The Doorway God

by Tom Early

  “Like the cheap shot you just used to beat me?”

  “Thought you’d like that one.” I gave her a knowing look. “Though there are also some, uh, destructive ones. You might like those.”

  Sam’s face brightened. “Gimme.”

  We spent the rest of the afternoon trying to find a way to fix the tree Sam “accidentally” exploded.

  I WOKE up early. I couldn’t sleep late, or much at all, considering how far my mind had gone into nervous overdrive. I showered, checked for the fifth time that my bags were packed, and threw on a pair of jeans and one of my nicer shirts. As usual, I checked to make sure my scars were covered by my shirt. Short sleeves weren’t really an option anymore.

  Winter’s possession of me during the Trials had left a mark on me that wasn’t ever going away. Once Janus University’s present authority at the Trials, Speaker Sekhmene, had gotten Winter’s murderous rampage under control, the university needed to find a way to keep Winter down. Headmaster Didas had covered much of my body from the neck down in binding runes by carving them into my skin. They kept Winter, and his powers, sealed away. I was just grateful he kept my hands free at this point.

  The scars didn’t hurt anymore, but it was still jarring to look in the mirror and see the red, fiery lines tracing their way around my body.

  My parents were both already up and waiting for me downstairs along with a mug of coffee and a plate of scrambled eggs and bacon. I made my way over to the counter and sat between the two of them.

  Dad put his hand on my back. “I’m not going to bother asking you if you still want to do this again, Fay, but just know that you can always come home if you need to.”

  “Just don’t forget to text, all right?” Mom added. “We’re dealing with you going off to God knows where for school, but we need to know that you’re okay. Especially since Janus University doesn’t have the best record when it comes to keeping you safe.”

  “I promise I’ll be fine,” I said, smiling at the both of them. “And I promise to keep in touch. I’m just… really going to miss you two.” After I said that, there was no avoiding a family hug. Afterward, Dad pulled a wrapped present from behind the counter and passed it to me.

  “I know you’re not sentimental, but I thought you might want this anyway.”

  I tore off the wrapping paper, revealing a small book with a picture of me, my parents, Sam, and Tyler, all grinning out from the cover. It was one of the pictures from graduation last spring. I looked at Dad, and he motioned for me to open it. I flipped through the pages quickly, then slowed down when I realized it had almost every picture my parents had ever taken of me. The first few pages showed me as a toddler, with solemn brown eyes and dark hair, often being lifted into the air by one of my parents, laughing and smiling. Then it shifted to the me I was used to seeing in the mirror, with snowy white hair and icy blue eyes, when I was about five.

  Over the summer, I had confronted my parents about what had happened, and they admitted they didn’t know either. We’d gone on vacation in Maine for a week, and when we came back, I was my white-haired, icy self. They admitted their own memories of the week were suspiciously absent, and more frighteningly, that they had never thought about it until I asked them. It was a scary moment—for all of us.

  I flipped through the rest of the book, seeing Sam begin to show up in the pictures, often pushing me around while we both had all sorts of fun, and then the last few pictures showed me and Tyler together, just looking happy being near each other. Somehow, it helped me slow down and breathe properly for what felt like the first time today. I closed the book and pulled my parents in for another hug.

  “I’m definitely bringing this with me,” I said, grinning. “It’ll help me remember that not everything is crazy and magical.”

  “That’s the hope,” Dad replied, smiling back. He ruffled my hair. “You’re going to make waves, kiddo. Go show them what the Hanson family is capable of.”

  Half an hour later, Sam showed up, her dad dropping her off. Janus University had sent the both of us an email earlier in the week, telling us when to expect them to take us away. I watched through the window as Sam and her dad stepped out, and he pulled her into a hug that lasted a long, long time. Then he got back into his patrol car, and she walked up to the door, dragging her bags behind her. Neither of them looked back.

  Sam opened the front door and walked right past me to my parents.

