Dreadlords Graduation

[Luthen]

Aniria - Wildlands

Three tests.

A few years ago, it had only been one. Luthen wasn't entirely sure how he felt about a lot of the changes in Vel Anir. A decade and a half was a long time to miss, and his return had been marked by a whirlwind of differences that he was still struggling to understand. The Republic was an oddity, the Dreadlord's being part of the Guard made sense, the changes in the Academies curriculum were…troubling, to say the least.

These tests however? These tests he approved of.

The tower had always been an inexplicably stupid waste of resources to his mind. Pitting two Initiate's against one another in a show of utter brutality was all fine, even necessary, but a fight to the death? It was wasteful. Why spend eighteen years teaching someone how to kill, if you were going to point them towards their brothers and sisters? It was foolish, and halved the efficiency of any given class.

With this new system at least no Initiate would go to waste. Even the weakest among them would simply be held back for another year, and the strongest could prove themselves against those who stood far above them. It was a remarkable change, and when the Proctor's of the Academy had approached him to ask for his cooperation, he had practically jumped at the chance.

Ever since his return, the Guard’s five General's had treated him practically as an invalid. Refusing to send him on missions and instead keeping him in Vel Anir. A fact which infuriated him. At least out here he would be able to do something.

Something that would help Vel Anir's future.

Luthen surveyed the cadre of Initiates that stood in front of them. He had read every single one of their dossier, committed them to memory. He'd even reached out to some old friends in the Vigilite to get a better understanding of who they were.

All of them had already taken the first two tests.

The first was a written exam. Extremely difficult and designed to flummox even those who spent days studying, created almost to either force the Initiate's to cheat, or to prove themselves at a near genius level. From what Luthen understood, the test had been extremely grueling, far more than any ever offer at the Academy before. From what he understood, all those before him passed in their own way, and that alone brought him an odd sense of pride.

He might have been in prison for fifteen years, but he was still Anirian. In a strange way it was good to know the younger generations had not yet failed completely.

The second test, was more straightforward. A competition against and with one another. A simple game of capture the flag that had seen nearly a whole forest cleared as the Initiate's were paired in teams and then told to compete against one another. There had been no true victors in the end of course, the test instead being one of cooperation. Each Initiate judged and assessed for how they worked with one another. No one failed, of course, but it allowed the Republic a better window into the minds of their new Dreadlord.

The failure, would come with the third test.

“The task is a simple one.” Proctor Tiella spoke, her voice projecting over the crowd of Initiates as Luthen and two other full Dreadlords stood upon the stage. “You may work individually, or as teams.”

She continued to explain, eyes scanning over the waiting faces. “Each of these three Dreadlord's have a set of pins, your task is to steal one of these pins for yourself.”

Tiella called, her voice setting somewhat as she gestures to Luthen and his fellows.

“Which pin you steal, will settle your final graduation score.” She said finally, telling the Initiate's the value of each pin. Marking Luthen’s as gold, while the Dreadlord to his right had silver, and the one to his left had bronze. “Understand, these are Dreadlords of the old ways. Brought up in a time where this test would be seen as laughable.”

Tiella’s voice was stern as could be. “Each of them have been instructed to defend their pins as they would their lives.”

The Proctor glanced at Luthen and the others.

“Throw everything you have at them.” She continued. “Don't hold back, don't second guess, because they won't.”[/color]

Tiella said, surveying the Initiate's until she finally finished. “Understood?”

 

[Zinnia]

This was it. This was everything. The culmination of all that Zinnia had ever worked for. Proctor Salak had, in the months preceding graduation, given Zinnia the opportunity to graduate early, but something about the notion of forgoing the final tests set upon the entire class felt unsporting.

Imposter syndrome was already something she struggled with; she wanted to prove that she truly was worthy. She had to prove that all the belief she'd received and the work she'd put in was for a good reason. That Salak's praise wasn't misplaced. That Kristen's faith in her and the sisterly bond they'd developed wasn't a sham. That Caeso's death could continue to have meaning.

