The Academy of the Arts
It wasn't just outside where pieces had been stored away. The walls were covered in slightly darker rectangles, where drawings, paintings and photographs had been removed and stored away. Anything small enough to carry was being removed, leaving only the largest pieces and those too delicate to move safely. No doubt it would be the same across the campus - everything from musical instruments and more costly props right down to equisite sketchbooks.

As a result the building seemed even bigger, flooding light into large, expansive mostly empty rooms. All that really remained was cupboards and other various storage, the massive chandeliers which reflected glittering light across the room through their many glass shards, and the odd large piece of sculpture or instillation work.

A couple of staff members carrying a particularly large painting shuffled by, eyeing the Pride suspiciously. However the sight of Dalia, Rose and Angel seemed to put them at ease somewhat.

"Okay yeah whatever. What if he tries to steal that fountain outside? That looks pretty valuable. Oh, wait, what if he tries to steal the whole stage. I'm sure the entire room- wait, he can't steal whole buildings, can he!? Cuz designing buildings, man that's art too. So--"

"Trixie. Shut. Up."

Syed grinned, patting Trixie on the shoulder. "We were trying to figure that one out earlier, although we didn't have much luck." He nodded towards Marcus and Xan, making sure to make eye contact with the metalurgist in particular to reassure her. Thankfully in the hours that had passed Moira had calmed down a little, although she still was avoiding talking to anyone. Even now she was just keeping to herself, walking beside him but avoiding eye contact with everyone.

"I don't think he'll be able to steal a building though. They're pretty heavy." He brought a finger to his lips in somewhat mischevious thought. "Imagine though. If he tied a load of balloons to it and floated the school away..." he chuckled. "That would be cool. I mean..." he seemed to catch himself, flushing a little. "I mean I don't want him to do that, and I don't think it's even really possible, but it'll still be pretty cool."

He went to fiddle with the scarf he wore around his waist. He had grown to quite like how it looked, and it seemed a waste to only wear it with those formal clothes from before. So here he had it over his uniform too. Trixie had good taste.

Aliquam: Academy of the Arts

Lute spent their last few hours in the de Cervántes manor by checking up on everyone and then making sure the hungover people didn’t drown themselves in the pool. Of course, even he wasn’t daft enough to realize that something was going on with Moira, and Delilah advised him to leave her alone for the time being if he treasured his life. So then, the virtuoso was left to do nothing except the occasional errand and was utterly bored up until their arrival at the Academy.

It was really quiet and only a sparse number of people passed by. Rose did a great job with crowd control, so no wonder she was a member of the Student Council. The Pride met with Dalia first in the courtyard and then they all headed towards the faculty lounge. Estelle and Trixie seemed pretty determined, and the prankster even shot in a few suggestions about what the masked thief was out to nab. Amy didn’t seem too cool though…

“Or maybe he wants to steal a person. People are very important, after all,” Lute suggested softly as he peeked into the empty rooms they passed by. It would take a huge amount of discipline and efficiency to command a team that could transfer the various artworks in the Academy, and the overall lack of valuable materials everywhere was a mark of the professionalism of the manager. “Yeah, it would be ingenious. I guess we’ll have to think outside the box for this mission too,” The virtuoso quipped in after Syed, their voices reverberating within the empty corridor. He winced and then turned to Lucien.

“Say, do you have any idea what sort of things would attract a thief like that?” Lucien seemed familiar with fancy stuff so Lute took the opportunity to ask him, but tried his best to exclude his assumption of the summoner in his words.

The Academy of Arts

Man, yesterday the place had been filled with chattering students and excited laughter, but now, it was so quiet.

Lucien leaped forward, his footsteps echoing down the empty hall. He felt a twinge of excitement though chided himself for it. This was pretty serious. The summoner spun around so he was walking backwards, his eyes were focused on his friends. Their leader looked pretty fired up while Moira was quieter than usual. Ever since breakfast time she had looked kind of angry. He shuddered, if not for everyone else's warnings he probably would have died at the table.

"Mhm?" he gave Lute a smile. "Well, if I were a thief, I'd want to steal everything I could get my hands on. Like Angel said, everything here looks really pricey." His eyes flitted towards Trixie. "Hey kid, maybe they're really after the fountain. I mean, it looked really shiny."

Xan stuck close towards the back of the group. She still felt a little bad about upsetting Moira, but Marcus assured her the berserker would get over it, so she decided to respect her friend and give her all the time she needed. "A fountain would be too heavy to lift though."

The summoner laughed, "lift shmift, for all we know they could have some sort of cool teleportation gun." He nodded, as if he had given them a valid argument. "Villains always tend to have cool gadgets and whatnot." He continued rambling on, but she was no longer listening to him. "But you're right Lute, they could be after people! It won't matter though, Dallia and Angel are definitely safe with us." He gave them a thumbs up then spun around so he was finally walking like a normal person.

"Excuse me, Dalia?" Xan focused her attention on the priestess. "If you were the thief, which item of extreme value would catch your eye, or is there anything different. Something with a quality that sets it apart from the other pieces?"

Aliquam: Academy of the Arts

“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…



“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.”



“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…

North: Group A:
Estelle, Dalia, Aria

East: Group B:
Marcus, Xandra, Dylan

West: Group C:
Moira, Syed, Angel

Central: Group D:
Tobias, Lucien, Amy

South: Group E:
Rose, Lute, Trixie
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…

---

Aliquam: Abandoned House overlooking Aliquam’s Academy of the Arts

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?”

Aliquam: Academy of the Arts

The academy really was much more subdued than it had been yesterday. Not only were the crowds gone but most of the artworks too, leaving behind empty corridors with blank walls. The silence wasn’t unwelcome- in fact, if it was noisier half the Pride would be down on the ground with splitting headaches, but rather the tense silence only broken by the clacking of their footsteps on the marble ground and discussion.

