PART I: AWAKENING IN THE ACADEMY
"Where am I? I thought Linnert would come for me again..."
Wistert walked through the immense hallways of the Silvert Academy. His three-year-old eyes widened in awe at the postmodern and antique decor: a blend of classical paintings and crystal chandeliers that hung like captive stars. All around him, other children of his same height observed him. They were humans, half-beasts, entities, and demons.
"Linnert was right," the boy whispered. "There are others like me."
But the feeling was not one of welcome. As he moved forward, Wistert perceived a heavy murmur. The other children watched him with poorly disguised fear. Their voices were small splinters of suspicion driving into his mind.
"Hey, Wistert, are you feeling alright? You look down," a warm hand rested on his face, interrupting the echo of critical voices.
It was a Confederation officer. Her hands were soft, yet the contact caused a slight sting of pain in Wistert.
"It's nothing, thank you for worrying, miss," he replied with a politeness improper for his age.
"My name is Nushimite," she smiled. "Let's leave the formalities aside. Starting today, I will be your caretaker."
They entered his new room. It was wonderful, though Wistert noticed something immediately: there were no mirrors. He remembered there were none in his home either; his father had forbidden them since he turned three. Linnert always said it was "for his own good," that he was still too small to see his own reflection.
PART II: THE ORIGIN OF THE JAWS
"Every child has a caretaker who provides affection and teaches them Phase 1 of Universal Magic," Nushimite explained. "This headquarters is one of the 200 'Jaws' controlled by the Founder."
Wistert tilted his head, processing the information with his prodigious mind.
"A Jaws? Linnert used to tell me bedtime stories about them. She said they are places or living beings created with Neutral Magic."
Nushimite was surprised by the child's intelligence.
"Exactly. But these Jaws are different. They were perfected by a human named Mei Tsuki. She arrived in our world in the year 1367 of the Ninth Titan, fleeing from a disaster in her homeland... places called Hiroshima and Nagasaki."
Wistert listened intently. Nushimite told him how Mei Tsuki, a thirteen-year-old girl dressed in strange garments called a kimono, crossed a portal opened by a massive explosion in her world. Upon arrival, she was taken in, and her knowledge changed how the magic of environmental creation was understood.
"Mei created the Jaws to provide refuge, but others use them for horror," Nushimite continued. "The Demon Duke Anrot created Jaws that are prisons of nightmares. Today, there are eight main types. If you ever get trapped in those of the Moon families, you must seek the Radio City. There you will find a painting of the Golden Moon; if you break it, the paint will absorb you back into the real world."
PART III: THE HEART OF THE HOUSE
Wistert then remembered his own home.
"My father was always sitting on a great throne," the boy said in a low voice. "Behind him was a giant heart that beat. It would turn red when he sat down. If the heart stopped beating, everything in the house turned gray and they warned us not to go outside. They said it was dangerous."
Nushimite nodded gravely.
"That is because your family's house is, in itself, one of the primary Jaws."
"And the Engineer's Train?" Wistert asked. "Linnert said it is the most mysterious Jaws."
"It has been running for 370 years, since the death of Mei Tsuki. No one knows what powers it," Nushimite explained. "If ever, on a mission against rebel demons, you see an old steam train with strange symbols and a Pentacris—a pentagram with a crystal that moves like a compass—stay away. That train even travels through the Cannibal Kingdom."
Wistert looked at his cracked hands. The world was much larger and more terrifying than he had imagined, and he—a Blue Moon with the weight of the Red Moon in his blood—was right at the center of all the nightmares.