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Selax stepped into the room and glanced at the broken window. He turned to the mages in the room.

"Explain."

The mages quickly told him what had happened. For a few moments, Selax considered pursuing Gin himself, but he ultimately decided that the other had too great a head start on him. Instead, he headed back out into the hallway, giving directions to the mages as he went.

"One of you go and tell the masters what has transpired. I suggest you warn the rest of the city's inhabitants as well."

After the mages and guards had left, Selax turned to Wizard and the Scribe.

"I suggest that we still meet privately tonight, but I think that we should gather the others for a private conference immediately. We need to discuss what has transpired recently and be ready for future events."


Thus, a few minutes later, most of the adventurers who had left Cademia and come to Pnyx had gathered in the Eighth Degree Hall. (It had been determined that this was probably the safest and most private place to hold a conference.)

Zacarutu spent the night cursing mages and all their ilk while freezing upon one of the high towers of the city. During the next few days he made killing mages his main ocupation, he also was carefull about when he did such things. making sure that he was long gone when anyone noticed that a student or teacher was missing. Gin started throwing the corpses out windows and over all trying to hide his kills. He took at least 12 lives in the next three days and had still managed to stay away from the mages.

Zacarutu bent over his latest kill, picked him up to throw him out the window. "STOP!" he turned twoards the voice and saw a party of mages rushing at him, Zacarutu laughed and rushed off. The chase led to the catacombs which gin managed to get into them, despite the mages clustered around the doors. Once inside the catacombs, Zacarutu soon lost the mages going deep into the heart of Pynx. "This place must have sunk." he muttered to himself "I thought that this used to be ground level." Shrugging Zacarutu made a fire for himself and soon had a nice home deep in the catacombs.

After a few minutes of quiet discussion amongst the assembled adventurers, Selax motioned for silence and began to speak.

"I think that perhaps a summary of events is in order. I shall now do my best to address them all and, please, no interruptions.

"First, the dart used in the killing of Dolophonous was laced with the same poison used on the dart thrown at Lindus, only much more concentrated. Now, this brings an obvious question to mind: if the poison can be used to kill as quickly and effectively as it did Dolophonous, why was Lindus not killed instantly? I believe that I have discerned the answer: the attempt was never intended to kill Lindus at all but rather to incapacitate him for a time. The intent was to force the election of an interim headmaster.

"Second, I have had a discussion with the masters concerning this. They have, apparently, thought a great deal about it. As many of you know, although student body is pressing for this election 'as soon as possible', no one will be ready for it in less than two weeks time. If this election occurs then, a definite winner will emerge, and whoever is elected (rather than the masters) will have official control over the city. To forestall this and maintain and nominal control of the city, the majority of the masters have decided to hold the election in the next week, ensuring that there will be no clear winner. The masters believe that some catastrophe may happen when this occurs. One of their purposes behind this decision is to mess up the timing and preparations of whoever might be planning to cause such a catastrophe.

"Third, some of you have no doubt observed the birth of factions among the mages. As far as has been discerned, there are two or three major groups. One is led by masters such as Selinus and Troas; it calls for the continuation of Pnyx as it has been. The other is a group of radicals who are calling for desperate measures to purge the city of any traitors, and it is led by the master Charax; it has already managed to run afoul of the citizens living around Pnyx. (These citizens have, in recent months, become increasingly distrustful of and antagonistic toward the mages as whole.) As you recall, Selinus mentioned a feeling of opposition among the students. The masters believe that this will manifest either as another group or that is hidden among both groups to promote division. The masters have some evidence that could lead to Dolophonous's partners, but they have yet shared that with me.

"Fourth, Gin. Information in the archives on anything similar to his case is restricted, and the masters have not told Wizard of myself anything about it. He must be found and dealt with. I suggest you all be on your guard.

"Fifth, the catacombs below the city. Although there has been activity of late in the upper levels, no party has been taken into the deeper levels or the further parts of the area around the catacombs' main entrance—the magelocked door in the hallway of the council chamber. This may be necessary in the future.

"Anyone who wishes to add anything should do so now. I think we must discuss this and be ready for any consequences."


Selax stepped back and was silent as the next persons began to speak. He pondered his summary. He decided that he had told them the appropriate amount of information. He didn't yet wish to reveal how involved he was in the decisions of the masters or some of the other events that had occurred.

