The Gate Traveler

We were standing outside, and I planned to store my house. I looked at the monstrosity and didn’t want to store it as-is. It was so BIG. I had left enough height, but it was still imposing.

“You told me the core could shrink the house. If it does that and absorbs the materials, do you think I’ll get them back?” I asked Mahya, glancing at the towering structure.

“We won’t know if we don’t try,” Mahya replied, her eyes sparkling with curiosity.

“Yeah, but I wonder if I’ll get my stuff back. I don’t want to lose anything in the house, especially not the books,” I said, feeling a knot of worry tighten in my stomach.

“We can test it with something you don’t mind losing,” she suggested.

I nodded and put a box of small shampoo bottles with the Wynn Las Vegas logo on the deck. “Shrink the box, but don’t absorb the material for your use,” I commanded the core out loud so Mahya could hear.

The box got smaller by about ten percent or even less. I scratched my head, puzzled by the minimal change.

“Tell the core to absorb it, and let’s see if you can get it back,” Mahya said, watching intently.

“Absorb the box,” I instructed. The deck sucked in the box.

“Give me the box back,” I continued. The box reappeared on the deck.

I opened and inspected it. Everything looked fine. I opened one bottle, smelled it, and poured a small amount into my palm. It felt normal, like a regular shampoo. An idea sparked in my mind.

“Absorb the box,” I commanded again. The deck sucked in the box.

“Give me the box back, but with plain bottles, without text or pictures.” The box reappeared. I opened and inspected it. Everything looked the same, except the bottles were now a plain cream color, with no text or logo.

Mahya whooped with excitement.

I still wanted to experiment with something more complicated, so I went to the third floor and took a fiction book I had already read. Back outside, I put it on the deck and said, “Absorb the book.”

The deck sucked in the book.

“Give me the book back.” The book returned to the deck. I opened and inspected it, even reading a few pages as a spot-check. Everything looked fine.

Mahya and I exchanged smiles.

“Shrink the house to the smallest size you can,” I told the core.

First, the house started lowering slowly; I could barely see it happening at first. It was freaky—like an accordion being pressed down, each part of the house squeezing smoothly. The roof buckled a bit, folding onto the upper floor while the walls started pulling in. The windows shimmered, looking like they were stretching and warping, but still keeping their shape as they shrank.

The shrinking became more apparent when the house reached about half its height. The entire building looked like it was rippling, each floor collapsing into the one below it. Inside, the furniture shifted and adjusted, fitting into the smaller space without a problem. The front door, which used to be pretty big, now looked like a mini version of itself, perfectly proportioned but way smaller.

Then the core started pulling harder, and the house got sucked into it.

“I didn’t tell it to absorb it, just shrink it,” I said in a panic, but Mahya stopped me with a hand on my shoulder.

“You said the smallest size it can,” she reminded me, her calm demeanor soothing my nerves—a little.

As the structure moved toward the core, it did so in a smooth, steady motion, almost as if an invisible hand was guiding it. The walls and roof stayed intact, not breaking apart. The entire house underwent a remarkable transformation, condensing without breaking apart. First, the lower floor vanished into the core, then the middle section, and last, the roof elegantly folded into itself.

In less than five minutes, the core absorbed the entire house and now rested on the grass, appearing unchanged—a small, unassuming sphere about the size of a medium watermelon, with no indication of the massive structure it had absorbed. I picked it up and examined it. It looked the same—about 30-32 centimeters in diameter. It also didn’t feel heavier.

I put it back on the grass and said, “Please return the house with all its contents.”

The house emerged from the core, and it was even freakier in reverse. First, the sphere shimmered, and then the top of the house materialized. The roof seemed to unfold gracefully, almost like it was blooming. Then, the walls reappeared, stretching outward from the core as if invisible strings were pulling them.

It was truly mesmerizing. The house grew steadily, each floor stacking on top of the other seamlessly. The windows, which had shimmered and warped as they shrank, now did the opposite. They seemed to stretch and expand, returning to their original shape and size. The glass looked like it was being inflated, but kept its clear, solid form.

Inside, the furniture shifted back into place like it was on some smooth conveyor belt. Chairs, tables, and shelves all expanded and settled into their spots without a hitch. The front door, which had been a tiny replica, swelled back to its full size.

The entire house continued to grow and expand, the walls solidifying and the roof rising higher and higher. It was like watching a time-lapse video of a building being constructed, but in fast-forward. The floors emerged one by one; the structure becoming more familiar and solid with each passing second.

