Welcome to Gaia! ::

He’d taken Jeremiah’s suggestion of keeping supplies here seriously and since he’d arrived right where he’d left Alg found a small care package in the house- a bag with a notebook and pen, some power bars from Zac for a more extended stay, and a small pocket umbrella.

Alg did take a moment to sit and jot down what he’d remembered of his writing ideas until the chill of this place began to get to him in his pajamas and thin robe. It was summer in Ashdown which, they’d discovered, meant it was colder here on the other side.

He was tired and he’d like to get home, but the prospect he’d find a door while sitting here was small. The more you moved, the more you explored, the better your chance of finding an exit or at least someone or something that could take you back.

When he stepped finally out into the rain Alg grabbed for the umbrella before pausing. Magic. He should be practicing, should be taking a page from his husband’s book, so instead of using the umbrella he thought of the barrier and glanced up at the sky.

Instead all he could think of was being warm.

His visualization shifted, unable to pin down the memory to shield the rain, and instead thinking of warm fires and warm bodies. Those memories of summer rains were still there but the result shifted when he focused on the heat and when Algie opened his eyes again he found the air shimmered around him like heat waves and the immediate vicinity was decidedly warmer. The rain seemed to evaporate into mist before it even hit him. He was, as Jeremiah always said, a walking space heater.

Algie still didn’t like that he couldn’t pin down the spells. Every time he tried there ended up being variations, nothing besides ‘Lumos’ every truly duplicating correctly and that of course was so specific it could hardly fail. Jeremiah had learned about willpower, learned he had to command the magic, but Algie would have a better time with that if had an easier time grasping anything consistently. As soon as he felt like he had it, some detail would slip his mind or some visualization would shift with his wandering mind and the results would end up different than the time before.

Maybe if he could just write things down. Maybe if there was a guidebook. An instruction manual.

Unfortunately they’d tried that, going to the library and through the bookstore. He’d been in the Bibliophile storage on this side and the other and the College on the otherside wasn't even there. The library continued to shut them out and he felt like even now, should he try, he’d find the doors locked to him.

The professor knew he had to think outside the box and that perhaps even this was a test of willpower and strength of command. Instead of sticking to the things he was familiar with, the places that should be sure bets, he should be searching outside of his comfort zones.

His worst case scenario of course was that he found nothing, which left him stuck in OAD until Jeremiah came looking. His best was that he found what he was looking for- or perhaps just an exit.

Algie picked a new direction, away from the library and the campus, away from the forest where he knew Heliodora waited eternally until the predicted inevitable, away from the places he knew all too well and had searched time and time again...

He simply walked and let his desire, his need, his internal requirement unconsciously dictate his path.

The other driver lets Algie out on the beach, and the Prius motors away soundlessly into the mist, and... it's the same pebbled-stone beach as it would have been in the real Ashdown, but for the darkness of the water. It still foams up white as it flows between the rocks, a startling contrast that brings to mind pearly white froth in the mouth of a rabid dog.

This is when Algie realizes he's not alone.

Behind him is a young woman, brown hair, blue eyes, horn-rimmed glasses and a faint pink blush to her cheeks. In her arms, tucked against her chest, is a book.

"Hey," she says, and her accent is light but still identifiably British, markedly Received Pronunciation. Like she's been gone from home for quite some time. "How've you been? I haven't seen you in... years, it must be."

"Um..." She seems to think about it for a second before smiling a very familiar smile. "Mina," she decides, adjusting the book. Mina is well-dressed, possibly even futuristically dressed. Her coat is olive green and more of a windbreaker, except for the extravagantly furry lining to the hood. Her skinny jeans are jet black and so are her pointy-toed oxfords. The v-neck t-shirt is a warm, buttery yellow, and there's a necklace with two rings pendant upon it resting just between her breasts. "Oh, you know, I've been." She speaks lightly, casually, and adjusts the book again, resting it against her hip as if it's quite heavy. "Why don't you change? It won't take but a second."

"So... why don't you do that?" Mina fusses with the book again, arching an eyebrow. "Do you not know how?"

Whatever she was doing out there, she avoided the question quite neatly.

"You forgot all your magic, didn't you."

Mina frowned at Algie, and she said, "Not really, but it does explain some things." She ran a fingertip over the edge of the book's cover and then held it out at arm's length. "This is yours. I thought you might need it."

The handwriting inside isn't quite Algie's own, but it's familiar nonetheless. It bears an inscription: In hope that we will meet again.

"You left it with me, don't you recall?" Mina shifts uneasily where she stands, stone crunching beneath her feet. "You didn't want to lose it..." She peers at him, blue eyes concerned. "You don't remember me, do you? I thought it was odd when you didn't correct my name, but you really don't. Not me, not the magic, not anything?"

Mina shook her head. "You told me not to. You said it was too risky." She tangled her fingers in the chain of her necklace. "You said you'd find out on your own if it was needful. I've never thought that you'd lie." She smiled at him, a little, uncertain but firm in her convictions: not uncertain about her stance, only uncertain about his reaction to it. "But I can give you the book. It's a grimoire. It has all of the spells you learned, and all of the magic. So you'll be able to learn it again."