Magical Basics came too early Monday morning. Evidently, other people felt the same way, as there was a consistent trickle of latecomers once class had started. Ms Sterling seemed uncharacteristically content to wait until the class had filled to start lecturing. They'd been learning the basics of the magical world and how it interacted with their world over the past week of class. Jacob thought he'd be excited for this segment of the class but he'd learned a lot of what they'd covered already from the MW Club with Malachi and the others. He couldn't imagine how boring Camilla or Archie would find a class like this. Even Grace's spotty attendance and half-assed attitude about classes was starting to make more sense.
Jacob glanced over at Blake. His roommate was rubbing the sleep out of his eyes. They'd spent most of the weekend practicing their resilience spells both in and out of the training rooms. Everyone was either training for the tournament or obsessively hyped about it. At some point posters had gone up all around campus, stating the time of each match of the Play-In round next weekend, as if anyone needed the reminder.
"Listen up!" Ms Sterling slapped her lectern.
The class quieted immediately.
"I hope everyone had a fun weekend. But! We are back to the real world now. Today we are going on a field trip."
The class broke out into excited whispers.
"Where could we possibly be going?" Jacob whispered.
"If she says we're going on a field trip to the library I'm gonna go back to the dorm," Blake said.
"We will be going to the Academy's Menagerie." Ms Sterling said. "For those of you that don't know, the Menagerie is where the Academy houses its plethora of captive magical creatures."
Jacob's eyes widened. He'd heard of the Menagerie, but had never been. Students weren't allowed to go, and besides, it wasn't on campus.
"The Menagerie is a part of the D'Angelo-Leonard Institute for Magical Research, which is housed in a separate pocket dimension that we will be travelling into." Ms Sterling continued.
The class erupted into chatter.
"I can't believe I'm saying this, but I'm actually glad I came to this class," Blake said.
"But how are we leaving campus?" Jacob turned to Camilla. "Aren't we stuck here?"
For some reason Camilla was pouting with her arms folded. She didn't answer him. Oh, the D'Angelo-Leonard Institute. Right...
Instead, Archie poked his head around from her other side.
"It's a separate pocket dimension but it's still within the time dilation."
"Oh," Jacob said.
"Quiet!" Ms Sterling bellowed.
That such a small woman could make so much noise still shocked Jacob.
Ms Sterling gave a brief outline of how crossing the barrier was achieved. First explaining—for the second time in the past week—that magical creatures crossed over by achieving a threshold of magical power too high for the fabric of the magical world, and breaking through the barrier between the worlds. And then explaining how human mages did it: Through a costly and complex Decomposition spell they would be taught in Advanced Decomposition the following term—should they qualify for the class by having a high enough mark in Decomposition Basics this term: The portal spell.
"First, the caster must seek out the fabric of the barrier between worlds. This fabric, just as the barrier is, is all around us. Finding it can be difficult, but becomes easier with practice. The caster then targets this barrier and the flow of magic between worlds and essentially hitches a ride along that flow, using their Decomposition to change the flow to accept physical objects. This momentarily opens up a passage that physical things—including humans—can pass through. This is also required to move between pocket dimensions."
Jacob scribbled this down verbatim. He was practically jittering in his seat at the prospect of going to the Menagerie, but the portal spell would be paramount to someone studying magical creatures. He could barely contain his excitement. He'd thought for sure when he came to Tisdale that they'd be going in and out of the magical world and he could finally get some of the hands on ecological experience that he was sorely lacking; finally see if he enjoyed ecology in the field, but that was clearly impossible with the time dilation. It felt like apart from the MW Club, his interest in ecology had fallen totally by the wayside.
Ms Sterling cleared her throat. "Now, gather your things, and follow me to the portal room. It is in the Elmore Building—the same building you were tested in!"
The class filed out of the auditorium and along the path between buildings, where they lined up out the door. They marched forward and soon were into the Elmore Building.
In a room across from where they'd been tested sat the two identical dark haired men who had been outside the portal to get into Tisdale. They ushered the students in. On the wall between them swirled a portal.
"One at a time." The man on the left said.
"Just step up and walk through." The man on the right said as if they were playing a carnival game.
And then it was Jacob's turn.
