[center][sub][h1][color=FFE4B5][u]J[/u][/color] [u]O[/u] [u]C[/u] [u]A[/u] [u]S[/u] [u]T[/u] [u]A[/u]   [color=FFE4B5][u]R[/u][/color] [u]E[/u][/h1][/sub][img]https://i.imgur.com/kd7nAfG.png?1[/img][h2]Mini-Chapters[/h2][/center]

[hider=Dark Winds][center][h2][u]D[/u] [u]A[/u] [u]R[/u] [u]K[/u]   [u]W[/u] [u]I[/u] [u]N[/u] [u]D[/u] [u]S[/u][/h2][/center][hr]There were some people who found the sound of thunder comforting or the patter of rain against the windows and rooftop soothing. Jocasta was not among them. At the refuge, rain had been rare. In the place she'd come from before then, storms had not happened. She did not like them and so this one kept her from sleep in a way that few things could.

As she lay awake in bed, cheek pressed against a warm, sweaty pillow, blankets tangled up in the parts of her that she could feel and those she could not, she thought of simply drugging herself with a relatively simple chemical spell. That would leave her vulnerable, though. Jocasta would [i]not[/i] let herself be left vulnerable. Instead, she reached out with her manas and swept the city for energies. The air positively hummed with Magnetic and, occasionally, it burst into a dazzling display as streaks of lightning flashed across the landscape, the fleeting ambient warmth creating loci of Arcane and Chemical alike. The Kinetic energy of falling rain and gusting wind was everywhere too and the young woman remarked inwardly that it was a shame she did not like storms. They provided such ample drawing opportunities. 

Then, she felt something else - something out of place. Numerous, fast-moving Kinetic and Chemical signatures streaked through the sky, spreading about campus and swirling up the sides of the Forked Tower: birds. She did not need to see them to know what they were. With some difficulty, Jocasta rolled onto her back and sat up in bed. A nearby flash of lightning brightened the sky and her room alike. Beyond the silhouettes of her desk, dresser, and wheeled-chair were crows, ravens, and magpies by the hundreds. She could both hear and sense a couple land by her housemates' windows: those two Eskandishwomen and the obnoxious Belzaggic boy who thought himself her better. None, however, came to Jocasta's window, and that bothered her. Why were [i]those[/i] people worthy when she was [i]not[/i]?[hr][hr][/hider]
[hider=Dark Wings][center][h2][u]D[/u] [u]A[/u] [u]R[/u] [u]K[/u]   [u]W[/u] [u]I[/u] [u]N[/u] [u]G[/u] [u]S[/u][/h2][/center][hr]Pulling free her covers, she swung herself into her wheeled-chair and rolled up to the sill. This was likely the thing that Grandfather and Aunt Verde had spoken of last week at the family luncheon. Absently, she wondered if Benedetto would be smart enough to recognize it. Truly, it would be no loss were he not. She knew that [i]she[/i] had to make herself part of it, though. Jocasta reached out with her hands and opened the window. Then, she reached out with her magic and pulled a crow from the sky. The ugly black bird squawked in alarm, but she drew the sound off and rendered it silent as she pulled it in. Once, twice, she turned it over in a Kinetic grasp, but there was nothing remarkable. She discarded it and picked another. This one was a magpie and she rendered it still. Nothing again. It too, she released, shaken but ultimately unharmed. Jocasta tried twice more, on a pair of ravens, without luck, and was about to give up when a crow flashed past her window with something very clearly clutched in its beak. This animal, she ripped from the air. It thrashed and clawed until she snapped its neck. Then it lay there, staring blankly up at her with beady black eyes that seemed to judge. Jocasta blinked. [color=FFE4B5][i]All things must die sooner or later,[/i][/color] she reminded herself. This one was dying in service of a worthy goal. She plucked the letter from its beak and tossed the carcass out the window without laying a hand upon it.

