====== Prologue ======

“My baby, off to the Academy at last!” Grace’s voice was wet with emotion as she looked over Pell and his siblings in the entryway of their home. “And getting there through his own sibling’s Waypoints, too!”

Constance rolled their eyes, drowning out Pell’s mutter of “half-sibling” with their own objections.

“Mom, I’ve told you, they’re not ‘my’ Waypoints. I just discovered the principle of spell mutability that-”

“Yes, dear, then you published it, and now we have one right here in our own home. Don’t be so modest.”

Constance sighed, shaking their head with an exasperated smile.

Pell tugged at his luggage. “Why isn’t the door open? Doesn’t it normally open when you pick where you’re going?” He gestured forlornly at the empty, rune-covered doorway standing in a vestibule that had, a month ago, held only a large potted plant.

Constance nodded. “With so many students set to return at once, they had to set up a special bidirectional compact-”

“Did you invent that too?” Sarcasm dripped from Alaina’s voice, and Constance flushed visibly as their mother beamed.

“Well, partly, but- anyway, it won’t open until the person on the other end gets to our turn. If they were on schedule, that would have been five minutes ago, and we were near the top of the list so surely they haven’t been able to get too far behind…” They trailed off as Alaina shrugged.

“Half of them probably haven’t used a Waypoint before. Did your schedule account for gawking time?” She couldn’t suppress a smile as Constance’s face fell.

“I didn’t make the - no. The schedule has some cushion time built in, but for the most part it assumes that people will see the door open, walk through, and get out of the way.” They sighed and leaned against the wall, pulling a watch from their vest pocket and adjusting a dial as Pell sat on his suitcase. “But like I said, we’re near the top of the list, so it should only be - ten more minutes?”
Alaina turned to the mirror, checking her make-up. After a moment, she made a gesture and Pell gasped in delight as her night-blue hair flared to light, tiny stars flowing from her scalp and twisting into her bun. Grace stepped closer, smiling.

“Ockham’s Astrocranial Ornamentation? One of my favorites when I was your age." She reached up to touch Alaina's hair, but her daughter twisted away with a noncommittal noise. She ignored Constance's quirked eyebrow for a long moment before turning with a sigh and lifting her bun to reveal a small, crescent-shaped piece of silver-white metal woven into her hair. Constance examined it with a low whistle.

"Tell me again why you've only been marked 'satisfactory' in Relicry?" They waved away Alaina’s next objections. "Alaina, if you showed this to Professor Keynes - just this, not even any of the other trinkets I’ve pretended not to notice - you'd be fast-tracked into research level by Spring."

"Maybe, but then I'd have to deal with researchers all day. One of you is quite enough." Alaina dropped her hair back into place and stepped away, straightening her dress. She fixed Pell with a piercing glare. “Not a word, got it?”

At that moment, the Waypoint finally burbled to life. Fluid magical energy, shimmering like liquid mercury, flowed up from its base like honey, forming a tenuous bubble across its doorway until it finally reached the top and their reflection was replaced by a view of the Academy’s Waypoint Room - recently converted from a disused stable. Alaina was through the doorway practically before the rest could react, with Pell close behind, leaving only a faint “Bye mom!” as he fled any further emotional moments.

Constance laughed and gave their mother a hug as she sputtered last minute advice at her departing children. “Don’t worry, Mom. They’ll be fine.” They gave her one last wave goodbye and stepped through the portal, which burst with an audible pop behind them.