As soon as Selax had finished speaking, Wizard adjusted himself in his chair. He looked a little uncomfortable. The Eighth-Degree Hall was very small, and Wizard had somewhat reluctantly accepted the idea of conferencing inside of it. Wizard did not necessarily think of himself as fat. He did, however, consider himself to be slightly too bulky to relax in the small room. He dragged a chair from the main library into the room so that he could at least sit down.

“Well, quite frankly,” Wizard began to speak. His voice was still very soft, despite his obvious discomfort. He continued but did not stand up, “I think that the only way we’re gonna get somewhere is to act on number five. As far as I can tell, just about everything that’s happened so far has started down in the catacombs.”

Selax thought that Wizard sounded a little rushed and maybe even worried, but he did not commonly associate those characteristics with Wizard. Must be the chair that has him upset, Selax told himself, almost smiling.

Wizard then looked around, there were only a few people present. Selax was there, of course; the Scribe and Brianna; and Medoc. “Unfortunately, if we try to go into the catacombs, we don’t really stand much of a chance against anything strong. Without Gin, we’re already one man down. Sideline has left us to help DF, Avatara, and Saria, but, as I understand it, their quest is a different one from ours currently. So the few we have will have to suffice.”

Finishing with a sigh, Wizard again turned in his chair. After a few seconds of fidgeting, trying to find a satisfying position, he realized that everyone was still staring at him, apparently expecting him to say more. “Oh, uh, that’s just my opinion, but it’s all I have to say that is relevant right now.”

Medoc stood up in his chair and began to speak "I have spend the last few days outside of the Pynx, this is when most of these weird events started taking hold. I personally am totally confussed as to what's happening. Don't any of you try to explain it to me, just tell me what to do and I will do it". Medoc sat down in his chair feeling happy that he had finally gotten it all of his chest.
"Well, is there anything else that someone would like to add?" Selax asked, "If not we should meet here tomorrow again at the same time just to let you all sleep on it before we get into some serious discussion."

Selax only half listened as Wizard and Medoc spoke. He heard everything but at the moment didn't dwell on it.

The voice had contacted him again.

It had happened just before everyone else had entered the Hall. Again, he'd passed out for a few seconds. Fortunately, he'd been back on his feet before anyone had come in.

Slightly irritated over the recurrence of the past incident, he pondered what had been shown to him this time...


The void again.

But in another time and another place than before. Selax could see this quite clearly. Some time had passed since what had transpired in the first vision.

As he gazed around trying to get his bearings, he became aware of voices behind him. They sound loud and angry about something.

Turning, he saw that it was the man and woman who had stood out from the other twelve. Coming closer, Selax was pleased when he found that this time he could understand what was said. He had been right; they were arguing.

"We have a mission! We've already neglected it for too long," the man was saying. He seemed nervous and anxious. The woman, however, was furious. So angry was she that even Selax felt a slight relief that he had not been present for this event.

"Always the mission, Malkor! That's all they think about it! Who cares what mission we may have or may not have?! What does it matter?!" she screamed at the other.

"I feared this..." muttered Malkor, "I warned them this could happen..."

"Well then! Why did you listen to them? When have you ever cared for the mission? I don't know why you listened to him! My brother is dull to see what we can do!"

Selax guessed the woman was referring to one of the other ten beings that he had seen earlier.

"Does it matter, Neina?" Malkor answered. "He's right! We can't keep amusing and pleasing ourselves forever! We have a job to do! You know it!"

"Why not?" Neina challenged. "Who can stop us?"

"It's not what we were made to do! You are forgetting your good sense," he responded, beginning to become angry himself.

"I'm forgetting my good sense? You should talk! You never even had any."

Within moments, both were screaming at each other even louder than before. Indeed, the din became so loud that Selax shrank away from it. After a few minutes, each turned away from the other in disgust. Malkor stormed off in one direction; Neina stormed off in the opposite one.

Selax saw it happen just as the two had almost gotten out of eyesight of the other. There was another flash of darkness—this time right in front of Neina.

"What...?" he heard her say. Then, the darkness solidified into a black cloud. Then, it leapt on her. She screamed, then she and the darkness were gone. The instant this happened Malkor spun on his heel and raced after her.

Selax saw the darkness flash behind Malkor just as he reached the spot where she had been, but Malkor was unaware of it.

"Where are you?" he cried out into the void.

