"I had hoped to communicate with you sooner," Jane Chatwin said to a baffled Quentin Coldwater on the quad of Brakebills University on an unusually cloudy Tuesday, "but I was...preoccupied. Listen: The Beast has managed to seal every permanent entrance to Fillory. I tried to go through the fountain..." She lifted her pant leg to reveal a foot that was badly chemically burned. "It's lucky I'm the type to test the waters. With the permanent entrances sealed, there's only one way—"
"An Extemporary Entrance. Fillory opens doors at random for anyone who—"
"Wants it, needs it, and is pure of heart. Yes."
Jane reached into her pocket and handed Quentin a crumpled piece of paper.
"Go to the place on this map," she instructed, "and bring the usuals: Julia, Alice, Penny, Margo, and Eliot. Once you're in Fillory, follow the light and you'll find The Beast—"
"The usuals? I barely talk to any of those people."
"Oh?"
"I got sick of third-wheeling on the Julia-Margo wagon back in freshman year. Alice Quinn has been a downer since she became obsessed with the mystery of her brother's disappearance. And Penny was always a jerk to me, why would I associate with him?"
"I see...all this time without a unifying cause... Regardless, rally them. And Quentin, a tip: there is something rather vulnerable about crossing the threshold between worlds." She smiled. "Use that."
"That's unhelpfully cryptic."
"Go, Quentin."
"Jane, why did you wait this long to find me? What were you doing?"
"Protecting something of great consequence. Now go. And tread lightly."
* * *
"So this is our battle armor?"
Penny scoffed as he looked around the Physical Kids' common room at the assembled team. They were all donning short-sleeved white button-ups with ridiculously puffed sleeves. No one seemed particularly thrilled to be in present company.
"We'll need them for a spell," Quentin explained. "Come on, Mr. Traveler, take us to the place on the map."
The group huddled together, and on Penny's cue, they vanished.
* * *
The Hall of Doors was aptly named and, as Eliot noted, "severely underwhelming." It was a single wood-paneled hallway with dim fluorescent lighting and polished concrete floors, located in the sub-basement of a skyscraper in downtown Dubai. The enchanted metal doors lining the hall had reportedly been used, in rare circumstances, to travel between worlds.
"Fillory will open an entrance for someone pure of heart who both wants and needs admittance," Quentin said. "Alice found a spell that could boost our chances." He turned toward Alice. "Care to teach us?"
"It might, um, hurt a bit," she warned.
Alice began to manipulate her fingers in a series of complex motions around her chest. Upon uttering the last of a string of foreign words, she let out a sharp gasp as her body contorted in pain. The others grimaced as they watched a lump migrate from the center of Alice's chest toward her left shoulder. Seconds later, the white puffed sleeve of her shirt hardened, turned blood red, and began to pulse rhythmically. Alice straightened herself, breathing heavily.
