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[OOM: The Dark Portal is destroyed and the forces of Azeroth must seek shelter on the world of Draenor.]

The Door does not open.

Instead there's a flash of purple light in the form of concentric, oval rings. An older man in dusty blue and silver robes and holding a staff appears at the center of them and for a moment he looks terribly confused. His eyes start to glow the same shade of purple as he looks around, stopping when he spots the Window. The glow fades as his mouth falls open.

Then he grins. "Ha HA! I knew it! Modera owes me a drink!"

[OOC: Open all weekend!]

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To Yrael, those demons would sound delicious.

"Most people who find this place, for relatively few people do, arrive unexpectedly their first time. Some may eventually be able to secure a stable and reliable way to this place, but not all are able."

Yrael grins. "One does get to know the look of a newcomer, after a while, and introducing new arrivals to what they've stumbled upon is part of a Milliways' patron's duty, in remembrance of the time one's own face had that lost and bewildered look," he says, his tone suggesting he is (at least partly) kidding. "You may find yourself giving the same introduction, some day."

"Though your talk of teleportation intrigues me." Those grinning teeth are very white. "What is it you do, in the world from which you come?"

"I'm a mage with more experience with portals than most," Khadgar explains, "which makes it my current responsibility to stop an incursion by an alternate reality Horde from invading Azeroth through the Dark Portal.

"...it is, perhaps, complicated. But we've had some success so far!"

Those white eyebrows rise in piqued curiosity. "I may be speaking with only limited experience, but invasions through things called 'dark portals' are rarely good things."

"Azeroth is... the name of your world? Kingdom? What sort of horde is seeking to invade?"

Edited 2018-01-15 04:59 (UTC)

"My world, yes. It's been invaded before from a planet called Draenor nearly twenty years ago through this same Portal. That Draenor was destroyed and the invaders settled on Azeroth; we have an uneasy truce with them now. They've kept the name 'Horde'.

"Their last warchief was a bit of a bastard, however. Garrosh broke the truce and turned on the Alliance, and then people in his own faction if they weren't orcs like him. My understanding is that both sides united to take him down. He escaped with the help of a bronze dragon, they're specialists in time magic, and we only recently learned where when the Dark Portal opened to this alternate Draenor.

"And now we face a second invasion by an orcish Iron Horde. I was summoned because my mentor was the one to create the Portal originally and I've been the one to seal it shut in the past."

He thinks that was clear enough, but as he said, the matter is complicated.

It is certainly a lot to follow, and offers any number of points to inquire further about - dragons, time magic, orcish hordes - but one point of inquiry that draws Yrael's curiosity in particular.

"If a mage could construct such a troublesome portal, could a mage not destroy or deconstruct it, so as to stop the current threat and prevent future threats to the world?"

"Medivh was killed, the original creator." And Khadgar does not care to explain how he was the one to do it just now. "He was very, very powerful. And while we were able to destroy the physical gateway of the Portal, it took us some years to reach it. The dimensional rift that had been created couldn't easily be destroyed by then; in fact it's been impossible so far. We've been able to seal it twice but it just takes an artifact of great power to give it the energy it needs to reopen. Or souls."

Lots and lots of souls.

The idea of trading life force or spirit for the power to work of powerful magic does not seem like a new concept to the man-shaped creature. Much the opposite.

"So long as the souls do not have to be willingly donated to the cause, that is likely less daunting a task than obtaining an artifact of sufficient power. Those, at least, are a finite resource."

"Exactly. It was being powered by a Soul Engine this time, on Draenor's side. We've gone through and destroyed it, but the Iron Horde can just rebuild it, given the chance."

He lets out a sigh. It has been a long day.

"A soul engine..." Yrael echoes, curiosity-laden green gaze fast on Khadgar.

It is with reluctance that he relents, leaning back and draining the wine from his glass. "But you are tired. You should rest."

Though there will absolutely be more questions at a later time. Yrael's curiosity is a deep well, never filled.

"The Bar has ways of finding rooms that best fit the particular patron's requirements for practicality and comfort, but one can always ask if something needs to be changed."

Khadgar can understand the curiosity, it's part and parcel of being a magic user, but he's a tiny bit leery of Yrael being intrigued by that. Between the magic he senses and the nasty piece of work a Soul Engine is, well, it's not knowledge he would share readily.

Just as well they're changing the subject.

He laughs a bit. "People have been telling me that all day. Rest would be nice," he admits, "and I suppose I can afford to take the time here."

Yrael smiles easily, as though the previous conversation topic never was. "That leads me to one of the simultaneously better and more frustrating features of this place. While a patron is here, generally they can trust that time will not continue moving forward in their world until they return to it. When they leave this place, they will return to the moment from which they arrived, as though they had spent no time here at all."

"Time... moves differently between worlds and this place, you see. Though it is generally reliable that time will pause in one's world while one is here, there is no assurance that time will move here and there at the same rate, while one is in their world. A patron may return to their world and spend a week there before finding this place again, only to learn that months have passed here. Or they may leave the bar and, as time is reckoned in the bar, immediately return, having passed years in their world."

"I got some sense of that, yes," Khadgar muses, his eyes unfocusing as he feels out the magic here again. "Thank you for confirming. I should be able to return now that I've come once, but there are quite a few energies here I haven't felt before."

He may be looking at Yrael a little pointedly.

"Oh, you will find many new things here," says the Free Magic creature, his cheerful eyes the bright green of new spring leaves, bisected by vertical pupils of black. "New concepts and technologies. Strange new beings and life forms. Magic that works differently from world to world, and some worlds existing entirely without it, where magic is no more than a myth. Alternate versions of the same world, and they too may work entirely differently."

"There will always be something new to find out."

Why yes, he is ignoring the unanswered question. And not even trying to hide it.

Edited 2018-01-15 16:20 (UTC)

That's alright, Khadgar won't press it for now even though he is very curious. Yrael has been very helpful and he has no need to be rude. The eyes don't phase him either, dragons in human form often have vertical pupils.

He raises his wine glass to Yrael. "To finding out new things."

Yrael laughs, inclining his head in agreement. "Always."

He gets to his feet, moving back from the bar. His empty glass disappears from the counter top.

"Be well, Khadgar of Azeroth. We will likely run into each other again. I hope you enjoy your visit here."

"Thank you, Yrael of Milliways. I shall look forward to it!"

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