Greedy fingers unrolled the note and read it. It was a riddle. The answer was, clearly, 'a fork'. There was a time there too: 1:00 HI. Had they really expected to fool anyone with this? She shuddered to think of a person so stupid. The larger problem was that it was clearly referring to the 20.5th floor of the Forked Tower. Jocasta did not believe in half-floors, and so they could not hurt her, but twenty staircases could. Even drawing upon Kinetic magics, making it there would be an exhausting slog and perhaps not even physically possible. She furrowed her brow, drew from the motion of the rain outside, and floated free of her wheeled-chair. Doors and drawers opened. Clothes fluttered free of her body and then of shelves and hangers. In thirty seconds, Jocasta was dressed. Upstairs, she could hear others moving about: the chosen ones. She had made herself one of them, though. Destiny was for fools and lazy people.

The door of Zeno Zander Mozaru's townhome opened three times that night. First, it opened for Ingrid Penderson, who hurried off towards the Forked Tower ahead of her peers. Then, it opened for Jomur Ikon III and Marlijn Vaanse. Finally, it opened for Jocasta Re.[hr][hr][/hider]  
[hider=Dark Words][center][h2][u]D[/u] [u]A[/u] [u]R[/u] [u]K[/u]   [u]W[/u] [u]O[/u] [u]R[/u] [u]D[/u] [u]S[/u][/h2][/center][hr]Benedetto had found her, as he always did, and that irked Jocasta. She had hoped to be free of him. She had hoped he'd be too stupid, but he had killed a bird as well. Papa, Grandfather, and the others had told her that he was an integral part of the family, but she remained secretly unconvinced. Any member was to be ready to die for those above them if it became the only way to progress the family's ends. Jocasta knew what that meant for her. She also knew that Benedetto would not do it. She, herself, would only [i]willingly[/i] die for Mama, who had given her life, who had taken her from that awful place.

[color=7bcdc8][b]"So I have to haul your crippled ass up twenty flights of stairs!?"[/b][/color] Benedetto snorted. His umbrella could easily service two people, but he kept it for himself.

She knew of a way, of course, but it was a risk. She was a neophyte and could easily make a mistake that resulted in death or displacement. Still, it would be oh-so-sweet to make a fool of the vicious little prat. [color=FFE4B5][b]"You don't [i]have[/i] to do anything, Benedetto."[/b][/color] She shrugged. [color=FFE4B5][b]"I will manage myself or I will prove unworthy."[/b][/color] She could trip some sort of warning system or even just land awkwardly. Still, Jocasta was tempted.

[color=7bcdc8][b]"See, that's a much more practical approach to your disability,"[/b][/color] he replied, twisting slightly as he started to draw ahead of her. [color=7bcdc8][b]"Not making competent people cover for you."[/b][/color] 

Jocasta said nothing. She could kill him, of course, from kilometers away and he'd never see it coming. She could kill [i]anyone[/i]. She had learned that she was essentially a God that way. Yet the Tethering would also kill her - was presently [i]killing [/i]her - after stripping every shred of agency, independence, and dignity that she had. Meanwhile, Benedetto knocked a crow out of the sky with a thunderbolt and grinned gleefully. He struck a second and missed a third. He took his anger at the mistake out on three more at once, and they dropped to the ground, smoking. Jocasta only killed when it was necessary or in Mama's service. [color=7bcdc8][b]"Well, good luck,"[/b][/color] the boy taunted, [color=7bcdc8][b]"I'd say 'see you later', but I probably won't."[/b][/color][hr][hr][/hider] 
[hider=Dark Wizardry][center][h2][u]D[/u] [u]A[/u] [u]R[/u] [u]K[/u]   [u]W[/u] [u]I[/u] [u]Z[/u] [u]A[/u] [u]R[/u] [u]D[/u] [u]R[/u] [u]Y[/u][/h2][/center][hr]Jocasta was left alone in the rain. She would not dirty her hands by touching her wheels, instead drawing from the easy, ample sources of Kinetic energy all around to push herself and the device that she needed along. She arrived at the foot of the tower to find its powerful shielding magics missing. She lifted herself up the stairs in a Kinetic grasp and pushed the door open. Inside the anteroom, oil lamps flickered and the reception desk sat empty and unattended. A wooden sign hung on the wall near the base of a long spiral staircase that disappeared into the gloom. "103" it read, but then Jocasta sensed the collection of energies that accompanied a human being approaching. She turned to face it. A boy with a kind face and a striking scar offered her assistance, but she politely declined his offer and watched him disappear up the stairs. 

