Force and Fury

SANDSTRIDERS: A Lost Land

Hopefully she doesn't suck.

Azar Masoumi

A Z A R M A S O U M I

If you're asking me for wisdom, you're clearly in need of some.

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___________________________________ P R O F I L E Age 20 Race Ayiralite Sex Female Height 160 cm (5'3") Weight 50 kg (109 lbs) Alignment Rebel Impure Class Mage Level One Planar Lineage Fire Health Points 20 ___________________________________ I N V E N T O R Y Prayer beads inscribed with the seven virtues of Sharaqism, water can, satchel with provisions, notebook, small coin purse hidden where nobody will dare go for it. ____________________________________ E Q U I P M E N T - A pair of stiletto daggers hidden in boots - One 'prayer bead' is actually full of a solution that burns dirty and creates gouts of thick black smoke. - Her second 'water canister' is full of a naptha and quicklime solution that makes fire almost impossible to put out on whatever it coats. - Armour just slows you down. ____________________________________ A T T R I B U T E S Athletics: 12 (+2) Dexterity: 13 (+3) Intelligence: 21 (2 race + 4 class + 5) Wisdom: 12 (+2) Charisma: 10 Constitution: 10 ___________________________________ S K I L L S (A) Strength: 0 (A) Agility: 1 (+1) (D) Stealth: 0 (D) Acrobatics: 2 (+2) (D) Trickery: 0 (I) History: 0 (I) Nature: 0 (I) Arcana: 8 (2 class + 4 race + 2) (I) Religion: 0 (W) Perception: 0 (W) Medicine: 0 (W) Survival: 1 (+1) (C) Persuasion: 0 (C) Deception: 0 (C) Intimidation: 2 (+2) (C) Performance: 0

____________________________________________________________________________ APPEARANCE Petite and darker-skinned, Azar might've been the kind of girl able to fade effortlessly into a crowd... had she been born human. Failing that, she might've even be considered pretty... had she been born human. As it is, she scares people. She is a pint-sized 5'3" of pure smirking nasty and she tells herself that she likes it that way. Yet, paradoxically, her clothing often demands attention. She'll regularly wear a hooded cloak when she prefers not to draw any (as a fire ayiralite, she laughs at the idea of a sunburn). However, underneath that part-time garment, she dresses provocatively, or in ways that set her apart. Maybe it's something similar to what poisonous animals do; their colouration sends a clear message: stay away. The truth is that Azar really doesn't want trouble, but she'll return whatever comes her way tenfold. ____________________________________________________________________________ BACKSTORY Azar remembers the feel of the fabric. She clung to a woman's clothes. They smelled of jasmine and citrus as she hurried through the darkened streets. Whatever words might've been spoken have not come down to her through time. There were tears. There was the cool of the night air. That was her mother, she thinks, the useless bitch: made a baby with a fire jinn and ran from the responsibility. The foundling house named her Azar, for her planar nature. They gave her a surname too: Al-Hashimi - destroyer. A few years later, when one had it in her mind to be kind to the girl, to not treat her like her future was already written in stone, that name was changed. She became Azar Masoumi: 'innocence', but the die was already cast. She was born bad anyways, or so people say. Azar is young. She doesn't have some epic past. There are no old glories to revel in and few grand tales to regale people with. She was raised as an orphan. Some of the children were put to work. Some were steered towards a life of religious devotion. The lucky ones were taken in by people with kind, needy eyes and some empty space they were looking to fill. Azar was always sent on some errand or given something to play with, away from the other children, when there were visitors. Growing up, she thought that the caretakers were nice about it to spare her feelings. More recently, she's come to understand that it was because they were afraid of her. One day, there was a sorcerer who visited. Apparently, it was customary for the coven to check the orphanages every couple of years and see if anything in need of their attention had turned up there. She was not taken in. She was not raised. Azar was, however, trained. She was treated with the dignity due a promising individual and, by Arhanphast himself, how she came to love those people, to crave their attention and acceptance. What she was wasn't a bad thing to the sorcerers. For every pragmatic kindness they showed her - and even the odd genuine one - she repaid them tenfold. She lit their candles, warmed their hearths, cooked their food, and did their chores. She sung and danced and wrote and read and practiced most of all. She threw her arms around whoever she was to follow for those two days each week without reserve and poured her love into them. Then, when she was sixteen, they declared her sufficiently trained so as not to be a danger to herself and others around her. Their work was done. It took Azar ten seconds to get over the shock. She remembers the salty scent of tears as they evaporated from her cheeks. Love can turn to hate at the drop of a hat, for such are fire ayiralites. She flew at the man with the beard and she supposed he wasn't able to stop her from a mix of shock and maybe because he'd expected her to use her magic. Instead, she dug her thumbs into his eyes and felt them split against her skin with a slimy 'pop'. She melted them right out of their sockets as he screamed. She ran and kept running and she knew that they were after her: 'they' - the people who made rules and laws; the kind who had named her 'destroyer' as a three-year-old. Azar really hasn't stopped running since, from mercenary company to brothel and back, from one odd job to the next. She generally stays away from civilized places. She's fought in Baneghora. She's spent time in Arilqas. There were a few grand months in Qadir until they realized that she was not their kind of ayiralite. She gave her love to a man and killed him when he gave his love to another. She is not currently looking to love again. People are bad at love, she's pretty sure, and she's worse than most. Azar can see the fear in their eyes, but they wait to mutter about her until she's moved on. Sometimes, on those nights when she isn't around the light and warmth of other people's company, giving and receiving, she cries as she tries to sleep. It only makes her angrier that she's lying there crying instead of taking action. Someday soon, she will burn the people who hate and who've wronged her to ash and they will regret it all. She will find somebody who she can love, who won't betray her, and she will love them back with everything she has, even if she was born bad. ____________________________________________________________________________ PERSONALITY Azar is a dangerously unstable young woman, partly as a result of her nature and partly as a consequence of her experiences. She can be warm, helpful, and caring to a fault. She can be protective towards those who she empathizes with or truly trusts, though this side of her rarely comes out. More often, she plays to type, knowing that most people have already judged her by sight or reputation. It's easier that way and she's learned that to let herself care opens the door to attachment, which opens the door to anger. She's destroyed enough things already. When she isn't busy doing mental gymnastics to justify her actions, the guilt sours her insides. Azar tries to be taciturn, and even considers herself so, but isn't much good at it. In general, she's twenty, angsty, and emotionally stunted. Her self-image is often woefully inaccurate. At times, there is an almost puckish quality to Azar, but it's underlain, for most, by a fundamental unease: one moment, she's laughing and joking. The next, she goes still and glares when someone crosses an arbitrary personal line. The offending party stands at the precipice of violent assault. Of course, if she finds herself outmatched or even truly challenged, Azar is a coward at heart and will usually run. In some regards, she is a classic bully because, to not be a bully, in her mind, means that she occupies its counter-role: that of the victim. She will not let herself be a victim ever again. She cannot be powerless but, paradoxically, she does not crave power either, at least not on a macro scale. More than anything else, she just wants to... that's the rub, isn't it? She doesn't really know what she wants. Hopefully, she'll find it. ____________________________________________________________________________ MOTIVATION AND OUTLOOK Azar is essentially directionless at this point. Oh, sometimes she entertains fleeting fantasies about becoming some powerful, respected personage, but she soon sees them for what they are and they evaporate - ethereal - into her unfulfilled dreamscape. Sometimes, she crafts scenarios where she finds her mother and gives the bitch a taste of hell, but then she feels awful. She's caused so much pain already. She doesn't want to cause anymore. Is there completely justified killing? Can she just be 'bad' towards people who genuinely deserve it? Maybe that's why she exists. Maybe that's her motivation at this point and what she's looking for. ____________________________________________________________________________ MISC 1) Every night Inconsistently, but what she tells herself is 'basically every night', Azar recites the seven virtues of her faith: truth, charity, justice, discipline, temperance, loyalty and fidelity, and humility. It's all playacting and self-flagellation, though, to assuage her own guilt. She isn't genuinely pious in the slightest. 2) Her mother was from a family of some importance, and not originally from Esaad. Azar might be surprised when she learns more about the circumstances of her birth and flight to the orphanage.

Code Vein (Closed)

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_{Location: A Record Store @ The Ruined City // Date: February 23, 2057 // Time: 16:58 // Interactions: Erik @FunnyGuy}

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When Erik took a seat on the ground beside Lys, she knew that he meant it. He knew how it bothered her always having to crane her neck to talk with people. So, the two of them sat there and talked and understood each other. For all that Lysandra tried to play the cool, rational, and clinical scientist, she was a wild child at heart and a feeler as much as a thinker.

