Helene shoved them out of the room with a single sweeping arm motion. She slammed the door shut and sprinted down the corridor. She pressed the elevator button and glanced upwards at the display. The elevator was still on the seventh floor. She swung open the entrance to the emergency stairs.

"Elevator's too slow. We'll use stairs."

"What's going on?" Celestine asked her.

"I'll explain later."

They descended the staircase and reached the ground floor less than a minute later. As they passed by the front desks, access cards flew out of their pockets and landed on one of the counters.

"When we get out, don't walk. Run," Helene ordered them.

They passed through the revolving doors. Immediately after stepping outside, the six of them dashed down the cul-de-sac. Stella was amazed at Helene's speed—despite being much older than all of them, she ran so quickly that even Jon and Edmond were struggling to catch up. Helene glanced behind herself. She raised her right hand, pointed her fingers downwards, and moved them as if she were manipulating a marionette. Stella felt invisible strings tugging at her legs, and the next thing she knew she was running faster than ever. Suddenly, all six of them were running at the same pace.

The ladder street was up ahead. Helene lifted her right hand higher. Stella's heart pounded as she felt her feet losing contact with the ground beneath her, her body being raised into the air. They were floating! Helene leaped over the ladder street, making the five levitate close to her. They simultaneously landed at the base of the stairs. Helene continued to control them as she ran through the streets of Otrâlmondé. She sighted the portal thirty seconds later. She halted abruptly in front of it, her shoes leaving marks on the ground, and rapidly knocked three times at its corner.

Light flashed. They had returned to Earth. Helene reached for the white sheet and made sure that it completely concealed the door.

"Phew," she sighed, wiping the sweat off her brow.

"What happened?" José asked.

"We can't train there anymore; it's unsafe. I'll tell you more when we reach Celestine's house."

"We're going to my house?"

"Yes, we have to. Let's go now."

Helene removed her cloak and began carrying it, exposing her skeletal figure: the short sleeves of her plain blouse revealed her skinny arms, and her close-fitting trousers accentuated her long and thin legs. No wonder she was able to run so quickly, Stella thought. The group of six walked upstairs and exited Old Port Warehouse. From there, Celestine led the way.

"By the way, why are we going to my house?" she asked Helene.

"I'm changing the venue. We have to train at your house from now on," she replied.

"But my house is small! There's no space."

"It's fine. I'll make the space."

After half an hour of strolling, they arrived at Celestine's home. She unlocked the door and welcomed them inside. Celestine walked over to the dining area to drag some chairs, but Helene told her that it would not be necessary. The retired Gatekeeper scanned the interior of the house, her sharp eyes darting from corner to corner.

"How often do people visit the basement?" she asked. Celestine was taken aback.

"How did you know..."

"I have telekinetic sight, remember? Anyway, how often do people go downstairs?"

"I go down there once a year, to clean it."

"No one else visits it?"

"No one else," Celestine replied. Helene nodded slightly.

"Good, take us there."

Celestine walked towards the stairwell. Hidden underneath it was a door that was well camouflaged. The whitewashed door frame, instead of popping out of the wall, was seamlessly placed within it; the door fit its frame so exactly, that the gaps between their edges were negligible; and the small doorknob was barely noticeable. Celestine opened the door, which creaked loudly, and reached for the light switch located on the inner right wall. Flick. A few lightbulbs lit up the narrow path. "Be careful," she told them, taking her first step downstairs. One by one, each of them followed her down the steep stairwell.

She held the railings with her right hand as she descended towards the basement. Clink. Her feet landed on the basement's floor after twelve steps. She ran her hand up the wall and flicked a switch. The lamps lit up and revealed a cluttered room: a mountain of old furnishings was piled up at one corner, stacks of cardboard boxes filled with old junk occupied another corner, and in between them were heaps of old newspapers and magazines. Celestine raised her hand to her face, embarrassed at the fact that she was bringing guests to an untidy room.

Helene surveyed the basement. She walked around for a few seconds before stopping in front of the wall that was at the far end of the room. She reached into the pocket of her cloak, fumbling for a small object. It was a jet-black card. She pasted it on the wall. The card rapidly expanded until it was the size of a door. Helene looked at the others and beckoned.