Instead, Jocasta reached out with her senses and, to her surprise, could feel nothing - no energies - beyond the immediate vicinity of the tower. She focused intently, as Papa had taught her, beyond the mundane energies, and felt the one that wrapped them all up in its wake. Surely enough, it was being sculpted in this place. It was subtle, masterful, and far beyond her limited capabilities, but space and time were different here. With a sort of unpracticed eagerness and alarm that she did not normally fall prey to, Jocasta set hands to wheels and rushed out the door. Forgetting to shield herself from the weather, she hovered down the steps and set herself on the flagstones. When she reached out, she could once again sense energy for miles. 

Rain pattered softly on her head, shoulders, and lap and Jocasta turned and reentered the tower. It was once again as if the world simply ended in the plaza just beyond the outside stairs. Regular magic users, with their range of perhaps a couple hundred yards, were unlikely to notice it but, as a Tethered, it was like losing one of her senses. The young Dorvalishwoman glanced once again at the daunting stairs and the little sign at their foot. She blinked. [color=FFE4B5][i]102,[/i][/color] she thought. Hadn't it been 103 before? The prospect of confirmation was not tempting enough for her to risk fiddling with the hands of time, especially when there may have been a true master about. She rolled right up to the foot of the staircase, however, and examined the sign. Surely enough, it had the most subtle of Binding magics at work. 

As she studied it, however, four numbers flipped by in rapid succession: 101, 100, 99, 98. She glanced around. She had assumed that it was tracking the number of people going up - counting down from a total expected. Yet, nobody had passed. What was the mechanism? Jocasta gathered a degree of energy and floated out of her wheeled-chair. She passed the sign and the number flicked down to 97. She came back and it returned to 98. [color=FFE4B5][i]So you [b]are[/b] counting people.[/i][/color] She was in a pocket dimension, then and the sign was counting people from many such dimensions. This was Arch-Zeno level magic. Even [i]Papa[/i] struggled with it.[hr][hr][/hider]
[hider=Dark Deeds][center][h2][u]D[/u] [u]A[/u] [u]R[/u] [u]K[/u]   [u]D[/u] [u]E[/u] [u]E[/u] [u]D[/u] [u]S[/u][/h2][/center][hr]Jocasta also realized that, with her and Benedetto present, there would be two people too many. Since he was likely too dumb to have noticed or too arrogant to have cared, it would fall to her to do something. She checked her pocketwatch. She had only half an hour remaining and was in the process of looking for a solution when it presented itself. A pair of Torragonese - a boy and a girl - brushed inside from the storm, their hooded cloaks dripping on the stone floor. [color=FFE4B5][b]"Hola,"[/b][/color] she addressed them, in her most pleasant voice. [color=FFE4B5][b]"Perdón por molestarte. ¿Podrías ayudarme a subir las escaleras?"[/b][/color] She knitted her hands pleadingly, demurely in lap. [color=FFE4B5][b]"Te prometo que no peso mucho. Puedo ayudar usando Magia Cinética."[/b][/color]

The pair introduced themselves as Selio Taraves and Linah Aranda and Jocasta followed with proper etiquette of her own. They compared their Raven notes with hers and she made the minimum, most tiresome amount of smalltalk with them. They weren't sure that they could help her without substantial input from her own manas, and the Dorvalishwoman gave it in the form of an internal Chemical spell that rendered both blessedly unconscious. They collapsed into twin heaps and, to be certain, she reached into their minds and scrubbed about an hour's worth of recent synaptic connections before tossing them outside into some nearby bushes.

Jocasta took a deep breath and spread her senses up and down the tower, feeling where tiny Kinetic explosions took place as rain met stone, feeling the warmth of sconces up and down the stairwell, building a mental image of its height and shape. Last of all, she felt the collection of energies that denoted the boy she had run into earlier, coming to a stop at what she assumed was the twentieth-and-a-half floor. She would aim for somewhere just beyond the curve of the stairwell from him. She closed her eyes and felt about for the great wrapping. It was strange in here: twisted and sculpted. It whisked through her grasp and she caught whatever she could. Disjointed images of possible futures flashed past. Flickers of a distant past: the setting of stones, the thousands of footfalls that had whispered up the stairs, conversations held in long-ago confidence, and then [i]her[/i]. Jocasta started and lost her grasp. [color=FFE4B5][i]Me. I was... here? A... hundred years ago?[/i][/color] She visibly shook her head to clear it. The girl in the wrapping was not her. It was someone else who bore an uncanny resemblance. It was... She did not know and it as pointless to speculate. That girl, too, had been Tethered, though. 

