Dreadlords Death Lotto

[Lumen]

Lumen shrugged and positioned herself to the door on the left. She always viewed herself as a protector. A shield. Might as well take the brunt of whatever came from this one. Nodding once over her shoulder to Caeso and Kristen to time it right. A stollen look to Zinnia for courage, she opened the door on the left.

Every muscle tense and ready for anything.

 

[Zinnia]

With no other course of action available, Zinnia prepared to absorb the brunt of whatever blasmight come her way and stepped alongside Lumen.

 

[Everleigh Ebersol]

When the initiates would open the door, their fates were sealed.

As for those on the door of the left, they would be met with the sight of Everleigh sitting on the floor, leaning against a weapon rack. For those who had chosen the right door, they were also met with the Everleigh as well, sitting on the floor, leaning against a large wooden box.

“Think fast!” They shouted in unison, throwing out a small sack.

For those on the left, the sack was filled with more of the wooden tokens. For those on the right, they would be given a sack filled with more of the summoned poisonous snakes and scorpions. Regardless, both sets of initiates would have a few seconds to handle the sack being tossed at them.

The Everleigh on the right disappeared.

As for what was more important, Everleigh had been found, and with a shit-eating grin, she stood up. She strode towards Lumen and Zinnia and held up two wooden boxes and shook them so whatever was inside could be heard.

“Can’t one of you guys sense heat and temperature?” Everleigh asked with a raised brow, somehow maintaining her confidence despite the fact that she looked more tired than Proctor Palahniuk. “Doesn’t matter, though. Alright, who’s ready for the last puzzle?”

She heard Proctor Palahniuk groan in the background. A second or two of silence and then another groan of annoyance, this one noticeably further away. Everleigh frowned and looked at the two boxes in her hands.

“Maybe we can cut this part short. Forget the boxes.” She tossed them over her shoulder. And looked over at the initiates. Only four left? Not nearly enough to continue on with her game anyways. She sighed, perhaps she had overdid it. And there was that mess with the dorm door that needed to be fixed and cleaning up behind the stables… “Let’s decide on the winner. Winner gets to go back to sleep and miss their first period with Proctor Goetsch. The other three will help me in cleaning up.” Not that Everleigh wanted to help clean up, the arcane fatigue settling in deep within her bones.

Even with Proctor Palahniuk reluctantly giving her some magic, she was low.

“You guys want to do it with who has the most coins? Who had the best ideas? The MVP? What’s gonna be the thing to mark the winner?”

Kristen Pirian Lumen Zinnia

 

[Caeso Diemut]

Caeso caught the sack, merely because that is what natural reflexes were so inclined to do when faced with such immediacy. Though it likely would not have mattered much if he had let it fall, for what awaited within the sack was a horror not constrained by its confines.

Both Caeso and Kristen were thereupon beset by the creatures slithering and skittering toward them, on them, bursting into those puffs of violet haze that were anathema to any sense of good health. The haze about them was so thick with all of the explosions that for a moment they were even concealed by it. Then both came stumbling out from the purple veil, each coughing and sputtering and choking and gasping.

Caeso fell down to his hands and knees again, long ropes of mucus swinging from his nose and tethers of saliva dangling from his lips, tears ringing his wide alarmed eyes. His lungs burned. His eyes seemed to take in painful amounts of light. His ears rang in awful hypersensitivity to each and every little sound around him.

"Kress!" He coughed. "I should..." He coughed again, a series of them, deep from the depths of his lungs. "...have trusted my gut."

Lumen Zinnia Everleigh Ebersol

 

[Kristen Pirian]

Kristen went stumbling backward, swatting in vain at the haze all around her, managing to trip on Aionus-knew-what and falling flat onto her rear end and then collapsing down entirely onto her back, legs even swinging up into the air for a moment.

Her face was again a mess that the touch of her palms was powerless to remedy, just a slick mixture of bodily liquids of all kinds readily replaced from leaking orifices. That headache was now doubled in strength, pulsing as if her brain was swelling and bashing against the cage of her skull. She wheezed and gasped for air, and yet each breath burned worst than the last it seemed, such that it was altogether not unlike a desperate sailor guzzling seawater only to exacerbate his thirst.

