Building a college from the ground up, you discovered, is not as simple as you believed.
Oh, not the permissions and such - your family still has the government by the balls. Throw your influence here, casually say your name there, bribe the right person, and if that doesn't work, well.
That's what suggestion spells are for, really.
No, no, that's not what you were talking about. Logistics and administration?
Yeah, not your strongest point.
Which is fine, your family judges their progeny by their talent in the Unseen Arts, which is just a pretentious way of saying magic, not by how they can track around a hundred different things on a spreadsheet. And you, well.
Let's just say that you are very good at magic.
Good enough to be given enough rope to open this college at least. Good enough to be given the service of one of the Hand families. Cadet families that with time lost all affinity to the Unseen Arts and devolved into essentially servants of the main family. Entire generations spent in service of your family, with loyalty and scary competency bred into them.
You are honestly still surprised that they gave you one of the main Hand families. Much more precious than the capital they handwaved at you when you asked for them. Knowing your family? Just handing you enough rope to hang yourself, just so they can then corral you into being the heir.
You shudder at the thought of taking the place of your grandmother, may she live another one hundred years, preferably on the other side of the planet.
Still, where were you?
Ah, yes, the college. As you enter the main administrative office of what you will in six months be your college, you blink slowly at the complete chaos before you. Tens of people walking around, shouting into telephones, filling out regulations, and god only knows what else. Luckily the Hand families are, above all, competent and fast, so by the time you have finished feeling second-hand overwhelmed, your designed attache is already by your side, standing at attention, as if this were the military.
You glance at her. Alexandra. It's the usual you have come to expect from the Hands. Eyes fixed on you as if you were the center of the world, she is dressed in a pencil skirt and white blazer. She is beautiful in the way you have only seen in the main families: thousands of years of carefully selected pairings will do that to a girl. You force yourself to look forward and ignore her looks.
You know why they chose her as your attache. They are really not being subtle about it. The servant families are loyal, yes, but they are always looking for advancement in the labyrinthine ranks of the Family. But you are not like your cousins. Just the thought makes your stomach roil.
Ah, politics and honeytraps. It's as if you never left home.
"News of the project?" You ask curtly, eyes still fixed forward. To show weakness is death in your family.
"Yes, sir. We are meeting your deadline, and have no complication of note."
Translation from Hand speech: we are demolishing every single problem in our way so fast that you really don't need to know about them, and we will finish at least one month before the time you asked for.
You relax a bit. Good, that's good. Not that you doubted them, but still. Good. Your ticket to freedom is almost here. Ah, you can almost taste it.
"The works have already started, the campus should be done by autumn for the start of the school year. We have already recruited enough professors for every department you asked for to run smoothly, and the marketing team is hard at work securing a first class of sizable proportions."
And they say the servant families are Dull. If that's not black magic, you don't know what is.
"The only remaining issue is your pending suggestions to the human resources department and the unexpected changes to the project," she continues smoothly.
Ah, yes. That.
"Given your presentation to the family head, it was our understanding that we would be acquiring the usual resources for arcane learning and experimentation. Yet, apart from the basics needed for rituals, we have none of the basic requirements." Alexandra adds after a few seconds spent waiting for an answer. "Additionally, apart from a single vacancy for a department head, we do not have any teachers for the Unseen arts. While every single child of our family is taught the basics of the Art, we most definitely do not have the competence to teach the Art, sir," Alexandra says without changing her tone even one bit, yet somehow sounding accusing all the same. Impressive.
"As of now, we are not going to be able to remain true to the mandate sent by the family Head, sir."
You hum at that. "It was something like 'teach a bunch of Dulls the basics of magic, keep the gems and instill loyalty in the rest', right?"
"...something like that, sir," Alexandra says slowly. You are still not looking at her, but you are sure she just frowned at you. She's probably a bit suspicious.
And she would be right to, really, since you have no intention of sticking to that mandate.
Best not to say that out loud, though. Even if they were given to you, in the end, their final loyalty lies still with the Family.
For now.
"Well, don't worry about it. The reagents and books we will buy in the future: no point buying them now. No one ever tried to teach magic this way: too large-scale. We are breaking new ground, Alexandra!" You say whimsically before turning around and marching to your car, Alexandra following you behind you and to your right.
"And the professors, sir?"
"Why, am I not enough?" You say sardonically and greatly enjoy the sound of Alexandra's missed step.
"...you are going to be teaching yourself, sir?"
"Sure, why not? This is my project, right? There is a reason I asked you to keep that department head spot open, you know."
