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Before they set off Julia spent fifteen minutes on a spell that she curtly informed him would cause the car to wait an hour and then drive itself back home to Chesterton Quentin didn’t see how that was even remotely possible, on any number of levels, but he kept his doubts to hilass he could have at least fixed the , but he hadn’t, so hard cheese on whoever’s muscle car it was He tucked two hundred dollars in twenties into the glove compartment, then they drank the rest of the Coke and cliuardrail

These weren’t recreational woods, h and picnicked in They hadn’t been curated and ers They were dense, and the light was dih the his head too late to avoid being slashed across the face by a branch Every five h a spiderweb, but he could never find the spider

And he wasn’t sure ould happen if they walked into the Brakebills peri in theory, of course, but Quentin had watched Professor Sunderland lay down the barrier after the Beast attacked He’d seen soround into those powders Any second they could be running sle After half an hour he called a halt

The woods were still There was no sign of the school, but he felt it so behind a tree waiting to juined he could feel older tracks running through the woods too Like Alice’s--poor cursed teenage Alice, wandering all night looking for the way in It would have been better for her if she’d never found it Careful what you hunt, lest you catch it

"Let’s try it here," he said

Julia launched into the Anasazi spell in her rough, fierce casting style, clearing invisible layers away fro off a windshield He winced, inwardly, to watch sos any less forceful Soan work on the Mann instead It was a lot easier, but it wasn’t a contest Best to diversify

He never finished He heard the usually imperturbable Julia squeak and skip a step backward Suspended in the air in front of her, in the square she’d cleared, was a face It belonged to an olderyellow blazer

It was Dean Fogg, the head of Brakebills His face was in the square because he was standing right in front of Julia

"Soooooo," the dean said, drawing out the vowel until he practically burst into song "The prodigal has returned"

Not fiveacross the Sea, which was as lush and green and immense as ever It rolled out around them, the size of half a dozen football fields The summer sun beat down on theic walls

It was incredible Quentin hadn’t been back here for three years, not since he’d gone to Fogg and asked to be stricken froed at all The smells, the lawns, the trees, the kids--this place was like Shangri-la, forgotten by ti you froo far beyond e had in your day Far beyond Double-braided lines of force--we have a re man in our theoretical department, even I don’t understand half of what he does You can see aanybody in it It’s even color-coded by their intentions and state of mind Remarkable"

"Remarkable" Quentin felt shell-shocked On his other side Julia said nothing God knehat she was feeling, he couldn’t have guessed within a thousand h school She hadn’t spoken since Fogg had appeared, though she hadrattled on about the school and the grounds and Quentin’s classs they were up to None of theotten the dimension There was plenty of hot local news too Brakebills had become a force to be reckoned with on the international welters circuit, thanks to the efforts of one especially sporty young professor One of the topiary anie and was running arounds, albeit very slowly, at the rate of about a yard a day The Natural group was laboringit to justice, but no luck so far

The library was still plagued by outbreaks of flying books--three weeks ago a whole flock of Far Eastern atlases had taken wing, terrifyingly broad, muscular volumes like albatrosses, and wrecked the circulation area, sending students crawling under tables The books actually found their way out through the front door and roosted in a tree by the welters board, froes until they got rained on and dragged theressively rebound

All Quentin could think was hoeird it was that all this was still going on It shouldn’t be possible, it rass, girls ht-starved bodies to the extent that the school uniform would permit Classes were out for the seraduated yet If Quentin were to turn left here and walk five e And it would be full of strangers, lolling in theseats, drinking the wine, reading the books, screwing each other in the beds He’d wondered if he would want to see it, but now that he was here he really didn’t

The students watched the three of them pass, propped up on their elbows, full of lofty pity for those who had been stupid enough to graduate and get older He kne they felt They felt like kings and queens Enjoy it while it lasts

"I wasn’t sure ould ever see you again" Fogg was still talking "After your--what shall we call it--your retirement? Not many people who make that choice ever come back, you know When we lose them we lose them forever But you, I take it you saw the--how shall I put it--the error of your ways?"

Fogg had evidently decided to take the high road, and it certainly sounded like he was enjoying the view fro expanse of the Sea for the cool paths of the Maze, which opened up at unexpected intervals into little squares and circles inside of which were nestled pale stone fountains The sah the paths were different The Maze would have been redrawn since his day--once a year every year He followed Fogg’s lead

"I had a change of heart" The high road ide enough for two "But it was very generous of you to accommodate me, in my--what shall I call it-- removed a handkerchief from inside his lapel and patted his forehead with it He did look older The goatee was new, and it waswhat he’d always done, to other kids who then moved on and left Quentin felt claustrophobic after only fivestill saw hione

They walked into the House and up to Fogg’s office Before Quentin followed him inside he turned to Julia

"Do you want to just wait out here?"

"Fine"

"Might be better tactically for n with her thuer Great She seated herself on the bench beside Fogg’s door, the one usually reserved for naughty and/or failing undergraduates She’d be fine He hoped

The dean sat down and clasped his hands in front of him on the desktop The rich, leathery, fa him back into the past He wondered what he would say if he could talk to the boy he had been, sitting in what looked like this exact sa the ru his knee with nerves, and trying to figure out if this was all a joke Proceed with caution? Take the blue pill? Maybe soo touching strange keys

And ould his younger self say? He would look back at him the way Benedict looked at Quentin and say: like I would do that

"So," Fogg said "What can I do for you? What brings you back to your humble aliving away more than he should about Fillory Its existence--its reality--was still a secret, and Fogg was the last person he wanted to know about it If he found out, then everybody would hear about it, and next thing you know it’s the hot spot for Brakebills kiddies on spring break, the Fort Lauderdale of the ical multiverse

But he had to start so, how much do you know about travel betorlds?"