She didn't know where Caeso was. She didn't know where Lumen and Zinnia were. But she spoke aloud, her words interrupted regularly by the fits of coughing, "Were...both doors...trapped, at least?"

Not that she wished ill on Lumen and Zinnia, but to be assured that she had gotten one, just one at least, of these tests right. Must she wallow in the agony of total failure as well as that of poison?

Lumen Zinnia Everleigh Ebersol

 

[Lumen]

Lumen's hand snapped out, catching the bag on instinct. She clutched it tightly, looking over her shoulder at what befell Caeso and Kristen. Unable to stop that poisonous mess. Jaw clenched as her tawny-eyes settled back on Everleigh Ebersol.

In the flesh.

Purple hair and everything.

Lumen was an authority respector.

Rule follower.

Studious and all that.

But she was also a protector. And right now? The blonde had had enough. Not taking her eyes off the one a year ahead of them and once satisfied the bag she gripped held no harm, she shoved it toward Zinnia's chest.

“Let’s decide on the winner. Winner gets to go back to sleep and miss their first period with Proctor Goetsch. The other three will help me in cleaning up.”

"No. We are done and so are you." Her power surged forward. The air around and inside Everleigh plunging in a nearly instant freeze. If successful, it wouldn't harm the young proctor. It would cryogenically freeze her for the next few hours. She'd wake up just fine, side effects easily cured by a hot tea or coffee and maybe a bath.

 

[Zinnia]

This was all a lot to take in. In truth, Zinnia hadn't expected the ordeal to come to such an abrupt end. Perhaps this was all nothing more than a game at the whims of the assistant proctor. She didn't even have a means of determining the actual winner?

The wallflower wanted to put up a huff of her own, but before she could even react Lumen tossed the bag of coins into Zinnia's hands and dropped the room's temperature to below zero. Zinnia was too close, and with her hands outstretched, they caught the brunt of it.

"AAAAGH!"

The gold-eyed girl could absorb elements in a loose sense, but the instant temperature drop was not something her battery seemed to be able to cover. She screamed as the magic shot piercing pain through the skin of her fingers, palms, and wrists, the bag of coins now stuck to her.

Zinnia whipped her gaze angrily towards Lumen, teeth barred and oddly sharp, pupils looking almost like slits, then ran from the building. Outside she dropped to her knees and began to sob, the stinging pangs in her hands almost unbearable and the unfortunate shame of having gone along with the night's events now effectively glued to her skin.

 

[Everleigh Ebersol]

Everleigh glanced to the cloud of poison that was slowly dissipating into the air. Kress, it was taking absolutely everything in her to not fall to the ground and join Caeso and Kristen. It was only through relentless determination that Everleigh kept standing.

She was going to answer the initiates, even explain to them how they could find the right answer if they took the long way by analyzing the story (after all, wasn’t it obvious that the Dreadlord King represented the new Republic and the falsehood of “choice” onto all initiates after the Revolution? Which would mean that the Dreadlord Princess represented Dreadlords who thought— well, it didn’t matter now. Especially after Proctor Palahniuk explained that Everleigh did change the right hand to the left; and only because of one particular Dreadlord who happened to be missing a eye instead of some profound symbolism.) Or they could have realized what the real challenge was: finding out which room was trapped and which wasn’t.

Lumen spoke, expressing her annoyance. Everleigh’s violet gaze flicked over to the blonde. Everleigh didn’t even have time to turn her head.

---

Proctor Palahniuk had enough of these trials that Everleigh thought to be so grand. He missed the days when he could remind her that the only reason she wanted to make something of herself was because she precisely couldn’t do just that, and he— no, she— knew it. Even now, he knew this grand scheme was just to show off that she knew what initiates wanted and needed better than him.