"Your professor is waiting on the other side." The man on the left said.
Jacob nodded and stepped into the swirl.
----------------------------------------
The portal dropped Jacob in a simple, unadorned white room, much like the one he had left. The room led into a much larger one, where the chunk of the class that had already passed through waited with Ms Sterling.
Once everyone had come through Ms Sterling berated them about being respectful, not messing with the animals, and listening to the people that worked here. She told them to pay attention because "There's going to be an assignment on this!" It felt like she was treating them like children. Would you say the same things to a bunch of seventeen year olds on a regular zoo trip? Jacob realized he hadn't been on an ecology related field trip since that one with the polar bear at the zoo in Grade 7. Then he realized he hadn't been on a field trip period since that year. He wondered why older kids didn't go to zoos as much. But then again, it shouldn't still baffle him that people didn't like animals or ecology. He'd learned his lesson with that ill-advised Ecology Club in the spring.
"Hey, are you guys excited?" Jacob asked Blake and the others.
"Of course, man. Rangers gotta deal with these creatures 24/7. Gotta learn about them sooner or later." Blake said.
"I'm actually a little surprised we haven't covered more on them," Grace said.
"I think there's a class dedicated entirely to magical creatures next term," Camilla said.
"That should be interesting," Archie said.
Huh.
Ms Sterling led them into a large, tile floored lobby. The front doors were glass, but when Jacob craned his neck he could only see another building across from them.
A scientist in a white lab coat stood near the front doors, her gloved hands clasped in front of her. She was young, her blonde hair pulled back in a frizzy, somewhat neglected looking ponytail. Her face was lined with fatigue, but her eyes were bright, almost crazily wide, and she jittered as if she'd just chugged a litre of espresso.
"Students, this is Dr Renault. She will be leading the tour from here." Ms Sterling said, before stepping off to one side.
"Hiiiii!" Dr Renault yelled. She waved a hand at them even though they could all clearly see her. "So, you're the first-year class this year at Tisdale! Wow! You all look so young!"
The class was silent.
"Anyway! I'm a researcher here at the D'Angelo-Leonard Institute for Magical Research!"
Jacob shot a sidelong glance at Camilla. She had an unamused look on her face. Well, that confirms it.
"Oh! Before I say anything cool, they keep telling me I have to go over the map of the compound! Last year we had a couple students get lost and end up in the hospital. Yikes!" She waved her gloved hands. "But don't worry. You're perfectly safe here!" Dr Renault skipped over to a diagram on one wall that showed several buildings. It reminded Jacob of the layouts he'd seen of hospitals.
"This big building here is the Menagerie." Dr Renault pointed at the diagram. "I'm the team lead there. We study magical creatures and everything about them! I know, right? Cool! This smaller building is where we do our actual research. This L-shaped building here is where they study the magical world itself, and this other building here is for advanced magics they can only research here. This one is the maintenance and systems building, and that is the armory. The building we're in right now is the administration and portal building. If the emergency alarm is triggered—you'll know it when you hear it, trust me! Everyone should meet outside the armory! If you get lost just keep walking around until you find somewhere you recognize!" Dr Renault spun to face them, her arms out. "Now it's time for the tour! I'm going to be taking you around the Menagerie, looking at different magical creatures and explaining their various abilities. After that we'll have a short free time where you can explore on your own! Follow me!" Dr Renault marched out the front door.
The Institute was clearly not built for eighty person classes. Jacob and the rest of the students squeezed out through the doors.
Jacob looked around, eager to see what this pocket dimension was like. The sky above was an indiscriminate storm, but apart from that his view was cut off by other buildings in the compound. The ground was a flat, smooth substance he didn't know.
Dr Renault led them into a huge, multi-story complex that must have been the Menagerie. A broad corridor with a high vaulted ceiling ran the length of the building. On the left was a large glass enclosure like one in a zoo. The simulated biome was like a rainbow forest, which was a biome common to natural crossover points between Earth and the magical world. It looked like a dense forest, except the trees' bark were rainbow striped, and the grass looked like slender fingers of prismatic glass. Thin evergreen creepers hung off the branches.