At Erik's imitation of Akaia's dire-sounding warning, she was loath to admit that she'd actually jumped a bit. "You know, gramps, we should have a movie night. We can improvise a big ol' screen in the Telescope Room and pop on some pre-Collapse slasher flick." She pursed her lips for a moment. "Actually, after some of the shit we've seen, I don't think we'd bat an eyelash. Maybe comedy, huh? We all get loaded, do some karaoke, and watch a movie... in between the other stuff we have to do." There was a lot: she wanted to give both vehicles a thorough go-over and the 'Landwhale' - their van - was in need of an oil change. She wanted to get back to work on her next generation drones, and she needed to make more payload arrows in addition to more ammo for the others who wanted it. That meant refining more explosive and crafting more shells. Finally, Lys was eager to see what they could glean from that mistle. She had a few working theories on how she could spread the plants or, if not, isolate the properties within them that scrubbed the air and produced the fruit.

Nobody else had come into the record store. Maybe they were exhausted, but so was Lys. Your loss, losers. Now you get to listen to music curated by me. The light was almost gone too. "Thanks for uh... clearing the air," she said quietly, idly readjusting one of her legs. She glanced his way. "On that note, I was kind of actually wondering something: since we got the whole plant, are we required to hand it all over to the Provgovs or just a sample like we originally agreed? Knowing the research culture there, I feel like we've got a better shot than them at doing something useful and with a whole plant at our disposal..." Her hands were restless. She flicked her flashlight on and shone it up at her face from below. "I think we just might have a shot at cracking the case," she added playful-seriously.

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The Hourglass Order

J O C A S T A R E

Mini-Chapters

Dark Winds

D A R K W I N D S

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There were some people who found the sound of thunder comforting or the patter of rain against the windows and rooftop soothing. Jocasta was not among them. At the refuge, rain had been rare. In the place she'd come from before then, storms had not happened. She did not like them and so this one kept her from sleep in a way that few things could.

As she lay awake in bed, cheek pressed against a warm, sweaty pillow, blankets tangled up in the parts of her that she could feel and those she could not, she thought of simply drugging herself with a relatively simple chemical spell. That would leave her vulnerable, though. Jocasta would not let herself be left vulnerable. Instead, she reached out with her manas and swept the city for energies. The air positively hummed with Magnetic and, occasionally, it burst into a dazzling display as streaks of lightning flashed across the landscape, the fleeting ambient warmth creating loci of Arcane and Chemical alike. The Kinetic energy of falling rain and gusting wind was everywhere too and the young woman remarked inwardly that it was a shame she did not like storms. They provided such ample drawing opportunities.

Then, she felt something else - something out of place. Numerous, fast-moving Kinetic and Chemical signatures streaked through the sky, spreading about campus and swirling up the sides of the Forked Tower: birds. She did not need to see them to know what they were. With some difficulty, Jocasta rolled onto her back and sat up in bed. A nearby flash of lightning brightened the sky and her room alike. Beyond the silhouettes of her desk, dresser, and wheeled-chair were crows, ravens, and magpies by the hundreds. She could both hear and sense a couple land by her housemates' windows: those two Eskandishwomen and the obnoxious Belzaggic boy who thought himself her better. None, however, came to Jocasta's window, and that bothered her. Why were those people worthy when she was not?

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Dark Wings

D A R K W I N G S

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Pulling free her covers, she swung herself into her wheeled-chair and rolled up to the sill. This was likely the thing that Grandfather and Aunt Verde had spoken of last week at the family luncheon. Absently, she wondered if Benedetto would be smart enough to recognize it. Truly, it would be no loss were he not. She knew that she had to make herself part of it, though. Jocasta reached out with her hands and opened the window. Then, she reached out with her magic and pulled a crow from the sky. The ugly black bird squawked in alarm, but she drew the sound off and rendered it silent as she pulled it in. Once, twice, she turned it over in a Kinetic grasp, but there was nothing remarkable. She discarded it and picked another. This one was a magpie and she rendered it still. Nothing again. It too, she released, shaken but ultimately unharmed. Jocasta tried twice more, on a pair of ravens, without luck, and was about to give up when a crow flashed past her window with something very clearly clutched in its beak. This animal, she ripped from the air. It thrashed and clawed until she snapped its neck. Then it lay there, staring blankly up at her with beady black eyes that seemed to judge. Jocasta blinked. All things must die sooner or later, she reminded herself. This one was dying in service of a worthy goal. She plucked the letter from its beak and tossed the carcass out the window without laying a hand upon it.

Greedy fingers unrolled the note and read it. It was a riddle. The answer was, clearly, 'a fork'. There was a time there too: 1:00 HI. Had they really expected to fool anyone with this? She shuddered to think of a person so stupid. The larger problem was that it was clearly referring to the 20.5th floor of the Forked Tower. Jocasta did not believe in half-floors, and so they could not hurt her, but twenty staircases could. Even drawing upon Kinetic magics, making it there would be an exhausting slog and perhaps not even physically possible. She furrowed her brow, drew from the motion of the rain outside, and floated free of her wheeled-chair. Doors and drawers opened. Clothes fluttered free of her body and then of shelves and hangers. In thirty seconds, Jocasta was dressed. Upstairs, she could hear others moving about: the chosen ones. She had made herself one of them, though. Destiny was for fools and lazy people.

The door of Zeno Zander Mozaru's townhome opened three times that night. First, it opened for Ingrid Penderson, who hurried off towards the Forked Tower ahead of her peers. Then, it opened for Jomur Ikon III and Marlijn Vaanse. Finally, it opened for Jocasta Re.

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Dark Words

D A R K W O R D S

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Benedetto had found her, as he always did, and that irked Jocasta. She had hoped to be free of him. She had hoped he'd be too stupid, but he had killed a bird as well. Papa, Grandfather, and the others had told her that he was an integral part of the family, but she remained secretly unconvinced. Any member was to be ready to die for those above them if it became the only way to progress the family's ends. Jocasta knew what that meant for her. She also knew that Benedetto would not do it. She, herself, would only willingly die for Mama, who had given her life, who had taken her from that awful place.

"So I have to haul your crippled ass up twenty flights of stairs!?" Benedetto snorted. His umbrella could easily service two people, but he kept it for himself.

She knew of a way, of course, but it was a risk. She was a neophyte and could easily make a mistake that resulted in death or displacement. Still, it would be oh-so-sweet to make a fool of the vicious little prat. "You don't have to do anything, Benedetto." She shrugged. "I will manage myself or I will prove unworthy." She could trip some sort of warning system or even just land awkwardly. Still, Jocasta was tempted.

"See, that's a much more practical approach to your disability," he replied, twisting slightly as he started to draw ahead of her. "Not making competent people cover for you."

Jocasta said nothing. She could kill him, of course, from kilometers away and he'd never see it coming. She could kill anyone. She had learned that she was essentially a God that way. Yet the Tethering would also kill her - was presently killing her - after stripping every shred of agency, independence, and dignity that she had. Meanwhile, Benedetto knocked a crow out of the sky with a thunderbolt and grinned gleefully. He struck a second and missed a third. He took his anger at the mistake out on three more at once, and they dropped to the ground, smoking. Jocasta only killed when it was necessary or in Mama's service. "Well, good luck," the boy taunted, "I'd say 'see you later', but I probably won't."

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Dark Wizardry

D A R K W I Z A R D R Y

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Jocasta was left alone in the rain. She would not dirty her hands by touching her wheels, instead drawing from the easy, ample sources of Kinetic energy all around to push herself and the device that she needed along. She arrived at the foot of the tower to find its powerful shielding magics missing. She lifted herself up the stairs in a Kinetic grasp and pushed the door open. Inside the anteroom, oil lamps flickered and the reception desk sat empty and unattended. A wooden sign hung on the wall near the base of a long spiral staircase that disappeared into the gloom. "103" it read, but then Jocasta sensed the collection of energies that accompanied a human being approaching. She turned to face it. A boy with a kind face and a striking scar offered her assistance, but she politely declined his offer and watched him disappear up the stairs.

Instead, Jocasta reached out with her senses and, to her surprise, could feel nothing - no energies - beyond the immediate vicinity of the tower. She focused intently, as Papa had taught her, beyond the mundane energies, and felt the one that wrapped them all up in its wake. Surely enough, it was being sculpted in this place. It was subtle, masterful, and far beyond her limited capabilities, but space and time were different here. With a sort of unpracticed eagerness and alarm that she did not normally fall prey to, Jocasta set hands to wheels and rushed out the door. Forgetting to shield herself from the weather, she hovered down the steps and set herself on the flagstones. When she reached out, she could once again sense energy for miles.

Rain pattered softly on her head, shoulders, and lap and Jocasta turned and reentered the tower. It was once again as if the world simply ended in the plaza just beyond the outside stairs. Regular magic users, with their range of perhaps a couple hundred yards, were unlikely to notice it but, as a Tethered, it was like losing one of her senses. The young Dorvalishwoman glanced once again at the daunting stairs and the little sign at their foot. She blinked. 102, she thought. Hadn't it been 103 before? The prospect of confirmation was not tempting enough for her to risk fiddling with the hands of time, especially when there may have been a true master about. She rolled right up to the foot of the staircase, however, and examined the sign. Surely enough, it had the most subtle of Binding magics at work.