"I... sir, are you sure about that?" Alexandra says haltingly. You raise your eyebrows at that. She is talking back. She must be really unsure of this to go against you: the Hand families are well used to shoring every idiocy of your cousins without one bit of lip. It speaks well of her to speak up.
You are starting to like her!
"While your skill in the Unseen Arts is not put into doubt, there is a difference between taking an apprentice and teaching hundreds of students at once, sir. I strongly urge you to recruit some more help in the area, sir." She sounds worried. But is she worried for you, or for what it would mean to her family to fail a project approved by your grandmother?
And, well, she is right about that. Teaching hundreds of people the Unseen Arts by yourself? Impossible. You are good at it: almost impossibly good, given how you are considered for Head of the family even while far from the main branch. But teaching someone magic is a long, time-consuming, and costly project, with no surety of results, at least at the start.
There is a reason you were surprised when grandmother gave you the okay.
As of now, you cannot teach your future students magic.
"Don't worry about it! Just continue as you are doing."
Lucky you that you are not gonna teach them magic then.
You curl your lips at the thought.
Magic is powerful. Magic is wonderful. Magic is the basis of your family, your world, and your life.
Magic is limited.
No, you will teach something much more... fundamental than that. And if in the process they help you deepen your lores?
Why, that would be absolutely lovely.
No matter how much you study, how good you are at it, what you can accomplish. With magic, there is an unbreakable ceiling to what you can reach. You will never be able to stand above it all. Once, when you were nothing more than a bored student looking through the family library, when you still believed magic to be the end-all-be-all, you found mentions of Gods. The Greek ones, you still remember vividly, no matter how much time has passed. It was a journal written by one of your ancestors, one who lived at the start of the Roman Empire. He was a mage without peers, Head of the family at the time. In his journal entries, he casually described acts of magic that now are seen as the realms of archmages.
He went to war for the Empire, trying to bring the continent under their control. So he went to Greece.
And was slaughtered in but an hour.
His magic amounted to nothing when against Gods. He was but a painter, capable of crafting masterpieces on the canvas of reality, only for the Gods to grab that canvas and throw it out, making his power useless. Limited as he was to magic, he simply could not win against Gods. Powerful as he was, he could never reach the top. The Romans themselves surrendered to the Gods and were forced to give them their worship even while they easily conquered their material lands.
To say that the discovery shocked you is... to say that an inferno is warm. True, but nowhere near accurate to the sheer impact it had on you. Before that day magic was your bread and butter, the floor beneath your feet and the ceiling that kept you from rain. The Unseen Arts are capable of everything if properly mastered. As such, a master of the Unseen Arts is capable of everything, and as such above everything. You were above others because you had magic, the Hand families were below you because they were Dull. Simple and easy. Which means that revelation broke the foundation of your whole existence.
You spent years ravaging old texts and libraries, searching for an answer. Some way to bring magic to the next level. An answer to your anguish. At least all the philosophies you read graduated you from racist, elitist prick to simple prick, making you head and shoulders better than all your cousins. You poured your whole being into this endeavor, trying to find a way to go above and beyond magic, and becoming a master of the Unseen Arts almost by accident while doing so. The irony, yes?
You never told anyone about your question. They would have laughed at you. In the family magic was still the basis of everything. A religion, every mage their priest. Your revelation would have been no better than blasphemy, and the heretic just ignored at best. No, you continued alone, following every hint of something more with zealous need, desperation gnawing at your very soul. You spent more nights awake scrolling through dusty scrolls than in your bed, looking for that. One. Question.
What can be Endless?
And in the end?
You didn't find it. Yet you reached it all the same.
What was your revelation?
[ ] A History of Roses (History Professor/ROSE lore)
Destiny exists, and you have found its steps. You had your revelation when rooting through your library for any historical mention of weird magics. And there, you saw the start of the pattern. Events setting themselves up, hundreds of hundreds of years in the past, leading themselves to blissful completion. Questions in a thirteenth-century french journal being answered by ancient Greek quotations: your eyes have been opened to the least of the compass rose's direction, and you are ready to walk the path and see the signs. Teach your students that fate exists and that you are bound to it. Show them that their feet are chained, but their minds are free.
(Gain ROSE 4, Gain Skil: Path and Chain, Become Department Head of Archaeology and History)
[ ] The Seasons of Life (Medicine Professor/SEASON lore)
Death lives, and your heart beats to it. You had your revelation when comparing the anatomy of a Mage to that of a Dull. Hearts beating like a drum unending, deafening you just to become stillness, you glimpsed something at that moment. Fascinated by it, you lost yourself to the sound of drums and the melody of silence, frost on your lips, and boiling blood on your hands. Teach your students that the whole world is nothing but a passing season and that every ending is a beginning. Teach them how to be peerless medics, or killers extraordinaire.
