[hider=Original, and terrible, post]	Sunder watched the Necromancer, wary and cautious. He himself was cloaked in over three dozen different spells, the most draining being one that hid all signs of his presence- magical or otherwise. He was invisible in almost every way, and that is, perhaps, the only thing that has saved him. Even with the spell, he had been nearly found three different times in the past six months. Three times is four times too many.

	He watched the ritual- he was too far to make out the words the Necromancer spoke, but he doubted he could understand them even if he did. Many Necromancers relied a bit more on demons and darker magic than they do with traditional spellmaking- brute force and remembering a specific spell, rather than understanding them and gaining a capability to change them on the fly. Magical auras and particles didn't faze him in the least- even if he sweeped a field of sparks around him, to detect anything out of place, his spells would compensate. It was too complex a spell for a Necromancer to learn- they were too impatient and insane to pause and really [i]study[/i] such a complex piece- but it didn't hurt to be prepared.

	He had been gathering his energy for days- unusual for a Necromancer, who often shot off bolts of pure magic left and right based on some strange sixth-sense. They were always undoubtedly more powerful than even he, but never as powerful as when they just let their energy build- which also led to an increasingly unstable insanity.

	Speaking of- he just pulled a girl right out of the void! He shouldn't be able to do that, unless he made some sort of deal with Those Who Will Not Be Named, as they are called in the 'higher' circles of magicians. Which means that this man was significantly more dangerous than previously imagined...

	...And that girl had something incredible about her, to draw the attention of a Necromancer. And he expended no small amount of energy and mana to get her.

	He watched, grimly, as she seemed to assume the man to be only a man, and not at all one of the much more pressing and dangerous Necromancers to roam the Barren lands. She was either a complete fool and so painfully ignorant and stupid that she didn’t deserve to live- or she had no idea about Necromancers, period, because they were not relevant wherever she was from.

	Which suggested that maybe there were indeed places where they successfully suppressed such humanity-threatening dangers like the Necromancers.

	Which suggested that she could know [i]something[/i] that would save the Allied Lands. Maybe. But enough to be worth the risk.

	Straightening a little bit, he swung his arms a little to loosen up, to prepare. Mentally filing through his many memorized spells, he assembled a collection to be cast, in sequence. He couldn’t, of course, cast multiple spells at once- that would result in them mutating with each other, or simply just dying out- but he was one of the quickest casters in the known world. He mentally modified a few of the spells to suit the needs of the situation, and then cut off the mana supply to his aura spells- the one keeping him absurdly protected and invisible.

	Almost immediately, the Necromancer, standing in the doorway of the old building, spun around at the sudden sense of a powerful rival. A moment later, the world went white in a great blast of light and sound- a resounding crack of lightning, almost, accompanied by a flash bright enough to rival a floodlight. Necromancers were very hard to hit, with their powerful wards, but they didn’t usually set up wards against extreme light or sound.

	A moment later, Sunder popped in with a short teleportation spell, almost right next to the blinded and stunned foreign girl, and leaped forward. He heard a yell- an inhuman, ghastly sound of an eldritch Necromancer trying to stop months’ of work- as he threw his arms around the girl, tackling her. A moment later, he activated his second-to-last spell, releasing a shockwave powerful enough to bring the building down, given a minute or so, and then teleported out again.

	And all was quiet for a moment, before the building started to collapse onto the Necromancer and his guard.

[hr][hr]

 	A resounding [i]boom[/i] echoed across the countryside, bouncing off of the great stone structure dominating the southern area of its source. Not a moment later, Sunder and the girl appeared, having traveled something like two hundred miles in a single second. 

	Thirty eight heads turned and stared at them, in various stages of unloading their luggage from carts and carriages, to carrying them up stone steps, to entering the white stone walls of Whitehall Academy’s great pillared entry gate. Eight of these heads belonged to the various staff and faculty of the Academy. One of those heads belonged to the Whitehall Academy Grandmaster, flanked by two Wardens- the golem magical peacekeepers of the school.

	The Grandmaster didn’t have a moment to even question a Lone Power’s sudden appearance with a decidedly foreign girl, wearing foreign clothing, before Sunder started talking.

	“Good day, friend! You know the transfer student I was speaking of, yester-day? Well, here she is! I do have some things to work out before I leave her here, of course, so if we could continue our conversation in more private quarters? I’ll be sending a servant later with her items.”

	He flashed a smile at the Grandmaster, who immediately smiled back, taking the hint and playing along. Sunder didn’t come by without reason.[hr][center][img] https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/564x/28/24/7a/28247a8608fecd092cdea2876441453e.jpg[/img][/center][hr]	The two Wardens watched both of them warily, but said nothing as they accompanied their master. Several more were seen wandering the hallways, each of them pointedly staring at the unexpected guests.

	Sunder made a point- with a very steely eyed gaze that didn’t threaten, but rather promised a punishment of the extreme if the girl he brought didn’t cooperate- to tell the girl to just come with him and he’ll explain everything she needed to know. After that, he and the Grandmaster talked easily of matters of little importance- to either of them as well as in general- until they reached the Grandmaster’s office.

	The first thing the Grandmaster did was walk around to his desk- well-crafted but plain oak, with nothing on its surface- and touch its surface. After a moment, the Grandmaster started asking the girl questions.

	“So, from what I can understand thus far, you are not from here. Is that correct? And if it is, who are you? Where are you from?”

