The bedroom crumbled around them as a new environment unfolded before them. Velvet carpets rolled over smooth marble; all the furnishings vanished into thin air; and dark red wallpaper crept over the plain walls. Stella opened her palm. White light flowed from her hand and illuminated the dim room. They happened to be in a small antechamber of some sort. On one of the walls was a door with a small doorknob, and opposite it was a spiral staircase that snaked towards the ceiling.

"Where are we?"

"In a room hidden inside an old library," he answered her. "We're not yet in the portal, though. It's located in the next chamber."

He snatched Louis from the air and led his two friends towards the door. On the other side of the door was a much smaller room. Eddie let Jon and Stella enter ahead of him before he closed the door behind them. There was nothing inside—there were no windows, furniture, or even lamps anywhere in the chamber. Unlike the gate to Otrâlmondé, there was no clear way to cross to Nitea. Jon opened his mouth to speak.

"Before you guys say anything," Eddie said, silencing Jon, "the portal to Nitea is quite unique. If you look closely at the walls you'll notice there's a word written all over it. That's the password to open the portal."

Jon and Stella leaned closer to the walls.

"Defluo," Stella uttered.

The door they had just passed through had vanished, sealing them inside the room. Jon sprinted across the room and rapped the wall.

"The door's gone!" he exclaimed.

"Oh, that's normal. It'll come back once the portal's closed."

Just as Eddie finished his sentence, a white speck lit up in the center of the floor. It expanded, eating away at the floor.

"Hang tight," Eddie warned.

Before Jon or Stella could react, the floor had completely faded beneath them.

Yellowish-white light surrounded them on all sides as the trio fell through the portal. Below them, they saw no end. There was no solid ground in sight. Stella and Jon were both screaming—whether from excitement or fear, Eddie did not know. After a moment, their descent slowed, and slowed, and slowed. They came to a halt for a split second before a strong force pushed them upward. The air around them became denser, almost to the point of suffocation, before vanishing altogether. Dark blue engulfed them, drowning away the white light, and the next thing they knew they were immersed in a liquid. Water.

They were underwater. They wasted no time and began swimming towards the surface. Jon easily ripped through the water, surfacing in a couple of seconds. Stella summoned a sphere shield around herself and propelled herself upwards, surfacing shortly after Jon. Eddie was far behind them, with nothing to rely on but his limbs. He hummed a tune as he swam, bubbles escaping his nostrils.

Eddie sucked in air as soon as his head popped above the water. He scanned his surroundings. Jon and Stella were treading just a few meters away from him. From their wide eyes and open mouths, he could tell that they were rather disoriented.

"C'mon, let's get out of here," he urged them.

The three of them swam towards the edge of the pond and climbed out of it. Jon looked down on himself and immediately patted his clothes.

"Wait... I'm dry."

"Oh yeah, that's normal. Water from pond portals don't leave you wet," Eddie explained.

Flash. A woman suddenly appeared in front of the trio. Her thin figure towered over them—even Eddie, the tallest of the three, was two heads shorter than her. She wore a white laboratory coat and a pair of dark, close-fitting trousers. Her onyx black hair was tied into a neat bun, and a pair of metal-rimmed glasses were worn over her small, stone-grey eyes. She glanced at Eddie.

"Oh, it's just you," she said to him. "Who are those two?"

"They're my friends, Jon and Stella. They're also part of the new Realm Seekers."

The woman held up her left wrist, which had a thin layer of plastic wrapped around it, and unrolled it until it formed a flat screen. She held it with one hand and glanced at Jon and Stella.

"Very well," she said. "Welcome to Nitea."

She vanished in a flash. The trio exchanged looks.

"Who was that?" Stella asked.

"That's Master Grimelda. She's in charge of guarding this portal," Eddie explained. His eyes darted from corner to corner as he searched for his book. It appeared before him just a second later. He ordered it, "Louis, take us to the edge of the city."