  “Mr. and Mrs. Hanson, I need you to check in on my dad for me,” Sam said, her voice shaky. “After my mom died, he wasn’t himself for a while. I—” Her voice broke. “I don’t want that to happen to him again when I’m gone too.”

  “Oh, Sam,” Mom murmured, pulling her in for a hug of her own. Sam didn’t resist. “I understand. We’ll make sure he’s okay, we promise.”

  “Thank you,” Sam whispered before stepping back and coming to stand next to me with suspiciously damp eyes. Just then, the doorbell rang. I walked over and opened the door.

  Aiden Ombra stood outside, looking as irritatingly attractive as I remembered.

  “Feayr Hanson and Samantha Gray,” he said in his lightly accented voice. “It is time to leave for the university.”

  Chapter Two

  SAM’S EXPRESSION was a terrifying mixture of calculated boredom and intense dislike. “Of course it’d be you.”

  Aiden smirked, his posture so completely relaxed that even I felt like hitting him. His olive skin was as unblemished as ever, and he was now sporting a carefully trimmed beard. It suited him, as did the perfectly fitted charcoal-gray dress shirt and slacks.

  “Who else? It would be a travesty to not build off the shared experiences we’ve already had, don’t you think?”

  Sam mimed gagging, and Aiden gave the slightest frown.

  I rolled my eyes. “Posturing later, please.”

  “Quite,” Aiden drawled. “If you’re ready to depart, please follow me. I’ve taken the liberty of creating a temporary portal to take us to Janus.”

  I looked back at my parents, who smiled at me. They came forward with my bags, set them down next to me, and welcomed both me and Sam in for one last hug.

  “Have a great time, you two,” Mom said, her eyes shining.

  “We will,” Sam said, taking in a shaky breath. “Fay?”

  “We’ll be back whenever this university has a break,” I said, my voice only slightly wobbly. “Uh, if it has a break.”

  Dad snorted at that. “Just get going, kid. We’ll do just fine as long as we know you’re happy. Did you know they have an email setup for parents too? They’re very modern for a magic school no one’s ever heard of before.”

  I grinned at that. Dad always knew how to make a situation humorous. “I’ll be sure to keep in touch.”

  And that was that. My parents passed me my bags, and Sam and I left the house. I glanced back to see my parents leaning into each other. I gave them a little half wave, suddenly choked up. Somehow it hadn’t hit me until now that it would be a long time until I saw them again. But they smiled at me as my dog, Lexie, poked her head out between their legs, and that was enough to send me off. I turned around and felt Sam’s hand slip briefly into mine, giving it one last comforting squeeze. With that, we left their sight.

  Aiden was standing at the edge of my backyard, next to a jagged hole in the air, its edges outlined with vibrant color.

  “Are we making a pass through Limbo?” I asked once we’d reached him. “That looks familiar.”

  “Yes,” Aiden replied. “Given the present, ah, instability, it’s the safest option available to us. Of course”—he pulled a familiar object from his pocket—“the convenience of a passage through Limbo is only possible with one of Janus University’s keys.”

  “Like the one the university gave to Tyler?” I asked.

  “Hold up,” Sam interrupted. “What do you mean, ‘instability’?”

  “More or less,” Aiden replied, first to me. “Though I was informed that Tyler’s key was
connected only to your room.” He smirked at me, his gaze wicked. “I understand that you and Tyler are in a relationship, Fay, but do try to resist the temptation to abuse his key. If the two of you are… together, every night, your schoolwork will suffer.”

  I scowled at him, my face heating. Sam did her best to hide a grin.

  “And when I said instability, I meant just that, Samantha,” Aiden said, turning to her. “I don’t have the time to go into detail about it, so let’s just say the usual territory disputes have heated up as of late. I suggest you look into it on your own time. Janus University has plenty of resources to help you along.”

  Sam and I exchanged a look, and then she followed him through. I took a look back at my house, the familiar sight calming me one last time. Then I grabbed my bags and stepped into the light as well.