Then, the darkness rose and took him too.

The vision faded and Selax woke up.

Despite the fact that the catacombs were better than the roof Zakarutu didn't exactly enjoy sleeping on hard stone every night and so started searching the catacombs, looking for anything more comfortable to sleep on. In the end though all he found were a bunch of old dusty rooms that were nothing compared to their previous glory, a glory of which it was likely that only Zacarutu remembered. "Trapped like a rat" Zacarutu muttered. ignoring the lesser evils that haunted the place as they left him alone as well sencing his powerful and very malignent aura. More malignent in view of the fact he was considering killing something and skinning it to make bedding. In the end he snuck up to the door leading to the rest of Pynx and listened, sealed he thought with frustration, Couldn't I have killed that pesant before he told about me? I should have tried, at least then I could have stayed up in Pynx proper where I can get a bed to sleep on. After mumbling to himself he went back down the stairs and hid himself in a wall with a spell, waiting for someone to open the door that was only 12 feet away.

Zacarutu was of course unaware of the meeting taking place above him and wouldn't have been so happy if he had known. So thinking he was safely secure in his hideaway Zacarutu fell asleep.

Gin didn't know where he was, he looked around and saw only blackness, where am I? he asked himself looking around. It took him perhaps an hour or mabye only a second to remember everything that had happened and realize he must be in some type of nothingness. He then started exploring what he could of his mind and tried to find a way through Zacarutu's barriers and back into control of his body. The barrier appered as a giant wall after a while and then quickly the emptyness became a land. All of this was of course nothing but a reality his mind generated, but the wall represented something real, and he tried to break it for hours to no avail, it became weaker suddenly and he worked hard, but couldn't manage to break through, he came close though Zacarutu awoke and strengthened his barrier before Gin had made a hole. He did his best to amuse himself while waiting for the wall to weaken again.

OOC If anybody's confused Zacarutu is the being that has posessed Gin. BIC

This post has been edited by Kentonis 417: 06 January 2006 - 01:59 AM

Miserable. That was the only word fit to describe it.

Saria wiped away the tears caused by the stinging brightness of the sun. She had spent days in a cramped closet, waiting for a break in the patrolling of the guards. In retrospect, hiding in a dusty closet in one of the more popular rooms was not a smart thing to do, but she didn't have a choice at the time. Someone had unleashed a murderer in Pnyx and the wraith's death had only worsened the panicked tension building in the sealed off pyramid.

Her arms and legs sore from being in a confined space for so long, she stopped to catch her breath and survey her surroundings. Part of the catacomb labyrinth below the city, this tunnel had led to an abrupt rock wall overlooking the coastline. While the tunnel had offered a convenient means of escape, it was far from a pleasant experience. Entire sections of the tunnel were partially caved in, resulting in unbearably narrow passages. The end of the tunnel was no better, dumping her out on a slippery rock wall towering over a dozen meters above a small inlet of the ocean below.

Muttering to herself, Saria began the slow climb downwards. There weren't any solid handholds, but her experience in the wilderness should be more than enough to overcome this challenge. Each successful step bolstered her confidence even more, until her foot slipped. Crying out in panic, she attempted to desperately cling to the rocks. The slippery surfaces offered no assistance, and with a shriek she crashed into the water below.

Saria sputtered and gasped for air, treading water in the freezing inlet until she could reach the muddy bank. Exhausted, hungry, cold, and now wet, she grumbled to herself, this place is the worst, before collapsing in the cold mud.

Timon gently touched the wall of the cellar, then pushed hard against it.

"Sideline was right, it's certainly real enough" he commented to the single mage that had accompanied him on his inspection. "I don't understand it. This cellar was declared unsafe, so nobody's had occasion to visit it since it was destroyed. Repairs have been considered, but they're an extremely low priority right now."

"Curious," his companion replied. "Tell me, Timon, why does it glow like that?"

"Glow? what are yo utalking about?"

"Ah, so you don't see it. More curious."

The room became suffused with a soft blue light as the second mage pulled a short, ebony staff from his tunic. He nodded thoughtfully as the blue orb at its tip glowed brighter, the closer it was held to the wall.

"As I thought," he muttered. Putting the staff away, he turned to Timon. "You mentioned a meeting of concerned parties. Would you be good enough to show me the way?"