They teleported. Before them stood a bustling metropolis, its numerous lights sparkling and outshining the silver stars above them. Rows of skyscrapers stretched as far as the eye could see, with many of them tall enough to pierce through the clouds. Outdoor restaurants, lively dance clubs, and tranquil gardens were situated on spacious glass balconies that jutted from some of the buildings. Some of the skyscrapers were wrapped, partially or fully, in electronic billboards, which were bright enough to see from afar yet not too harsh to be considered blinding. Close to the clouds were flying vehicles, which seemed to be as big as regular cars, hopping from one building to the other.

Eddie paid attention to his friends' faces as they caught sight of the city. Their eyes were wide open, their mouths were agape, and not a word was uttered by their lips.

"Welcome to Nitea!" Eddie said. "Beautiful, isn't it?"

"It is," Stella breathed.

"It's like from a sci-fi movie!" Jon exclaimed.

"Well, it is one of the most technologically-advanced realms. By the way, Nitea is not just the name of the realm, but also its capital city."

"So we're in Nitea, Nitea?" Stella asked.

"Yeah," Eddie replied, "like New York, New York, only much better. Louis, take us to the heart of the city."

The book did as it was told. The ground hardened beneath their feet as smooth stone replaced soil and grass. They were standing on a Nitean sidewalk. Unlike some streets on Earth, which spared only a little space for pedestrians, Nitean sidewalks spanned at least ten meters in width. The roads had ample space for motorists—they were split into at least eight lanes, with each lane being roughly five meters wide. Streamlined cars zoomed down the streets, their sleek bodies painted in an array of colors, from matte black and glossy silver to bright yellow and ruby red. Some cars were small enough to fit only a single person and two backpacks, while others had enough room to comfortably seat twelve people. The buses were starkly different from the ones found on Earth—their wheels were embedded within tall and thin legs that spanned the entire length of the buses and protruded from under their bodies, allowing them to effortlessly pass over most of the traffic. When they halted, a set of stairs unfolded from their side, allowing passengers to board and disembark from the rather tall transport.

The buildings, which already seemed gargantuan from afar, were monstrously huge up close. Judging from the size of the floor-to-ceiling windows, a single story was about four meters tall. Clean and smooth glass coated each building like tiles, metal and concrete weaving between them. Most of the windows were mirror-like, others were as clear as day, and some were made of pixels, functioning as electronic billboards.

"So, do you want to walk around or fly?" Eddie asked.

"Fly," the two replied simultaneously.

"Excellent! We can't take off here, though. Let's look for a launchpad."

Eddie made a beckoning motion with his right hand and then darted down the sidewalk. He glanced over his shoulder. Jon and Stella were following closely behind him. Eddie returned his focus towards his front, his eyes peering at the four-way junction that lay ahead. Half of the corner of the street they were jogging on was glowing a faint green. The other corner diagonally opposite it gleamed ruby red. About a dozen people stepped inside the green space before soaring into the sky, whether it be through technological or magical means. Meanwhile, another dozen were descending from above, landing softly on the red square before continuing their journey on foot. Eddie halted a few steps away from the green space; Jon and Stella stopped next to him.

"So the green area is called a launchpad, while the red area is a landing pad. Green one's for taking off, red one's for landing, and somewhere up there"—Eddie pointed towards the sky—"is the area we're allowed to fly in, marked by a green border. Just stick close to me, okay?"

"Okay," Jon said.

"Got it," said Stella.

Eddie flexed his limbs and rubbed his palms in anticipation. He inhaled deeply, exhaled, and then sprinted. Heat flowed from his heart and coursed through his veins as he neared the launch pad. He set one foot inside the pad, slightly bent his knees, and then leaped. Fwoosh. Bright yellow flames blazed from his palms and soles as he soared into the sky. His body shook as he gained altitude. Steady, steady, he thought, don't spiral. Eddie adjusted his legs and gradually relaxed his arms, the flames from his hands diminishing until they were extinguished. He smiled—it was the first time he relied only on his feet to keep him stable above the ground.