This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
A small creature thudded into the glass and dropped into the grass. A gasp rose from the students. It was the size of a small monkey, covered in grey fur, with little pink, membranous wings sprouting from its back and along the forelimbs of its front legs. Its eyes were black pits. It looked almost cute.
A dozen students bent for a closer look, a few girls cooing. Jacob leaned forward, a big, goofy grin on his face. He'd forgotten how bizarrely real the creatures looked. He'd seen plenty of pictures of them in MW Club but they always seemed fake, something computer generated. The old gears started turning once again. Questions flitted through his mind. What did it hunt? Where did it fit on the food chain? Could it fly with those little wings? How intelligent was it?
The creature chittered, the sound muted through the glass, and bared its teeth. Dozens of long, needle-sharp points filled its mouth, making its pit black eyes sinister. The students close by cringed back, one girl shrieking.
"That, students, is a pixie!" Dr Renault called. "They're a small carnivorous Producer of the family of fae that survives by mageiatophagy. They're quite rare, live in large groups of at least a dozen, and make their homes in the rainbow forest biomes found close to natural crossover points! Quiz time: Does anyone know what mageiatophagy is?"
Jacob waited for someone else to put their hand up but no one did, so he raised his.
"Yes! You there in the hoodie!" Dr Renault said.
"Is it like hematophagy?" Jacob said. "But for magic?"
"Correct!" Dr Renault jumped up and down. "For those of you that don't know, a hematophagous animal is one that feeds on blood to survive. Like a mosquito or vampire bat! A mageiatophagous creature is one that feeds on magic to survive."
"Don't all magical creatures feed on magic to survive?" The tall redhead who'd gotten the 4th ranking in the tournament, Sophia, asked.
"They do indeed! But the distinction is that a mageiatophagous creature can only feed on human magic! These are one of the very few magical creatures that actively prey on human mages in the magical world. Most magical creatures are simply territorial, or see human mages as threats!"
"Don't Producers produce their own magical energy?" Jacob asked. "Wouldn't needing another source make them a Consumer, technically?"
"Very observant! What was your name again?" Dr Renault asked.
"Umm..." Jacob reddened, suddenly wishing he hadn't put his hand up in the first place. "Jacob Caibo."
"Well, Mr Caibo, we classify magical creatures two ways: Firstly, how and where do they obtain their magical energy? Secondly, what type of magic can they use? Pixies can generate a very small amount of magic to keep them alive between bigger feedings, but rely on those bigger feedings to increase their magical energy. So in that sense they are a bit of a hybrid. However, because mageiatophagy is something separate from regular consumption or decomposition of other magical creatures for energy, it doesn't fall under the category of Consumption! Secondly, pixies can only use Production type magic! Thus, Producers with an asterisk!"
Jacob nodded. Hadn't taken them long to get complicated.
"As you will see today and throughout your lucrative careers as Rangers, many magical creatures don't fall completely within the lines of categorization. This is because every magical creature is unique, and the attempt to categorize them is based on individual or shared characteristics! Now, if you'll all engage your magic, you will be able to feel the pixie producing its magic."
Jacob engaged his magic. He saw most of his classmates tense up as they engaged their own.
"It will feel like a bright very red, red!" Dr Renault said. "It's small. So small it's easy to miss."
Jacob felt it emanating from the enclosure, like a single faintly pulsing red light.
"What you are feeling is the pixie absorbing the latent magic in the environment around it via what we humans call a siphon spell. This siphon is a Production spell that all Producers constantly use to absorb their magic. Most Producers give off a stronger signature than the pixie here, because they must generate all of their magic via the siphon. Can anyone tell me why a creature might have evolved to have a secondary method of gaining magical energy?"
The class was silent.
Jacob thought back to the that cacophony of colours and sensations when he'd been in the magical world. If all of those had been the magical signatures creatures had been giving off then...
He raised his hand.
"Yes, Mr Caibo!"
"If the pixie gives off a smaller signature would that make it more difficult for Consumers to locate it?"
"Exactly!" Dr Renault gave an aggressive thumbs up. "The key for a creature like this is to not stand out. Because the pixie's signature is so small, other Producers will stand out more. Be more 'visible' if you want to put it in human terms! Now, speaking of Consumers, let's go-"
A ridiculously loud cellphone jingle interrupted her.