The written exam had been hard. Zinnia was never much of one for bookwork, and calling many of the questions to mind purely from memory was a near impossibility for her. She'd made it through by the skin of her teeth, that much she knew for sure, and even then only because she'd had the foresight to be clever rather than studious...

The second test had been much more in Zinnia's wheelhouse. Working with anyone not named "Leander" was easy for Zinnia, and capture the flag was very much a game of physique--the area in which Zinnia excelled.

Now, as the gold-eyed girl stood before Proctor Tiella alongside her fellow hopefuls, Zinnia's whole body bristled with excitement. For once, she was confident, emboldened, and smiling bright. There would be no compromise this time. To prove to her proctors and her peers--no, to prove to herself--how far she'd come since crawling out of the solitude of her room two years ago, Zinnia would take a gold pin from Dreadlord Luthen. She would sooner fail than accept less.

 

[Salak]

Salak did not smile despite his interest in seeing the latest batch and how they might differ from the initiates of his age.
He kept up the image of a grim and bitter old Dreadlord. It suited him and he needed to use that image now since he knew that being holder of the bronze pins labelled him as the "weakest" of the targets.

Little did they know.
Still he had to give Luthen credit for the idea, if it was indeed his idea. The suggestion that they could form groups was an excellent addition. A seed planted that would help sprout them success if cultivated. Alone he knew none of them would make it through to him but if some worked in tandem then perhaps they would yet that worked in conflict with the setting in ways he suspected would become clear later.

There were only so many pins of each type.

There was no scenario where everyone who wanted gold or silver would be able to get one without turning on other initiates.

Salak wondered if Luthen had considered this.

 

[Zola]

Zola crossed her arms over her stomach as she surveyed the initiates gathered before them. Much like Luthen, this was a second chance for the Level Two Dreadlord. After her exile on a shitspit of an island which she had defended with honour against rebel Dreadlords, the Republic had agreed hers was a skillset not to be wasted out in the provinces. Her welcome home had not been warm but rather it had come with a warning; do not heel again and that island would seem like a paradise. Despite her complicated feelings towards the new Republic, something she had begrudgingly agreed with was the abolishment of the Tower. The murder of her peers who had survived the gruelling years of the Academy at her side was something that still haunted her on the darkest nights. It was not a fate she wished on any child.

That didn't mean she planned on being soft with them.

"Good Luck," was the only addition the naval Dreadlord made to the speech once it ended before smartly turning on her heels and leaving the platform with a nod to her fellow two Dreadlords. Luthen she knew would gruel every initiate who came after him - of which there would be many she was sure. Ego was the one thing the Academy didn't beat out of a child. Salak was an unknown. He had been a proctor this past year, taught many of those gathered, so she wondered if he would be softer on them. Perhaps that was why she had been given the Silver badges instead of him.

As the Proctor left behind got the initiates ready, the three Assessors would make their way to their respective battle grounds. This assessment would span the whole of the Wildlands. From the Ruins that Luthen had chosen, to the dense forests Salak had chosen. And, of course, the rough harbour to which Zola now made her way. The ship that sat there was a sorry thing that creaked in pain with every whistle of the wind or tilt of the sea. That she floated was a miracle, Zola thought, but that made it perfect for the assessment. Not only would the initiates gunning for silver have to worry about facing her in her element, but also the elements themselves.

 

[Houri]

"Understood," Houri echoed along with the other initiates but her eyes never left Dreadlord Luthen. There was never any doubt that the weather initiate would be gunning for Gold. There was a nervous energy amongst those gathered but the young Luana only felt excitement. How long had it been since she had faced another Dreadlord in the field and fully let go? The last time she had been given the chance her mind had been a fractured mess and she had been unable to tell her own thoughts from the others. They still existed, whispering their own excitement and offered strategies even now, but Houri was far more confident in her own voice now. It made her less erratic. Made her care more about survival than winning. To test that new strength with her magic against a First Level?