That was where she was wrong in all of this: caring what initiates thought meant a proctor would always fail. Life was much easier when one stopped giving a shit. And Peter Palahniuk had stopped giving a shit a long time ago.

At least the initiates were just as disgruntled as he was and he could lecture her on her failings just like old times. That thought alone brought a smile to his lips and he thought over what he was going to say to her first. Should he shake his head with a frown, start by saying how he was disappointed and that if she was supposed to be oh-so-smart, why did this backfire? Or maybe he should give a sad yet knowing smile as he corrected her, starting with how she failed to understand the hearts of initiates despite just graduating herself, and it was only understandable and ‘of course you would fail.’

A buzz on the back of his hand. He looked down at it, dropping the bastard sword in a huff, seeing the invisible ink of the rune glow. His brow furrowed. After the fiasco that had happened weeks ago, all proctors were required to get this rune. It was mostly invisible, until a proctor was seriously harmed. Which meant their vitals were incredible low or dead. It must be a drill of some sort, ugh, what another nuisance to add to his morning!

The proctor heard Zinnia’s cry of anguish and he turned his head to look back at the storage buildings he had just passed a minute or two ago. The rune started flashing and glowing a soft lilac. Ebersol? Had one of her traps backfired on her? Ha! Another thing to lecture her on!

The rune burned, causing Proctor Palahniuk to wince and look down at it in irritation. The arcane glow turned red then black.

Suddenly, Palahniuk was running to where he had least seen the purple menace and the initiates. He first saw Initiate Diemut and Initiate Pirian on the ground in a mess. Then he caught sight of Initiate Zinnia sobbing and holding onto a sack. Was there something awful in there?

The rune on his hand burned, and he realized that rune got hotter as he came closer to one of the storage buildings. He felt the chill in the air, could see Initiate Adagio standing there with a look in her eyes he recognized.

“Ebersol!” Proctor Palahniuk shouted before he realized she wasn’t moving at all. He looked at Lumen, watery eyes wide and nostrils flaring. His hands were in fists, knuckles white. He felt inclined to punish all four initiates right now, regardless of who had or hadn’t done it. It was their fault that now his day would be ruined with piles upon piles of paperwork and interviewing and collecting and processing and Kress knew what else.

“INITIATES!” His voice was full of authority, his face red and veins popping up along his neck and forehead. “Line up. All of you line up and shut the fuck up or so help me because I will gladly be executed if it means I have all of your heads detached from your bodies.”

When the initiates would line up, all of them outside the storage room and facing the proctor, Palahniuk would let silence linger for a few seconds. His back was towards Everleigh and he partially obscured her from the initiate’s sight.

“I’ll start with Initiate Diemut. What happened?”

Caeso Diemut Kristen Pirian Lumen Zinnia

 

[Caeso Diemut]

Caeso, unfortunately, seemed to be having a harder time with the poison than Kristen. He'd only a vague awareness that something had happened, but he hadn't even laid eyes on Proctor Ebersol's frozen body. The call of a Proctor, Palahniuk in this case, was undeniable, and even if he was in a ragged state he still had some wherewithal to stand, line up, and keep as straight and rigid as he could...despite his face looking like it was melting into tears, mucus, and saliva.

He was having some trouble breathing. Each inhalation, each exhalation, having a slimy, phlegmy quality to it.

"Proctor Palahniuk..."

Coughing interrupted him.

"Proctor Ebersol administered a test..."

More coughing, but he dared not break his stance nor relent in his speech.

"And Initiate Pirian and I..."

But it was here that, despite his mettle, the heavy dose of poison got the better of him. He doubled over, hands on his knees, and could say no more at present. He wheezed, and wheezed, and tried to keep standing.

Lumen Zinnia Everleigh Ebersol

 

[Kristen Pirian]

If there was one thing which could kill Kristen in this moment, it would be a mirror, for then she would see just how wretched she looked and the shock would do her in. She was, at least, able to stand dutifully at attention before Proctor Palahniuk, and she just let everything drip from her chin or her jaw. She breathed steadily, carefully, as if any error in her current rhythm would spell disaster.