-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-

"Well, is there anything else that someone would like to add?" Selax asked. "If not we should meet here tomorrow again at the same time just to let you all sleep on it before we get into some serious discussion."

The door squeaked open, and Timon poked his head around the jam. "Please excuse the interruption, but I have someone here who would like to speak with you."

"If they have any pertinent information, then I, for one, would like to hear it," Selax replied.

Timon ushered his friend into the room, easing the door closed behind them. The Scribe jumped to his feet, belying his apparent previous dependence on his staff.

"Wolmark, my old friend! It's good to see you!"

"And you," Wolmark rejoined, "but I gather this is no time for pleasantries."

"Indeed not," Selax interjected. "You have something you wish to say?"

"I do. I'm here to discuss with you the implications of a certain cellar wall, which appears to have undergone a significant temporal displacement."

This post has been edited by cache22: 10 January 2006 - 03:57 AM

Selax recognized the man with Timon for what he was instantly.

This man was one of the Displaced...

Although he hadn't been in Cythera when they had first arrived (nor indeed had he ever met them), Selax had heard tell of the Displaced (or the Ronin as they now called themselves). Wizard had been here then, but he almost never left his cabin. He had only been able to tell Selax what he had heard or learned through his own abilities. Although the Seldane had trusted them, Selax did not. (Of course, this was not surprising; Selax trusted almost no one.) When he had been in the Tavern between his quests concerning the dragon and the zetacomb, he had not been idle. Through Wizard and other sources, he had learned much of what had passed in the land since his last visit.

The Ronin were, in many ways, something of an enigma to Selax. Perhaps, this in part accounted for his distrust of them. The fact that they had been able to learn something of the powers of the elements was quite disturbing. Although it appeared that the use of these powers would not endanger the balance, Selax feared that someday such an event might come to pass. Although he was not a Cytheran elemental, Selax was nevertheless an elemental and thus somewhat wary of beings such as the Ronin. It was his private belief that Seldane themselves no longer trusted the Ronin. Once, there had been time when this was true, but that had been some time ago.

In any case, the presence of at least one of their number here could create some complications...
He'd just have to be more careful than he was being already.

"Indeed?" he said aloud. "Perhaps, you would be so kind as to show this wall and inform us of any theories that you have?"

The group gathered in the Eighth Degree Hall exited and made their way down toward the cellar where the strange wall was located. Everyone was alert, aware that they could be walking into some sort of ambush.


Far below them in the deepest parts of the catacombs, several mages were engaged in magic work that their superiors would undoubtedly find questionable. For the past few weeks, they and others had been engaged on a great experiment. Despite their many failures thus far, they continued undaunted, certain that they would soon succeed in their task...

