Jeraldine Hogsmutter's Arc

Chapter 3 of 4

Jeraldine stood at the cracked gate near Marshwood with the vial of binding sap in his fist. The fracture ran top to bottom now. He could pour the sap, but the sap needed a steady gate, and this gate shook with every pull from his own side. If it gave out first, mortals would spill through before he sealed it. He needed something strong enough to hold the gate still. He thought of the old Weaselton house back at Galaria. Lufar had lived there once, before the banishment. Jeraldine had avoided it for years. Now he went. The house sagged on its frame. Broken windows gaped. The porch boards bent under his boots. Inside, dust lay thick on everything Lufar left behind. On a warped table sat a weathered bundle of field notes, tied with string. Jeraldine cut the string and read. Lufar had sketched the Marshwood gate years ago. He had measured its pull. In the margin he wrote of iron chains, forged with runes, meant to pin a failing gate in place. Jeraldine found the chains coiled in a rusted chest. Dark links, carved with glowing runes. He could not hold the gate and pour the sap alone. He needed hands he trusted. He scried Galaria. Agatha Timpleton answered first. She had spent a career teaching patience to loud students and calmer animals. When Jeraldine explained, she did not ask why he came to her. "I built this school to protect people," she said. "I'll come." "Mortals live near the gate," Jeraldine said. "If it breaks, they're in the path." "Then send someone to move them." He sent Ronny Echo, the young scout who guided lost first-years and still carried the shame of losing three on his first run. Ronny listened, then said only, "How many houses?" Jeraldine told him. "I'll clear them," Ronny said, and went. At the gate, Agatha gripped the enchanted chains and threw them across the fracture. The runes flared. The chains bit into the shaking stone and held it fast. The gate stopped trembling. "Now," she said. Jeraldine poured the sap into the crack. It spread like root through stone, filling the split, setting hard. The pull from his side still hammered, but the chains held and the sap took. The fracture sealed shut. For a long moment neither moved. Then a scrying flash reached him from Aleia. Ronny had cleared the last house with minutes to spare. No mortal had crossed. Agatha let the chains go slack. She looked at the sealed gate, then at Jeraldine. "It held," she said. "But you read that from Lufar's hand." She nodded at the bundle in his coat. "His pull did this. His notes fixed it. Decide what that means before someone else does." Jeraldine looked at the field notes. The gate was sealed. The pull was gone. But the hand that caused it was one Galaria had already cast out.