Arkat Alumnus

4: Lessons

Practical Magic - The Experiment Begins - The Perils Of Wisdom - On The Spot - The Field Trip
The Bridge - The Bog Hunt - Bogged Down - Teaming - Slug Fishing - Blood and Water
The Interloper - Making an Impression - Amongst the Reeds - The Smiling Lad
Dragon Hunting - A Nest of Vipers - A Matter Of Trust - The Message - Specimens - Homeward Bound - The Reward

~oOo~

The second week of term sees Eren and Exalian's first Practical Spellcraft lessons of the year.

They have good reason to feel excited about this: as Matriculants, they can expect to be learning some important new techniques in these classes. Previously, the practical side of their magical education has been largely passive and conducted in one-on-one tutorials. Now, however, they'll be taught in group lessons with a much more active focus. Kiki, Pavel and Welspun have all reached a similar stage in their apprenticeship, so their equivalent lessons also cover the same kind of techniques.

"This is where your apprenticeship begins in earnest," Master Olivant tells his class of unusually attentive Imperial students on Freezeday morning. "Until now, your practical education has mostly been concerned with shaping and nurturing your personal essence to make it a suitable channel for wizardry. Now, however, you're going to learn the rudiments of essence manipulation - one of the most common techniques in spellcraft."

For the Imperial College students, this first introduction to 'hands-on' magical techniques involves attempting to move a glowing ball of energy created by their teacher, using their willpower alone. The details are different for the other apprentices - Pavel and Welspun are each taught using the elements that are the speciality of their respective schools, while Kiki's classes have a more artistic focus - but the underlying principles are the same.

The new matriculants (or adumbrates or limners or able cadets) all have the opportunity to practice this new and exciting technique, their gleeful enthusiasm drawing either knowing looks or belittling sneers from older students. By Windsday, the day that the much-anticipated joint teaching is due to start, all of the students involved are hoping that their first lesson together will be a practical one...

~~

Pavel, though, in the Naval College, is quite equivocal about all of this. On his fifth attempt, he had indeed managed to persuade the water in the tank to creep up into the oil on top. Creep, rather than fly up, beyond the oil and into the air, that was the key. There was something the master kept repeating from Evenard's Twelve Tenets. This was supposed to help, but Evenard's Twelve Tenets were from last year and Pavel had forgotten whatever he'd known of all of that as soon as he'd scraped through the test. The repetitions of Tenet Number Five, or whichever one it was, just got in the way; about as interminably dull as the endless copying of text had been.

Well, he got the idea that it wasn't about moving the water around, it was about doing something else with the water. Or the oil - that bit of the explanation only confused him. But he did it and got the master off his back, that was what mattered.

The other apprentices' gushing about this Manipulation business, their enthusiasm about the joint lessons and the sour grapes from those not selected to participate, well Pavel finds that annoying, but he isn't surprised. He has only one thing in mind, really. Or maybe two.

One is that he feels pretty much recovered from the dousing which Master Carrick had given him. Not so much recovered physically, that was easy, but he has recovered from the beaten-dog look which the master had given him. It was as if Pavel had been holding the master underwater, not the other way around. Well.

The other thing he has in mind is that he wants to talk to that girl, the one obsessed with unicorns, about his wave image. He'll ahve to talk to her friend first, though. Good thing the joint lessons are coming up. Who knows the masters aren't as thoroughly tedious as in the Naval College?

~~

"At last," thinks Kiki as the first real practical magic lessons start. Having been allowed to play with her mum's type of magic since she was small (OK she is not much bigger now), Kiki has found the pace of learning rather frustrating as they labour over things she thought obvious.

Still, when the time comes, Kiki is surprised that it does take her time to figure out how to separate the two colours placed in front of her with her mind. Others - including Jandrell - beat her to mastering the trick. This draws a few sneers from those used to being left behind by Kiki's quick mind and hard work, but Kiki is quick to congratulate Jandrell on her success.

"Hmmm... perhaps there is something to their method after all," she thinks.

As Kiki preparers herself for the first joint lesson, she is a bit apprehensive, as her master has been lecturing her again on not showing up the college. Still, she knows a few of those involved so it should not be all bad.

~~

Eren's first attempt at essence manipulation is no more successful than that of those next to her, the ball of glowing light staying stubbornly yellow. She feels, however, that she was near to something, that her essence maybe 'touched' the other essence, but brushed past it without grabbing on. She takes a short breather, clears her head, recalls what The Rule says on the subject, and tries again. Trying to reach out with her own essence, as she was taught, she feels the other essence, and tries to grab on.

"OH!" her exclamation draws dirty looks from the other students, who titter to see that Eren's light has gone out completely. Eren blushes red, and is about to insist that it flashed red before disappearing, but that it is still there sort of because she can feel its heat and the essence itself, but she doesn't want to argue with her classmates. The master comes over, gives her a considering look, and says "more gently," then leaves her with a glowing ball of yellow light again.

More confidently now, she reaches out again. Ah, there it is. She realizes now what a small essence this is compared to a human. Ever so carefully she 'turns' her essence, doesn't the light look more orange-ish now? A bit more, a bit more….it seems to be getting harder, maybe that is normal as you change it more? Still, she can push it a bit more, even if her head is beginning to swim.

"There!" she announces proudly. She looks at the orange-red, almost glowing coal colored, light fondly as she hears attention turn her way. "What is it?" asks another student. "My light, it's orange-red now," she explains

"Really?" drawls Agnetha? "Interesting definition of orange-red!"

Hearing Master Olivant approach, Eren knows he at least will see the obvious. However as she looks up into his orange hued face, her smile slips away. Looking around in growing panic she realizes that all the colors are wrong, the whole class looking like it is bathed in the last moments of sunset. "What….how….why is everything red and orange?" she manages to stammer.

The master fixes her with an unseeing glare and sighs "Now there is an error I've not seen in many years. You were supposed to change the essence of the light to red, not change your own essence to see yellow as red." After the class's initial titters die down he continues "I admit your way is much harder, but generally less useful. Fortunately you are hardly powerful enough to have done lasting damage. Still, you won't be able to complete today's lesson anyway, so you might as well go see your master, he'll know your essence best. While you are there, you might want to have him remind you of the fundamentals of where you end and the rest of the world starts."

As Eren dashes out of the room, trying to hold off tears of embarrassment and disappointment, she hears someone crack "Well there is ever so much of her, I'm sure it could be confusing."

Two days later she's gotten used to the taunts of "Nice green hair Eren!" and the jabs of "Oh, you must have just bought those hose yesterday Eren, what an unfortunate time to have gone shopping." Her sight seems to have returned to normal, but she still finds herself peering at things, trying to determine if they are the exact shade that they used to be or not.

~~

Exalian is loathe to admit it, but he is having the same sorts of problems that others are in terms of manipulating the essence provided by the instructors. He also buries deep his enthusiasm for the subject, even from himself, as he doesn't want to be as unseemly as the other students. Especially in front of the upper class men with their oh-so-knowing looks. Exalian sits down for a moment to consider what he must be doing wrong.

As he does so, his thoughts drift back to the library, and the events that had occured there. He recalled a moment after the basic key had been set down where it had dawned on everyone at the same time how much work deciphering the entire book had been. Almost at the same time each of them had straightened up from the book and their notes, and began to stretch, trying to erase fatigue. But also trying to look into each other's eyes as if to ask, "what now?" Eventually all eyes had fallen on Exalian.

He'd said that they'd start in on translation slowly but surely - wouldn't do to get anything wrong, and have the spells in the book not work. Since then very little had been done, in fact, as the students geared up for these practical lessons, and the new joint lessons. But Exalian promised himself that he'd get back to it soon. The drive to understand what his master was up to, and to get back at Oren were both too strong to be denied by studies.

Exalian stands up again, and considers his ball of essence. He reaches inside himself, and, quite easily, makes the same mistake that Eren had made. Just in the nick of time, he reins himself in from announcing that he'd done it, made the change in color, when he has a sneaking suspicion. Looking about the room, yes, all of them had changed colors. That was close. He'd almost made a fool of himself as Eren had done.

Still, interesting that Eren had been able to accomplish this little odd trick, too. Once again, Exalian had to admit that there was more there than met the eye.

Exalian is awakened from his thoughts as the essence balls pop out of existence, and the instructor announces that the lesson is over. Standing up, Exalian realizes that it's now time to head over to the first of the new special lessons. He grabs his materials, and heads out, eager to see his other conspirators and speak to them about the book and getting back to the library.

~oOo~

The first of the joint lessons in the combined teaching experiment is scheduled to take place at the Imperial College on Windsday morning.

The students - all twenty of them - have arrived on time at one of the College's larger classroom's, but there's no sign of a master to take the lesson. After waiting in silence for a few minutes, the students begin to talk amongst themselves, quietly and cautiously at first, then with growing confidence and volume...

"Hello Esther" Pavel flashes his winning smile at Erentona and offers his hand to shake. Blushing furiously, the girl shakes his hand and doesn't quite manage to correct him in time. "Looking forward to the lesson?"

It would be quite plain to an observer that Pavel is not the least interested in her response, but she produces it nevertheless, receiving his shallow smiles in return. "Excellent," he cuts her off in mid-gush, "tell you what, since we're supposed to be working together and all, maybe you could help me with this?"

Pavel pulls the wave parchment out and shows it her. Eren's eyes widen in alarm as she sees the item which the Naval boy has stolen from Salazar and is now boldly waving under her nose. "It's an assignment Master Carrick gave me, but I can't really make head or tail of it." His lie is deliberately placatory.

Even a few weeks ago Eren would surely have helped him without second thought. She still nearly does, and doesn't bother correcting the pronunciation of her name, but then the question darts across her mind "Wouldn't Kiki say something?"

Eren stares at the picture with misgivings, certain that whatever she does now will be wrong. Why did he have to have stolen that? If only he'd asked for help with pretty much anything else! Finally she mumbles "I don't know. Kiki would be better at that sort of thing, but….." she trails off, pauses for an instant, then blurts out "that was Master Salazari's picture! How did you get it?"

Kiki has just had her initial impression of Pavel confirmed but still that picture - WOW! She realy want to get a better and longer look at it. "Looks like he 'forgot' to give it back just like he 'forgot' that your name is Eren. Can I have a look at that" says Kiki sounding not that phased at being shown stolen goods. When a poacher comes in with his hand neatly cut off you don't ask questions you just bind the stump.

Kiki takes the picture and looks over it eyes wide and deep. "You know of course that this will have to go back" Kiki states plainly. "But I assume Salazari won't mind if I paint a copy first so we can study it".