As she studied it, however, four numbers flipped by in rapid succession: 101, 100, 99, 98. She glanced around. She had assumed that it was tracking the number of people going up - counting down from a total expected. Yet, nobody had passed. What was the mechanism? Jocasta gathered a degree of energy and floated out of her wheeled-chair. She passed the sign and the number flicked down to 97. She came back and it returned to 98. So you are counting people. She was in a pocket dimension, then and the sign was counting people from many such dimensions. This was Arch-Zeno level magic. Even Papa struggled with it.

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Dark Deeds

D A R K D E E D S

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Jocasta also realized that, with her and Benedetto present, there would be two people too many. Since he was likely too dumb to have noticed or too arrogant to have cared, it would fall to her to do something. She checked her pocketwatch. She had only half an hour remaining and was in the process of looking for a solution when it presented itself. A pair of Torragonese - a boy and a girl - brushed inside from the storm, their hooded cloaks dripping on the stone floor. "Hola," she addressed them, in her most pleasant voice. "Perdón por molestarte. ¿Podrías ayudarme a subir las escaleras?" She knitted her hands pleadingly, demurely in lap. "Te prometo que no peso mucho. Puedo ayudar usando Magia Cinética."

The pair introduced themselves as Selio Taraves and Linah Aranda and Jocasta followed with proper etiquette of her own. They compared their Raven notes with hers and she made the minimum, most tiresome amount of smalltalk with them. They weren't sure that they could help her without substantial input from her own manas, and the Dorvalishwoman gave it in the form of an internal Chemical spell that rendered both blessedly unconscious. They collapsed into twin heaps and, to be certain, she reached into their minds and scrubbed about an hour's worth of recent synaptic connections before tossing them outside into some nearby bushes.

Jocasta took a deep breath and spread her senses up and down the tower, feeling where tiny Kinetic explosions took place as rain met stone, feeling the warmth of sconces up and down the stairwell, building a mental image of its height and shape. Last of all, she felt the collection of energies that denoted the boy she had run into earlier, coming to a stop at what she assumed was the twentieth-and-a-half floor. She would aim for somewhere just beyond the curve of the stairwell from him. She closed her eyes and felt about for the great wrapping. It was strange in here: twisted and sculpted. It whisked through her grasp and she caught whatever she could. Disjointed images of possible futures flashed past. Flickers of a distant past: the setting of stones, the thousands of footfalls that had whispered up the stairs, conversations held in long-ago confidence, and then her. Jocasta started and lost her grasp. Me. I was... here? A... hundred years ago? She visibly shook her head to clear it. The girl in the wrapping was not her. It was someone else who bore an uncanny resemblance. It was... She did not know and it as pointless to speculate. That girl, too, had been Tethered, though.

Annoyed with herself, Jocasta reached once more for the ribbon that wrapped itself around all things. This time, she aligned herself with it: a little girl playing hide-and-seek in the sparse Dorvalish forests, climbing olive and pistachio trees and picking their fruits, frolicking in the surf and spinning tales of the Lost City of Cervan with her friends; a preteen crying herself to sleep in a Tethered refuge, baking listlessly by a pool under the burning Torragonese sun, desperately strapping braces around legs that would no longer work; a runaway floating across the desert by night, her cloak billowing behind her, the moonlight casting her pale skin in bluish hues; a starving murderer with little remorse, cooking and eating the flesh of the enforcer they'd sent out to return her to her prison; a girl again, in Mama's arms, a trainee, valued for what she could do if not who she was; finally, a girl in a tower, grasping at the ribbons of time and space. She latched on and pulled. The world disappeared and she found the place in the tower: a floor down from the boy with the scar. Moments later, as if materialized from thin air, she appeared there, settling with an awkward clunk on the landing outside a door.

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Dark Summons

D A R K S U M M O N S

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For at least the second time tonight, Jocasta found herself transported by Temporal Magic. It was one thing when she, herself, was holding the reins, but quite another when she was at someone else's mercy.

It had been a problem of arithmetic that brought her here. She, the boy with the scar, and three others had solved it. They'd not been allowed to speak, but had Jocasta sensed one of the idiots opening their mouth to do so prematurely, she'd have forcefully shut it for them.

They were in a vast room with floors' worth of bookshelves and a lifetime's collection of magical knowledge. It was the sort of thing that she, of course, would never own, yet the girl was still young enough, still possessed of enough wonder, that she could not stop her eyes from wandering for at least a moment. That was, until they seized upon the stained-glass windows set high against the vaulted wall at the far end of the room. Daylight streamed in through them and Jocasta reached out with her senses immediately. She could feel the warmth of sunlight, the motion of birds, insects, and animals outside; the bustle of energies in a small village; and, at the far periphery of her sensing range, the distant crash of waves against a rocky shore. They were in an entirely different part of the world - perhaps... even in a different time! There was something odd about the village. The 'people' were... different: larger, and the energies that should've denoted animals were... not.

So engrossed was Jocasta, so overwhelmed by her discovery, that she cast about for a doorway so that she could rush outside and see for herself. She placed her hands on her wheels in eagerness, half turning, and it took her a moment to notice that there were far more than five people surrounding her. Indeed, there were twenty-five in all, including Benedetto and the boy she'd met at the Stresian Guild the previous week: Onarr. Many of them were just as awestruck as she was, though most were far worse at hiding it. Then, she saw that one had approached the twenty-sixth.

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Dark Tidings

D A R K T I D I N G S

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Jocasta had seen him only once in person - at the intake ceremony a couple of weeks before - but he was instantly recognizable, even from behind a group of other people. "Hugo Hunghorasz" she mouthed, almost silently. Her Dorvalish tongue struggled somewhat with its pronunciation, but it was clear enough in her mind.

"Paradigm Hunghorasz!" an improbably tall girl gushed. "S-Such an honor to meet you! Ever since I was young I had read your work and I must say it had a profound effect on my choice for a field of study. Your early papers are remarkable, well beyond our time and part of what inspired my research into the link between blood and the gift! I- " She appeared to recover her better nature at the very doorstep of making a complete fool of herself. "... We thank you for extending to us this opportunity. We shall do our very best to prove your faith in us was not in vain."

Jocasta raised an eyebrow. Assumptions were being made here, but they were likely correct to some degree. She knew that Papa had once worked with the Paradigm. They were no longer friends, she also knew, but not enemies either. Then, before the Arch-Zeno could even reply, a second of Jocasta's fellow students spoke. If the first had raised some suspicions that she might be an idiot, this one left no doubt whatsoever: "Uh, sorry sir, I'm not very familiar with you, so sorry if I butcher your name. Paradigm Hung'horas, I was wondering if you were the one in the crow?"

The ancient wizard let out a cackling laugh of genuine amusement. "Ah! Good! Very good, boy! I hope I've made a memorable first impression, then. Nice to see I might still be judged for my actions instead of my name by some. As for the crows, I was not in anything, merely guiding them to do a job. You do not give enough credit to such intelligent beasts." He turned towards the first who'd addressed him, mirth fading from his wizened features. "If I have been some inspiration," the ancient man began, "I am glad of it." He nodded and the shadow of what might've been a smile crossed his face briefly. "However, rest assured that this is not a reward, though there is ample opportunity for rich personal advantage if you are resourceful." He went for his staff and something like a smirk was evident on his aged face. "I will not begrudge you it either, nor will I begrudge you walking out that door if you must." He gestured towards it and Jocasta immediately knew that it would not take her outside but likely back to the tower. "The noisy seabirds who wear crowns and laurels are all busy squawking at each other right now. They haven't noticed the storm, nor the waves, nor the hunters approaching and I am quite convinced that they are entirely unable. The threat to our world is genuine and serious." He shook his head. "Yet, the academy, too, have their heads up their arses just now. They won't commit their best people for fear of bringing into question their political neutrality and 'tainting' their 'air of detached majesty'." He snorted derisively. "Bloody fools. They wouldn't know 'majesty' if it came up and spat in their faces." He sighed, shuffling on the spot to take the entire group in. "They have pushed me out to pasture in my platinum years," he grumbled, "simple as that. They have said that I could have 'some students' on 'weekends', so here you are and I hope you can be of use." He let out a dry, bitter chuckle and took a couple of steps, leaning on his staff. They were slow but surprisingly steady for someone of his extremely advanced years. If we have a footrace, Mr. Paradigm, Jocasta thought blasphemously, I just might be in with a chance.

He waved a hand almost dismissively and the table, which had appeared large enough to seat about ten, suddenly stretched across the room, replete with chairs for all. "If you take a seat, we will discuss particulars. If you do not wish to, then you may leave now."

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Dark Memories

D A R K M E M O R I E S

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The group around Jocasta dispersed rapidly and, as always, it took her a moment to follow suit. None, it seemed, were headed for the door. However, before she could make it to the table and discard a chair that she would not need, her senses gave her the distinct warning prickle that they always did when someone was looking her way. Jocasta looked up and the Paradigm himself was staring straight at her: straight through her. Their eyes met for a moment and there was something in his that it took a second for her to place: Pain? She blinked and pushed herself forward. Longing? Regret? she ventured. ...Love? The entire episode lasted for less than a second but she found herself genuinely unnerved. Worse still, it seemed as if others were so in awe of the Paradigm that most of the unclaimed seats were quite close to him. With little choice, she rolled up to one and slid it out of the way with some Kinetic magic.

