Prologue - The Welcome
Dear Candidate,
Your acceptance is not an honour. It is a decision.
By the time you finish this letter, your name will have been entered into the Institute’s registry, and the final arrangements will already be in motion. You may call that efficiency. Others call it control.
The Westfield grounds have been standing since 1876. The world outside has changed its language—myth, disorder, mental health, genetics—anything to avoid saying the simplest truth:
Some people are not human, and some power cannot be allowed to grow wild.
You have been selected because you show potential that cannot be safely ignored: stamina, heightened response, abnormal resilience, and aptitude under pressure. The Board does not accept everyone with talent. We accept those with a capacity for consequence.
When you arrive, you will be assigned to a House. Your House is not a dormitory. It is a containment unit, a support structure, and—if you survive long enough—your first allegiance. You will live with seven others. You will learn their habits. Their tells. Their weaknesses.
You will also learn your own.
This Institute offers what the outside world cannot: training, supervision, and protection. In return, you will comply with the Institute’s protocols.
Read the following carefully:
No candidate leaves the grounds without clearance.No candidate practises unsupervised binding work.All manifestations must be reported.This includes blackouts, memory loss, uncontrolled shifting, trance states, and any instance of compulsion.All bonds are regulated.If you experience symptoms of a bond—fixation, sensory bleed, involuntary pull, heightened aggression, heightened hunger, shared dreams—report immediately.
You may have heard rumours about bonds.Fated mates.Soul ties.Nature’s law.Romantic phrases used to soften a brutal reality.
Bonds create power. Power creates damage.
The Institute exists because history is full of what happens when desire and magic are allowed to make rules of their own.
Your travel arrangements are enclosed. Your room has been prepared. Your schedule will be delivered in a sealed envelope addressed to your Institute name.
On the morning of September 9th, you will stand at the gate with the others and you will be welcomed as one of us.
What you do after that is up to you.
Do not mistake freedom for safety.
Director Alaric WynnOn behalf of the Board