Kiki offers Pavel her solution to the dilemma that has just been handed to her She looks Pavel straight in the eyes.

"Apart from being of water what is in this for you. I hadn't taken you for an art lover..."

"I'm not", says Pavel, "but there's something in this image which caught my eye. I don't know if you can see it too?" He doesn't trouble himself to show her the image again, but folds it up and stashes it away. "I'll let you copy it," he says generously. "But I'll have to watch. Yes?"

Kiki looks away and purses her lips.

"If you think I am inviting a 'Boy' to my studio, alone, for several evenings then you are mistaken. There are some reputations I would rather not have".

Eren interjects "Ummmm, what if I came too? Then you wouldn't be alone with him. And...I've never seen a real artist work before, just, well never mind that, but I'd be interested in watching."

Exalian is excited to see that Kiki and Eren are already seated as he comes rushing in from his previous lesson. Why had the master deemed it so important to have a supplemental class early that morning for some of the class. It's almost like he'd wanted to make those required to come late for these experimental classes. Not for the first time does Exalian wonder if there are some politics behind how the students are being treated.

"Hi Kiki, Eren," he takes a moment to recall the other boy's name. "Hi Pavel."

Turning to just the girls he says, "We need to talk right after class. About the special project. In the library."

~oOo~

Before Eren and Kiki can respond, the sound of the door being slammed makes everyone in the room jump. The chattering abruptly stops and the eyes of the assembled students are drawn as one to the figure standing by the door.

"Thank-you, class - that's so much better," says Father Emoliant, his voice lilting and disconcertingly soft. "I do so hate it when I have to raise my voice..."

The Imperial College Liturgist scans the room slowly, as if memorising each student in turn. He has a round, slightly flushed and beardless face, with a small nose perching imperiously over a rather fleshy lips. His immaculate and finely-tailored robes do little to disguise his well-padded form. His face is carefully composed in a calm, almost serene, expression, but his narrowed eyes betray his displeasure.

Eren experiences a sinking feeling. She really wants to like Master Emoliant. He is the college liturgist, he should be a great and wise man! And, well, he is also generously built, and she'd like to have someone she admired who was also built that way. But he really was hard to like. She'd hoped that in the joint lessons at least he'd manage to seem more wise and patient and less like he was waiting for a reason to pounce on students.

"Now, children," Emoliant continues, in the same maddeningly soft tones. "I do apologise for my unavoidable tardiness this morning, but in future I trust that I will not have to resort to such tactics in order to make myself heard?"

He pauses for barely a heartbeat, then his face breaks into an broad, but strangely humourless, smile.

"Excellent!" he says, with unconvincing enthusiasm. "So... without further ado, I'd like to welcome you to the first of your joint lessons. I'm sure that you're every bit as excited as I am to be participating in this grand endeavour. I'm happy to say that I have been given the great honour of inaugurating this ground-breaking teaching experiment, by presenting the first of your 'Perils of Sorcery' lessons."

This announcement is greeted by a quiet, disappointed murmuring and rolling of eyes amongst some of the Imperial students, who have heard about these lessons from their older peers.

Eren cannot help but to slump a little deeper into her chair. Surely this is an important subject, but could he not have done something to better impress the other schools? They will think that all of Imperial is this dry and boring!

The students' reaction has a profound effect on Father Emoliant, whose serene expression is immediately marred by a scowl, his upper lip curling in contempt. With a visible effort, however, he takes a deep breath and composes his expression once more.

"Now, now," he chides the class, his eyes flashing with suppressed anger. "Don't be misled, my young friends. These lessons may not seem to offer the visceral excitement of some of your other subjects, but I promise you: they are every bit as important - and may very well save you from mortal peril and damnation!"

He pauses, stroking his chin, and then intones:

"'Wisdom resides, not in acting, nor in knowing how or when to act, but in weighing the consequences of an action and then choosing the path of righteousness.'"

He suddenly points a finger at Eren.

"You - Erentona, isn't it? Who gives us this piece of sage advice?"

Eren tries to say "Me, sir?" as she sits bolt upright in terror. Unfortunately it comes out more as a high pitched "Meep?" Hastily she clears her throat and racks her mind, surely it must be something they've studied, she just needs a moment to recall it…. "Uh, yes, I'm Erentona." That draws an impatient look. "Who said that quote, sir? I think it was, uh, ...."

"Quickly now!" the liturgist tells her, with a dangerous smile. "Or I'll have to ask someone else..." he adds in a sing-song voice.

"Uh, was it..." Eren begins, then has a flash of inspiration. "I mean, is it from the Ecumenical canon, sir?"

"It is," he acknowledges, with a frown. "But I'm surprised and not a little disappointed that you can't tell me a little more than that, young lady - as a Scripturist, I'd have thought you, at least, would be familiar with the words of the Blessed Hentharemus!"

Eren vaguely recalls the name of this worthy, but thinks that Father Emoliant has rather unrealistic expectations if he thinks any of her fellow apprentices will be able to quote obscure scripture...

"But perhaps this only serves to illustrate my point," the liturgist is continuing. "Syran's schools, it has been said, are rather too intent on forging your delicate young minds into keen-edged exponents of the wizardly arts, when they also need to temper the metal of those minds with the wisdom of the scriptures."

He smiles. "And that's why I was appointed. In this first lesson, we shall focus, not so much upon the moral evils that I have been charged to arm you against, but rather the virtues that should inform your studies and - if you are successful - your futures as adepts."

Producing a sheaf of papers from his neat leather case, he places them on the desk and noisily clears his throat.

"Our lesson today," he begins. "Is entitled "Wizardry: Exploring the Mind of God..."

~oOo~

The long and involved lecture that follows would have been virtually indistinguishable from a sermon where it not for Emoliant's periodic selection of students to question on whatever moral principle, point of canon, or supposedly famous religious commentator he happened to be expounding upon at that moment.

Most of the apprentices respond to this random interrogation with predictable bewilderment or nervousness. However diligently they might attend their various congregations, few of them are well-versed in the kind of theological subject matter that Emoliant seems to think essential to their education. Jandrell, whose father is a clergyman, fares better than most, even managing to produce a nod of satisfaction from the relentless liturgist, but for the others the lesson becomes something of a trial.

When it comes to his turn, Pavel doesn't really regret not having paid that much attention during the weekly catechizations of his youth. Truth be told, he was feeling a bit uncomfortable at having been sat between Agnetha and Meredith when the question was fired his way.

Small wonder, then, that Emoliant's questions elicit nothing more eloquent than a shrug from Pavel.

"How very disappointing," the liturgist comments, after it becomes clear that he's not likely to get anything resembling a satisfactory response from Pavel. "And yet your principal was adamant that your lamentable behaviour at the Disputation was not typical of your attitude to schoolwork in general. I must advise him of his error - perhaps he was thinking of a different student..."

Eren spends the rest of the class seething inside. It wasn't fair! He was using his position of teacher to make them all--and her in particular, look like fools. It isn't their fault that their studies focussed in other areas. Really, he was just being a bully.

Of course, this means that she is hardly paying attention, nor is she of very focussed frame of mind. So when pinned with a question again she is tempted to simply say she has no idea; pride is the only thing that prods her to try search her memeoyr and show that she is not as ignorant as he has implied.

This, at least, Eren manages to achieve, by dredging up the context of a few half-remembered quotes from memory. The liturgist is far from impressed, but he does at least seem satisfied that she has a passing familiarity with his cherished subject matter - which is more than can be said for most of her peers.

Kiki, too, manages to avoid disgracing herself, drawing inspiration from her religious symbolism classes to demonstrate that one of the schools, at least, has a curriculum that is not wholly devoid of religious instruction.

Exalian, however, is hampered not only by his customary absence from congregation meetings, but by his Galvosti upbringing. Trying and failing to batten down the irritation that he already feels at the - to his mind - utter pointlessness of the lesson, he only compounds the bad impression that he makes on Emoliant by accidentally quoting from Galvosti scripture.

Far from seeming shocked by this slip, however, the liturgist responds with a suspiciously triumphant-looking grin of satisfaction. He fixes Exalian with a stare that leaves the apprentice in no doubt: as far as Emoliant is concerned, his card is well and truly marked...

At the end of the lesson, the mood amongst the students is almost universally gloomy. Even Emoliant's announcement at the end of the lesson - that their next joint lesson, scheduled to begin tomorrow morning and last all day, will be a field trip - failes to lift their spirits.

Exalian and the others meet in the library. It's lunchtime, but none of them feel particularly hungry. Berem joins them after a few minutes.

"How was your first special lesson, then?" he asks, then notices their faces. "That bad, huh?"

~oOo~

Early the next morning, the students of the joint class dutifully assemble in the Imperial College quadrangle, ready to embark on their field trip. They are still feeling a little bruised after the previous morning's lesson with Father Emoliant and few of them resent having to drag themselves out of bed earlier than usual, but the prospect of a trip outside the city walls is generally greeted with enthusiasm.

Their destination is the Graveen Marshes, which hug the north-eastern shores of Lake Felster between Syran and Galin, where they are to study the essence and form of some of the indigenous wildlife. The students have been instructed to wear stout shoes and warm clothes, as they'll be out for most of the day and will have about an hour's walk to reach the perimeter of the marshes. They've each been issued with a packed lunch by Bunta, who is in charge of the College refectory, with strict instructions not to eat any of it until lunchtime.

Their tutor for the day, Master Stockfish, cheerfully informs them that rain is "probably unlikely" today, but the skies look a little ominous and there's a bite in the chill spring air...

~~

A trip outside of the City? Great, that puts the previous problems entirely out of Kiki's mind. Not that the questions worried Kiki that much, but she did pick up on the very negative vibes from the rest of the class. Given a chance to study wildlife is just up her street, a breath of fresh air in more ways than one.

Kiki looks out the day bag that she usually uses for her expeditions into the woods and a few collecting jars for any interesting specimens she comes across. Then she takes some parchment and carefully puts it into a storage tube, to keep the water out for when it rains. Since it things might be damp she restricts herself to chalks and pencils for drawing. Oh and some spare nibbles and her water bottle as fresh water will be a problem. Now a marsh means wet feet so sandals tied on to feet rather that boots, that will just keep the water in. Hmmm.... Spare set in the bag as well in case she loses one in the mud. Need to keep her eyes open for a suitable stick to prod the road in front and she also looks out a short length of rope for tree climbing...

~~

Try though she might, Eren cannot share her classmates' enthusiasm for the expedition. She doesn't mind the walk, although she is not looking forward to climbing the hill back up into the city at the end of a long day. No, what is bugging her is the blithe "wear stout shoes and warm clothes." All fine and good for those who come from the nobility, or the better off portions of the philosopher class, but not everyone has such luxuries!

