“Yeah, well, it’s designed for students, not tech geniuses,” Hopper quipped. Then, she sighed. “Speaking of which, I should probably get going. Nile ’s probably halfway to the Imaginarium by now.”

I looked around and realized that she was right. I don’t know how, or when, but Nile had abruptly disappeared. I thought I would have noticed one of my oldest friends suddenly vanishing without a trace. But then again, I was in the ultimate Venn diagram of cross dimensional magical tropes.

Shrugging, I nodded. “Fair enough. Thanks for the info.”

“No problem,” she said, but before she could turn, she smacked her neck and scowled. “Ugh, damn bugs.”

I grinned. “Bugs exist in magical universities too? Who knew?”

“They’re everywhere,” she muttered. “You can’t escape them. Doesn’t matter what world you’re in.”

Jinx smirked. “Shouldn’t you have an affinity with them now, Declan? Y’know, being a bloodsucker and all?”

I shot her a glare. “Ouch. First off, rude. Second, I may not be a vampire for long.”

She returned my glare shot for shot. And I smiled inwardly at the interaction. Once she had made up her mind, she was unflappable, her earlier melancholy having totally evaporated.

I clapped my hands and then stepped between the two sisters, placing my arms over their shoulders. “Alright, lead the way, ladies. I have no idea where I’m going, and nobody thought to clue me in on what the Great Hall actually looks like. So, I’m blindly -no pun intended- relying on you guys here.”

“Oh yeah,” Hopper said. “Right. Forgot you’re basically on a ‘trust fall with the universe’ kind of journey.”

I exhaled dramatically, shaking my head. “Fantastic. Love that for me.”

As we started walking, I noticed the odd sensation beneath my feet. “Okay, so this pathway thing is… frickin’ cool. It feels like I’m walking on something solid, but there’s this weird -what do you call it? A hum? Like it’s a treadmill.” To my Sight it was a complicated pattern of interwoven lines of energy.

“That’s because it kind of is,” Hopper explained. “It’s built on quantum-based magic.”

“Quantum magic?” I raised an eyebrow. “Are we talking like Schrödinger’s sidewalk here? Am I both at my destination and not at the same time?”

“Sort of,” she said. “More like a Mobius knot.” Seeing my obvious lack of comprehension, she continued. “This path exists in every foreseeable direction at once, which means it can take you anywhere you intend to go.”

“Okay, see, now I have questions,” I said, rubbing my chin. “Foreseeable by who? The universe? You? Me?”

She shrugged. “Yes.”

“That was not helpful.”

Jinx chuckled. “She does that. Just roll with it.”

I sighed, deciding to give it a shot. “Alright, let’s say I want to go to the Great Hall. Do I need to have seen a picture of it? Because I gotta be honest, my knowledge of the layout here is about as solid as a fever dream.”

“Nope,” Hopper said. “You just need to intend to go there. The path aligns itself to your intent. That said, having a clear mental image helps, since distractions can make the path a little… unreliable.”

“Wait, so you’re telling me that all I needed to do was mentally chant ‘cafeteria, cafeteria, cafeteria’ like some kind of magical GPS voice command? I just had to want to go?”

“More or less.”

I sighed dramatically. “That information would’ve been useful an hour ago.”

Jinx elbowed my ribs, and I felt the sting. “So you got lost, huh? Why didn’t you just wait for me?”

“You know what? I could have,” I said drawing out the word as if I were actually considering it. If I hadn’t had Dom to escort me.

“But? There’s always a but,” she said sardonically.

I made a show of looking at the aforementioned body parts, and received another elbow in the ribs for my consideration -from both ladies.

“Ouch!” I chuckled. “But yes, like I said -if I had done that, I wouldn’t have gotten to go on such a grand solo adventure.”

Hopper smirked. “To be fair, magic doesn’t usually come with a tutorial. And besides, being able to split your focus -holding multiple intentions at once- is a key part of most spellwork. If you can keep your mind focused on where you’re going and process other thoughts at the same time, you’ll have a much easier time navigating magic.”

I blinked. “Okay, whoa. I was just trying to figure out how to get from point A to point B, and suddenly you’re over here dropping philosophy like I signed up for ‘Magic Theory 101.’”

If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

“She does that,” Jinx repeated with a knowing grin.

“What do you mean, ‘She does that’?” Hopper demanded, narrowing her eyes.

Jinx smirked. “I mean, you get a little pedantic sometimes. You love explaining things to people who don’t know as much as you.”

Hopper crossed her arms, affronted. “That is not true.”

Jinx shot me a look. “Tell me I’m wrong.”

“Ladies, ladies.” I held up my hands. “I am way too new to this world to get caught in the crossfire of a sibling spat.”

Hopper huffed. “Well, if that’s the case, maybe you can figure out the rest of it yourselves. Good luck with that.”

With that, she turned sharply and started walking away.

Jinx groaned. “Sis, wait -ugh, Hops! Come on!”

Hopper just waved a hand over her shoulder in a negligent, talk-to-the-hand gesture and disappeared down another path. Within moments, she was gone.

I tilted my head. “Wow. She’s got the dramatic exit down.”

“She does that too,” Jinx muttered.

“Yeah,” I mused. “I mean, doesn’t she kind of have the right to be ‘uppity’? Special magic and all.”

Jinx gave me a sideways look. “Oh, so you were listening?”

I smirked. “I have my moments.”

She smiled, rubbing the bridge of her nose. “Alright, let’s get to the admissions building before you start coming up with better comebacks.”

