A loud bang rang out first thing the next morning, waking Cary. Her eyes flicked around at the space that she was in, confused about where she was. Startled that she wasn't in her bed at home, or tucked away in the chair downstairs. As the events of the previous day ran through her head, she realized that it all really happened. That she was really at some weird magic school, about to go to her first classes on doing magic.

"Best hurry up, girlie," Nelgomi's voice came through the protection of her makeshift curtains. "You still gotta get changed and get down for breakfast before classes."

"Are there school uniforms or anything?" David asked. His voice, coming from above Cary's head, was like a salve for her frayed nerves.

"Did you see any uniforms out there? Naw, just wear whatever. They did away with uniforms years ago."

"Would anyone feel offended if I started wearing wizard robes?" he asked.

"No one would be offended, but they're not that far off from bathrobes. You might get made fun of."

Cary stayed behind the protection of those curtains as she felt around blindly inside her suitcase, pulling out a clean set of clothes. But as she changed, she realized that she needed to pee more than anything in the world. That was one thing that she had been trying to avoid the day before. But as she continued being stuck at that school, she realized that was something that she would need to deal with. And soon.

"Think we can hit the bathroom on the way over?" Cary asked, as she slipped out from behind the curtain. Nelgomi was just pulling his shirt on as she came out, and he pulled it down faster when he noticed her there.

"Yeah, sure," Nelgomi said, in his typical gruff voice. "It's right outside. But don't keep us waiting. The bacon goes fast in this place."

Cary just nodded before grabbing her bible and backpack, rushing out the door. Despite not having the right books for her new school, even having a textbook from her old school still stuffed in there, she felt better having the backpack with her. It almost helped her pretend that she was still at home. And with the bathroom looking like a normal bathroom, with running water and everything, she almost managed to convince herself of just that fact.

David and Nelgomi were waiting for her as she came out of the bathroom. Nelgomi had his arms crossed over his chest as he stared at the door. Once Cary came out, he just let off a scoff before leading the way to the stairwell.

"Come along, girlie," Nelgomi said.

"Do you want me to talk to him?" David asked in a low voice, as they followed along after Nelgomi at a distance. "About the whole 'girlie' thing? He doesn't seem that bad of a bully."

"It's fine," Cary said, shaking her head. "It doesn't bother me or anything. I would have said something if it had. You don't have to fight all my battles for me." She still wasn't sure why the word didn't bother her. Perhaps it was in how he said it, never as a tease or an insult, and always with sincerity.

"I know," David said. "But sometimes, someone has to."

Unlike the night before, there were fewer people heading between the dorms and the mess hall. It was more of a slow drip, rather than the slowly building torrent. But as they headed inside the mess hall, there seemed to be a lot more kids already in there. Cary spotted Sam and Siobhan sitting in the same spot as the night before, with enough space across from them for the three of them. Once they got their food, they headed over to sit with them.

"Hey, guys," Siobhan said. "Getting settled in?"

"A little," Cary said, in a low voice, as she started on her eggs.

"Don't worry," Siobhan said. "Give it a few days and you'll start to get comfortable here."

"Yeah, get as comfortable as you like," Nelgomi said. "Just know, this school isn't yours. It's mine. Has been for as long as my ancestors came here."

"Don't listen to him," Siobhan said. "He's just bitter."

"What does he mean?" David asked. "How is this school his?"

"He means the dwarves," Sam said. "This used to be a dwarf only school, back before all the schools were integrated."

"Because the portal to the dwarven realm is here," Nelgomi said. "In the fairy mushroom forest, not too far from Nurombega."

"But there are all sorts here now," Sam said. "See down there? The brown skinned kids with the pointy ears and long noses."

"Hey, it's not nice to point," Siobhan said. "Especially at the goblins. They don't like it."

"And over there, those are the elven kids. The two groups tend to stick together, avoiding each other and the humans that make up the bulk of the students here."

"What about the dwarves?" David asked, looking around for other dwarves at their table.

"Nelgomi is the only dwarf in our class," Sam said. "They just don't make dwarven sorcerers like they used to."

"It's 'cause the humans took the heart of the forest," Nelgomi said.

"What's the heart of the forest?" David asked.

"It's one of the artifacts of magic," Siobhan said. "And it's a rumor that it was taken. None of the artifacts have been seen in centuries. It's thought that they're all myths."

"The broken sword isn't a myth," Sam said.

"And it's no rumor that the heart of the forest was taken," Negolmi said. "It's gone, hidden away somewhere, maybe even on this campus. Without that, the dwarves can't make new portals. Not enough dwarves are coming from our homeland anymore. Same with the other races. The humans are just trying to deprive the rest of us our chances to make sorcerers so that they're the only ones with magic."

"Nonsense," Sam said. "The only reason why there are so many more humans than the other races is because we have babies more often. Humans mature quicker, and all that."

Cary wondered about that, given how Nelgomi was already growing some facial hair. Was he just older, then? Were ten dwarven years like fifteen human years? Despite Sam always seeming to know everything, he might just be wrong. But when she glanced over at Siobhan, who usually corrects him on such things, she didn't say anything about it.