Eddie glanced downwards. Both Jon and Stella were using force fields to fly, albeit differing in their methods—Stella formed a flat disk, which was tainted a pale purple, and stood on it as she soared; Jon's force field was concave, glowed a faint blue, and he reclined in it as he lazily lifted himself into the air. An amused huff escaped Eddie's mouth upon noticing the latter.

"We can't linger here," he told them, "we're too close to the ground and the buildings. Follow me."

Eddie lifted his gaze and continued to soar. He occasionally glanced to his side as he flew, estimating his speed by counting the number of floors he passed by in a given time. Numbers and calculations occupied his mind. Roughly twenty meters per second. He peered at the area above him. A thin green line ran through the sky, marking the border of the designated flying zones. Eddie pushed himself to fly faster and faster, and soon enough, he passed through the green borders. He glimpsed below him. Jon and Stella had caught up. Eddie beckoned with his head before he resumed flying his usual route.

"So we're going to the Nitean Gatekeeper Base," Eddie told them as they flew. "It's sort of like an office and college combined. My mentor's waiting for us there."

"And who's your mentor?" Jon asked.

"A Nitean-human named Giorgino. He's pretty young, I think twenty-four years old, and he's a pretty nice guy. We have to call him 'Elder Giorgino' though."

"But why?" Stella inquired.

"Because it's his title," Eddie answered her. "So basically, Gatekeepers have three ranks: Recruit, Elder, and Master. Those in the lower ranks have to address higher-ranked people with their titles. It doesn't actually apply to us, but since we're still students it would be more respectful to follow the custom."

They continued to converse as they journeyed to the Gatekeeper base. Most of their chitchat revolved around the skills they had acquired after their last meetup in Oppidula. Apparently, Stella found lumokinesis to be easier than her other powers, and she had been practicing it for the last five months. Meanwhile, Jon had greatly honed his healing abilities to the point that he could heal small cuts and injuries without touch. After twelve minutes of soaring between buildings, a familiar skyscraper came into their view. Some of its floors lacked windows or walls on one side, as though a giant removed part of it like a puzzle piece. Eddie took a closer look at the hundredth floor's windows. Lights were attached to their surface, spelling out a name.

THE GATEKEEPERS' GUILD
NITEA, NITEA

There it was! Eddie beckoned his head and flew towards the ninety-ninth floor, just below the glowing sign. The floor had half a wall removed on one side since it served as an entrance for those who preferred to fly to work. It was divided into thirds: the right, which served as a launchpad, had a green floor; the left, which was a landing pad, had a red floor; and the center was plain. Metal railings marked the borders between the three areas. The trio slowed as they descended into the skyscraper. Eddie looked back at Jon and Stella and motioned them to follow him.

The first thing they came across was a wide reception desk. Two corridors stretched from there, leading to the left and right sides of the office. Eddie greeted the receptionists before striding down the right hallway. A few people passed by them as the trio walked. They seemed quite normal at first glance—they wore short-sleeved shirts, plain trousers, and thin-soled sneakers. If it weren't for their striking irises and the high-tech gadgets worn on their bodies, they could have been mistaken for humans.

They took a left turn and halted at the sixth door they came across. A small glass pane was embedded in it. Eddie peeked through the glass. "My mentor's here," he told them. He held up his fist, knocked twice, and then opened the door. The three of them entered quietly.

Inside the room was a man who seemed no older than twenty-five. His dark brown hair was short and tousled, his silver eyes were small and almond-shaped, and his facial bone structure was well-defined. He wore a military-green t-shirt, a pair of close-fitting black trousers, and thin-soled sneakers that matched his pants. A device was strapped around his left wrist.

The man looked up from his wrist-strapped gadget and noticed the trio. "Eddie, you're quite early!"

"Better early than late," he said, smiling. He gestured to his friends. "This is Jon and Stella, the other Realm Seekers. Jon, Stella, meet my mentor."

"Hi!" Jon greeted.

"Hello." Stella smiled and waved.

"Nice to meet both of you!" Giorgino walked towards them and shook hands. He then gestured towards the door. "We have to go to the tech division first, I think they have something to give you."

