Iannis nodded. “I don’t blame you. It is a big step, and irrevocable.”
We spent another two days and nights out on that prairie as we tried to figure out the solution. This time we hunted down one of the quasis, knowing the meat would last us much longer than a deer. The herd of giant bovines were unafraid when we approached in human form, telling us that they had never been hunted by our kind, but the moment I changed into a panther and sprang for the weakest among them, an older quasi with a marked limp, they scattered. Between my hunting prowess and Iannis’s magic, we were able to bring down the lame quasi easily enough, and we enjoyed its meat even as the novelty of our surroundings began to wear off.
On the third morning, as I sipped a weak tea we’d brewed from some prairie flowers that Iannis had determined were safe to ingest, I sorted through the knowledge the Tua had given me for what seemed like the millionth time. On a whim, I gathered it all together, then repacked it into the shining trunk it had come in, conjuring it again in my mind’s eye from wherever it had disappeared to.
I wonder if I can replicate the trunk in my mind, I thought as I drummed my fingers against my thigh. I held the knowledge in my mind’s eye and concentrated, willing a duplication to form. To my delight, the trunk blurred, then split apart into two separate ones.
“Iannis,” I called. “Come here a second!”
“What is it?” he asked, moving away from the fire he’d been tending. He crouched down beside me, his brow furrowed in curiosity. “Have you found something?”
“I think so,” I said, pressing two fingers against that furrowed brow. I felt the knowledge pass between my mind and into Iannis’s, and he gasped, his violet eyes going wide.
“Did it work?” I asked, breathless with excitement. “Can you see the spell now?”
“I believe I can,” Iannis said wonderingly. He sat down with a thump in the grass next to me and stared off into the distance, unseeing. “Yes, I can see what you meant about the technical aspects of this spell. This is going to take some time for me to puzzle out.”
“But you can puzzle it out, right?” I asked eagerly. Was this it? Were we finally going to be able to get home?
“Yes,” he said impatiently as he pulled out a leather-bound book and a pen from his magical sleeve. His eyes gleamed, alight with the joy of a difficult challenge as he opened the book and began to scribble. “No wonder you had trouble with the technical part …” he murmured after a minute. “It would seem the Tua use an entirely different system of mathematics than we do.”
“Do you think you can crack it?” I asked eagerly.
“I certainly hope so.” He didn’t even look up at me. “Now give me some peace and quiet. I have work to do.”
19
Iannis spent the rest of the day scribbling down formulas in his notebook, then scratching them out. I busied myself making things out of the parts of the quasi we had saved—Fenris’s outdoorsman knowledge included instructions on how to magically tan hides and use the leather to make clothing and bedding, how to craft weapons and tools from the horns and bones, and even ways to use the hair and sinew to make thread, headdresses, and ornaments. Fenris had culled some of the spells from the antique memoirs of mage explorers and pioneers who had first traversed and settled the area of the Federation, and since he remembered everything he ever read, I spent some time revisiting those old accounts. By the time lunch came around, I’d successfully turned the quasi horns into a set of spear handles and had several large pieces of hard leather.
Not exactly useful, but it kept my mind off my impatience to go home, so I could give Iannis space to work.
“I think I am getting closer with each iteration,” Iannis said as we wolfed down a quasi-bison stew I’d made using some herbs and tubers I’d found while foraging in the woods the previous day. “If I am able to figure this out, what we have been given is going to revolutionize both physics and mathematics. And as for the practical applications…” His eyes shone with the possibilities despite his frustration, and I had to smile.
“I’m sure you and Elnos will be holed up in your study for days, once we finally get home,” I said. “The two of you are going to become mad scientists together.”
“Inventors,” Iannis corrected with a smile. “And we’ll probably publish a number of papers that should interest all the universities on Recca. Unfortunately, figuring out how to apply this knowledge to travel between dimensions practically, and safely for that matter, is proving more difficult than I anticipated. I need to get it right—now that I know more, I understand just how risky our last jump was. We are very lucky to be alive.”
After we’d finished eating, I kissed Iannis and let him return to his work while I cleaned up and continued my leather-working experiment. I felt downright domestic, taking care of all the cooking and cleaning and other “housework” while he slaved away with that formula. While I’d done pretty well at math in school, I’d never studied the more advanced techniques necessary to understand those Tua equations.
Besides, there was something satisfying about working with my hands. I could never be a housewife or artisan, I decided, not for the rest of my life. But I didn’t mind it just this second.
I was just finishing off a belt I’d made from one of the strips of leather when Iannis suddenly cried, “I have it!”
Dropping my craft project, I twisted around to see him holding up the book triumphantly, the latest formula scribbled across it. His eyes shone, and he was grinning broadly.
“Yes!” I jumped up from where I was sitting and raced over to him so I could give him a hug. “I knew you could do it! Do you want to try it right now?”
“Let’s eat first and pack up whatever we want to take with us,” Iannis suggested. “We are going to need all our strength, and if this goes wrong again, I want to be better prepared.”
We packed up our supplies, then quickly ate some of the dried quasi. “I’ll need to borrow your energy this time,” Iannis said, taking my hands. “You’ve gotten significantly stronger since you disappeared,” he added with a smile. “We are very nearly equal now, stronger than most mages I have ever met. A lot of them would be frightened of you, if they had any idea.”