Annoyed with herself, Jocasta reached once more for the ribbon that wrapped itself around all things. This time, she aligned herself with it: a little girl playing hide-and-seek in the sparse Dorvalish forests, climbing olive and pistachio trees and picking their fruits, frolicking in the surf and spinning tales of the Lost City of Cervan with her friends; a preteen crying herself to sleep in a Tethered refuge, baking listlessly by a pool under the burning Torragonese sun, desperately strapping braces around legs that would no longer work; a runaway floating across the desert by night, her cloak billowing behind her, the moonlight casting her pale skin in bluish hues; a starving murderer with little remorse, cooking and eating the flesh of the enforcer they'd sent out to return her to her prison; a girl again, in Mama's arms, a trainee, valued for what she could do if not who she was; finally, a girl in a tower, grasping at the ribbons of time and space. She latched on and pulled. The world disappeared and she found the place in the tower: a floor down from the boy with the scar. Moments later, as if materialized from thin air, she appeared there, settling with an awkward clunk on the landing outside a door.[hr][hr][/hider]
[hider=Dark Summons][center][h2][u]D[/u] [u]A[/u] [u]R[/u] [u]K[/u]   [u]S[/u] [u]U[/u] [u]M[/u] [u]M[/u] [u]O[/u] [u]N[/u] [u]S[/u][/h2][/center][hr]For at least the second time tonight, Jocasta found herself transported by Temporal Magic. It was one thing when she, herself, was holding the reins, but quite another when she was at someone else's mercy.  

It had been a problem of arithmetic that brought her here. She, the boy with the scar, and three others had solved it. They'd not been allowed to speak, but had Jocasta sensed one of the idiots opening their mouth to do so prematurely, she'd have forcefully shut it for them. 

They were in a vast room with floors' worth of bookshelves and a lifetime's collection of magical knowledge. It was the sort of thing that she, of course, would never own, yet the girl was still young enough, still possessed of enough wonder, that she could not stop her eyes from wandering for at least a moment. That was, until they seized upon the stained-glass windows set high against the vaulted wall at the far end of the room. Daylight streamed in through them and Jocasta reached out with her senses immediately. She could feel the warmth of sunlight, the motion of birds, insects, and animals outside; the bustle of energies in a small village; and, at the far periphery of her sensing range, the distant crash of waves against a rocky shore. They were in an entirely different part of the world - perhaps... even in a different [i]time[/i]! There was something odd about the village. The 'people' were... different: larger, and the energies that should've denoted animals were... not.

So engrossed was Jocasta, so overwhelmed by her discovery, that she cast about for a doorway so that she could rush outside and see for herself. She placed her hands on her wheels in eagerness, half turning, and it took her a moment to notice that there were far more than five people surrounding her. Indeed, there were twenty-five in all, including Benedetto and the boy she'd met at the Stresian Guild the previous week: Onarr. Many of them were just as awestruck as she was, though most were far worse at hiding it. Then, she saw that one had approached the twenty-[i]sixth[/i].[hr][hr][/hider] 
[hider=Dark Tidings][center][h2][u]D[/u] [u]A[/u] [u]R[/u] [u]K[/u]   [u]T[/u] [u]I[/u] [u]D[/u] [u]I[/u] [u]N[/u] [u]G[/u] [u]S[/u][/h2][/center][hr]Jocasta had seen him only once in person - at the intake ceremony a couple of weeks before - but he was instantly recognizable, even from behind a group of other people. [color=FFE4B5][b]"Hugo Hunghorasz"[/b][/color] she mouthed, almost silently. Her Dorvalish tongue struggled somewhat with its pronunciation, but it was clear enough in her mind.  