She rolled onto the balls of her feet when Luthen turned and left, eager to follow him now.

"You have an hour to think strategies and choose your target," the Proctor droned on and Houri stifled a sigh of impatience. Why wait? If you needed an hour to plan then you were not fit to be a Dreadlord. The battlefield was about improvisation for even the best plans could be overturned in a second. But Houri was not one to complain and so she swallowed her frustrations and turned to her friends instead.

"I'm going for Gold - who's coming with me?"

 

[Thraah]

Thraah stepped forward and looked Houri square in the face.
"I'm with you Stormbird!"
She cracked her neck and knuckles and took a spot beside her judging the rest of them openly.
"Well? Step up scrubs!"
She was confident in their ability to get the pins but Thraah was not stupid, more help meant easier work and greater rewards.

Houri

 

[Mieri]

Mieri was practically buzzing.

This whole thing was fucking great. So much better than killing one of her classmates in a one on one match that she definitely would have won. Now she just had to dupe a Dreadlord.

Simple.

Especially when she was going to pick the easiest one.

Why the heck would she go after a gold or even silver pin? Wasn't like they were going to reward her any more for doing better. That was a lesson she'd learned a long time ago. Never do any work you didn't have to, especially at the Academy. ”Cool.”

Mieri declared with a flip of her hair as her classmates began to state their intentions.

”I'm going for bronze.” Chumps. If they wanted to kill themselves for a shiny bit of metal, well, that was on them. ”But like all of em’.”

Why stop at one? Just because it was against the rules? Naw. That wasn't her style.

 

[Aelita]

Aelita smiled.

As the third test's explanation followed, her gaze slowly moved from Luthen to Salak and finally Zola. She took note of their attire and what weapons, if any, they bore - at least in the moment when they all stood before the Initiates.

Once informed of the third test's details, Aelita heard the chattering of the Initiates around her as they began to form teams or announce their intended target.

One comrade caught Aelita's attention.

Turning toward Mieri, Aelita's armor gave a light clink as her body shifted.

"I'd join you," Aelita began, "If we're really going after all of them."

 

[Luthen]

Luthen watched as the Initiates slowly began to make their intentions known, his head never turning but his eyes flickering towards those whom declared their intention for gold.

A small smile touched his lips as they did.

Already it was a change from the Old Ways. Before the revolution none of them would have volunteered any information, much less asked who would be coming along with them. It was a remarkable difference from when he had gone through the Academy, though perhaps not all good. As each of them volunteered their target, Luthen took special note of those who intended on teaching the gold pins in his possession.

The almost Archon marked their faces in his mind, and matched them to the dossiers he had been given. There would be more, that he was sure of, but with the little slice of Information he now had things could be made rather…fun. The smile on his lips did not disappear as he stepped down from the podium, his fingers flickering ever so briefly towards Proctor Tiella. The silent message transmitted, she nodded her head as Luthen, Zola, and Salak departed to their respective fields of battle.

Luthen's choice, had been a personal one.

Tucked away, beyond the reaches of the forest which lay on the outskirts of the Academies grounds, sat a ruin of a city once called Tollif.

The city itself had never been all that significant. A simple waystop for merchants and travelers of all sorts. Created long before the Academy was built, and destroyed during the third elven war. It lay now mostly as a set of collapsed buildings, long turned to ruins and overgrown with jungles and vine. No skeletons remained, having long since been buried, but for Luthen Tollif held a powerful memory; it was where he had run to when he'd fled the Academy.

An unsuccessful attempt, of course, and it had not been long before the Proctors tracked him down. But he could still remember moving through the city, squirreling away in the ruins, and even fleeing into the ancient sewers. His attempt at running away had been punished severely, but there was something pleasant to him in the thought that the place where he was snared, might mean freedom for more than a few of the Initiate's.

