Samara was surprised when they drove into downtown Vancouver. She did not know where the Academy was or what it looked like, but in her mind’s eye it was not in the city. And it looked like a castle, or a cathedral like the ones in Europe, or like something out of Lord of the Rings.  

The late morning traffic was surprisingly light, and true to his word, Mr. Hutton was a good driver. He got them to the entrance of the underground parking area without incident. Samara and Deborah craned their necks to see what the building looked like. It looked like every other building, roughly ten stories, windows, bricks. The doors yawned open and swallowed them after Mr. Hutton swiped some kind of card. They circled some of the huge underground pillars until he pulled into a parking stall near a prominent door. 

“We’re here ladies.”

The two friends exchanged a worried, excited glance. Samara climbed out of the car and looked around. Several other people were in the process of getting out of their vehicles and gathering their things, many of them looked like they were roughly the same age as her, and as nervous as her too. Briefly, Samara allowed herself to see their auras. There was nothing surprising when she did. Each aura was a vibrant mix of excitement, curiosity, nervousness, hesitancy and a couple of similar emotions that Samara shared. One young man stood out however. 

He had just climbed out of a silver car without saying a word to the driver. The black backpack looked out of place against his expensive clothes. Samara suspected he was a couple of years older than her at least. The thing that drew her attention however was his aura. It had some of the same color of anticipation and excitement that everyone else had, but threads of sadness wove between them like spider webs. It made her curious.  

“I’ve been waiting ages to do this.” Mr. Hutton said.

Samara turned off her ability to see auras and watched with wide eyes as green energy flowed from his chest and engulfed his arm. Tendrils of green light, almost like vines, moved into the van, lifted out Deborah’s wheelchair, and unfolded it on the ground. 

He grinned. “Your turn sweetheart.” The energy went into the van again and gently lifted Deborah out of her seat and lowered her into the wheelchair. Deborah’s smile was so huge that Samara could not help but smile as well. Her father leaned down and embraced her. “You’re going to love this place.” He said. Deborah hugged him tightly before he let go.

“The elevator is over there ladies, and just beside it there is a place to leave your phones.” He pointed the direction several other young people moved. “Have fun.”

Samara placed her phone inside one of the small drawers on the shelf beside the elevator. They entered the elevator with three other students. It was quiet, pregnant with potential and suspense. Each student glanced around at the others with open curiosity yet nobody said a word. The elevator only had one button, and after a moment of hesitation to see if someone else would do it, Samara stepped forward and pressed it. A couple of seconds later the doors slid closed and shut out the familiar world. 

They waited impatiently for the new world behind the shiny doors to appear. When it did, they all hesitated, as if worried that the boundary of the elevator marked an edge that once crossed could never be uncrossed. Once again, it was Samara who moved first. The others followed her across the threshold afterwards. Deborah waited until everyone had cleared the elevator before she rolled up beside Samara. 

The first and most obvious thing Samara saw, and probably everyone who set foot in the lavish lobby, was a huge sigil set against a two-storey wall of dark stone. It was a golden circle with a cross dividing it equally into four parts. The top right quadrant was green, the lower right was red, lower left was yellow and the top left was blue. Within each colored circle there was a network of symbols that reminded Samara of characters in the Chinese alphabet. It was similar to the sigils she had seen on Jake and Deborah’s parents except that each colored corner was crowded with symbols whereas Jake just had a symbol in each quadrant and Adele and Timothy had symbols in only the green quadrant. 

It took a while for her to tear her eyes away from the huge sigil and examine the rest of the lobby. When she did, she realized the rest of the lobby was also a feast for the senses. The pleasant scent of wood greeted her. It was almost familiar. While working for Jake and his carpentry business she had taken in the smells of a variety of woods, but none of them were quite like this one. It was reminiscent of cedar, but somehow sweeter and more full. The smell came from several pieces of carved furniture to the left, and to her surprise, a seven-foot, incredibly lifelike carving of what could only be an elf. The carving was actually part of an impressively thick tree. She stared at it in amazement. She did not understand how it was possible for a tree that large to be inside a building, or how someone could carve a statue into a living tree. The image would distort over time as the tree grew yet here it was as lifelike and beautiful as ever. 

“Is that an elf?” Deborah said from beside her in a hushed whisper. 