[color=DC143C][b]"Paradigm Hunghorasz!"[/b][/color] an improbably tall girl gushed. [color=DC143C][b]"S-Such an honor to meet you! Ever since I was young I had read your work and I must say it had a profound effect on my choice for a field of study. Your early papers are remarkable, well beyond our time and part of what inspired my research into the link between blood and the gift! I- "[/b][/color] She appeared to recover her better nature at the very doorstep of making a [i]complete [/i]fool of herself. [color=DC143C][b]"... We thank you for extending to us this opportunity. We shall do our very best to prove your faith in us was not in vain."[/b][/color]

Jocasta raised an eyebrow. Assumptions were being made here, but they were likely correct to some degree. She knew that Papa had once worked with the Paradigm. They were no longer friends, she also knew, but not enemies either. Then, before the Arch-Zeno could even reply, a second of Jocasta's fellow students spoke. If the first had raised some suspicions that she might be an idiot, this one left no doubt whatsoever: [color=gold][b]"Uh, sorry sir, I'm not very familiar with you, so sorry if I butcher your name. Paradigm Hung'horas, I was wondering if you were the one in the crow?"[/b][/color]

The ancient wizard let out a cackling laugh of genuine amusement. [color=7ea7d8][b]"Ah! Good! Very good, boy! I hope I've made a memorable first impression, then. Nice to see I might still be judged for my actions instead of my name by some. As for the crows, I was not in anything, merely guiding them to do a job. You do not give enough credit to such intelligent beasts."[/b][/color] He turned towards the first who'd addressed him, mirth fading from his wizened features. [color=7ea7d8][b]"If I have been some inspiration,"[/b][/color] the ancient man began, [color=7ea7d8][b]"I am glad of it."[/b][/color] He nodded and the shadow of what might've been a smile crossed his face briefly. [color=7ea7d8][b]"However, rest assured that this is not a reward, though there is ample opportunity for rich personal advantage if you are resourceful."[/b][/color] He went for his staff and something like a smirk was evident on his aged face. [b][color=7ea7d8]"I will not begrudge you it either, nor will I begrudge you walking out that door if you must."[/color][/b] He gestured towards it and Jocasta immediately knew that it would not take her outside but likely back to the tower. [color=7ea7d8][b]"The noisy seabirds who wear crowns and laurels are all busy squawking at each other right now. They haven't noticed the storm, nor the waves, nor the hunters approaching and I am quite convinced that they are entirely unable. The threat to our world is genuine and serious."[/b][/color] He shook his head. [color=7ea7d8][b]"Yet, the academy, too, have their heads up their arses just now. They won't commit their best people for fear of bringing into question their political neutrality and 'tainting' their 'air of detached majesty'."[/b][/color] He snorted derisively. [color=7ea7d8][b]"Bloody fools. They wouldn't know 'majesty' if it came up and spat in their faces."[/b][/color] He sighed, shuffling on the spot to take the entire group in. [color=7ea7d8][b]"They have pushed me out to pasture in my platinum years,"[/b][/color] he grumbled, [color=7ea7d8][b]"simple as that. They have said that I could have 'some students' on 'weekends', so here you are and I hope you can be of use."[/b][/color] He let out a dry, bitter chuckle and took a couple of steps, leaning on his staff. They were slow but surprisingly steady for someone of his extremely advanced years. [i][color=FFE4B5]If we have a footrace, Mr. Paradigm,[/color][/i] Jocasta thought blasphemously, [color=FFE4B5][i]I just might be in with a chance.[/i][/color] 

He waved a hand almost dismissively and the table, which had appeared large enough to seat about ten, suddenly stretched across the room, replete with chairs for all. [color=7ea7d8][b]"If you take a seat, we will discuss particulars. If you do not wish to, then you may leave now."[/b][/color][hr][hr][/hider]
[hider=Dark Memories][center][h2][u]D[/u] [u]A[/u] [u]R[/u] [u]K[/u]   [u]M[/u] [u]E[/u] [u]M[/u] [u]O[/u] [u]R[/u] [u]I[/u] [u]E[/u] [u]S[/u][/h2][/center][hr]The group around Jocasta dispersed rapidly and, as always, it took her a moment to follow suit. None, it seemed, were headed for the door. However, before she could make it to the table and discard a chair that she would not need, her senses gave her the distinct warning prickle that they always did when someone was looking her way. Jocasta looked up and the Paradigm himself was staring straight at her: straight [i]through[/i] her. Their eyes met for a moment and there was something in his that it took a second for her to place: [color=FFE4B5][i]Pain?[/i][/color] She blinked and pushed herself forward. [color=FFE4B5][i]Longing? Regret?[/i][/color] she ventured. [color=FFE4B5][b][i]...Love?[/i][/b][/color] The entire episode lasted for less than a second but she found herself genuinely unnerved. Worse still, it seemed as if others were so in awe of the Paradigm that most of the unclaimed seats were quite close to him. With little choice, she rolled up to one and slid it out of the way with some Kinetic magic.