"Oops!" Dr Renault said. She slid back her sleeve and examined a little watch on her wrist. "...Anomaly?"
She typed something in, then raised the device to her mouth. "Anomaly to be expected with 80 students present. Reset sensors and scan again."
"Is something wrong?" Ms Sterling asked, stepping forward from amongst the students. Jacob had totally forgotten she was there.
Dr Renault shook her head vigorously. "We have magical sensors set up around the facility in order to catch any offshoots from experiments that may tamper with the stability of the systems that power the creatures' enclosures. My colleague detected an anomaly, but that's to be expected with this many magical signatures suddenly showing up! Back to the tour! Let's go check out a Consumer!"
Dr Renault marched down the long hallway, arms swinging like a comic character. The class followed like a herd of sheep. Jacob took one last look at the pixie. It perched on a low branch, flicking its ear with one arm, gazing hungrily at the students with its black orb eyes. Sucking magic from mages? Wasn't that what the vampire was doing?
They came to a larger enclosure that reminded Jacob of seaside cliffs in miniature. Jagged promontories of black crystal rose several metres into the air. They were rough, chipped, like stone. Not at all like the smooth surface of black crystal where Sheriff Hueller and Jimmy and the others had fought the Reaper. He didn't recognize this biome specifically, unless it was a variant on that basalt glass biome.
A great shrieking came from the highest cliff. A small winged creature the size of a house cat appeared at the top. It looked like an eagle crossed with a horse. Lush, feathery wings sprouted from its back, and it stamped a foreleg that ended in an avian claw. It galloped to the edge of the promontory and leapt into the air, eliciting a gasp from the students. The creature soared towards the window, shrieking again. It smacked into the window head first and fell to the ground.
"Rufus!" Dr Renault cried. "Don't fly at the glass wall!" She shook her head.
Rufus stumbled to its feet and flared its wings at the students.
"Rufus here is a baby gryphon we rescued and are rehabilitating! Don't let his name fool you. Magical creatures are androgynous. That means they don't have sexes. But, I like the name Rufus, so that's its name! Gryphons are a secondary Consumer, which means they eat smaller Consumers to gain their magic. Don't be fooled by his size, if we increase his diet he'll grow very quickly! Wow! In fact, we're going to observe him eating since it's lunch time!"
Dr Renault disappeared into a door next to the enclosure.
Jacob watched as she released some of those silver crystals he had seen explode from the Reaper into the enclosure. Rufus consumed them eagerly. Magical creatures didn't have sexes? How did they reproduce, then? He'd have to ask Malachi.
Dr Renault appeared again. "Magical creatures don't go through puberty like normal animals do. They increase and decrease in size and strength and magical power directly based on their diet."
Dr Renault launched into an explanation of why this made it important to be able to eat a variety of different smaller creatures, but Jacob was still thinking about the mageiatophagous pixie. Was the vampire also mageiatophagous since they were doing the same thing?
"Next, let's go see a Decomposer!" Dr Renault said.
Once again they herded after the scientist. The enclosure they came to was small, dim, and featureless save for black blocks throughout. Jacob shivered, remembering the unsettling figure of the Reaper, and that creepy leech that had been on the chameleon's underbelly before the Dream Tiger had killed it.
There was something moving between the black blocks, an indistinct shape. It floated forward, bobbing up and down. The students closest to the enclosure cringed back, a few girls screeching.
The thing laid its hands on the glass wall of the enclosure. Its flesh was pale, clammy. Tiny mouths were set in the centre of its palms, two rows of razor sharp teeth seesawing back and forth. The hands were attached to skeletal arms that disappeared into the darkness. The body was only a vague impression, dark and wispy.
"The Decomposer in this enclosure is a wraith! Wraiths are notable in urban legends for being able to take on the image of someone you know. In reality, this is actually a Neuromantic Decomposition technique thought to be used to trick their prey into believing they are a friendly member of the same species. The wraiths use this to get close to their prey, usually a pretty big Consumer, wherein they latch onto them and use those ultra cool mouths on their hands to drain the Consumer of magic. If you didn't know, Decomposers, as their name suggests, can decompose magic. They take the complex magic crystals that give big Consumers their signature and power, absorb them, and break them down over time!"
