[img]http://i.imgur.com/8I5EqBQ.png[/img] [img]http://i.imgur.com/2uDBgEK.png[/img] [b][u]Aliquam: Academy of the Arts[/u][/b] “An item of extreme value… hmm…” Dalia brought a finger to her lips as she continued to lead the tour of her friends to the faculty lounge, where the Headmaster and other members of staff were waiting. It was where the priests and priestesses had done most of their preparation work, assigning groups about the Academy via a map, as well as informing them what their route patrols were. Alongside co-ordinating this and control of the students, which had been delegated to a small number of priestesses and trusted members of the students (including Keeva and Simon for the women’s dorms and men’s dorms respectively, much to Simon’s dismay whom wanted to catch a photo of the Masked Phantom in action), the staff had tried to calculate and consider what it was this mysterious thief might be trying to steal. And they came to a blank. What Angel had said was completely true; there were innumerable pieces of art and objects within the Academy that were worth a fortune. But they couldn’t think what in particular might entice a criminal to pull the stunt he was intending. Was there something in particular within the Academy the thief would want? What was it? “We haven’t been able to guess yet, unfortunately,” Dalia said with a sigh. “There’s simply so many pieces of expensive art here. It might be that the Masked Phantom is after one piece, or maybe several, we simply don’t know. The best we can hope to do is patrol the Academy and make sure we catch him before he does… whatever it is he plans to do.” Dalia came to a sudden stop, gesturing with one hand to the open faculty lounge to admit the Pride inside. Inside the spacious room, it was abuzz with conversation and activity. Several maps of the Academy had been pinned to the walls and tables, littered with scribbles and marking for where particular groups would be patrolling. Yet others sat behind their desks, including the Headmaster, cataloguing the most valuable pieces of art within the Academy’s grounds, trying to guess what it was the Masked Phantom could be after, but like Dalia had explained to her friends, no real progress had been made on that end. In the event the Masked Phantom was after a number of them, these pieces had been split up across the Academy, and left under heavy protection by magically endowed Priests and Priestesses. Unfortunately the Academy would not have much in the way of support from the Empire itself and their soldiers. As busy as the Empire themselves were, with waging long borderwars against their neighbouring kingdoms, the closest Empire station was also simply too far from Aliquam to arrive in time. Only Biggs and Wedge would be able to help, which is why it was such a relief to Dalia and the others that the Pride offered their help. They weren’t the only ones however… [img]http://i.imgur.com/WDVJyuu.png[/img] “Well well well. Hello again.” A confident smirk greeted the Pride as they stepped into the room, and they found the familiar form of Tobias awaiting, his body leaning against the table with his arms folded across his chest. Whilst he was smiling, his eyes betrayed the seriousness he had felt since the night before, when his party had been so rudely interrupted by the Masked Phantom. Tobias intended to get his revenge for that, and make the thief pay for his audacity. “If it isn’t my friends again. A pleasure to meet you all.” [img]http://i.imgur.com/AIt9B3l.png[/img] “Tobias,” Dylan sneered. “What are you doing here? You might be a patron of the Academy, but I don’t see why you need to be here.” “Are you serious, Dylan?” Tobias raised a brow. “Don’t be so daff. You said it yourself, I’m a patron of this wonderful academy, and I’m not about to stand by and let some ostentatious thief break into here and steal its riches. Not to mention what this fool did at my gala… come, Dylan, you know me far too well to know I would not sit idly by.” “More the pity.” “Dylan, please,” Dalia sighed wearily. She understood perfectly the animosity that Dylan had for Tobias, and it was of course well deserved. She had had to resist the urge to thump Tobias an inordinately number of times herself. But this was certainly not the time for it. “Tobias has volunteered a number of his own retainers and guards to help us with our search for the thief. Altogether, that puts the number of people we have on the ground, patrolling and standing watch over our vaults at approximately one hundred.” “Woah, one hundred?!” Estelle gasped. She shouldn’t have been so surprised – with how large the Academy was, it would take that many to probably patrol and guard it. But she also couldn’t really believe it would take that many of them to catch a single thief. Not to mention how absurd it now seemed for the Masked Phantom to have announced his plans. He couldn’t possibly intend to get past all these bodies and pull off his crime, could he? “That’s… that’s amazing! We’ll definitely catch this thief!” Dalia giggled and nodded. “Yes, I’m sure we will. We’ll do everything in our power to do so. Here,” She turned and rummaged around across a table, searching for something she knew was meant to be there. “Looking for these, Dalia?” From behind his back, Tobias whipped out a small device, laughed jovially and threw one into Estelle’s hands. “Hey… these are communicators!” Estelle exclaimed, remembering their mission in Tabul, where upon splitting into two groups they had used the magically powered devices to communicate and update their statuses between each other. They were unbelievably useful, albeit fragile and expensive. Estelle’s mind fluttered back to their stakeout of Fenaru, where they had to use the setting off of fireworks to communicate between their distant groups, because they didn’t have any communicators. She wondered, if they had some back then, might that mission have gone a different way? “That’s right,” Dalia said. “Tobias gracefully donated them us for tonight. Unfortunately we don’t have enough to give to everyone, but we have enough to make sure each group has one.” “How big do you plan the groups to be?” Estelle perked up and asked. “Well, all of the other members of staff have been assigned to groups… which just leaves us. I think we could split into five groups of three, and I think we should split myself, Dylan, Rose, Angel and Tobias up between the groups, seeing as we know our Academy’s layout. As for the rest of the groups and how they’re distributed… I think we can leave that up to you. We’ll all be patrolling the grounds.” Dalia explained, and everyone returned an understood nod back. With careful deliberation, Estelle quickly divided the Pride into five groups of three… [center][u][b]North: Group A:[/b][/u] Estelle, Dalia, Aria [u][b]East: Group B:[/b][/u] Marcus, Xandra, Dylan [u][b]West: Group C:[/b][/u] Moira, Syed, Angel [u][b]Central: Group D:[/b][/u] Tobias, Lucien, Amy [u][b]South: Group E:[/b][/u] Rose, Lute, Trixie[/center] Afterwards, the Pride would have a small amount of time throughout the rest of the afternoon to leisurely wander through the Academy, memorising their assigned patrol routes, for the night’s mission where they’d have to be alert and active in order to try and capture the Masked Phantom… unaware that things would be far more dangerous then any of them could realise… ------- [b][u]Aliquam: Abandoned House overlooking Aliquam’s Academy of the Arts[/u][/b] From a window facing out in the direction of Aliquam’s Academy, a figure sat by the windowsill, his arms folded over his lap in quiet relaxation – his eyes obscured by a mask doing nothing but simply watching over the grounds, and the interesting way in which people moved to and fro with great urgency and anticipation across it. The blonde man’s dramatic show the night before had produced such wonderful results, and the air outside was now electric with excitement. The upcoming night… “The upcoming night is certainly going to be an adventure,” A smile spread across the aristocratically dressed man’s face, exposing glisteningly white teeth. He turned his head, looking away from the window and to the rest of the sparse and empty wooden room he sat in, and at the four figures that faced back. His smile grew wider. “Isn’t it?” [center][img]http://i.imgur.com/KfQDBLF.png[/img][/center]