Episode 191 - 500ml of Aromatic Sweat

## Synopsis

The students woke early in the morning to meet with Crowe. They arrived at the greenhouses, finding their headmaster walking around inside. Next to him was a large golem in a golden robe with a golden crystal. As the students entered, Crowe did not turn to greet them, instead continuing to walk as an awkward silence grew. The students whispered amongst themselves about if he knew they were there, making bird noises to attract his attention, all the while Crowe just looked at and prodded various flowers. Integrity let out a loud *"caw"*. Crowe smiled, but continued to ignore them.

At last Serinepth spoke. *"Ahem, good morning, Headmaster Crowe."*

Crowe nodded to the golem, then smirked at the students. *"Good morning students, I am glad that you found me right as planned. Just give my golem associate one moment.*"

The crystal on the golem began to glow, and Serinepth felt a small pulse of magic emanating from it.

Crowe continued to walk, though his footsteps where muffled. *"Mr Horsewrangler brought to my attention that the four of you—or at least you Miss Sinderman—wanted to speak with me."*

*"Yes, that is correct. As you know, some of our possessions and comrades were not brought to us after we got back from Troisle, and I wanted to know where they are and if we can have them back now."*

*"Well, your possessions, which you left inside of my town. I've done you the favour of bringing them back for you, after you had disappeared on an internship where I brought you into a very secure town that I do not let many outsiders from my company into. You disappeared—if you recall—for two weeks, so I view it as a kindness that I returned your things alongside mine, and yes I can return your other items to you, your luggage and small presents, yes I can do that no worries. Is that all this meeting is about?"*

Mira asked, *"Well we're super appreciative of that, really. But we also had one of our friends with us, would you happen to know where she is, because Ala Algrim asked me to take care of her and it's pretty important?"*

*"So I'd heard, yes. You're speaking, I believe, of the disgraced Angelika Lindeman, correct?"*

Serinepth glared at Crowe. *"Just 'Angelika Lindeman'."*

Mira agreed, *"Yeah disgraced probably wouldn't be the first thing I would— but yeah."*

*"Of course. She is safely under my... watchful eye, or extended eye I should say. If you don't mind me asking—as I do think I have some right to know—why exactly do you bring an unconscious girl so far north with you, and then abandon her?"*

Mira said, *"The abandonment wasn't really by choice. We went into the catacombs, and... Well the reason is because, basically I Revivified somebody, because one of the outside— Well you know how it's dangerous outside Troisle, and I brought somebody back, and they were like 'Oh we have to go to the catacombs', and then we got trapped in there."*

*"That doesn't answer the question of why you brought Angelika Lindeman to my town. Why is she under your supervision, Mira Marchand? There was a strange rumour I had heard, and I didn't quite believe it, and then you brought her along with you, and I am so curious as to how you would explain it."*

*"Well, she was in a coma, and she was in the Infirmary for quite a while, and Ala Algrim was there and she asked me to y'know, make sure everything in the school was ok—"*

*"As a steward of sorts, I've heard."*

*"Yes, and basically she looked at Angelika and was like 'Well you have to do something about her because no one else is claim her and she's just sitting there.' So it just fell to me. I don't think anybody else would have done anything if I hadn't."*

*"Hm, how altruistic. So the Lady of the Woods has no interest in this girl or her wellbeing?"*

*"I mean, I just know the duty I was given. I don't know what else there is to it."*

Crowe stared back at Mira. *"If you're going to lie to me about conversations that happened on my campus while I've been headmaster, Mira Marchand, I suggest you rethink it."*

*"Ok, fair enough. I wasn't really trying to lie, I just... ok. She basically said that I had to take care of her because nobody else would, or it didn't matter to her, and so... Yeah, I mean her family doesn't want her, nobody else can. So yeah, she's not going to be anyone else's responsibility but mine."*

*"But why look after her? I mean outside of this room I don't think very many people in the world would blink twice if she disappeared tomorrow."*

On hearing this, Serinepth spoke. *"I'm one of them. Part of the reason why I started this meeting—"*

*"Yes, I'm sure her sister is another. But Mira Marchand, why does it fall on you to look after this girl, and why have you taken such keen interest in protecting her? Would it not be smarter to—I don't know—pawn her off onto someone with more resources, better capability to actually look after the girl? Maybe bring her back from whatever struck her into this state? If I could tell you that Angelika Lindeman is in excellent hands, I'm just curious as to why you need more than that?"*