So, quickly as he could, Luthen made his way into the depths of the ancient city. A soft patter of rain calling down from the skies above as he moved himself into position.

Leaving a few surprises along the way.

 

[Salak]

Salak departed in silence.
Making his slow methodical way to his chosen grounds.
Underground in fact.
The cave was unremarkable really. A roughly triangular hole in the side of a short but steep uprising of rock shaken loose by millions of years of seismic activity.
Carefully he climbed in, the entrance was much too narrow for his height. After a few feet of darkness he lit a candle in a lantern he had concealed earlier within his robes.
No point in giving the game away. The deep darkness of the earth was a home to creatures like him, those that hid from the light and embraced secrets.
He took care to not disturb his surroundings. Much depended on the element of the unknown for his traps to work.
The Mind-spore fungus was the first true test though he knew the careless might end up crippled due to the loose rock in the pit itself. He descended down, tasting the mind altering essence as it bloomed in the air.
He quietly hoped it would deter the more fearful and that those of a... certain mental instability would choose grander targets than he.
Then after a climb up a rope ladder there was the Ironweb Spider. He could not fully avoid it so he made it sleep with a heavy dose of talcum and removed it as he left, the creature did not follow. It was an ambush predator. Highly territorial.
At last the worst of it, the small lake of water he had heavily infused with extract of white parsley. A powerful paralysing agent. Touch it and the body would fall limp into the water or even if they were fortunate enough to topple on its edge, they would suffocate in minutes. There was no way across except over and the only thing that met you on the other side was another cave wall.
He had seen it happen at his own graduation, it was a truly horrid way to die.
He removed the pins and his robes and took the pins into the water.
In the dark gloom he found the base of the pool and there he buried the sack under silt and rock.
Eventually he found himself at the only real chamber in the cavern fit for a person after an annoyingly long trip up a rope ladder (which he of course pulled up after himself and promptly remembered he DID NOT pull up the first ladder after himself, earning a short self scolding).
Diligently he unlocked the gate and locked it again when he entered.
The pins were safe now as long as he was here. No student would assume he would part with them and he had a dummy bag on the table full of copper coins. Insult to injury for any who made it this far. Lighting more candles from a store of them he sat on a fold out chair under a nice thick blanket after hanging his clothes up to dry and donning fresh ones.
Taking a moment to heat up some tea with a Firestone he had collected on his travels (very useful for brewing underground as it makes no smoke)
he picked up a book he had borrowed from Miss Grey about birds and their nesting habits and waited to be interrupted by someone.

 

[Zinnia]

For a moment, Zinnia quietly watched Salak go. Bronze medal dispenser or not, something in Zinnia's gut told her that he was going to prove quite the challenge to those who went after him. Mieri and Aelita...Zinnia hadn't seen either of them in what felt like ages; if they'd leveled up in their time away from the Academy, she didn't know, but for their own sakes it would be better if they didn't underestimate their quarry.

After that brief moment of contemplation, Zinnia turned to acknowledge Houri's rallying cry and Thraah's agreement. It had been some while since they'd done anything together. Perhaps not since that night in the kitchen back at the Academy, dour as it was. Today was to be different.

"C-count me in!" she piped in, bouncing on her heels.

 

[Zephyrine]

Silver. That would be enough and not to tip off anyone else her plans after Graduation. Not bronze, not when she was very capable of handling something more challenging. There already were a great number of Initiates calling out for gold, and soon, Zephyrine began to break away from that group and check herself for the things she needed. Whereas most of her classmates armed themselves, all she needed was the pouch secured at her waist belt, full of sturdier metals and hardwoods, all scrap she had saved from her time working the forge in Vel Castere.

Yes, silver would do.

Zephyrine lifted her head, her copper hair tightly braided by the reluctant assistance of Livia Quinnick, who had been in and out of the Academy during exams and the second test. Her questions had gone unanswered, but at least her hair wouldn't be falling out from her braid and getting in her way. No, today she was going to do her late adoptive father proud.

