Reidar sat back down inside the shelter. The ash storm outside continued to howl, but he wasn't paying attention to it anymore.
He pulled up the memory of Mara's last known position, recalling the teleportation circle she had used, along with the chalk marks, the minerals, and the way the light had wrapped around her before she vanished.
Of course, that hadn't been a world-opening portal since it was too small and simple; instead, it was merely a jump to move between locations on the same planet, which was useful for escaping Reidar's surveillance but useless for getting home.
This meant Mara still needed to build the real thing—a portal capable of connecting two worlds—since that kind of magic did not run on mere wishes and willpower.