*"Well I've been able to talk to her, while she's comatose. I don't fully know what's going on with her, but it seems like whatever's happening, she's been having some really scary experiences, and I've sort of been guiding her through it. And I don't know if she knows what happened to us, or if she's ok in there, and... That's sort of where we've been at."*

*"Hm. Now, scary experiences. I'm not a medical afficionado, but to my understanding, when someone is rendered unconscious for weeks—almost a full season at this point—they aren't normally experiencing anything quite so dramatic, it is more just a physical ailment. So what's going on with her?"*

As Mira struggled for words, Winsler said, *"I don't think we should have any right to tell you anything more than that, unless you start telling us some stuff that you've done. Isn't that how it works? You are a businessman after all aren't you, Crowe? I don't think it's right, or fair, for us to continue to tell you stuff that you're prodding for, without telling us something that you've done, or information that we want."*

Crowe smiled at him. *"By all means, I'm very willing to exchange information with you. I was hoping that telling you she was safe and in good hands would be enough to tell me what's going on so that I might be able to do something about it. But if you want any other information—"*

*"Clearly you're asking for other reasons besides the just wellbeing of Angelika. However I have a question for you, Crowe."*

*"You wound me. Yes, what questions do you have?"*

*"Why did you do it?"*

*"Take Angelika Lindeman on and—"*

*"No. Why did you do it? Why did you off our golem friend? Why did you do it?! What was the purpose of doing so?!"* Winsler's voice became louder, and angrier, as he continued.

*"Yes, Osgool—"*

Winsler yelled, *"Why were they in Troisle, in pieces, on a table?!"*

*"I am headmaster of Wildcliff, School of the Arcane. Those two golems, one of whom has disappeared under mysterious circumstances to this day following the death of Headmaster Underbough, may he rest in peace"—*Crowe rolled his eyes—*"Ever since then, those golems have been viewed by the council as somewhat of a danger. I, with full backing of my other councillors, administrators I should say, took the golem Ari with me to Troisle—or rather sent it ahead of me—for it to be dissected so that I could understand the magic which created it—"*

*"You had no right to do that! You killed them!"*

*"Every single piece of them could be restored to working condition, I assure you."*

*"I don't believe you."*

Mira asked, *"But you knew, that they weren't dangerous? I'm sure you did."*

*"I was under the impression—as much as anyone else—that they were responsible for a fire in the Enchantment Tower, and the death of Headmaster Underbough. Do you have information that I don't regarding this? Because I would love to know. I mean I just told you, I brought the golem with me Winsler Wallaby, with the express purpose of figuring out how to create my own. You and your friend, Kurt Orlain, were so gracious as to provide me more information on the subject, and Mr Orlain even stuck around to show us how to do it."*

*"And I did it with the intention that it would be used for a reasonable and good purpose!"*

*"And it has been, I assure you—"*

*"I don't believe you! I've seen how these golems act, I— I— They're not the golems that we knew! This is not right. I don't care if you're the headmaster of Wildcliff, or the mud in my farm. What you did was not right!"*

Crowe's voice grew colder. *"You might be overstepping your position—"*

*"I don't think I'm overstepping at all. I think I've sat in this one spot the entire time, and have not moved."*

Serinepth put her hand one Winsler's shoulder as he continued his rant. *"We have been through things that you would even comprehend—"*

*"Oh I'm sure. Now Mr Wallaby, would it be agreeable for you that I have my artificers at Troisle rebuild the golem and send them back to campus."*

*"Yes!"*

*"If you can assure that they are not dangerous, if you can tell me anything anything of the circumstances by which Professor Underbough died, I would love to know it, and clear their name gladly—"*

*"In regards to Ari the golem—"*

*"Stop! I trust you in so far as your young golem, Yog, has been enrolled in this school. I trust they are not inherently dangerous. I would not create these golems if I believed them to be dangerous. I was operating under the assumption that this one, for some unknown reason, had some sort of violent bend to it. If you can assure me, if you can prove to me, and tell me what actually happened to Headmaster Underbough, I would be glad to use the information you and Mr Orlain provived, the tutelage Mr Orlain provided to my artificers, and I would gladly have them reassemble the golem known as Ari, and send them back to campus."*

Mira said, *"At the very least, we can tell you that the fire in the Enchantment buildling had nothing to do with the golems, because we showed everybody the pebbles that our friends all got turned into. It was the same thing that was responsible for that. We know because we fought it."*