Aside from the sandals she wears for less formal occasions when it is warm, she has her one pair of boots. And now she is going to go and half-ruin them in a marsh. No doubt they'll never look the same, and no doubt some of the other students will point this out to her. And warm clothes? Her warmest robe is also her best one, the one that is least worn. No way is she going to get it ruined too. Anyway, trudging through the mud should keep her warm enough. Still, it will be apparent enough that unlike some, she does not have a set of clothes just for rambles in the country.

Really though, it is not the practical aspects that bother her as much, as the implications that all students should have that sort of money. The colleges can't both attract the best minds and assume that everyone has money. Unless you believe, as some seem to, that good minds only come from the noble and philosopher classes.

At least she's as well prepared as she can be. She has her staff with her, and has managed to prepare her throw voice and puff of smoke spells last night. Unfortunately she'd neither managed to get her hidden pocket spell prepared, nor had she managed to cadge any additional food from the kitchens to supplement the somewhat light lunch which they'd been provided. It looked like a long, tiring, dirty, uncomfortable and hungry day ahead.

On the other hand, all of that might just be worth it, to get to study real essences, not just descriptions in books!

~~

Pavel has an old pair of his uncle's sailing boots with him and a thick jumper of his own, the unwashed wool reeking of sheep. His clothing is bulky enough that he's managed to stash a stout club away in the folds: he's not particularly wanting to meet a Marsh Maggot (a particularly bulky and aggressive form of leech), without a way to beat the creature off. In adition, the ship's biscuits should help when his lunch, already half-eaten in spite of Busty Bunta's orders, is finished.

Pavel received the full range of unfriendly looks from Pensimmon, Vey and even the Ice Maiden Agnetha, so with the jostling inevitable at the star of such an expedition, he ends up trudging along in the company of Meredith.

Without her friend Abigail by her side, the Naval girl is quieter than usual and Pavel doesn't really notice her. Given the task of an early-morning trek, he doesn't feel as uncomfortable in her presence as he usually does, and absent-mindeldy gives her the odd bit of help over some of the tougher stretches.

The shipwright's daughter blushes each time Pavel gives her his hand, drawing comments from some of the others, but Pavel is oblivious and likely doesn't even know he is helping the girl.

~~

As the apprentices look around at their peers, borrowed footwear and clothing are much in evidence, although in many cases these are worn in addition to normal school robes. Only those students with a rural or an upper class background seem to be well-prepared or comfortable in their unfamiliar garb. Two notable exceptions are tailor's son Laramy, who is proudly sporting a beautiful coat with a gleaming waxy finish, and Aldeth, who seems thoroughly uncomfortable in spite of her well-fitted boots and fine apparel.

The perpetually-smiling Master Stockfish looks quite at ease in his sturdy boots and broadcloth cape, and has a bulging knapsack on his back. He seems completely unconcerned with the preparedness or otherwise of his class for the day ahead, chatting amiably with one or two Imperial students as he waits for the class to assemble. As soon as he has ticked off his list of twenty students he claps his hands sharply and instructs them to line up, two abreast, before raising his walking staff in the air and shouting "Follow me!".

Traipsing through the city in a somewhat disorderly column, the students inevitably attract a certain amount of attention from residents, tradespeople and passers-by. This is largely good-natured in Eastgate and Oldtown, but passing through the disreputable neighbourhood of Rivergate proves a little more uncomfortable, especially for those students who have led a hitherto rather sheltered existence. Very soon, however, they are leaving the confines of the city for a short journey through Portside before crossing the river.

~oOo~

This is the first time that most of the students have encountered the pontoon bridge at the River Doskior's mouth, an obstacle that gives many of them pause. It certainly looks sturdy enough, being more than capable of supporting an entire mule train laden with goods, but those that have crossed it before know that the fluid motion of its articulated structure can be very unnerving for the uninitiated. More than one merchant has courted disaster, thanks to the panicked behaviour of his pack animals upon attempting to cross.

True to form, Master Stockfish stomps confidently onto the bridge without a backward glance, setting up a rippling wave pattern and a chorus of creaks. He remains heedless of the anxious students that he leaves in his wake, until he hears the protests of the first few, who have balked at this obstacle, accompanied by the jeers or encouragement of their fellows.

"Come on you lily-livered lot!" he thunders jovially back to them. "S'only a bridge. Perfectly safe," he assures them, jumping up and down on the spot for emphasis. "And it won't bite!"

The river at this point is almost two hundred metres wide, so the bridge is a fairly impressive structure, for all its flaws. It's about four metres wide and largely constructed of interlocking planks of wood held together by rope. The flexible span is supported by a series of huge pontoons floating in the water and is attached to the stone quayside by enormous, oxen-driven windlasses, which are used to adjust the tension of the span to accommodate Lake Felster's modest, but still significant, tides. Ropes threaded through uprights on either side of the bridge serve as a handrail, but the motion of the structure can make these unhelpfully slack and holding onto them inevitable necessitates walking rather close to one edge or the other, and the three metre drop into the waters of the Doskior

The students are lucky to be the only users of the bridge at this time, although there's no guarantee that others won't begin the crossing while they are in transit. However, the boards look disturbingly slick with the overnight rain and the tide is currently out, which means that the first section of the bridge is at a slight downward incline...

Feeling the concern radiating around them Kiki offers her hand for support to Jandrell. Wet and slippy paths are nothing new for her, both at home and in the woods. OK, so they don't normally go up and down in quite that manner but Kiki is too happy at the prospect of getting out and about to worry about such things as embarrassing herself and obeys the masters instructions. Besides - why should she worry herself about the opinion of the Imperial students?

As ever, Kiki's cheerful confidence and altruistic instincts do her credit, and she isn't at all deterred by the slightly treacherous footing. What she hadn't counted on, however, was the increasingly alarming movement of the bridge. She manages to control her own rising panic, but when Jandrell slips in the middle of the bridge and lets out a shriek, it takes all of her self-control not to join in. As it is, it takes her several minutes to calm the other girl down, by which time she is feeling a bit wobbly herself.

The two girls complete the second half of the bridge at a painfully slow pace, with Kiki wincing at Jandrell's vice-like grip on her hand.

Eren looks at the bridge, knows that it should be easy, but knowing also that somehow she is going to look like a fool. Then she remembers that Kiki is from the country, and is surely going to do well at this. She decides to try and copy whatever Kiki does, and hope for the best.

This works well for her to begin with, since Kiki seems to be taking it all in her stride as usual, but when Eren sees Jandrell's moment of panic and Kiki's rather shaken response, her own confidence starts to evaporate. A few moments later, she slips and lands unceremoniously on her behind, to the amusement of the other students. Climbing hurriedly to her feet, she immediately slips again and grits her teeth in frustration. When she slips for a third time, however, she lets out a small involuntary whimper of fear.

"Don't worry, petal," says a friendly voice. "We'll get you across safe and sound."

She looks up to see Gorbo and Pensimmon, two of the Naval College students, who both seem to be completely at ease - no doubt used to the wet planks and the movement from their maritime experiences. Helping her to her feet they each take an arm and escort her patiently across. Even with their help, the journey is tortuous, as Eren wrestles with her irrational fear and struggles to walk on her jelly-like legs. The look of disdain that she receives from Master Stockfish when they eventually reach the other side is enough to make her want to cry.

She reassures herself "Someday I'll be wizard--not just an apprentice, a real wizard--and nobody will look at me that way, nobody would dare."

Behind them, Pavel is at first amused by the clumsy Imperial girl's pitiful plight, then merely irritated to be stuck behind her and his helpful classmates, who insist on walking three abreast along the centre of the bridge. When he tries to overtake them, however, he experiences a momentary lurch of fear himself as he steps close the to the edge of the bridge, which takes him completely by surprised. After all, what is there to be afraid of here? A bit of water never did anyone any harm. Angry at himself - and at the others for putting him in this situation - he is forced to follow cautiously behind them.

Once they have all safely (if not always very gracefully) managed to cross the bridge, the students are faced with a less daunting challenge, as they quickly cover the remaining distance to the edge of the marshes. This turns out to be rather pleasant lakeside walk on a good and mostly dry path, which takes less than an hour. The dark clouds that had been looming menacingly at the start if their trip have also started to break up, allowing the sun through to warm the air a little, which helps to brighten the students' mood considerably.

~oOo~

When they reach the marshes, however, the going becomes a little tougher and a great deal damper underfoot, which prompts a . There's a palpable air of relief when Master Stockfish eventually calls a halt and announces that they have arrived at their destination. His students squelch around uncomfortably in the foul-smelling mire as he explains what they will be doing for the remainder of the morning.

"Difficult though it may be to believe," Stockfish begins cheerfully. "I've brought you all here for a reason: namely, to study the indigenous wildlife. Why here? Simple: the marshes are what we might call a liminal territory, belonging to neither the land nor the water, but exhibiting aspects of each. The unusual nature of the plant and animal species that inhabit it also reflects this 'between-ness', which can be very illuminating in our studies of form and essence."

"Now, I'm sure that you are all abundantly familiar with the taxonomic lists in Zzabur's Descent of Animals. Your task today is to find and classify as many different species as possible, paying particular attention to those that seem especially suited to this environment, or which are rarely found elsewhere. And I have a special reward for the student who tallies up the most rare species."

"Now, watch carefully," he tells the students. With a grin and a quirk of one eyebrow, he places his knapsack on the ground and opens it up. Reaching inside he first produces a large glass jar, which he places on the ground beside him. He then takes hold of what looks like a stick and begins to draw it slowly out, pantomiming an expression of surprise. It soon becomes obvious that the pole that is emerging is far too long to have fitted in the pack. When at last the end emerges, to scattered applause, the apprentices see that it has a large and finely-meshed net attached to it.

"Ta-da!" concludes the rather smug-looking master. "Now, I think that I have enough of these in here to go round, so if you'd each like to come and collect them..."

At length, when the adept has issued each of his students with a net and a jar, shooing away the more curious students who seem determined to investigate his bag, he reaches into the magic container one last time and produces a generous packed lunch, a large notebook and a curious-looking wooden contraption, which - once unfolded - proves to be a chair. Setting the latter down on a reasonably dry and relatively solid patch of ground, the master takes a seat and takes out a pencil.

"Very well then, class," he says. "You may work alone or in groups, but each specimen must be brought back to me and attributed to a single individual. You'll get extra credit if you can identify or classify your specimens, but there will be no credit awarded for duplicates! You may begin!"

