It was early morning when Rosariel reached Toronto. She hadn’t slept since the night her parents were attacked in their home by hooded knights with glowing swords and giant wolves whose dried blood still stuck to her. She was presently parked by a street in downtown, dabbing her blood crusted face with wet wipes from the car compartment. The pale white sky was bleak against the shadowed towers and buildings. Wind whistled and howled from Lake Ontario. A building was under construction nearby, the sound of jackhammers and beeping vehicles shattering any hope for peace.

A middle aged construction worker approached her car from the sidewalk, a stupid grin on his face as he beheld the 70s turquoise Barracuda and her. His words were muffled through her closed car window, “Nice ride.”

Rosariel stopped cleaning herself, glowering at the man. His grin twisted into a scowl and he turned away, muttering, “What a bitch.”

She took a breath, bowed her head against the leather driving wheel. Her parents had told her Rosaldo was taken, and that she had to find and bring him back home. If there was a home to come back to. Last time she’d seen her father fighting the knights who’d surrounded him, using the martial arts weapon techniques he’d taught her over the years that Rosariel thought was just for show katas at her local dojo. Her mother had lightning powers also apparently, summoning electricity like a whip to melt off the giant wolves who had attacked them.

“My parents are badass,” she muttered. And they were liars. They’d lied to Rosariel and Rosaldo their entire life, knowing that magic was real, and now it was coming for them.

She waited outside the school campus where Rosaldo had gone to, opening soon at 7 am. She’d been there to support her brother with their parents when it was the college’s open house. Rosaldo had looked happy for the first time in a while. In truth, it was a relief that her brother had finally looked content and not aimless in life. She’d always been content to stay in their small town. Now, she didn’t know what she wanted at all, or what she knew past its closed off world.

Rosaldo wasn’t found in his apartment, the first place she’d checked. His backup key was still under the mat outside his door. Perhaps his classmates at this campus could tell her where he’d last been, but she didn’t even know where to look.

She checked her phone: 6:59 am. The adrenaline that had kept her up was waning, and now she was groggy and exhausted. Still, she got out of the car and made sure to lock its door before she entered the campus, a wide building with a glass wall lobby.

A security guard waited behind a desk, busy fiddling with his phone. At Rosariel’s appearance, he looked up. “How can I help you?”

“I’m looking for my brother. My family hasn’t heard from him in a while. His name is Rosaldo Ren.”

“Unfortunately, I can’t disclose any private information of a student attending this campus.”

“Look, I haven’t heard from my brother in days. He’s not at his apartment. He’s not anywhere. Last time he was seen was here. Can’t I talk to his teachers or even classmates to find out where he could’ve gone?”

The concierge sighed. “I wish I could help, but why not go to the police station? It’s by the next street corner past the food court. For sure they’ll help you more for a missing person. I truly hope you find your brother.”

Rosariel nodded, walking out of the campus doors. She sat at one of the benches nearby. When a student went to enter the building, she stood to ask them if they’d seen Rosaldo, showing them a picture of him on her phone. An hour passed of Rosariel sitting, waiting and asking. Noone had seen Rosaldo, noone even knew who he was.

A girl approached her, tall with silver bleached hair, looking like an alt-rock singer with her arm tattoos and nose side-piercing.

She said, her words with a melodic lilt of a Scottish accent, “I’ve heard you’re looking for Rosaldo. I’m Lorne, one of his classmates. Are you his sister?”

“Yes. Have you seen him around lately?”

Lorne shook her head. “Haven’t seen him in class for a day. Never seen him miss a class, actually. Is he alright?”

“That's what I’m trying to find out. I haven’t heard from him on his phone, either. Do you know where he was going last time you saw him?”

“Well, this is gonna sound a bit weird, but he was holding this card and kept looking at it. It had an address, and he looked pretty keen on getting out of class to go there probably.”

Rosariel held her breath, counting herself lucky that she’d met this girl. “Do you know what the address was?”

“I do. But I’d like to come with you. If you’re worried about Rosaldo, I’m worried too. I’d like to help.”

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“Ok. Sure, let’s go.”

Lorne told her the address was near downtown. The two girls went on a bus to the nearest subway station, saying nothing.

Until Lorne said while they were sitting down, “You look just like him, by the way. Are you twins?”

“Yeah. Born and raised.”

Lorne smiled. “That’s funny. Born and raised, he. Where do you think Rosaldo could’ve gone?”

Rosariel thought back to the monsters and hooded knights who had attacked her and her parents back home. “I don’t know. I just hope he’s ok, wherever he is.”

