Episode 187 - Second Year

*"Nine towers grow along the steep cliff face, clinging to the stone. One, the Enchantment Tower, with minor scaffolding at its base. The stone behind these towers has been mined out, leaving a cavern populated by tile-roofed buildings connected by an intricate breezeway network. Near the Archives which rise up the back of the campus, a purple-barked and silver tree quivers in the slight breeze. The Evocation Field has returned to its pre-duel dull yellow colour, its surrounding viewing platforms now disassembled, and put away for the year. Snow lingers in small piles, hidden in the shadows across campus, though it melts slowly in the warm easterly breeze. Welcome back to Wildcliff, School of the Arcane."*

## Synopsis

The majority of the student body crowded outside the Dining Hall, as a tired-looking attendant posted the final exam results of the last year. Nearby, Serinepth Sinderman, Winsler Wallaby, Integrity Idleberry, and Mira Marchand, noticed an intriguing figure standing by. They had a pastel blue cloak with a gold trim covering their six-foot form, a brass plate visible at their neckline, and a single blue sapphire sat in place of a crystal ball.

Winsler had left his hat back in his dorm, letting his slightly less curly hair flow freely. His blue Wildcliff robes were much better fitting, and he no longer wore his traditional striped leggings in favour of more purple poofy pantaloons, with beige socks and shoes. He stood back, waiting nervously to see his exam results.

Integrity's hair had turned half-black, half-red. Under her Wildcliff robes she wore cargo pants and a crop top, with her jade dagger strapped to her belt in the holster that Kurt gave her. Instead of boots, she wore shiny leather sneakers. She was also looking for her results, hoping for a better grade than last time.

Serinepth's hair was tied back in a bun. Her scales shone brightly, contrasted against her tanned skin. She wore the boots given to her by Amorette Idleberry, and a loose shirt, suitable for exercise. She scanned the crowd, trying to find Corrina and Phillip. She found Corrina, and tried to signal that she wanted to talk with her. Corrina met her gaze briefly before looking back to the exam results.

Mira still wore her hair in a double-halo braid. Her snake-arm and fake-arm were both still intact. she wore a button-up, moss green shirt, dark grey trousers, light green socks, and yellow oxford shoes. She tried to seem nonchalant, but also desperately hoped her exam results were better this time around.

The attendant finished putting up the first year exam results, and the students moved in closer to see how they did.

**First Years:**

1. Winsler Wallaby (100.00%)
2. Kurt Orlain (99.33%)
3. Serinepth Sinderman (99.27%)
4. Corrina Lindeman (99.23%)
5. Veldon Deeplake (99.22%)
6. Integrity Idleberry (97.16%)
7. Murundeen Pure-bone (97.15%)
8. Mira Marchand (97.14)
9. Erior Ungtar
10. Lucia Evenwood
11. Phillip Maisel
12. Allena Hollyfield (63.00%)
13. Gennal Firahel
14. Silvilax Light-Sun
15. Aira Allaro (44.00%)
16. Angelika Lindeman (00.00%)

SWIM immediately started hugging and congratulating each other as they realised they all made the top half of the results. Mira looked over to the third year results, finding Delnys Raethran in the top spot (99.98%), followed by Zara Greybeard, Bailey Blue, Penny Royal, and Parker Astley. At the bottom of the list was Ainsley Woodley with 92%.

As they started to head towards the Dining Hall before class, Mira heard Bowan Blueblight giving a tour of the campus to four new students, plus Yog:

* A very young, but very muscular half-orc
* A short, scrawny orc looking very excited
* A pale, ginger halfling wearing a newsies cap and patched-up trousers, also looking excited
* A red tiefling with purple hair and sparkles in their eyes

SWIM walked over to Bowan. They looked over to Mira and said, *"Oh hi Mira, how are you doing?"*

*"Yeah good, you're crushing it!"*

*"Oh, before I forget, there's an event planning committee today, like 7pm tonight. It's important so be there."*

*"You got it."* She turned to the new students. *"Hey, welcome! By the way, my name is Mira, if any of you are interested in getting all involved around campus, I can't recommend the event planning committee enough, so if you guys want to come to a meeting, you know feel free. It's in whatever classroom it's in, and yeah feel free to come, it's a really chill time."*

As Mira looked over the new students, she realised she knew one of their faces. He had grown since Nebulosis, but Kormet was now a student of Wildcliff.

