4338.209 · July 28, 2018 AD
The Menagerie Recruitment
Beatrix descends into the basement beneath The Whispering Menagerie carrying an offer that would sound like madness anywhere else. But Jarod has always understood the spaces between legal and possible. For a moment, surrounded by terrariums and filtered light, something like hope takes shape. Then her phone buzzes—and the fragile architecture of the afternoon collapses into a single, furious sentence.
The Whispering Menagerie has always hidden more than it displays.
On 28 July 2018, Beatrix Cramer descended into its basement with Leigh and an offer that would have sounded like madness anywhere else. But Jarod James had spent years operating in the spaces between legal and possible. He was prepared for unusual proposals. He was not prepared for this.
The Portal Key flared to life against a storage cabinet. Leigh stepped through and vanished. Seconds later, he returned—proof made flesh, reality bent and unbroken. Jarod watched his understanding of the world splinter into something larger and stranger than he had ever imagined.
The offer was made: Guardianship. A Portal Key of his own. A place beside Beatrix in a conflict spanning dimensions. Jarod asked for time. Beatrix borrowed cash. And for a brief, fragile interval, something like hope took shape in the terrarium glow.
Then her phone buzzed.
Duke's body had been discovered. Her mother's fury awaited. And Beatrix—who had just offered Jarod a door to another world—had to step back through her own Portal to face consequences she could no longer outrun.