~oOo~

"Saints above!" Eren thinks "this has to be the most horrible, disgusting, humiliating class ever devised." She indulges in a brief daydream about simply walking away, but decides that would not be a credit to Imperial. Clearly she has to try, to do her bit to show what Imperial is made of. Not that she has any illusions of winning this little contest, but she has to make a real effort, and come up with some sort of results.

Her first thought on strategy is just to stand there and wait for things to try and bite her, and see if she can catch them first. But on further reflection she realizes that this is unapt to be successful--with all the students trudging around, most thing will be hiding, and any that aren't she probably doesn't want to risk their bite. That gives her her first thought: try to get away from the other students a bit. But she'd still be making noise on her own; she is no Saint Asrelen to slip through the marsh unnoticed. So maybe she would do better to stand still? But if she does that, how would she ever find anything that was not already practically underfoot? This brings her back to being her own bait, but she still suspects that approach is more whimsical than logical. Is there some way should could arrange for the creatures to be moving past her?

Then it hits her: let the other students drive creatures to her. Get out ahead of them, then be still. As the others move around, surely many creatures will surely try to move away. Maybe if she is still enough some of them will come within her range.

She looks around, and realizes that most of the students are going along the dryer ground. OK then, the one way to make sure she is away from them is to be in the wetter ground. Doing so means getting coated in mud—but can she let a little mud stop her doing her best? Appealing as it sounds, she decides that she can't let it, mud it shall be. Accordingly she puts her jar in one of her large pockets, holds the net clamped against her staff, and starts carefully trudging through the mud, muck, and foul looking water, until she reaches a tuft of reeds coming out of the water, which seem like they might make a likely hiding spot for some creatures. She drives her staff into the mud, so that it stands on its own, and prepares her net. She concentrates on slow, careful scans, looking for any sign of movement or anything else that stands out.

One final inspiration hits her, and she calls up her symbolic sight. Most things here should be of mixed nature, but if some have a more essential nature, all the better to catch them!

Eren's plan - to actively seek out the wetter ground away from her fellows - had seemed like a perfectly sensible idea at the time. It was only when - having failed to notice anything even vaguely interesting in her chosen location - she had tried to move elsewhere that she had spotted the flaw in her approach.

A couple of mighty heaves confirm it: she is stuck in the mud. Try as she might, she can't seem to free her feet out of the horrible quagmire into which they have sunk. Panting with exertion, she grabs one of her own legs and hauls as hard as she can. The success of this tactic is short-lived: she frees the foot, but leaves the boot behind in the mud and ends up falling into the bog, with one foot still firmly stuck. A miserable and exhausting battle with the mire ensues, at the end of which the unfortunate apprentice emerges, soaking wet and disgustingly dirty, with two mud-filled boots and precious little dignity.

~oOo~

This just the best class ever thinks Kiki, bliss in fact. Kiki just can't wait to get started. The fact that her short stature means she is getting muddier by the minuet does not seem to worry her at all. But Jandrell's hand on her shoulder and her pleading look stops her from leaving.

"Oh dear city kids" thinks Kiki as she takes in the assorted looks of disgust and apprehension in the students around her. But she relents to Jandrell's forlorn look.

"Ok why don't we team up. I can find things then we can identify them between us and share what we find." Jandrell looks relived, but uncertain.

"Look this is a swamp - there is life everywhere!" To illustrate this Kiki thrusts her jar into the mire at her feet and then opens it, dumps the result in her net and strains it with some water. "See? Life! Now what can we recognise..."

Kiki starts methodical prodding at the various crawling things that have appeared in her net ignoring her companions look. Not wasting any more time Kiki plods out with her friend to get some space on there own where they are more likely to find more interesting and curious things. Though as always she is also on the look out for interesting plants, even though they are not on today's syllabus.

Kiki is pleased to see Jandrell's confidence increase as between them they unearth a reasonable if uninspiring collection of creatures. Most of which they think they can identify. So Kiki suggests that they rather than head back to Stockfish with what they now have, instead they will head deeper into the bog to try and find some more exotic specimens for Master Stockfish.

This decision proves to be a good one, as Kiki's knowledge and the distance that they are now putting between themselves and their less ambitious fellow students combine to turn up some exciting finds. Kiki is just about to suggest returning to Stockfish to show him what they've found, when Jandrell lets out a hastily-muffled gasp.

"Look! What's that?" she whispers urgently, pointing a quivering finger at the delicate creature that she has spied clinging to a nearby clump of weed.

Kiki gapes in awe at the beautiful thing, marvelling at the finely-traced structures of its gauzy wings and the iridescent hue of its slender body. It's evidently some kind of dragonfly, but larger than anything she's seen before and with such vivid colours... What a prize! Motioning Jandrell to keep still, she moves slowly and carefully towards the dragonfly, her net at the ready. Holding her breath she edges closer and closer until she is almost in range.

At that moment she catches sight of someone else, presumably another student, who seems to be intent on capturing the very same prize! Squinting at the other individual, Kiki is faintly disturbed by the shadowy blur that seems to surround them, effectively concealing their identity. She has little time to ponder this, however, because the mysterious interloper is already moving towards the dragonfly, net in hand...

~~

Exalian is in a fine mood as he stands on the edge of the bog, net and jar in hand. He holds them like they're toxic. The very idea of being required to catch animals. Things had not been going his way.

On his own personal front, the progress at the library had been slow. He tried to be patient, but patience had never been his strong suit. He could be deliberate and methodical when need be, but waiting for results was just against his nature.

Add to this that he was sure that Father Emoliant was distinctly out to get him. Surely it would have been better not to answer Emoliant's query than to quote Galvosti scripture accidentally. But since that point, Exalian had been furious inside by the liturgist's dismissal of Exalian because of this. One thing to be thought incompetent, but another thing entirely to be written off due to one's heritage. Especially when that heritage was greatly underappreciated!

All this on top of his failure to win the disputation earlier were driving Exalian to find some way to distinguish himself. Hence the extra impatience with the book of codes. And now this field trip.

Calm down, Exalian thinks to himself. Proceed with a mind of quiet certitude, is what his father would say. Exalian realizes that he's had his eyes closed in order to maintain his composure through this moment of near rage.

When he opens them, however, his attitude changes dramatically and instantly. Cecily is there before him. And, better yet, it looks like she doesn't have a partner yet. Though she's standing with the other gloomers.

Exalian takes a firmer grip on his net and jar, determined not to look effete as he approaches, and makes his way to Cecily.

"Hello, Cecily," he manages to get out, his heart pounding in his chest. "Do you have a partner yet?"

"Why? Are you stuck for ideas?" she snaps back at him, the hint of a sneer hovering on her lips. When she catches his eye, however, Cecily's fierce expression seems to soften a fraction.

"Um... seriously, though: do you have any ideas about how to approach this?" she adds in a gentler tone. "If you do, then I might work with you. I mean, consider working with you," she hastily amends, lifting her chin and attempting a cool stare.

She glances back at her fellow gloomers with evident contempt. "This lot are completely clueless..." she mutters.

~~

"Gah!" spat Welspun.

This wasn't what he considered the proper behaviour of a scholar. Examining and classifying the comfortingly dead specimens helpfully preserved in alchemical solutions was a borderline activity to check theoretical derivations from the formal logic of Zzaburite descent of species. But this, this wading in slime was the province of farmers, heretics, pagans, or students from the Naval Academy . What was the point of studying the actual things, corrupt by all manner of perverse and malign influences, when the pure, essential, clean version could be looked at in a beautiful and purely theoretical compendium.

Welspun wanted to spend his life in an ivory tower, he did not want to go out hunting mammoths in order to build one for himself. However, there was nothing for it but to do something. He couldn't just stand in the mud, slowly sinking in until his feet were hopelessly stuck. He had to move in order to keep open his option to ever move again - hopefully back to a nice, dry, library. Perhaps, he thought, he could help someone who liked catching things but didn't know what they were, to classify them using Ocron's methodology.

"Ahem, errr, excuse me, um, eh? er yes.. that's, do you mind if help.. sorry I can't come over... I'm stuck. If you could pull me out, I think I could identify that creature that you have - some sort of descendant of the essential Burrowing creature..."

The unassuming Imperial student that he is addressing is staring in obvious bemusement at the wriggling thing in his collecting jar. He seems more than a little taken aback when he realises that Welspun is talking to him.

"Who me?" he says. "I... errr... you mean you want to work with me? Wel... that sounds... err.... Oh, sorry," he adds, belatedly notices Welspun's predicament. "You're a bit stuck there, aren't you? Here," he says, holding out an extremely grubby hand. "I'm Filey. Let's see if we can't get you free..."

~~

Pavel has been watching his classmates rushing around in the bog with an unreadable expression on his face. He sees his Naval College fellows Pensimmon and Gorbo heading off purposefully and toys briefly with the idea of joining them, but the idea quickly loses its appeal.

"Um... Pavel?" comes a voice from behind him. "Do you think perhaps you might like to work with me on this?"

He turns to see Meredith simpering prettily in his direction. Before he has time to consider her invitation, however, another familiar voice makes him turn again.

"Oh, I'm sure that you'd much rather join Aggie and I, wouldn't you Pavvie?" says Aldeth, darting a venomous glance at Meredith.

"'Aggie and me'," mutters Agnetha.

"What?" Aldeth snaps, turning to the other girl. "What are you wittering on about now?"

"You said 'Aggie and I'," her friend observes wearily. "It should have been 'Aggie and me'. I mean, you wouldn't have said 'You'd rather join I', would you?"

"Oh, do give it a rest, Aggie! You've been spending far too much time with deathly Demetrius, if you ask me. Now then, Pavvie: what's it going to be?" she demands. Glancing over at Meredith, she affects a giggle and flutters her eyelashes theatrically at Pavel. "Do you think perhaps you might like to work with us instead?" she says, imitating the Naval College girl's breathy little voice.

Pavel isn't really used to this situation.

Not the girl situtation, the class one. Normally, staying fairly still during class and dong relatively little doesn't get you noticed. On this occasion, it's a touch different.

He'll have to do something, so he'd better go with one of these girls, at least to be seen to be doing something. He's drawn to Agnetha in an odd way, but all those hours marching up and down the square in the school militia have made him aware that if he doesn't go with his school mate, Meredith, and she is on her own in a dangerous swamp, it could all get rather tiresome. His Uncle has told him often enough how he has to look after his own,even if Pavel himself can't quite see why. Besides, this Meredith always seems to want something from him. In the end, though, he decides that it would cause least trouble if he agrees to help Merry. She did ask first, after all. Besides, the worst that Aldeth and Agnetha are going to do is bitch about him to the rest of the in-crowd, which he decides he can live with.