Finally, the house stood fully formed, just as it had been before. It looked as if it had never been compressed at all. The whole thing took less than five minutes, but it felt like we were witnessing something from a sci-fi movie.

Mahya and I ran into the house and inspected everything. I checked every cupboard and shelf, and she went to the spell room.

When she returned, she said, “All the runes and crystals are in place, and everything looks fine,” She was obviously relieved. I looked at her suspiciously. Outside, she made me believe all would be fine.

Together, we went to the third floor and checked the library. We didn’t check every book, just looked at the shelves to see if they had the same number of books on them and did an occasional spot-check on books we were familiar with. Everything looked fine.

We went to the second floor and checked our bedrooms. Everything was still okay. After over an hour of checking everything, we met in the living room with huge, mirroring smiles and high-fived.

“That was amazing!” Mahya said, her eyes still wide with excitement. “I can’t believe it worked so perfectly.”

“Yeah, it’s an enormous relief,” I agreed, leaning back into the couch and feeling exhaustion wash over me. During the entire process, I was a nervous wreck.

“What should we try next?” she asked, her mind racing ahead.

“Let’s take a break first. I need to process all of this,” I said with a chuckle. “But I’m looking forward to more experiments, just not today. My heart won’t be able to take it.”

She laughed at me, but nodded.

We went back outside, and just in case, I used precisely the same wording: “Shrink the house to the smallest size you can.”

After five minutes, a core lay on the grass. I picked it up and said, “Give me the book The Warded Man.”

The book appeared and fell to the ground.

“What is it?” Mahya asked, looking curiously at the book.

I picked it up and stored it. “A fantasy book I’m reading.”

“Is it any good?”

“It’s great.”

“Give it to me after you’re done.”

“Sure.”

I told the core, “Disguise yourself as something else.” Nothing happened. I repeated it, and still nothing happened.

Mahya hit the back of my head playfully and grinned. “I told you it’s not sentient, didn’t I?”

“Yeah, I know. What’s the problem?” I asked, rubbing the spot where she hit me.

“To be ‘something else,’ one needs to think about what to be. It can’t. You need to tell it what to be,” she explained, rolling her eyes and crossing her arms like she was dealing with a child.

“Oh.” I felt sheepish, shifting my weight from one foot to the other, but then remembered something. “When we fed it the electronics, and I told it to make something of them, I didn’t tell it what to make of them.”

“Did you know what you wanted it to make?” she asked, tilting her head and narrowing her eyes at me.

“Well, I didn’t exactly know. I hoped for music, TV, and game consoles, so we wouldn’t lose all the games we fed it.” I scratched the back of my neck, realizing how vague that must’ve sounded.

“Exactly.” She nodded knowingly. “Now, did you know what you wanted it to become?”

“Yeah, okay, I get your point.” I sighed in defeat. She was right. I said ‘something’ because I didn’t know what I wanted.

I turned to the core. “Disguise yourself as a wooden chest.”

A wooden chest grew around it. I opened the chest and found the core inside. Looking at Mahya, her smile mirrored mine. As one, we turned and looked at the boat, still in the middle of the lake. We looked back at each other, then at the boat, and back at each other again, shaking our heads simultaneously.

“Too small,” Mahya said with a sigh.

“Yep,” I agreed, nodding. “Soon.”

She nodded enthusiastically, looking like a dashboard bobblehead.

When I tried to store the boat, I couldn’t; it felt like something was blocking it. I tried again and again without success while Mahya laughed her ass off.

“What’s so funny?” I grumbled.

“You can’t store the boat; it’s not yours anymore. It’s mine,” she managed between fits of giggles, wiping tears of laughter from her eyes.

“Yeah, but I stored your stuff in the past,” I retorted, crossing my arms defensively.

“Not with a core, you didn’t.”

“Oh.” I blinked, the realization sinking in.

She laughed again, her eyes twinkling with mischief. I suspected she made me try to store it just so she could have fun at my expense.

I gestured at the boat, and snapped, “Store your damn boat; we need to go.”

She laughed again, and I thought it was at my grumpy expression this time, but she stored the boat, her body still shaking with laughter. After storing everything and ensuring we were ready to go, I did one last tour through the valley and collected thirteen more crystals.

I glanced at Rue and asked, “Are there more cats?”

He shook his head. “No. John collected all bad cats.”

“Thanks, buddy. Let’s go.”