“Ouch,” I said, miming a wooden stake piercing my heart.

She punched my shoulder, and then swatted at a bug that must have landed on her, before sliding back under my arm.

“Lead the way,” I said. “I have no idea where I’m going.”

She gave me a pointed look. “You literally just learned how the pathway works.”

I grinned. “Fine, I’ll try this quantum magic trick.” I placed a finger on her lip and made a shooshing noise. “No distractions. No talky.”

Jinx laughed. “Oh, sure, Mr. Wizard. Lead the way.”

I took a deep breath, focusing. Great Hall. Take me to the Great Hall. I pictured something grand -stone pillars, towering archways, a place worthy of a magical university.

I could feel the shift beneath my feet, subtle but noticeable, like the ground itself was adjusting to my intent. The path ahead smoothed, aligning to my thoughts.

“Huh. Would you look at that?” I murmured.

“Like magic,” Jinx quipped.

“Ha, ha. Very funny.”

And then we started moving.

Jinx hummed under her breath as we walked. “You know, we’re kind of like Dorothy and crew heading to see the wizard.”

I smirked. “Yeah, except I’m the one without a brain, a heart, and courage, all rolled into one.”

“Oh, absolutely.”

I shot her a look. “That was rhetorical.”

We walked in silence for a while, the path shifting subtly beneath our feet, like it was adjusting to fit the contours of reality itself. Then, my senses were hit all at once -a wave of sound, a cacophony of voices speaking in dozens of dialects and languages. The air changed too, filled with scents- spiced incense, polished stone, old parchment, something metallic and ancient.

Jinx leaned in and whispered, “I think we found it.”

I just nodded, eyes locked ahead as I took in the towering structure before us.

The Great Hall. And Jinx pointed out that the Orientation Hall was also within line of sight.

Jackpot.

I stopped mid-step, realization dawning. “Oh. I have been here before.”

Jinx glanced at me, brow furrowing. “What do you mean?”

“This is where they took me when I met with the Director.”

“Oh. Yeah. That makes sense.” She smacked her forehead. “Duh. Of course they’d bring you here. This is the central nexus of the university. It’s where all the conduits connect.”

I looked around, now recognizing the vastness of the space, the energy humming beneath the surface. “Huh. Didn’t even realize this was the Great Hall. If I’d known, I could’ve just thought, ‘Take me back to the place where they dumped me,’ and I’d have been here sooner.” For some reason the melody of Paradise City started running through my mind. And I knew, just knew, that it was going to be one of those songs that wouldn’t stop until I’d heard it to completion.

Jinx smirked. “Well, you live and you learn.”

I exhaled. “Okay, so now what?”

“Now we get you sorted.”

I raised an eyebrow. “With a talking hat or something?”

Jinx snorted. “No, silly. That’s from a book.”

“Yeah, well, so is a magic school, but here we are.”

“Fair point. But no, they’ve got a way more advanced method of figuring out who’s who and what’s what.”

I gestured dramatically. “Lead on, oh great and powerful know-it-all.”

Jinx smirked and took my hand, guiding me through the throng of bodies. The crowd was thick, a chaotic blend of beings brushing against me -elbowing, jostling, pressing too close. And with each brush, I was hit with something new. Scents that curled in my nostrils, triggering something deep and primal. The warmth of certain people as they passed. The tantalizing pull of energy thrumming just beneath their skin.

It was intoxicating. And it was getting worse.

By the time we reached one of the scanning stations, I had to stop, gripping the edge of a nearby column as my breath came out sharp and ragged.

Jinx turned to me, eyes widening. “Whoa. Hey. What’s wrong with you?”

I swallowed hard, trying to steady myself. “I… I don’t know. That was -intense.”

She frowned. “What do you mean?”

“All of those people,” I said, my voice strained. “So many of them were…” I clenched my jaw, feeling my fangs descend. My tongue flicked over the razor-sharp points, and my gut twisted at the realization.

Jinx took a step back. “Oh no. Down, boy.”

I jerked my head up. “What?”

She smirked -though the smile didn’t quite reach her eyes. “You’re hungry, aren’t you?”

I let out a breath, trying to shake off the gnawing sensation in my core. “I mean… maybe?”

She gave me a pointed look. “You’re saying people smell delicious.”

I scrubbed a hand down my face. “Nope. Not what I said.”

“You implied it.”

I groaned. “Fine. Maybe. I don’t want to be a creepy blood-craving predator, but something about being in that crowd just… flipped a switch.”

“Well, yeah,” Jinx said matter-of-factly. “Because you haven’t actually eaten. And no, sushi doesn’t count.”

I shot her a glare. “Great. Good to know. So what do we do about it?”

“We handle it. ASAP.”

“No argument there.”

A nearby attendant caught my attention. She stood beside a large display, scanning the crowd with a cool, professional gaze. As we approached, she turned to us, her presence oddly commanding.

At first glance, she seemed human -tall, poised, dressed in sleek robes. But then I saw it. Her aura extended far beyond her body, stretching behind her in a way that wasn’t natural.

I instinctively leaned toward Jinx. “Uh. What exactly am I looking at?”

Jinx barely suppressed a snicker. “That’s a Centaur.”

I blinked. “Excuse me?”

“Don’t be rude.”

I straightened. “I’m not! I can’t see her properly. I get auras… patterns. And her pattern is weird.”

The attendant raised an eyebrow. “Declan. Declan Dark. Or whatever your full name is.”

I stiffened. “Uh, yeah. That’s me.”

She smirked. “Yes, we’ve been expecting you.”

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