“Maybe he really is planning to steal the entire academy. With balloons and teleportation guns or whatever.” She pressed her hand against her temple with a sigh as they entered a room, this one bustling compared to the emptiness of the halls outside. Maps were strewn all over, while charts and diagrams littered the floor as people buzzed to and fro trying to sort out the security for tonight. The noise made her wince, expecting the throbbing to settle in again, only to be surprised when she felt rather alright. She’d have to thank Lulu later for the pills- man, she how many favors was she owing him now?

They were quickly joined by Tobias, much to Dylan’s annoyance. To be honest his holier-than-thou attitude was starting to bug Aria as well- he wasn’t even that cute! The Phantom had him beat hands down in that department.

They were quickly split up into group after some more discussion, and Aria joined Dalia and Estelle with a grin. “Looks like we’ve got the best group here, right leader?” She slung an arm around the redhead’s neck, ruffling the girl’s hair playfully. “Looking forward to working with you, Dalia. So we're assigned to the North side... Which part of the school would that be?" She picked up the communicator, blinking at it. She's never had the chance to use one before, but from the looks of it Estelle has. She dropped it into the girl's hands. "You should probably hang onto that- I lose thing too often, not to mention I'm not that good with technology." She straightened up and rubbed the back of her head with a laugh.

Aliquam: The Academy of the Arts

Angel chuckled when he overheard who would be in his group for the stakeout. Once the communicator was slipped into his hands, he chucked it up and caught it shortly, as if it were a die, rather than the fragile thing it was. "Not that I mind or anything, but you two don't really like to split up, huh?" During the exhibitions, exiting Tobias' gala, and even at his own manor, he had always seen those two at close vicinity. Having them together with him a second time only made him laugh at what appeared to be a coincidence. He put his hands up in a playfully defensive manner as he had done before. "Hahaha, don't worry. I won't pry."

He stretched. "Seems like we've got some time to relax before we take our spots. The West Wing's pretty sweet if you guys are into sunsets, I guess." Then he leaned back against a column, eying the communicator, rather disinterestedly. "Anything you guys wanna do before we split? I'd offer another tour, buuuut that seems to be out of the way right now."



Opposite to Angel, Amy twitched her lips when she learned who'd be in her team. Lucien was fine, if not a bit talkative (though nothing outtalked Trixie), plus he had brought her food that morning, but Tobias... While it was generous of him to use his riches to help, she absolutely did not look forward to working together with him. She may have been drunk on the dance floor the previous night, but she clearly remembered him spouting some accusations at them for trying to help. If she had to listen to any more of his bullshit, and they weren't in the middle of a mission, she would have considered getting drunk a second night in a row.

Amy set her thermos atop one of the tables, seeing as her coffee had finally finished. She looked to Lucien and Tobias and gave a firm nod, acknowledging that she understood them to be her groupmates for the evening, though she said nothing.



"Whoo!" Trixie cheered as she tackled Lute from behind, wringing her arm around his neck and shoulder (and thus bringing him down to her level). "Echo and Wondergirl unite to kick some baddie butt! We got this, yeah? Yeah? Oh man, we are going to rock this night."

When she let go of Lute, nearly causing him to drop to the ground, she whipped out her two uzis from her butt-pockets. It felt so good to have them in hand again. She held them up forward and winked at Rose, before setting them back in their pseudo-holsters. She then motioned to the belt of pouches around her waist. "See, Miss Rosy! I got all our baddie-stopping gear here with me!"

Then she leaned over to Lute, elbowing him gently and whispering very loudly. "And maybe we can take his own stuff and use his gizmos against them. That'd be sooo cool, don't you think!? I am so ready for this!" She snickered maliciously. Trixie had been so fixated on that idea - stealing the stealer's stuff - ever since they knew they were up against a super flashy crook. "What's that you said last night though? You don't seriously think he's gonna turn into a monster or something, do you? Wait, you said it was - wait, how did the hero stop the baddie after he transformed?? Cuz if this guy transforms... tell me your secrets."

The Academy of Arts
While Amy may have viewed her group with mild dismay, Moira was quite relieved with hers. Angel seemed like a pretty cool guy, plus as he wasn't a member of the Pride it would be a welcome relief from how awkward things were for her. At least he wouldn't-

"Not that I mind or anything, but you two don't really like to split up, huh? Hahaha, don't worry. I won't pry."

Fuck. What a day.

"We're stuck together," Syed replied, keeping a cheerful tone to try and ease the tension. He gave the man one of his trademark, goofy looking dorky grins as he stepped away from her. "Literally. Come on, pull my arm."

Moira's eyebrows lowered. Idiot. She couldn't help the corners of her mouth twitch a little though. Well. At least... at least it looked like this should be fairly interesting. Patrolling around the school grounds was probably not the most exciting job out there, but if this thief was anything like last night he'd probably make himself known.

She closed her eyes for a moment, reaching back and allowing her fingers to brush across the hilt of her greatsword. Whatever happened, she'll be ready for it. As long as she didn't need to think too hard for it.

"Anything you guys wanna do before we split? I'd offer another tour, buuuut that seems to be out of the way right now."

"Nah, sunsets aren't really my thing," Moira said, crossing her arms. "Art schools aren't really my thing," she admitted. "I like to be doing shit, not lookin' at it. But... if you want," she smirked, a glint in her eyes. "We can discuss business. Since we got interrupted yesterday."

Syed simply shrugged. He reached out to take the communicator off Angel. Well he was certainly interested in it, even if the sculptor wasn't. He moved the object around in his hands, locating all the various buttons and dials on it. How cool was this?! He pressed on the speak button, unable to really hide the glee on his face.

SCREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEECH!

He yelped, being assaulted from all sides as every communicator erupted with awful, static screaching noises. So his magic interfered with it. Damn, he was gutted! He flushed, mouthing apologies as he gingerly gave it back to Angel. Yeah. He can look after it.

Amy and Tobias? Lucien gave them both a grin.

The former stilled looked kind of out of it and the latter, he looked upset, which was very understandable. Well, it looked like it was up to him to raise their spirits! As they walked down the halls, Lucien spun around so he was facing them and was again walking backwards. "I used to own a book about anti gravity, I couldn't put it down." Whether or not Tobias and Amy were annoyed, he didn't really notice. The summoner was too busy laughing at his own jokes.

