Quinn grabbed the doorknob in the invisible room, and as usual, whenever he found something new, he channeled his magic into it to see if he could figure out how it was made. Quinn knew the door led to the shop they were going to visit, and thus he knew that it was going to be a door like the Abate system and his own Labyrinth maze.
The second he channeled magic, he knew... he knew that this door was better than the Abate doors and even his own Labyrinth door— much, much better.
'Damn, that's why I need to visit so many places,' he thought.
The culture was an important part of magic like it was for many other things. If a sport was extremely popular in a country, they'd have a strong culture for that sport and churn out more quality players. Similarly, countries had certain magic imbibed into their cultures— America... was a spatial magic powerhouse.
If Quinn wanted to be the best of the best, he would need to learn from places where the best resided.
"What happened?" asked Alan. "Is it locked; does it require a key?"
Quinn shook his head, "There's so much to do with so little time..."
He twisted the knob and felt the magic move and transform, doing its work, and by the time he pushed the door open, Quinn felt a spatial link form to a place other than they were now.
Quinn and Alan stepped into an old shop with wood everywhere. The walls were covered with wood, his boots clacked with the wood beneath his feet, and even the slanted roof was made with wood with wood beams forming a grid as structural support, and even the decor was fully wood.
"I thought a store dealing in spatial magic would be more spacious and not wood," commented Quinn.
He was expecting a wide-wide space that seemed empty, made from concrete inorganic in nature rather than wood, which was once an alive thing— instead, he was greeted with a small room crammed with a lot of decors.
"That's a stereotype, boy."
Quinn and Alan turned towards the deep voice and saw a chocolate-skinned man dressed in tan pants and a checkered shirt under a leather apron. The lean and lanky man had brown short rough hair and had protective goggles over his head. He looked at Alan and Quinn with his brown eyes with big dark circles under and lightly smiled with his sunken cheeks.
"Is it a stereotype if it is true?" asked Quinn. "I mean, from what I have seen from some other places, if you can blow a space wide open and it is your business doing that, then don't you have to do it."
"It is true when your job is to expand a place into a much wider space, you should use it in your own space," said the man. "But, spatial magic is all about efficiency and performance. Why widen a space to a size that you won't even use?"
"That does make sense," nodded Quinn. "You must be the owner. My name is Quinn West," he pointed at Alan, "this is Alan D. Baddeley. We informed that we would be coming today."
"Yes, I remember that," said the owner after a beat. He shook hands with Alan, who was closer to him. "My name is Lado Diggs, and I'm the owner-proprietor of the Clinker's Shop.
How did you like the Clinker's Room?" Lado looked at the door.
"It was quite fascinating," said Quinn.
"I don't see the use of it," said Alan.
Lado chuckled as he spoke to Alan, "Yes, there's no indeed no use for it. I created that around two decades ago when I was learning how to expand a point space into something bigger— after I was done, I decided not to remove it and turned it into a special entrance to my store."
Lado held his chin, "Though I might have to work on the room. It has become severely outdated— especially that door, it needs some serious upgrades."
'That needs upgrades!' thought Quinn.
«He must know a lot. I wonder if I can have that knowledge, I just need to peek—......»
"About that room," started Alan. "I'm interested to know how you managed something from colliding into for, as you said, two decades."
"Ah, there are spatial redirectors— I won't go into details of what those are— but they ensure that nothing stays in the path of the room, and even though I say the room, it is only one dot," said Lado. He turned to Quinn and asked, "Boy, what brings you here to my shop today?"
Quinn lifted his briefcase and placed it on a nearby table.
Lado quirked his brow and slowly walked to the table, his eyes fixed on the briefcase. He raised his hand to touch it without warning, and Quinn had to hurriedly disable his personal "nasty" anti-theft placed on the case.
"This is my creation, isn't it," said Lado.
"It is. How did you know? Did you recognize the magic you cast?"
"Hmm? Oh no, nothing like that. This leather design and tone— it is totally my style, so I knew this is mine."
Quinn faltered at the answer, so it was the aesthetic that gave it away. He heard Alan chuckle in the background.
"Is there something wrong with this child?" asked Lado, stroking the briefcase.
"Not at all. It has been running perfectly without any spatial fissures or even irregularities. But I thought that I was in the neighborhood it would be nice to bring it to you for some maintenance."
"You did good," said Lado appreciatively. "How long has this child been with you?"
"Six years."
