One week later…
Joe, Sam, and Fred are gathered in Joe's bedroom, standing in the same spot where Joe opened his letter from Horae Manor and the mysterious WW. Joe rereads the letter for the hundredth time. He can't believe this is happening to him. He'd be lying if he said he never fantasized about being whisked away to a magic school before. This was a dream come true for him. There was only one problem.
"How are we supposed to get there?" Sam crosses his arms. "Are they picking us up? Or were we supposed to buy plane tickets?"
Joe scratches the back of his head. "I'm not sure. The letter only says to be prepared to leave promptly in a week. I assume someone's coming to get us. That's what I told my mom at least."
The boys had invented the lie that one of Joe's relatives had paid for them all to go to a summer camp for the last few weeks of summer break. They would all be back in time to start school again in the fall. If they ever left in the first place. Joe's bedroom was crowded with luggage.
"Should we be waiting outside?" Fred glances out the window. The streets below are empty. No one appears to be coming.
"Look, I don't have the answers, okay? I'm just hoping things will work out like they always do." Joe glares at his two best friends, a buzzing building up in his head. "And I'd appreciate it if you two would stop nagging me about it."
Sam and Fred exchange worried looks. "No one's nagging you about anything, dude."
"Kinda seems like you are."
Fred and Sam decide not to push the subject anymore. The trio continues to stand around the room in silence, awkwardly shuffling their feet every now and then. Five minutes go by, then ten, then twenty.
Joe can't remember a time when things were this tense among the three of them. For as long as he can remember, they've been best friends, inseparable. He felt bad for snapping at them, but he was under a lot of pressure. Receiving a letter to go to a magic school was not normal. Even with his life. All he could do was hope that things would go back to normal soon enough. He would go to this Horae Manor, study magic, become a master magician, and find his Uncle Joe. If he had to have some epic showdown with his evil uncle along the way, then so be it. Joe could handle it. As long as he became a master magician first. A Warp Wizard.
"Maybe I'm supposed to warp there? Like some sort of test?" Joe digs through his backpack to pull out The Book and begins flipping through the pages. He had searched through it in depth over the past week, desperate to find any information on Horae Manor. Of course, there was nothing. The Book had a tendency to reveal information at its own pace.
"Or maybe that letter will burst into flames again and give us some directions." Sam wrinkles his nose at the golden letter, as if it were to blame for all his problems.
"Where's your sense of adventure, Sam?" Fred lightly nudges Sam's shoulder. "Joe's finally taking your advice and learning how to use The Book. At least be happy about that."
"Why did he need to drag me into it?"
Joe barely hears them, he's too focused on the letter. There must be something he's missing. A secret code? An invisible button?
With a heavy sigh, he drops the letter to the ground. Maybe this was all some stupid prank from one of those kids who liked to tease him at school because he was into magic tricks. Horae Manor doesn't exist. There's no such thing as a magic school in real life.
Joe would never find his uncle. If nothing happened in the next fifteen minutes, he would give up.
The letter gracefully floats toward the ground and settles on the floor.
A sharp cracking noise snaps through the silence and a blazing white light fills the room. Blinking away the black spots dancing in front of their eyes, the trio watches as a violet oval appears and floats in the air before them. Purple sparks and small lightning bolts dance around the edges of the oval. The outline is jagged, as if someone ripped the shape out of a piece of paper. The violet oval reveals nothing.
"Let me guess, we have to walk through the mysterious purple portal?" Sam rolls his eyes. "Why couldn't they just send a car? I'm not walking through anything that's shooting off lightning bolts."
"I don't think you have a choice." Joe tentatively walks around what he assumes is a portal of some kind. It's two-dimensional, and if he stands in the right spot, he can't see it all. But when he moves to the other side, it reappears and looks identical to the front side. "Do you think it's safe?"
"No," Sam says at the same time Fred says, "Sure."
"Oh, come on. They wouldn't send us some death portal." Fred grabs his bag off the floor. "Let's get going." With a grin, he jumps through the oval without waiting for Joe and Sam. It swallows him whole.
Sam scratches the back of his neck. "Well, it didn't look like it hurt…" He slips his hand into the portal and pulls it back out. "It kind of tingles." He looks at Joe. "Should we go?"
"After you." Joe waves his arms in a grand gesture towards the portal.
With a shake of his head, Sam grabs his luggage and steps through the oval.
Left alone in his room, Joe pauses to glance at all of his belongings, the old photos on the wall, his favourite Houdini poster… All of it feels like it belongs to a different person now. He looks back at the portal. A thousand questions spun around in his head. There was only one way to answer them.
He slings on his backpack, feeling the weight of The Book against his back, and grabs the invitation off the floor. "Here I go." Taking a deep breath, Joe steps into the purple portal.