 

[Livia Quinnick]

Houri, Thraah, Zinnia.

They were the first to call for gold. Livia had not been much of a conversationalist in the past few weeks, not when she had to meet Erodin and Amelie and continue their search in between examinations. The Dreadlords humoured her whining, had patiently answered her curious questions, and even agreed to help her work magic in combat. The first exam was difficult, but writing her answers came easily when she relaxed herself and allowed her guiding magic to take the lead.

The second one was a breeze. Suddenly, everyone wanted Quinnick on their team for her excellent tracking, and if they were against her, well, she certainly became a target.

Now, she stood to the rear of the group, having arrived at dawn that day after flying on the Sky-Ray for three nights and two days to be here. She was used to exhaustion, at operating with little sleep. Before her second magic, that of the corruption variety, went unchecked, it hindered her sleep. The past four years had seen her determined to be better, to prove herself a weapon when the Academy and most of her classmates had thought of her as weak.

Today's task seemed simple enough. It was similar to the game of Treasure she had played with her brothers growing up, each of them able to wield the Quinnick family magic, but Livia the strongest of them all. She won plenty of times, and that only spurred her brothers to lay many traps and tricks to keep her at bay.

But she wore down those defenses easily.

When the class began to move, finding groups and such, Livia stood where she had been, behind the other girls.

Gold. She would earn it even if there was a sliver of life left in her.

 

[Mercer Alwin]

Mercer had stood at attention, hands clasped behind her back as she waited solemnly for their instructors to provide the next tidbit of information. It was tedious, this whole event, not as cut and dry as other years had been. Even the class before her seemed to have it easier, albeit a ton of them had ended up dead. Such was the way to become a Dreadlord.

Her focus never drifted from the task at hand, though she could hear and feel the shuffling of her classmates that surrounded her. After receiving their information, those around her were quick to group up.

Mercer offered no words of inclusion, and even her goal remained from her lips. She would obviously go for a gold pin, but the others didn't know that. Soon, the test of skill would begin, and she would be damned if she didn't leave on top.

 

[Lumen]

A mixture of emotions briefly flickered across her tawny-eyes as she silently stood in the crowds. She'd been away on assignments right up until the last tests, only seeing her classmates in quick glimpses across the training grounds or testing center. It was good to see Zinnia. Aelita and the mischief that sparked those light eyes of hers. There was something to be said when she'd even felt a sense of home at hearing and seeing Mieri's enthusiasm instead of the usual pang of annoyance and endurance.

But it was for all those that weren't there that gave her pause after the instructions ended and as her classmates set out on their own or formed into groups.

Caeso.

Ysobel.

While her head yearned to go in one direction, her heart won out. It wasn't the rings that mattered to her. Perhaps that should've mattered most. What had been drilled into them? But if her talks with Edric and Alistair Krixus and Caeso Diemut taught her anything, it would always come down to the people for her. The people mattered the most.

So, with golden shield out and ready, she'd appear at Zinnia's side.

"I'm with you, Zin. Houri," she said quietly.

A wary gaze to Thraah and Livia Quinnick. As they approached the ruins, she cast her magic forward, sensing and seeking. To see if she could pick up the warmth of where Luthen would be. And any others that might be lurking for an ambush.

"Where are you," a quiet, determined whisper for Zinnia and Houri to hear as well.

 

[Silas Artesto]

"Not going with them?"

Silas slowly stepped out from behind Livia until he stood at her side, wrapped tightly in the new suit that'd been designed for him by the proctors specifically for the graduation tests. It was decidedly less form-fitting than the old model, since it had been crafted after his more recent spurt in growth. He'd expected her to stick with Houri and the others, but then she hadn't had much time to make up with them after...

Yeah.

"I didn't take you for a lone wolf type. Not until recently."