The students all happily hugged and reunited with their old friend, and he told them about what happened after they left. He had stayed with Oshin and helped run the inn, when a professor came round asking for him. They made him do a magic test, and also brought a few other students from Nebulosis. He said he would love to come to the event planning meeting.

Yog walked over to Winsler. *"Hello creator!"*

*"Hi Yog, how you doing?"*

*"I am doing well, I was shown to a new room that is"—*they pointed at a golem maintenance room—*"they gave me that room to stay in. However creator, there are other golems around campus who are... They are very strange."*

*"Yeah, it seems that they might have brought more golems in from Troisle I think, after our little seminar that we had. Um, I'm assuming that they're probably gonna put you all in that one dorm?"*

*"I do not like that very much."*

*"I'm not a fan of that either."*

*"I would prefer to room with one of the other students, or even with you and the other creator, if possible."*

*"I might have to work something out about that. How about, for tonight you can stay with us, and then I'll have to go have a conversation with somebody who's in charge of all that because I'm not a huge fan of that. But oh my goodness! You're finally a student I'm so happy!"*

*"Yes! It's very exciting!"* Yog raised their arms to show off their school uniform.

Winsler offered to help with their classes if needed, and Yog showed him their schedule, which was completely full as they had signed up for every single introductory class. They agreed, and went to sit with their fellow first-years in the Dining Hall.

In this excitement, Serinepth noticed that Corrina had not come to speak with her.

The students went into the Dining Hall, finding the familiar bounty of breakfast foods. After finishing, they wandered in pairs to their first class of the day. Winsler and Mira headed to a three-hour lecture in the Zoology Department, while Serinepth and Integrity walked to their four-hour lecture in the Illusions Department. Integrity complained about the class length, while her cousing reminded her that she had seen the schedule beforehand.

Winsler and Mira arrived at the third basement of the Zoology Department, just above the Swimming Pool. They were in a cramped room with bookshelves lining the walls, a large lecture table with blackboards behind it. Next to these was a small, reinforced door with an eyehole at the top. Around them, they saw: Aira, Veldon, and Lucia. They sat in the back row, and noticed Arley sitting in a front row chair, like some kind of teaching assistant.

After ten minutes of waiting, Aira suggested they should just leave if the professor wasn't going to show up. Mira asked Arley what was happening.

*"Professor Wishbone is usually really late, so I would stay here for at least half an hour before leaving. If he's not here after half an hour, I would definitely leave."*

The students murmured, and Mira asked if anyone knew any word games. At that moment, they heard clicking from behind the metal door, as though locks were being undone. It slowly screeched open, and from the darkness emerged a small figure clad in bloody robes, a large hunting hat, and thick glasses. Under the cloak they saw bright-green skin, a long nose, and floppy ears. The goblin Professor Wishbone walked to the other side of the lecture table, and put their stuff to the side. He looked at them, sighed, and wrote '*Demonology*' on the board.

*"WELCOME, ALL OF YOU TO THE CLASS MOST ANTICIPATED IN THE ZOOLOGY DEPARTMENT. I AM PROFESSOR HORACE WISHBONE, AND YOU FIND YOURSELF IN DEMONOLOGY. THIS IS UNLIKE ANY ZOOLOGY CLASS YOU HAVE TAKEN, OR WILL EVER HAVE TAKEN."*

Winsler called out, *"Nice to meet you!"*

*"SHUT UP!"* He threw a piece of chalk at Winsler.