Aldeth snorts in disgust wand stomps off when he tells her his decision, but Agnetha looks disappointed.

"OK then, if that's what you want," she says coolly. "Good hunting."

"Thanks, Pavel," Merry tells him, once the other girls have left. "I knew you wouldn't let a shipmate down. We're going to have so much fun!" she adds, with a giggle that makes Pavel wonder whether he's going to regret this...

With a sigh, Pavel marches off in a direction where there seem to be few people, leaving Meredith to keep up behind him. Eventually he finds a spot where he reckons he might find a catch something, though he only really bases this on a vague sense that the water is flowing in the right sort of fashion.

Once Meredith has caught up with him and seen at the little pool he has found, she goes pale. "You're going after a sump slug?" she says, her giggling for once halted.

"Looks like it", says Pavel, feeding a length of rop into the centre of the pool and then pulling a piece of string out of his pocket. As he straightens the string, putting some mud on to it to keep it that way, the rope in the pool starts to find its way to an erect state and then starts to tremor as something pushes at its base.

Conscientiously, Meredith goes quiet and thinks. "Why don't you give it some petals?" she says, "they love fresh leaves, so maybe they like flowers".

Pavel doesn't quite know what to make of this. He does, however, produce a bunch of flowers from behind his back and start casting the petals into the water.

For all its apparent shortcomings, this unorthodox approach to fishing eventually proves successful. Whether this is a tribute to Pavel's novel use of magic, or to Meredith's lateral thinking, or simply to the sump slug's singular lack of anything resembling a survival instinct, the two students are not entirely sure - although Pavel strongly suspects the latter.

"Now what?" asks Meredith, admiring the pitifully squirming specimen in their collecting jar. "Should we take this to Stockfish straight away or did you want to see if we can find anything else first?"

"Well, we've done what we came to do, haven't we?" Pavel says, matter-of-factly. Putting some water in the jar he trudges back towards the Master. When, equipped with a bright grin and a name for the creature, he tries to show him the specimen, he is quite distrcted by his companion - Meredith is giggling at something though he hasn't the faintest idea what.

"Ah, two of our young sailors," Stockfish observes, smiling at them rather insincerely. "I thought you splashers might feel a little more at home with your feet wet. So tell me, what wondrous specimen have you brought along to show me?"

The master cheerfully corrects Pavel's identification of their catch ("Actually, this particular specimen is one of the so-called slug's slightly rarer cousins - and as I'm sure you know, neither are actually related to the humble slug"), but seems pleasantly surprised that the Naval College students have managed to find such an impressive specimen.

"Well done, young man," he concludes. "A fair start. Now toddle off and find me some more specimens. The day is still young!"

"Is that not enough?" Pavel mutters to himself. "Right", he says to Meredith, "Let's go over to that patch of grass there". He points to a nearby sward which the others have all ignored. "Get your pot ready" he commands, preparing the net, "and follow me".

He proceeds to stride through the vegetation, swiping the net on broad arcs through the grass and twisting it between each stroke like an oar blade so as not to let anything escape. When he has taken ten strides and made ten sweeps, he grabs the neck of the net to secure it and crouches down beside a pool, plunging the net into the water and squeezing the air out gently.

Once he thinks he has given the creatures within enough time to drown, or at least not to be able to fly away, he opens the net and pulls the bugs out and plops them into the jar.

The results are disappointing - a miserable collection of common insects that are unlikely to impress anybody. Pavel is just resigning himself to a long, dull and fruitless afternoon when Meredith nudges him sharply in the ribs.

"Look!" she whispers fiercely, pointing towards a reed bed near the lake shore. "There's someone over there, watching us, I think. And I'm pretty sure it isn't a student..."

~oOo~

Once Eren gets her feet back on something resembling firm ground, and sluices most of the muddy water out of her hair, she accepts too thing: this day is going to be humiliation piled upon humiliation, and she does not know enough about swamps to go charging around in one.

Looking around, she decides that certainly she is in a reasonably isolated spot. With luck some swamp creatures will think so too. However getting out of the area again will take time, be difficult, be embarrassing, and probably scare everything off again. So she really wants to get something good. Something that will make all of this, this, this complete humiliation at least a little worthwhile. She wants something a little magical.

Since her lunch is ruined anyway from its soaking, she tears off part of the crust of the bread. She yanks out a couple of hairs and tie one end around the crust. Then digging through her pockets she finds some pins stuck into a couple of twigs, and with a wince she drives the pins into the heel of her hand enough to draw a little blood, then she sticks them into the bread. There, that should make a good basis for a lure. She lays it on the water, resting on the twigs—hairs in one hand, net in the other.

Then she sinks into symbolic sight, and looks for essences. Not surprisingly none are immediately visible, and her bread shows nothing except the faint trace of her essential nature from her blood. Now, if she can just change how that scans! Focusing her will, she tries to change the nature of that essential trace. Not a big change, just to change it from old blood to new, something fresh and tasty. Something that would be good to eat, she certainly knows how that feels. There, it feels like she achieved some change, hopefully it will draw something to it. Now she splits her concentration, half on maintaining the altered essence of her bait, part on her symbolic sight to see if anything takes the bait.

Eren feels a bit silly at first.

She's pretty certain that this isn't how one is supposed to use the essence manipulation techniques that they've been learning in Practical Magic - after all, they are intended for use with spell essences, not material essences like that present in her blood. However, there's no doubt that her inexpert fumblings are having an effect - using her symbolic sight, she can see the faint smudge of her personal essence flaring into a bright spark every time she concentrates.

So absorbing does Eren find this exercise, that she almost forgets why she was doing it in the first place.It's only when she hears a peculiar sucking sound, followed by a high-pitched whistling cry does she realise that her efforts have borne unexpected fruit.

A long, slender and slime-covered creature has emerged from a mud pool, just a few metres away from where she is standing. It is the size and shape of a reasonably large snake, but seems to lack eyes and has a peculiar circular maw that seems to be filled with sharp teeth! Lifting its hideous head out of the muck and questing blindly from side to side, it abruptly settles on a direction and begins sinuously wriggling through the marsh - heading straight towards her at surprising speed!

Initially, Eren thinks that this creature must be one of the notorious Marsh Maggots, which many of her classmates had been discussing on the way here, but even their most exaggerated stories about that loathsome pest hadn't suggested something quite as, well, active as this. And certainly none of them had mentioned the terrible keening cry that it utters as it rushes towards her...

As the creature speeds towards her Eren expects to panic, but instead she realizes that actually, everything is following her own plan! She can't fall apart now, she just needs to stay calm and carry through her plan. She's determined to show this beastie who is hunting who!

Her father's stave fighting advice: "dramatic flourishes are for the stage! In a real fight your staff is as much shield as weapon, so you always, always, always keep it between you and your foe. Let them come into it." Her net is discouragingly less solid than the staff which she left lying behind her, but it can be the shield between her and the creature. But thinking of shields, her best weapon after all is magic! Quickly she drops the hair 'lines' attached to her bait, and pulls out the twist of specially prepared powder for her puff of smoke spell.

She quickly shifts so that the tip of the net dips into the water, forming a shield along the water line between her and the snake—if it uses mostly magical senses it may not even realize it is swimming into it! Then she casts the puff of smoke spell right in front of the creature, just as the creature comes close to net range, hoping that the mix of magical and mundane distraction will pause the creature briefly.

As she casts the puff of smoke spell, Eren is surprised to realize that she managed to maintain her symbolic sight—but glad that she'll be able to detect magical or mundane actions.

The spell works as expected, producing an impressive burst of lilac smoke that momentarily hides the snake-like thing from view. Readying her net to receive her presumably-disoriented prey, Eren holds her breath... then lets out a gasp when she sees the creature hurtling out of the smoke on an upward trajectory, keening horribly and heading straight for her face!

Hastily raising her arm to deflect it, she is horrified to feel its sucker-like mouthparts closing on the exposed flesh of her forearm and yelps in pain at the nip of its razor-sharp teeth. It's not a snake, she realises - it's some kind of gigantic leech! And to make matters worse, her suspicions about its magical nature seem to be confirmed by the faint trace of magic revealed by her symbolic sight. It would be just her luck if this monstrous leech-thing has an appetite for more than mere blood!

She almost simply panics, but a thought insists on pointing out that would be completely illogical, especially given how far away everyone is. Still, when she feels the teeth digging in she only manages to choke back a scream when she thinks about Kiki, how no mere leech would make that much smaller girl scream, surely!

Desperately she flashes through stories she's heard of dealing with beasts. Saint Xemela choked the blood boar with her copy of the abiding book, but she got it to bite that instead of her. Issaries bargained all his possessions to the Long Tooth, then traded for them back afterwards, but she doesn't think this thing will bargain. Lankhor My let the stone bear devour him, so that it gained curiosity and regurgitated the god to ask him questions, but that won't help here either….Gah! She reaches to try and rip the creature off, but then she realizes that doing so is apt to rip a large part of her out with it, and it might just re-attack anyway. Saints above, how much of her would it take to satisfy this thing? She remembers her father playing Lankhor My, with the speech of how so much knowledge can be hard to swallow, pulling himself up to suddenly tower above the mechanism of the stone bear.

Which is when it suddenly hits her: this beastie has bitten off way more than it can chew in its own way. It might be fearsome to most things in the swamp, but it masses less than her forearm. Sure it is fast and has sharp teeth, but she's BIG, and while it is anchored onto her its speed is of no use to it. There is no way she is going to allow such a puny thing to defeat hHer thoughts race down various channels—the creature probably can't swallow if it is compressed, just like a person can't swallow if its neck is being squeezed—she needs something to squeeze the leech against, hard in the soft marsh, but her staff is lying on the bank beside her—she wants to crush the creature lethally, which might take crushing a bit of it, but the small wooden box holding her ink powders should cover about the right amount.

With a small shudder she grasps the leech just behind its head, and holds it in place as she turns to the bank She positions the beast across her staff, and pins it in place with one knee, and quickly grabs her inks box. She slams the box down to pin the creature between that and her staff, and then leans her whole weight on the ink box, and prays that it doesn't just shatter. Even as her staff sinks somewhat into the mud from her weight she finally lets her emotions bubble up, and snarls "You stupid marsh-beast, you made a big mistake. City ALWAYS wins in the end! So c'mon you horrible thing, first let go of me, then die!"

Unfortunately for Eren, the horrid creature is covered in slippery mucus, which makes it extremely difficult for her to get a purchase on it. Every time she thinks that she's got it pinned down, the loathsome thing manages to wriggle free, leaving her incredibly frustrated and quite out of breath.

