[b]Hour 1[/b]

Though his physical capabilities had gone up somewhat, Yalen agreed to stay behind and house sit with his fellow tethered. While Jocasta used her temporal magic to move melons around, he and Jodi checked various points of interest with their tethered senses, which easily covered the entirety of the school. Until the tactical situation changed, they constantly tried to detect any fluctuations that gave away the presence of an elemelon. 

Yalen's first sweep reveals nothing in his targeted locations, but he resolves to return to it in a minute or two, continuing to monitor. A few sweeps later, however, Jocasta starts. "Trypano's got the firemelon!" she exclaims, backing up a push and half-turning. There's the by-now-familiar feel of a temporal draw and a hole in spacetime opens.

At right around the same time, he feels a powerful magnetic jolt in the Grand Library as someone hit pay dirt. "Library!" he shouts.
Within moments, Jodi strikes gold as well. "Big kinetic rrrush at the overlook, right up by the Proving grounds. Guessing it's cloud or terra."

As soon as the elemelon signals were detected, Yalen and Jodi ceased their scanning of the city and enacted the next step of their plan. The two tethered used their channeling to create floating orbs of light above the cloudmelon and thundermelon. At the same time, Jocasta was creating similar looking decoys elsewhere when she wasn't preoccupied with portalling. While their own team knew which colors to look for, anyone trying to use the beacons to follow the melons would have to either split their forces or hope the one closest to them was the correct one. No matter what happened, the holders of the prized melons had huge targets hovering over their heads. 

[b]Hour 2[/b]

With the thundermelon's interception unsuccessful, Yalen ceased his attempt to follow it and went back to passively observing the city. When the supreme melon's signature energy burst went off, practically everyone in Ersand'Enise with a talent for magic felt it no matter where they were. When he saw the beam of light outside the window, he asked Jocasta to teleport him straight to where it was. The fastest way to identify who was in possession of it was with his own eyes. 

When he dropped out of the portal near the Arches' residence he was surprised to find his own team exiting the building. They appeared to be scrambling to figure out how to get the melon home without everyone in the city dropping on top of them. They had to hurry up before other temporal mages arrived on the scene.

After joining heads the combined brains of Carmillia, Dante, and Yalen birthed a simple but possibly effective plan. The five students joined in a huddle and swapped some of their melons around before they each broke off from the group, everyone taking their own separate route back to Mozaru's residence. But this time, something had changed. After a brief flicker, there was not one, but TWO melons emitting a beam of light. Yalen possessed one, while Jemar held the other. Everyone else had normal melons in their arms, but the five of them ran home with an equal amount of urgency. 

[b]Hour 3[/b]

Yalen's mad dash for the finish line is interrupted when out of nowhere he begins to feel very nauseous. It's like there's a fly buzzing inside his ear. He momentarily loses his sense of balance and drops to one knee. 

He looks up to find that he is being assailed by his friend Ayla and an unknown Yasoi. His heart wrenches momentarily when he realizes what he has to do, but he steels his mind for battle by reminding himself this is all just a friendly competition.

Ayla keeps her distance at first and lets the two boys lock horns while she supports from afar. Through illusion and internal chemical magic, Ashon tries to overwhelm Yalen's senses and force him to concede the fight. However, the young monk is a fairly capable chemical mage himself. After a brief confrontation, Yalen is able to overwhelm his opponent and put him into a magical slumber.

Without her friend to back her up Ayla is forced to fight solo, but she is more capable than she seems. Her sonic magic is not something Yalen is capable of fighting back against, and she practically dances circles around him. Despite his best efforts to rebuff her, he is eventually beaten. 

After politely claiming his melon, Ayla collects Ashon and departs. When they are gone, he closes his eyes and searches with his mind for someone he knows is very close by. After all, it was part of her role. He runs over to a tree a short distance away and whistles, prompting Brandi to jump down with her melon still cradled in hand. 

"Change of plans." Yalen told her before leaning to her ear and muttering something secretive. The Weggosi gal raised an eyebrow but shrugged and tossed the melon his way. As soon as he took possession of it the melon began emitting the telltale rod of light belonging to the Melon Supreme. Brandi ran off in the direction of Zeno Mozaru's house, leaving the priest to do his own thing. Rather than follow her lead he detoured south to take a longer route back home, hoping it would take him further away from the scrap happening nearby. 

Yalen is able to make it back much of the way before he runs into the robed figure of a Black Rezaindian. "Hail, brother," says the tall, unusually pale man. "Unfortunately, I will be needing a look at that melon you're carrying. This is a competition, after all." He smiles regretfully. "But first, if I may bother you, I would like to have a word about a matter of great import to the church." A turquoise hundrian appears beside him, shapely beneath her ecclesiastical attire. "I promise that there is no deception on our part, brother dordian. We do not much care for the worldly matter of winning this competition, so long as we do not embarrass the holy see. There is a sickness in this school, however, and we would beg your help in rooting it out."