"Come inside," she said, disappearing into the wall.

"Ladies first," José said to Celestine, gesturing to the door.

She rolled her eyes and walked through the door. Stella followed her. She stepped inside, expecting some sort of resistive force to push against her, but her body went through with ease. The chamber on the other side of the magical door was plain and square. Its floor was as white as porcelain, a contrast to the obsidian black walls. An entryway was positioned at the center of each wall and, unlike the door that Stella had just passed through, they were all colored pearl white. The entrance on the left was labeled "One," the one on the wall next to it was labeled "Two," and the last one was labeled "Three."

There was just something otherworldly about the magical room. Perhaps it was because there was no visible light source, yet they could see everyone and everything inside the room. Perhaps it was because an unending sky of darkness seemed to rest above their heads instead of a proper ceiling. Whatever it was, the atmosphere felt ethereal.

"This"—Helene gestured around her—"is a Portable Practice Room, or PPR. We'll be training here for now. As you can see, there are three other doors. They each lead to a separate training room. José, your room's Chamber One. Celestine, yours is Chamber Three. Mine's Chamber Two," Helene said, gesturing to the three doors.

"Do the rooms have equipment?" Celestine asked.

"Yes, but you have to summon it. It's like the one in Otrâlmondé, but instead of using tablets, you just have to say what you want."

"If these rooms are like the ones in Otrâlmondé, why didn't we train here from the start?" José asked.

"Because this room has some limitations. You can't summon anything advanced, like electronics and air conditioning. Anyway, six chairs," she said. Six chairs appeared out of the blue, forming a circle in the center of the room. She then ordered them, "Sit down, all of you. I have to tell the new trio something important."

They each took a seat. Stella sat between Jon and Edmond. Helene sat directly opposite Stella and reached into the other pocket of her cloak. This time, she retrieved a compact gadget. It looked quite like the flip phone that Stella's parents got her for Christmas, only with fewer ports and no logo. Helene opened her gadget and pressed a few buttons. A hologram projected from it. Unlike the semi-transparent and monochrome holograms that Stella saw in the movies, the hologram that was projected from Helene's device was almost lifelike.

Three people were depicted in the image. Stella recognized none of them, but she tried guessing who they were. One of them was a woman who seemed to be in her early-20s. The color of her short, wavy hair was reminiscent of dark chocolate; her sweet, hazel eyes complemented her tan complexion; and her Greek nose and pouty, scarlet red lips protruded from her diamond-shaped face. A silver bracelet was worn around her wrist. Is that my grandmother? she wondered.

The lady was standing between two men, both of whom were taller than her. The one on her left shared little resemblance with anyone in the room. His light brown hair looked like it was combed with his fingers; like the woman, he had hazel irises, but they were a mixture of brown and blue instead of a blend of brown and green; and his hooked nose jutted out from his fair and oblong face. The other man was also not that identifiable. His silky, straight, golden brown hair was tied into a very short ponytail; a pair of sharp, hooded, teal blue eyes were set deep into his oval, lightly tanned face; and his facial bone structure seemed to be very well-defined, from the carved nose and high cheekbones to the strong jawline. From the colors of their irises, Stella guessed that the hazel-eyed man was Jon's grandfather, while the blue-eyed man was Edmond's grandfather.

"More than a century ago," Helene began, "three pieces of magical jewelry were sold to your ancestors by mistake. They were passed down from generation to generation, showing no special signs, and so each descendant was unaware of its magical properties. They only revealed their powers once they came into possession of the three people being shown in this hologram. The woman is Terra; she is Stella's grandmother. The man with the ponytail is Léopold; he is Eddie's grandfather. The other one is Josep; he is Jon's grandfather. Anyway, when the pieces of jewelry showed the signs, they also gave out magical signatures that made their presence felt by magical beings. Since it is illegal for humans to own magical objects, my team and I were tasked with confiscating the jewelry.

"When we confiscated the jewelry, something strange happened. They refused to bestow their powers on other people. At one point they even rebelled against us, teleporting back to their human owners. We decided that your families can continue to own the jewelry, with one condition: they must keep it a secret. Not even their parents or siblings could know."

