Jeraldine Hogsmutter's Arc

Chapter 1 of 4

Jeraldine Hogsmutter wanted Galaria to be the greatest magical school the hidden world had ever seen. But tonight, in his tower study, he faced a plain problem. Young casters were waking up in the mortal world, and he had no way to find them. Each one he missed grew up alone, untrained, or worse. He had built a school with ten thousand books and no way to fill its seats. He stood before the dark scrying mirror. Its surface held tiny points of light, like a night sky trapped in glass. On his desk, Wallace, his green tortoise, chewed a lettuce leaf and watched. Jeraldine pressed his palm to the frame and asked it to show him gifted children. The stars drifted. They showed him nothing he could use. A flicker here, a spark there, scattered across a whole world. No names. No places. No order. "A map," he said aloud. "I need a map, not a sky." The mirror could sense magic waking. It could not point to a single door. For that, he needed someone who already lived among mortals. Someone who knew the children by name. He thought of one witch who did. Her family had lived in the mortal town of Marshwood for generations, running a shop above a hidden lair. He touched the mirror and spoke her name. The stars pulled apart. A woman's face filled the glass. Aleia Dalton-Romano stood in a cramped room lined with labeled jars. She was stacking small boxes, each one marked in her own neat hand. She did not look surprised to see a headmaster appear in her mirror at night. "You're the one from Galaria," she said. Short. Flat. She kept stacking. "I am. I need your help." Jeraldine chose his words with care. "Children are coming into their power out here. I can't find them. You can." She set down a box. "I know three on this street. A fourth two towns over. The school boards write them off as odd." She paused. "I keep a list. I don't hand lists to strangers." "Then don't give it to a stranger," he said. "Give it to a partner." Aleia studied him through the glass. Wallace shifted on the desk. For a long moment she said nothing. Then she pulled a thin ledger from a shelf and held it up. "Names, ages, what they can do. I've tracked them for years." She lowered the book. "But there's a cost. Something cracked near here last month. An old gate. A fracture down its middle." Her voice stayed level. "Something mortal is pushing through it, trying to see what's underneath this town. Me. My sons. Your children." Jeraldine felt the stars behind him go cold. "You want my list," Aleia said, "you help me find out what's breaking that gate. Before it finishes." Jeraldine looked at Wallace, then back at the mirror. He had his map. He also had a far worse problem than empty seats. "Agreed," he said.