, are you going to tell us how you got here? And how you... teleported us into the room?" Julia finally asked.

"I just used a teleportation spell," Daniel answered, as if that should explain everything.

As if every person in this world could use a spell like teleportation, like it was not a big revelation to us.

"Teleportation?" I asked, lifting my head from his shoulder in shock.

"Yeah," Daniel nodded, closing his eyes and pulling me back onto his shoulder.

"Explain," Julia said.

"Well what I figured out about null-magic is that basically anything that you can visualise, and have enough magic power to create, can be created," Daniel explained, still with closed eyes. "So I thought of a space that I could almost perfectly remember, and visualised the space between my point, and that point folded until it’s nothing."

"And viola, here I am," Daniel finished.

As you can see, our husband is pretty good with most things, but explaining almost anything that isn’t business, or politics, definitely isn’t one of his skills.

"Viola?" I asked. "You do realise that you’ve just done something, that no one else in this world has ever done before?"

"I mean, how would we know?" Daniel asked. "Remember that almost everyone in this world also believes that only other-worlders can have an affinity for null-magic."

"Sure," Julia said. "But we also know that there has never been anyone capable of teleportation magic."

"Did you even test this spell out before you recklessly jumped through a portal?" I asked.

"Of course I did," Daniel said confidently. "I used it to pull a little prank on Erick."

"And did you use it to travel a distance just farther than the same room, before deciding to jump to an entirely different territory?" I asked again, although I already suspected what the answer would be.

"Well—" Daniel just drifted off, but I could feel him starting to get uncomfortable with my questions, and under my gaze.

"You didn’t, did you?" Julia asked.

"Ahem, no, Ahem." Daniel said between clearing his throat, I don’t know if he expected the fact that he just made it more difficult for us to hear him say no, to make it any better for him.

The moment I heard that, I pinched his side so hard I almost ripped his skin off, and Julia punched him on the other side so hard it sounded like someone beating on a drum.

"Ouch! What was that for?" Daniel exclaimed, his eyes finally snapping open.

"Punishment for idiocy!" I snarled.

"Do you even know what would happen if you tried to open a portal somewhere, but you don’t have enough magical power?" Julia asked. "Or if you don’t visualise the spot you want the portal to open precisely?"

"Uhhm, no?" Daniel said. "What would happen?"

"Why are you asking us?!" I yelled. "It’s your spell, you’re supposed to think of these things before you just start using it all over the place!"

"You really need to stop ’winging’ everything," Julia added. "Or I swear I’ll lock you up in this room for the rest of your life."

"Okay, okay, I’m sorry," Daniel said, pulling the both of us back into his embrace. "I’ll stop being so impulsive. I just really missed you."

"That’s no excuse," I mumbled, although I couldn’t help a soft smile from spreading. I could see the same smile I felt on my face, appearing on Julia’s.

"Now, why don’t you tell me everything that’s happened here while I was away." Daniel said, rubbing our shoulders.

"Well we’ve had an influx of new villagers," Julia mumbled.

"Is that so?" Daniel asked, closing his eyes again.

"Yes," I answered. "Although they’re actually refugees."

"Refugees?" Daniel asked, his eyes snapping open again. "From where."

"All over the elven territory," Julia answered. "It seems someone is out there attempting to conquer the elven lands."

"Ah shit," Daniel mumbled. "Really?"