[color=7ea7d8][b]"E-Enna?"[/b][/color] the old man inquired softly, his eyes and bearing growing indistinct, hopeful, uncertain. [color=7ea7d8][b]"I-is that..."[/b][/color] He trailed off and blinked, scanning her up and down. Jocasta wrapped arms around herself warily and the ancient wizard shook his head and cleared his throat. [b][color=7ea7d8]"My... most sincere apologies young lady,"[/color][/b] he said after a moment. [color=7ea7d8][b]"You bear... a truly uncanny resemblance to somebody else I know."[/b][/color] He paused. [color=7ea7d8][b]"Or... knew."[/b][/color] He added the last part almost under his breath. 

Jocasta bowed her head slightly. [color=FFE4B5][i]Lecherous senile old man![/i][/color] His eyes had been... [color=FFE4B5][i]That is not the way a master looks at a student.[/i][/color] Few men had ever done it, but she knew, almost instinctively, how he'd regarded her for a moment. [color=FFE4B5][b]"All is forgiven, Master Zeno,"[/b][/color] she assured him, carefully modulating her voice. [color=FFE4B5][b]"Though I must say I'm surprised you've met another... like me."[/b] [i]The girl from when I reached for time![/i][/color] an internal voice screamed at her. [color=FFE4B5][i]It has to be![/i][/color]

Their conversation was soft enough that it did not carry amid the bustle of everyone taking their seats. He smiled understandingly. [color=7ea7d8][b]"When you're as old as I am,"[/b][/color] he sighed, [color=7ea7d8][b]"you've met a great many people of a great many sorts."[/b][/color]

[color=FFE4B5][i]But I will [b]never[/b] be as old as you,[/i][/color] Jocasta thought bitterly, an open wound rubbed with fresh salt. She was about to fake some friendly, noncommittal response when he seemed to realize his miscue. [color=7ea7d8][b]"I'm sorry, dear girl. Sometimes, you know, I forget things at my age. I'd not meant to reopen a wound."[/b][/color]

Jocasta knit her hands in front of her and nodded soberly. [color=FFE4B5][b]"There is nothing I can do but live the life the Gods have given me the best that I am able,"[/b][/color] she replied with a note of determined dignity. [color=FFE4B5][b]"That's why I'm here, after all!"[/b][/color]

He appeared to study her for a split second and he seemed somehow sharper than a moment ago, as if he'd recovered himself somewhat. [color=7ea7d8][b]"Well, yes indeed,"[/b][/color] he replied shortly. [color=7ea7d8][b]"Oh, and how rude of me. I neglected to ask your name."[/b][/color]

[color=FFE4B5][b]"Right, yes sir. Jocasta, sir. Jocasta Re."[/b][/color]

[color=7ea7d8][b]"Jocasta Sir or Jocasta Re?"[/b][/color] he joked and she did not dare call upon chemical magic to fake a blush in the presence of so eminent a mage. [color=7ea7d8][b]"Heh, not my best work,"[/b][/color] he admitted after a moment. [color=7ea7d8][b]"Now, all seem gathered and I must address them, but you and I should speak later. You have a rare talent, I can sense, and I may be able to help you with it."[/b][/color]