"I have another one! I used to be addicted to soap, but I'm clean now." He struck a silly pose only to crash into one of the walls. Oh wow, had they reached the end of a hallway already? So much for staying cool. He floundered around for a moment, worried that a vase or something would fall over, but then he remembered most of the things had already been kept away.

The summoner turned a light shade of red then slowly made his way behind his companions. "Tobias, you know this place well, so we'll follow you." Lucien nodded his head then gave the man a salute.

---

Xan gave both Marcus and Dylan a determined nod. "A hundred men, huh? Sounds very impressive, we'll just have to see the masked phantom get past everyone." One person against so many of them? Why did the masked phantom announce his presence again? Xan shook her head, overthinking never really helped and the man's motives would hopefully be made known in due time.

She turned to give the matter artist a smile. "Studying here must have been some experience? Did you do exhibits all the time?" She hadn't seen Dylan paint yet, but everyone talked about how beautiful it was. She had seen him draw in Los Paraisos, but that was pretty much it. She then looked around, so far it was peaceful but Xan couldn't help but wonder if anything would go wrong. Danger always seemed to follow the pride.

Aliquam: Academy of the Arts

… When people pushed the red button things usually explode.

Lute eyed the shiny scarlet knob on the communicator with unease as they walked out to the hallway. The developers should have chosen a less controversial color for the specifics of this device. As the virtuoso tinkered with the tiny radio, Trixie tackled him from behind, surprising him by a fair amount that he actually let go of the device. It twirled in the air, bumping against Lute’s knuckles while he tried to catch it as he was being pulled down, then did a second flip downwards before the poor virtuoso finally caught it. What would have happened if it fell on the floor and broke into a gazillion pieces… ‘Gods above have mercy on my wretched soul’ was written all over Lute’s pale face as he handed the communicator over to Rose and then turned his attention to Trixie, who had just finished returning her weapons to her back pockets.

Though his heart was doing double beats thanks to that brush with the freak incident earlier, Lute smiled down at the girl who seemed very much enthused about the baddie hunt. “Thieving from a thief! Cool! Give him a taste of his own medicine!” He raised his fist in the air and smiled, but immediately winced when the sound of his voice echoed back within the empty corridors. The virtuoso shot a look at Rose to see if she was annoyed. Delilah suddenly said that he was being a ‘wet dumpling’, whatever that meant.

“The bad guy would… Uh, turn into a dragon? That’s what I said right?” He narrowed his eyes in thought, and then replied, “Well, the hero would usually defeat the baddie with the power of friendship. As usual, like…” Lute inhaled and gently pounded his chest with a fist, before talking with a lowered pitch, “‘How could you defeat meeeee?’” Then he puffed his chest out and wore a determined expression. “‘I had my friends to help me!’” “‘Friieeends!?’” “‘Yes, friends! But you don’t have any of those, do you!?’”

‘Ohhhh... My... Auuuugh...! Kill me. Kill me now!’ Delilah sobbed and Lute closed his mouth, his face turning red up to his ears. “Well… At least that’s what usually happens… Heh,” He ducked his head and walked faster.

Aliquam: Academy of the Arts

“Heck yeah we’ve got the best group!” Estelle grinned, giving Aria an impromptu high-five after the illusionist handed her their group’s communicator. She lifted it up, eyeing it all over and wondering how to make it work. As the Pride’s leader, it was part of her responsibility to be in control of such a device, but she had never used one before, and she didn’t know which button did what, until Dalia began to explain things.

As soon as Estelle thought she almost had it, the communicator belted out a high pitched screech which made the swordswoman think she had almost broke it, but it was just Syed instead. “B-be careful with that,” Estelle blinked over her shoulder at the Electricity Mage, who scratched the back of his neck sheepishly.



After all of the members began to settle in their groups, they turned to walk off to their assigned parts of the Academy, where they would be walked through their assigned patrols. However, before Tobias’ group set off, the Patron had a few more last minute details to take care of within the Faculty Lounge, and as he set about this, Dylan quickly caught up to Amy and Lucien. In hushed tones, he whispered to them to be careful of Amy, and Amy rolled her eyes back as Lucien gave a dopey laugh. It wasn’t like she needed to be told to be careful around a man, and if anything Dylan’s leaning in was a bit too close for her comfort. Considering how the Matter Artist had acted around Tobias ever since they arrived in Aliquam, she already understood the animosity he had towards him; she didn’t need a reminder. But, if anything, it served to help underscore that whatever it was that happened between them… it was incredibly serious.

So long as it wouldn’t effect the mission…

“Just, if anything happens, let me know, okay?” Dylan emphasised every word, and then hurried back to rejoin Marcus and Xandra as Tobias returned to his partners, a rapier sheathed by his side.



“Well, ready to go? The central part of the Academy includes the inner courtyards… with multiple avenues for where our thief could try to enter the Academy from. I hope you two are ready.” Tobias said sternly. Amy’s expression was as silent and nonplussed as ever, and Lucien’s in contrast was as cheery and smiling as usual. What an odd pair.

“…what?” Tobias raised a brow to Lucien.

“Have I got some jokes to tell you!” Lucien started as they walked out into the hallways. “I used to own a book about anti gravity, I couldn't put it down…”

---

Aliquam: Academy for the Arts: Northern Section

In answer to Aria’s question, Dalia had explained and led both her and Estelle to their assigned route, at the Academy’s Theatre sector. This was the spot where the Pride had witnessed the Academy’s students put on their wonderful and invigorating plays, musicals and demonstrations in their world class theatre, and along with the prop rooms it had nearby, it was flanked by several classrooms designed as practice workshops for the drama students.

“Considering how much this Masked Phantom liked his theatrics last night, he’d be well at home here, wouldn’t he?” Dalia tittered. “This is a pretty large room, but we can make it well lit with all the lights in here. Should be hard for the thief to hide through the theatre, but we still need to patrol the hallways around, so… let’s be diligent, everyone!”

