Episode 198 - SWIM-posium

## Synopsis

Winsler and Kalwen ran up the large staircase, followed quickly by Integrity. They soon arrived at a large set of double doors and slowly pushed them open to reveal a hallway somewhere in the school. After they left the staircase, the doors closed behind them on their own, until no entryway was visible. They crowded around a nearby window and found themselves several floors up in one of the Nine Towers of Wildcliff, able to see the rest of the campus sprawled out it in front of them.

Integrity said, *"Winsler, we need to get to my dorm room. I have a feeling that we can't let them get to the other things, the other orbs."*

*"Alright, let's get over there as fast as we can."* Winsler told Kalwen that he should go and hide somewhere, and to not take the helmet off.

The three students rushed around the tower, finding a spiral staircase leading down. They started to descend, but heard footsteps coming up towards them and saw a purple glow start to illuminate the walls. They immediately stopped and began to run back up the stairs. When they had gotten past the floor they initially started on, they stopped and peeked onto the starwell. Emerging onto the floor with the hidden door, they saw a clockwork construct – one of the Archive modrons – appear. They were cubic, with a single large eye, and a wide mouth. In their left hand they held a long, brass rapier, and in their right hand they held a glass orb with a dead rat floating inside it. Winsler and Integrity recognised this to be Ratthus. As the modron moved, the rat seemed to re-orient itself, like a compass, that guided the modron towards the hidden door.

The students ran down the staircase again, exiting into the lobby, through a set of doors, and finding themselves at the base of the Divination Tower. Kalwen left to go to a safer place, while Integrity and Winsler ran to her dorm.

Meanwhile, Serinepth and Mira were also heading towards Integrity's room, with the intent of scrying on her location. On their way many students stared at Mira, some with smiles and some with suspicion. All around, posters for the upcoming election were plastered on the walls with her, Bailey's, and Cyndra's faces, and the message,

*"Event Planning Committee Candidate Symposium.*

*Wednesday, noon, at the Dining Hall.*

*Be there if you want your voice heard."*

They continued into the courtyard with the vandalised fountain. Mira used *Dispel Magic* to erase the part of the message that read *"Don't"* to instead make it read *"Trust Mira Marchand"*. Afterwards, they ran up to Integrity's room, finding the door open. The inside of the room had been turned inside out from someone searching for something. They both quickly searched for the orbs, Mira checked her boots, while Serinepth looked in her trunk. The pouch that normally contained the two Orbs of Reverence and Might was empty. They both realised just how dire the situation was, and Serinepth began to scry to find out where Integrity was.

Integrity raced up the stairs to see her door open. *"No, no, no, no. Oh my gosh no."*

Serinepth said, *"Oh, she's outside."*

Integrity burst into the room, seeing her friends, and asked if the orbs were still there. She looked through her trunk, finding nothing.

Serinepth asked, *"Are you guys ok, what happened? I went to look for you and you were gone from the chapel?"*

*"Things are far worse than we think, like they're way worse,"* said Winsler.

*"Like, how bad are we talking?"* asked Mira.

*"Well, we just escaped from the horrible evil terror place that we were held in, there was a big old floating brain that might be the whole Lady of the Deep that is responsible for all this. We also learned that the Lady of the Deep and Henrietta are the exact same person, and we found one of the other founder's brains imprisoned there for who knows how long, and revealed her machinations to us, and we also saw Bailey and his companion there, they got plunged into the brine pool–"*

*"So he's working for her?"*

*"Yeah. There was some sort of pact forming there, I think the whole warlock thing is probably super official now."*

Integrity got up from her trunk. *"Bailey is now doing Henrietta's bidding, and Henrietta knows about the orbs because she was able to read my mind, Henrietta knows about the Progenitor and all of that. They now wield all three, and they seem to not be afraid to open the Hatch."*

Winsler agreed. *"That seems to be their end goal, that seems to be what she wants to do."*

Serinepth reminded them. *"I mean they don't have all the orbs."*

*"Ferimel is still in Isathil right?",* asked Mira.

*"Yeah, but if she's able to read my mind, she would probably know about that, where Ferimel is. So if she needs to look for him, she knows–"*

*"She could get Bailey to go after him."*

*"Exactly."*

As they talked, Mira heard a voice in the back of her mind whisper, *"Excellent news, yes."*

*"Um guys, I don't want to interrupt this conversation, but I'm pretty sure Henrietta's listening to us right now."*

Winsler asked if they had any gold, explaining that the helmets they were wearing blocked them off from the Network. His mind then drifted to Integrity's lead sheath that no longer held the jade dagger. *"I could Fabricate that into a circlet... Mira, are you ok with possibly getting a little bit of lead poisoning in exchange for protection for your, you know, mind?"*

*"Yeah that seems like a reasonable trade off."*

Winsler grabbed the sheath, much to Integrity's indignation, and told the others that Bailey now also had the dagger. He began to form it into a circlet while the rest of SWIM discussed plans for beating Bailey. Mira suggested that they could make more circlets and give them out at the debate, to try and limit the number of people The Lady of the Deep could look into. Winsler said that he probably wouldn't be able to make many more circlets, but Kurt might if they found the materials. He passed Mira the finished circlet, and as she put it on, silence fell across her mind.

