Episode 86 - The Snack Episode!

## Synopsis

Mira looked at the Sheoran garden that surrounded her. Inside her mind she felt the presence of Delnys, feeling and thinking everything she did. Simultaneously they thought “*Are you ok?*”, and “*Are we dead?*”

Mira suggested they look around and try to find someone or reach the balcony. The building surrounded them on three sides, but no person was visible. On a wall there were a set of stone double doors. Mira went over and knocked on them, she saw her hand make contact with the doors but was unable to feel it.

Realising that she wasn’t fully present in this vision, Mira tried to float up to balcony. She concentrated but wasn’t able to move. She still felt Delnys, paralysed in fear, in her mind.

Mira again looked around the garden for a way out, and her eyes settled on a nearby pool. It was triangular, and a statue of a snake emerged from the centre. At the bottom of the pool was a bed of sand and silt.

She reached into the pool and grabbed a handful of sand. She ate the sand.

Mira heard Delnys in her head ask, “*What are you doing?*” Then she felt her presence disappear. Mira blinked, and when she opened her eyes found herself back in Neska’s chamber. The was lying flat on the ground, and her mouth was filled with the taste of citrus.

She got up and looked around. Delnys lay next to her in the sand, her arm had returned, and she heard a voice in her head.

“*Did you see her?*” Neska hissed

“*No! I looked where she was but she wasn’t there, what just happened?*”

“*You should have  been brought before the eyes of the goddess.*”

“*I was just in a garden, and I didn’t have my arm? And she was in my body?*”

The voice fell silent, Delnys grasped onto Mira as they stood up. The sand near them shifted as Neska partially resurfaced her head, one eye staring straight at them.

She again asked if Mira had seen anything, Mira told her she hadn’t even been able to interact with anything and asked if that was bad, if she did anything wrong.

“*No, you did everything perfectly. How do you feel?*” Neska asked.

“*Like I have sand in my mouth.*”

Neska’s eye closed, and her body writhed under the sand. Mira saw an urn emerge near her, resembling the one currently under her bed. Neska told her to take it somewhere safe, and to return without “*that weak thing*”.

Mira asked her if she would then explain what had happened, and Neska told her they would try the ritual again, that she did not know where Mira had gone. Mira suggested it could be the Empress’ doing, and Neska agreed that was likely. She asked if Mira had anything of hers.

“*Her arm? But I’m kind of attached to that*.”

As soon as she spoke, Neska lashed out and ripped Mira’s right arm off.

“*That problem is solved now then.*”

As Mira bled out onto the sand, Delnys reached around to try and stop the bleeding, before casting *Life Transference* to close the wound.

Neska finished eating Mira’s arm. “*As I was saying, go take this urn and put it somewhere safe. We’ll try again now that no remnants of that woman remained.*”

Mira stammered in shock and disbelief while looking for a way out. She told Delnys they needed to stand on each other the reach the upper ledge of the chamber. Delnys, now drained of most of her vitality, agreed, and helped Mira reach the top. As Mira leant over to bring her friend up, she felt her remaining arm stretch over so slightly to reach.

Neska watched them leave, not attempting to stop them. However Mira heard her voice in her head one last time.

“*I will keep it safe here for you then, return soon*.”

Mira ignored her, held onto Denys, and kept running.

Back at the Hatch, Serinepth, Winsler, and  Integrity sat with Artis and Teb. Angelika and Allena where also there. Artis knelt down to Teb, tears starting to appear as he asked about the net. Teb told him he found it in the bottom of a well in an abandoned village.

Winsler and Integrity noticed that Teb’s hand seemed to be gripping the orb tighter and tighter. As he tried to speak again, his eye rolled back in his head as he fell unconscious. Artis looked incredibly concerned told Serinepth to take Angelika and Allena home, and then the three of them should go to his house through the Concourse.

With that, Artis scoped Teb into his arms and began to leave the Hatch. Angelika turned to Serinepth and asked what was happening. She briefly explained what little she knew, and told her and Allena they needed to go back. While Allena seemed very enthusiastic about this idea, Angelika tried to convince Serinepth to let her stay around longer.

