The great black beast looks something like a dog, and something like a flower. It raises its mouth from where it has been rooting around in a guard's chest, focusing on her. The petals near its mouth flare, as though it is sniffing the wind, even though the air in the guard station is still.

Concordia screams. She has the dignity to admit that, at least to herself. She also backpedals quickly, slamming the door in its face, and putting as much distance as she can between herself and the beast. She dashes down the street, thinking about where the next-clearest station is.

But there is a beast out here as well — identical to the first in every way, except for how it lopes across the decorative flowerbeds toward her.

Concordia curses. A glance behind her shows that she is pinned, so she casts the first spell taught to every Academy student —

Basic teleport to a safe location, Academy of Temler variant

— and then she's somewhere else.

It's a calm place. The air smells sweet with spring flowers. A gentle brook trickles, in the distance.

She relaxes, taking a moment to catch her breath.

And then she hears a snuffling sound, and sees the gray outline of one of the dog monsters sniffing its way toward her, growing more solid and less mist-like by the moment.

"Gods damn it!" she exclaims — and this was the wrong thing to say, because the monster's head swings around to point nearly directly at her.

She takes off running for the stream. If its relying on scent, maybe she can lose it that way.

However the beast is following her, it isn't instant. Or, at least, it doesn't catch up with her instantly.

Just before she reaches the river, she hears a baying howl off to her left, and then a matching one from behind her.

She stumbles through the shallows, throwing herself into the river. It's deeper than it looks — deep enough for her to duck under, and then cast her teleport again, hopefully confusing the trail.

She appears on the edge of a large, clear field. Small children — ranging from the same age as her brother Alexander, up to a bit less than her age — run around it, playing a game with a white ball.

She runs out of the woods, dripping wet.

"Evacuate! There's a Chasm monster following me!" she shouts.

She is momentarily mad at her escape spell's designers. She won't contest that a ... probable school ... is a safe place for her, but if she has led the monsters right to so many defenseless children — well, she'll just have to figure things out.

One of the adults supervising the children walks over toward her, calling in an unfamiliar language. The children and adults look confused and concerned, but not particularly scared.

She glances behind her at the forest, searching for any sign of the dogs.

"Chasm!" she repeats herself. Even if she's outside the Empire, they must know of the Chasm, right? "A Chasm monster!"

The adult shakes her head, and says something in a soothing tone of voice.

"Gods!" Concordia curses again. She casts the second spell she knows.

Novice unstructured characteristic divination scaffold: SELECT * FROM people WHERE language = Imperial

None of the people milling around on the field light up to her senses, except one.

A young girl sitting against a tree several yards away, reading a book. She doesn't seem to have noticed anything yet.

Concordia runs to her, her stamina starting to flag after so much running.

"You! Girl! You speak Imperial," she shouts.

Emily looks up from her book (page 152, not prime), and tries to push down her annoyance at being interrupted.

"I don't," she insists. "We don't start foreign languages until sixth grade."

"Yes, you do!" Concordia insists. "Because that's what we're speaking. But that's,"

She reaches Emily and doubles over, panting.

"That's not important. There are monsters! From the Chasm! They can follow my teleport, somehow, and we need to get everyone evacuated. Now!"

She technically doesn't know whether she lost them with the stream trick. She hopes she has. But better a needless evacuation drill than a monster attack.

Mrs. Meynard jogs up, looking concerned.

"Emily, can you understand her?"

Emily is conflicted.

In real life, someone running up to you and shouting about monsters and magic is probably not real. But. The girl looks like she's taking it seriously.

It's not like the start of any book in particular that she can recall. She hasn't stumbled through a portal, or discovered a dead relative's secret notes, or anything that would signal the start of an adventure. Plus, the teachers and the other children can see what's happening, and if magic were real, there's no way it could be secret if other people can just see it.

But.

Every book starts differently, and this could be the start of her story. And that means that there are monsters — because every story has monsters.

"She says that there are monsters, following her in the woods," Emily relays. "And we need to evacuate."

"Monsters? She can't have—" Mrs. Meynard starts to say.

Oh, so there is a masquerade, Emily thinks.

"Well, of course not," she agrees. "But even if she just saw a rabid animal chasing her, we should still get everyone away from the woods," she points out.

Mrs. Meynard blinks. Emily doesn't always come across as the most down-to-earth child, but she does have her moments.

She turns and shouts to the other students.

"Okay, everyone — away from the woods! Head to your safety area! Follow your classmates, and don't shove!"