Then, just when she thinks that things can't get any worse, she feels a new and disturbing sensation in her arm as the creature's mouthparts pull on her trapped flesh. A wave of fear and nausea sweeps over her as she glances down at her arm with her symbolic sight and realises that her worst fears have been visited upon her: it's not just feeding on her blood - it's attempting to draw out her very essence!

Feeling the pull of the creatures magic, Eren's calmness begins to break down, but then inspiration strikes!

She shoves her left arm, leach and all, into her net. Then she finds that she can hold onto it with her right hand, the mesh giving her sufficient texture to hold onto the beastie.

Finally she manages to stretch it across her staff, and finds that it is not a problem at all to drop her weight onto it, as her knees are about ready to give out already.

After several long breaths, the creature stops trying to wiggle. She stays kneeling on it for minutes longer, until her heart is only beating a little too fast, and the insects of the bog have begun to make their noises again. In fact, it is only when a mosquito lands on her nose that she shakes herself into movement.

To her disgust, she finds that the creature's teeth are still locked into her arm. She sighs, and mutters "Well at least the Master can help get it off of me." T

She gathers up the remnants of her equipment as best as she can with one hand, then takes up a tight grip where she'd been kneeling on the beast. She really is not too sure if she has killed it, or just disabled it for the moment, so it is not time to take a chance!

As she slowly trudges through the mud back to the teacher, she tries to prod her still shaky thoughts into identifying the creature. Helmat talks briefly about creatures, mostly from a point of view of magical associations, but that seems like the best way to start. Of course the First Church of the Scripture preaches about the divisions of living being, where would they classify something like this? She remembers well what both sources say, but none of it directly applies to this creature...in the end she falls back on inventing a few details about likely runic associations, which may be wrong, but at least it will sound like she has more of an idea than she actually does.

"Master Stockfish, I have a sample here. Its what Helmat would call derivative and cold, and it is clearly second action, but retrograded. Ummm, if you'll help me pry the teeth out, I think you'll see that the teeth ring resembles the hunger rune--and it certainly displayed that sort of behavior, so it must be associated with darkness, and uh, its slimy coating suggests association also with water....."

Stockfish listens to Eren's analysis attentively, the perpetual smile on his face seeming, if anything, to grow even brighter. When she finishes he claps his hands together in a reasonable simulacrum of delight.

"Excellent, my dear!" he declares. "A perspicacious presentation and a very rare catch indeed. However, if I'm not mistaken then you have had a narrow escape - this loathsome creature is not just freakishly large and notoriously vicious, it also makes use of an abhorrent magic to drain its less fortunate victims of their essence! I'm pleased to see that - judging by your healthy complexion - you managed to subdue the creature before it was able to do you any serious harm... Evidently it picked the wrong girl to bite, eh Eren?"

The master claps her companionably on the back.

"Well done, my girl!" he adds. "You are a credit to your college."

Words that Eren is delighted to hear--but somehow coming from Stockfish she wonders how much she should take them to heart? There is something about this master that bothers her.

"But don't be resting on your laurels now," Stockfish continues. "Some of your classmates have brought back some equally interesting - albeit less hazardous - specimens. I suggest that you get back out there and see what else you can find for me!"

~oOo~

"What a cheek!" thinks Kiki, staring at the interloper. "The chance of two students coming to the same part of the bog at the same time must be very low. That mean they must have been following them waiting for just this moment! OK, we are doing the right thing and speeding things up will just frighten the poor bug off. Now they probably are not thinking that way and, being competitive, will try to rush to get there first. That means there is a good chance of it being spooked towards me anyway."

That thought in mind, Kiki continues with her steady progress just as if her opponent did not exist. Then inspiration strikes and she starts to make a rhythmic "Trrhurmp trrhurmp" sound to try and attract the lovely insect.

As Kiki had guessed, the other bug-hunter wastes no time in making a dash for the dragonfly, swiping at it with their net. The delicate creature promptly launches itself into the air, circling around the hapless student a few rimes before drifting lazily in Kiki's direction. Smiling with satistfaction, she risks a glance at her opponent, but the curious shadowy effect still makes it impossible to determine their identity. The cry of frustration that follows their failure to catch the dragonfly convinces Kiki of one thing though: her opponent is a boy...

"Oh dear some people just don't see the others point of view" thinks Kiki. She continues with her steady methodical progress, while hoping the boy does nothing that would scare the bug off entirely. Keeping up her "Thrrhurmp" sound, she closes in.

"Now that's close enough" she thinks and deftly swings her net at the bug. The dragonfly easily eludes her, but in doing so it heads off in a new direction that leads Kiki onto firmer ground, but takes them away from the mysterious boy. Finding himself on the wrong side of a foul-smelling pool of water, her opponent curses loudly at his luck. Hesitating for a moment, he throws up his hands in exasperation and then turns to leave...

Now on firm ground and with no further distractions Kiki finally manages to net the bug. After a short while excitedly examining it, the two girls decide to head back, to present their catches to Master Stockfish.

"Jandrell lets get this report done quick and get back out," says Kiki. But Jandrell is less than pleased by this idea and does not share her idea that this is fun.

"Kiki we need to do a proper report on what we have. And beside I am just starving and I would rather eat where it is dry and things are not likely to try and eat me".

Kiki look disappointed by concedes "OK, we will give good report then have lunch. As long as we looking for more things again after lunch" The girls spend there trip back making sure they agree with the identification of there catch.

Once back on mostly solid ground Kiki and Jandrell present there finding to Stockfish, with Kiki giving what she hopes is a clear a concise report of the type she thinks Stockfish is looking for and Jandrell adding flourishes where she think appropriate.

She soon realises that Master Stockfish has an encyclopaedic knowledge of animal lore, which makes her own - not inconsiderable - appreciation of the subject seem rather modest by comparison. She also gets the impression that this Imperial College master, however jovial he may seem, is rather inclined to look down on the students from the other schools and relishes the opportunity to belittle them.

In spite of this, however, Kiki correctly identifies the dragonfly as a Lesser Banded Golden Chaser and even manages to extract a grudging note of approval for her detailed description of the delicate creature's habits and life cycle. Stockfish also seems genuinely impressed by the specimen itself.

"Beautiful, isn't it?" he opines. "One doesn't see too many Lessers, even here where they are at their most abundant. A very good catch, little scribblers. Very good indeed. Now off you go and find me some more specimens...

While having there lunch the two girls chat about what to do next.

"Well I thought the bug should have been good enough for anyone," Jandrell complains - though not too loudly.

Kiki sighs. "If we were from the Imperial college then perhaps it would have been, but as you have seen yourself playing fair is not in their syllabus - only there pre-occupation with winning and losing. That's why I don't bother much with trying to win there competitions. Just not worth the hassle. But we have done enough to satisfy the class requirements so if you not that worried about the prize as well perhaps we could go fishing for more interesting critters."

She continues in a low voice. "I have heard rumours about these so called swamp dragons and if we could prove that one of those existed then Stockfish would have to be impressed. The down side is we might waste our time and not find anything else useful. What do you say?"

Jandrell hums and haws a bit, but in the end she agrees to give it a try.

"Good," says Kiki happily. "And who knows stories say sometimes they are friendly."

~oOo~

Exalian's first attempt to find something suitable to take to Stockfish - and persuade Cecily that they're better off working together - hadn't been a complete disaster, but he clearly needed to do better if he's to avoid making them both look stupid. He still thinks that the abrasive gloomer girl had acquiesced a little too easily to his suggestion that they work together, but he isn't about to complain. Her apparent receptiveness to the idea of a partnership certainly hadn't stopped her pouring scorn on the solitary stickleback that they'd succeeded in netting so far, however. She just seems to be watching him now.

The problem is that he's not at all sure what to do next. Taking their 'catch' to Stockfish certainly isn't a very appealing option - they should probably try to catch something a little more impressive first. Perhaps he should swallow his pride and ask Cecily if she has any bright ideas.

Exalian glances over at their master, who is smiling even more than usual, obviously deriving some kind of perverse enjoyment from the frantic and mostly inept attempts of his students splashing around him in this godforsaken bog. Something is bothering the Galvosti apprentice about Stockfish, but he can't quite put his finger on it. He's had plenty of lessons with this master before and hadn't thought anything of it, but now... It must have been something that somebody said, he's sure of it, but he can't for the life of him remember what or who...

~oOo~

Peering through the lingering mist in the direction Merry had indicated, Pavel sees a tiny flicker of movement, which draw his attention to what looks suspiciously like a man hiding in the reeds. Edging a little closer, he manages to make out a rather rough-looking man, mud-spattered and dressed in tattered clothing, who seems to be watching the students and frowning...

"Just a moment," Pavel says as he throws a load of the insects back into the grass, pocketing a rather large, winged grasshopper. Peering into the net one last time, he pulls out a drab creature with no redeeming features apparent apart from its two pairs of wings. He grins to himself, putting this one into Meredith's pot.

"Now," he says, getting up and 'accidentally' letting the grasshopper escape, the insect flapping a few dozen yards then landing in the bog nearish to the hidden man. "It went this way," he announces, striding at an angle to the man and readying his net.

All of a sudden, Pavel rushes forward. Then, springing off a piece of turf, he flies to his left and hurls a petty magic spell, the net extended to land on the man's head. Pavel rolls and immediately springs up, club in hand, ready to subdue his opponent.

The man easily deflects Pavel's net, but staggers for a moment, thrown off-balance by the unexpected attack. Snarling, he turns to face the apprentice, who is already moving in and swinging his club at the fellow's head. Again, the stranger casually knocks aside the blow with a quick motion of his bare hand, apparently doing so completely by reflex, but wincing slightly at at the bruising impact of the deflected weapon. Then he drops into a low crouch, which Pavel instinctively recognises as the stance of an experienced fighter, and pauses to size up his opponent.

The man is attired in filthy rags, his hair matted and greasy and his scarred face covered by several weeks growth of beard. Pavel has a moment to take in a tattoo on the man's shoulder and the signs of numerous recent injuries wherever his flesh is exposed, then he is forced to look to his own defence as the stranger hurls himself forward, knocking his young opponent to the ground.

At this point Meredith screams, which seems to startle the attacker. Hesitating for an instant to frown at Pavel, who is lying - winded but essentially uninjured - in the mud, the stranger turns to Merry, bobbing is head and murmuring "Beg pardon, my lady", before turning and running off into the mist.

Pavel is surprised, not least by the final note of courtesy from the filthy man.

Not for long though. Pavel immediately rushes after his prey. Seeing the man keep to the firmer ground, he keeps to the man's left to try and drive him into the deeper, wetter part of the bog.

