The Headmistress of Yawana stepped into the courtyard, her silver-white robes whispering across the green grass. The air was unnaturally cool in the aftermath of the serpent's departure. She wondered if it was simply one of the effects the creature had on the environment around it. Her deft eye noticed that the tree still shimmered faintly at the roots.
The teaching staff stood silently, clustered near the willow, their expressions drawn in disbelief and confusion.
"Circle. Now," said Headmistress Adara quietly.
They all obeyed without hesitation, forming a ring beside the ancient willow. Their robes rustled as the wind picked up.
The Headmistress didn't reply. She simply raised her wand with elegant precision and began tracing luminous sigils in the air. Her lips moved silently, as if in prayer and the ground glowed faintly in white light emanating from her wand, and suddenly the outline of the gateway reappeared. A faint, pulsing doorway of impossible light. Then it disappeared in darkness just as fast and the Headmistress sat down on the grass breathing deep.
It had taken far too much of her power to just illuminate the gateway.
Professor Sheila let out a sharp breath. "Oh my god! So, it's true."
"Get yourself together," grumbled old-man Elias, coughing into his sleeve. "Headmistress Adara… please."
Adara turned to them at last, her face pale with exhaustion. "Elias, I'm afraid I cannot possibly say that," she said calmly. "Because that would simply not be true."
A silence dropped like a stone. The Professors exchanged stunned looks.
"Listen closely to be now," Adara said, her voice now colder, measured. "This here is a gateway and someone in this school had not only opened it but travelled through and brought a sea serpent through it."
"Then…then… then we must seal this courtyard off. But can there be other gateways in the school." Professor Nico said clearly distressed.
"No that will just create more trouble." Sidharta said waving his hand.
"Yes, there will be no sealing off of grounds. We must not let hysteria spread around this incident."
"But Headmistress…"
"You are all to return to your duties. I want the heads of each House to increase vigilance. Any unusual activities by students or staff are to be reported directly to me and me alone. Every teacher will watch the corridors, the practice grounds, the common rooms. Pay attention so that nothing foolish happens due to idle curiosity."
Nico frowned. "Do you suspect one of us?"
"A Gateway," she said in a sharp voice and continued "That is what we have all discovered. Something that is kept as a matter of greatest secrecy by the Shadow Sorcerers and the Parliament of Magi. So, suspicions will be on all of us including me until we find out exactly what happened."
"She's right," muttered Sheila.
"How?" Nico asked scratching his beard.
"An independent tribunal will be set up most probably by the Parliament. And they'll see to it."
"Excuse me, Headmistress," old-man Elias said, his voice quieter. "That serpent, was it… was it what I think it was?"
Adara looked at him smiling "Yes. It was a River Serpent."
She remembered the tales of river serpents. How they were spoken of in tails of sailors as these magical creatures who lived in the deepest rivers, long before the Breaking. In many tales they were protectors and in some vengeful beasts but in most they were omens of great change. Their powers were never recorded accurately or in detail and no one in over two centuries had ever seen one alive or dead until now.
"So, they truly exist?" whispered Sheila, eyes wide with disbelief.
Adara nodded faintly. "They always have."
A thick silence followed. Then Adara stepped back from the willow, her gaze lingering just a second longer on its roots.
"Pay close attention moving forward. I'm leaving to inform the Parliament and Mahamantor of this development."
They all nodded. The Headmistress then turned and walked away, her voice was a quiet murmur now, meant only for herself "And change… what change are you bringing, old serpent?"
***
Rose was sitting in the library, pretending to read so no one would bother her. Her eyes skimmed the lines, but it was all gibberish as her mind was elsewhere. Her mind was haunted by the shimmer under the willow tree, that impossible beast who looked like a serpent but had flown away like a dragon.
And then there were all these rumors about what that beast and other scary things which lay inside that gateway. Some were already calling it the Apocalypse.
Dragon-shit, Rose thought. All of it. Gateways? Serpents? What next — phoenixes weeping prophecy?
Rose slammed the book shut. So far every book she had picked up seemed utterly useless. She had already searched half the shelves in the Professors Only section and so far she hadn't found zilch. There was nothing on Gateways as if they were not real.