(A while ago)
"Really, Shi, I think you are exaggerating." Moonshadow said for what felt like the hundredth time since the Phaerie girl had burst into her refuge almost an hour ago. "If Lindus were truly dead, don't you think I'd have heard before?" And from someone less exitable and less likely to believe every rumor, at that. She added mentally. Not that she disliked the tiny creature, as a matter of fact she enjoyed her occasional visits and happy chatter, but *really*, sometimes the girl just needed a dose of reality.
Just like the times before, Shi was not deterred. She looked around the hut slowly, quizzically, then met Moonshadow's amber eyes again. "As a matter of fact, I don't." She said, putting her hands on her hips, a bit of irritation beginning to show in her normally happy voice. "You live in the middle of nowhere, you avoid anyone who might be coming near, and you haven't actually left this are since... since.. for quite a while, anyway!"
"I hear enough," Moonshadow replied, a little piqued.
"You didn't hear Lindus is -" Shi started, but was cut off by an impatient gesture. "I do not believe he is dead." Moonshadow repeated -- once again -- putting as much finality into her voice as she could. "Now, do you want some tea?" She asked, gesturing at the pot sitting on the small oven in one corner of the room. Heat wasn't really a necessity, but she found tea to be quite pleasing.
"What I want is for you to come with me!" The Phaerie exclaimed in exasperation. "Really, you've been sitting in here and pondering over what happened at that mountain or whatever it was long enough! It's not your fault you can't remember, and how are you ever going to find out if the others are fine if you don't go out there and check for yourself?!" Shi's voice rose with every word she said, until at the end she was practically yelling, making Moonshadow wince and cover her ears.
The girl had a point, of course. But then, what if the others weren't fine? Then I'll still sit here and pretend they are in a year...
"Erm, look, I... I didn't mean to yell at you." Shi mumbled suddenly, apologetically. "But you didn't use to be so.. so... reclusive, and it's not good."
"So you want me to go chase after rumors?" Moonshadow queried, getting up to fetch two cups from a cupboard near the oven, one of them almost small enough for the Phaerie.
"Well, um...yes." Shi admitted, raising a hand to forestall protests. "By all accounts he didn't die peacefully -" Moonshadow coughed, and Shi ignored it. "- and if he didn't, why then.. I'm sure some of the others will be there finding out what's happened!" The Phaerie girl finished, looking at the elven woman expectantly.
Moonshadow affected not to notice, pouring tea into both cups, then returning the pot and fetching some honey.
"Well?" Shi asked after a while, impatiently.
Moonshadow sighed. "Fine."
-------------
In retrospect, she wasn't really sure it was such a good idea. The journey to Pnyx had been uneventful, but seeing the pyramid outlined in the distance, the thought of just turning back suddenly gained immense appeal.
As if sensing her mood, Shi tugged her sleeve. "Come on," she piped brightly, "we're almost there now." Turning in mid flight, she peered up at the elf. "You're not changing your mind, are you?" She asked.
"No, of course not." Moonshadow replied. "It's just... been a while...."
-------------
Glancing once more back at the guards that had let them both into Pnyx, Moonshadow frowned. Strange, she didn't remember there being so many of them. In fact, there was a sense of tension, of something wrong, about the entire structure. For the first time since Shi had burst in on her several days ago, she seriously considered if there was something true about what the Phaerie had told her.
Shi shuddered, and floated closer to sit down on her shoulder. "I don't like how it feels here," she whispered. "Maybe we should..."
"No turning back," Moonshadow murmured back almost automatically. "Now that we're here, we're going to find out what's wrong, and I know just where to start."
Nodding politely to people who passed her, Moonshadow set out towards Lindus' quarters.


(Now in all honesty, I've not finished reading all of this yet, so I truly have no clue what's going on, but I'm going to make an effort at posting here anyway.)

*OoC*
If anyone wants me to make any changes to the way their characters act in this post please let me know. I might come back and add more detail to it. It's kind of brief.
*BiC*


At last the party had made its way through the cellars to the strange wall that Wolmark and Timon had told them about.

On their way to this place, they had discussed the various possible reasons why someone might take the trouble to temporaly displace the wall. Wolmark had suggested (and Selax agreed) that the most likely reason was to hide something behind it. If there was something behind it, presumably there was a method to open some sort of way through it. Granted, the method might involve magic, but it was also possible that a simpler means of entry existed. Selax wished to check this first.

Within a few minutes, everyone had started to carefully examine the wall, looking for anything out of place. However, all of their collective efforts were if vain; after nearly half an hour of searching, they had found nothing. Wolmark and Timon tried to use magic to determine what lay behind the wall, but powerful wards around the wall rebuffed their efforts. Medoc leaned forward to tap the wall cautiously.

"Are you certain—"

He didn't finish the sentence because as his hand touch the wall there was a flash of magic. Only by quickly pulling his hand back did he avoid getting his hand burned. The group watched in silence as the wall split open down the middle to reveal a flight of stairs descending into the darkness--a flight of stairs blocked by a powerful forcefield.

After a brief consultation, they decided to wait on using the stairs until it was absolutely necessary and to advise that guards be posted at the entrance to the cellars. Having made one last examination of the room, they left and soon reentered the main hallway of Pnyx.

