As weird as the outside of the carriage had been, the inside was even weirder. Weirder in that it wasn't weird at all. The moment that Cary climbed aboard the carriage, it felt like she was stepping into her grandfather's car. The seats were exactly the same leather seats, complete with seatbelts. The only difference was that the leather was green, and there were two seats, one on either side of the carriage.

The trip away from the clearing wasn't as long as Cary was expecting. The moment that they were inside, with the door closed, the carriage was taking off once more. She barely managed to get her seatbelt on before light was engulfing them. Without being able to see out the front of the carriage, Cary had no idea what was going on. Where they were going or when they would be there. But the moment that the light faded from the windows, the sounds of the horse's hooves turned from the dull thuds she had heard in the clearing to the more familiar clopping sounds.

"Woah," David said, as he looked out the window next to him. Cary looked that way at first, but when she couldn't see anything over there, she turned to the window next to her.

Instead of the forest that they had been in before, the carriage was suddenly in the middle of a city. The roads were all cobblestone, but the buildings that were passing by them all looked like cement. They stretched high overhead, much like the ones Cary had seen on her one trip into the city three years earlier. There were carriages all around them, some driven by dwarves, some by men, a few by women. The carriages ranged from simple designs that Cary had seen in children's books growing up, to the more elaborate kinds, even more so than their own. There were a few sleighs mixed in, and a covered wagon that seemed hopelessly out of place. But the one thing that she didn't see the entire time that the carriage was heading through the city was a proper car.

"What is this place?" Cary asked, knowing that she wouldn't get a proper answer to her question. The dwarf driving their carriage was too busy, and probably couldn't hear her through the wood and over the sounds of the horses in front of him. David, sitting next to her, was just as lost. Just as confused.

They weren't in the city for long. Soon enough, the tall buildings were falling away from them. What came up in their place was stranger still. At first, Cary thought that they were simply trees. They were tall enough, and she could only see the trunks most of the time. But every once in a while, she would catch a glimpse of something sticking down below the windows. They looked like branches, only bigger. Wider. It took her the longest time to recognize them for what they were.

"They're mushrooms," David said, jumping to that realization just before Cary did. "Giant mushrooms. Tall as trees. And hundreds of them."

"A mushroom forest," Cary said, agreeing with him. "How is that possible? Mushrooms don't grow that big, do they?"

David shrugged. "How is any of this possible?" he asked.

A few minutes after the carriage left the city, it was slowing down once more. Cary stuck her head out of the window, looking forward, trying to see where they were heading. In the distance, she could see a large stone gateway on her left, just off the road. There was a sign hanging down from it, but she couldn't see much of the writing on it. What she could see of it, though, didn't look like English.

"Maybe we're in Canada," Cary said in a low voice, talking to herself more than anything. A low laugh came down from the driver above her.

The carriage turned at the gateway, heading off on that side road through it. With how close the carriage took the turn, coming right up next to the stone pillar, Cary had to pull herself back into the window to avoid being hit. But as soon as they made it inside, the space around the carriage opened up. Off in the distance, she could make out several long, wooden buildings. Given the forest that they were in, she had a feeling that the wood of those buildings was really mushroom. As the carriage continued to slow down, it turned back towards the right, coming up next to a large fountain that was throwing water high into the air. It rained down into several basins, with the sun overhead throwing rainbows all over.

"Look," David said. When Cary looked back at him, he was pointing out his window. They were coming up next to another big building. It was a mix of wood and brick, reminding her of the haunted house back on her street. The place seemed to have that same appearance to it.

As the carriage came to a stop, the front doors to the building opened. The man that emerged from the doors looked almost familiar to Cary somehow, though she knew that she had never seen him before. He was wearing a suit jacket and a dress shirt, but no tie. Over the jacket, he wore a cloak, just like the hooded figure had the night before. It swooped out behind him like a cape as he came towards the carriage.

"Good afternoon," he said, as he approached David's door. "You must be David Rodgers and Cary Simms. I'm Headmaster Sparks. Welcome to Thorbjorg Prep."

"Welcome where?" Cary asked. To her, it sounded like the headmaster just said a bunch of sounds, without actually saying the name of the school.

"Thorbjorg Preparatory School," he said. "Some just call it TPS for short. But I find it better to give things their proper names. Names have been known to give a thing power, or to claim it for oneself. You'll find much power to be had here, but I assure you, it is all your own. Now, come come. We have to get you all set and registered before you can have dinner."