“Looks like it.” The figure had pointed ears, fierce animal-like eyes and swirling tattoos on his bare arms that disappeared beneath a sleeveless tunic. He also casually held a deadly looking dagger in each hand with an expression of complete confidence, as if he dared everyone who met his gaze to challenge him to battle. Samara looked away. She noticed that the thick roots of the tree reached out in several directions and each of them had smaller, incredibly detailed carvings in them as well. Some artistically minded person had also decided to use them as borders for elaborate flowerbeds. 

“Why is it an elf?”

Samara breathed in the thick, almost humid air before she responded. “I have no idea.” It seemed like they had wandered into a completely different world. 

Behind and beside the strange elvish tree there were several vibrant, incredibly colorful displays of flowers. Samara was not an expert on botany, but she did not have to be to observe the strange otherworldly quality of the flowers.

“Are they glowing?” Deborah said.

Samara squinted. “It kind of seems like it.”

“How are they glowing?”

“I have no idea.” She was glad Deborah was with her to share the experience otherwise she might have thought it was not quite real. 

‘What the heck?” Deborah said. 

Samara turned around and looked to the right of the elevator. Just past the stone walkway coming from the elevator, the floor was made of lush grass. She blinked several times to make sure what she saw was real. The verdant grass remained in place just beyond the stone border of the pathway. There was also a small pond with the clearest water she had ever seen, and behind it on the far side of the lobby a small copse of trees with thick trunks like the one with the carving. A network of blooming tendrils and vines wove over the brick walls of the lobby, lending their vitality to the dull grey stone. 

“How?” Samara managed to say as she walked towards the pond. 

Deborah rolled in her wake until they made it to the edge of the water, right beside one of their fellow students who kneeled on the grass with his fingertips in the water. 

“It tingles.” He said to nobody in particular.

“Tingles?” Deborah said.

He turned to face the two friends. “Oh, hi. I’m Scottie.” Scottie had a slight build, narrow shoulders and long elegant fingers, perfect for dipping in the water. Blue eyes shone up at them from a very expressive boyish face.

Samara introduced the two of them. 

“Nice to meet you. This is amazing isn’t it?”

“I don’t even know what to think. How is this possible?”

“I don’t know!” Scottie said with an expression of pure delight. 

“Look!” Deborah interrupted. 

Several strange plants, white and pink with heads similar to a tulip, about two feet tall floated slowly in their direction. They watched in amazement as they moved towards where Scottie’s fingers disturbed the water. When they got closer Samara noticed that the plants had entwined, colorful roots beneath the surface of the water that looked a little like an underground forest, albeit with a rainbow of colors. Scottie reached out and touched the closest one when it wandered within reach. The plant shuddered under his touch, and then without any real warning it shot a small stream of water from its head right into Scottie’s face.

Deborah and Scottie gasped in shock, and Samara started laughing. Scottie also laughed in surprise and delight as the plants moved gracefully away from them. 

“That was petty.” He said eventually. Some of the water dripped into his mouth. “Wow. This water tastes incredible.” 

“Then you should be thanking the plant-thing.” Samara said.

“I would. But I don’t want to encourage that kind of behavior.” He grinned as he stood up. 

“I’ve never come across a plant with a sense of humor before,” Deborah said. 

Scottie stood up, although he did not reach very high when he did, Samara noticed. Fully upright, he was slightly shorter than she was. Overall his stature and childlike enthusiasm made him seem too young to be eighteen. Although, he did have some untended stubble on his chin, a desperate attempt to look older no doubt. He smiled at the two of them. It was a crooked smile but it lit up his entire face. 

“Me neither.” He said. “I guess you two already knew each other?”

“Yeah. We met in high-school.”

“Cool.” Scottie said. “You have any idea what we’re in for today?”

“Not a clue.” Deborah said. 

“I should have brought an extra shirt.” Scottie said, looking down at the wet patches on his red sweater.

“Just tell everyone you drooled.” Deborah said with a smile.

He laughed. “Thanks. They probably wouldn’t believe a plant spat on me anyway.”

Samara’s eyes wandered away from Scottie and back towards the huge sigil carved into the central wall. This time however, she noticed a wooden sign with letters painted on it. 

“Oh.” Samara said. “There’s a sign.” It was in an obvious place, straight ahead of the elevator beside the stone path, but all the impossible things in the huge room made it all but invisible. 

Scottie squinted at it. “What does it say?”

Samara walked towards it. “It says: Welcome Students, This Way. With an arrow pointing that way.” She looked over and saw a hedge of bushes that formed a natural arch around an open hallway, which, of course, the stone pathway led right towards. 

“Want to walk with us?” Deborah said to Scottie.

“Sure! That would be great!” He said with his crooked smile.