Still winded from his earlier encounter, Pavel struggles to keep up with the man, who is obviously fitter than he looks. After an initial burst of speed, however, the fleeing man stumbles and begins to slow. Seeing his opportunity, Pavel sprints at an angle, cutting off his quarry's most obvious route and forcing the man to crash through the reeds, where he soon finds himself running out of ground.

Breathing heavily, the man stops and turns to face his pursuer, holding up a warning hand.

"Don't... come... any... closer... boy," he pants. "Or I swear... I'll snap your neck!"

Pavel gets a better view of the tattoo on his bare shoulder now, which seems to depict a down-pointing sword with some other much smaller symbols arranged around its hilt. He also sees that the man's ragged attire, although torn and mud-spattered, is not made of the rough fabric that he initially assumed.

"What do you want from me?" the man demands.

"You know you shouldn't have run," Pavel oozes charm despite his own panting, "there was a dragonfly on your head, and I reckon I'd have got it if you'd only stayed still."

Pavel lowers his club to indicate to this fellow that it's time to talk and winks as he produces his obvious fiction. He doesn't show his adversary an obvious escape route, though.

"What were you up to then?" Now that he has run the man to ground, at least for the moment, Pavel finds he doesn't actually care what the fellow was up to, so his voice rather drifts off.

"Yes!" interjects Meredith, having caught up. "Whatever is a respectable man like you doing creeping around in a bog spying on children?" The girl is rather more invested in finding out what this man is doing than is her schoolmate and is, at the same time, well aware that it is a rare adult who won't try and explain things to a child.

"That's just typical!" the man responds gruffly. "I had to be spying on you, didn't I? Couldn't possibly be here for my own reasons, eh?"

He shakes his head and takes a deep breath.

"Sorry, miss," he continues in a gentler tone. "I don't mean to bite your head off. I wasn't spying on you and your friends - I was just trying to figure out where all these kids had suddenly sprung from! I don't know what gives you the idea that I'm a respectable man," he adds. "But I can tell you now that I'm nothing of the sort. D'you really think a respectable man would be half-starved, dressed in rags and hiding in a swamp?"

The sun pierces through the clouds, making the man squint. Pavel idly wonders what might have caused all of the half-healed cuts and lesions that cover the man's exposed skin. There's something that doesn't quite add up here, but he's not sure what it is...

"The best thing you can do is forget you ever saw me," the stranger is telling the two apprentices. "There's a whole world of trouble on my trail and you really don't want to get mixed up in it."

At this point that Pavel realises what's been bothering him. Recalling his essence perception lessons, the apprentice takes a deep breath and focuses his inner eye on the man. His magical vision confirms what his peripheral senses have been picking up all along: there's something terribly wrong with the man's aura.

All living beings are normally surrounded by a colourful nimbus that invisible to most people, but which can be read by a properly-trained apprentice or adept and used to identify the various components of their essential body. The aura that Pavel is looking at now is like nothing he has ever seen before: the colours are muted and whole sections of it seem to be occluded by something that resembles black smoke.

Blinking a couple of time to return his vision to normal, Pavel notices something else that makes him shiver involuntarily.

The man has no shadow.

~oOo~

As she considers where to go next, Eren notices Kiki and Jandrell in the distance, apparently heading off deeper into the marsh and wonders how her friend is doing.

"Hullo Eren," says a familiar voice. "That was a pretty impressive catch! I don't suppose you'd mind if I tag along with you for a bit - 'fraid I'm not doing so well, myself, and it would be a real help. I lost my net, you see, and stingy Stockfish won't give me a new one..."

She turns to see Vey, who looks almost as tired and grubby as she feels. "Mind you," he adds, flashing her a winning smile. "I'm not offering myself up as bait if you're intending to go after another monster..."

Eren stands dumbstruck for a moment. In such a horrible day, do have someone offer to work with her? And someone as nice as Vey, with such a nice smile? She has to convince herself that this is true.

It is only as she realizes that the pause is drawing out to awkward lengths that she finds her tongue. "Sure, I'd love to work together. Maybe the next thing that tries to eat me you can help beat into submission." Her laugh sounds forced and shrill to her own ears, and she blushes. Then she goes back to something she's more comfortable with, talking facts and plans. "I tried to use magic to make bait, and attracted that thing. I don't know that I want to do that again, look at these bite marks! But, I don't really know what else to do. Other than that all I've really done was fallen in a muddy hole and get bit by bugs."

She sighs, and finishes up "So unless you have a better idea, I suggest we go back into some really disgusting part of the swamp, and I dribble some blood from the bite into the water, while you stand by with the net. There has to be things around here that will come to blood that aren't magical like that thing was."

Vey's smile wavers for only an instant.

"That... sounds like an intriguing proposition," he says. "Although, judging by those bite marks on your arm, I'm not sure I want to take the risk of running into another of those... things."

He pauses for amoment to think. "Hmmm... I saw the two scribbler girls here earlier and they'd caught some kind of a dragonfly, which seemed to go down pretty well with Stockfish. Perhaps we can find something similar? Don't they tend to hang around near reeds? Or is that just when they first hatch? Or, at least, when they come out of the water..."

He shrugs and turns up his smile a notch. "But don't listen to me - I've only been back in Syran for a couple of seasons and you're the star of the Disputation! I'll be happy to go along with whatever you suggest..."

His words remind Eren about the rumours that Vey had studied wizardry somewhere else before starting at the Imperial College, which supposedly explained why he had matriculated along with the rest of their peers after only one term. He's supposed to have been an apprentice at one of the schools in Tortun, but nobody seems to be sure and she's never heard of an apprentice changing schools before. However, she also remembers him saying during the Disputation that he had been born in Syran and that his father is a graduate of the College. Perhaps that explained why the college had been prepared to make an exception...

"Oh, just look for stuff, without having some way to track it or bring it to us? I never thought of that!" Eren is horrified to hear herself giggle shrilly again, so she cuts it off with more words "Sure we could do that, why don't we go over that way, I think that is a good idea, and I really don't want to get chewed on any more. Oh and watch out for deep spots, I already fell in one, as you can probably tell, I think I've ruined my boots and my robes. I can't wait until we get back to the college and I get out of these and into the baths!"

With a jolt Eren realizes she is talking about looking forward to getting naked, and hastily changes the subject "I've always lived in Syran, but that doesn't mean I know anything about marshes, other than that you should stay out of them! I've traveled a little bit, but we always pulled our wagons into villages. We'd sleep in the wagons, it could be close quarters, but on cold nights all that body heat was good."

This time she lets out a squeak when she realizes her latest topic, and tries again "Errr, what about you, how did you travel? Any experience with swamps, wherever you were? Or were you in a nice snug city when you where you were studying before? I guess you never had a teacher drag you into one at least!"

"That much is certainly true," Vey acknowledges. "My tutor never really put much stock in physical activity. Oh, I've travelled around Sentanos a bit with my dad, but we never strayed very far off the beaten track - and I've definitely not been anywhere like this! Give me a 'nice snug city' any day," he adds with grin.

"Now, what are we..." he starts to say, then breaks off abruptly at the sound of a high-pitched scream from the direction of the reed beds.

"Did you hear that?" he asks Eren, suddenly looking rather troubled...

Eren rubs her nose for a couple of seconds of indecision, then says "I guess we better check that out. Could be someone else has found one of those leeches." Looking around she adds "But trying to go anywhere quickly in this muck is almost impossible....." Suddenly her eyes light up, and she suggests "I know! Get up on my shoulders, and maybe you can see what is happening! I'll crouch, you can get on, then I stand up, bracing myself on my staff. Here, this looks like a solid spot to stand on."

Vey raises his eyebrows at this, but nods and makes ready to follow her suggestion. He climbs carefully onto her shoulders and proves reasonably adept at keeping his balance as Eren straightens to her full height. She's a little surprised by his modest weight as she hoists him into the air - he looks more heavily built than that.

"Um... can you turn to the right a bit," he calls down. "Whoah! Aha! That's better. Yes, I can see someone just over there," he tells her, pointing. "Looks like one of the pairs from the Naval College and they're chasing after... I don't know. A man I don't recognise - he looks a bit of a mess. Muddier than you, even," he adds.

"What *are* they up to?" Vey murmurs. "Oh, hang on - I think it's that idiot Pavel - you know, the one who made me... I mean... who didn't turn up for his last round in the Disputation. And the girl - the one who's always giggling. Oh! They've stopped and now they seem to be talking to this... whoever he is. He looks a bit mean, actually... "

"Let's go see what is going on--has to be more interesting than looking for bugs in the mud! You aren't too heavy, I can walk us over while you keep an eye on what is going on. Just tell me which way to go." With that Eren starts heading off in the right general direction, paying attention to where she places each foot, while also watching for signs of general softness, hidden holes, and so on. She leans lightly on her staff as an added balance, and in general is determined not to end this jaunt by dropping Vey in the mud.

The boggy terrain is, if anything, even more challenging to traverse than Eren was expecting. The reeds not only prevent her from seeing her objective, they also make it hard to see the obstacles that lie in the way. Vey is able to help her to a certain extent by calling down directions and warning her of obvious swampy bits, but the effort of carrying him - and of keeping her balance while doing so - far outweighs this.

To her credit, Eren does to cover most of the distance without stumbling too often, but she only manages to keep going by an effort of will. Then, just as she emerges into a clearing in the reeds and catches sight of Pavel, Merry and the stranger, her foot sinks unexpectedly into a sinkhole and she pitches forward into a big pool of murky water.

As she and Vey emerge, dripping, from the water, they find the two Naval College students and the rough-looking stranger staring at them with a mixture of hostility and amusement...

~oOo~

Kiki and Jandrell have headed away from the main body of students, looking for what Kiki imagines might be a more suitable habitat for a swamp dragon. Stories about these creatures tend to be colourful, but usually rather fanciful, with descriptions of the elusive creatures ranging from frankly unbelievable tales of winged beasts wreathed in magical mist to more plausible reports of large swimming lizards with a talent for concealment.

Leading her rather nervous friend around a sizeable body of fresher-looking water, Kiki is keen to examine what looks like a large floating log. Could this be a swamp dragon? Disappointingly, no - but its presence here, in the middle of an essentially treeless swamp gives the diminutive apprentice pause. Examining the lump of wood again, she frowns: it's bare of bark and seems rather too regular in shape. It also looks oddly pale.

Intrigued Kiki attempts to nudge the floating log to what passes as land around here to better examine her find.

"Are you sure you should be doing that?" Jandrell whispers nervously, while at the same time backing away a little, as stories of monsters lurking pretending to be logs comes to her mind.