As Caeso's faculties failed him, Kristen took over, and reported what she knew for certain.

"Initiate Diemut and I chose the right door for this final portion of the test. Initiate Adagio and Initiate Zinnia chose the left door. Proctor Ebersol..." she shook her head slightly, correcting herself, "...the real Proctor Ebersol was behind that door. Proctor Ebersol spoke briefly to Initiate Adagio and Initiate Zinnia, whereupon..."

She felt a powerful urge to cast a conciliatory glance Lumen's way, but she resisted it. Lumen had done what she had done. It was a senseless act, and even though Kristen could wholeheartedly understand the emotion from which the act had been manifested, still a grievous fault had been made. The truth had to be said.

"...whereupon Initiate Adagio attacked Proctor Ebersol, using her magic, I believe."

Lumen Zinnia Everleigh Ebersol

 

[Lumen]

Lumen flinched at Zinnia's cry. A cry from a classmate and one she considered a friend far worse than any physical blow, especially knowing she'd been the cause. Tawny-eyes widened in surprise as she saw Zinnia's features shift.

She took a step toward the retreating girl. "Zin-wait, I'm sor-," the call died on her lips as Proctor P charged onto the scene full of bark and Lumen knew, the bite to back it up. Worried gaze flickered to the coughing Caeso and Kristen. Not worry for herself but worry for them. But it quickly snapped back to Proctor P as she stood at attention.

She was silent as Caeso and Kristen issued their statement.

There were things she wanted to say. Like that Everleigh would be okay with no long-lasting effects. That she'd done it out of instinct to protect the others. That she hadn't meant for Zinnia to get hurt, too. That she hadn't attacked Everleigh, it was just something to take her temporarily out of the equation. But all those things died before even making it to her tongue.

"What Kristen said is true. I did it."

 

[Zinnia]

Zinnia willed herself to line up among the others despite the shooting pain in her hands. The worst possible capstone to the night: getting in trouble on top of everything else. Who'd have figured this was how it would all turn out? The initiates that quit, maybe. Caeso, probably. One more fruitless attempt at impressing him, it seemed.

The wallflower choked back her sobbing as her peers spoke. It all hurt so much. She glared forward, tears occasionally running down her face unbidden, waiting for her turn. The sooner she could get to a healer, the better, but...well, maybe this was what she deserved.

Lumen, though...she didn't even try to defend herself. Zinnia knew well that the big sister of their class hadn't meant to hurt her. It wasn't fair for her to shoulder the blame.

"N-nobody *hic* d-did anything *hic* wr-rong..." she muttered quietly, the hiccups that plagued her at the peak of her anxiety making their telltale appearance.

 

[Everleigh Ebersol]

Proctor Palahniuk spun around to look at the crying initiate.

“You think attacking a proctor is right?” He said, the red-hot rage now as smooth as a still frozen lake. He stepped towards her, leaning down low so he could stare into her gold eyes. His gaze was unwavering, unflappable. The gaze of a proctor from the old ways. “You realize, don’t you, initiate, that when you attack a proctor you’re attacking the institution that the Academy is. That you’re attacking Vel Anir?”

He waited a moment while poor Initiate Diemut hacked up his guts.

“Do you not realize that while at the Academy all of you are under this institution of Vel Anir? You’re not at a orphanage: you’re under both educational and military accountability here.” He stood up straight, looking down his nose at Zinnia. He turned and pointed at Everleigh. “All proctors have taken a oath to protect the initiates in this academy from any threat, whether that’s another initiate who calls the Revolution a rebellion, from the many anti-dreadlord terrorist groups, or a archon who has decided to attack his home and fool others to join him.”

He came over to stare at Lumen.

“You’re no better than the proctors that took last year’s graduating class to the Blackwood. Only your ideas and morals are correct, Initiate? Ha! Don’t make me laugh. You think because her class got away with killing proctors you can attack them with no repercussions?” His gaze darkened. “Have you forgotten what we used to do when initiates would stand up for each other? Have you all forgotten when one of you got a savior complex what we did to beat it out of you? I could order Diemut, Pirian and that one,” he pointed at Zinnia, “to beat you until you are barely holding onto a inch of your life!”