“Roger!” Estelle cheered.

---

Aliquam: Academy of the Arts: Southern Sector

“W…what? Transforming into a dragon…?”

Rose listened in on Lute and Trixie’s conversation with confusion and bewilderment, not understanding at all what the virtuoso was talking about. She thought she had gotten a better understanding of the man after first meeting him at the festival yesterday and then dancing with him at Tobias’ gala, but now he had resorted to pure confusion again. Hopefully he would be less… bewildering during their mission…?

“I think you’ve read too many comic books, Lute,” Rose said, leading the way for the team to head to the southern area of the Academy buildings, where the gardens were located for the use of the floral students.

Striding past the two Guilders, Rose brushed a hand through her perfect hair, and brought the other to her lips, breathing a sharp, shrill whistle as Lute and Trixie looked on. Then, suddenly from nowhere, the two heard an ear piercing neigh squeal from behind them, and the clatter of hoofs rapidly approach, until a large form skidded to a halt by their side, almost running Lute over.

Rose patted Sebastian’s face with an ecstatic smile, and effortlessly lifted herself up, offering a hand to the two to ride atop with her. Two people should have been the norm, but Trixie was so small and light that her weight would be negligible as well.

“Let’s get patrolling!”

---

Aliquam: Academy for the Arts: Eastern Section

As Marcus, Dylan and Xandra departed the faculty lounge for the eastern wing of the Academy, Dylan still continued to look over his shoulder at Tobias’ parting group. He and Amy strode with their usual confidence aside the arm waving and excited Lucien, and Dylan couldn’t help but frown the entire time, heaving a heavy sigh and finally facing forwards once the other group disappeared from view around a corner. Tobias and Lucien? That would be nothing other then a recipe for disaster. What was Estelle thinking putting them together? He knew Tobias would try to sink his clutches into his friend the moment he got the opportunity. Amy would take no nonsense, and hopefully prevent such a thing, but it still worried and angered him intensely. Why did he have to join them?

And then his memory flashed back to Los Paraisos, and that fateful morning where he and Lucien had woke up in bed together, and…

Dylan shook his head. He wasn’t the same as Tobias. Nowhere near. That was a mistake, one he vowed never to make again, even if his attempts at not drinking failed spectacularly the previous night. Even then, he would never hurt his friends again like that. Not ever. Not like Tobias, who repeated the same actions over and over again, hurting men and women alike in his ever constant dreams of conquest. Lucien, Amy… Dylan grimaced. Be safe.

"Studying here must have been some experience?” Xandra interrupted the Matter Artist’s thoughts, shocking him back to his surroundings and friends. “Did you do exhibits all the time?"

“Hahaha. I did a few exhibits, yes,” Dylan’s mood swung a little bit back in the direction of his regular self. “We used to do regular exhibitions in the painting department, which would pick up a lot of clients interested in making commissions. That along with our regular studies and teachings… yes. It was an enjoyable experience.”

“Do you not miss it, Dylan?” Marcus asked to the blonde’s other side. Dylan turned, blinking.

“Miss it? Yes… yes I do. I think about it everyday. But… I can’t come back. I’m a Guilder now.”

He heaved a heavy sigh. He couldn’t come back. Not when he was here too.

“Come, the Eastern sector is where all of the painting studies were done. There might still be a few of my works in there. Of course, they’re all incredibly old by now…”

As the Pride meandered to their areas and routes, they all began to explore and memorise the patterns of their patrols, anxiety and trepidation building for the mission to come. Outside, the afternoon sun began to set, as night began to descend upon them…

Aliquam: Academy of the Arts: Northern Section

Ah, the theatre? Aria blinked at the empty room- whereas it had been full of props and instruments and students yesterday, they had all been presumably stored away. Even some of the statues that had been on display within nooks of the walls had been taken down; only some very large ones that couldn't be moved in time were left and had thick glass covers over them.

"Yes, I think the Phantom would enjoy the theatre very much," she nodded in response to Dalia, before chuckling at Estelle's enthusiasm.

"Shall we go around and mark down all the possible places the thief might hide? We do have quite the large area for three people and I'm sure there's a lot of crevices and nooks we might overlook when night comes." Aria gave her suggestion, looking in the backstage direction and up at the cross crossing catwalks above where the light fixtures were. "And Dalia, what's your ability? I don't think I've asked, and it might make it easier to plan if we knew, hehe."

"We should probably keep an eye on the lights as well. A repeat of yesterday certainly wouldn't be fun."

The three set out to patrol, marking down hiding places here and there. Aria was rather disappointed that the props were gone, meaning no dressing up for them for a flashiest costume contest with the Phantom.

As the sun began to set, Aria was starting to feel rather excited. She hasn't had a good chase in a while, and although it would be wiser to hope for a peaceful evening, she was hoping that the Phantom would show here.

After several painfully terrible puns, Lucien finally put an end to Amy's and Tobias' misery.

"This is the last one I swear," he was practically wiping away at tears now. "Do you want to hear a joke about pizza?" He let the question sink in, placing a hand above his mouth to stifle what was supposed to be another fit of laughter. "Never mind, it's too cheesy, you guys would hate me." He allowed himself to laugh some more before finally calming down. The sun had began to set, it was time to get serious.

Their potion of the academy included the inner courtyard and with the exhibits torn down and tucked away, the place seemed particularly spacious. "There are so many ways to get in and out." The summoner's eyebrows furrowed and for once he actually looked like he was taking the mission seriously. "Hey what if we booby trap the place?" Oh wait, they didn't exactly bring things like tripwires or alarms. The man let out a sigh before something hit him. Lucien dug into his messenger bag and pulled out his deck of cards.

"I can summon a bear," he puffed up his chest in pride, "they smell better than bloodhounds." He was just about to give them a thumbs up when realization hit. Lucien ended up looking rather crestfallen. "Oh right, right, I'd need something of the masked magician's though. If we had that then the bear would be able to tell if he steps foot nearby."

