Chapter Text
“Mornin’ already?”
“I better hurry up and find that uniform before someone spots me. Urgggh... This lid weighs a ton!”
Diana figured it was another one of her brother’s friends. He was always inviting people over without telling her, but at least this time, she was sure she didn’t go to bed last night without clothes on. Begrudgingly she opened her hazel eyes, only to see sparks of bright blue in shadows. She grumbled out, “Fire?”
“Try this on for size! Mya-ha! Now to grab the goods”
A coldness washed over her as she realised she was not in her beautiful bedroom with her beautiful cats, but instead jammed inside something, only held up by the other bodies she was sheathed against. On one side, the body was tall and hard and stiff; on the other side, that body had its soft chin on top of her head, squirming and downy. Said soft and smaller body squawked into her ear, “Bwaa-!?”
Whoever was noisy was met with an incriminating, “What? You ain't supposed to be awake!”
Diana jammed her elbows into each body as she scrambled to get out of the enclosed space, only to slam headfirst into the sharp tiled ground as gravity took hold. Behind her she heard a nasally voice scream something about talking weasels and another clearer voice hiss about floating coffins. Looking up she realised they were right. The ceiling was so far from the ground she’d presume that it was the floor of a tower. As an architecture enthusiast, she’d think herself correct as instead of the weight of the tower being distributed across layers of floors, it instead held itself up with columns and basic lancet arches held in place with voussoirs. The short tower had all the tenants of simplified Gothic architecture, but most notably was in the tip of each column, the entablatures, they had been hollowed out in the shape of spiky stars and inside said stars were ominous glowing light. Diana would presume that there were simply copper-plated candleholders creating the green fire, but she realised that with such a deep greenish hue there’d have to be a huge amount of purified copper in every single entablature.
“How-how dare you! I am no weasel! I am Grim, sorcerer extraordinaire!”
Tearing herself away from analysing the shadowy tower moreso, following the source of angry gurgling she spied what did indeed seem to be a flaming weasel. Said Grim had the pronounced jaw of a cat and the nose of a mole rat, but the forehead and ears of a bear, but its body had the arches of a skinny chinchilla. It continued, “Now give me your uniform, and be quick about it!”
Diana imagined this is how it felt when explorers first found out about platypi and foxes, except lawfully her experience could be deemed as worse, as the fluffiest chimera one could ever consider was somewhat on fire itself whilst simultaneously trying to strip her of whatever mysterious robes she had been stuffed into.
“Why is the raccoon on fire but not screaming?”
“Somebody help! This can’t be a dream!”
“Come on! I ain’t no weasel, but I am on a tight schedule!” said the fluffy chimera. It thankfully sucked at trying to disrobe her as it had no opposable thumbs, instead trying to get by on digging its claws uselessly into the thick fabric of what seemed to be a thin school blazer. Sickness coiled in her gut as she realised that someone had stripped her of her pyjamas, stuck her in odd clothes and stuck her in an even odder setting. Horror struck as the depth of the situation made itself known. The closest institution near her hometown with gothic architecture was at least two hundred kilometres away.
“If this is a dream, I’m beyond ready to wake up now” came the nasally voice again. Diana wiped away the ugly little ‘Grim’ chimera from her shoulders, pulling herself into a sitting position to spy her contemporaries. One that remained inside- They were stuck in a coffin together… That’s why they all had awoken so cramped. Diana figured that there had been three people entirely stuck in the coffin… The one that remained inside the coffin was a young darker-skinned woman of average height, her mortified round features nestled safely in her tightly curled hair, limbs curling in on themselves in an effort to make her body as small and as hidden away as possible.
“Foolish human! Cease trying to slip away from me!” continued the chimera as it clawed up Diana’s pants like a dishonored kitten, “Unless you wish to be burnt to a crisp, take off that-”
It was cut off by something flechette-like striking it to the ground. It yowled objections at the looming figure slinking into the grand open space of the tower. Diana had spent a large portion of her childhood trying to avoid human trafficking, and never in all such years escaping such a fate did she imagine she’d be kept by an actual monster. Although she disliked the little Grim creature, it was downright precious in comparison, and Diana wrapped herself around Grim. The larger monster cooed, “Consider it tough love. Hm, I found you at last, splendid! I trust you’re one of this year’s stu-... Oh?”
Diana thought of it as the larger monster as while she could pass it off as a human with gigantism and a masquerade fetish, light was being emitted from its cavernous eye sockets and its ears were somewhat frontward facing and pointing. As it swayed further towards her and her similarly lost fellows more obscenities made themselves known; longer than natural fingers, severely knock-kneed legs, even the structure of their shoes was odd in that it seemed like they had stuffed clawed bird feet inside them instead of that of a human’s.
“Three in one coffin? How unnatural. The entrance ceremony is no time nor place for skulduggery. Not only are you in shenanigans with our bespoke coffins, you have brought a most poorly trained familiar with you! These are all clear violations of the school rules” crooned the avian freak. Despite the content of its words, its tone was like a dull hum, at best it was amused. The small chimera objected, “As if I’d ever serve some lowly human! Now let me go!”
“Yes, yes, rebellious familiars always say that”, the avian freak continued, twisting its long talons in strange motions, “Do be quiet for a bit won’t you?”
Grim made odd grunts and mumbles inside her arms. The avian man had indeed managed to silence the chimera without even touching it. As she held Grim, Diana too found herself being held. The other human stuck inside the coffin with her, the man, had moved forwards to try and shield her with his broad frame. His face was composed of angles and distrusting hooded eyes, full lips curled in a sneer. The freaky bird man said, “Dear me. Of all the students I’ve dealt with, you’re the first with temerity enough to open their own gate and step out of it. Does the very notion of patience elude you?”