Still staring into Lumen’s eyes, Proctor Palahniuk raised his hand towards Zinnia. Instantly, the ice melted off of her. It would do little to help the damage she had endured. She’d be going to the infirmary soon enough.

“Gee, did you see that, Initiate Adagio? No one got hurt in the crossfire. What a novel idea, isn’t it?” Finally, he brought his gaze to Caeso and Kristen. “Initiate Pirian, help up Initiate Diemut. If he’s too heavy, one of you two help with it.” He ruffled somewhere in the inside of his cloak, finding a handkerchief inside to hand over for someone to take. “Clean him up. I’m not having him go to the infirmary like that.” He turned around, then stopped, looking back at the initiates. “You four wait here. We’re all going to the infirmary together once I unfreeze your proctor, not a fellow initiate.”

Caeso Diemut Kristen Pirian Lumen Zinnia

 

[Caeso Diemut]

This was not one of Caeso's proudest moments.

It wasn't as if he hadn't suffered physical misery to such an extent as to look wretched before. There wasn't an Initiate alive who could claim never to have been broken down to such an ugly, threadbare state; such rigors which Initiates are made to overcome define the indomitable spirit of the Dreadlords they become.

But here, barely keeping his feet, a shriveled husk compared to his three fellow Initiates, now more than ever he felt embarrassed. Ashamed. Because he had come so far. But for all the might he had cultivated, both in physical prowess and magical ability, here he was coughing and sputtering like a newborn babe having caught a fever.

In this moment, he was weak. Lesser than Lumen, lesser than Zinnia, lesser than Kristen.

As Kristen came to help him, hoisting one of his arms across her shoulders and holding it and by so doing allowing him at least the dignity to stand upright (if not, of course, wholly under his own power), Caeso said nothing, for there was nothing to be said.

His father Sabian, he knew, would abhor the sight of him if he could see him now.

Lumen Zinnia Everleigh Ebersol

 

[Kristen Pirian]

Kristen dutifully stepped up to take the handkerchief. She went to Caeso, again following Proctor Palahniuk's orders, and helped him to stand upright.

"Here," she whispered, offering the handkerchief.

His eyes, so clouded by tears and redness, made his attempts to grasp for the handkerchief fumbling and all in error. So Kristen gently wiped his eyes, even as her own flooded over and her own nose leaked mucus profusely and her own lungs burned. Caeso blinked rapidly after she was done. Squinted. She again held the handkerchief for him to grasp, pressed it softly to his awaiting hand even, allowing him to do the rest himself, knowing that is what he would want.

There was a moment of terrible reminiscence for Kristen here. Of her, vomiting and crying and shaking in Vel Acan and being met with Noel's sternness. Of her, horrified and shocked and shaken by the Cortosan Inquisitor's sudden death, being slapped by Edric. Some of her lowest moments, and in them being met with stark coldness.

Kristen did not pass that coldness on to Caeso.

Where he was now, she had been there too.

Lumen Zinnia Everleigh Ebersol

 

[Lumen]

Each sob and sniffle of pain from Zinnia was like steel twisting in her gut. Worse than the punishments Palaniuk recommended. To Lumen, at least. She remained silent and at attention even as the Proctor berated her and spittled in her face. Even as he suggested her punishments. She felt it wise not to answer his rhetorical questions.

She'd admitted fault and there was nothing else to say.

What was done was done.

When the proctor turned away, only then did her eyes flicker to Caeso and Kristen, assessing that they did not need extra help. Then to Zinnia. And as she looked at her friend, only then did she hang her head in shame, the burden of having failed her. Failed them, hanging heavily on her shoulders.

 

[Zinnia]

Unfrozen, Zinnia could finally drop the sack of coins to the ground. The false currency hit the ground with a thud, their contents spilling to the cold, night soil. The pain did not recede, but at least she would get to keep her hands.

