Franco Tarsey rubbed his temples then ran his hands through his cropped salt and pepper hair. “Everything has an equal rea to what we bring forth, it is a principle of the passages within To Xenagos itself.” Franco csped his hands as he referehe troupe's book of knowledge. “We ot purge them without having fallout, Kintha.” Franco watched as the vampire-manufactured quartz was affixed to the iron poles.

  Kinthia patted the elder vampire on the back. “We know you have been around for well over seven hundred years, and as far as I know are the oldest vampire other than ‘The Raven’ herself. Without the chaos and hate of the dark, we all exist as long as she has. The temptation to fall into madness will be gone. How you not want that, Franco?”

  Once again the rest of the group cheered, “Kinthia!”

  “I hear you dryods!” She turo France more. “Are you prepared to step through the door and begiual te us?”

  Still unsure about the entire process, Franco opeheir guide and re-read the intation to himself. “I will do my duty to the group, but I have apprehension.” He looked around and saw a few bats flying around. “I think we should do this in stages. We are twenty-five strong. Five at a time gh and remove the beasts.” Franco closed the book having itted to memory what he o do. “Five stay bad keep pressure on the crystals, keeping the door active and open. We don’t want to be stu the other side.”

  “The book calls it ‘The Harsh Expanse.’ so expect a pce of destru.” Kinthia warned. She motioo who she sidered the five of her stro dryods. “Enough pressure to gee the energy, do not snap the crystals. Remember you are dryod’s. Everything in banbsp; Watch each other and adjust as you o.” Kintha smiled and walked to eae of the five, giving them a kiss on the forehead. “Your duty is moal, if any of you stop the pressure on the quartz then we will be trapped in hell.”

  The five individually stood at their post and looked up at Cassiopeia to make sure they were aligned correctly. “On your and, Kintha.”

  Pointing her fi the stro, Kintha nodded and the vampires all began to squeeze the blood-fused quartz. A loud hum began to radiate from the crystals and began shaking the ground so hard it felt like a small earthquake. Shortly after the earth beh them cracked, the iron bars turned red a over so that the tips were dipping into the silvery pool.

  Like a rising temperature, the mercury crawled up the hot iron poles and spread across until it touched the quartz. Popping as and bubbling, the water of the pond ed and mixed until its surfao longer appeared to be the bination of mercury’s silver and the blue of water, resulting in a dark gray reflective surface like that of a mirror.

  Franco stood at the edge and gave a small prayer, “Kathréfti, kathreftáki. Tóso galínia kai stochastiká, deíxe stous tapeinoús ypirétes sou ti gi pou mas yposchéthikes.”

  Kinthia ughed and k down while her eyes locked on the shimmering pool. “Franot all of us speak Greek, kindly tell us what you just said.” Entranced by the calming effect of the mirrored water Kintha started to reach out and touch the liquid, but romptly stopped by Franco.

  Franco held Kinthia’s hand tightly and replied. “ What I said was; Mirror, Mirror. So serene and reflective, show your humble servants the nd you promised us.” He paused and looked back at the first five that inteo cross the portal. “It wasn’t a spell, Kinthia. Just a little prayer of sorts. I will use my blood on the back side and start the process.”

  “I am the leader, I should go first.” Kinthia winked and looked at her felloires, “First in, st out!” She decred and pulled away from Franco. “It’s time.”

  Relutly, Franco let his leader free and watched as she touched the reflective surfabsp; “It’s solid. Just as though I am toug a smokey gss.” Kinthia eled blood into her hand and willed the supernatural forbih the surface of the pool. Blood streaks flowed around for a few seds before settling in the ter. Moments after the lines of crimsoled in the ter, a mae appearing like a disc the size of a wagon wheel appeared with a round housing on its perceived top that held tiny bck lenses. Violet and white light pulsed from the bottom of the unit and it turned iopping long enough to focus its tiny meical eyes on all of the vampires.

  When the violet light turo amber, the little floating device made a hissing sound and an arm with peared to be a metallic mesh appeared and rotated, giving off bird-like chirps as it did so. Kinthia stood up and held her hand for the disc to see. “What are you little metal friend?” She looked back at Franco. “This wasn’t part of the text. What do we do now?”

  Franco’s eyes were wide with excitement and fusion. “I don’t have a clue, I don’t even know what that is.” He cleared his throat, “Other than some mae, like a lootive or something. Just smaller.”

  Once more the hiss came from the round mae and the metal disappeared. Amber lighting turned blue and began pulsing in a pattern that Franco caught on to. “That sounds almost like Morse code, like we’d send a telegraph.”

  Moments after the elder vampire spoke, five more metal circles came out of the gssy pool and took positiohe quartz, ging their lighting to a soft yellow and held in pce waiting for a and.

  Floating over to Kinthia with a rexing hum, the first disc slid back a small door and spoke. “Language collected and stored for future use.” It paused, “Quartz power core to be stabilized, please stand back.”

  Kinthia o the five vampires applying pressure, “Go ahead, let’s see what happens.” One by ohe five let go and watched as the five new objects' yellow light blinked until the sound ing from the crystals matched the pulsing light. A door hissed and opened on all five maes and they deployed a rouallic object that fasteself to the top of the quartz and screwed into pbsp; Gray-white lightning arced through the iron bars for a sed before the maes chirp-buzzed, then disappeared back through the mirror. “Passageway secure. Power levels stable, no recharge necessary for five-zero-zero Earth years.”

  Kinthia ughed and faced Franco, “If I heard that right, the door will be open for about five hundred years?”

  “That does seem to be the case.” Franco affirmed. “I guess the real question is, how do we use the thing.” He held up one of his fingers, “Recall we are keeping myself and four others here just in case, so I am not going to touch the gss.”

  Kinthia looked up at the little unknown object. “Um, metal thing…” She scratched her head, “...the twenty of us wish to pass through the door?”