	Sunder nodded, and added in, “You’re not even from this world, are you?”[/hider]

	Sunder watched the Necromancer in the dying light, wary and cautious. He himself was cloaked in over three dozen different low-power passive spells, the most draining  of them hiding all signs of his presence- magical or otherwise. He was invisible in almost every way, and that is, perhaps, the only thing that has saved him. Even with the spell, he had been nearly found three different times in the past six months. Three times is four times too many.

	He watched the ritual- he was too far to make out the words the Necromancer spoke, but he doubted he could understand them even if he did. Many Necromancers relied a bit more on demons and darker magic than they do with traditional spellmaking- brute force and remembering a specific spell, rather than understanding them and gaining a capability to change them on the fly. Magical auras and particles didn't faze him in the least- even if he sweeped a field of sparks around him, to detect anything out of place, his spells would compensate. It was too complex a spell for a Necromancer to learn- they were too impatient and insane to pause and really [i]study[/i] such a complex piece- but it didn't hurt to be prepared.

	He had been gathering his energy for over a week, day and night- unusual for a Necromancer, who often shot off bolts of pure magic left and right based on some strange sixth-sense. They were always undoubtedly more powerful than even he, but never as powerful as when they just let their energy build- which also led to an increasingly unstable insanity.

	And then, right out of the blue, the Necromancer switched up his act, wandering a little bit before, but now bolting straight for this place, and reaching it in the dead of the twilight. Formerly a magical academy, back before the Necromancers laid everything living to waste in the area, this place was something of a curse. Hundreds of students and dozens of masters had died here, studying and researching some of the more complex arts known to humanity- and he could feel the eyes of the dead, watching him. 

	It was here that he sensed [i]something[/i]- an unnatural shift of energies, and the presence of something very [i]different[/i] from this world. The unworldly shift and presence dissipated quickly enough, but there was a faint residue left from it.

	Peering closer, he focused more on the physical world than the magical senses of his- and found that there was now a new member to their team. A girl. 

	It didn’t take long for her to bolt away from the Necromancer, who had stood over here like some demanding sentinel, and, predictably enough, she screamed and stopped dead.

	Who was she? What was she wearing, and where did she come from? She undoubtedly wasn’t of this world- there wouldn’t be such a shift in mana- and the Necromancer had a very notable interest, based on how quickly he subdued her, and began marching her inside.

	Speaking of! He couldn’t keep tabs on them if he decided to settle here- he’d be detected far too quickly, once the Necromancer started prepping the area to be his safe haven. He didn’t know why, but he felt like this was the end of the line for this journey-  that this Necromancer will be staying here for some time before going on with whatever plans he had. 

	Which meant that it was time to go- he had a location, and this Necromancer was likely to stay here. He needed to relieve himself, get out of the stress of shadowing a Necromancer with your mana constantly being drawn upon, and he had some sort of resource to further his goals- the girl.

	There was clearly one thing he could do to disrupt the Necromancer, and maybe delay whatever horrid thing he had in store for humanity.

	He cut energy to all his stealth spells, immediately revealing his magical presence. The wind once more brushed against him; before, the air had stopped dead and been thoroughly ‘filtered’ before being able to pass through his magical fields. Now, he only had his combat protections.

	The Necromancer whipped around at the sudden magical presence, firing off a burst of raw mana that tore into the ground where Sunder just was, distorting trees and sending dirt flying. Sunder, however, wasn’t there- he had already triggered a short-range teleportation spell.

	There was a flash of light, and Sunder was standing right next to the Necromancer, as the eldritch abomination fired off another, more confused blast of magic at where the magician just was. Sunder, just out of the cloaked man’s view, on the opposite side of him from his bodyguard, slugged the Necromancer in the jaw, sending the thing into a stagger- and, truly, no Necromancer ever expected anyone to [i]punch[/i] rather than to send a fireball. Sunder followed it up with a flashbang spell- sheltering himself and the girl a bare moment beforehand. The punch-stun combination was enough to send both Necromancer and his bodyguard reeling- but he could already feel a pulse of pure magic sheltering the Necromancer now, something that would mutate his hand beyond recognition if he dared to punch the creature now.

	So instead he turned around, knowing that the only reason he’s ‘winning’ is because he wasn’t directly engaging the Necromancer, and tackled the girl. Sensing a burst of magic- likely combat magic- behind him, he closed his eyes and triggered his last spell for the day before they even touched the ground.

[hr][hr]

	With a dull [i]thwump![/i] magician and teenager crashed to hard wooden flooring, surrounded by strong, sturdy, tapestried stone walls. The castle room was bare beside the thin rug that slightly cushioned the teleport’s passengers’ crash, and Sunder wasted no time in releasing the girl and rolling to his feet. Quickly, now, he checked the wards of his castle, making sure that his teleport was untraced and untraceable, as well as its status itself and using the advanced spells  embedded in the tower’s hearthstone to ‘scan’ his new guest.

	According to the tower, she was no threat. According to his own senses, she wasn’t a threat- even if she did have an unusually large well of mana for such a young woman. According to his eyes, she was bruised and battered, especially having been tackled and with her hands tied.

	So, crouching down, he offered a hand and a grim expression.

	“Apologies, miss. I only had seconds left to spare before your fate became sealed, so I acted on what I best knew. I am known as Sunder, and I am a Lone Power of the Allied Lands. If you would trust me for a brief few minutes, I’ll release you from your bonds and attempt to heal any injuries you might’ve taken.”