[b]Hour 4[/b]

Yalen instinctively takes a step back at the sight of the agents from Covenant, then freezes in place. Something in his gut tells him that he can't hope to escape from here, much less win a battle against two prodigies of the Holy See. Not by himself. There was also something indescribably alien about the man that the boy could sense, but he could not explain it. Until the situation changes he decides to try and talk things out, but he does not let go of the glowing melon.

"Speak your piece brother. We both serve the church above all other matters. I trust in your integrity."

"Your trust is not misplaced, brother," the hundrian assures him. "I am called Sister Cadence. This is Brother Ash. None shall interfere with us."

There is something strange about Ash. Yalen has sensed it in others before, in passing, but this man screams it in a way that they do not. "We are here in search of two individuals, around you- our age, little discernible background, but likely rather tragic and otherwise inscrutable. Both with exceptionally high capacity numbers."

"We are also here," continued Cadence, bleeding anxiety, "in search of a lost artifact." She glanced about furtively. "I hesitate to even speak it, but it is a tome - an ancient one in which a demon and its dark secrets were sealed many years ago. It was being transported from Kerremand by way of Feska when disaster befell its ship near the mouth of Dami's Eye. The tome was stolen and now this foul magic may be loose."

"In the wrong hands," warned Ash, "it could prove catastrophic. Innocents will suffer."

"You wouldn't have noticed anything amiss?" Cadence entreated, "Anything suspicious?"

Yalen listened very carefully to Brother Ash. He wasn't a fool. It was easy to deduce that one of their targets was Jocasta. As his mind raced to process the situation, for a second it occurred to him they might be trying to investigate her past wrongdoings. It was a moral quandrary that he was not prepared to address with a couple of strangers, Holy See or not. Jocasta was his friend, and exposing her to any organization that showed an interest her would be a betrayal of their trust.

He didn't make it a habit of lying to people, but his heart rate and body temperature were already raised considerably by his physical exertions. Even if one of them was using the Gift to sense any tells they would be hard pressed to do so. 

"There are many standouts present within the school. Surely you've encountered the man from Cubed? I don't know anyone personally who might fit your description. I fear I have no useful leads for you." Yalen shook his head regretfully.

"As for the book you seek, I cannot say I've heard of it." It was the truth. Carmillia had not revealed the book's existence to him. He was not aware of her secrets. "Perhaps you should try to secure a place in the Forked Tower. There are unusual relics on display in the prize pool." Yalen took a few steps toward his colleagues and held his melon out, waiting for them to respond. He had no intention of resisting.

Brother Ash sniffed the air for a moment in a very... unhuman manner. He and Cadence exchanged a glance. Then, the former smiled, and it was a bit too large. The latter clasped her hands understandingly. "We are sorry for any distress we may have caused you, Dordian. Please be on the lookout, though." She shook her head concernedly, glancing over her shoulder. "The people we have spoken about are terribly dangerous and subversive, wolves in sheep's clothing."

"I would hate for more innocents to have to die," added brother Ash, eyes on Yalen for a moment. He shook his head sadly after a long moment. "They have killed many times before and will do so again, when least expected." His fists clenched and unclenched. 

"Now, shall we escort you back to you base?" offered Sister Cadence. "As my dear friend here mentioned earlier, we have little interest in winning... so long as we finish ahead of that team from Verrano," she grumbled. The smile was back after a moment. So was Ash's.

Yalen was hesitant to go along with these folks despite their common allegiance. Brother Ash's behavior was unnerving. Was everyone in the holy city this enigmatic? Despite his misgivings he knew it would look suspicious if he tried to avoid them now, so he had no choice but to return to base. Otherwise, they might do something much more forceful to get him to talk. Hopefully they would be satisfied with taking him to the front door and no further. Strangely they didn't seem that interested in the melon in his hands, but they did say they weren't here to win.

"Your kindness is appreciated friends. If you would." Yalen gave them a shallow bow and changed course to Zeno Mozaru's house, with his new escorts following from a polite distance. Yalen is promptly and kindly returned in working order to his base. Nobody nearby seems to want to interfere with him. It's... almost eerie. The Covenant members sniff around the perimeter of his base for a bit before leaving.

[b]Hour 5[/b]

Yalen thanks the Covenant members for their assistance and rejoins the majority of his team that has elected to protect the base. He is grateful that, at least for the time being, he has managed to avoid a third party conflict. He looks down at the melon in his hand, the light slowly beginning to dim, and goes inside the house.

(I kinda lost track of what I was doing at this point)