(Gain SEASON 4, Gain Skill: Surgeries and Exsanguinations, Become Department Head of Medicine)
[ ] The Underpinning Formula (Mathematics Professor/INK lore):
Dream is lost, and its creations left to rot. You had your revelation when scouring your spell calculations for any kind of insight into breaking Magic's limits. You saw a glimmer of sense hidden behind the esoteric formulas. You followed the light, hounded the logic, and found the canvas below. In a world left without dreams, reality reigns, and logic is the answer and the question. Teach your students the formula that describes the world, and show them how to change it to your whims.
(Gain INK 4, Gain Skill: Wards and Walls, Become Department Head of Mathematics and Physics)
[ ] The Forge of War (Engineering Professor/FORGE lore)
Destruction has escaped its chain, and Creation was born. You had your revelation when, in a fit of rage, you threw your notes into the fireplace. Heralded by the roar of flame, you saw the truth of it: destruction into creation, paper to ash to tree to paper. And so you threw yourself into studying material sciences, mechanical systems, ballistics, and fire. You lit your forge, and understood that creation and destruction have no meaning: there is only change, and the forge that causes it. Teach your students how to create wonders through fire, or create fire through wonders.
(Gain FORGE 4, Gain Skill: Pyrogliphics, Become Department Head of Engineering)
[ ] The Overflowing Cup (Art Professor/GRAIL lore)
Desire drowns the mind, and elevates the heart. You had your revelation when composing the music of a spellchant. Inspiration hits your scarlet being, showing you the abandonment of your search and release to temptation not as the end, but as the start itself. You took up the brush and easel, drank deep from the red cup, and unspooled your being in the shower of sensations that followed. You do not remember what happened that year, yet the overwhelming taste on your tongue and the acclamation of your newfound peers made it all the sweeter. Teach your students to let go and lose themselves in the currents. A masterpiece takes but one sip from the grail.
(Gain GRAIL 4, Gain Skill: Sensations and Dissolutions, Become Department Head of Fine Arts)
[ ] The Steep Path (Law Professor/HILL lore)
Despair is to struggle, only to fall down again and again. You had your revelation when the many years of your frantic research brought you nothing time and time again. Breaking your head against the walls was enough for you to see such a wall. Laws as old as Time itself bound you to a limited existence. As such, you gave up your struggle and opened your eyes, paradoxically finally arriving at the start of the hill. From there you studied laws: the laws of man, the laws of heaven, the laws of family: all constrain you, burden you to walk uphill a sheer path. Yet there is power unending in accepting the burden. Know that the fall will come, excise hope from yourself, and get up again. Teach your students the path that they must walk, teach them how to recognize the edge and walk right above it.
(Gain HILL 4, Gain Skill: Ragged Crossroads, Become Department Head of Law)
[ ] The Unspooling Thread (Literature Professor/SMOKE lore)
Delirium wears a crown, yet its kingdom is broken. You are still having this revelation if you are being honest. You could say something witty about madness and doing things the same way again and again, but what's the point? You already know it. No, no, you just tried, failed, and didn't accept the result. So you tried again, yet it was not the world that broke, but you. And by doing so, you reached enlightenment. Or maybe you didn't? You can't know for sure, and as such, does it really matter? You threw yourself into fictional history and historical fiction until the limits of the two blurred, and literature came out of its mix. What are you gonna teach your students? Probably nothing. Or everything, depends on how you look at it. For that would be telling, and telling would be chaining. You will teach them freedom.
(Gain SMOKE 4, Gain Skill: Liminal Weaving, Become Department Head of Social Sciences )
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A/N: Welcome to a quest that I really should not be doing, yet here we are. With not a block such as complete boredom and apathy at the though of continuing my other quests, I write this to wait for when inspiration overwhelms inertia. Hope you will like it.
This quest will have every turn being 6 months, and I plan for these turns to go fast. I won't be writing more than 3000 words per chapter, but knowing myself I know it won't stick. This was inspired by The Cultist by Lost Star on QQ: my only problem with it being that... there really wasn't much of a cult. So, here we are.
For the vote, well, I am not gonna spoiler things. Next update you will decide which family you belong to, which decides your starting point and the starting dynamics of the quest. Also, in this quest you will not be touching the lores directly, but more channeling them through the skills, which, again, no spoiler.
Just choose your favorite Endless, or the choice that you like the most. Enjoy!