"E-Enna?" the old man inquired softly, his eyes and bearing growing indistinct, hopeful, uncertain. "I-is that..." He trailed off and blinked, scanning her up and down. Jocasta wrapped arms around herself warily and the ancient wizard shook his head and cleared his throat. "My... most sincere apologies young lady," he said after a moment. "You bear... a truly uncanny resemblance to somebody else I know." He paused. "Or... knew." He added the last part almost under his breath.

Jocasta bowed her head slightly. Lecherous senile old man! His eyes had been... That is not the way a master looks at a student. Few men had ever done it, but she knew, almost instinctively, how he'd regarded her for a moment. "All is forgiven, Master Zeno," she assured him, carefully modulating her voice. "Though I must say I'm surprised you've met another... like me." The girl from when I reached for time! an internal voice screamed at her. It has to be!

Their conversation was soft enough that it did not carry amid the bustle of everyone taking their seats. He smiled understandingly. "When you're as old as I am," he sighed, "you've met a great many people of a great many sorts."

But I will never be as old as you, Jocasta thought bitterly, an open wound rubbed with fresh salt. She was about to fake some friendly, noncommittal response when he seemed to realize his miscue. "I'm sorry, dear girl. Sometimes, you know, I forget things at my age. I'd not meant to reopen a wound."

Jocasta knit her hands in front of her and nodded soberly. "There is nothing I can do but live the life the Gods have given me the best that I am able," she replied with a note of determined dignity. "That's why I'm here, after all!"

He appeared to study her for a split second and he seemed somehow sharper than a moment ago, as if he'd recovered himself somewhat. "Well, yes indeed," he replied shortly. "Oh, and how rude of me. I neglected to ask your name."

"Right, yes sir. Jocasta, sir. Jocasta Re."

"Jocasta Sir or Jocasta Re?" he joked and she did not dare call upon chemical magic to fake a blush in the presence of so eminent a mage. "Heh, not my best work," he admitted after a moment. "Now, all seem gathered and I must address them, but you and I should speak later. You have a rare talent, I can sense, and I may be able to help you with it."

A rare talent? Jocasta was left wondering. She'd done her best to seem as mundane as possible, Tethered gifts and curse aside. Could he have sensed it? Could he have known that she, too, could use Temporal magic? The girl's stomach began to fold in on itself in worry.

---

---

Summary

-- Nonessential Reading --

1. Jocasta occupies the same Master's house as Marlijn, Ingrid, and Jomurr. However, unlike them, she does not receive a bird-borne letter.
2. Instead, Jocasta yanks a bird from the sky, kills it as it struggles, and figures out the riddle for herself.
3. She runs into Benedetto, also on his way there, and they have an unfriendly exchange before he ditches her.
4. She recognizes Temporal magic being used at the Forked Tower and recognizes that people are being counted as they enter.
5. She knocks out Selio and Linah and dumps them outside in some bushes to account for her and Benedetto entering. Then, she uses lower-level Temporal magic to teleport up past the stairs.

-- Essential Reading --

6. Jocasta realizes that she and the twenty-four others are in a profoundly different place and maybe even time.
7. Trypano and Desmond both address Hugo Hunghorasz and he responds. Then, he outlines why everyone is there and gives people the opportunity to leave.
8. Jocasta and Hugo have a slightly unsettling personal interaction that ties into his past and her future.

---

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Dark Wings, Dark Words: Part Two

---

When everyone had gathered at the table, Hugo Hunghorasz raised his arms slightly for silence and, indeed, the air seemed to deaden to sound. "If you remain here, I will assume that you are all interested in what I have to show you." He nodded, businesslike, and rose. With his staff, he traced a circle in the air at the head of the table. For a moment, it shimmered translucently. Then, in a space that had looked no different from any other mere moments ago, there appeared a scene of what looked like the inside of a large gambling house by night. People moved about inside of it and noise poured outward. "Don't worry," the ancient mage advised, "This is a portal, but they can neither see nor hear us." he shuffled around slowly to face the other side and drew a similar circle. An empty dock and water sparkling under the light of three moons appeared. Distant sounds of conversation and heavy objects being moved could be heard. "The first is in Feska, on a riverboat gambling house," Hugo shared. "The second is on the Isla D'Amato, a notorious den of pirates." He took a few more steps and a third appeared, which he described as the house of an eminent figure and strong ally who was about to be murdered by 'agents of chaos'.

He straightened and, after a moment, all three portals disappeared. "In all three places, a crisis is brewing. A riot is about to break out in the first and a priceless item has been stolen. In the second case, strange happenings are afoot with the pirates and they have taken a captive of immeasurable value. In the third, someone who could do immeasurable good is about to die." Gingerly, the old man sat back down. He gestured and, with the flick of a finger, a folder flew off of a distant shelf, and separated into twenty-six separate pages in midair as it made its way over. These settled gently in front of the gathered students and the Paradigm himself. "You have, in front of you, the details of all situations. I have called each of you here because I felt you were the most capable, by various metrics, among the student body, but that does not mean that I shall call upon every one of you in each instance. The teams that are to handle each situation have been carefully chosen. Each will have precisely half an hour to plan and prepare before I reopen the portals for departure. Should you require any specific items, do not hesitate to ask and, within reason, they will be procured for you."

The aged wizard motioned towards a petite woman with dirty-blonde hair seated in a wheeled-chair to his left. "If those items are on campus, you will step outside the door with Jocasta here, and she will assist you with them. If not, you will come to me."

What happened next was a hive of activity, questions, and organized chaos. The students who looked down at their papers would note their assigned situations and objectives there.

---

---

Situation One - Lorentine Queen: Carmillia Carbonneau, Manfred Hohenfelter, Dorothea Hohnstein, Seung Eun-Ji, Leon Solaire, Zarra Travendour.

Situation Two - Black Flag: Desmond Catulus, Benedetto Corvi, Ismet'ych'lahin'dichora, Wyvsen Myranne, Karim Nazeri, Ingrid Penderson, Trypano Somia, Onarr Yidlob.

Situation Three - The Lord's Manor: Jomurr Ikon III, Amirah Madasseh Al-Khatib, Penny Pellegrin, Carlo Spalazzi, Marlijn Vaanse, Owain Vaanse

---

---

Back for a new year

I'll say this: you've got some good interests! Welcome back and stay awesome.

Hi （´・｀ ）♡

Welcome aboard, new person! You'll find lots of fandom RPGs around here. Best of luck and stay awesome!

The Hourglass Order

Accepted Applications

As this story is two thirds of the way through, applications are now permanently closed. Our next adventure is coming up soon, though! Feel free to join our discord.

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Students

Player Students

Name	Species	Age	Sex	Nationality	Social Class	RAS	Magical Schools	Primary Mana	Secondary Mana	Aberrative Mana	Divine Fruits
Leon Solaire	Human	19	M	unknown	Artisan	(7.40)	0 7 3 0 3 0 0 0 4 0 0	Sunblessed	N/A	N/A	Dragon's Fyre
Desmond Catulus	Human	20	M	Enthish	Common	5.00	3 2 2 4 3 0 0 0 0 0 3	Redblood	N/A	N/A	Red Apple Floatmelon
Dorothea Hohnstein	Human	18	F	Feskan	Noble	7.61	1 4 0 4 3 0 0 0 5 0 0	Blackblood	N/A	N/A	Medlar Wolf's Tooth
Trypano Somia	Human	19	F	Revidian	Merchant	8.54	1 0 7 1 0 0 6 1 0 0 0	Redblood	Bloodchild	N/A	Gold Apple Serpent's Venom
Ingrid Penderson	Human	19	F	Eskandish	Noble	8.65	0 4 2 1 4 5 0 0 2 0 0	Sanguinaire	Oceanborn Manatracer Glowvein Limitbreaker	N/A	Gold Apple Mint Hellfire Pepper Dragon's Fyre
Zarina Al-Nader	Human	17	F	Virangish	Merchant	8.17	1 0 1 5 5 2 0 4 0 0 0	Wildblood	N/A	N/A	Orange Avocado Dragon's Fyre
Ayla Arslan	Human	17	F	Torragonese	Noble	8.05	0 5 0 4 5 0 0 0 2 0 0	Blueblood	Fireblood Torchblood	Shadowspeaker	Pink Apple Floatmelon Bat's Sight
Ashon'amar'loiyang	Yasoi	19	M	Hyparian	Mundane	8.54	4 1 0 1 6 0 0 5 0 0 0	Redblood	Timewalker	N/A	Pomegranate Alligator’s Scale
Yuliya Ilyanovna Vasilieva	Human	17	F	Vossoriyan	Royal	8.73	3 4 0 0 5 2 0 2 1 0 0	Sanguinaire	Leadvein Sensemaster Thunderchild Oceanborn Greengrowth Icevein Manatracer	N/A	Pink Apple Thresher's Spine
Tku Pictor	Human	19	M	Obenjan	Artisan	8.20	0 0 5 2 1 0 5 0 2 0 1	Redblood	Bloodchild	N/A	Olive Raven's Treasure
Yvain de Berbignon	Human	18	M	Perrench	Noble	8.70	1 5 0 1 4 6 0 0 0 0 0	Blueblood	Rosebud Torchblood Laurelblood	N/A	Penguin's Feather
Roslyn Wicke	Human	16	F	Hendlish	Noble	7.20	1 4 3 4 3 0 0 1 0 0 0	Blackblood	Agitator	N/A	Butterfly's Wing
Salomé Xiuyáng Solari	Human	19	F	Revidian	Merchant	8.32	0 5 4 3 1 0 3 1 0 0 0	Facemimic	Devourer	N/A	Wild Cherry Candied Cherry Loon's Call
Mahal Agha	Human	18	F	Palaparese	Noble	7.93	4 2 3 4 3 0 0 0 0 0 0	Blackblood	Glutton	N/A	Bat's Sight
Raffaella Mataraci	Human	17	F	Virangish	Noble	6.00	3 4 0 6 2 0 0 0 0 1 0	Sleepwalker	Glutton	Dreamcaster	Thresher's Spine
Evander Fino Synesti	Human	19	M	Revidian	Noble	7.31	6 5 0 0 4 0 0 3 0 0 0	Blueblood	Fireblood	N/A	Buddha's Hand
Marco Pirovano Terranova	Human	18	M	Revidian	Century	8.57	2 0 6 2 6 0 0 5 0 0 0	Blackblood	Ironblood	Exorcist	N/A