Although Rosariel was now sitting beside someone who wanted to help her, she didn’t trust Lorne. She was way too attractive to be a friend of Rosaldo’s, and Rosaldo was never good at talking to girls or making friends for that matter. Still, she needed to go where Lorne knew Rosaldo could’ve gone to, or had told her at least. From what she’d learned of the night before, appearances weren’t what they seemed when it came to magic.

Traveling by subway, they reached the station and walked along a street lined with tall and thin houses crammed beside each other. The neighborhood was interrupted by a small store complex. Lorne stopped before one painted evergreen door between a sandwich shop and a coin dry cleaner. On the door was a sign like a lawyer’s brass lettering: Curios & Liturgy.

Lorne tried to open the door, but the knob wouldn’t turn. Rosariel twisted the knob, the door opening without any challenge.

“Well,” Rosariel said, “that was weird.”

They went up the stairs to another door with a gargoyle door knocker, a ring between its fanged snarl.

“Creepy,” Lorne said. “How about you knock on it?”

Rosariel rapped the door knocker. Once. Twice. Thrice. On the third knock, someone opened it, a middle aged man in a tweed suit.

“Apologies for the wait,” he said. “My name is Henry Corinth. It’s been hell these past few days. Please, come in.”

Rosariel stayed where she was, crossing her arms. “I’m looking for my brother. Rosaldo Ren. Did he come by here?”

Henry said, “Yes, he did. He is now a student of the Order’s Academia for Mancers, or just the Academy for short, the finest school for Mancers in North America. I am its headmaster.”

Rosariel remembered what her mother had said of the word Mancer, a magician. And that Rosaldo had been taken by the Order, of which this strange man had said. “You took Rosaldo.”

“Not at all. Rosaldo came of his own accord, and signed the papers necessary to enter the Academy. I can explain more if you can please, come in. Your friend can as well.”

Before Rosariel said another word, Henry turned away into the shadow of the room. Entering it, it was smaller than Rosariel had thought, packed with shelves of ancient looking ornaments and trinkets, things that looked absolutely magical in nature. The room smelled of herbal incense and leather and cured wood. There was a window that filtered out the sunlight, like dark tinted glass, yet she could still see outside the street clearly without any difference.

She heard the ruffling of papers behind Henry’s desk. Two papers with two pens were placed beside each other on the table before two leather chairs.

“Please, sit,” Henry said. “These are your admittance forms. Take as much time to read through them before you decide to sign them or not.”

Rosariel sat down, holding the paper before her. She read the few lines that looked like they’d been written on a typewriter.

Several courses in Liturgy, Incantation, Ancestral History and other Subjects will be disclosed upon entry. All living conditions will be provided for under the Academia.

The Mancer agrees to follow the code of conduct and respects of the Order.

The Mancer, once accepted, cannot return to the mundane unless their term has finished and been formally recognized, or is stricken from the Order’s grounds.

One line caught her attention: The Mancer will study for a period of one year in a temporal field.

“It says we would be held for one year at the Academy,” Rosariel said. “Is that where Rosaldo is staying?”

“Yes,” Henry said. “If you refuse to sign this form, you will have to wait for three hundred and sixty-four days before you see Rosaldo again. Unfortunately, those are the terms and conditions of admittance.”

“Fine,” Rosariel said, jotting her signature over her paper. Her parents needed her to bring back Rosaldo. And Rosaldo needed her, she knew he did. If what she’d faced was any sign of what was to come, they’d need each other to handle it and save their parents, together. She didn’t even hesitate signing the paper, and neither did Lorne.

The girl asked, “Will we be allowed to go back home during this period?”

“No,” Henry answered. “Your lodgings and living conditions will all be provided for, as is the nature of this agreement.”

“Well, fuck, I wanna go to wizard school. Eh, Rosariel? Let’s go meet your brother and see if any of this is actually true.”

“Let’s,” Rosariel said, feeling more scared and anxious than excited. Scared in the sense that magic wasn’t so wondrous, but terrifyingly dangerous, in the shape of giant wolves and monsters and rogue Mancers with very sharp swords. Anxious that she and Rosaldo wouldn’t see their parents for one year. What would happen to them then?

“Follow me,” Henry said, standing up and walking to another door that Rosariel swore hadn’t been there before. “You’re just in time for class. Let’s get you two prepared, shall we?”

The headmaster opened the door, letting in a summer’s warm morning breeze of a flower hedged garden tiled with stone paths, boarding houses and a bricked building not so far off from a castle in the distance.

Lorne was quick to walk through, followed by Rosariel.

She would get Rosaldo out of this place, and rescue their parents from whatever magical forces were at work here. Magic was real, but the truth was more hidden than ever, and it was her duty to uncover it.