The man wrung his hands together and made a face. "I've never been good at planning. Hey Amy, what do you want to do?"

---

Dylan constantly looked over his shoulder and continued until Tobias and his group disappeared.

She understood that he didn't like the man. His attitude wasn't exactly...pleasant. Xan wasn't one to pry, however, a part of her had to wonder why Dylan hated Tobias so much. The matter artist always struck her as the serene, level-headed sort of person, but ever since they had gotten to Aliquam he had been on edge. Whatever happened between them, it must have been something very bad.

The artist talked about his time at the academy and Xan listened intently. Everyone came from a variety of backgrounds, some had more in common than others, but the thing that brought them all together was the guild and their missions. In a way, it was pretty amazing.

Dylan began leading them to the eastern section and she tapped the tense looking matter artist on the shoulder. "Well, that's a good thing. If you suddenly decided to become a student again, we'd all come after you." She tried to lighten up the atmosphere with a joke. "And remember, we have a superhero on our side, so you wouldn't want to be on the receiving end of a chase, isn't that right, Marcus?" Xan chuckled then followed after the artist. "Your paintings? Well, what are we waiting for, let's go see it." She gave Dylan a grin and hoped that the enthusiasm would help cheer him up a little.

Xan made mental notes of the possible routes the thief could take. There was the hall and probably other places too. This was going to be a long night.

Aliquam: Academy of the Arts: Southern Section

They toured their assigned area on horseback although Lute asked to climb down halfway through the patrol. Asides from the fact that it felt a bit stressful to be on a horse, more so the same one that snapped its teeth and him and recently almost plowed him over, the virtuoso had to check other details and the rhythmic clopping of Sebastian’s hooves was distracting. When he was back on solid ground he let the stallion advance a few meters farther in front before executing a trial echolocation. When they first arrived in the expansive gardens, the virtuoso already had a stinging suspicion that his abilities would confound rather than clarify.

“If we try to extend our range…” He murmured to Delilah and snapped his fingers. There seemed to be a bush trimmed like a metal spring behind the hedge on his immediate left, but the ‘picture’ was blurry. A gust of wind blew in from the north as the sleepy orange sky gradually coalesced with a darker tint of blue, but Lute’s attention was on the bush. The breeze ripped through its leaves as he listened, and the already hazy outline he had of the plant’s appearance was quickly smudged beyond recognition by the second feed he received. Both the virtuoso and his familiar sighed before the young man decided to jog to catch up with Rose and Trixie, peeking in around the hedge to see if his guess was accurate.

It was, but the discovery only served to distress Lute. If he ‘saw’ something he’d rather that it was exact, especially on a mission like this. So it was with an irritated and determined expression that the virtuoso aligned himself beside Sebastian, using the stallion’s clopping as his feed to continue on with more trials as the night crept in over the horizon.

"... I guess this is it, then," The virtuoso raised his head then turned to look up and Rose and Trixie. "Let's do our best...! But um... Should we split up or stay together?" He gestured to the wide gardens. It did seem like a place a thief would use to discreetly enter the Academy.

Aliquam: The Academy of the Arts - Central Section

Amy hadn't cracked a single smile during all of Lucien's puns, though he himself was tearing up from the ingenuity of it all. Thankfully he had stopped himself before Amy lost it from the constant chatter. He suggested booby traps, though quickly recanted that suggestion with another one instead.

"That might work," she added once Lucien looked to her. "The bear. It might not be able to directly track the thief, but for patrolling and sniffing out anyone else approaching us..." she looked around as she spoke. Indeed the courtyard was so much more spacious without all the exhibits lying around. "It might work."

Amy twirled the staff in her hand. The gem atop it glowed faintly. "Maybe we should split. I can sense movement if it's close enough." She twitched her lips afterwards and again looked away from the duo. It was heartbeat based, and she used this tactic to manuever through dust and fog as she had in Vandrell and Los Paraisos - but anything as simple as a guard or a squirrel could throw her off. Still, it was something at least.

---

Aliquam: The Academy of the Arts - Southern Section

From far away, Trixie shared the same sentiment as her elder. "Maybe we should split! Cuz if we all hang around one side of the garden, you know he could just come in through the other side." She giggled. "That's what I would do, anyways."

The prankster then pointed to her nose. "Plus my nose is really, really good. If I smell him out, I can scream to you guys and then, hurray! We found him! Easy peasy, right?" She leaned forward, rustling her fingers through Sebastian's mane. "And he's really fast, right? So the baddie won't be able to run! Hehe, the guy doesn't know who he's messin' with!"

Trixie hopped off Sebastian and stood by Lute, chucking a thumbs up in his way. "The power of ~friendship~ will stop him, right Echo? Miss Rosy? Yeaaah!"

Without further hesitation or orders, Trixie took a scouting stance, bringing her flattened hand to her forehead and glancing about. "He could be here aaaaany minute..."

---

Aliquam: The Academy of the Arts - Western Section

Well, Moira and Syed were sure an interesting duo. From what Syed tried to show Angel before everyone decided to split, they really were bonded together, like there was some sort of invisible chain between them. Then when Moira piqued his interest in discussing business again, Syed fiddled with the communicator and set off an ear-piercing screech. So he was an electricity guy? Damn, guilders had such cool powers. Still, he wondered if Syed's static powers had anything to do with the bond, considering he learned both traits one after another - but he promised he wouldn't pry.

Even as the trio headed to their respective sector, the business chat between Angel and Moira had been fairly short. "You know, I've been thinking. This is easily the most exciting thing I've seen happening in the past... forever. I could be barricaded at home with the guards taking things into their own hands, but I'm out here with some superpowered visitors instead. Tell you what, love. We stop this thief and I'll sculpt ya anything you want for free." He winked. "My thanks."

As the trek continued further down, they eventually came cross twin armored statues, both at least a head or two taller than Syed. "Oh right. Hope this doens't bore you guys. The Western section's focus is on sculptures and statues. Really old stuff. These guys," he motioned with a jerk of his thumb, still walking, "are way too heavy to move, so I'm not surprised they remained put. (They were sculpted by hand, mind you.) Others are too spacious, some are fixed to the wall..."

