"That sounds like exactly Relina's specialty," Ilona says. "Maybe if it turns out to be big enough she'll calm down a bit about Avalani's lucky find."

"Avalani?"

"And here I thought you'd been everywhere," Ilona teases. "Wizard Avalani studies portals too, and she found a portal south of Falador that she discovered leads to ancient flying citadels, probably created by the god Armadyl for his aviansie. It was all very exciting, especially when Avalani managed to restore the portal, but Relina's been working in the field for decades and hasn't discovered anything nearly so grand, so she's been cross about it."

"Ahhh. Wizard politics. I see. Well, I hope she learns a great deal and nothing blows up."

"I'm sure I don't know anything about things blowing up around wizards."

Wizard Relina returns from the upper floors of the Tower with a bag slung over her shoulder. "All right, adventurer, I have everything I need." She nods to Ilona. "Are you joining us, ah..."

"Ilona. Combat spells, stuns and binds." She smiles and shakes her head. "I can't get away on such short notice, my advisor would be cross. I might manage to convince him to give me a vacation in a few weeks. If you'll still be in Lumbridge then, Lily?"

"At least the next month, unless the fate of the world's at stake."

"That's good. I won't keep you any longer, then. Good luck with your research, Relina!"

"Thank you. Adventurer, shall we?"

And off they go. Relina isn't exactly unathletic, as wizards go, but the walk from the Lumbridge lodestone still takes closer to two hours at her pace.

The sun's rapidly setting by the time they get to the portal in the woods. "You said you'd bring a tent," Lilaina says, "but I'm not sure we'll have time to set it up."

Relina smiles. "It would take too long to set up an ordinary tent." She pulls a bundle of cloth, rope, and wood out of her bag, larger than the bag looks like it should be able to fit, and sets it on the ground a safe distance away from the portal. "However, I am a wizard."

She pulls a wand from her sleeve, incants sternly at the bundle, and in a blur of motion it leaps into the shape of an expertly-raised tent.

"Where the hell have you wizards been hiding that and can I have one?"

"The enchantments are terribly expensive, I'm afraid. I had to trade in favors for it."

"I have a knack for sourcing rare ingredients, if that's the problem. I'd find a magic tent extremely useful."

"Hmm." Relina peeks inside the tent, and, apparently satisfied with whatever she finds there, turns back to Lilaina. "I suppose I could put in a good word for you with Wizard Edevane after I'm done here."

"That would be kind of you. Do you need anything before I head back to Lumbridge?"

Relina waves a hand. "No. Thank you for guiding me; I have measurements to take now."

"All right. I'll stop in tomorrow."

She stops in tomorrow, in the afternoon. The portal's grown, not by much but visibly. Relina assures Lilaina that she'll have pinned down the rate of growth in another few days, and that it's definitely a portal and not, say, a bomb. "There was a paranoid farmer who came to gawk," Relina says. "If it was going to explode I'd be much more concerned."

It's still withering the plants around it. "If it's dangerous in another way," Lilaina asks, "could you close it?"

"Perhaps," Relina says, "but I doubt it's actively dangerous. It could be a byproduct of Guthix's death, if you trust the druids' claim of his death."

"I do," Lilaina says. "Could it be the work of a god?"

Relina frowns at the portal. "It could. Let's not jump to concocting wild theories just yet."

It's too long a walk to justify going every day when she was in Lumbridge to relax with her family, but Lilaina checks on the portal every other day, and every time it's grown. Slowly but surely, it strips the forest bare around it and leaves an increasing disturbance in the dirt. Lilaina has a deeply bad feeling about it, but Wizard Relina isn't so sure it's a malignant presence, and even if the portal is of divine origin Lilaina has no idea how she'd go about negating it, or even if she can use the power Guthix gave her actively instead of it merely being passive protection.

She stares at the portal anyway, thinking Stop, go away, close at it. If that does anything, she can't tell.

This is Lilaina's home, her safe place, if this is the work of a god let it be Armadyl, she's pretty sure he's the least worst option of all the gods who she knows might have an interest in Gielinor. It's not Saradomin, who's already back on Gielinor, and who else? Zaros? He already has a communion portal under the Varrock Dig Site, she wouldn't expect him to return to Gielinor here unless he can't actually aim. Bandos? Bandos would make an alarming amount of sense, if he wants to make another attempt at subjugating or destroying the Dorgeshuun. Zamorak? Some god she hasn't heard of? Maybe. She doesn't know.