Wait. Did he say student finances?

As I followed the cloaked man through the hallways, I felt sick in my stomach and knew right then and there that the magick world was too good to be true.

I knew how this was going to end. I knew exactly what was going to happen. It was so like everything else that had happened in my life.

You gained access to a hidden, magickal world, and now, as you’re about to enter this world fully, you’re going to be pushed out because of money.

I had no money. I couldn't pay to attend the school.

What am I supposed to do? Take out a loan? If I take out a loan for a magickal school, do they take my soul as collateral?

I let out a scared kind of giggle at this.

The man in front of me glanced back. “You okay?” he asked.

“Yeah,” I said, nodding as I smiled. Don't get your hopes up, Hexana. “Yeah. I'm fine.”

“Very well,” he said, taking his grey eyes off me and turning back to focus on where he was walking. He led me down the main corridor for a long time before he took a sudden right turn.

As we walked through the archway, I stared at the doors lining the walls of the hallway. The doors were all different colors, shapes, and styles. There was no door combination repeated anywhere.

We kept walking and eventually he stopped in front of a door that was wooden and looked as though it was rotting at the bottom. Tiny runners of green veins stretched up from the base and across the surface of the gnarled wood. The doorknob was black and shiny. It had a pebbly surface that made it look as though it was wet all the time.

I didn’t want to touch it.

Something about the door turned my stomach. Something about it made me feel sick, worried.

“You okay?” Grey Eyes asked again.

“Yeah,” I lied. “I'm fine. Let's go.”

I reached my hand out to touch the doorknob, my mind screaming at me not to do this, not to touch it at all, but wanting the man to know I wasn't scared, wanting to look like I fit in here. Before I got within even an inch of the doorknob, the man slapped my hand away.

“What are you doing?” he asked.

“I… was opening the door?”

“You’re a stick,” the man said. I stared at him blankly and he rolled his eyes. “Sticks can't open gateways.”

I frowned.

Gateways?

Instead of asking any question that would further paint me as a newcomer, I nodded instead. I stood by the door, waiting as he reached his hand out, turned the knob as though it was a knob anywhere else, and pulled the door open. On the other side of the gateway I could see the inside of what looked like a jewelry shop.

Glittering crystals lay beneath shimmering lights inside glass cases. At the far side of the room I could see a wall where there was a wooden grid that made up a sort of cubby system. Each little cubbyhole was only an inch by an inch, and every single cubby was filled with a crystal of a different color. As I stared at the wall, I tried to figure out how many crystals I was looking at.

“After you,” Grey Eyes said. I stepped across the threshold and entered the store.

I was instantly buffeted with sounds, smells, even a change in temperature. I turned around to look out, to look back into the hallway, but the door was already shutting. Strangely, the door looked different. On the side that faced the interior of the shop, it wasn't rotting at all. It was a perfectly normal door and the doorknob was the average type you'd see anywhere.

I took several steps back from the door and turned, hearing, for the first time in what felt like forever, the sound of my own footsteps on the wooden parquet floors.

“Come in, child, come in.” The voice, a man's voice, was coming from around the corner from where I was.

I stepped into the larger room and to my right saw a man sitting on a stool behind one of the glass counters.

“Come here,” he said. “Let me see you.”

I walked over.

“So, you're Hexana Covington,” he said.

I nodded.

He raised an eyebrow. “Can Hexana Covington speak?”

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“Yes,” I said, clearing my throat first. “Yes, I can speak.”

“Good,” he said. “Let's go with that then. Let's speak.”

I nodded, and then caught myself. “Okay.”

Over the man’s dress shirt and trousers, he wore a cloak that was unfastened. He was wearing it almost like a hoodie.

“So,” he said. “What do you think of our world?”

“It's nice.”

“Nice… hah.”

“I mean,” I said, not wanting him to think I was downplaying how nice the magick world was, “it's far more than just nice. I don't know what I'm saying. I'm sorry. To be honest it's overwhelming. I don't think I've ever seen anything so wonderful in my entire life.”

“That's more like it,” he said, fixing me with a big smile. I noticed that several of his teeth had been replaced with black teeth that had designs carved into them. These designs were inlaid with gold. “My name is Geist. And you can call me Geist.”

“Okay,” I said.

“So. You’re attending the Bristlebloom School of Hidden Secrets training to be a vanisher with the Austerium, correct?

I didn’t understand half the things he’d said but nodded anyways.

“Correct,” I said. “Lebec brought me here.”

Where was Lebec?

“Brought you here?” Geist asked.

“Well invited me. Gave me a card.”

“Ah,” Geist said. “That's nice. Unfortunately, Lebec has a habit of not explaining Bristlebloom or the Austerium to people before inviting them. Is that what happened? Did he not explain anything to you?”

“No,” I said, grateful to finally meet someone who was going to tell me something about the new world I was standing in. “He didn't tell me anything.”