"When it comes to situations like these I am not really much help." Medoc explained, "I just don't know enough about magic and stuff. On that note I am going to let you more intellectual people talk about this while I retire for the night. Good night all." Medoc walked back to his room.
When Medoc got to his room the door opened automatically and when he entered the room the door closed. I should have learned this rune years ago he murmured to himself taking off his cloak and putting his staff in the corner of the room. The temperature in the Pynx was always the same, for comfort it was slightly cool. Its always easier to warm up than cool down.
After about an hour Medoc decided that he couldn't sleep. The first idea that crept into his mind was to start practicing with illusions, takes a lot of his energy so it would wear him out. He got up and moved to the table in the corner of his room. Fire seemed to be one of the easier illusions to make so Medoc stretched out his hand with his palm facing upwards. He started to concentrate on his hand for a second and then a ball of fire started to form just above his hand. It would have been about 3 inches across, does it look real, how do I make it look real he thought to himself. There were two things that made it fairly obvious that it wasn't real. Firstly there wasn't any smoke and there wasn't any heat waves coming off of it, Medoc concentrated on his ball of fire and started making smoke and heat waves come out of it. The heat waves weren't hard but he wasn't really sure how much smoke fire really makes, that bit was going to have to wait until later.
The thing with illusions is that they are as real as people believe, if you know thats its not real then its useless but if someone doesn't know what they feel is what they think that they would feel. If you were to stab someone with an illusionary sword the amount of pain that they would feel would just be as much as they think it would hurt. Of course, when they look and see that the sword went straight through them without causing any damage to them or their clothing they will start getting suspicious. This is why illusions are so hard, they are only an effective tool if you can make people believe that its real, otherwise its just a total waste of time an energy.
Medoc walked over to the other corner of the room and picked up his staff, focused and imagined that it was that it was engulfed in flames, it looked quite deterring but potentially harmless. Medoc was starting to loose concentration on his illusions which means that he had done what he had planned to do, to wear himself out. He put his staff back in the corner and went to sleep.

Long after night had fallen, something stirred in the one of the "empty" rooms that some of the recent arrivals from Cademia had occupied. After the incident with Gin, all the windows at Pnyx had been magically guarded, and anyone of the adventurers who had had a window in his room had moved to a new room.

Supposedly.

Selax too had "moved", but he had chosen his first room for two very specific reasons: first, there was a few small cracks in the window, and, second, for some odd reason, the door was tilted so that there was about and inch and a half of clearance between it and the floor. So it was that it instead of going to his new room, Selax had returned to his previous room to wait for nightfall.

Judging that the time was right, he adjusted his form and slipped under the door. Then, he moved to the ceiling and began to move down the hallway. The guards rarely made sweeps on this floor. He should be able to reach his initial objective easily.

The Scribe and Selax had decided that Selax would come to the Scribe's room, and then they would both move to a more secure location, perhaps picking up Wizard on the way.

Selax moved silently down the hall toward the Scribe's room. On the way, he would pass Wizard's room.

As Selax walked by Wizard's door, he was debating whether or not he would disturb Wizard. He was still considering it when. . .

Surely you didn't think you could pass me unnoticed? Wizard's comical voice echoed in Selax's head.

If Selax had ever shown any emotion, he would have smiled, but instead he gave a serious reply, "No, of course not." The door to Wizard's room silently swung open, and the old mage stepped out very softly.

The hall, illuminated only by the torches hanging on the walls, was vacant at the moment. Wizard was smiling and seemed in a cheerful mood. "I'm looking forward to this talk with that Scribe fellow. I always enjoy opportunities to learn," he said in a lighthearted tone. Then, in a more earnest pitch, "He's very wise, you know. And, in turn, I think that we would show wisdom by heeding his advice."

"Agreed," was Selax's only response. The two continued down the hall, unheard and unnoticed.

Avatara sat by the shore at the designated rendezvous point, keeping his silent vigil. Being gone for one day was reasonable, it would have taken some time to kill the wraith and escape the city with the increased security. But as their waiting had stretched into a second day with no sign of Saria, they had begun to worry.

She hadn't been caught by the guards, that much they knew from Sideline's brief excursion back into Pnyx to gather information. They also knew something was definitely wrong when the second night began to fall. In a unanimous vote, the three of them agreed she was probably lost, so they had split up to search for her. Desert Fox had taken the coastline to the south, Sideline went searching the shore to the north, and Avatara had remained behind just in case she returned here late.

A third day went by with no sign of any of them. Avatara began to get a bit nervous, with all sorts of nasty creatures around, not to mention Icel, the four of them were easy targets spread out as they were.

For the hundredth time that day, he pulled out the zetacomb to reassure himself it was still there. He didn't try to use it, he felt a strange reluctance to try ever since the mishap and subsequent magical explosion around the odd grave they had camped near the first night. Even DF of late had been getting discouraged about using it as an effective weapon, it was too unreliable.

Avatara replaced the zetacomb and sighed. Watching the moonlight shine off the tall pyramid just to the north of him, he wondered if Saria was okay.