And out into a place of wonder. Joe instantly knows he is no longer on Earth.
The portal behind him disappears, but he barely notices, too distracted by the sight in front of him. His eyes are first drawn to the sky. It bears no resemblance to the bright blue sky he's used to. This sky is a mix of indigo, violet, navy, black, and pink. The colors blend together forming clouds that look like an artist's palette. Silver stars shine brighter than diamonds. A shooting star streaks across the sky, leaving a trail of neon green in its wake. An ivory moon, larger than the one on Earth, looms low over the ground.
Under the cosmos, grass sprawls out in a great field. Patches of multicolored flowers sprinkle the yard. Off to the side, a series of small pools of water flow into several slim streams. The water reflects the sky and the stars floating high above and sparkles in the golden moonlight. The streams weave around the ground and flow directly off the edge of the land. The round plot of land he is standing on is floating over nothingness. It's surrounded by space on all sides.
Joe's eyes drift over the expansive building in front of him. Horae Manor. The manor is as intimidating as it is inviting. It's three stories tall and wide enough to cover a football field. The lights attached to the columns around the entrance create a warm, welcoming glow. The columns, as well as the rest of the building, are completely made of white marble. Grand windows dot the sides, but are shaded so that no one can see inside them. A semi-circular balcony hangs over the front door.
Joe is entranced by the view. The house, the sky, the fact that he was standing on a massive floating rock, is almost too much for him to take in. He steps forward, desperate to go inside. The manor dares him to discover its secrets.
"What took you so long?"
Joe jumps at the sudden voice. He twists around to find Sam and Fred standing behind him. Fred has a toothy grin on his face, while Sam's mirrors Joe's expression of wonderment.
"Where are we?" Sam stares at the sky, spinning around to get the full view. He notices the edge of the world and blinks in surprise. "This can't be real. Where on Earth could this place exist?"
"Not on Earth." Joe turns back to the house. "I don't think we're even in the same galaxy as Earth."
"Well, what are we waiting for? We have to go inside." Fred steps up, pulling Joe and Sam with him. "Let's go make some magic!"
The trio grabs their bags and moves up to the front doors. In the center of the tan wood, a sigil shaped like a clock face is carved. Roman numerals circle the outside of it, but at the center lies a green hourglass. Staring closely, Joe notices the grains of sand are actually spilling into the bottom half, and the clock hands slowly tick their way through time. Somehow, this wooden carving is functioning.
Joe grins to himself. Magic.
Equally spaced out within the clock face, rest four circles, each with a different symbol inside. In the top circle, an odd green geometric shape is carved into the doors. It shows a small diamond shape trapped inside a larger square, with the corners of the diamond, touching the sides of the square. A cross runs through both shapes, connecting them to the outline of the circle. On the bottom of the clock, directly above the Roman numeral VI, is a similar, but different purple geometric shape. It's the reverse of the one above it. In this one, a small square is fitted inside a diamond, with a cross running through both of them and connecting them to the circle surrounding the shape. On the right side of the clock face, a symbol Joe has never seen before is shown in the circle. It resembles a cross tipped over on its side, with a ring attached the left tip. It is a slightly darker shade of silver than the other symbol on the left side of the clock face. This other symbol is also completely unfamiliar to Joe. Like the other one, it resembles a cross, but this one is standing straight up, and the ring is attached to the top and two curved lines stick out. On the bottom, a downward bent line is attached.
"Are you going to knock, or…" Fred pokes Joe in the shoulder, snapping him back into the present.
"Yeah, sorry." Ignoring the urge to stare at the image in the doors some more, Joe reaches out and firmly knocks. A chill goes down his spine. This is it. He was on his way to becoming a wizard.
It takes a moment, but eventually, the doors swing wide open. A pair of smiling faces greets the boys on the other side.
They speak in unison, "Welcome to Horae Manor, Joseph Arthur. We've been expecting you."
Joe's heart skips a beat. He rushes inside, eyes lighting up and taking in every single thing in the foyer. It's a grand entrance, complete with a broad staircase, a crystal chandelier, towering columns, and statues standing guard along the walls. The whole room was bathed in a golden light. He couldn't wait to explore the rest of the manor.
He spins back around to the people who greeted him. A man and a woman stand in the doorway, watching Joe with soft smiles. They both look to be in their mid-thirties. Their glowing eyes immediately draw him in. The man's eyes are a startlingly bright green, while the woman's are a dark violet, matching the color of the sky outside.
"I'm sure you have a lot of questions," the man says. "Let me start by introducing myself. My name is Cassius, and this," he gestures to the woman next to him, "is my partner, Rowena. We are the current Warp and Aether Wizards, and we're here to guide you into the world of magic."