We crossed the gate back to Earth. It felt like no matter what I did, I couldn’t escape this place. On Earth’s side, the sunset was beginning, casting a warm glow across the whole area. With no one around, we became visible. Mahya pulled out her phone and checked the date. “August 11th.”

“Is that all? I thought more time had passed with all we’ve done.”

Mahya shrugged. “No, it makes sense. The jump is almost a month to a day.”

She dialed Al and spoke to him. After a few minutes, she hung up and turned to me. “He has two last deliveries due tomorrow, and then he’ll be ready to go.”

“Is he joining us now?”

Mahya shook her head. “No, he’s with a new friend.”

“What do you want to do in the meantime?”

“You have a lot of free space in the Storage,” Mahya said, her eyes lighting up with excitement. “Let’s go and fill it with metal from the junkyard. I’m sure the metal will be more expensive in Lumis.”

We ran to the junkyard. Mahya and I jumped over the fence while Rue stood guard outside, invisible and ready to warn us if anyone approached. I started storing cars when an idea struck me. While the house was in my Storage, I could inflate the pontoons—perhaps I could command the core to “eat” the metal? I moved the core next to the last car I had stored and instructed it to absorb the car. To my amazement, the core absorbed the car. The mechanics of the Storage still baffled me. The Storage was supposed to hold everything in suspension, but somehow, I could do stuff in it. I shook my head—I didn’t have the strength to argue with facts and claim that it made little sense.

I moved from one section of the junkyard to another, directing the core to absorb each item. It was slower than just storing them directly; I had to wait for the materials to be absorbed into the core. Yet, bit by bit, I cleared zone after zone.

Mahya approached me. “How do you have so much space?”

“Because the core absorbs what I store,” I explained, focusing on the task.

“Why didn’t you tell me? We’re doing experiments together!”

I pressed a finger to my lips. “Shhh, don’t shout. Someone might hear us. Sorry, I would have told you sooner, but I was too absorbed in what was happening.”

We stayed at the junkyard until sunrise, and this time, I cleared out over half of its contents. My core absorbed everything effortlessly, showing no signs of saturation. After leaving a note with additional payment, we went for breakfast and then to a nearby hotel to sleep for a few hours.

When we got up, Mahya called Al to tell him where we were, and within half an hour, we both felt his presence approaching. The air seemed to hum with energy, and we both jumped in our seats. He felt stronger.

When he entered the room, a smirk tugging at his lips, I couldn’t help but blurt out, “What happened? How are you stronger?”

“My level has increased by four,” he said, leaning against the doorframe with a very smug expression.

“How? Where did you find monsters? Are there already monsters on Earth? Did you find a dungeon? Were you in a fight? What exactly happened—” I bombarded him with questions, my curiosity spiraling out of control, before he cut me off mid-sentence.

“If you pause briefly, I can offer an explanation.”

“Sorry.” I sat back, trying to rein in my excitement.

“I completed transactions involving the sale of potions to New Age shops,” he explained, as if it were the most normal thing in the world.

“You sold magical potions to a shop on Earth?” I asked, staring at him, bewildered.

“Indeed, but they are unaware of the magical aspect. They believe those are highly effective herbal remedies.”

“What kind of potions did you sell them?” Mahya asked.

“I managed to sell potions designed for people with headaches, colds, muscle aches, and one other type,” he admitted, looking away and blushing.

“What’s the other type?” I asked, narrowing my eyes as I noted his reaction, feeling my suspicion grow.

“For endurance,” he replied, still avoiding eye contact and staring off to the side.

“Like for sports?” I asked, trying to piece it together, but Mahya’s snicker beside me made it clear I was missing something.

“Not precisely,” he muttered, the corner of his mouth twitching in a faint smile.

“Oh.” The realization hit me, and I glanced between them, feeling a little slow on the uptake.

He looked uncomfortable, so I said, “That’s great! Give me one in case I meet another interesting lady.”

He visibly relaxed. Mahya gave me a death glare and said telepathically, “Spoilsport.”

“You just want to see him squirm.”

“Yeah. Usually, he doesn’t care what anyone thinks. This is a golden opportunity.”

“Don’t be mean.”

I asked Al, “Are you ready to go, or do you need more time?”

“I am ready.”

We went back to the Gate and crossed over. I took the core and instructed it to deploy the house. When the house emerged from the core, Al dropped on his butt and stared at it, slack-jawed.

“You see, my way is more fun,” I sent to Mahya.

She stuck her tongue out at me. Still, I felt like the winner in that exchange.

Yay me!