Like the others, Zinnia had nothing else to say.

 

[Everleigh Ebersol]

Proctor Palahniuk headed into the storage building, his grumbling complaints easily being heard by the silent initiates.

It seemed that he felt comfortable in turning his back not because the initiates were seeming to listen now but because rounding the corner was Proctor Goetsch. She looked serene as she strode over to the initiates, looking over each of them far more fondly than Proctor Palahniuk had.

Assessing them with her blue eyes, the proctor figured that the most in need at this moment was Zinnia.
“My, my, you poor thing.” She said, shaking her head as if she weren’t the proctor that had approved Everleigh’s lesson. “Let me see your hands. Nurse Ingrid has already been— STOP!”

---

​

A breath. Cold. Dark.

Everleigh finished turning her head, gathering all the strength she had, any last speck of arcane might forward. She blew out white phosphorous smoke, right in the face of the attacker.

Everything had stopped. Her heart, her mind, everything gone. She had never not felt her mind. Even when she slept she could feel it. She didn’t know what had happened in that second, but she was gone. There was nothing, absolutely nothing.

She must’ve died.

How she came back didn’t matter. All that matter was that she needed to fight for her life. Zael was out there, missing to the rest of the Academy, but she knew he was alive and hunting Kimble.

She couldn’t die until he came back. She had plans! They were going to join the Guard together and fight alongside each other.

Everleigh heard screaming and shouting, most likely from her attacker. It was hot all around her. The smell of garlic was everywhere in the air.

And unfortunately, inside Caeso and Kristen.

There was nothing left inside Everleigh, no more magic, no more poison. She could only hold it for a second, not even two. The effects would linger in this room. She hadn’t thought about what it could do to the initiates. Not that she was thinking of them now.

Everleigh lunged forward, bringing the attacker down as she fell over herself. A fist knocked her in the side of her head. A hand slapped against her nose and eyes and she retaliated by biting it.

More screaming, more shouting. Still alive then.

Just, shut up, already.

She knew how to stop it.

---

Marianne was brought to action.

“Make it cold, make it cold!” She shouted to Lumen, wrapping her arms around her stomach protectively. “No ice, just cold enough so it’s not flammable.” All anyone could see was smoke spreading about the room, slowly wafting out from the open door.

She looked over at Zinnia. She was hurt but she was still the fastest.

“Get Proctor D’Amour. Run as fast as you can before Initiate Diemut and Pirian…!” Marianne didn’t need to finish the command, hearing Proctor Palahniuk howling. Her attention was back on Lumen. “Take care of my body.” With her hand still on her stomach, it was clear what she was asking for.

And then the blonde proctor fainted, trusting Lumen and Zinnia.

Caeso Diemut Kristen Pirian Lumen Zinnia

---

[art cred]

 

[Kristen Pirian]

Once more a torrent of sudden activity, immediacy pressing in inexorably like a tide, came upon them. In one moment all was calm and in control. The next, chaos.

And Kristen once again didn't have all of the details. She knew that Proctor Palahniuk had gone to unfreeze Proctor Ebersol (Blessed Aionus, so Lumen actually did freeze her solid!), that Proctor Goetsch briefly examined Zinnia's hands, and then a foul white smoke came pouring out of the open left room door.

Kristen needed no further spur to action and required no explanation.

With Caeso at her side, keeping him steady, both she and he went hurrying together out of the Storage Unit building, out into the open air of the Western Quad, and only with some fair distance from the building did Kristen turn about. Caeso, from a brief glance, was as baffled as she was as to what on Arethil could have happened.

Regardless, Kristen called, "Lumen! Zinnia!"

Hopefully they made it out.

Lumen Zinnia Everleigh Ebersol

 

[Zinnia]

For a blessed moment Zinnia believed that she might get the relief she needed now that Proctor Goetsch had arrived. Palahniuk at least seemed to be satisfied with his current degree of lambasting the initiates for the moment, enough so at least that he'd see to Everleigh's, er, predicament. Unfortunately, a quick recovery would seemingly not come so easily. The predicament became much, much worse.