"Dinner?" Cary asked. Her thoughts immediately went to her house, where her grandparents were probably waiting for her to come home. She had a feeling that she was going to be far more late that night than she had the night before. But with how the men in the clearing had spoken, it sounded like she wasn't going home at all.

The headmaster pulled David's door open for him, motioning David towards the doors to the larger building behind him. The doors still hung open, showing the inside of the building. David just sat there, staring out the door of the carriage, blocking Cary inside. Cary almost wanted to open her own door, to jump down from the carriage and go inside ahead of her friend. But she didn't want to abandon him. Not while they were both stuck there together like that.

"Come come, David," Headmaster Sparks said. "I assure you, there's no danger here."

"I want a lawyer," David said, but his voice was barely loud enough for Cary to hear.

"You're not in trouble," Headmaster Sparks said. "I know, it's scary to come to a new place like this. But I'll be able to explain everything once you're inside."

"Or, you can explain it here," Cary said, calling over David. "Like how do you know our names?"

"Oh, that's easy enough," he said. "Magic."

"What?" Cary asked. Her eyes went wide when she heard those words. Suddenly, she saw the man in a different light. The earlier thoughts of the witch, fattening up the children, seemed appropriate. If this man had magic, he must be a witch. He must have sold his soul to the devil for power. Cary wanted nothing of that. And then, she did something that she deeply regretted later.

She turned and ran.

Her hand instantly went to the door handle next to her, pulling it open. The carriage didn't have any child locks, and the door opened easily enough. Cary didn't bother with the step, jumping down onto the bench that ran around the fountain. Her eyes locked on the gateway in front of her as she ran forward, trying to escape the witches behind her. Trying to escape the danger that she found herself in. The danger that she had left David behind in.

As she jumped off the bench onto the cobblestone road, she looked back towards the carriage. No one was running after her. No one was chasing her. She could see David just sitting there, staring back at her. But he was hidden in the darkness of the carriage, and Cary couldn't see the disappointment and hurt that was no doubt on his face.

She had just turned to look forward when she came up next to the gateway. As she approached the stone, she felt a shock flit onto her hand, despite not touching anything. It felt exactly like the static shock that she had felt in the haunted house, before the door to the back room opened up for her. But whatever it was, whatever the source, it immediately disappeared from her thoughts when she slammed into something solid in front of her.

Cary bounced back with the impact, falling onto her rear in the road. Her hand went to her nose, which took the brunt of the impact. But she felt no pain there. She wasn't hurt besides where she fell on her rump. She was just surprised by the impact. When she looked forward, towards the gateway right in front of her, there was nothing there. Nothing keeping her inside. Except, she had to have hit something.

Slowly, Cary got to her feet, her hands reaching out in front of her. They found the same barrier that she ran into. There was nothing there, no distortion in the air, nothing to see. And yet, it felt like there was a solid wall there, keeping her inside. Trapping her with the witches behind her.

"Now, are you quite finished with that?" Headmaster Sparks asked. Cary turned around, surprised to see that he was standing right behind her. When she looked up into his face, she realized why he seemed so familiar before. He had the same look about him as the principal of her school back home. An airs of authority that belonged to the profession. Witch or not, he was in charge there. And he knew it. "As I said before, there's no danger here."

"Lies," Cary said. Her voice was muted, barely audible. But the man seemed to hear her just fine. Seemed to expect her words. And when she said the word that terrified her the most, he showed no sign of surprise. Nor offense. "Witch."

"I'm not a witch any more than you are," he said. "I'm a sorcerer. Do you know what that is?" Cary just shook her head. "This is something that you'll be learning in the next few weeks, but... Well, a sorcerer is someone that comes to their magic naturally. It's not something they trade for or study. I assure you, I do not deal with the devil. He is not a friend of mine. In fact, many of the students here are practicing Christians. But they're all, every one of them, sorcerers. As are you, my dear child.'

"What?" Cary asked. This surprised her more than anything else that had been happening, ever since she entered that haunted house.

Headmaster Sparks just pointed at Cary, or more accurately her hand, and said, "Ever since you put on that ring, you became a sorcerer. But I have a feeling that you were one long before that. Come come. I'll explain it all."