Serinepth put her hand on Angelika’s shoulder, and said she would tell her all about it later, but it wouldn’t be safe for her to stay with them. Satisfied with the promise of gossip, Angelika agreed to go back to her room.

All the students returned to the kitchen to find Yog. They had dumped a lot of food on the ground, and had started a large fire in the corner of the room. The students watched them bring bottle after bottle of milk from the pantry, and pour it into the large cauldron suspended over the fire.

Above them, Integrity heard a hoarse, muffled  voice say, “*Thank you Mr. Billiamway for such a wonderful speech. Now moving onto just some final notes.*” Underbough’s memorial seemed to be wrapping up. She also heard them mention the fires in the Enchantment building, pinning the blame on the golems.

Meanwhile, Serinepth heard a faint voice emanating from the pantry. Listening closer she heard repeated whispers, “*Burn it, burn it, burn it…*” She walked towards the door. Eventually she blocked Yog’s path, and they asked her to move as they needed to get milk to make yoghurt. She let him pass, then slipped into the pantry. The whispering continued, though she didn’t see the source.

She asked, “*What are you trying to burn?*”

The whispers continued unchanging, though as she said the word “*Burn*”, a disembodied chorus repeated “*Burn*” back at her. She moved towards the corner and opened her mouth to speak again. As she did so the words “*Burn it*” whispered out of her mouth. Serinepth instantly clasped her hands over her mouth. Whenever she tried to speak again, her words came with the underlying whispers of “*Burn it*”.

Serinepth left the pantry and walked back to her friends. “*I think I’m possessed.*” When she left, the whispers stayed in the pantry, and her words were her own again.

Winsler ran over to Yog, causing chaos. As he reached them, they gestured to the counter, where they had assembled two hundred empty glass jars of various original uses.

Winsler asked, “*What are you doing, why is there fire?*”

“*I am creating the yoghurt, as per the recipe.*” Yog held up the recipe Winsler had given them.

“*Well first of all, I don’t think that’s how you make yoghurt. Second of all, forget the yoghurt, put the fire out, please!*”

Yog moved the cauldron aside, and put out the fire. Winsler asked them to stay with them, and to not chaos trouble.

The group decided to split up to accomplish their tasks quicker. Integrity gave Serinepth the directions to the sewers, then took Angelika and Allena back to their dormitories. Winsler and Yog went with Serinepth.

Serinepth and Winsler followed the other into the sewers, just in time to her Mira scream in pain, followed by more screams. They raced in the direction of the sound, moving closer to the Oblex chamber, and found Mira and Delnys hobbled towards them.

Mira told her friends they needed to leave. Looking at his friends, Winsler asked Yog if they could carry them both, they said they could. Serinepth and Winsler felt a presence as though they were being watched. Together they hurriedly made their way to the Concourse.

As Integrity walked Angelika and Allena back to their rooms, Angelika asked about the orbs. As they emerged from the tunnels, they found themselves in a crowd of other students. Looking around, she saw Bailey Blue strut towards them.

“*Ahem, where were you during Headmaster Underbough’s honours?*”

“*You we’re looking for me?*” integrity asked.

Bailey flourished a clipboard. “*I was in charge of taking attendance, of course I was looking for you*.”

Integrity said that of course she was there, she had just disguised herself due to her grief. Bailey shook his head while writing himself a note. “*Yeah we’ll see about that.*”

Integrity asked why the students weren’t in curfew, and Bailey haughtily said that if she had been at the ceremony, she would know that the campus had been opened again.

“*Ok, but if I wasn’t there, then how would o know that apparently the fire cos of no concern and the golems did it?*”

Bailey squinted, and scratched out the e note he had just written before walking away silently.

Integrity left Allena and Angelika in the crowd before running towards the Concourse. After a few minutes, she saw her friends emerge heading towards her. They decided to bring Delnys with them, and asked the Concourse member to open a door to Artis’ house.

They walked through the plain wooden door into the Artisian cottage. They stood in a small, semi-closed foyer with surety shoes, behind which was the main room of the house. On the back deck, Artis sat with his head in his hands, watching over an unconscious Teb. Hanging in the foyer was an ornate portrait of Artis and an elven woman.