He stopped at a window, placing his hands on the sill. "Aaand it's pretty hard to move sand sculptures if they're actually done outside and not in some sandbox. Hah!" Angel stared outside a while longer, catching a good view of both the sunset and sparkling waterfall, before turning to the two guilders again. He leaned back on the window.

"I wouldn't be surprised if the thief was after one fo these babies. Although that'd be a bit cliche, wouldn't it?" Angel crossed his arms, lax.

Aliquam: The Academy of the Arts - Central Section

“…bear?” Tobias repeated with a look of utter confusion as he watched Lucien and Amy talk amongst themselves, and the completely nonplussed reaction the beautiful, buxom blonde cleric had the Lucien’s suggestion of summoning one. He was… he was being serious? This wasn’t another one of his ridiculously uncouth jokes? The boy was gorgeous, sure, but those jokes… Amy had been silent throughout them all and only now replied to him with utter seriousness. The bear wasn’t a joke?!

“I don’t know what you’re talking about, but let’s not bring a bear into the equation,” Tobias sighed. “And splitting up’s not a good idea either. Remember, we’re not the only groups out here patrolling the Academy, and neither are your friends. We have quite a fair few number of groups of the Academy staff and my men patrolling the Academy as well, and crossing our particular routes on the other side of us to make sure everything is covered. If we split up, we’re just going to cause more problems for ourselves and for them. Not to mention, you find this thief alone… I hate to admit it, but I daresay he could take you, alone. And we only have one communicator per group. No, we should stay together, and just keep our eyes peeled on every angle we can as we’re patrolling.”

He shook his head, moving on and leading the way. These Guilders… they were rank amateurs. A part of him actually wished for them to split up, as bad an idea as it was, just to see their ridiculous confidence fail them, even despite how beautiful the pair was. But of course, that wasn’t something he could actually pursue, because there were far more important matters at stake.

“And no bears, whatever the hell that means,” Tobias added over his shoulder with a disbelieving shake of his head.

---

Aliquam: Academy of the Arts: Northern Section

“My ability?” A small, wry smile crept upon Dalia’s lips as she walked alongside Estelle and Aria, the group following their illusionist’s sensible idea to mark all the places where the thief could possibly hide in, as well as check to make sure all the lights were working and, if possible, able to illuminate those hidden areas. A few more of those darkened spots in the rafters above them became visible thanks to their efforts.

“Well, my ability is kind of… different,” Dalia began. A finger brought to her pursed lips was her cue of wondering what the best way was to explain it. “Hmm… how to say… well… it’s like this. I can see a person’s aura.”

“An… aura?” Estelle raised a brow in curiosity.

“Yes. If I focus, I can see a coloured aura around a person. Animals too.” Dalia smiled. “Each of these colours can differ depending on what a person’s emotion is. For example… a blue is sadness. And yellow, happy. Orange, which is what you’ve both got right now, although in slightly different shades… means excitement. Both of you are actually looking forward to this mission tonight, aren’t you? Haha.”

Estelle’s eyes bulged in surprise. That sounded… unbelievable!

“That’s… amazing! And SO cool!” Stars were twinkling in Estelle’s eyes. And in reaction, the orange aura surrounding her grew brighter and larger.

“Hahaha, I have some other particular talents with that, but you might be able to see it later. Anyway,” Dalia continued. “I can see a person’s aura no matter how dark it is. Meaning…”

“If you see colours moving or skulking about where there shouldn’t be any…” Aria was beginning to understand, to a confident grin in return from the Priestess.

“Bingo. Our Masked Phantom thief!”

“Oh man, he is so DEFINITELY going down now!” The orange aura surrounding Estelle’s body flared even stronger.

---

Aliquam: Overlooking the Academy for the Arts
Five hours later

The wooden windows to the derelict building clattered open, and a foot touched upon the window’s ledge, before suddenly blurring and disappearing.

A second later, that same foot, wearing polished, regal footwear, stepped onto and landed on the tiled roof of the building he was once occupying, a building close to overlooking Aliquam’s Academy of the Arts. The masked blonde man in his fancy coat and trousers, stood watching the Academy before him, the building almost impossible to see in the thick of night. Heavy clouds passing overhead masked the glow of the moon above, making now the perfect time to make his move.

“Well, my friends, is everyone ready?” The Masked Phantom turned, to a group of four masked individuals behind him. They stepped forwards, their appearance still garbed in darkness and shadow, silently signifying their readiness. Another smile crept upon the blonde thief’s features, and he turned back around to face the Academy once again.

“You all have your orders and know your roles,” The Masked Phantom began. “Let’s do this.”

Lifting his hand high above him into the air, a crack sounded out as he clicked his fingers, and a small green glow sparked from them. A second later, that selfsame green glow washed over and through him and his companions, enveloping each and everyone of them. They could feel the familiar effects instantaneously. Their bodies and footsteps lighter, speed and agility greater. The effects would last up to five minutes each, but that was plenty of time. Even without the continued support of their leader, all they needed was the ability just to get across the vast expanse of distance between their building and the Academy itself, over their large brick walls and plush courtyards. Each and everyone of them was a talented thief in their own right, trained by the Masked Phantom himself… and subterfuge was their speciality.
“Let’s fly.”

Without a sound, all five thieves jumped into the night, sailing across the incredible distance between where they once stood and the Academy over yonder. All of them landed atop the Academy’s roof in separate spots without making a single sound. After rising up from where he had landed in a crouch, the Masked Phantom stood up and lithely moved forwards.

They would pull the greatest heist ever made in history tonight.

The Academy of the Arts - Western Section
The stunning sunset eventually faded to darkness, the natural brilliance replaced with artificial light - some electrical, some candlelight. In the sculpture wing in particular, the chandeliers sent cascades of shimmering light down across the remaining works. It was indeed no suprise that this department was left more intact than most.

