<span style="font-size: 12px">Dia watched, curiously, as Anastasia prepared herself to create the portal. The hybrid was intrigued. She hadn’t actually seen a Conclave member conceive their portal before. At times, it seemed like only field agents were the ones that were able to experience the interesting supernatural phenomena. Not to suggest that her job wasn’t important—detectives, analysts and forensic scientists were the backbone of the organization. But the activity level could have been a little…dry on some days. <br/>
<br/>
At first, nothing happened. Anastasia was merely standing in the bayou with her hands raised over her head as if doing an interpretive dance. But then Dia caught the fire-like glow emanating from the palm of her hands and extending towards her fingertips. She gawked, eyes widening with surprise as a portal appeared with a loud <i>bang!</i> Dia’s brows furrowed and she peered into its dark pupil-like depths, outlined by a similar fiery ring. Dia tried not to be pessimistic, but in that moment, a rush of bleak thoughts invaded her mind. She found herself wondering what would happen if she lagged behind and the portal had snapped closed on her while she had been trying to step through. Would she have been cut in half? Or what if she’d stepped through the portal and ended up in an entirely different dimension? The woman wasn’t even sure if that could happen, but she’d heard the rumors. What if this entire ordeal had been a trap?<br/>
<br/>
Before she could complete her string of discouraging thoughts, Anastasia spoke again. Unfortunately, her words weren’t entirely all that encouraging. Dia swallowed anxiously. <b>“Disintegrate?” </b>she tried to ask keeping a calm face, but the shock in her voice wasn’t completely concealed by her visual façade. <i>Perhaps I should just meet with her later at the headquarters. </i>But Dia hadn’t ventured all the way out into the bayou just to return to NOLADOR empty-handed. A bit reluctantly, she took Anastasia’s hand, taking an extra effort to interlock their fingers together. Dia now understood why portal travelers were so frequently plagued by nausea—the idea of potentially disintegrating during travel was particularly unsettling. She could feel an uneasy knot forming in the pit of her stomach. </span>