*"Ah, that feels so nice."*

*"Now, do not take that off. Because as soon as you do, she'll know where you are, and she'll be able to read all your thoughts again. Serinepth are you ok, are you Networked or anything?"*

*"I actually haven't– I mean there was a moment when I was feeling a little bit woozy, but I haven't had any Network connection happening."*

*"Alright, I'll keep that in mind. If anything starts happening then we'll have to get something for you right away, but this is the best solution that we have for now so we just need to spend our time wisely."*

Mira asked, *"Are we strong enough to go up against the Lady of the Deep? I mean you guys saw her, we didn't."*

Winsler thought. *"Uh, I mean she has giant tentacles and not just the giant brain so..."*

Integrity said, *"I think she killed Jakov."*

They tried to think of solutions, with Mira suggesting they could poison the water she was suspended in. After a moment, they decided to focus on finding Bailey, and the election. They needed to make sure he couldn't do anything else for the Lady of the Deep. Integrity told them that she wanted to try and get Bailey to turn on his patron, like she had with the Progenitor. Winsler suggested that one of the circlets might block their connection enough for him to think straight for a moment. Mira disagreed, saying that whatever pact he had made probably started long before then, and that their focus should be on retrieving the orbs. Whatever the outcome, they agreed that they would need to watch Bailey carefully at the symposium in case he tried anything.

Winsler went back to his dorm, finding Kurt at his desk working on a new project. It looked like a large metal rook, filled with wires, metal, and gems. Kurt was hunched over, looking incredibly sleep deprived, as he carefully slotted a gem into the centre of this machine. Winsler walked over to the desk, slamming his hand repeatedly against it to get his attention. Kurt ignored him until the gem was fully in place, then sat back and let out a sigh of relief.

*"That could have gone– That could have exploded on us, I need you to know that."*

*"Why are you dealing with– Never mind, I need your help, it's very important. It's probably the most important thing ever that I've asked you."*

Kurt looked nervous. *"Uh, ok, what is it?"*

*"It's probably extremely boring and simple for you to do, but I need you to make brass circlets so we can hand them out at the symposium that's gonna happen in like and hour. How many can you make?"*

*"In an hour?"*

*"Yeah, we're gonna be handing them out as like little gifts and stuff."*

*"Well do you need like different sizes or–"*

*"One size fits all, it doesn't matter."*

*"I mean, I could probably pump out like twenty, twenty-five–"*

*"That's good enough."*

Kurt looked towards the foot of their beds, where the rest of the brass pile they had accumulated still sat. *"Twenty, maybe thirty, I don't know. We'll see how– I'm kind of tired Winsler honestly."*

Winsler reached up, grabbed the sides of Kurt's face, and pulled him closer. *"You're always tired, that's never stopped you before! You're Kurt Orlain, you can do this!"*

*"Ok, yeah, I'm great, I've done so much better. It's just circlets, I can do– I can get– I can crunch through this, no problem."*

Kurt got up and grabbed scraps of brass. Winsler told him to bring the completed circlets the Dining Hall at the start of the symposium. Kurt also told him that Yog had stopped by, talking about helping out around campus. Winsler thanked him, and left. As the time of the debate approached, Mira wandered near the Dining Hall, campaigning and talking to students as they came by. Serinepth stood nearby, looking for any suspicious activity. She recognised Efrosyni from the Hedrick's Society and *Messaged* Mira to say, *"HSE meeting attendee."*

As soon as she sent the message, Efrosyni's eyes snapped over to Serinepth as though she had screamed at her, before she quickly averted her gaze again. Mira looked over in time to see this and gave Serinepth a thumbs up, as well as trying to signal not to send any more *Messages*. Serinepth understood and went back to watching the crowds. Efrosyni walked over to Mira, looking exhausted, and wished her luck with the debate. Mira thanked her, and asked if she was doing ok. She cleared her throat and said,

*"I'm doing great today, just a lot of stress from setting everything up in such a short time. I just didn't expect an election this year."*

*"Oh yeah, totally. It's really busy for you, I get it. Hey, I just wanted to say thank you for helping set everything up, my friend Winsler's going to be handing out little jewellery items as a little campaign gift thing–"*

*"What!?"* Efrosyni's focus was suddenly completely on Mira. *"You can't do that, it's not allowed."*

*"Oh, I was just going to say I think you should take one. Hey, do you want to lie down–"*

*"No I don't need to lie down. We need to run the symposium and get it over with Mira. I said good luck to you, good luck."*

She pushed past Mira and rushed into the Dining Hall, where people were moving tables around and setting up a stage for the debate. Mira went over to Serinepth and said that the Network was probably messing with her head, and to try and get a circlet on her head. Integrity was inside the Dining Hall, helping set up the stage, and noting all the exits. Several green-crystal golems, along with Arley and Bowan, were also setting up the stage. She noted a side door was the only proper exit aside from the main doors. She wandered over the the stage, and for a brief moment all eyes were off her. She slipped underneath the stage to burst out in case of trouble.