"It is in excellent condition for its age. My works last around fourteen to sixteen years depending on the usage, so this one still has a long time to go, but seeing that you have done such a great job taking care of this— I'll re-strengthen the spells so they would last another fourteen to seventeen years, making up for the passed time."
"Oh, that'd be nice."
"If you want, I can upgrade it with a few more features for a small fee," said Lado after waving his wand over the case. "But you'd have to empty out all the contents for the upgrade. I can provide space to store your luggage. Space is the one thing I have in abundance."
"No, that won't be required, though I do appreciate the offer," said Quinn without giving it a thought. There were a lot of "sensitive" things in there that even if Lado provided him external storage, he would never bring those things out.
They waited for ten minutes as Lado went in the back and worked on Quinn's briefcase. When he came back, Quinn could feel the magic had been invigorated.
"Here you go."
"Thank you. How much should I pay you for the repairs?"
"It's fine. I looked up the purchase of this child, and boy did you pay a lot of money for it," said Lado laughing.
"I wouldn't know. My sister brought this for me as a gift for starting school."
"So it was a gift. No wonder. When you said that you got six years back, I was wondering why would such a young boy would need so much space. I think your sister went overboard."
Quinn laughed good-heartedly. Lia, when she had bought the briefcase, had indeed gone overboard. Even with Quinn's collection of books collected on the world tour, the space in the briefcase was grossly oversized. Even now, all those years later, Quinn still hadn't utilized the entirety of the space.
"Lado, what is this thing right here?"
Quinn and Lado turned towards and saw Alan standing behind a counter, looking at a square cabinet with a single slider hanging on the wall.
"It's rude to touch stuff without permission," said Quinn.
"It is alright," said Lado. "Mr. Baddeley, was it? Mind picking up the coaster on the counter behind you and placing it inside the cabinet."
Alan turned and saw a cardboard coaster on the counter. He picked it up, turned, and placed the coaster inside the empty cabinet before sliding the door close.
"Now, please push the button on the side."
Alan followed the instructions and pressed the green button on the side of the cabinet. There was a ringing sound from the cabinet.
"Now open it."
Alan opened, and there was nothing inside the cabinet. "Where did it go?"
"For that, you'd have to follow me," said Lado.
Alan and Quinn looked at each other before shrugging; they didn't have anything better to do. They followed after Lado, and he led them through a door, down a set of stairs, and through a long corridor that couldn't fit in Lado's shop— but it was a shop that offered spatial service, so it wasn't surprising.
"Ah, here we are," said Lado opening another door to an industrial warehouse-sized area... made from concrete.
"See? I told you... large space and concrete— typical," Quinn whispered to Alan.
Lado led them to a wall, and an identical cabinet hung on it. He opened it up and retrieved an object from it.
"Oh, that's the coaster from the counter," said Alan.
"Yes, this is a simple application of spatial magic," said Lado. "When something is put inside the cabinet and button is pushed, it is transferred down here. It is convenient this way— you saw how long we had to walk to get here, and it is not efficient for the employee staffing the front desk to come down with objects to repair every time."
Lado noticed Quinn looking around and asked, "This is my workshop; I work here on my projects— would you like to see some of the things I'm working on?"
"Would that be alright?" asked Quinn.
"Of course. I would be delighted. There are several interesting things here if I say so myself."
Lado led them to an area in the warehouse. They stopped just outside a square spot marked by the tape on the floor.
"Okay, this one is interesting," said Lado and turned to Quinn. "Would you step inside for a moment, and I'll let you experience something fascinating."
Quinn shrugged and stepped inside the square.
"Okay, I'm going to start now," said Ludo and waved his wand when Quinn nodded.
Immediately, Quinn felt like he had been hit by a body-bind spell and couldn't move a single muscle on his body except for his neck, and even that was partially restricted.
"... What — is — this," said Quinn with a little difficulty and saw Alan staring at Lado with a straight stare.
The very next second, Lado waved his wand again, and Quinn was released out of his bind.
"My apologies for startling you," said Lado. "What you experienced was the solidification of space. I solidified the space around you inside the square, making it so you couldn't move at all."
Quinn glanced at Alan, who shook his head— Lado was clear.
"So... it was like the walls in the Clinker's Room," said Quinn.
"Exactly, but this time I froze space around a person, which is more complicated as I had to map out your body and avoid that region."
"Freezing space... wouldn't that mean, even if I wanted to escape using apparition, I wouldn't be able to do so?"