The four of them exited the room. The trio followed Giorgino closely as he led them down the corridors and up the elevators. The place was like a maze—there seemed to be a hundred hallways, but barely any signage. The only signs that were displayed were the ones nailed to the doors. Eddie felt lucky that he never had to visit the restroom; if he did, he would probably get lost.

They finally entered one of the rooms in the building. An array of machinery occupied most of the room, from camouflage technology to hologram projectors the size of a fingernail. There were already five men inside, all of them occupied with their tasks.

"Master Hubert," Giorgino called for his attention, "the new Realm Seekers are here."

A middle-aged, bespectacled man looked up from his workbench. "Ah, okay. Bring them here."

The five of them approached Master Hubert and stood around his desk. On his desk were three thin films of plastic, an upright screen with a holographic keyboard, and a box that looked like a scanner combined with some other device. Master Hubert held out his open palm.

"Your phones, please."

Jon and Eddie reached into their pockets while Stella dug into her sling bag. They pulled out their phones and gave them to Master Hubert. After that, however, he still had his hand open.

"What about your other phones?"

"I only have one phone," Jon said.

"I think he means your inter-coms," Giorgino clarified.

The three of them uttered a soft "ah" before they reached for their inter-realm communicators and handed them over. Master Hubert inserted the inter-coms into the scanner-like box and closed the lid, then laid the three layers of plastic on top of the same box. He turned his attention to his screen, which Eddie realized was a Nitean desktop computer, and began working. The top part of the box flashed a greenish-white. After a few seconds, Master Hubert carefully picked up one of the transparent screens and attached it to Eddie's phone screen. Shwoop. The plastic layers shrunk and expanded to fit the screens of the trio's phones as Master Hubert applied them to their surfaces. He then handed them back to the trio.

"Your inter-coms—well here we call them 'phones'—are now contained within those screen protectors," he told them. "All your messages and calls will appear there as if they're on your phone as well. And don't worry, I've set it so that only your eyes can see them. They're also transferable in case you got a new phone."

"So cool," Jon breathed.

"Impressive," Eddie remarked, holding his phone from different angles. The screen protector was so thin that he could not distinguish it from the actual screen. He pocketed it.

"Thank you, Master Hubert. We'll get going now," Giorgino said.

The trio thanked Master Hubert. Giorgino made a low bow before he led the teenagers out of the technology room. This time, instead of walking through several corridors, they simply walked across the hall to the door opposite the room they had just exited. Giorgino opened the door and turned on the light switch. The room barely had anything inside: the only objects they could see were the lamps that were embedded within the ceiling. Everything else, from the walls and the lamps to the ceiling and the door, was a light shade of off-white.

"This is our practice room!" Giorgino said, spreading his arms wide and gesturing. "Master Helene told me that you guys first practiced in the gymnasium in Mondéum, right? This one's way better. If you want to summon something, all you have to do is think."

The scene around them immediately changed. The ceiling rose until it gave way to a sunny blue sky; stone tiles and chaises surrounded a pool that had just appeared; and the walls broke down to reveal a tropical beach. Jon and Stella gazed around them, too awed to say anything.

"Haha, I told you they'd be speechless," Eddie said to Giorgino. He faced Jon and Stella. "Yeah, this room's also a simulator."

The room soon grew cold as snow fell from above. The beach faded from their view and the ground shifted beneath their feet. The next thing they knew, they were on a snow-capped mountain. Before any of them had a chance to form a snowball, the room was returned to its normal state. Giorgino called the trio's attention.

"Anyway, we're not really here to play around," he said. "Jon, Stella, since I'm going to mentor you starting tomorrow, I want to know how advanced your skills are. Let's start with... Stella. How far have you gone with force field summoning?"

"I can do shield surfing."

"And?"

"And I can make flexible shields, like this." Stella conjured a circular shield. She grasped its edge with both hands and shook it. Waves rippled through the shield, as though it were made of cloth or rubber.

"Interesting. What about your lumokinesis?"

"I started just five months ago. I can make very vague illusions; I'm not that good."

"Can you show us, please?"