Mira continued talking to students, until the familiar figure of Cyndra Sunfire appeared beside her, looking much more put together than usual. Accompanying her was Yog. Cyndra put out her hand and asked, *"How's it going today Mira?"*

Mira shook her hand. *"Not gonna lie, it's been a pretty crazy day, but that's ok I'm super prepared for the symposium. How're you doing?"*

*"I've been doing great, I got a great night's sleep. I've recruited an assistant of my own to help me on these matters."*

Yog said, *"Hello."*

*"Woah Yog, you're in Cyndra's– That's so cute I love it!"*

*"Yes, I was asked yesterday night if I would like to help with these things and join the Event Planning Committee as an aide."*

*"Oh you're going to be on the committee? That's sick!"*

Cyndra said, *"Yes, Yog will be joining me and will help me out in areas where I need extra guidance."* — She tapped the large binder she was holding — *"We went over a whole thing last night, we've got a lot of ideas ready to go here. How are you, you seem prepared?"*

*"Yeah, hey, good luck. Um, Cyndra I just wanted to warn you, I think that Bailey might be putting out attack ad's–"*

*"You mean like the message on the fountain? So blatant."*

*"I know I know. But I don't know if he's going to be putting out any against you sometime soon either, but I just wanted to give you a heads up about that because its– I'm just not a fan of that kind of thing, it's not very sportlike and all that."*

*"I agree. The only thing I have to worry about I guess are there were a few incidents last year and the year before that put me in detention and such forth, but I don't have any big academic misdemeanours you know what I mean?"*

*"Yeah it's just detention."*

*"I don't know what the fountain thing was about you, you two seem like you have a huge– like a ton of bad blood between you two though."*

*"He's just a dick. But yeah I don't know what he could even think of, but just be careful."*

*"Of course. Good luck yourself, Mira."*

*"Hey, no sweat I got this, good luck."*

Cyndra walked into the Dining Hall. Yog apologised to Mira, saying they joined Cyndra because she had asked first, and that they would have helped her if she'd asked. Mira assured them it was fine, and joked that it would be a different problem if they had joined Bailey. Yog agreed, thinking they would be disowned by Kurt and Winsler if he did, then followed Cyndra inside.

As the time for the debate approached, Winsler joined with Serinepth and Mira as they went over the plan again, Integrity was nowhere to be seen. Mira went to the side of the stage, where three podiums had been set up along with a chair for a moderator. She stood with the other committee members, and Whitney Tremors walked up to her, wishing her and then Cyndra good luck. Next to them, Efrosyni continued to clear her throat to the point of obnoxiousness. Outside, Winsler and Serinepth watched as a slow and sleepy Kurt dragged over a box of circlets. He mumbled that he'd made thirty-two of them, then asked if they were free and if Serinetph wanted them. Winsler told him they were in fact free, and Serinepth did take one. It was a plain brass circlet that could bend to fit her head very easily. She thanked Kurt, saying he did a great job, and suggested that he go get some sleep. He handed the box to Serinepth and shambled off back to his room. The two of them entered the Dining Hall and quietly began passing the circlets out. They were able to give out roughly twenty of them before the symposium began.

Efrosyni cleared her throat again and stood on the stage. *"Hello everybody, and welcome to this year's candidate symposium for the event planning committee. I'm glad to see so many wonderful faces turned out to this wonderful event. We'll be hearing from three different candidates for event planning committee president this year, we'll be hearing about their platforms, we'll be letting them speak between themselves for a little bit to debate their issues, and then after that point we'll be opening the floor to questions from everyone here if you do have any curiosities tucked away. We hope that everyone will stay for the entire event, we hope that all of you will heed these words with... You'll heed these words with open ears and on Sunday when it's time to vote, you will come and vote for whoever you deem fit to run the event planning committee. Thank you everyone."*

There was a low clap as she walked back to and sit in her chair before continuing. *"Our first candidate present today, Miss Cyndra Sunfire in her third year."*

There was a louder clap as Cyndra walked onto the stage, binder under her arm, and took her place at the far podium.

Next, Efrosyni said, *"Next will be the second year, Miss Mira Marchand running as a candidate."*

Mira stood up and walked onto the stage, waving and smiling. Winsler and Serinepth clapped loudly from the back of the room amid the rest of the polite applause.

*"Um, and I believe we are still"* — Efrosyni coughed again — *"I believe we're waiting for our current event planning committee president. I believe he's a bit bust this morning, but uh, he'll be joining us in a second."*

As soon as she finished speaking, the doors creaked open, and a horribly dishevelled looking Bailey Blue walked into the Dining Hall. His eyes were sunken, hair and clothes were a mess, though any trace of tentacle scars across his face and arms had been hidden. *"My apologies Efrosyni, I am right here. Sorry for taking so long, it was a busy night, and morning, it was a busy morning."* He rushed to take his place on stage, and Efrosyni continued.

*"As I was saying, our current event planning committee president and final candidate, Mr Bailey Blue in his fourth year of study."*

People clapped as Bailey climbed the stage to the final podium. He rested his hands on it and took a deep breath. He looked at Mira, grinned, and the symposium began.