This was the first time Artesto was seeing his girlfriend in quite some time. Not long after she'd taken him to meet her family for the first time, she'd vanished on a mission. Try as he might, none of the Proctors would give him even the slightest morsel of information. They wouldn't even tell him whether or not she was alive.

Eventually, letters had come, every now and again. It was a small relief, but even then there was little she'd been able to tell him. The story she told, he was an outsider to. It was of a war that didn't involve him, that he didn't know the characters of. It felt... unfair, to be unable to help or reach her.

It was hellish, to fall for somebody so hard only to have them disappear. Silas was angry, he was frustrated and hurt. Maybe it came through in his words, maybe it didn't... It wasn't his intention to make a scene of it here. this wasn't the time or place. They had a job to do, and this was important to both of them. His wounded heart aside, he loved Livia, and wanted her to succeed.

"You want that gold, my help is going to make that a lot easier on you." Silas sighed, looking out at their classmates as they set off to hunt down their chosen prize. He hadn't turned his head to face her even once. He wasn't sure he'd be able to keep himself composed if he did. "I don't have much on that guy, but I bet I can move quick enough to keep him on his toes."

Whereas his old gear had been a slick black color, with a reflective sheen that made him appear to be wrapped in some slippery material, this new outfit was tinged with green and rose, tributes to both of his parents and the garb they'd worn when they still lived. Artesto finally dared let his eyes travel to the girl beside him, and he worked up the will to smirk.

"Learn any new tricks while you've been gone?"

Livia Quinnick

 

[Ivan Skender]

This was it, it seemed.

The day he had been expecting for… Well, for as long as he could remember, really.

The circumstances in which it had been hosted though, were quite different from those he had pictured in his younger years. Gone were the tower and the sanguine Proctors; gone were also all the deaths and bloody gore that had inevitably accompanied these occasions. Above all however, the most important thing that had been done away with this day had been the predetermined path ahead of them all.

Where once the pledge of service to a Great House following graduation had been the foregone conclusion, now a choice awaited them at the end of all of this.

A choice he had already made.

That was why, when the time came to choose between which of the three Dreadlords to follow, he held back. This was, in and of itself, quite unusual for the blonde initiate. It was well within his personality to shoot for the gold - big risk, big reward - however, for his plans, it was actually unnecessary to take such risks in search of a reward he was, frankly, rather uninterested in.

It was so that he merely watched on as his colleagues made their choices. On the one hand, all the teachers' pets went for the gold. No surprises there. Mieri, on the other hand - far smarter than people gave her credit for, in his opinion - made the optimal choice of going for the bronze. Likewise, he saw Aelita accompany the red-head as the two of them hatched their crazy plan; something which brought his mind back to the last time he'd had any meaningful interaction with the blonde girl.

He wondered if the scheme they had hatched during their training session to give food poisoning to the entire Proctor body of the Academy still stood.

In any case, Ivan was about to join the latter two when someone else caught his eye.

Apart from the main group, he caught a glimpse of a lone figure heading away from the crowd.

Zephyrine.

It had been some time since he'd returned from the Cortosi Coast, and the events of the Syzygy. That mission… Well, suffice to say it hadn't gone exactly as planned, and though the memories of his wounds had all but faded from his subconscious, those of the red-headed girl that had healed said injuries certainly hadn't.

He glanced at her, and a mischievous smile unfurled across his features as soon as he realised where she was going: Dreadlord Zola and her rotting boat.

How fitting.

If he had any ideas still lingering of joining the bronze crew, he abandoned them immediately. How could he, the heir to the House of Skender - the greatest maritime dynasty Vel Anir had ever seen - the Kraken's Bane - that had fought the Abyssals and their beasts - turn away from such a prospect?

To join the recreator aboard this vessel and together claim their place under the sun, in spite of the Academy that for so long had held them down. How could he not?

He had faced off against an island-sized Kraken aboard the Relentless, and had beaten it. He had paid the price for his explosive magical display back then, and had survived it. Compared to this, how tough could poor, little, and disgraced Dreadlord Zola be?

