School of Sorcery

Chandagnac said:

Finally, you see a person. Someone you recognize. A woman clad in the plate mail armour of a Quellonian knight. She is leaning against a windowsill, gazing out at the school grounds, which are lit by faint starlight. There is a wistful look on her face.

She turns to you and says, 'I was once a maiden: faultless, brightly shining, a glorious warrior and silver-haired queen; I soared with birds, stepped on the earth, swam in the sea, dived under waves, fell into darkness, dead by sunrise, and was reborn. Again and again, reborn.' She hesitates. 'Once, I lived. Oh… I lived.'

A smile spreads across her face: bright, cheerful, and utterly false. There is no real joy in her smile. 'What am I?' she asks.

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After considering a number of possible answers, you decide that there is only one which really makes sense. 'The moon,' you say. 'You are Zora Alishanda, the moon goddess.'

'Yes,' says the Riddling Knight with a long, satisfied sigh. For a moment, you catch a glimpse of… The woman wearing the armour of a Quellonian knight is only a mask, a thin veneer through which something huge, ancient and terrible stares out at you. 'I am close to the surface. This is the closest I have been in years. It is almost enough that I dare to hope that someday soon I will be free.'

'And… why are you telling me this?' you ask, quivering slightly. 'Why have you singled me out?'

She looks amused. 'Do you imagine that you are the only one dreaming of this? No. All over your city, hundreds of my worshippers – and many others who are merely sensitive – are having the same dream.'

'It's not my city. I mean, I don't own it. And, um.... why is this happening? Is it because of the space gonne project?'

'Perhaps.' A cloud seems to pass over her face. 'Jaqari Pruyte's daring plan might succeed. Or it might not. Excuse me if I don't get my hopes up. I have learned to not hope for much. It hurts less that way.'

You feel a surge of sympathy for her. 'Is there anything I can do for you?'

'It is kind of you to ask. Eventually, there may be.' She waves a hand in your direction. The mists seem to swirl around you, whispering forgotten secrets. Though you strain your ears to listen, you can't make out the words. 'Rest now, Dorian,' the Riddling Knight tells you. 'Goodnight.'

Darkness surrounds you. There is nothing else.


In the morning, you wonder if you should mention this to Venta. She is one of Zora Alishanda's worshippers, so did she have the same dream as you last night? Why are you having these dreams, anyway? It's not as if you venerate the moon goddess to a greater extent than any other god or goddess, not like the goblins do. Does that mean you are "sensitive" like the Riddling Knight said?

While you are still pondering the answers to these questions, the rest of the week passes by in a twinkling. In Fourday's Ritual Magic lesson you continue to practice the rudiments of force magic; in Fiveday's Literacy lesson, Professor Witt can teach you little which you don't already know; and everything else happens much as you expected it to. One evening, in your garden, you have to fight off the second wave of the slug and snail invasion before they can do too much damage to your plants. Fortunately, you have Amarin's slow-worms on your side. It is a glorious battle, of which you think the bards should be proud to sing, but of course they won't.



On Sixday morning, you play Bladderwrack: Cadre 1F have a rematch against Athamas Cardos's handpicked team. Somehow, everything seems to go right for you. Every time you need to use it, you barely have to think about casting your Quickness cantrip. Try as they might, Athamas's team are unable to score past you. Whenever they take a shot, you suddenly have as much time as you could possibly need to intercept the ball. Their attempts to change tactics, using spells to distract you or move you out of the way, amount to nothing; you are able to resist their low-level magic without much difficulty. Meanwhile, between them, Isolia and Venta manage to score a couple of goals against the opposition. It's almost a complete reversal of the first game you played against them.

After the final whistle blows, Phil approaches his rival, offers him a hand, and says, 'Good game,' in an almost defiant tone.

'Yeah. Well played,' is Athamas's reply. Wearily, he shakes Phil's hand and puts on a smile, doing his best to accept losing with good grace.



That afternoon, you call your teammates together for a meeting, which Green Flame is sufficiently intrigued by that she accepts your invitation to attend.

'What do you want to discuss?' asks Phil.

'Well, I wondered if Green Flame could teach us how to fight,' you say, glancing at her. 'If our end-of-year test is going to involve being forced to hunt giant mutated rats in a sewer – or something similar – I think it would be a good idea to have a weapon as well as whatever spells we've learnt by then. Spells take time and effort to cast, but… uh, I suppose you'd need to spend some effort to hit something with a sword or dagger, for example, but it'd be nice to have options.'

'I'm willing if you are,' says Green Flame, looking over you with a critical eye. 'I think a dagger would be better than a sword, though. A sword would be difficult to explain, but – first and foremost – a dagger is a tool. Plenty of people carry daggers without ever using them in the heat of anger. A club or cudgel might be another option, if you could make it look like something which you'd have an excuse to carry around with you, but I doubt you have the physical strength to be able to make good use of it. However, before teaching you to use a weapon, I would start with teaching you how to stand, how to dodge, and how to fall without hurting yourselves.'

'Don't we already know how to stand?' asks Phil, raising a quizzical eyebrow.

With unusual sarcasm, Green Flame replies, 'I have seen that you know how to slouch, Philander. I have yet to see that you can adjust your stance in any way that would be suitable for a combat situation.'

'Ouch,' says Phil, clutching his chest and making exaggerated moaning noises. 'Stabbed through the heart. How did she manage that? I didn't realise her tongue was a deadly weapon…'

Ignoring him, Green Flame glances at you. 'What exactly do you want me to teach you?'

How will you answer? (Choose as many options as make sense)
[] Agree to learn about dodging, stances, and how to reduce the chances of injury from falling.
[] Ask her to teach you how to use a dagger.
[] Ask her to teach you how to use a cudgel or club.
[] Ask her something else (write in).

What else do you want to talk about? (Choose as many options as make sense)
[] The fact that, according to Sambian law, Green Flame is a slave.
[] Isolia's creepy, possibly-a-criminal sponsor, Humferth Hygmalion.
[] The strange dreams you've been having.
[] The space gonne project.
[] The secret room you found while exploring the school.
[] Phil's plan to rescue his sisters from his evil father.
[] Something else (write in).