Chapter One
Juno
I woke up feeling giddier than usual. The new portal Astro had located yesterday showed more promise than the fifty or so portals before. We might finally get to explore a new world! I all but ran out of my tiny house and down the street towards the palace. Our rulers didn’t live there, it was simply their place of work, and I should know, my father being one of the five rulers.
I hadn’t dressed up for the occasion, having donned my usual clothes. I didn’t want to seem too eager and somehow jinx us. Our magic was dying out and finding a new world was our biggest priority, so I didn’t want to be the reason anything went wrong today.
Astro was our portal seeker. Using his magic he opened tiny portals and by touching them, he could search for living beings, intellect, and if the world would be habitable for us. This one was the first one with all three things.
I was one of the lucky few who got to enter portals, this being the first we would all enter through, though. My dad hadn’t been too excited about me risking my life in another world, but I feltlike there wasn’t much left for me here. Not that I used that as my explanation, no, that would only hurt my father’s feelings if I did. No, I simply told him I needed to experience things for myself and this was something I felt passionate about. He didn’t argue further, which actually surprised me. Maybe he did trust me just a little bit after all.
When the palace came into view, so did Charlotta. She was skipping along the pavement happily, clearly feeling the same giddiness as I was. She, like me, would enter the portal and explore the new world. I was the one who got her the job, wanting my best friend to experience it with me. I only needed to find Nix, our other bestie. He was on our team too, though so far nowhere to be found.
I ran up to Charlotta, bumping my shoulder against hers playfully. “This is so exciting!” I greeted her.
She matched my enthusiasm with a bright smile. “It truly is! Although, I’ve heard there is no magic in it.” No magic?
“Then why are we entering it? Wasn’t finding magic our goal?” It was the whole reason why they’d started opening portals in the first place. Our planet was turning duller in color, our plants not flourishing as they used to, our newborns born without much power.
She shrugged. “I believe they want a safe place for us to evacuate to if things turn…. Worse. Either way I’m still hopeful.” I didn’t know how to answer that, too stuck on the no magic part. “Do you think they’ll let us through today?” she asked when we’d been silent for a while.
I shrugged; it wasn’t always easy knowing what our rulers thought. “Astro found it yesterday and we’ve all been summoned. It seems like they want us through,” I finally replied. The fact was that our rulers were desperate. We had no idea how long our planet could sustain itself. Normally, whenever a baby was born, they would be placed on the ground somewhere andtheir magic would join our planet, fueling our world. It didn’t hurt the babies. It had been more of a ritual on our planet for as long as anyone could remember. But a year ago things suddenly started changing. Babies no longer glowed up and shared their magic. The planet didn’t get any offerings, since our babies were too weak to give any magic away.
“Juno! Charlotta! What’re you doing here so early?” Henriette, one of our rulers, called out from the palace doors. She was smiling knowingly at us, of course aware that we were too excited to wait.
“Sorry!” we yelled back in unison, both of us grinning like excited children, even though we were twenty-two.
She shook her head, but still had a smile on her face as we followed her inside to the portal room. Upon entering, it appeared we weren’t the only ones ready to burst with excitement. Everyone was in the room, even Nix, who was known for sleeping in.
“Juno!” my father’s voice carried through the room. I already knew his speech was coming.
“Oh, good morning, Dad,” I greeted him with a hug.
“Hi, son. Are you nervous?” he asked, looking me over for any hidden nerves.
I shook my head. “I’m just excited,” I assured him, still waiting onthe speech.
“You do realize it can be dangerous,” he began. “We have no knowledge of their world or their beings.” I fought an eye roll.
“It’ll be fine, Dad. Remember I was trained for this. Iwantthis.” He nodded, knowing from experience that I wouldn’t budge. I could just tell him my soul begged for me to leave our world, but he wouldn’t take kindly to that, so this was how it was going to be.
Astro clapped loudly, gaining everyone’s attention. I looked around and saw all the rulers had joined us in the room. Theytruly were invested in this. The fact that they were all present could only mean we were leaving today. I tried really hard not to let my giddiness show, since this was supposed to be serious, but tell that to my heart, which was now beating so fast I was afraid to move.
“Now that I have everyone’s attention,” Astro spoke loudly. “We need room to open the portal, so everyone, move over to this wall,” he pointed to the wall behind me. “Once the portal is stable, you’ll go through.” I couldn’t contain my smile. I was leaving! “Only ten of you will go through it today and then return in eight hours to tell us your findings. You’ll use your slate to communicate with us throughout the day, and if all goes well, tomorrow all twenty of you will be leaving for a month.”
Only ten of us? My mood plummeted instantly. Would that mean I wasn’t going?
Before I could ask who would be travelling today, the other portal makers came forward, joining Astro as they began working on opening the portal together. We all huddled together to give them room to work and watched in silence as a huge bluish portal opened against the wall.
“It’s stable,” Astro exhaled with evident relief. “And from what I felt, there’s a lot of intelligent life there.”
“What wonderful news!” Trise, one of the rulers, gushed excitedly.
“Indeed!” My dad joined in, looking pleased. “Who travels through today?”
Astro shrugged. “Who volunteers to?” he asked, looking at all twenty of us. We all raised our hands, each of us desperate to explore this new world. The rulers and Astro laughed at our clear display of eagerness.
“Maybe we can let them all through?” Henriette asked with a smile. “Just five at a time, and we need you to confirm you’ve travelled there safely through your slates.” The other rulersnodded their agreement and proceeded to divide us into four groups. I was in the group that would travel through the second time, with Nix beside me. Charlotta was in the group to go through last.