Geist let out a deep, booming laugh that made my shoulders jump up to my ears.

“That is so like Lebec. Here's what you need to know. The Austerium runs Bristlebloom and neither is a charity. You will pay for your training. At the end of your training you will be offered a job. You may accept or decline this job. If you decline, another job will be offered. If you continue to decline jobs, you will eventually no longer be offered jobs. Does that make sense?”

“Yes.”

“In the meantime, you will not be able to leave the magick world until your training is complete.”

My jaw dropped at this. My car. My apartment.

“Is that a problem?” Geist asked, watching me carefully.

My car. My apartment.

“No,” I lied. “No problem.”

“Good.”

Where will I live? Where will I sleep? What will I do for food?

“I can see concern on your face, child,” Geist said.

I nodded.

“Bristlebloom will furnish housing for you. They will furnish food as well. Do not be concerned. You will be taken care of.”

“What about money? Do I take out a loan or something?”

“Oh,” Geist said, shaking his head. “We don't do loans here. Debt doesn't exist in the magick world.”

I frowned.

He let out another booming laugh. “In the Austerium at least,” he clarified. “In the magick world, sure, there's debt everywhere, but it's not like in the stick world. Most everything you'll pay for upfront or you'll barter for, trade for.”

“Trade?” I asked.

He opened his mouth and started to explain more, but then I heard a strange sort of buzzing sound from above my head. I looked up, twisting to the left and right, trying to see where that buzzing noise was coming from.

Geist laughed. “It's your crown. Your first class is about to start.”

My eyes grew wide. “My class? I don't even know what class I'm in.”

“Don't worry. It's not as scary as you think it is.”

“I don't know where to go. I don't know what I'm supposed to do. I don't know how I'm supposed to pay for any of this.” All of the emotions from the last hour bubbled up to the surface and broke over me in a huge wave, crashing down on me.

“Hey,” Geist said. “Hey, little stick girl. It's gonna be okay.”

He didn't know what he was talking about. He didn't know my life. Things were never okay.

I shook my head, tears coming, unable to stop them.

“Look,” he said, “you'll be given housing and as far as payment typically what happens is you take a job within the Austerium to pay off your education. You can do that, or you can work in the private sector. At a shop, much like this one, and make a little more money than in the Austerium.”

I nodded. I didn't have the first idea of how to interview for a job in the magick world. I barely knew how to interview for a job in the stick world.

“What about this…” Geist gave me an understanding smile. “You can work for me. How's that?”

Sunshine breaking through clouds. “You’ll hire me?”

Geist didn't answer. Instead, he reached down under the case and pulled something out. He placed it on the glass counter in front of me.

It was a bracelet that had three different colored crystals set into it. It was a silver bracelet. Very plain. No frills, nothing elaborate or ornate.

“What's this?” I asked.

“Put it on,” Geist said. The buzzing above my head happened again, three much longer buzzes than the first time. My eyes grew wide and I looked at him.

“It's okay. You still have two more sets of buzzes before you’ll be considered late.”

I nodded and put on the bracelet. Geist lifted his own arm. He had on a bracelet that looked much like this one. He put his finger over one of the crystals and closed his eyes. The bracelet on my own arm clamped down, not hard, but with enough pressure that it made me jump.

“When I have a job for you,” he said, “that's how I’ll call you. The witchstones in your bracelet match up with mine.”

“Witchstones?” I asked. Lebec had mentioned those before.

Geist waved his hand around the room at all the crystals. “These are all witchstones. You’ll learn about them in class. Don’t worry too much about what they are right now.”

“How much do I get paid?”

“Depends on the job, but the base pay per job will be around ten k.”

I gulped. “Ten k? As in ten—”

“Thousand dollars deposited directly into your school account,” Geist interrupted and raised an eyebrow. “I’ve been informed this is a good wage in the stick world?”

I nodded. “How do I find this door again?”

“Somewhere within the building that houses your living quarters will be a designated gateway room. Other gateways in the wild will be marked with a circle that has a slash. The bracelet is your key. So long as I've called you, you'll be able to open any gateway to go through and end up here. You're a stick, so unless you have a class or I’ve requested your presence, none of the gateways will open for you.”

I breathed a sigh of relief. One less issue I would have to concern myself with.

I nodded. “Thank you,” I said. "Really, thank you."

Geist let out another booming laugh. “No problem. Get to class.”

I nodded and turned away from Geist. I made my way over to the door and turned back to look at the shop once more.

Geist had come out from behind the counter and stood at the center of his showroom.

“Go on,” he said. “Just turn the knob and pull it open.”

I did as he said and saw that on the other side of the gateway was no longer that strange infinite hallway that looked like a cathedral.

On the other side was a classroom.

I looked back one last time and Geist urged me forward with his hand. I nodded, mouthed the words thank you, and stepped into my first magickal class.