White smoke. Some kind of poison, assuredly, and by the way Goetsch reacted and promptly tapped into her magic, probably very powerful poison at that. The blond proctor had given Zinnia an order just before taking the plunge. Zinnia looked to Lumen, apprehension and uncertainty written on her mien as she searched for an answer in her friend's eyes.

Kristen called out; the Pirian girl had gotten out of the worst of it, then, and she was lugging Caeso. That was something.

Finally that fear turned to resolve. Despite the pain, Zinnia curled her hands into fists. She pursed her lips and gave a nod to Lumen, trusting that she'd be able to handle what Proctor Goetsch had asked her to. She left the body of the woman in Lumen's hands and made to run with all her might.

---

Zinnia ran as hard as she could. Through the courtyard, then the halls of the Academy. She was exhausted already, she realized, the caffeine having worn off by now, but still she pumped her arms and legs. Her lungs burned, though whether that was from exertion or some stray amount of that smoke getting in she did not know.

She felt the crawl. It was one of the worst times for it, but that creeping sensation returned. Her hands burned as before, then they itched.

Zinnia had always had a knack for the physical; she ran faster than any girl in her class, she could lift more, fight harder and longer. Her magic was pathetic in comparison to her peers. She had to work harder than everyone else. She trained constantly for that exact reason, and Goetsch knew that. That's why she sent Zinnia.

The gold-eyed girl grit her teeth. Sharp. She could hardly stop now. Sweat dripped from her skin and her hands felt numb. Don't stop. Nothing else matters. Zinnia pumped harder.

She didn't even notice the flaky substance that drooped from her as she ran.

One more corner. Almost there.

No one else would even know what the stuff was.

Almost there...

 

[Evangeline]

Another late night. Or an early morning, perhaps. Proctor Evangeline D'Amour pinched the bridge of her nose as she sorted through the final pile of papers on her desk. Her eyes could barely focus on the text on the page at this point. Perhaps it was time to take Lord Pirian up on his offer to get her reading spectacles...or, well, maybe she could just fix her sleep schedule. Evangeline certainly wasn't doing her students any favors by staying up so late.

Perhaps it was better to get back to this come morning...or, later in the morning. Bed called to Eva like a siren's song. She stood from her seat, yawned, stretched. Time to wind down for now.

*WHUMP*

Evangeline jumped, startled, her hand instinctively going to her waist to grab the handle of her sword...long gone. Old habits died hard. She snatched up her cane instead. It served as both walking stick and weapon these days, after all.

The sound had been a crash against her office door. The Pirian Proctor moved to investigate, only to hear a weak thumping follow up the initial crash. She pulled the door open and a girl wearing naught but a hood, an undershirt, and underwear fell through onto her office floor.

"Kress!"

The proctor knelt down to inspect and aid the girl as she coughed and tried to right herself. Gold eyes looked up at Proctor D'Amour, a familiar, freckled face hiding behind brunette locks.

"Miss St. Kolbe? What on Arethil are you doing here at this hour? What's happened?" Eva pried, gently helping the girl into a seated position against the office wall.

"P-Proctor D'Amour, please...something's wrong with Proctor Ebers-sol, d-down in the western q-quad, storage...Proctor Goetsch s-sent me, n-needs help...white sm-smoke, p-people in danger..." the initiate stammered out, more haggard than was familiar for Eva. The proctor furled her brow. Initiate St. Kolbe was not known to be a trouble maker. If she was here, she was likely telling the truth.

Evangeline steadied the girl before grabbing a glass off her desk and filling it with water from a carafe. She tenderly handed the drink to the young woman and placed a hand on her shoulder as she began to drink, spluttering as she did.

"Miss St. Kolbe--Zinnia. Listen to me: will you be alright here on your own while I deal with this?"

The girl nodded vigorously.

"Can you meet me--safely--back at the western quad when you can muster the strength?"

Another nod.