Especially because of the one trump card he’d brought this day, that he hadn't during the eclipse.

The Midnight pulsed quietly by his waist. Though tied and sheathed, Ivan could feel the sword as he would his own pulse. The magical blade he had recuperated from Valdorren, his House's ancestral seat, was still far from being under his full control, or understanding, but from what he'd seen so far, he knew it could give him the edge he needed to beat the Second-level Dreadlord together with Zephyrine.

With a quick pace, he caught up to the red-headed girl.

- "I guess we'll be working together again.” - He said, as he wrapped his arm around the girl's shoulders. - "We'll have this in no time, you and I together.” - He grinned.

Zephyrine Zola​

 

[Mieri]

Aelita | Salak

"Duh." There was no way in hell that she was going to half-ass something like this. She wasn't going to kill herself trying to get a little bit of gold, that would've been idiotic, but if the test was to get one pin...why not just get all of them.

It made perfect sense!

A wide grin split Mieri's face as she threw her arm around Aelita. "You and me, Blondie. We're gonna leave all these idiots in the dust."

With a free hand she gestured towards the crowd of their fellow Initiates. Beginning to wander away from them and in the direction that Salak had been heading. Figuring it was about time they get a move on.

"I think this is gonna be real easy." She said. "You distract him, maybe create a little light. I zoom in and grab the pins."

Mieri boasted. "Easy as finding shit in a horse-stall."

That was one of those idioms she'd learned from her westerns.

 

[Aelita]

"Hah! Sure! But first, we got to find him," Aelita replied to Mieri.

Walking in the direction that Salak first walked off to, Aelita looked down to the ground. She then bent down and pointed at a pair of foot prints. A third indentation that looked like it was made by a walking stick could be seen next to the footprints.

"Luckily, we don't have to guess whose these are," Aelita told Mieri with a grin.

Aelita began to follow Salak's tracks - toward his cave. The journey would take some time - but at least no as much for the group compared to Salak.

During the relatively quick trip, Aelita attempted some small talk with the fellow Initiate.

"What rank do you think you're getting?"

"Did you see what Odessa did when she..."

And so on.

They would eventually find the cave entrance - where the tracks appeared to head into. At that sight, Aelita scratched her chin.

"You think we should set it on fire? A little fox hunting?" Aelita suggested - unaware that even if it drove Salak to emerge that he would likely not have his pin on him.

 

[Zephyrine]

Weight suddenly fell across her shoulders, but Zephyrine already knew by the sheer height of the boy beside her that it was Ivan. No longer the blushing and shy Initiate talking to the handsome Skender boy, his grin caused her to mirror it.

"Kress, Kraken's Bane," the moniker making her unable to stop the cheeky grin from growing, "going back onboard a ship after what happened to the last one you were on?" Zeph got comfortable beside him as they both made their way to the harbour. Seeing him walking and looking back to full health made her feel prideful in her magic and how much she was able to grow it in the past year. Healing had been the one thing she could not get right, but she learned about the body, practiced stitching the skin with itself, and used Ivan and his weakened state after being gone for so long after her birthday to expand on her Recreational magic to extend to healing.

She was no certified Healer, but she could at least make a quick fix. Zephyrine spent a good while working on Ivan, getting him healed day by day until he was now walking beside her, off to the last obligation that was their graduation.

"Never been on a boat before." She admitted. "But it looks rough enough that I can try to make it my own terrain too." That, and the fact she did not need to try so hard to graduate. Too many bodies were going gold, and Proctor Salak and his poisons were too easy of a feat for Zeph to bypass.

Silver, but this time, she wouldn't work alone. Of course, her feelings for Ivan conveniently made her forget that she was willing to undertake this mission alone, but he was right: they will have this in no time.