******

Saria collapsed onto the cold ground. She didn't want to admit it, as a woodland guide in her old life it would be humiliating to confess, but after days of frantically searching around for the others, she decided she was hopelessly lost. The thick foliage of the trees had long since obscured any sight of the white pyramid, and the fall of night only added to her depression.

Exhausted and famished, she lay unmoving on the unforgiving earth. Saria realized she had changed, before she wouldn't have let anything stand in the way of her duties, but the countless weeks of being stalked by hostile creatures was wearing down her spirit. She closed her eyes, wondering again why she had left her old life.

Some time later, a gentle voice interrupted her thoughts. "Are you all right?" Saria lifted her head to see a smiling middle-aged man. "You look exhausted. Here, let me take you to my house, it isn't that far from here." She managed to nod a reply as he bent down to pick her up.

He carried her easily, she judged from his build that he was using magic to help him. As he had said, his house was only a short jaunt away; a small woodland shack that looked as if it had weathered only a few years. The interior of the house was a well-kept paradise, simple yet charming.

Saria smiled happily as she relaxed in a comfortable chair for the first time in days. From the aroma of the cabin she guessed he had recently brewed some kind of stew, reminding her of how long it had been since she had last eaten.

"Its not much, but I hope it'll fill you up," he scooped out a steaming bowl for her with a smile. One sip and her eyes watered with delight, it was the most delicious stew she had ever tasted. Her hunger overtook her senses and she slurped down the meal hungrily. The man grinned at her, "I knew it, you were famished!"

Saria blushed as she put down the bowl, trying to remember her manners. "Thank you for saving me back there, I guess I got a little lost. I'm Saria by the way. Saria Nefletter."

The man brushed a clump of his auburn hair out of his handsome face, "My name is Menelaus. As you probably have guessed, I'm a freemage." He chuckled, "Or rather, I'm training to be one, I haven't actually passed the official test yet."

"I'm sure you'll do fine," Saria responded shyly.

Dodging the occasional patrols of guards and any of the detection spells laid to find Gin, Selax and Wizard moved carefully down the hall toward the Scribe's room. As they went, each of them was lost in his thoughts.

Selax was pondering the situation in the void and with the elementals' efforts at shielding Cythera from the worst of the fight above it. For now, both seemed stable, but he was well aware that this might change at any moment. He decided to make at least one trip to the void as soon as possible.

Having decided this, he turned his thoughts to the other source of his discomfort. Selax trusted few people. The people that he had met upon returning to Cythera seemed good to him, and Wizard had not noticed any reason to distrust them. It was on the basis of these two things that Selax had done much of his recent work.

Now, however, he was becoming nervous about specific people.

He had noticed few reasons to distrust Avatara and Desert Fox when he had first met them, but their recent actions at Pnyx had begun to make him wonder. As he had thought further upon recent events, several possibilities had come to him. Namely, that perhaps Avatara and Desert Fox had faked Desert Fox's recent troubles to get the zetacomb. It had also occurred to him that the zetacomb was subtly influencing their thoughts and actions. This seemed to him most likely. He guessed that this might also have influenced Saria's actions as well.

One way or another, Selax decided that he had made a mistake in allowing them to take the zetacomb and in not having put surveillance on them. There was little that he could do about their possession of the zetacomb now. Perhaps, however, he could find some way to put some kind of surveillance on them—just in case.

Just as he was making his final decisions, Selax and Wizard reached the door to the Scribe's room.

Pnyx was mostly quiet tonight.

No strange noises emanated from the catacombs beneath the city, and no strange figures wandered its halls tonight.

It was merely the calm before the storm. The students had been informed that the election for interim headmaster would be held soon. They had spent the day frantically preparing. There had been discussion as to who was the most qualified, who would win, etc. Some of the debates had almost even become violent.

It was obvious that no matter who won there would be some kind of trouble...

Above Cythera, in the void, things continued to escalate.

Despite the size of the armies and the catastrophic number of deaths occurring every minute, the battle mattered surprising little compared to what was coming...

Chaos reigned in the main chamber of Pnyx.

It the day after Selax and Wizard had had their late night meeting with the Scribe and the morning of the election for interim headmaster. The various factions were making frantic efforts at gathering support for themselves and their causes. This was the primary reason for the chaos and confusion. There were fierce debates and, on at least one or two occasions, even actually fights. The guards soon broke up the latter, and, at length, Selinus climbed the podium to initiate the voting.