The trio were back to patrolling again, passing the various work-rooms nearby. Their contents of hammers and chisels and other various equipment was similarly packed away, although into storage cabinets in the room rather than elsewhere. It was more a case of hiding equipment which could be used to aid a break-in than it was not wanting them to be stolen.

"Fuck, I wish he would hurry up," Moira complained. "Stopping a thief is all well and good when he actually shows up. Could all be a joke for all we know." She looked around them. She doubted he would make an appearance in this part of the school anyway. As much as Angel had earlier suggested it could be one of the older pieces such as the suits, she doubted the thief could carry them. Especially on his lonesome.

"Urgh he'd better not be a mage. Fuck mages. Us non-mages have gotta stick together, right?" Moira nudged Angel and flashed one of her slightly intimidating grins. Syed cringed. She hadn't even asked him if he had magic or not!

"I did feel some magic last night. When he dissapeared," he admitted. If anything, it felt slightly familiar. "Although with the amount of people in the room it might not have been him. Best keep your guard up in case."

"URGH!" Moira groaned. At this rate she would be better off in the pub.

---

???
High on the roof and out of sight from anyone below, a man rose from a crouching position and pushed his hat back in place. Here they were, ready for another heist.

The faint moonlight glinted against a set of grinning teeth. He'd follow The Masked Phantom whatever he decided to do. That was his promise to himself after all. And this? This looked like it will be the most fun yet. Life is far too short to not have fun.

Well that, and the women. He looked over to one of his partners as his heart beat harder, waving enthusiastically, before blowing her a silent kiss. It took all he had to not call out her name, but he knew better. To be working with a goddess like her... was something he would never get over!

Aliquam: Academy of the Arts: Northern Section

"Orange, which is what you’ve both got right now, although in slightly different shades… means excitement. Both of you are actually looking forward to this mission tonight, aren’t you? Haha.”]

"Guilty as charged," Aria rubbed the back of her head ether sheepishly, letting the large grin she had been tryin to hold back bloom across her face. Dalia's ability would certainly be more than useful- they certainly didn't know what other tricks the Phantom had besides flashiness and feathers.

She clutched her scarf with a frown. If that crook tried to take the feathery fluff he'd end up in a whoooole world of pain, shed make sure of that.

She stepped back, surveying the room that they had explored numerous times now. Oh yes, let the Phantom come- they'd catch that slippery guy this time.

---

???

On top of the roof, amidst the other shadows and figures was a particularly large man, towering over the others with a smaller figure on his back in a piggyback ride. The man barely noticed the weight, instead shaking his head at his enthusiastic colleague before looking back down at the meticulously arranged gardens laid out before them in the moonlight.

He disliked the idea of breaking the peace here, even more the fact that there was the possibility of works being damaged. Now he wasn't one for the arts, but it reminded him of the little sand sculputures his little sisters would build in the backyard being they were knocked down by an errant ball from their brothers' game.

Perhaps he'd go back after this job- take a leave from work, or something. He should've saved up enough money to last them for a short while at least.

"Be careful tonight."

Aliquam: Academy of the Arts: Southern Section

“Oh, all right,” Lute nodded at Trixie’s suggestion with a smile on his face. Rose didn’t look like she had a problem with the plan, since it was sensible split up when doing patrol duty, so the virtuoso glanced around to claim his part of land. He knew that he would work better if he went somewhere his feed wouldn’t get too messed up so…

“I’ll go over there,” He gestured to a part of the garden where the hedges were thinner and there wasn’t as much plants as there was everywhere else. That certain plot of land seemed to be the rest area for the students. “Mmkay then, let’s go! Take care, huh?” Lute called out to Trixie and Rose as he branched out from their group. As he got nearer to his spot the virtuoso’s belief was confirmed; black steel benches peeked out from behind the well-sculpted bushes, strung around with what appeared to be an elaborate marble fountain. This would be the perfect place to expand his patrol from.

“Dellie, ears at the ready.”

---

???

Black satin pooled down when she rose from her crouch, the moonlight rippling off the jewels atop her head as the lady glanced up at the starry skies. It was the perfect backdrop for their daring plan. She turned away from the moon to shoot a glance at her companions, all of whom were fine and in formation as to be expected, and then beamed at the man who waved at her.

The woman turned her attention towards their leader as her hand adjusted the elegant black mask over her eyes. This is so exciting...! Her lips formed a jubilant smile under her gloved fingers as she thought of all the fun they would have tonight... Most especially with the guards the Academy prefects must have brought in. Oh, the suspense was unbearable!

"Heh, he'd probably freak out at the sight of a giant bear." Lucien grinned, but the smile on his face disappeared the moment Amy suggested they split up. He shook his head in response. "I'm all for covering ground, but we need to watch each other's backs. This masked phantom guy, by the looks of it he's got a lot of tricks up his sleeves and he might not play fair." Lucien made a face then tapped Tobias on the back when the man agreed.

"Mhn, Tobias thinks we should stick together too--wait? No summoning?" He looked crestfallen but nodded his head. "Fine, fine," so Horses were allowed to walk the halls but bears weren't? This academy had weird rules.

The man continued talking about how splitting would be a terribly idea and Lucien nodded again. "We can stick together and I can summon a blackbird instead, yeah? It can zip down the halls." Lucien gestured with his hands, making a swoosh noise as he did. "Less chances of accidental property damage as well." For some reason, Tobias didn't like the idea of having animals in his school. "It could scout ahead and Amy can tell us if she senses anyone getting closer." He looked at the two of them expectantly, he was pretty confident in something he had planned.

---

???

The masked phantom was the coolest guy ever!

Fabian wanted to cheer, but instead he zipped his mouth shut and rose to his feet. Everyone was silent and professional and hell yes! He was going to be silent and professional too. The boy got to his feet and tried his darnedest to keep a grin off his face.

The boy wasted no time and pretty much scrambled onto Mitty's back. He used his hands as makeshift binoculars and peered into the darkness. It was quiet. He remained on his friend's back for a few more moments before finally getting off. "Be careful?" He tapped his friend on the back to get his attention then puffed out his chest. "If anyone has to be careful," he lowered his voice. "It'll be whoever wants to stop us."