Magic School Colour Code:
Magnetic Arcane Binding Chemical Kinetic Atomic Blood Temporal Dark Command Primordial

---

Non Player Students

Name	Species	Age	Sex	Nationality	Social Class	RAS	Magic Schools	Primary Mana	Secondary Mana	Aberrative Mana
Marlijn Vaanse	Human	17	F	Eskandish	Noble	7.23	1 6 0 4 4 0 0 0 0 0 0	Blackblood	Timeracer	N/A
Penelope 'Penny' Pellegrin	Human	18	F	Perrench	Royal	8.50	1 4 4 2 4 0 2 0 0 0 0	Lifestealer	Leadvein	N/A
Jomurr Ikon III	Human	17	M	Belzaggic	Noble	8.36	0 3 0 6 3 5 0 0 0 0 0	Blueblood	Agitator	N/A
Benedetto Corvi	Human	16	M	Revidian	Common	9.11	1 5 2 1 4 6 0 4 4 0 0	Blueblood	Glowvein	N/A
Jocasta Re	Human	21	F	Djamantese	Noble	9.63	3 4 3 7 8 3 2 8 0 2 0	Tethered	Skyborn	N/A
Marceline Hohenfelter	Human	15	F	Kerreman	Noble	8.28	4 1 5 1 5 0 0 0 0 0 0	Tethered	N/A	N/A
Sven Bjørnsson	Human	18	M	Eskandish	Noble	8.57	2 0 4 5 1 5 0 0 0 0 0	Blueblood	Agitator	N/A
Oweyn Vaanse	Human	17	M	Eskandish	Noble	7.23	4 4 0 3 4 0 0 0 0 0 0	Blackblood	Oceanborn	N/A
Rikard Ambrus	Human	14	M	Budesrnish	Noble	8.28	7 4 0 0 4 0 0 1 ? 0 0	Bronzeblood	Timeracer	N/A
Neki Kaureerah Wenhan-heep	Eeaiko	19	F	Akrihan	Outcast	7.01	0 6 0 4 5 0 0 0 0 0 2	Goldblood	Oceanborn	N/A
Edyta Łaska	Human	17	F	Warlish	Clergy	7.25	0 7 4 1 6 0 ? ? ? ? 0	Greyborn	Icevein	N/A
Tennaxi-Luna	Cazenax	16	F	Zenuese	Common	6.97	2 2 1 1 4 0 1 0 4 0 0	Sulfurblood	N/A	Astral Walker
Nezana-Samaxi-Soli	Cazenax	18	F	Zenuese	Artisan	6.88	0 0 3 4 5 0 1 0 4 0 0	Sulfurblood	N/A	Fiendhunter
Johann Steinbauer	Human	18	M	Kerreman	Noble	8.84	4 0 4 4 0 0 4 3 0 0 0	Blueblood	Copycat	N/A
Ciro Volta	Human	17	M	Revidian	Merchant	7.95	1 4 0 7 3 0 0 0 5 0 0	Blackblood	Agitator	Voidstrider
Seviin'delaan'taxoiya	Yasoi	15	F	Yandese	Clergy	8.24	0 2 (6) 4 2 0 6 3 0 0 0	Wildblood	Solocaster	N/A

---

Recurring NPCs

Secondary PCs/Prominent NPCs

Name	Species	Age	Sex	Nationality	Social Class	RAS	Magical Schools	Primary Mana	Secondary Mana	Aberrative Mana	Divine Fruits
Abdel Varga	Human	15	M	Inipori	Common	7.40	7 1 4 1 1 0 3 0 0 0 0	Tethered	Thunderchild	N/A	Brandæble Lychee Chestnut Caribou's Antler
Maura Mercador	Human	15	F	Torragonese	Merchant	6.72	5 0 4 0 5 0 2 0 0 0 0	Blackblood	Enabler	N/A	Red Apple Apple Aberration Apple Caribou’s Antler
Fiske Flachstrauch	Human	16	M	Huulisch	Merchant	8.32	1 6 0 4 3 0 0 1 0 0 0	Blackblood	Sensemaster	N/A	Red Apple Raven's Treasure
Cal'tuuro'jaros	Yasoi	18	M	Luuntese	Provider	8.51	0 0 2 7 0 0 5 3 0 0 0	Blueblood	Porous	N/A	N/A
Marz Mohfolk	Hegelan	19	M	Ramorghan	Artisan	6.25	3 3 3 3 3 0 0 0 0 0 0	Bronzeblood	N/A	N/A	Caribou's Antler
Taleja Drakenknecht	Human	18	F	Kressian	Noble	8.18	1 1 4 5 1 4 0 0 0 0 0	Blackblood	Venomhand	N/A	Raven’s Treasure
Lunara Agha	Human	18	F	Palaparese	Noble	7.93	5 0 3 4 4 0 0 0 0 0 0	Blackblood	Thunderchild	N/A	Otter's Fur
Oksana Levlytsar	Human	18	F	Vossoriyan	Kozaky	(6.22)	0 6 4 0 5 2 0 0 0 0 0	Mooncaster	Icevein	N/A	Wolf's Tooth
Thomas Kavanaugh	Human	19	M	Enthish	Common	5.55	4 2 2 1 7 0 0 0 0 0 0	Unleashed	Dualblood	N/A
Yalen Castel	Human	17	M	Méattan	Clergy	6.25	3 1 3 4 0 0 0 0 0 3 0	Tethered	N/A	Lightbringer	Starfruit
Guy Attard	Human	19	M	Perrench	Noble	7.67	4 3 0 4 3 0 0 0 2 0 0	Goldblood	Oceanborn	N/A	Loon's Call

Recurring NPCs

Name	Species	Age	Sex	Nationality	Social Class	RAS	Magical Schools	Primary Mana	Secondary Mana	Aberrative Mana
Colette D'aureville	Human	27	F	Miattan	Clergy	8.59	N/A	Blackblood	Devourer	N/A
Charlotte 'Karl' Jena	Human	18	M?	Feskan	Common	7.12	N/A	Blackblood	Greengrowth	N/A
Isabella Lowell	Human	18	F	Enthish	Artisan	7.31	1 3 4 0 0 0 4 2 4 0 0	Tethered	N/A	N/A
Tyrel'yrash'dichora	Yasoi	18	F	Tantian	Renowned	8.99	1 2 3 5 6 4 3 4 4 0 0	Lifestealer	Quicksilver	N/A
Pluurii'daxtoil'asitan	Yasoi	19	F	Tarlonese	Provider	9.09 (8.32)	1 4 3 2 3 3 0 1 0 0 0	Festerblood	N/A	N/A

