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Chapter One

Juno

I woke up feeling giddier than usual. The new portal Astro had located yesterday showed more promise than the fifty or so portals before. We might finally get to explore a new world! I all but ran out of my tiny house and down the street towards the palace. Our rulers didn’t live there, it was simply their place of work, and I should know, my father being one of the five rulers.

I hadn’t dressed up for the occasion, having donned my usual clothes. I didn’t want to seem too eager and somehow jinx us. Our magic was dying out and finding a new world was our biggest priority, so I didn’t want to be the reason anything went wrong today.

Astro was our portal seeker. Using his magic he opened tiny portals and by touching them, he could search for living beings, intellect, and if the world would be habitable for us. This one was the first one with all three things.

I was one of the lucky few who got to enter portals, this being the first we would all enter through, though. My dad hadn’t been too excited about me risking my life in another world, but I felt like there wasn’t much left for me here. Not that I used that as my explanation, no, that would only hurt my father’s feelings if I did. No, I simply told him I needed to experience things for myself and this was something I felt passionate about. He didn’t argue further, which actually surprised me. Maybe he did trust me just a little bit after all.

When the palace came into view, so did Charlotta. She was skipping along the pavement happily, clearly feeling the same giddiness as I was. She, like me, would enter the portal and explore the new world. I was the one who got her the job, wanting my best friend to experience it with me. I only needed to find Nix, our other bestie. He was on our team too, though so far nowhere to be found.

I ran up to Charlotta, bumping my shoulder against hers playfully. “This is so exciting!” I greeted her.

She matched my enthusiasm with a bright smile. “It truly is! Although, I’ve heard there is no magic in it.” No magic?

“Then why are we entering it? Wasn’t finding magic our goal?” It was the whole reason why they’d started opening portals in the first place. Our planet was turning duller in color, our plants not flourishing as they used to, our newborns born without much power.

She shrugged. “I believe they want a safe place for us to evacuate to if things turn…. Worse. Either way I’m still hopeful.” I didn’t know how to answer that, too stuck on the no magic part. “Do you think they’ll let us through today?” she asked when we’d been silent for a while.

I shrugged; it wasn’t always easy knowing what our rulers thought. “Astro found it yesterday and we’ve all been summoned. It seems like they want us through,” I finally replied. The fact was that our rulers were desperate. We had no idea how long our planet could sustain itself. Normally, whenever a baby was born, they would be placed on the ground somewhere and their magic would join our planet, fueling our world. It didn’t hurt the babies. It had been more of a ritual on our planet for as long as anyone could remember. But a year ago things suddenly started changing. Babies no longer glowed up and shared their magic. The planet didn’t get any offerings, since our babies were too weak to give any magic away.

“Juno! Charlotta! What’re you doing here so early?” Henriette, one of our rulers, called out from the palace doors. She was smiling knowingly at us, of course aware that we were too excited to wait.

“Sorry!” we yelled back in unison, both of us grinning like excited children, even though we were twenty-two.

She shook her head, but still had a smile on her face as we followed her inside to the portal room. Upon entering, it appeared we weren’t the only ones ready to burst with excitement. Everyone was in the room, even Nix, who was known for sleeping in.

“Juno!” my father’s voice carried through the room. I already knew his speech was coming.

“Oh, good morning, Dad,” I greeted him with a hug.

“Hi, son. Are you nervous?” he asked, looking me over for any hidden nerves.

I shook my head. “I’m just excited,” I assured him, still waiting on the speech.

“You do realize it can be dangerous,” he began. “We have no knowledge of their world or their beings.” I fought an eye roll.

“It’ll be fine, Dad. Remember I was trained for this. I want this.” He nodded, knowing from experience that I wouldn’t budge. I could just tell him my soul begged for me to leave our world, but he wouldn’t take kindly to that, so this was how it was going to be.

Astro clapped loudly, gaining everyone’s attention. I looked around and saw all the rulers had joined us in the room. They truly were invested in this. The fact that they were all present could only mean we were leaving today. I tried really hard not to let my giddiness show, since this was supposed to be serious, but tell that to my heart, which was now beating so fast I was afraid to move.

“Now that I have everyone’s attention,” Astro spoke loudly. “We need room to open the portal, so everyone, move over to this wall,” he pointed to the wall behind me. “Once the portal is stable, you’ll go through.” I couldn’t contain my smile. I was leaving! “Only ten of you will go through it today and then return in eight hours to tell us your findings. You’ll use your slate to communicate with us throughout the day, and if all goes well, tomorrow all twenty of you will be leaving for a month.”

Only ten of us? My mood plummeted instantly. Would that mean I wasn’t going?

Before I could ask who would be travelling today, the other portal makers came forward, joining Astro as they began working on opening the portal together. We all huddled together to give them room to work and watched in silence as a huge bluish portal opened against the wall.

“It’s stable,” Astro exhaled with evident relief. “And from what I felt, there’s a lot of intelligent life there.”

“What wonderful news!” Trise, one of the rulers, gushed excitedly.

“Indeed!” My dad joined in, looking pleased. “Who travels through today?”

Astro shrugged. “Who volunteers to?” he asked, looking at all twenty of us. We all raised our hands, each of us desperate to explore this new world. The rulers and Astro laughed at our clear display of eagerness.