The hologram changed. The new image depicted a single person instead of a group of people. One glance was enough for one to know that the figure was not a human: he resembled a silhouette, his face devoid of any features, yet he wore clothes like a regular human being. A hood was sewn onto his tattered trench coat, and a pair of battered boots covered his feet. Rows of gaudy rings, all adorned by dark gemstones like obsidian and onyx, were worn on eight of his ten fingers. Celestine bit her lip and briefly tilted her head away from the image. José fidgeted with his fingers, his eyes sometimes focusing away from the hologram.

"Anyway," she spoke, "your grandparents did not really use the powers bestowed on them. All of us thought that training wouldn't be necessary, and besides, they were supposed to be a secret anyway. Unfortunately, that turned out to be a big mistake. Terra was tragically murdered by this man: a Mondéne sorcerer. My colleagues managed to arrest him before he could harm anyone else and erase all traces of his presence. Because of that, I decided to train their children to prevent that from repeating."

A different image depicting three people projected from the screen. One of them was a woman: her short, wavy hair was as dark as black onyx; her bright, round, hazel eyes were set into her heart-shaped face; below her small button nose was a pair of plump, rosy red lips; and she was quite short compared to the men standing next to her. It was a young Celestine! The man standing on her left also looked familiar: short, slightly messy, jet black hair; a small Roman nose was chiseled between a pair of sparkling, round, dark brown eyes; and his thin lips barely stood out from his tan and oblong face. It was teenage José! The last person was someone Stella did not recognize: his hair was short, windswept, and colored a blend of brown and blond; his wide eyes were as blue as lapis lazuli, contrasting his thick, reddish lips; and a Roman nose and strong jawline were chiseled into his fair, oval-shaped face. Is that Edmond's dad? Stella thought. Celestine and José looked at the image before glancing at each other, exchanging smiles.

"You see these people in the hologram? They were the first people I taught: Celestine, José, and Brandon."

Stella's ears perked up when Helene mentioned the three names. Wait, Brandon? Though she had never met him, his name rang a bell. Stella then remembered: she saw that name on one of the books Celestine was reading. Was the author of the book the same person as the one whose image was being projected?

"I started teaching them when they were a little older than you," Helene went on. "I remember, Celestine and Brandon were fifteen, and José was eighteen. They called themselves the Realm Seekers. Anyway, as I taught them, we learned more things about the pieces of jewelry. One thing we found out was that the jewelry will temporarily lose their power to signal that it is time to pass them on to the next generation. Unfortunately, we learned about it the hard way.

"The same sorcerer who murdered Terra managed to break out of prison and find them. They could've defeated him, but unfortunately, they were losing their powers at that time. The man took another victim: Brandon, Eddie's uncle. My team and I managed to stop him before he could do the same to Celestine and José. The man was then jailed in a higher security prison.

"Which brings us to this. For some reason I don't know, the man still managed to escape prison, just when you three have started your training. Luckily for us, Mondénes cannot pass through the portal if a white sheet is hung in front of it, which is why there's a white sheet covering the door. We will resume training here until the man has been caught and imprisoned. Any questions?"

"What's a Mondéne?" Stella asked.

"Someone from Otrâlmondé," Helene replied. "Any more questions?"

"Yes," Edmond said, "I have two. Firstly, I'm curious to know how a white sheet can stop a Mondéne from crossing the portal? And also, since this criminal killed two people, why not they just execute him instead of imprisoning him?"

"For the first question, I don't know. It just works. To answer your second question, the Mondénes don't believe in the death penalty. Any more questions?"

"Will we go back to Otrâlmondé after the criminal is caught?" Stella asked.

"Maybe. We're likely to finish training before going back there, though. Any more questions?" Helene said. A brief silence filled the room. "No more questions? Okay, then that is all for today."

The hologram stopped projecting from the device. They stood up and, one-by-one, exited the magic room. Stella and Celestine bade goodbye as the others left the house.

✧ ✧ ✧

Question Time! If you were to enter the Portable Practice Room, what would be the first thing you would summon?

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