He took another piece of chalk from his bag. *"HAVE ANY OF YE MET WITH DEMONS. I HOPE NOT, OR ELSE YOU WOULDN'T BE HERE!"*

He wrote *'EVIL'* in big letters on the board. *"ALL DEMONS AT THEIR HEARTS, ARE EVIL FIENDISH CREATURES. ALWAYS TRYING TO RIP, FRIEND, YOUR FLESH FROM BONE, STEAL YOUR SOUL, AND BRING IT WITH THEM TO THE ABYSS!!!"*

Mira used her *Mage Hand* to write '*rend flesh from bone'*.

*"THE OTHER PROFESSORS AT THIS VILE SCHOOL WILL TELL YA THERE'S NEVER BEEN A DEMON SET FOOT IN THIS PLANE, BUT I TELL YE! THERE'S ONE STINKING AROUND THE SCHOOL LAST YEAR, I DON'T SMELL IT IN THESE PARTS ANYMORE, BUT I TELL YOU TRUST ME, YOU PLACE YOUR TRUST IN MY EXPERTISE IN THIS. THERE WAS A DEMON STINKING UP THESE HALLS."*

Mira leaned over to Winsler and whispered, *"His name was Underbough."*

She felt a piece of chalk smack the side of her head.

*"QUIET! WHILE YOU ARE HERE IN THIS CLASS, WE ARE EQUALS, BUT I AM FIRST AMONG EQUALS, AND YOU WILL LISTEN OR YOU WILL DIE SCREAMING BY THE END OF THIS SEMESTER!!! The one aim of this class, if you take nothing else from it, you are mortals. You are mortals, and the world of demons exists, just outside of our eyesight, always waiting to pounce on you, and steal you away to the abyss. By the end of the semester, we as a class will summon and bind a demon to our will, before—under my supervision, and of course Mr Billiamway's supervision—we will banish this fiend back to the abyss, and cleanse ourselves from any ill contract.*

*NOW! We will begin at the very start. The Blood War that has raged for eons. Everyone you have your textbooks, if you don't"—*He looked at the class—*"If you don't, please do your best to keep up."*

Professor Wishbone began his hurried scribbling on the board, continuing to rave and shout about demons while the students tried to follow along.

Meanwhile, in a very calm room on the other side of campus, Integrity and Sinderman sat on very comfortable tie-dyed cushions. Serinepth's had a green and blue spiral, while Integrity had one that looked like a rainbow butterfly with sparkles. Also in the class with them was Gennal, Silvi, and Erior. Together they sat in a semicircle around an early 30's human woman with incredibly messy hair, wearing silken pyjamas, and looking very sleepy.

*"Hello everybody, welcome to Illusions 3, Dream-Like Realities. Now I'm Professor Kagner, did I say that already? Oh who knows. In this class we're going to be examining how illusions take deep form, and very strong root, when they most closely mimic our dreams. But, the first third of the class is going to be dedicated to the research of dreams, and making sure we all have a very firm grasp of what our own dream imagery is, so we can properly imagine it, and create it for others. So with that being said, everyone, I would like you to just take this class to just dream, sleep, and think upon our dream imagery. We can have a paper assignment due for next time, but for this class we'll just analyse our own dreams, ok everybody? Wonderful, at your own time, please just drift away."*

She sat cross-legged, and quickly fell asleep.

Integrity leaned to her cousin. *"I'm so glad I took this class Serinepth."*

*"Yeah, this is going to be interesting."*

Silvi leaned over to them and said, *"I think I'm going to ace this one quite frankly, like I don't have a great track record with classes, but I think this is the one for me."*

Serinepth asked, *"I mean if we're all going to be in this class together, maybe we can have group study times, that might help us?"*

Integrity gasped. *"Nap times!"*

*"Would that be like having a sleepover? Because I'm really down for that."*

As they talked about a possible sleepover, they noticed Erior had drifted off and was snoring gently, Gennal looked as though he was having a harder time with it.