  After my eyes adjusted to my new surroundings, I took a look around. There was what looked like a cobblestone pathway beneath my feet, extending off into the distance. Wrought iron lamps stood intermittently at the side of the cobblestones, lighting the way. The familiar white emptiness of Limbo stretched out into the distance on either side. Naturally, Sam stuck a foot out of the pathway immediately and waved it around.

  “Go ahead,” Aiden said, “it has as much of a surface as the pathway does.”

  I frowned. “What does that mean?”

  Aiden held out a hand and lightly tapped the air at the edge of the path. Ripples spread out from his touch, and I watched as the white light began to warp and shift until it coalesced into a tall, ornate mirror facing the three of us. Wow. My hair was really out of control today.

  “The majority of Limbo is uncontested ground,” Aiden explained. “Leftovers, as it were, from the creation of the universe, or at least that’s what most scholars assume these days. Anything with a will strong enough may shape it to what they desire… within limits. And anything made here lasts only as long as you concentrate on it, which makes it a marvelous teaching tool. Of course, the university is the only entity with access to it.”

  “Wait—you really mean ‘anything’?” Sam asked, her eyes bright. I knew that expression well; she’d thought of something she really wanted to draw, and Aiden had given her the biggest canvas imaginable.

  “As I said, within limits.” He waved a hand and the mirror vanished. “It also depends on claim of ownership. This pocket of Limbo is mine, so I am the one who holds sway over it. You’ll get your own soon enough. Now, let’s keep walking.”

  “Spoilsport,” Sam grumbled, picking up her bags and following me. The cobblestone path actually widened to make sure we had enough room. I wondered if that was Aiden’s doing or just Limbo being accommodating. Probably the latter; it was difficult to imagine Aiden being considerate. Although, he had shown he did care for my well-being at least a little right before the Trials…. I stared at the back of his head, considering. As if he sensed what I was thinking, he turned around and gave me what might easily have been the most superior smirk I’d ever seen, and I’d spent most of my life with Sam. I decided I still didn’t like him and looked away, scowling again.

  “So just out of curiosity,” Sam said, “why do we have to keep walking this path if Limbo is exactly what you make of it? Couldn’t you just ‘poof’ us there or something?”

  “If Limbo was the only space we needed to cross to get to Janus, you’d be correct,” Aiden replied. “But we’re crossing over much more than that.”

  Sam’s brow furrowed. “Did you take a class on being unnecessarily vague, or does it just come naturally?”

  I didn’t bother trying to hide my laugh at that. Aiden let out a little sigh and kept walking, not bothering with a reply.

  I wasn’t exactly sure how far we walked, since I didn’t have any context clues for distance. The endless white didn’t ever change its appearance, and the path remained perfectly flat. Eventually Aiden pulled his key back out of his pocket. The key I’d been given to allow Tyler to come visit me was a dull silver and had no distinguishing marks on it beyond two engraved names, mine and Tyler’s. Aiden’s key was polished obsidian and had several runes inscribed on it that I’d never seen before.

  He made some motion with the key and a door shimmered into existence at the edge of the path. It was made of some kind of dark, polished wood and had a simple metal doorknob with a keyhole beneath it. Aiden pushed his key into the lock, and I felt my shoulder muscles tense as a sudden pressure filled the air. He slowly turned the key, removed it, and then stood back as the door opened of its own accord.

  “After you,” he said, motioning to Sam and me.

  “Wait a second,” Sam said. “If the door’s right here, where does the path go?”

  She had a point. We’d stopped at a seemingly random point on the cobblestone path, and it continued to stretch far into the distance.

  Aiden shrugged. “All the way, I’d venture.”

  Sam gave him a look. “Now you’re doing it on purpose.”

  Aiden motioned to the door, ignoring her comment. “At your leisure.”

  Sam rolled her eyes and stepped through. I made to follow her when Aiden grabbed my arm. I frowned at him, and he let go but didn’t break eye contact.

  “Hold on a moment,” he said, his gaze intense. “Feayr, Speaker Sekhmene saw fit to inform me of what happened to you during the Trials, or at least some of it. Apparently your powers got the better of you, and certain preventative measures had to be taken?”

