The Magicians

Penny tells Quentin that he’s left Brakebills. He withdrew from classes at the end of Fourth Year because he felt there was nothing more that the school could teach him. After leaving, he moved to Oslo, a small town in Maine, where he could live in “solitude” (242) and focus on his “dangerous research project” (242), but something was missing, Penny tells them—he “discovered a weakness in himself […] he was lonely” (243).

Penny goes on to tell them how he started doing strange things, like playing “video games,” telling “his troubles to the miserable pod of Buffalo” on a nearby farm, and “making regular trips to a dance club in Bangor” (243). It was during one of his trips to the dance club that he ran into Lovelady. Lovelady was on the run because he’d found a very powerful magical button. When Penny saw the button, he knew right away what it was, and purchased it from Lovelady for “eighty thousand dollars” (246). The cost didn’t matter, because Penny had purchased it for all of them: “what matters is that it’s real, and it’s ours” (246).

Quentin realizes what Penny is talking about, but chooses not to say anything. The others remain confused, until Penny announces “Ladies and gentlemen […] we are all going to Fillory” (247). Penny explains that the buttons are the gift the Chatwin girls received from “the captain of the rabbit-crewed ship” (247) in Plover’s The Wandering Dune. Penny explains that the buttons can take a person to a place called the “Neitherlands […] an interdimensional layover” (247) from where the jump to Fillory can be made. Penny then tells them that he has “spent most of the past three years there” (248).

Quentin is skeptical of the possibility of going to Fillory. Still feeling guilty for his betrayal of Alice, Quentin relishes having Penny squirm over trying to explain that the fictional world of Fillory is real, telling Penny “you’ve got a button with some heavy-duty enchantments on it, and you’re looking for some framework to fit them all together, and you’ve latched onto this Fillory thing […] grasping at straws” (250). Alice, though, having heard enough from Quentin, grabs his wrist, and then reaches into Penny’s “left-hand pocket” (251) with her other hand. A moment later, Alice and Quentin disappear.

Quentin floats in a dark, cold pool of fountain water. He would prefer to float for a while, but Alice pulls him to the surface; up to the “still, hushed, empty city square” (252). There’s “a light rain […] falling” (253), but the streets are quiet, offering neither the sound of animals or insects. The surrounding buildings are made of stone, similar to what “Rome or Venice” (253) might look like. As Quentin pulls himself out of the water, he realizes that the “most blissfully happy-sappy dream of his childhood was true” (253). He begins to wonder if Fillory might also be real.

Quentin is about to say something to Alice, when she suddenly swings her fist into “his left eye” (253), then kicks him in both shins and calls him an “asshole” (253). Alice is so angry at Quentin that she pays little attention to her new surroundings. Quentin tries to explain, but Alice will hear none of it. Quentin then hears footsteps and sees Penny “stepping briskly across the flagstones toward them” (256).

Penny tells Quentin and Alice that they both need to get their emotions under control, because “this place can be dangerous if you’re not paying attention” (256). Both Quentin and Alice have no idea how to get back to their point of arrival: all Quentin can see are “irregular alleys and fountains and squares […] diminishing to infinity” (256). Penny allays their concerns by telling them that he’s marked the path they came on with paint.

Penny then takes Quentin and Alice back to the base camp he set up on one of his previous excursions to the Neitherlands. He also tells Quentin and Alice not to do any light magic, as “they go crazy” (257) in this place. Though he’s been unable to get into any of the buildings, he has been able to determine that the buildings are full of books.

Quentin asks Penny why they are here; Penny replies that they’re “going to Fillory” (259). Alice, however, thinks having the buttons is a mistake. In the books, one must be “chosen” (259) to go to Fillory. The fact that the buttons exist means anyone can go. In her eyes, the buttons are “a hole in the border, a loophole” (260) not designed for “the logic of Fillory” (260). Despite their reluctance, Penny gets Quentin and Alice to join him in future explorations of Fillory. The three of them then make their way back to the home square, falling into the fountain, then New York, and then into the apartment of Eliot and Janet. In human time, the entire trip has taken less than a second. 

After Quentin, Alice, and Penny return, Eliot and the others decide they, too, have to go to Neitherlands. The group goes “through in threes” (262), and once they’re all back, they give “each other long, searching looks heavy with significance” (262). They have finally found their purpose, Quentin thinks, but wishes Penny had come a day sooner, before Quentin had slept with Janet. In Quentin's mind, though, his night with Janet is “a symptom of the sick, empty world they were all in together. And now they had the medicine. The sick world was about to be healed” (263).

They all soon realize that a staging area is needed, a place to make their preparations for traveling to Fillory. Josh's new girlfriend, Anais, is able to help. She secures an “old farmhouse” (264) in upstate New York from “somebody who knew somebody” (264). That somebody happens to also be a sorceress who is able to open a portal for all eight of them to go through, bags and all.

Upon arriving, Alice heads upstairs and claims the master bedroom. Quentin takes a “guest bedroom at the back of the house” (265). When Quentin wakes, he finds everyone in the dining room, except Alice and Penny. They are discussing preparations for going to Fillory, including rereading the Fillory books and preparing some defensive spells in case there’s trouble. Penny believes they will be asked to go on a quest when they get to Fillory.

Waking to the realities of his situation, Quentin is not as upbeat about Fillory as he was the night before, suggesting to Penny that “maybe we’ll just suck around Fillory like we’re sucking around here” (267). Quentin remains guilty about his liaison with Janet. The next day, the group splits into two teams to gather supplies and work on “researching battle magic” (271). They spend the next few days in preparation, with Alice and Quentin going out of their way to avoid each other.

Quentin then discovers Penny sleeping with Alice. Quentin is quite drunk and trashes Penny’s room. Josh and Richard remove him to the den and give him a bottle of grappa, believing that it a matter of time before “he knocked himself out” (276). Quentin does not sleep, and when morning arrives, he rouses everybody, singing that it’s time to go to Fillory.