Diana and the handsome stranger shared a look, albeit hers more disgusted and his more furious.
“No matter, your orientation has already begun. Let us return to the Mirror Chamber” the avian man said, tone lighter. The nasally voiced girl began to scratch at her coffin enclosure, murmuring out in confusion something about gates. With the boy closer, she could easily hear him ask, “Student?”
“You awakened in a room full of gates, did you not?” ‘Avian Freak’ needled, straightening up to his full height as he gestured upwards, “All of the students here at the campus arrived by passing through such gates”.
Looking away from the bird-looking monster to peek back at the nervous girl, she watched as she shakily hopped down from the floating coffin. Her eyes were so wide they looked like spotlights at night, shivering in her sockets as she spied the numerous floating coffins. The poor scared girl began chanting what sounded like Christian prayers. Once again, the young man spoke up, “So these coffins are, like, supposed to be some kind of gateway?”
“Oh, it’s just a design choice. Said design is intended to symbolize a parting with your former world and a rebirth into a new one” ‘Avian Freak’ said, punctuating his last words with a flourish of talons facing skyward. As she plucked the monster’s flechette, a black crow’s feather, from the little chimera, Diana said, “I think something blew the lid off ours”.
Everyone pointedly looked at their mutened Grim. ‘Avian Freak’ said, “The culprit appears to be that familiar of yours. You’re the one who insisted on bringing it, so curtailing its behaviour is your responsibility!”
‘I’m gonna curtail your mum’ Diana thought, trying to stroke away ‘her familiar’s obvious pain at its hind being punctured. Behind them all they all heard sobs, the girl crying out, “Oh Lord, where am I? Is this Hell?”
“Now is not the time for such prattle, you’ve got a student orientation to attend! Go on now, make haste” the bird monster chided, beginning its slow sway once again towards them. Diana couldn’t help but think to herself this was the weirdest form of human trafficking she’d ever heard of. Maybe it was some kind of schoolgirl kink? It’d explain why they’d been changed into uniforms. Diana had heard stories however of victims being hogtied and placed on a dinner table whilst their torturers talked and mocked and poked at them like an actual dinner party, with whatever poor girl stuck naked on a platter like a slab of meat. Her angular contemporary stood up as if he wanted to make his way to the other, more obviously terrified girl, but also didn’t want to leave Diana behind. He instead made do with moving in front of both girls and demanded, “Tell me one thing: who are you!?”
For a moment, ‘Avian Freak’ actually seemed concerned, head crooking in puzzlement before trying to make himself seem smaller and less threatening. He gave them a smile, “Have you not fully regained consciousness? The time-space teleportation must have addled your memories-”
“Your story writing skills are bullshit. You can’t have time-space sci-fi talk in a fantasy setting. You are all by far the worst rapists I have ever had” Diana grunted from her spot on the ground. She barely heard ‘Avian Freak’ choke on his own spit as the girl behind them started screaming. Their boy ran to the screaming girl, hissing, “Shut up, you might alert the other monsters!”
Grim began to yell louder from behind his merged lips, but despite his efforts, she couldn’t understand a single thing he was trying to communicate. While her boy gentlemanly tried to protect the young woman, Diana turned her attention to the incredibly uncomfortable bird-monster-man-thing and said, “She’d probably stop screaming if you just answered our questions already”.
‘Avian Freak’ tried to smooth down his feathers, which nevertheless seemed to arch up in shock from his shoulders. Stepping back from the scared young adults, he finally acquiesced, “This is Night Raven University. It is an institution for students all over the world who demonstrate a rare aptitude for magic. It is the most prestigious academy of its sort in all of Twisted Wonderland. I am Dire Crowley, having been entrusted with its care by the chairman, I serve as headmage”.
Her boy rolled his dark eyes at the term academy while her girl once again squawked out in horror about “Witchcraft!”. Diana gave him a face. It was the type of gift that its givée could not return. Its emotion was indescribable but its disbelief was palpable. ‘Avian F’-Crowley said, “I don’t understand what you’re insinuating… Only those who the Dark Mirror perceives as having a talent for magic are admitted to the university. Those who are selected are summoned to the campus through those ‘gates’, which can appear anywhere. Did you enter a black carriage bearing one coffin gate come to meet you?”
Diana tried to think back to her time before the coffin. She had thought it was simply a dream at the time. Despite the architecture of the building being clearly not Australian, the dream she had was indeed most certainly set in her home country. It was a black night, crossing through the thick thrush of the Outback barefoot, the knuckles of her toes still burning with the cuts that its twigs had pricked them with. No other country in the world had trees like the Australian Outback, with how their oily leaves burst in slickened tumours and the branches of sickly thin trees spindle and spiral like strings of fungal blooms. Diana should have known better, but she had been following voices, swimming through the Australian forest on waves of whispers.
“For me. For them. For you. We are all running out of time. No matter what, never let go of my hand”
“I do kind of remember a horse with an unkind face” sniffled the girl, her face muffled by its place in her boy’s chest. Crowley crouched down, nowhere near meeting Diana’s eyes but a calming motion nonetheless, as he said, “That black carriage serves to receive a student chosen by the Dark Mirror, and as you know, sending a carriage to meet someone on a special day is a time-honoured tradition”.
“Uh, a time-honoured tradition where?” huffed the boy as he rubbed circles into her girl’s back. Her girl added, “So this carriage brought me here against my will?”
“... How am I going to attend orientation if I have no wheelchair?” interrupted Diana. The fire in Crowley’s sockets seemed to dim with every sentence Diana ever dare utter from her mouth.
“What?”.
“I am disabled. If I’m going to attend any kind of ‘orientation’, or make my way around your ‘university’, then I’ll be needing a wheelchair. Fetch”