Episode 103 - A Flame-Drawn Moth

## Synopsis

The students went to the kitchen to grab food. Serinepth tried to comfort Mira, and said she was a Delra stan. Mira thanked her and said she was a Phillinepth stan.

While there, Serinepth broke the news to her friends that she couldn’t be around them when her parents arrived for the Autumn’s End festival. She said they were very set in their ways, and privately held bigoted views about non-human races. She believed that if they knew the truth, they would pull her out of the school, and have even more control of her life.

Her friends reassured her that they had her back, and they would still be together to fight kids and mock her parents. Serinepth teared up and thanked them, and Mira started a group hug.

After a moment they heard the shattering of glass from downstairs, and Mira heard the conversation between Indumati and her students stop. Worried for Elrich, Mira suggested they see what happened in the basement. As they reached the bottom, they saw the locked door on the left of the hallway was open. They looked in to find a corridor with a sharp bend at the end, and dancing multicoloured lights reflecting on the wall.

Mira cautiously entered the room. Looking in she found Elrich sitting and staring in a plain chair in a small stone room. In front of him was a small plinth, with something resembling an oil lantern sitting on top. Inside the lamp were shifting ribbons of multicoloured light, reflecting on the walls. A wine stain on the wall and a broken bottle seemed to be the source of the shattering noise.

Integrity suggested they leave, as this was clearly a personal matter. Mira asked if he was ok, he asked what they were doing there. After saying they heard something break they wanted to check he hadn’t hurt himself, he said he wouldn’t do that, and that he regretted telling them to invite Artis. He assured them it wasn’t their fault and that they could leave when they wanted. Mira asked if Delnys would be ok with school, and he angrily told them she would be fine, and to leave.

SWIM quietly went back upstairs, finding the library and lounge doors open. Feliz was in the lounge, cleaning and looking very tired and stressed. I’m the library, Indumati, Ainsley, and Zara were silent and also seemed very stressed. Winsler started looking through the books, and found a small, leather-bound book titled “*Concept of Immortality*”. Skimming through, he found instructions on how to make a phylactery, an essential item to become a lich.

Integrity found a constellation chart, and began looking for her birth date. She found it, and exclaimed that a famous constellation (“*The Stone Dragon*”) was in the sky. The third years looked unsettled by how normally SWIM was acting given the circumstances. Mira asked Ainsley and Zara how they were, and Ainsley replied that they were ok as the bad news didn’t directly affect them. Indumati suggested Mira visit Delnys, and asked where Elrich was. Mira told her he was sitting in the basement, and she went home.

After Ainsley and Zara confirmed that she should talk to Delnys, Mira went to her room. Serinepth and Winsler went to braid Artis hair. When Mira reached Delnys’ room, she knocked to find a concerned Penny and a very upset Delnys. Penny left, saying the two should talk.

Mira sat on Delnys’ bed, who apologised for how the evening went and how she’d been treating Mira. Delnys said she knew her father had a problem with money, but didn’t think it was as bad as it was. Mira assured her that all of SWIM were there if she needed to talk. They finally talked about what happened with the Neska fight, and Mira promised to tell Delnys everything that happened.

She spent a few hours recapping all the events that took place since the first visit to the Hatch. Winsler made the lich book return itself to the library, and the other students went home, taking Artis with them. At the end of the night, Delnys admitted she didn’t think that much had happened. Mira told her she was trying to leave it behind her, and Delnys asked if they wanted to try being together. Mira panicked and started rambling, in the middle of which Delnys kissed Mira, who happily returned it.