Shadow Mountain and the Secret of the Gatekeepers

There wasn’t much sound around on the steps of the old orphanage when Tobias Fletcher stepped up to the main door and gave it a hearty rap. There was little sign of movement anywhere; the afternoon had passed into a glistening evening as the sun was committing to set behind the dirty old building of rustic peaks and towers. Finally the heavy wooden door, scarred and aged creaked open and a rather severe looking woman, with thin spindly features and cold eyes peeked out.   ‘Hello, Alice,’ Fletcher said smiling through what was growing into a rather bushy black beard.  ‘What do you want?’ was the disgruntled reply.   Fletcher smiled politely. ‘I have come to enquire about a couple of your pupils,’ he explained in a kind tone.  ‘What about them?’ Alice grumped.  ‘I hear they are involved in some… inexplicable coincidences,’ Fletcher said, his hands held in front and intertwined in the long sleeves of his lengthy blue robes.  ‘What about it? If you don’t think I can handle it…’ she went to close the door harshly and grumpily.  ‘Please, Miss Belfast!’ Fletcher implored, making Alice stop and peer at him through the mostly closed doorway.  ‘Tobias, I told you fourteen years ago, I didn’t want anything more to do with your kind-’  ‘Then why not transfer them to my facility, where they can be given the training they need!’ Fletcher pleaded.   Alice Belfast shook her head. ‘I can’t do that!’ she said, her well known temper flaring up, ‘I can’t hand over children for you to fill their heads with your crazy ideas! And your dangerous classes are another story all together!’ She was about to continue on but Fletcher held up a hand to silence her.  ‘I only ask you to consider my proposition,’ he said, the smile gone from his face, replaced with a sad but kind look. ‘Unfortunately we both know all too well what happens when they remain untrained.’   An uncomfortable silence hung in the air for a moment.  ‘I’ll consider it,’ Belfast said coolly, looking resigned to the facts that Fletcher had placed before her.  ‘