*"And the death of the former headmaster? Was that this demon's doing as well?"*

Integrity agreed. *"Something of that sort."*

Serinepth asked, *"Didn't they interview the spirit of Underbough anyway? Wasn't that already something taken care of, to show that—"*

*"That happened, yes it did. And yet we're still at this point. You can imagine how unhelpful the man was."*

Integrity said, *"All we can do is assure you that it is not the golem's fault."*

*"Do you know anything more on this matter?"*

*"This school has some ominous things within it, and we don't know a lot, but you just have to trust us."*

*"I just have to trust you? Does this by any means have anything to do with, oh what's it called*"—Crowe tapped his chin as he pretended to think—*"What was it called again? Oh, the ancient empire of Sheora. Does it have anything to do with that?"*

Mira blurted out, *"How do you know about Sheora?"*

Crowe laughed. *"People outside of this school can know things, you understand that. Beyond that I know that you have some apparent knowledge of it just due to all of the messages that you sent on your sending slates. Of course those are my property, and I read through everything you said, speaking of Sheora and other things. So, one more time, is there any more information about the death of Headmaster Underbough you can provide me to clear the name of those older generational golems. I know there's terribly scary things underneath our feet, but I'm asking for clarification, for knowledge, of what you know. If you want me to tell you things frankly and openly, I would only ask that you do the same for me."*

Winsler told him, *"He was murdered by a snake."*

*"I see, and that's it?"*

*"No, not just any snake. A snake using another body in order to do so."*

*"Hm. Was it a woman?"*

Mira asked, *"How did you know?"*

*"We interviewed the ghost, did you forget that bit?"*

*"So you do know the golems didn't do it!"*

*"The story we were told by Headmaster Underbough, is that an unknown woman was found on campus—by the golems, purportedly—who brought the woman to his office, and the golems stood by when she killed him."*

Integrity said, *"If that's the case, then yes, it was a woman that killed Crowe."*

*"A snake though, you say. Interesting. Perfect, that answers my question. I— Young Mr Wallaby, I apologise terribly for this misunderstanding. I will send word to my artificers in Troisle immediately, and I am sure they will get started on it as soon as they have finished dealing with a couple of... inky terrors, I think is the correct word to use, which were left behind in my town. To my understanding that was also all of you, right?"*

Mira shook her head. *"Not really our fault, it was one of the vendors you hired to come to the school. They gave us tattoo's and didn't tell us that they would come to life and start attacking people."*

*"Very well, very well."*

*"And what about Angelika? Are you going to give me back Angelika? Look, do you think I'm trustworthy, do you think I can take care of her? Because I can."*

Crowe thought for a moment. *"I can give you the key for where she's being kept, and instructions on how to get there. It can be up to you whether you want to leave her there, or take her back with you and slump her in a bathtub for the rest of her life."*

*"We're going to fix her, that's the plan. We don't know how, but it's one thing to just take care of someone in a coma, it's another to find solutions and we're going to find solutions."*

Crowe sighed. *"I think that, unless you had any other business with me, I only have a small question left for the four of you, which is just another matter of clarification. So you said that you were gone, and had gotten lost or something of the sort in the catacombs, yes?"*

The students agreed.

*"So why is it that after you all went missing, the giants in Troisle died? There was few of them remaining, so I didn't expect them to... I don't know, I expected to have their work for at least the next twenty years or so, but just one morning we found them all dead. Dead in their beds."*

Integrity asked, *"Did they at least die peacefully?"*

*"I have to imagine, I wasn't there for it."*

Mira said, *"We don't think giants die in the same way as you or me. I think it's a cycle situation. If they died here I think they were reborn somewhere else."*

*"And how do you come to that conclusion, Mira Marchand?"*

*"Well that's what Graist told me after I brought him back, that it doesn't normally work like that."*

*"So your friend Graist is still alive? The sleigh-man if I recall."*

*"The same thing happened to him, we think. It sort of looked like he died, but I think he's just a different type of giant now, somewhere else in the world. I'm surprised they never told you that."*

*"They're very mysterious about certain things in Troisle, and it was our agreement that they could keep their small mysteries to themselves, as well as their catacombs free of any non-giants. Fascinating. Well, if that's everything?"*

Winsler was staring daggers at Crowe, while Serinepth was just relieved they could see Angelika again.