"You're quite right!" Lado clapped. "Apparitions or even Portkey won't work as long as you're inside the space."
Quinn narrowed his eyes as he looked at the tape. 'Apparitions and Portkeys, he says,' thought Quinn.
"Now, let's move on to the next one," said Lado and walked to a long path, once again marked with tape on the floor. "This one is even more interesting. Now, Mr. Baddeley, would you mind walking from one end of the path to the other."
"I won't be frozen into place, would I?" asked Alan walking to the edge of the tape. "I don't think that'd be good for my old bones."
"Oh no, nothing like that. This one is interesting in another way," said Lado.
Alan looked at the path, and it was the path that was several meters (or feet). He stepped inside and took two steps, and felt vibration travel through his body, and before he knew it, he was staring at the tape on the other end of the path.
From outside, Quinn's eyes widened as he saw Alan's figure blur for a split second before he was on the other side of the path.
"What was that?" Quinn asked Lado.
"The two ends of the path, both marked by the tape, are connected with spatial magic. What I have done is create a link— folded space between the two points so that it would only take two steps rather than the several it would usually take."
Quinn clapped his hands with and 'ooh!' But then he saw Alan walk back, and unlike the last time, he walked normally without skipping through space.
Lado noticed Quinn's expression and spoke while scratching the back of his head. "Yeah, this is still a work in progress. For some reason, it only works one way."
"That was interesting as you said," Alan spoke.
Next, they went to another tapped-off square, but this time, it had a door in the middle of it.
"Now, this is one of the most interesting things down here," said Lado.
He stepped inside and opened it to reveal a pitch-black space. They couldn't see any light inside; even the light from the warehouse looked like it was being sucked inside, and that too didn't illuminate the blackness even with a single lumen.
"This is my favorite of them all," said Lado. "This is a pocket dimension of my creation."
"What... ?" Quinn's eyes widened. "Did you just say pocket dimension?"
"Yes, a pocket dimension."
"What's a pocket dimension?" asked Alan.
"A pocket dimension is a space... a dimension which is not part of our own dimension," explained Quinn. "Unlike the usual spatial practice, where you expand an already existing space in our dimension, a pocket dimension doesn't exist and is entirely separate with no relation to ours. They are difficult to create and not that well researched as the usual practice is enough for spatial needs."
"That is impressive of you, Quinn!" said Lado. "You seem to know a lot about spatial magic."
"A thing or two," said Quinn.
"Would you like to step inside?" offered Lado.
"I can? I would love to."
"Then go on right ahead."
Quinn stepped inside the square and then walked into the dark pocket dimension. "It is cold in here," he said.
"Yes, I do not know why that is, though."
Quinn reached out inside and met a blockage. It was like a wall, and after feeling around, there were walls and ceilings all around him.
"Yeah, about those. The dimension that I created is infinite in its size, or at least it seems so because I explored, I couldn't find an end, and the deeper you go, the more unstable the spatial properties become— so just for security, I have sealed off the region for security reasons."
"Is the pocket dimension stable as an entity?" asked Quinn because from what he knew....
"No," Lado breathed a long and depressing sigh, "at somewhat of fixed intervals, the entire space inside crumbles. The things I place inside are crushed and disappear into nothingness. The walled region I have created is as stable as our own dimension, and I use it as an indication because just before the spatial properties destabilize and everything turns to chaos, this walled space develops light fissures giving me warnings."
"Ah... so it's not usable in a practical sense," said Quinn.
"... No," said Lado, downtrodden, but then he perked up. "But one day, I would make it work. That'd be glorious."
"It indeed would be..." said Quinn, his eyes fixed on the pocket dimension.
Lado continued to show them his various projects for the evening until it got late, and they had to leave.
"... Well, that was something," said Alan, as they stepped back into the penthouse suite, "though a lot of those things were wildly unstable— I don't think a lot of things can be used at all in any sense."
"Yes," said Quinn, "but if he succeeds in stabilizing his invention, he will become famous overnight."
"So, what do you want to do tomorrow," asked Alan.
"I want to go to a good bookstore and get loads of spatial books."
.
-*-*-*-*-*-
.
Alan D. Baddeley - Master - The throne is mine.
Quinn West - MC - "If I return back home, maybe I will get back on top..."
Lado Diggs - Spatial master - Clinker's Shop is used to create funds for his projects in his warehouse.