“Maybe we can let them all through?” Henriette asked with a smile. “Just five at a time, and we need you to confirm you’ve travelled there safely through your slates.” The other rulers nodded their agreement and proceeded to divide us into four groups. I was in the group that would travel through the second time, with Nix beside me. Charlotta was in the group to go through last.

Astro clapped his hands before letting the first group through with some instructions. “Remember, observe how they look, speak and behave. Use glamour to fit in and keep us updated. Locate a school and places to live if you find the time. Ten of you will be attending school, and ten will be working. I’m sure they must have educational centers since they’re so highly intelligent, but if they don’t, you’ll all work.” We nodded, having heard this a million times before already. “There’s no magic,” Astro quickly added. “So, no public displays of magic. Use it only sparingly and do it without them noticing.”

The first group was let through, and three long minutes passed before the rulers’ slates dinged with messages alerting them that they had travelled through safely.

I stepped up to the portal, holding Nix’s hand in mine, squeezing it as we stepped through the blue smoke and travelled to the new world.

I couldn’t see anything at first, only smell this new wonderful world. Their trees were like ours but where our world now lacked the luster of colors, theirs was wonderfully vibrant. Blue skies, green trees, birds flying above us—that was what greeted us on the other side. It seemed like a copy of our world, which would make it easier to adapt if we needed to relocate in the future. I dutifully sent my dad a message on my slate, telling him we were all fine. Our slates were made of a combination of magic and technology. Their design was fitted around our wrists, and we could transform them into a bigger piece if we needed a computer to work on, always having our own personal one with us.

“This is amazing,” Nix said softly behind me. I gave him a side hug, grateful that we could share this moment together. Charlotta was yet to come through, so we all waited until the rest arrived safely. I looked around and I had to guess we were in a forest, trees everywhere and no loud noises. It could take us a while to reach civilization, not that I minded. Every minute spent here felt like I could breathe easier, like I already belonged. I’d never felt this way before. Looking at Nix he seemed to share my fondness for this new world, grinning broadly as his gaze moved around. I could talk to him about it later, when we were back home, but for now I just wanted both of us to enjoy the moment.

Once everyone was through, Nolen, our portal leader, stepped forward. “We’ll travel in pairs of two. Make sure you’re always connected through your slates. We meet back here tonight. I’ll just call the rulers to show them this world before we head out.” We nodded silently as he called Trise, and projected the rulers in the air above his slate, showing us all a clear view of all five of them. My dad was the only one who sought anyone out, me, then after seeing I was alive and well, he looked around, taking in the trees and the vivid colors.

“Oh, it’s gorgeous,” Henriette gushed. She seemed almost enthralled as her gaze travelled around the area where we stood.

“It is. The air is fresh, and we find ourselves in some kind of forest,” Nolen replied dutifully. “We’ll pair off now and contact you when we’re ready to return home.” His mention of home made me realize I didn’t want to leave, not already. I knew I would be back again tomorrow, but just thinking about leaving again so soon seemed wrong, somehow.

“Have fun, and be safe!” Trise told us before they ended the call.

Nolen clapped his hands excitedly, no longer the serious leader. “Let’s go explore!”

An hour later, we finally reached the end of the forest, using our glamour to become invisible as we approached a road. The others had gone in different directions, all of us spread out. I had Nix as my partner and since we were so in tune with one another we’d both turned invisible at the same time.

“Look,” Nix said, likely pointing to the building with a restaurant sign out front. There was a parking space for cars, almost identical to our world. I couldn’t see Nix, only hear and touch him, so I grabbed his wrist as we made our way over to the restaurant. On closer inspection it looked like a diner and honestly, so far this world was a copy of ours. The restaurant door slammed open and a woman carrying a child came through balancing her food and the child. We froze mid step as we looked her over. She was identical to us; the only difference was her bright colored clothes. We didn’t wear anything bright or patterned where we came from, but her blue dress with flowers was really pretty.

It was a relief that they were human like us. We’d figured as much, our worlds being so similar, but it was still a relief.

As she passed, we neared the windows. Peeking in, we saw everyone looking human inside as well. We exhaled in relief. This would make our job here much easier. Two men exited from the same door the woman had, one wearing a black leather jacket and denim pants. I already knew what I wanted to wear. Letting my glamour do its thing I copied his clothes as my own, excited to see how I looked in a mirror. We were still invisible so I couldn’t even show off to Nix.

“Let’s head around the building and become visible there,” Nix whispered and tugged me behind him. As soon as we were hidden from sight, we became visible.

“Nooo,” I whined. “I was supposed to be the biker daddy!” Looking down at Nix’s leather clad body, I was instantly jealous. I hadn’t thought about adding leather pants too, instead mimicking the guy from before perfectly.

Nix grinned and made sunglasses appear too along with a few facial piercings that the other guy had too. I rolled my eyes but was once again filled with envy. Why hadn’t I thought of that?

“Should we go inside?” Nix asked as we stopped in front of the door.

“I don’t actually know,” I replied in a low voice, since we still didn’t know how they spoke. There was a risk that we would stand out. “Maybe continue down the road to those buildings?” I pointed further down the road where bigger buildings could be spotted in the distance. It looked like a thirty-minute walk downhill from where we were, but we needed to search for a place of education and that wouldn’t be this far out.

“Good idea. We can walk on the side of the road,” Nix took my hand in his as we walked together, slowly getting closer to what appeared to be a town.