Ivan Skender | Zola

 

[Salak]

Salak laughed.
The writer of the book on birds he was reading, one Gemini Hutch, made a remarkable observation of the common Anirian pigeon, likening it to a flying rat which he thought was very witty.

Mieri
Aelita

 

[Livia Quinnick]

"Learn any new tricks while you've been gone?"

Hesitation danced at her lips, her eyes staring forward as she walked alongside Silas as they trailed slowly. Livia had kept up her training, and sparred plenty with Amelie seeing as it was Erodin that had sworn the oath to keep her safe. Amelie was a decent teacher, learning some new tricks, but none she could really explain to the boy she was in love with. Instead, she shrugged. "I learned so much... and still am. There are some places I have been to where I get to work more with the corruption magic... and I am barely scratching the surface that Henk helped me reach when..."

At this point, she picked the end of her braid that fell over her shoulder and gave it a wiggle to show the silvered locks. Corruption had leeched it of the dark brown hue the Quinnicks were known for. "Funny how things have changed since the dance... for us and my magicks." Back then, she would have settled for Proctor Salak's challenge and gone for bronze...

Before being one of the conditions to the negotiations Erodin and Amelie asked for, Livia would have settled for silver.

It was only this morning she felt confident in both of her magical powers that she could do this. That... and spite.

"Houri is going for gold. You sure coming along is a good idea?" Livia now turned to look at Silas, brows furrowed slightly.

Silas Artesto

 

[Houri]

G O L D T E A M

It was the largest group who strode out towards the city of Tollif. Gold had a way of calling to people, after all. Especially a group of teenagers who had for many years of their life been told that to accept anything less was failure.

Houri stopped when the rain began to fall.

Their small group had come to the edge of the dreary town. It looked ominous, crouched low into the countryside without a flicker of light or life. It reminded Houri of one of the stout horrible goblins she and Zaire had faced nearly a year ago now. Which of course filled her with even more desire to sink her sword into its belly.

"This won't be easy," she said with relish and a smile. With the rain already rolling in her wilder magic would be heightened to its peak. The weather bender couldn't have asked for a better setting. "Let's go."

 

[Zola]

S I L V E R T E A M

The ship groaned like a gnarled old man as the waves rocked it back and forth. The tattered remains of the sail barely stirred in the wind so torn was it that the wind could pass through without disturbing what little remained. From the dockside it would be clear that large parts of the deck were missing revealing ominous dark pits that seemingly plummeted right into the very bowels of the ship.

As the Initiates stood along the dockside, shadows would fall over them as at their backs the gibbets swayed. The remains of Dreadlords who fought against the republic still bound even in death, their pale skeletons reaching outwards as though help might still save them from their fate.

 

[Mieri]

Bronze
Aelita | Salak

Mieri was great at small talk. Probably the best, at least out of the Initiate's. By the time the two girls followed Salak's tracks and reached the cavern he had holed himself up in, Mieri had gotten onto the topic of one of her books. "So anyway, it's about these angels and they're really into one another. Like probably way too into one another, and there's this scene where they meet in the grand library and Sorelia-that's the lady angel- starts to undress behind the book case because she's due to me-"

Her voice cut off as they reached the entrance of the cavern, focus drawing to the darkness which stood just beyond the opening.

A frown pulled at her lips as Aelita immediately suggested fire; a tactic which was none-too surprising from the chaotic gremlin that she'd worked with in the Old Savannah. "Maybe."

Mieri said.

"But I think he'd probably leave the pins inside." The pugilist said, pointing out the rather obvious flaw in the plan. Though only realizing it herself because of a book she'd once read where someone did something similar but with a few hostages. "I think we go in as quiet as possible."

The Initiate contended as she began to stretch. Loosening her muscles and ligaments. "When we think we're getting close, then we set a fire."

She said. "You shoot one of those big lights at him."

Mieri continued her voice straining as she twisted her back.

"I run in and grab the pins while he's distracted." The Pugilist finished, a big smile blooming on her face. "How ready can he even be?"