[color=FFE4B5][i]A rare talent?[/i][/color] Jocasta was left wondering. She'd done her best to seem as mundane as possible, Tethered gifts and curse aside. Could he have sensed it? Could he have known that she, too, could use Temporal magic? The girl's stomach began to fold in on itself in worry.[hr][hr][/hider]
[center][h3]Summary[/h3][/center]
[center]-- [u][b]Nonessential Reading[/b][/u] --[/center]
1. Jocasta occupies the same Master's house as Marlijn, Ingrid, and Jomurr. However, unlike them, she does not receive a bird-borne letter.
2. Instead, Jocasta yanks a bird from the sky, kills it as it struggles, and figures out the riddle for herself.
3. She runs into Benedetto, also on his way there, and they have an unfriendly exchange before he ditches her.
4. She recognizes Temporal magic being used at the Forked Tower and recognizes that people are being counted as they enter.
5. She knocks out Selio and Linah and dumps them outside in some bushes to account for her and Benedetto entering. Then, she uses lower-level Temporal magic to teleport up past the stairs.
[center]-- [u][b]Essential Reading[/b][/u] --[/center]
6. Jocasta realizes that she and the twenty-four others are in a profoundly different place and maybe even time.
7. [b]Trypano and Desmond both address Hugo Hunghorasz and he responds. Then, he outlines why everyone is there and gives people the opportunity to leave.[/b]
8. Jocasta and Hugo have a slightly unsettling personal interaction that ties into his past and her future.

[hr][hr][center][h1]Dark Wings, Dark Words: Part Two[/h1][/center][hr]When everyone had gathered at the table, Hugo Hunghorasz raised his arms slightly for silence and, indeed, the air seemed to deaden to sound. [color=7ea7d8][b]"If you remain here, I will assume that you are all interested in what I have to show you."[/b][/color] He nodded, businesslike, and rose. With his staff, he traced a circle in the air at the head of the table. For a moment, it shimmered translucently. Then, in a space that had looked no different from any other mere moments ago, there appeared a scene of what looked like the inside of a large gambling house by night. People moved about inside of it and noise poured outward. [color=7ea7d8][b]"Don't worry,"[/b][/color] the ancient mage advised, [color=7ea7d8][b]"This is a portal, but they can neither see nor hear us."[/b][/color] he shuffled around slowly to face the other side and drew a similar circle. An empty dock and water sparkling under the light of three moons appeared. Distant sounds of conversation and heavy objects being moved could be heard. [color=7ea7d8][b]"The first is in Feska, on a riverboat gambling house,"[/b][/color] Hugo shared. [color=7ea7d8][b]"The second is on the Isla D'Amato, a notorious den of pirates."[/b][/color] He took a few more steps and a third appeared, which he described as the house of an eminent figure and strong ally who was about to be murdered by 'agents of chaos'. 

He straightened and, after a moment, all three portals disappeared. [color=7ea7d8][b]"In all three places, a crisis is brewing. A riot is about to break out in the first and a priceless item has been stolen. In the second case, strange happenings are afoot with the pirates and they have taken a captive of immeasurable value. In the third, someone who could do immeasurable good is about to die."[/b][/color] Gingerly, the old man sat back down. He gestured and, with the flick of a finger, a folder flew off of a distant shelf, and separated into twenty-six separate pages in midair as it made its way over. These settled gently in front of the gathered students and the Paradigm himself. [color=7ea7d8][b]"You have, in front of you, the details of all situations. I have called each of you here because I felt you were the most capable, by various metrics, among the student body, but that does not mean that I shall call upon every one of you in each instance. The teams that are to handle each situation have been carefully chosen. Each will have precisely half an hour to plan and prepare before I reopen the portals for departure. Should you require any specific items, do not hesitate to ask and, [i]within reason[/i], they will be procured for you."[/b][/color]

The aged wizard motioned towards a petite woman with dirty-blonde hair seated in a wheeled-chair to his left. [color=7ea7d8][b]"If those items are on campus, you will step outside the door with Jocasta here, and she will assist you with them. If not, you will come to me."[/b][/color]

What happened next was a hive of activity, questions, and organized chaos. The students who looked down at their papers would note their assigned situations and objectives there.
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[b][u]Situation One - Lorentine Queen:[/u][/b] Carmillia Carbonneau, Manfred Hohenfelter, Dorothea Hohnstein, Seung Eun-Ji, Leon Solaire, Zarra Travendour.

[b][u]Situation Two - Black Flag:[/u][/b] Desmond Catulus, Benedetto Corvi, Ismet'ych'lahin'dichora, Wyvsen Myranne, Karim Nazeri, Ingrid Penderson, Trypano Somia, Onarr Yidlob.

[b][u]Situation Three - The Lord's Manor:[/u][/b] Jomurr Ikon III, Amirah Madasseh Al-Khatib, Penny Pellegrin, Carlo Spalazzi, Marlijn Vaanse, Owain Vaanse

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