Why now? As the intercom alerts the university residents to remain indoors, Dr. Lavender locked the classroom door. How convenient his pupils learned about different realms the previous week! As he spun around, his stoic face lit up. His hands rose above them. “Dearest Apprenti, though today’s lesson has been canceled, our learning has not.”…

The day after he had been nabbed by strangers, bound and gagged into a van, and had watched his parents fight for him, he woke in his dorm room. It was a school, and now his home. The minimal-standard construction was just that. No decoration. No color. The walls were a plain plaque-white with sloppy…