Episode 87 - A Sight for Sore Eyes

## Synopsis

The students returned to Artis’ cottage. Walking in, they saw an ornate portrait much nicer than the rest of the house. In Sylvan, a message around the frame read, *“To my new friends Artis Artisian and Fidan Peslam, who listened to me for days, may this world bring you joy and may your minds grow everymore.”* The paining in the frame showed a much younger Artis sitting next to another elf with short auburn hair and a face covered in freckles. In the corner, a signature read “*Affelda*”.

Artis walked over to the group, and upon seeing Yog carrying a limp Delnys and Mira covered in blood, rushed over to ask what happened. He brought them to the wicker furniture on the back deck to rest. Mira briefly explained what happened in the Ascendent chamber, and Artis promised they would figure something out.

Integrity filled the group in on the details of her trip to the sewers that she hadn’t shared with Angelika nearby, confirming she had also met Neska, and that the Progenitor had told her to kill it. Artis told her not to listen to them, saying it if Neska was as powerful as she claimed, she wouldn’t be able to do it.

After a moment of thought, Mira told the group that she would tell them everything she knew about the orbs and Sheora, but then she was done. She told them about the urn with the person inside, and how Neska wanted her to take another one. She also told them that it had confessed to killing Underbough, and knew Integrity’s name.

Artis reassured the students that his house was far away from the campus, so they should be safe. Serinepth asked if she could go back to get Phillip to the Infirmary. He said that should be fine, but to hurry, he didn’t trust the campus after something had broken into his office and left a knife in a pile of ash.

Remembering more things Neska told her, Mira relayed to her friends that she had multiple humanoid bodies aside from her snake form, and that the skeleton in the tria of Reverence was an old corpse of hers. Hearing this, Artis looked over to a sleeping Teb, still clutching the Orb of Reverence. Fearing for their safety, he suggested they let the administration know as they might be able to help.

Thinking about the orbs, Mira asked Integrity if hers had reacted to Neska’s presence in some way. If the orbs were as powerful as they thought, maybe they could hurt her, or maybe she wanted them for herself. Artis told the group that he’d looked over the notes from Juanita, and she had concluded that the orbs were inert, but possessed certain properties that they couldn’t figure out how to activate.

Integrity suggested they could put their orbs together with Teb’s, to see if there was any reaction. Serinepth asked if that was such a good idea, as they had been told bringing the orbs together would be disastrous. After a few more moments of debate, she left to help Phillip.

She returned to her dorm to find Phillip collapsed outside the door. She joked about it being rude to walk out on a visit, and turned him over to see his face. His face had deep scratches, and his eyes were clouded over, looking wildly in the direction of Serinepth he said, “*I can’t see anything.*”

Serinepth held his hand, and looked closer at his eyes. They looked clouded over, with colour still faintly visible beneath a milky white haze. She helped him stand up and said she would take him to the Infirmary, and they would fix this.

They made their way across campus without interruption. Serinepth explained to the attendant that he fell into some liquid, had a fever, and had gone blind. The attendant led them to a bed, and asked what colour the liquid was. After a few more questions, he told Serinepth they would take care of it, and started to examine Phillip.

Back at Artis’ cottage, Integrity decided to try putting the orbs together. She pulled out her Orb of Progress, and Artis brought out his Orb of Might. As they moved them closer together, all three appeared to bubble, and Teb’s body seemed to tense up. As they got closer, Teb’s eyes snapped back into place, and Artis fell unconscious.

Teb looked around frantically, “*Where are we now, what’s wrong with him?*” Integrity asked if he knew what happened, and he told her he had been blacking out, and the Progenitor had been screaming at him to kill her and everyone else with an orb. He assured them he wasn’t going to do as they asked.

As Artis still lay unconscious, Integrity asked Teb if there was anything else he knew. Apart from going to the school and his friends there, he couldn’t help them. Integrity decided to put their orbs together again, and asked her friends to catch her if she fell unconscious.

As she brought the orbs closer she felt them be repelled from each other, but nothing else happened. As she touched the orbs together, she immediately fell unconscious as Winsler managed to catch her and set her gently onto the deck.

Winsler took Artis’ pulse, finding it present but very slow. He then asked Yog to do the same for Integrity, finding the same slow heartbeat.

As Mira wondered if they should move the orbs apart but Teb stopped her, saying it would pass with time and that they were having visions.

Integrity felt as though she was thrown into a pool of cold water, as she had several times before. She found herself surrounded by an oily darkness, and heard the muffled and far away sound of Artis’ speaking with the Progenitor. Eventually she fell into the familiar oily black floor with the Progenitor towering over her. Looking around she saw an apprehensive Artis in the room with her.

The Progenitor turned to her, their size oscillating between Artis’ height and her own. “*Are you real?*” Artis asked Integrity.

The Progenitor turned to him, “*Be quiet!*” They turned to Integrity and asked asked, “*What are you doing here? I haven’t called you yet*.”

Integrity tried to walk towards them on her hands, but fell over as the floor beneath her shifted and changed. This seemed to convince Artis she was real.

The Progenitor turned to Artis, “*This is the other ones I have to deal with, do you see? This is why you need to do it, I asked this one, the Horned One, to go kill it, and she won’t. You have to, please! It must be done*.”

Artis looked back to them, and refused. He wouldn’t risk his or his students lives to do their bidding.

Integrity walked closer to Artis. He continued to refuse the Progenitor’s pleas, almost as if talking down to them. In an instant their hand reached out ti touch Artis, and his body fell apart and faded into the darkness of the dream.

Now alone, the Progenitor walked over to Integrity, and again demanded to know why they didn’t kill Neska. She frustratedly asked how they expected her to kill Neska when she barely knew any magic or how to fight, she wasn’t powerful enough.

“*I could give you a way to fight, if you want*.”

“*I do not make deals with risky people*.”

As soon as she finished speaking, Integrity woke in a cold sweat. Looking around, she saw Artis looking even paler than normal, but no one else seemed to be in danger. Artis told the students they could stay at his cottage for as long as they needed, and they continued to discuss what they should do.