This night was going to be perfect. He'd show grandma and the others that he was just as good as them.

Aliquam: Academy of the Arts: Northern Section

Time stretched on, and with it Estelle grew weary. After their preparations in the performance hall and adjacent patrols in the hallways surrounding it for nearly five hours straight, Estelle was exhausted. After walking for so long and seeing absolutely nothing of interest, almost jumping out at random statues now, she decided she needed a rest.

She sat down on one of the corridor’s benches, heaving a heavy sigh as she stretched out. She had forgotten how boring the stakeout element was. Just waiting, and waiting, and waiting… what if the Masked Phantom never came? This whole venture would have been a waste of time.

If he did attack, he had better have done so somewhere close to where she was…!

“Are you doing okay, Estelle?”

She looked up to see Dalia by her side, holding out a cup filled with warm coffee from a thermos she had packed. Estelle thankfully took the cup from her friend, and began to sip it. She saw Aria to the side, drinking her own cup of coffee, smiling back at them and waving down the corridor. Her eyes continued to glance over their surroundings, looking for any sign of the Masked Phantom.

“Haaa… how long is this going to go on for…?” Estelle whined. After finishing her drink, she hopped up to her legs and stretched powerfully. “This guy’s really getting on my nerves! I wish he’d just… just… just get it over with!!”

Dalia laughed, and Aria nodded with a smirk.

Estelle rummaged through her small pack of belongings hanging by her waist, retrieving the small communicator device Dalia had given her. She checked it over, making sure that it was still on and that she hadn’t broken it, and sighed. If the thief had appeared, then she was sure they’d have been informed about it by one of the many groups patrolling the Academy. So far she hadn’t, but that wouldn’t stop her. She clicked one of the buttons, squarking it to life, and said:

“Guys I am sooooooo BOREEEEEED!” Estelle’s voice jumped out through all of her friends’ communicators. “Has anyone seen this guy yet? Er… over?”

---

Aliquam: Academy of the Arts: Southern Section

At another part of the Academy, a small smirk crept up Rose’s lips as she heard her friend’s voice sound out. She reached for her own communicator, keeping an eye on Lute and Trixie patrolling through the courtyard, Lute using his sound powers for echolocation to blurred results, and Trixie using her acute nasal senses to try and smell the thief out.

“Unfortunately we’ve got no sign of him yet either, but we’re keeping our eyes open and alert,” Rose replied. A loud neigh screeched over the communicator from Sebastian agreeing. In Moira’s group in the Academy’s statue sector, a loud laugh snorted out from Angel. Then, they heard a tiny voice squeak from the communicator saying “Over!” followed by hushed whispers from Trixie lecturing Rose on the superhero importance and necessity of including that final word.




Marcus laughed back over the communicator. His group had met similar poor results, and had only been able to wander the corridors in the Painting Wing over and over to little success. He, Dylan and Xandra had spent some time at first admiring some of Dylan’s paintings that they had found in storage, but after that it had been the same monotonous routine over and over again like their friends. Dylan and Xandra both spoke into the communicator next, the pair reassuring their friends not to give up heart, and that they’d catch this thief no matter what!

Followed by a more determined and committed ‘Over’ from Xan.



And in the central courtyard, Tobias’ brow twitched. Earlier in the day he had accepted Lucien’s suggestion to use his blackbird summon sparingly, so as to conserve his magical energy, but he still had to endure Lucien’s jokes. Every so often the summoner would get bored again, and need to talk, and it was always the jokes he relied upon. Tobias regretted rejecting Lucien’s suggestion of now splitting up, oh so much. And he was now becoming irritable from all of the pointless chatter rebounding over the communicators.

“Look, would you all just focus on catching this thief?!” Tobias angrily shouted down the line. “If you have time to talk, you have time to look! Stop talking and get walking!!”

“Now Tobias, you don’t have to talk like that…” Rose started. “Honestly.”

“Yes, Tobias, you don’t need to treat everyone so harshly.” Was Dylan’s voice.

“Really, Dylan? This, now?” A frustrated sigh followed. “We can talk about that later, if you want.”

“No, I think I’ve done enough talking to you.”

“Ah!”

A scream suddenly interrupted out from the communicator. Everyone glanced down to theirs in surprise, concern and anticipation of what was going on. Then, they could Dalia begin to speak urgently.

“There!” She said. “I can see an aura in the shadows there!”

“Aria!” Estelle called out, along with the sound of feet shuffling.

“Roger!” Was the illusionist’s reply.

And then… nothing. For some strange and inexplicable reason… all sound from Estelle’s group was silent and cut off. Across the Academy, the rest of the groups who had been listening in on the conversation carried across the communicators all looked to each other and staredv at their silent communicators.

---

Aliquam: Academy of the Arts: Northern Section

“Ah… oops.”

In the northern sector of the Academy, Estelle froze in her tracks. She looked down, eyes blinking and lips pulled taut. She lifted her foot up, and glanced at the remains of her communicator, shattered into several pieces beyond repair. She had accidentally dropped it and then smashed it. Oops indeed.

“Freeze, you!” Aria’s shout drew Estelle’s head up again, to watch the illusionist free a knife in the direction of where Dalia had pointed the purple hazy aura was at. It was skewed off aim slightly, intended as a disarming warning rather then anything maliciously dangerous, and clinked against the wall. The figure in the shadows screamed with an frightened ‘eep!’ and a ‘don’t hurt me!’

Estelle, Aria and Dalia all stopped. That… didn’t sound like the voice of a confident thief whatsoever…

Dalia in particular frowned. A purple aura signified the emotion of someone who felt cautious and guilty… something the Masked Phantom could, and should have been. But this person instead was…

Walking into one of their set up lights, Dalia frowned intently.

“Simon Brace, what on Ddaear are you doing out of the dormitory?!”

"I wanted to photograph the Masked Phantom!" Simon replied, trembling with his camera in hand. "Please don't stab me!"