The wraith shifted its hands on the wall, and its main body floated a little closer.
"Ooh! It seems Sarah—that's our name for the wraith—is eager to meet you all!" Dr Renault moved a little closer to the enclosure wall and beckoned to the Decomposer.
It came forward.
The Wraith's main body floated closer, and slowly resolved into Jimmy. He floated to the wall of the enclosure and pressed his forehead against the glass. He was looking straight at Jacob.
Jacob's heart stalled out. He clutched his chest and stumbled back and fell down. An icy, nightmarish fear froze him. He couldn't tear his eyes away from Jimmy. He was wearing his biker outfit and had that baseball cap on backwards.
How? How is he here?
Was Jimmy angry at him? After all, he'd died protecting him. All because he'd been too weak. All because that rogue mage had been after him.
In his shock he didn't even see the rest of the class reacting in a similar way. Some fell over, some screamed, some gasped and tensed.
Someone kicked him in the leg.
"You good?" Blake asked.
Jacob blinked up at his lanky friend. Blake stared down at him, golden eyebrows furrowed, dark eyes real, so deep and real. The pores and little marks in his skin and muscles in his jaw and cheeks stark.
Jacob looked back at Jimmy. But it wasn't Jimmy. Just a surface level illusion. A paper mask. It dissipated. Underneath was a vague humanoid silhouette that shimmered as if seen through dark water.
Blake chuckled and extended an arm.
Jacob grasped it and let Blake help him to his feet.
"Jesus Christ."
"Who'd you see?" Blake asked.
Jacob swallowed, his icy fear retreating. "Jimmy. That Ranger I told you about."
"Ah, damn. Sorry 'bout that, man."
"Who'd you see?"
"My grandfather. But he died almost a year ago." Blake said.
"Spooky, huh!" Dr Renault clapped her hands.
The class was silent, most of them evidently a little more than spooked. People were muttering about who they'd seen, or the craziness of showing a recently deceased person to them. Once Jacob got over the mimicry of Jimmy, he was fascinated with the wraith.
"Decomposers are rarer to cross over than Consumers, but they are the most often seen by humans around the world, around death and large disasters. The running theory is that something about these events—some think it magical turbulence caused by powerful emotion—creates a target, like a lighthouse they can sense, that allows them to use their Decomposition magic to project parts of themselves across the barrier between worlds and into the minds or spaces of those affected by the event. Cool! Now! That concludes our tour!"
Ms Sterling materialized and moved up next to Dr Renault, clasping her hands together.
"Let's everyone thank Dr Renault for being so kind as to take time away from her busy research to give us a tour."
"Thank you!" Echoed out around the enclosure.
Jacob noticed the wraith, which had been floating near the glass wall, quickly vanished back into the enclosure at the chorus of voices.
The students clapped and Dr Renault gave two deep bows that reminded Jacob distinctly of Archie.
"Your assignment will be on what Dr Renault has taught us today. It is due next week. If you would like to get working on that you may go back to the campus. If you want to stay and observe the other creatures in their enclosures, the Menagerie is open to you all for the next two hours. If any of you have questions, I'm sure Dr Renault would be happy to answer."
Dr Renault waved her hands. "Does anyone else have any quest-"
A klaxon blared out, cutting her off. An emergency light high up on one wall flashed red. Everyone froze, unsure of what to do.
An automated voice came on over the klaxon: The Institute has declared a state of emergency, all personnel to the armory. All personnel to the armory.
A screeching came from the enclosure behind them. Metal siding lowered from the ceiling, covering the glass, encasing the magical creatures within.
Dr Renault's wrist device jingled again. She answered it. "Malik, what is it?"
A voice responded from the device. "The barrier on the fractal enclosure is down! The creatures are escaping! Get those kids to the armory!"
Dr Renault blinked at the wrist device, then took off at a dead sprint, uncharacteristic of a scientist, her lab coat flaring out behind her like a cape. "Follow me!"
Ms Sterling called something out about moving in an orderly fashion, but the class piled forward like a mob. People yelled and called out to one another. Jacob jostled with someone next to him. His breath was coming quickly. This was crazy. Fucking crazy. Magical creatures attacking them while they were in class? He let out a little manic laugh.