After some time was taken in calming the students, the voting began quietly—at first.

At various points around the crowd, the group that had set out from Cademia several days before watched for any sign of trouble.


Selax himself had left Pnyx soon after talking with the Scribe and had only returned about one hour ago. Upon his return, he had learned that Moonshadow was now in Pnyx as well. Uncertain what to do, Selax was left to wonder just who else might show up.

Wizard stood silently in a corner of the main chamber. He tried to concentrate on the here-and-now, but found his mind wandering back to the conference he and Selax had had with the Scribe the previous night. In his opinion, nothing noteworthy had really happened yet that morning. A few fights and such, but not anything serious.

Despite this, Wizard forced himself to pay attention. The pupils were currently voting. Nothing out of the ordinary was transpiring, but somehow, there seemed more going on than met the eye. Wizard actually felt some apprehension as a thought occurred to him:
No matter how the vote turns out, I'm afraid it will end in violence...

This post has been edited by The Wizard: 26 March 2006 - 01:44 AM

At length the voting was done, and the votes were soon counted. Selinus mounted the podium to announce the results of the vote.

"It would seem," the old mage began, "that no candidate has received a majority of the votes. Therefore, under the rules of the Magisterium, the Council will continue to act as the city's provisional govern—"

"The Council did this on purpose!" a student yelled from the crowd. "They knew no one would be able to win if they held the vote now!"

"Then, it was well done!" roared another student from across the auditorium. "Better they stay in control than hotheads like you!"

"I suppose that you'd rather weaklings like you stay in control?" retorted another one of the students.

Before Selinus could say or do anything, the room burst into chaos, and everyone began to talk at once.

Arguments broke out all over the auditorium and between just about everyone. Almost immediately, scuffles began to break out between various students, and the guards again moved in to stop them. That is, the guards tried to stop them. Outnumbered, the guards were soon forced to retreat from the fray until the captain of the guard could summon more reinforcements.

Some of the ordinary citizens from the areas around Pnyx looked on with disgust and turned to leave. As they headed for the door, one of them turned and yelled, "This is why exiling the mages was a good idea! They never should have been allowed to stay here at all!"

This was definitely the wrong time and place to say such a thing. One student, enraged by the comment, pointed at the man and said something in one the various mage languages. Instantly, the man was vaporized. One of his companions had produced a dagger and had thrown it at the student, as he had lifted his hand. Hit in the heart, the student fell dead.

Then, the hall was completely silent and still.

From his vantage point, Selax could observe the reactions of the crowd. Most were horrified, some seemed pleased, some seemed irritated, and others seemed indifferent. The non-mages formed a tight group around the man who had thrown the knife and began to back toward the door, followed by a band of angry mages. However, the guards took the citizens into protective custody before anything further happened. For several minutes, no one moved or spoke.

Charax stood up and said, "I think it is obvious that the time has come for drastic measures! An Inquisition must be appointed to deal with rabble rousers like these!" Here, he pointed at the man who had thrown the dagger in attempt to save the first citizen from getting vaporized.

"He acted in defense of his friend! Do you fault him for that, Charax?" Troas responded.

"We are not discussing that...yet. Right now, we are discussing my motion for an Inquisition to root out the source of these recent disturbances!"

Hence, a new debate began. The students insisted that the Inquisition be put to general vote. Selinus, Troas, and their supporters opposed the Inquisition. Charax and his supporters supported it. A third group, composed entirely of students (who had in the recent vote for interim headmaster supported a student, rather than a master), reluctantly supported it, and the motion was carried. (Selax privately believed that the strange feeling of opposition felt by the masters was focused mainly in one of these three parties but probably had agents in all three.)

Then, no one could dream of what would follow...

Tension was high in the Pynx at the present time, there were things that were building up and have been for quite some time. It seems that something disasterous is about to happen. It was about an hour after the man had been vaporised, Medoc was sitting down in the mess hall eating some roast. The estabishment sounded quieter than usual, people were paraniod of the people that were around them and it didn't seem like anyone really trusted anyone else. Some outside force has been threatening the Pynx for some time now, if it was going to happen it would happen some time soon.
Medoc decided to go to the library to do some research on illusions while he waited for either some action to be taken by the rest of the group or for the build up of tension to becoem too strong and just wait for the explosion.