The Grey College does not often play host, and never to as varied an audience as the one accumulated for your lectures. It has been decided that the information you are to share can only be used to the detriment of the greenskins, so there is no reason to give it the usual restrictions that magical information would normally be shielded by, and the predicted crowd quickly outgrew the usual location of the gathering field of the Amber College. The University of Altdorf was asked to provide, and over the complaints of the local dramatic club, they granted the use of the Magnus Hall. To your eyes, the stage that usually hosts orchestras and plays looks quite outsized for you alone and your nerves and your ego are warring over how to feel about the vast area of seats arrayed in front of the stage, and in the balcony that rings it, which is already filling with those about to be your audience.
"Should be quite a crowd," says Regimand, who has been managing some of the details while you were in Eight Peaks. "Algard and Dragomas signed off on the Universities sitting in, and the Emperor okayed foreign guests."
That explained the woman with the very odd combination of magics intertwined inside her and an outfit barely within the constraints of decency. "Kislev or Bretonnia?" you ask, nodding in her direction.
"Bretonnia, I assume. The Kislevite ambassador has requested transcripts, as their lot are still occupied with their Ogre problem."
As Regimand bustles off to see to one detail or another, you run several of your senses over the gathering crowd. There's a veritable rainbow of robes from all eight Colleges, from the neat and unadorned robes of Perpetuals to the heavily runed robes of Battle Wizards to the eclectic fashion tastes of Magister Lords. Algard is present in the very centre of the balcony, flanked by No-Relation Reicthard of the Bright Order and Elspeth von Draken of the Amethyst. And though they were the most gratifying and intimidating of your audience, they were far from the most exotic or unexpected.
One of the Hedgewise, under a grey robe and a fair few cloaking spells, almost certainly here under a false name. If they're not also here by invitation and under the protection of the Grey College, they're likely to be on a pyre or in a shallow grave by sunrise tomorrow.
An Arabyan magician, dressed impeccably in the silk doublet and hose that was currently in style in Altdorf, only slightly incongruous from the curved dagger on his waist to mundane eyes, and rather more so to ones capable of seeing the magical beings trapped within the stones of his rings. Arabyans insist their Djinns are completely distinct from Daemons, and though academia is still divided on the issue, politics dictates acquiescence.
Daroir of Nagarythe, with a fully battle-ready Shadow Warrior on one side as a bodyguard or a date or both, and on the other an Elf that bears the universal expression of a harried bureaucrat, a stack of note paper, and a midnight-black feather quill.
A mercenary wizard of Tilea, looking very nervous and holding in his lap what you guess to be a declaration of good standing from a Tilean Prince or Doge or Triumvir or some other variety of ruler, which would be all that stood between them and being labelled a Black Magister and executed. There's a Grey Wizard in the row behind them, almost certainly keeping a watchful eye on them.
A Runesmith of Karak Norn, keeping a wary distance from the wizards and compulsively checking the medallion on his chest, no doubt bearing a Rune of protection from magic of some sort.
Several Priests, mostly Verenan and Myrmidian, though there's a Taalite-and-Rhyan pair close to the back. And almost indistinguishable from the Verenans, academics of several stripes, carefully clumped according to affiliation. The University of Altdorf locals are keeping their distance from their University of Nuln cousins, and both are keeping a much larger distance from the interlopers of Marienburg's Tempelwijk.
As the Hall fills near to capacity and the appointed hour approaches, you take a deep breath and go over your notes one more time.