"Ehm, sure."

Stella opened both palms. A ball of light escaped from each hand, flew towards the floor, and merged. She moved her hands and wrists as she changed the light's shape and color. Eventually, it morphed into a rough, three-dimensional drawing of a kitten. Eddie clamped his lips before he could laugh. If a young schoolgirl drew a cat, it would likely resemble what Stella had created.

"Aww, it's so cute!" Jon cooed.

"Can I kick it?" Eddie asked. Everyone else gave him a weird look. "What? I'm just curious if my foot will go through."

"Anyway," Giorgino said, attempting to change the subject, "what about your electrokinesis?"

"I can do lightning whips and lightning nets."

"Alright, nice. Thank you. Jon, how about your hydrokinesis?"

"I'm quite good at it. Watch this!"

The vapor around him solidified into a giant ice cube. Jon waved his hands over the ice as he sculpted something out of it. After only ten seconds, the ice cube had transformed into a statue of himself. Eddie blinked twice. The ice sculpture was so realistic that if someone had painted it, he could have mistaken it for the real Jon. Giorgino neared the statue and inspected it.

"That's very impressive," he commented, "but how is this useful?"

"It's—este—a demonstration of how good my control is!" Jon answered. "I can also do this."

The ice sculpture melted in an instant. Jon formed a floating ring of water around himself. He glanced at one side. A target appeared about twenty meters away from him. He thrust two flat hands towards the right. Ice shards shot from the ring of water and pierced the target near the bullseye.

Giorgino gave a short nod. "And what about your force field summoning?"

"I can do what Stella did, but I can also do this." Jon formed a disk, held it in one hand, and hurled it towards his right side. The disk sliced through the target and split it into two pieces.

"Okay. And your healing?"

"I can heal broken bones in one or two minutes. And I also can also heal without touching, but only small wounds and cuts."

"Nice." Giorgino gave a longer nod. "I guess that's all for today. Unless, Eddie, would you like to show them what you got?"

"Euh, maybe not today," Eddie replied. "We actually have to go back soon."

"Oh, okay. Well, I guess that's it. Our first session is tomorrow. See you soon."

Giorgino led them towards the fly-in entrance of the building before bidding them goodbye. This time, instead of flying towards the portal, Eddie asked Louis to teleport them there. They arrived a split second later. The teenagers neared the pond.

"Defluo," Stella uttered. Nothing happened.

"The password's different," Eddie revealed. "There are stones at the bottom of the pond, and the password's engraved into it."

"I can get it!"

Jon dove head-first into the pond without any hesitation. Eddie almost went after him—the pond was so deep that he worried if Jon could hold his breath for long enough. And besides, he already knew what the password was. He then remembered that Jon could breathe underwater. He and Stella waited at the edge of the portal. Not long after, a head and arm surfaced above the water. A fist-sized stone was held up high.

"Demergo!" Jon shouted.

The water swirled into a giant whirlpool. Eddie jumped into the pond; Stella followed. Bright light engulfed them once more as they fell through the portal. The same force that brought them down changed direction a few seconds later and pushed them towards the other end. They soon found themselves standing on solid ground, inside the same plain chamber they almost got locked in.

"See, the door's back." Eddie knocked on the door. "Now we just need to teleport to my room."

"Louis, take us to Eddie's room!" Jon said.

"No," it refused, "I only follow my owner's orders."

"Really? You never told me that. Louis, to my bedroom."

It teleported them to his bedroom. Once there, Eddie checked his wristwatch. "It's just a few minutes past six," he informed them. "Dinner starts in an hour."

Eddie opened the door and let his friends exit the bedroom. When they had left, he smiled. He could not wait for what the next day would bring.

✧ ✧ ✧

Fun Fact: In the very first draft of this book, Giorgino was a middle-aged private chef who worked for Eddie's family and kept his Nitean heritage a secret. In this version, he's a sleep-deprived magical grad student in his mid-twenties 😂

I hope you found this chapter interesting! If you did, voting by pressing the star-shaped button is an instant way to let me know 😉