Footsteps echoed near her table and she saw Julie and Angela slipping into the chairs across from her. Angela tilted her head. "It's way too early in the day for you to be that mad."
Julie smirked. "What's got you gritting your teeth, Rosie?"
Rose gave them both a narrowed look. "If you're here to parrot gossip, save it for someone with a lower IQ."
Angela raised her hands. "Relax! We're as clueless as you are."
"So, first things first. Are we really sure that it was a Gateway? Or just a last hurrah sorta prank by the boys of Cravo house." Julie asked excitedly.
Rose scoffed. "Oh, it was real."
Angela frowned. "Yeah, you'd know."
Rose looked at Angela narrowing her eyes again. People always took jabs at her as her mother was an important minister in the Parliament.
"What do you think happened?" Julie asked.
Rose said, her voice lowering. "I don't know. All we know of Gateways are from the First Laws don't we."
"Yeah. Those, whom the fire has consumed may stand with the staff, stepping through gateways to seek the treasure troves of the world that once was." Angela quoted from memory.
Rose looked at both of them, chin slightly raised. "There are some wizards and witches who can wield staffs. But few of them are alive now. Besides all gateways are known and guarded by the Shadow Sorcerers."
"At least, that's what we thought," Angela said, smiling smugly.
"Now we know they don't know them all and they definitely can't guard them all. Not if those creatures live inside them." Julie said shaking her head.
Rose smirked, standing up. "Come on. We need some more information and I know just whom to get it from."
***
The class was already half full by the time the three girls slipped into their seats. Professor Elias was fiddling with a faded projector orb, which sputtered and hummed with dim light. Maps of the seven kingdoms hung along the cracked stone walls. A skeleton of a long-extinct yellow desert-dragon stared at the students from the corner.
"Settle down, settle down," Professor Elias said, coughing. "Today's lecture will cover the history of the Treaty of the Hollow Vale and…"
"Professor?" Rose raised her hand, cutting him off.
The old man blinked. "Yes, Miss Fontaine?"
Rose stood and asked her voice honey. "Please can you tell us about Gateways?"
The class collectively inhaled.
Elias stared at her. "Gateways?"
"Sir, we know nothing about it. All we do know is wild gossip." she pressed on. "I think it'd be better if someone who had actual knowledge about them could tell us something. After all we saw the incident in front of our own eyes."
The old man looked around. His expression shifted varied from surprise to a haunted weariness.
"I don't answer to gossip," he said flatly, "and you'd be wise not to chase phantoms."
"I don't chase phantoms," said Rose, her voice still sweet. "I just don't want to be scared. So do all of us"
The room was silent. Elias sighed and turned toward the dusty blackboard and muttered "Alright, fine."
With a wave of his hand, a map of the ancient world unfolded in the air and a floating parchment with cities no longer alive and rivers that no longer flowed.
"Gateways," he said at last, "by most accounts were not doors. Well at least not in the way you think of them. They were thresholds. Some led to other places. Some to other selves of your own and some could take in and out of time. These are all unsubstantiated claims, of course because there are no verified tales of people travelling in these gateways."
"How were they made?"
"Well in my research I have come to the conclusion that they were never built, they were always there. Whoever made the otherworld made these gateways too."
Angela leaned forward, whispering almost, "So the Sentinels made it."
The old man chuckled "Some believe that, yes, some don't. Children you must understand, these are old lores and highly unreliable. What you saw was a cosmic accident. Be glad that you witnessed it."
"But what does it mean?" Rose asked irritated. Elias continued, his voice softer now. "No one knows Ms. Fontaine."
"What were they used for?" someone from the back asked. "You know the first laws. They are said to contain huge treasures." he said tired now of all the questions.
Rose felt the quiet in the room. The old man walked to the blackboard and waved a wand at the orb projector. "Let's start with the lesson. You don't have too many of them left and after the Dueling finals you will have to actually write the finals."
The students groaned and began pulling out their books and parchments. Rose remained fixated on the image in her mind of the serpent, the portal, the silence in the library. She felt it in her bones that she'd open one gateway to find out the truth.