Welcoming ceremony

Welcome by interim headmaster in a nice suit.

- Alludes to previous headmaster and other faculty being… “consumed”

- But all will be well!

- (He’s shimmery, as everyone can see his face as he bows… toward each person.  And the reflection of the other versions of him, off of dust motes and whatnot, cause him to look… shimmery)

- Don’t cross the water

- No one gets lost… for more than a year. And they always make it back to their houses. On the same day? (that year?? The next year??? How can they be lost for a year and be back the same day?)

- Sorting is done by blue floating dust motes

Derek chases off after one in a ravine… but slips and falls and gets embarrassed

Kyren checks on him, but he’s fine, and looks for a way across the ravine…. But that seems very far away. “Maybe I could just sleep in the library?” she thinks… or maybe I’ll just go with the littlest twinkly one.

Derek recovers by scaling a dark, twisty ravine, using his bird talons and beak.

Oglet & Pierre, facing a similarly mysterious, steep hillside, decide, wisely, to break for a picnic. Sandwiches! (Pierre grabs some :P)  Emily joins them with apples and Turkish delights until the surrounding mist gets thicker and then dissipates, revealing that it has now left them in a clearing between their two houses:

Max and Emily followed a blue mote that turned into a small, flightless bird (Wecca), which led to one house, and the Kereru - funny, plump, flopping bird - leads Oglet & Pierre to the other. They’re welcomed with butterbeer and then both houses empty into the courtyard between for a party.

Kyren’s blue glowing mote resolves into a Tui and leads her to a smooth tree, like a birch but even smoother. How will Kyren get up to the platform in the smooth tree?

Derek tries to help out by throwing darts to make a staircase. How kind and loyal! But he misses and hits Kyren.

Kyren makes her way up to the platform (how?) and has to figure out one last mystery. Injured and scared, Kyren can’t figure out how to open the door. She gets embarrassed, but is let in by her