---

The Departed

The Departed

Name	Species	Age at Death	Death	Sex	Nationality	Class	RAS Level	Magical Schools	Primary Mana	Secondary Mana	Aberrative Mana	Divine Fruits
Anesin Bjelke	Human	17	Heartstopped by Volto Certosa	F	Eskandish	Noble	8.20	N/A	Blueblood	Bloodchild	N/A
Wvysen Myranne	Human	17	Bisected by Volto Argento	F	Perrench	Noble	6.97	N/A	Blackblood	N/A	N/A
Ilannaq 'Anna' Sigmundottir	Human	15	Terminal Aberration Madness	F	Eskandish-Rettanese	Merchant	7.20	N/A	Blackblood	N/A	N/A
Manfred Hohenfelter	Human	19	Beheaded by Titan Sanguinaire	M	Kerreman	Noble	6.27	3 2 1 2 3 0 1 0 0 0 0	Blackblood	N/A	N/A
Silas Rieger	Human	16	Assassinated by Yuliya & Khaliun	M	Balbrish	Common	6.90	0 2 2 0 4 0 0 0 0 0 0	Powergazer	Icevein	N/A
Nazih Iqbal	Human	17	Buried by Radomir	M	Firrazene	Noble	7.26	0 0 1 3 0 1 0 0 0 0 0	Blueblood	Blackrot	N/A
Ismet'ych' lahiin'dichora	Yasoi	18	Deleted by Dorothea	F	Mycormish	Mundane	???	0 0 4 1 2 0 0 3 5 0 0	??	??	??
Qasem Laghmani	Human	17	Shot down by Manfred	M	Inipori	Clergy	4.63	0 0 2 4 0 1 3 0 0 0 0	Wildblood	N/A	N/A
Niallus Saberhagen	Human	19	Confronted the Evil Smile	M	Eskandish	Noble	8.17	0 6 0 2 4 2 0 0 2 0 0	Blueblood	N/A	Bottom Feeder	Orange Lotus Thresher's Spine
Esmii’nesta’tawaar	Yasoi	17	???	F	Mycormish	Esteemed	7.72	1 3 5 5 0 0 2 0 0 0 0	Redblood	Moodcaster	N/A	Green Apple Whale's Oil

---

Dropouts

Dropouts

[

Name	Species	Age	Sex	Nationality	Social Class	RAS	Magical Schools	Primary Mana	Secondary Mana	Aberrative Mana
Nerio Luchessi	Human	15	M	Revidian	Noble	6.96	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
Vyrik Oldrenath	Human-Yasoi	17	M	Revidian / Eskandish	Common	5.50	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
Linah Aranda	Human	15	F	Torragonese	Common	6.80	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
Mayu Iovina	Human	14	F	Nikanese- Perrench	Noble	6.10	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
Selio Taraves	Human	16	M	Torragonese	Noble	6.60	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
Yimu Pan	Human	15	F	Rettanese	Common	5.78	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
Karim Nazeri	Human	16	M	Paggonian	Merchant	7.55	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
Onarr Yidlob	Human	15	M	Joruban	Artisan	8.00	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
Ysilla Al-Nader	Human	16	F	Virangish	Merchant	7.62	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
Seung Eun-Ji	Human	18	F	Tan Keoulean	Civil Servant	6.99	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
Vieri Zimbasu	Human	15	?	Joruban- Revidian	Merchant	8.07	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
Carmilia Carbonneau	Human	17	F	Perrench	Merchant	4.80	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
Zarra Travendour	Human	16	M	Perrench	Noble	7.73	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
Leander Keraunos	Human	16	M	Thalak	Merchant	6.42	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
Casii'fyret'alan	Yasoi	17	F	Mycormish	Esteemed	8.22	0 0 3 3 2 0 2 0 0 0 0	Blackblood	Greengrowth	N/A
Ymiico'luun'yoru	Yasoi	19	F	Nikanese	Artisan	5.85	0 4 1 2 2 0 0 0 0 0 0	Mooncaster	N/A	N/A
Yansee Keelee Kensen-loon	Eeaiko	19	F	Helbaurean	Noble	6.91	0 2 3 4* 2 0 1 0 3 0 0	Goldblood	Oceanborn	Necromancer
Valerian Remi Leclère	Human	18	M	Perrench	Noble	7.88	0 4 1 2 5 0 0 0 0 0 0	Sanguinaire	Dualblood	N/A
Talkhan MakAndzey	Hegelan	18	M	Ramorghan	Noble	6.33	0 3 2 4 5 0 0 0 0 0 0	Brutalist	Leadvein	N/A
Kaspar Elstrøm von Wentoft	Human	17	M	Helbahnic	Noble	7.73	0 0 4 4 1 0 4 0 2 0 0	Blackblood	Bloodchild	Lightbringer Demoncaller	Buddha's Hand

---

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Faculty

Arch-Zeno Profiles

Senior Faculty

Name	Age	Gender	Nationality	Rank	RAS Level	Primary Specialization	Secondary Specialization	Tertiary Specialization
Claresse Upta	66	Female	Joruban	Zenith	8.52	Binding	Temporal	Chemical
Hugo Hunghorasz	117	Male	Budesrnish	Paradigm	9.54	Temporal	Atomic	Dark
Joshe Intaba	64	Male	Medrilaner	Arch-Zeno	8.86	Atomic	Kinetic	Magnetic
Ardredelle Latvar	47	Female	Budesrnish	Arch-Zeno	8.49	Chemical	Binding	Atomic
Giacomo Giarrone	86	Male	Revidian	Arch-Zeno	8.60	Binding	Blood	Arcane
Riu Kai-Tan	61	Male	Rettanese	Arch-Zeno	8.51	Kinetic	Blood	Arcane
Alassa Tojarra	50	Female	Torragonese	Arch-Zeno	8.36	Magnetic	Chemical	Kinetic
Karan Harachorra	44	Male	Inipori	Arch-Zeno	8.80	Arcane	Atomic	Temporal

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Zeno Profiles

Junior Faculty

Name	Age	Gender	Nationality	Rank	RAS Level	Primary Specialization	Secondary Specialization	Tertiary Specialization
Zander Mozaru	38	Male	Belzaggic	Zeno	8.03	Kinetic	Arcane	Magnetic
Fades-in-Moonlight	27	Female	Nashibansek	Zeno	8.22	Arcane	Chemical	Dark
Hamir Zemana	44	Male	Virangish	Zeno	7.88	Kinetic	Binding	Chemical
Sienna Afraval	29	Female	Torragonese	Zeno	8.27	Arcane	Kinetic	Magnetic
Luria Colloy	36	Female	Segonese	Zeno	8.08	Magnetic	Kinetic	Arcane
Born-on-Solstice	27	Female	Nashibansek	Zeno	8.22	Arcane	Kinetic	Magnetic
Randan Kedd	41	Male	Enthish	Zeno	7.89	Chemical	Arcane	Binding
Alois Lascand	46	Male	Perrench	Zeno	7.92	Binding	Chemical	Magnetic
Tannifer Marbrand	39	Female	Enthish	Zeno	8.31	Atomic	Arcane	Binding

---

---

Code Vein (Closed)

---

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_{Location: A Record Store @ The Ruined City // Date: February 23, 2057 // Time: 16:55 // Interactions: Erik @FunnyGuy}

---

---

With a start, Lysandra twisted. She immediately knew what Erik was talking about by his tone alone. Events had forced her to compartmentalize and push her earlier disquiet somewhere else, but now it trickled back in. Her fingers kept working, retensioning the spool on a cassette, but her eyes were all his... for a moment. Ever flighty, they flicked towards the outside, where Akaia had disappeared from view with Cerise, and flicked back. She nodded tightly, her shoulders flexing towards him. "Yeah," she replied simply, "you do." Finished with the cassette, she placed it gently on her lap and set hands to wheels, turning partway to face him but not all of the way. "But I understand in retrospect why that may not have been the appropriate time to address it." She shrugged, taking a moment to lock her brakes. "So, sorry. I'll own my panic." She swallowed and glanced down at her lap idly. "You know me well enough to know I'm not half as collected as I seem." Her eyes came back his way. "Just like I gather you also know it never should've happened in the first place." She shook her head, releasing a small breath, and her voice was earnest. "I've been with you for more than two years and I don't think I've ever given any sign that I'm not committed and trustworthy. If our goal is to actually fix this sad sack world, then I need all of the information, not just what you and the other longtimers think is 'need to know'. Not to sound like an ego case - " Lys knew that she did, sometimes. " - but I'm the expert on these matters. I need the opportunity to sift through all the information because I know what's going to be useful better than anyone else."

Unbidden and unwelcome, an intense spike of self-doubt stabbed at her insides and she wrapped an arm around herself. Sometimes she wondered: was she really any good? Was she actually useful? Was she the expert that she thought she was or was it all make-work like some kind of Truman Show? Did people just humour her and tell her what they thought she wanted to hear so that the poor human girl in the wheelchair would have a sense of purpose? Lysandra pushed the irrational thoughts down, however, not giving voice to such paranoia. "I've said my piece. It's cool." She shrugged. "Now spill the goods." She managed an expectant smile, not totally devoid of warmth by any means.

---

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The Hourglass Order

Chapter Ten: Dark Wings, Dark Words

Part One: Into the Tower

---

---

The students blinked. They had been standing in a drafty stone stairwell between floors in the Forked Tower, caught between exultation and trepidation as they had proposed their solution to the problem. Now, they were not. Surrounding them was an expansive study, multiple stories high and replete with towering bookshelves, a strategy table, and numerous desks and hutches packed full of magical and scientific equipment: clearly the personal domain of an eminent Arch Zeno. At the far end, daylight streamed in through a set of towering stained glass windows. They were set high enough against the wall that the students could not simply look through them.