"It's not like humans are making portals all willy-nilly," Sam said. "The human realm is far more polluted than the dwarven realm is these days. I doubt there are many fairy rings left back there. And we're not making new portals either. Wasn't that what the war was about?"

"Oh, uh, I don't know," David said. "The portal we came through was new. Right, Cary?"

The group all turned to Cary, who had been focusing on eating her breakfast. When she realized that they were looking at her, she tried to remember what the question was. Instead, she asked one of her own. "Wait, what does being a sorcerer have to do with portals?"

"Don't you remember what they told us yesterday?" David asked. "When we first went to the headmaster's office."

"I was still freaked out about being surrounded by witches. Still am."

"Some people are just naturally sorcerers," Sam said. "Like you have blue eyes and I have black hair. But anyone that is in the magical realm for their tenth birthday absorbs some of the magic that is here, becoming a sorcerer. So, anyone that comes through a portal close enough to their birthday gets assigned to a magical school. Thusly, you're here."

"Did you just say 'thusly'?" Siobhan asked.

"But my birthday isn't for another week," Cary said. "And David's isn't till tomorrow. Couldn't we–"

"Nope," Siobhan said, shaking her head. "There have been people a month short of their birthdays that come here, for less than a second, and they have too much magic to be let back into the human realm. It's too dangerous."

"Dangerous how?" Cary asked. But all she got in response from the group were shrugs. Clearly, none of them knew what they were talking about. As Cary went back to her breakfast, she remembered hearing similar words the day before from the headmaster. It didn't make much sense then either.

"You two know where you're heading?" Siobhan asked, as she finished her breakfast and got up from the table. "If either of you are heading for history, I can lead you there."

"Nope, science," David said. "Both of us. But I think we can find it. We have the maps." He pulled his schedule out of his back, waving it at her.

"Just make sure you're not looking too closely at that all day," Siobhan said. "You know how some of these kids are with new students."

With a quick wave, she headed off. Sam was soon to follow, as well as many of the kids at the table. As the room started to clear out, Cary looked around for a clock. When she spotted the one over the main entrance, she also saw Greg and his new gang entering. She wasn't surprised in the least to see her old bully leading the charge. He would have wasted no time the day before solidifying his new rule there.

"Let's go," Cary said, losing her appetite under the specter of Greg's arrival. "I don't want to be late for class."

"That's the spirit, girlie," Negolmi said. "See? This place isn't so scary. Just don't get too comfortable."

"Oh, no," David said. Cary saw it out of the corner of her eye when David looked towards Greg. "It's just the bully we can't seem to escape from. He came through the same portal we did."

"Who? Him?" Negolmi asked. He pointed over towards Greg like it was nothing. Like he wasn't scared of him or his new friends in the least. "I can take him."

"Let's just not make waves, alright?" Cary asked. "It's a new school for him, too. I don't want to give him reasons to come after us. And now that we're living in the same building as him... I'm not even sure where we can go to escape him if it came to that."

"No need to escape anyone here," Negolmi said. "Not while I'm around. If he gives you grief, girlie, just come see me. I'll teach him a thing or two."

"Girlie?" came that ever familiar voice. Cary slipped further down into her chair, trying to hide beneath the table before he could come up behind her. But it was already too late. "Does this mean you're not going by Freak anymore? I was going to get you some monogrammed stationery for your birthday. Guess I should get it with rainbows and unicorns on it."

"Oh, I'm sorry," Negolmi said. "Are you two dating, then? Here I thought you were just some slug taking his insecurities out on the small kid in the class."

"What?" Greg asked. "No. What? Why-why would you think I'd be dating... that?"

"Well, why else would you be getting her a gift?"

"I... Let-let's go," Greg said.

Cary didn't look up from her lap during the entire exchange, trying to seem as small as she could. But she felt it when Greg moved out from behind her, heading over to the spot that he had been sitting in the night before. As the group walked away, she could hear their low whispers, jokes made at Greg's expense.

"Wow," David said, stretching that word out as he watched Greg's departure. "I've never seen anyone take Greg down like that."

"It's all in figuring out your target's insecurities and playing them up," Negolmi said.

"Bullying the bully. I like that."

"Wow," Cary said in a low voice. "That was just like Elisha and the bear. Maybe that was what Grandpa wanted me to learn from reading the old testament again."

"Again?" Negolmi asked. "Isn't the old testament one of those religious texts? Just how many times have you read the thing?"

"A hundred," David said.

"No, more like, forty-five," Cary said. "But I never saw that part like that before."

"Meh," Negolmi said. "Most religious texts can be used to explain just about anything. Don't read too much into it."

"How much time do we have before class?" David asked. "I want to finish these eggs before leaving. They're really good."

"Just imagine what the bacon is like," Negolmi said. "I'm not waiting on you two if you're going to keep me from bacon."

As the two of them talked and finished their breakfasts, Cary reached into her backpack, pulling out the letter that her grandparents had sent with her clothes. She had been too afraid to read it the night before. Afraid that they were angry at her. Afraid that reading that letter would somehow make her time at that school more real. More final. Afraid that they thought that she was a witch already and had disowned her.

Instead, all it said was that they loved her, they would miss her, and they wished her well in the new boarding school. There was nothing in the letter that made it seem like they were in any way surprised by the change. Clearly, the witches had already gotten to them.