Serinepth began to meditate, before falling asleep after a few minutes. She dreamt of Corrina, and a way to reach out to her to explain. She saw Corrina kneeling in a room that looked very similar to the classroom she was in, eyes closed, with a blueish eye pointing at Serinepth. The dream then shifted to more typical dreams with little meaning.

As soon as Integrity began hugging her cloak, she instantly fell asleep. In her dreams she saw herself as a child, being left out of playground games. She noticed that more and more black birds began crowding the roofs of the buildings, squawking '*Aye aye! Aye aye!'*, and then a quieter '*Be be! Be be!'*.

The four hours past quickly in quiet slumber, while their teammates were being screamed at. As it came to an end they packed up and prepared to go to their next class. Professor Kagner was still sleeping on the floor.

Serinepth and Integrity walked together to the Evocation Department through the breezeways. As they walked, they noticed one of the new style golems, this time with a green cloak and green crystal stood shovelling snow. Awaiting at the end of the hallway, Serinepth saw Corrina Lindeman waiting for her. As soon as she saw them she stormed over.

*"Where is my sister? Sorry I'm ambushing you, I was in Divination class and I couldn't get it out of my head that you wanted to talk to me this morning. I didn't want to talk to you this morning in front of people, so I found you. But that's besides the point, what happened to my sister, where is she? Because I tried to find her this morning in my divination class, and I couldn't, so where is my sister? Because last I know, the duels were happening, and my parents were here, and I went to check on her one day, and she just wasn't in the Infirmary anymore, so where did she go, what happened?"*

*"Ok, so, where she went during the festival. They had Mira take her—"*

*"For what, why?!"*

*"Because she couldn't go anywhere else during the... Ok so she came with us to Troisle. We are going to talk to Crowe, and get everything finished there—"*

*"Does Headmaster Crowe have my sister?"*

Integrity butted in, *"Maybe, she's lost currently."*

*"Lost currently? So you just brought her somewhere and left her there"*

Serinepth assured her, *"No, she's not lost, we know where she is. So a lot of stuff happened while we were away—a lot of stuff has been happening. I promise you she is safe, and—"*

*"If she's safe why can't I find her? I'm telling you, I was scrying you, and I can see you, and I can see you Integrity, but I cannot see my sister. So don't lie to me that she's ok."*

*"Ok, remember what condition she was in before."*

*"Yeah, I know."*

*"I have no reason to believe that she's in any more danger, we are working on a project to get her back to normal ok?"*

*"So when are you going to meet with Crowe, and find out if my sister's just..."* She gestured a morbid sign with her hands.

*"I thought that she was going to be back at the same time that— you know, Virgil was brought back as well, Virgil got left behind as well, and so I thought she would be back at the same time, she has not yet. I think that Crowe, because of her condition, might have her maybe in a new Infirmary section, in a more private sector of the school, I want to talk to him later on today if possible."*

Corrina shook her head before turning on her heels and leaving. *"Ok whatever."*

Serinepth called after her, *"I know I left and I'm sorry, but I am going to keep my promise to you."*

*"I don't care about your promises!"* Corrina turned around. *"Your family's literally traitors! Your word means nothing anymore!"* She turned back around and stormed off.

Integrity looked at her cousin. *"Serinepth, um—"*

*"No, she's right. We should go to class."*

*"This is not your fault."*

*"When it comes to the world of nobles and everything, you have to just kind of learn that whatever family does, is going to be something that you have to hold. It's not a fair thing, but I don't know, I was kind of hoping that I wouldn't have to keep dealing with that. But anyway, we're going to get her back. I'm going to get everyone out of there... We're going to be fine."*

*"I know we will, we always find a way."* Integrity squeezed Serinepth's arm.

Serinepth grabbed onto her cousin's hand. *"We should actually get to class now, I think we might be running late."*

Together they rushed to the Evocation Department. Integrity went onto the Field for her '*Magic Armaments, Armours, and How to Optimally*' with Professor Hass. Serinepth ran on of the classrooms for her '*Divine Evocations*' class.