It was all so grand and unexpected that it took many of the new arrivals a moment to notice that there were more here than simply their original group of five. As they looked around, they noticed other familiar and semi-familiar faces from campus. Indeed, there appeared to be twenty-five in all. What they could not know, of course, was that there had originally been one-hundred others who had failed the test at some stage or another. Those found themselves back in bed with no memory or knowledge of what had transpired remaining in their minds.

For the twenty five who had passed the three tests, however, a new challenge awaited. Almost lost amid the sudden turmoil was the elderly, white-bearded figure at the far end of the room, hunched over a desk. It twisted in its high-backed chair, cold grey-blue eyes peering out from beneath wizened wrinkles and bushy brows. Somewhat querulous with age, the figure stood, a great sea-blue robe unfurling as it did so. "Welcome to the Society of the Forked Tower," said a deep, gravelly voice, resonant despite a tone steeped in age. "You were smart enough and the others were not." It was the paradigm himself: Hugo Hunghorasz - by the reckoning of some, the greatest mage to have ever lived.

---

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The Hourglass Order

@dragonpiece

Okay, so I like Ingrid quite a bit. Below is my feedback.

1) Personality: I dig it. I get a clear vision of what she is and what she's like. Remember caps for all traits.

2) Character Appearance: I like the little details in here. Awesome job.

3) Languages: Well explained and makes sense. As a side note, learning one language within a family (Avincian, Belzaggic, Inipori, Drudgunzean, Eskandish, etc.) makes it easier to learn the others.

4) The Gift: To quote, "Her current RAS is 8.4" Just an FYI that RAS is kind of an immutable thing. 8.4 also puts her in the range of being a true prodigy. I might remove the 'current' and just pay a bit more attention to how exceptional that RAS score would make her. There are no more than a couple hundred people in the entire world with RAS scores that high. I also like the way that you handled her dive into Atomic. It's nice to see someone making an atomic mage who isn't an idiot. As an aside, at some point, just give me a list of her official primary, secondary, and tertiary schools of magic she'll me focusing on at the academy.

5) Background: Digging this overall. I like the conflict between motive and reality and how that'll have to come to a head sooner or later. In terms of that brief mention of her family's past struggles, I might leave out the literally 'starving'. They're nobles after all. They were probably humiliated and broke, but not the point of literally not having enough food. Maybe they just had to - *gasp* - cook for themselves or eat 'peasant food' or even... skip some meals. Just having to worry about food supply would literally be humbling.

6) Motivation: Thumbs up here. Idealism mixed with some doubt.

7) Inventory: Love it! Remember to delete my original text at the end there. Also, 'Neskal' as opposed to 'Neskel'.

8) Strengths & Weaknesses: looks good and makes sense. Just double checking that 'capable in a bow' means she can bow/curtsy well?

Overall, well done. Feel free to make those handful of small adjustments and post her in the Characters tab! Welcome aboard.

The Hourglass Order

Blood Brothers

A Collaboration between Manfred @Force and Fury, Dorothea @jasbraq, Eun-Ji @Medili, and Trypano @A Lowly Wretch

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In the event, the Gift was employed and, thankfully, two out of the three were kineticists and Dory was… determined. They passed under the Sea Gate, with its great arcing sea serpents carved into the archway and made their way down the Merchants’ Road to Mudville.

The rough suburb looked more impressive by day than it did under the moonlight. Tall, narrow buildings lined its muddy streets and wagons and people alike clattered through them. Manfred found himself consulting his mental map. He was not as familiar with this place as he needed to be, but already more than he would ever want to be.

They came up to a large crossroads and he pointed right. “This way!” he called, shooting down the narrow street at a somewhat undignified pace. There were other students about. Many were wearing hooded cloaks or some other means of disguising their identities. Manfred had been in such a hurry that he hadn’t thought of that. It was too late now, however, to rectify his error.

The buildings trailed off into a large thicket of sturdy sycamore trees and, behind them loomed a large, ramshackle villa. People were glancing around between themselves, conversing, and entering. A thin stream of white smoke trickled from its chimney. Glancing at his peers, Manfred pushed the door open and entered. Inside was a world of high, vaulted ceilings, tall narrow windows, and rustic chandeliers dripping candlewax from above. The central atrium was open, and there was a speaker’s lectern at the far end. Numerous hallways and rooms branched off towards the back and there was an upper floor and balcony surrounding all but the back of the atrium.

Manfred sniffed. Incense, he thought. Disgusting savage stuff. There appeared to be sitting mats on the floor too, as if the students weren’t good enough for actual chairs, like civilized adults. People were gradually gathering on those, taking the choice spots, but he had little interest in being up front. He’d have a better view from the back. “Well,” he groused in a low voice, “this about meets my expectations.”

“This looks like some weird theater play. . Is this really a forbidden magic school or a group of theater kids?” Dorothea, now hidden in her cloak, would whisper in Manfred’s ear. She didn’t really know a lot about all the occult. “And what’s up with this smell?”

Eun-Ji was used to the scent of such incense, it being a common thing in Tan Keoul. Still, the overall atmosphere of the place was as shady as expected. She took a spot beside Manfred, sticking to the back. ”I agree. It is just as I expected…” she said softly. Then, she briefly glanced at Dorothea, still not sure why she was there with them. She definitely will need to ask Manfred about this later.

Manfred let out a sniff of mirth at Dory’s observation, and he was tempted to think of her as shamefully out of place, but she was the only one who’d actually brought a hooded cloak, and those seemed de rigueur here. He was just opening his mouth to comment when a group of robed figures appeared from one of the back hallways. Five had their faces covered, but one was in chains with a sackcloth over its head. In the rear was a sixth: a tall man with dark, shoulder-length hair and a pale complexion. Murmurs rippled through the group of students gathered.

The man who seemed to be the head of the group stepped up to the lectern. “Hello,” he said, “and good morning.” The other four spread out in a square around the captive behind him. They pulled the chains near taut, and the bound and gagged prisoner flinched and wailed beneath her gag. Though it was impossible to see her face, one could tell that she was panicked, hyperventilating. The leader with his deep red robe and dark shoulder-length hair twisted slightly her way and scowled. He turned back to the students. “Someone use Blood drawing, please,” he said simply, “and kill her.”

Dory’s eyes lit up in disgust, tugging on Manfred’s arm to try and keep herself calm. “Are they really going to execute her? . . Is she even guilty of anything? . .” The look in her eyes was getting more and more determined to step in.

At the speaker’s words, a cold pulse shot through Manfred’s body. This was exactly how magic shouldn’t be used. He glanced at Dory and Eun-Ji, determining if now was the time to say something. There were robed figures around the perimeter of the atrium now, though. They’d emerged from the back hallways and he could feel them reaching out with energy. What the hell was going on!?

”....” Eun-Ji’s expression remained neutral as she looked upon what seemed to be downright evil in full display. Her body tensed up, however, and it took her a considerable amount of effort not to reach for the daggers hidden within the fold of her dress. Surrounded and outnumbered. Not enough information too… Part of her was indifferent to the scene, numbed by her years as a Lotus Sentry. Yet the other part of her was screaming at her, telling her to act.

She ended up looking at her companions, especially Manfred. Subtly, she shook her head at him. As much as she wanted to act and do something to stop whatever was going on, acting now will likely prove a folly, if not suicidal.

It was at that moment, with all three infiltrators and a good deal of the remaining student body perched on a razor’s edge, that someone stood up. It was a boy with wild white hair and reddish-violet eyes - clearly a bloodchild. “As you command!” he shouted and, a moment later, the captive howled in pain. Her left hand began to disappear in a mist of blood and unraveling flesh.

But then there was a commotion. The boy was hurled off his feet by an attack from the side. A tall young woman in a hooded cloak stood, crackling with energy. “You would just take life without question!?” she screamed. Her dress fluttered strangely, empty on one side, and it made her instantly recognizable as Penny: Penny Pellegrin.

“He ordered it and he is our master,” retorted another, also standing and gathering energy. Students quickly seemed to be taking sides. Meanwhile, the woman on stage moaned and shuddered, weeping beneath the sackcloth and clutching her ruined hand. The leader remained impassive, hands clasped behind his back, eyes slowly roving over those gathered.

As the situation seemed to become inflamed, Eun-Ji finally subtly reached into her dress and took a dagger out, hiding in by holding the handle stuck on her left palm, the blade hidden by the long sleeve of her dress. "I suggest that we prepare for the worst, Manfred… And Ms. Hohnstein.” she whispered to her companions. If things came to blows, Eun-Ji already knew which side she would be taking. After all, she saw no one who fit the description of ‘master whose order must be followed’ in this place. She drew as subtly as she could from the noise and whatever ambient heat there was in the place, imbuing her dagger with kinetic magic. Of course, she seemingly remained standing calmly, not outwardly showing any intention to intervene.

