"They said it should be theoretically possible but done very carefully, on account of the mals."

"I'd really like to preempt my funeral."

"Agreed. Alright, who's the best at Portals out of anyone we know."

"My mom." 

"--Really? You never mentioned that." 

"It didn't exactly come up!"

"I assume she's Rank Five, if you're just assuming she's the best." 

"She is also abnormally skilled with it, but yes."

"Okay, so for right now my thought is that we hit up Professor Agrippa for some more images, this time of wherever we need to place gateways, and then call in Lisao's mom to make the actual portals."

"What form do advanced portals take?"

"Gateways look pretty much the same no matter how advanced they are, the thing that matters about Rank Five is that until then you have to have been where you're portaling to."

"Okay, and what's our mals plan?"

"My plan was to choose somewhere without any mals as the staging point into your universe and not leave the gate open unattended."

"I guess there are not currently any in... Antarctica... probably?"

"That'll do, we put the staging area in Antarctica, leave the gate closed when not in use, and not open it without checking the area very thoroughly." 

"Do you have a way to get to and from Antarctica without any mals piggybacking?"

"Don't keep any other gateways open when idle either, check the area with violet glasses in-between?"

"Violet glasses?"

"Witches can normally see ghosts and spirits. Violet glasses are a kind of relic that enhances that kind of vision to see more detail and things that are otherwise hidden."

"Some mals are very very very hidey..."

"Divination might cover the gaps, like what Professor Agrippa did to find the three mals that snuck in with us."

"If we can recruit Professor Agrippa, that would be ideal, or at least get her to recommend someone else who's less busy teaching..."

"I kind of feel like this might justify an unusual outlay of resources such as taking a sabbatical but I guess I don't have a strong argument for why Professor Agrippa should feel that way."

"Not taking a sabbatical would probably be reasonable if she does have a friend who is equally skilled and less busy. But even if she's the best one for the job it isn't generally productive to assume."

"Even if it was someone who could be assumed to want to help, it's always possible something more time-critical might come up."