  I was suddenly hyperaware of the scars running up and down my body. Not your powers, my thoughts murmured. Not your fault, Sam and Tyler always told me.

  I swallowed against a sudden thickness in my throat. “Yeah. That’s the gist of it.”

  Aiden frowned. “I see. I won’t press you for details, but you should know that my duties as your evaluator are apparently far from over. I have been tasked to make sure that you don’t fall behind your peers without use of your innate talents.” His frown turned into a full-on grimace. “I have also been informed that any failures you experience will reflect poorly on me. That cannot be allowed. Understood?”

  I nodded. “Got it.”

  He smiled, all charm. If I didn’t still remember his shadows choking me half to death last year, I’d probably trust him.

  I turned to face the door. When Aiden had first shown up with the offer from Janus University, I’d had no idea how much it would affect my life. In the span of a few months, I went from dreading another day of pretending to be normal to fighting for my life. I’d had plenty of adventures, not all of them good. I’d lost a lot to get here. I’d earned my place.

  I walked through.

  Chapter Three

  STEPPING THROUGH the door felt like I was being squeezed down into a mold again, for lack of a better way of putting it. It was like I’d expanded or lost detail in Limbo, and now I was getting it all back. I shook myself out of it, and then I was next to Sam, standing in the center of a rune-inscribed stone circle. A pathway of beaten earth led forward through thick mist and damp air. I followed the path with my eyes and finally saw Janus University for myself.

  It reminded me of the Old Town of Edinburgh, which I’d seen the last time I’d gone on vacation with my parents. Stone buildings that screamed of age rose up out of the murk, and each of them looked fit to last for centuries more. Some of the buildings had flat roofs, some sloped, and the one that extended farthest into the slate-colored sky was topped with a spire. Light spilled out of windows intermittently, not all of it golden and warm. The roads were of the same cobblestone design as the path through Limbo, lit with floating orbs instead of lampposts.

  It was quiet, and I didn’t see more than a few dark figures walking quickly from one area to another. The air had a charge to it that I’d always associated with the arrival of a storm.

  Aiden glanced up at the sky. “Looks like we’re in for a downpour soon. Follow me.” He set off down the path, Sam and I trailing behind.

  “Where do you think we are?” Sam ask
ed, looking around. “This looks like it could be pretty much anywhere on Earth that’s excessively gloomy.”

  “Or off Earth,” I added. “Aria and most of the others from the Trials came from some place called Gaia.”

  Sam snorted. “If this is Gaia, then count me as severely let down. I was expecting flying castles, not foggy towns.”

  “Your questions will be answered during orientation,” Aiden called back. “For this and graduation, Didas himself emerges to speak with the student body.”

  “Good,” Sam said. “I’ve been looking forward to meeting him.”

  I gave her a nervous look. She knew full well that Didas was responsible for the scars that covered me—as much as I might have tried, I couldn’t keep something of that degree from her. Her expression reminded me why I did try, however. There were very few people on Sam’s hit list, but I was pretty sure Didas was close to the top. She was smart enough to know when she was outmatched, though, and I hoped that’d stop her from doing anything drastic. Looking at her now, I wasn’t so sure.

  Aiden led us down the path and into the center of the buildings. The campus was slightly circular—and small. At about the same time, I noticed it had neither gates nor walls. Odds were that Janus University’s protection came from sources unseen, and it was probably better that way for the rest of us.

  Now that I was close enough to see where I’d be spending most of the next few years of my life, I drank in the details greedily. As soon as I got the chance, I was going to wander up and down the entire campus on my own.

  Some of the buildings closest to us looked to be three stories tall, made of square-cut stone with glass windows fit snugly into the walls at even intervals. They had brass letters hammered into the wall above the doors, naming the buildings, though each one had an appearance distinct enough to be an identifying factor on its own. The one to my right, an old square building with stained-glass windows, was Iris Hall, apparently.