"Can I shoot him? I really want that bastard to taste some lead for what he did!" She opened up her cloak to him, revealing a dueling pistol. Nodding eagerly for his approval.

Eun–Ji was on her feet, and Dory quickly joined her. Both women seemed ready for a fight, and Dory was not quiet about it either. Manfred rose as well. Unlike Dory, he didn’t have his weapon and he wondered just how in Shune’s light she’d hidden it, for he certainly hadn’t felt a pistol in there when he’d picked it up. He felt oddly naked unarmed, but he drew from the light pouring in through the windows, prepared first to cast an invisibility illusion so that he could work unmolested. “Wait, he whispered. Let’s see how this plays out.”

“You attack me!?” roared the student who’d been tossed aside by Penny. He leapt to his feet with kinetically-aided speed and drew a handful of cushions, rematerializing them into daggers which he hurled at the tall girl.

And that is exactly where matters halted… along with the daggers. They disappeared in the blink of an eye, as if they had never even existed, and the leader stepped forward, wearing a scowl of disapproval. “The violence will cease,” he commanded, his voice deep, calm, and unnaturally powerful. His eyes took in the entire group. Some sat. Some remained standing. Others had never risen. The room went quiet. “All violence,” he amended softly. “That is not who we are and that is not what we do.”

He walked over to the captive and removed the sackcloth and gag. She was gritting her teeth in pain. “Thank you, Lilla,” he said softly, placing a hand on top of her head. Students could feel the energy being drawn to him - gently, determinedly. He closed his eyes and concentrated and fresh new bones sprouted from the ragged stump of her wrist. Flesh and sinew coalesced and wrapped themselves around the bones, arteries and veins branched across them and then, finally, fresh pinkish skin, newly healed. Lilla stared at her hand reborn, and blinked. “Thank you,” she said, opening and closing it in wonder.

“No, it is I who thank you for your bravery.” The four guards unchained her and she rose to stand among them. The man in the deep red robe turned to face the students once more. “We are not monsters,” he said firmly. “If that is what you think, if that is what you have come here to be, you may leave now.” He paused, hands clasped again. “The only thing that we are here to destroy is the deathgrip that selfish people hold on Sipenta’s magic. Sure as each of us has blood running through our veins, each of us deserves to access this Gift of the Pentad.”

“Oh, and if you’re hesitant to leave after being willing to murder Lilla in cold blood and without cause simply because you were ordered to, these lovely people -” He spread his arms and gestured at the roughly two dozen cloaked figures around the perimeter. “- will be all too eager to assist you. Practitioners of the Blood do not obey,” he admonished, “they think. If you did not come to think - to challenge your assumptions - you may also leave now.”

Dory slumped down with a rather disappointed look on her face. "Did they really have to intervene? . . My finger itches now." She'd lean against Manfred, trying her hardest to cry in a fake manner. "What will I do now?"

"Hmm.” The situation was fortunately defused, revealed to be a test to weed out those who were, so to speak, deemed untrustworthy of learning the controversial school of magic. Eun-Ji calmly sat back down, putting back her dagger into the fold of her dress as subtly as she did when she took it out. “At least they seem to be making an effort in regards to not confirming the stereotype… Still…” She whispered to Manfred. She wasn’t convinced yet, it was too early to conclude that this Blood Magic class was truly harmless. Furthermore, she wondered who this man was who became the instructor of the class. “Manfred, do you perchance recognize who he is?” She asked Manfred, again in soft whispers.

Amongst the twenty who stood by and watched during the event was Trypano herself, standing taller than most if not all the people present. She had halfway wondered why she even bothered keeping her hood up when her red eyes, pale skin and unusual height were more than telling. Perhaps it was simply due to the fact that while she stood out she didn’t particularly care to draw attention to the fact that she stood out, not bothering to be among the only few in the room to have her hood down as well.

She watched the scene unfold. It was a test of course, one designed to weed out those who were all too bloodthirsty or simply far too accustomed to obeying their authorities. Blood Magic was a science after all, a subsection of Binding, not some cult ritualism practiced by priests to appease the powers that be. It was no less a tool to be used and utilized than Chemistry or Kineticism. Any field of magic could be used to kill after all. The fear of Blood magic was largely born of propaganda spread by the nobility for fear of what the mutability of their material world could mean towards the status quo.

Her face was no less cold or unflinching as it ever was. A perfect mask of serenity with a calculating stare. In her pocket she held her knife, a surgical tool and also something of a focus for her. Given how long she’s spent using magic alongside medical practices she’s spent a fair amount of her time holding this very blade whilst conducting her binding, hence why it serves well as a tool to center her focus, especially for directed casting.

Her magic was not directed however but instead was being used in the context of reading. Her Chemistry, to be precise. She monitored the chemical exchanges occurring within those who were recent entries into this class. Things such as adrenaline, endorphins and other such biochemical elements were all detectable beneath her discerning eye. She was well accustomed to dissecting the biology of living forms, human and otherwise. It was now simply a matter of doing so without opening the subject first.

She continued to stand by, not adding to the current discourse but remaining ready in the situation that action becomes necessary. Humans were a violent species after all, prone to assumption and aggression.

Meanwhile, Manfred, Eun-Ji, and Dorothea were exchanging whispers. After tut-tutting Dory and suppressing an only partly-comical shiver, Manfred furrowed his brow, thinking. “I cannot say I have seen him about,” the Kerreman confessed to Eun-Ji. “Still,” he continued, “he reminds me of someone.” He shook his head tightly after a moment. “But I cannot place it.” He glanced at the two women. “He seems a showman to me. Look how he has these people in the palm of his hand. His narrative demands trust.” On the one hand, the denunciation of savagery in this space was welcome and reassuring. On the other, he still did not trust the Practitioners of the Blood or their strangely charismatic leader. However, before either of the girls could offer their thoughts, his soldier’s instinct pulled at him and his eyes darted to the side, where Penny was scooting over to join them. “We have company,” he whispered, moments before she arrived.

"Who's that? Another acquaintance? . ." Dory looked at him with angry eyes, the woman really needed to shoot something soon. She’d stoked herself up when a riot had almost happened. But in the end it left her needy. Looking at the approaching girl, she cleared her throat while thinking about what her mother would say. "Young lady, you could've died!"

Penny blinked, unsure what to make of the intrusion. “Ummm… okay, mom?” She glanced at Manfred and Eun-Ji for some type of assurance that this was not just some random nutter.

"A showman…” Eun-Ji nodded at Manfred. “I agree. I would not trust him. Not just yet. Not when this whole thing seemed planned exactly to induce trust in him upon us, the students.” Then, she noticed Penny approaching just as Manfred whispered it. Dorothea was once more quick to speak up. Eun-Ji hardly reacted at all to the resulting peculiar interaction between Dorothea and Penny. After all, she barely knew who Dorothea was herself, what’s with her being an unexpected addition brought along by Manfred. She merely lightly shook her head in response to Penny’s glance at her and Manfred, as if trying to tell Penny that she herself knew little about Dorothea.

“Anyways,” the Perrenchwoman continued after a minute, “I did not expect this to be a ruse. It’s rather brilliant how he’s weeded out the bad ones.” She shrugged. “Besides, it’s the sacred duty of a Binder to protect life. I truly thought she would die had I done nothing.” Despite the light tone, there was a tension evident in her body language. She settled on a cushion beside them, gazing up intently at the speaker. “If this is what Blood Magic is really about, then perhaps we should all give it a chance.”

So, with varying degrees of embrace or reticence, that is precisely what the group of four did. This seemed to be as much a quasi-underground society as a class and Manfred had to admit that many of his initial fears had been allayed. Still, it seemed almost… too good to be true, as if they were putting on a friendly face for public consumption, for when they knew they’d be watched. He wondered how it was that they could run a class so brazenly, just outside of the city walls. They would have powerful benefactors, he knew. One glance at Eun-Ji showed that she knew it too. Dory, for her part, had seemed eager to fight: heart in the right place, perhaps, but hotheaded. A beautiful woman, he thought, a loving woman, and not unkeen of mind, but questionable judgement. Of Penny he knew little except that she seemed favourably disposed towards Blood Magic and she was a person of action. Time would tell where she fell on the spectrum from friend to enemy.

Regardless of their interpersonal dynamics, the four Biros spent most of the next hour practicing the foundations of blood drawing: how to grasp with one’s manas at material as opposed to energy. While it seemed frighteningly easy for Penny, it was… an alien concept to Manfred, he was forced to admit, and an uncomfortable one. It did not feel right to… destroy concrete things. For all of the Practitioners’ righteous rhetoric, all that the exercise served to do was to reinforce his fundamental wariness of the discipline. Still, he admitted to himself, as he walked back with Eun-Ji and Dorothea for their afternoon rendezvous with Wvysin, I will keep at it. Manfred knew that his instincts had been right. He, the dagger that was Eun-Ji, and the blunderbuss that was Dory had stumbled into something of great import, and there was no telling just how deep the rabbit hole would lead.

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