Integrity asked, *"You happen to see a blue squirrel?"*

*"Did I happen to see a blue squirrel? Are you talking about the massive creature which now lurks in the catacombs beneath my city?"*

*"No, no! That one is not blue, that one is an inky thing. I'm talking about a blue, stuffed, moving squirrel with nine tails."*

*"No, I can't say that I ran into it, I'm afraid. Maybe it snuck back into your things and is waiting for you all right now, that would be a happy coincidence, wouldn't it."*—Crowe shook his head, pulled a small golden key from his robes and handed it to Mira—*"You can find her in the basement of the Alchemy Department in room 05. If that's all, I wish the rest of you a great semester, and Mira Marchand, I wish you great luck in your elections. I'm sure you will get so much support."*

The students left the greenhouse. As they walked to the Alchemy Department, Mira pulled out a notepad and wrote: *" 'Altruistic' - Headmaster Crowe"*.

Outside the greenhouses, the birds continued their endless screeching. Winsler apologised for getting ahead of himself out of frustration over Ari, the rest of SWIM tried to comfort him, agreeing that Crowe had double-crossed him and knew more than he was letting on. Serinepth worried about if he read the messages about them being on the Moon, though Mira reminded her that they never sent properly, however was annoyed he knew about Sheora.

Mira said she needed to go get Angelika, and although Serinepth offered to house her in their much larger room, Mira declined as she truly did want to watch over her, though Serinepth could of course visit whenever she wanted. Integrity offered to help Mira in any way she could, to which Mira asked if she wanted to find dirt on Bailey, potentially by breaking into his room. Serinepth was uncomfortable with such a direct method, and suggested they could use the scrying necklace instead.

They arrived at the Alchemy building. A pastel-green cloaked golem swept away the lingering snow, ignoring them completely. Inside, they descended the creaky stairs to the cramped basement. Following the narrow corrider, they found room 05, and peeked through an eye slot into the room. A poorly cushioned table stood in the centre of the dark room. The body of Angelika Lindeman lay on the table, a threadbare grey blanket draped over her, with tubes attached to her shoulders leading to a large jar in the corner of the room.

Mira opened the door, and went over to the jar. Serinepth went straight over to Angelika to see how she was doing. Mira recognized the liquid inside the jar as the aromatic sweat that had been covering Angelika earlier in her coma, and the tubes leading from her body were draining it into this jar. Mira went back to Angelika, touched her forehead, and *Messaged* her. She felt the familiar assault on her mind, and tried to apologise to Angelika for leaving her alone. Instead of a response, the image of a familiar Sheoran garden tore through her mind before disappearing. She shook Angelika's shoulder and attempted to contact her again. Serinepth asked what was wrong, and as Mira explained that Angelika wasn't responding, she saw the garden again, only this time as though from a terrace above it, and she heard a voice.

*"I'm waiting for you whenever you want to speak to me again."*

The voice was Angelika's, but her tone was far more serious than she had ever been. Mira frantically told her friends they needed to get Angelika back to her room, and to start unplugging the tubes. Integrity used her old alchemy knowledge to guide Mira, while Serinepth began wrapping Angelika in preparation for transport. Mira also grabbed the jar of sweat. As Serinepth tried to lift Angelika off the table, she found herself unable to move her at all, as if she were fastened to the table without visible restraints. She tried to *Levitate* Angelika, but the spell fizzled out with no effect. Winsler animated the table, and tried to tell it to move Angelika, but that too failed as though Angelika was abnormally heavy. Finally, Mira conjured a massive arcane hand in the form of her prosthetic, and tried to use it to push the table out of the room. Eventually, it was able to push the table into the corridor, but Mira realised she wouldn't have enough time to get her all the way back to the dormitories. Winsler had an idea, and shrunk Angelika to half her original size. Integrity picked her up, and dashed out of the room towards the dormitories.

As they entered the dorms, Angelika began growing rapidly, Integrity just managing to drop her in time before she crashed into the floor, cracking the stones. Winsler re-shrunk her, before they raced into Mira's room and put her next to her bed. As they recovered from the early-morning exercise, Angelika reverted to her normal size, the floorboards creaking under her weight.

The first classes of the day grew closer as SWIM hastily made plans to meet up to help Mira with her election. Serinepth asked if Mira would be ok with her talking to Delnys about the potion, Mira agreed but said it was probably best not to talk about her specifically before running from the room and the conversation.

Serinepth knelt beside Angelika as she whispered, *"Hey um, it's Serinepth. I don't know how Mira does this, I'm here, I want to help. We're going to help."*

SWIM headed to their classes, leaving the unconscious and sweaty Angelika alone in the room.