"Good. Thank you, initiate. You've done well. See you shortly." Proctor D'Amour assured the girl before standing upright. She took two hobbled steps from the room, then a sharp *crack* filled the hallway. Evangeline was gone.

 

[Lumen]

Make it cold?

Then Marianne fainted holding her early pregnant belly. Lu offered quick nod to Zinnia. She was gone. Lumen saw Kristen hobble out with Caeso. Two more gone and two less she had to worry about.

"C'mon," it was a good thing Marianne wasn't a large proctor. Lumen bent down and carried her like they were taught to carry those from burning buildings. The magic that had just gotten her in trouble spread around her, extending toward the storage unit making it cold but not freezing. Her labored breaths suddenly showing with a fog in the night air as she trudged with Marianne draped around her back and across her shoulders away from that strange mist. Only putting the Proctor down in the grass when she was sure the mist couldn't reach them.

"Kristen, Caeso. Will you watch after her? Someone has to go get Proctor P out." Without waiting for an answer she began striding back across whence she came. Sure he was a Proctor and could probably take care of himself but she wasn't leaving anyone behind. It wasn't in her nature.

Even if that mist killed her.

 

[Everleigh Ebersol]

Lumen would see Proctor Palahniuk and Everleigh fighting one another. As she had reduced the temperature in the storage building the mist would do nothing than provide irritation for the meantime. This did not mean she was necessarily immune as the longer one lingered in the room then the more of the toxin they would inhale.

She would see that both proctors had second and third degree chemical burns on their faces, and seemingly worst of all, both were blind and would need medical treatment. Proctor Palahniuk, despite his struggling which seemed full of vigor, was fighting a losing battle. Everleigh seemed to be winning, having gotten on top of him and was trying to strangle him while blind.

All of a sudden she would stop, going completely still, with her hands leaving Proctor Palahniuk’s neck and covering her ears.

“GET. OUT.” A mental struggle, Everleigh’s face contorting and then relaxing before repeating the cycle all over again.

Proctor Palahniuk would weakly slap a hand against Everleigh’s chest.

Proctor Evangeline D’Amour would arrive just as Proctor Marianne Goetsch would take control of Everleigh, thus offering no resistance to Lumen when she went to get to Palahniuk to safety.

---

The longer that Kristen Pirian and Caeso Diemut spent out in the Western Quad and breathing in air untainted, they would begin to feel better. Certain things would still persist, such as the headache or the ache in their chests if they tried to take too deep a breath. It would be quiet in the quad, the Academy seemingly still not ready to wake up. Until Zinnia would join the two poisoned initiates.

 

[Caeso Diemut]

Caeso's body at last came to match his will, and thus was he able to stand again under his own power. He was by no means better in the full sense of the word, but at least he had now some shred of dignity.

Lumen had deposited Proctor Goetsch and promptly went back to retrieve Proctor Palahniuk.

"This...is what happens...when the natural order of things is disrupted," Caeso said to Kristen. His nose was still running interminably, annoyingly causing those slight interruptions, and he had to pace his breathing, lest he stoke the tight and burning sensations in his chest. "Instability. Chaos," he concluded.

Lumen Zinnia Everleigh Ebersol

 

[Kristen Pirian]

Kristen looked to the smoke-choked Storage Building with no shortage of worry, fearing for Lumen, even fearing for Everleigh.

This was unprecedented for her; she'd not seen two Proctors actually fight one another in this manner. What had gone so wrong? Everleigh, so far as Kristen's impression of her went, was always so control, even in something as "leisurely" and "fun" as the Punishment Game she had concocted. Lumen had made a mistake, yes, by allowing her emotion to cloud her better judgment, but should not Proctor Ebersol have been prepared for something like that? From this lapse all the rest followed, and here they all were now embroiled in a catastrophic mess.

Caeso gave his opinion. Kristen made no comment on it.

Instead, she said, "If Lumen does not emerge from there in short order..." she looked to him, "...then we must go in after her."

Lumen Zinnia Everleigh Ebersol