Kiki shows no sign of worrying as the log comes close enough for her to reach out for with her hand...

It's reassuringly solid to the touch, but on closer inspection, Kiki realises that the log is more than a simple fallen tree - which would in itself have been unusual enough in middle of a largely treeless bog. Although it has clearly suffered from many years of exposure to this singularly soggy environment, its regular shape and the tell-tale pairs of regular-shaped holes that can be seen along is length are clear signs that this piece of wood was once part of a large man-made structure - most likely a bridge.

But who would build a bridge in the middle of a bog, and why? Or was this perhaps the remnant of some long-forgotten road? Kiki knows that the road to Galin is not too far from here, but she also knows that it follows the most direct route to that city, which completely bypasses the marshy Graveen peninsula. There are villages to be found strung along the Galin road and a number of minor tracks that branch off to other villages, but she's never heard of any settlements in the vicinity of the marshes.

"Well at least in a swamp it could not have drifted far" Kiki explains to Jandrell. "Lets see if we can find more they might lead to something interesting. And," she adds "We can still keep an eye open for swamp dragons."

The piece of wood is too big to carry, but Kiki manages to haul it out of the water so that it doesn't drift away and does her best to remember the spot. A quick search around the vicinity soon uncovers another piece of wood, this one still attached to the remains of a post in the ground. Now it's obvious to the two girls that they are looking at the remains of a bridge. Peering into the mist, it's possible to discern the line of an ancient road, leading back towards Syran in one direction and deeper into the marshes in the other.

"Where do you think it leads?" Jandrell asks.

"Only one way to find out," says Kiki.

The two girls follow the old road through the marsh. It's rather difficult to see in a number of places, but as it mostly runs in a straight line they find it fairly easy to stay on the trail. Although several sections have sunk into the marshy ground, the remnants of the road allow them to make much faster progress. Kiki keeps her eyes peeled for any sign of the elusive swamp dragons.

After they have been walking for quite a while, Jandrell stops and asks: "Are you sure we should be doing this? I think perhaps we should turn back. We're a long way from the rest of the class..."

Kiki is about to relent when some instinct makes her turn and look behind her, where she catches a glimpse of something darting away through the mist. Heart in her mouth, she taps her friend's arm and rushes after the rapidly disappearing shape. Staggering through the bog, she manages to stay within sight of the fleeing creature for only a few moments, but that's long enough to make out a sinuous, whip-like tail and the tantalising suggestion of a scaly flank. Then she tumbles forward and narrowly avoids landing flat on her face in the mud.

"W... w... was that what I think it was?" Jandrell asks, breathlessly stumbling up behind her.

"I guess we'll never know," Kiki answers glumly, cursing her luck. She is convinced that they have just seen a swamp dragon, but without a shred of evidence, no-one will ever believe it.

"Wait a moment, Kiki," says Jandrell. "What's that?"

She points to the ground, where a perfect imprint of a reptilian foot is clearly visible in the soft mud. Catching a faint glimmer as she moves towards it, Kiki holds her breath and bends to look closer. Yes! It is exactly what she was hoping for: a single, perfect scale!

"But wait a minute - there was something about swamp dragons eating habits," Kiki says while wracking her brains for what it was. While thinking she discovers that tapping your foot while nearly up to your knees in mud is not very effective.

"Oh that's it" she blurts, raking in her small backpack and taking out her lamp. Removing the top she waves it around to let the smell of the fish oil spread in the breeze.

After a breathless wait, her ingenuity is eventually rewarded by the sound of gentle splashing footfalls from nearby, which are soon followed by the cautious emergence of a surprisingly dainty creature from the mists.

It's immediately obvious that the term 'dragon' has been applied in a fanciful sense: while the creature is unquestionably reptilian, it's anatomy more closely resembles that of large, slender dog than the terrifying winged beast that it is named after. It mostly seems to walk in an upright stance using its powerful hind legs, but occasionally drops its head to lope along rabbit-fashion using its smaller forelimbs as well.

The creature's head and neck are long and shapely, rather like a greyhound's, but the way that it cocks its head on one side and regards her with apparent intelligence reminds Kiki of a bird of prey. As it draws closer, she sees that it has delicate hooked claws on its forelimbs and more substantial ones on its hind legs. Its dappled flanks are smoothly scaled and blend in well with the muted green-and-dun colours of the surrounding marshland.

Sniffing the air, the 'dragon' edges towards the young apprentice with extravagant caution, its slender snout questing towards her pot of fishy lamp oil...

At first, heartened by the apparently warm reception that her cooing and careful ministration have upon the creature, Kiki begins to make plans for how she is going to care for it back at the college. She can get fresh fish from the market, that's no problem, but what about its living quarters? It's skin is obviously used to being moist, so it'll probably need some kind of wallow. And what if it prefers its food live?

Sadly, Kiki's dreams are all too swiftly dashed. Having licked her pot of fish oil clean with its long, black tongue, the little dragon gives her a quick bob of its head and emits a strange rattling call, then races off into the mist.

~oOo~

Pavel belatedly realises that he is staring at the stranger, who is returning his gaze with a deep frown. The man says nothing, but the apprentice can see a subtle change in his expression, as if he can sense the student's sudden awareness of his dark affliction. Merry, quite oblivious to this unspoken exchange, has clearly been puzzling over the stranger's earlier words of warning, biting at her lower lip and frowning in a way that that only seems to accentuate her prettiness.

"What kind of trouble do you mean exactly?" she asks eventually. "Are you a fugitive? On the run from your enemies? That must be terribly exciting! How long have you been hiding here in the marshes? And did you say 'half-starved'? 'Cause if you are hungry, I might still have some of my lunch left..."

The man opens his mouth to respond, but at that moment they hear a cry of alarm followed by a big splash from somewhere close by. Seeing a pair of students floundering in a nearby pool, Merry immediately rushes towards them. Pavel and the man follow after her, both of them avoiding eye contact.

"Great," the man mutters under his breath. "More cursed kids. If I'd known these marshes were such a popular spot I'd never have come here... I take it these two are with you?" he asks Pavel. "What are you all doing here anyway?"

"We're on a field trip," Merry tells him cheerfully. Then, when he looks blank. "All of us are students... apprentices, that is... training to be adepts. We're here to study the indigenous wildlife. Our tutor is just over..."

"Adepts?" the man interrupts, looking aghast. "You mean to tell me you're all blasted sorcerers?"

Merry seems a little taken aback by this.

"Um. No... we're just apprentices," she tells him. "Only Master Stockfish is an adept. But... the schools don't practise sorcery! Quite the contrary! Why only yesterday, we had a lesson about the perils of..."

"Ha!" the man exclaims, bitterly. "A not-so-polite fiction, all of it! You mark my words, girl: at least half the so-called wizards in Syran are cursed sorcerers. And your Master Stockfish is one of the worst!"

He turns and spits, as if trying to clear a bad taste from his mouth.

"Can my luck get any worse?" he mutters. "I escape the serpents and come to this godforsaken bog looking for a safe place to hide and instead find myself in a nest of hatchling vipers! And they're accompanied by one of the chief serpents, no less!"

Eren, who has been listening in bemusement to this, finds herself staring at the man in fascinated horror. It's not the tattoo on his shoulder that arrests her attention, nor the ragged clothes, nor the host of small wounds that seem to cover his body. She first glimpsed the phenomenon when her eyes were still bleary with swamp-water and almost dismissed it, but when she looked again it was still lurking there in her peripheral vision.

Switching instinctively to symbolic sight, Eren gasps out loud. There really is something is very, very wrong with this man... His essence signature is like nothing she's ever seen before. Glancing away, she notices that Vey and Pavel are also staring at him and guesses that they must also have noticed his affliction. Abruptly she realises that the man is now staring at her, his face dark with rage.

"Yes, that's right, little girl!" he snarls menacingly. "You take a good look. This is what happens to holy fools like me when we get in the way of filthy sorcerers like your master!"

"Stockfish isn't the master of any of us here, he is just our teacher for this lesson." Eren corrects reflexively. I don't like him much, but a sorcerer?" Eren falls silent for a couple of seconds as she gets onto more solid footing.

"Half seems high," she continues, wiping the latest coating of mud off her face, and trying to wipe the disturbing vision of the man's ragged essence from her mind. "Concealed sorcerers do keep showing up in the Saint Plays, so they must happen. And they wouldn't have bothered warning us if there was no danger of anyone going that way. But half just doesn't make logical sense. I think all the adepts at least nominally belong to one church or another, and if half were sorcerers it would have to be noticed more often."

"Oh, but my argument depends on the definition of sorcerer, I suppose. If you called anyone who used magic in a way that the Communion would not bless as a sorcerer, I suppose more might fall into that category. I was using Helmat's definition of a sorcerer as one who does not believe in the primacy of the one true god, the promise of solace, or the fundamental nature of the Actions."

Ignoring the incredulous look from Merry, Eren quite seriously asks the tattered and torn man "So which definition of sorcerer were you using? And on what data do you base the assertion that half the adepts are sorcerers?"

The stranger's sudden bark of bitter laughter makes Eren jump.

"On what data?" he rasps, a note of incredulity in his voice. "By the Liberator, can you not see how their pernicious influence has already begun to twist your innocent young minds? Sorcery is not a matter of definition, a philosophical question to be debated! And it is not a question of belief, professed or otherwise. A sorcerer reveals himself by his actions - both committed and omitted."

The man's face has grown wilder and more animated as he speaks, his eyes seeming to flash with dangerous intensity.

"Oh, I'll grant you - there are precious few brazen enough to wear their true colours in public," he continues. "But they are not the dangerous ones. It is those who hide their true nature behind a veil of piety, who smile and pose as godly men, while their hearts grown blacker with each passing day. But I can see the festering corruption that dwells beneath their polite exterior!"

"And for daring to oppose them," he continues, ripping open his tattered shirt to reveal his naked chest, which is a mass of small wounds - some half-healed, others more recent and a worrying number apparently infected. "I have felt the poisonous kiss of their fangs!"

He pauses, chest heaving, then adds in a softer tone, speaking directly to Eren.

"But I think that you, at least, can see enough to know that these wounds are as nothing compared to the hurt that they have inflicted upon my soul. Is *that* sufficient data for you?" he asks, bitterly.

Eren is taken aback, and at a loss for words for a few seconds. She looks around to the others, but nobody else speaks up either.

Finally she tries to pull herself together, and replies "Well, we aren't sorcerers at least. I don't know what you did or who you messed with, but we aren't part of that either. If there is something you want of us, then just say it. Otherwise, well, we are supposed to be catching swamp bugs, and you, ummm, you are supposed to be huddling in fear in the bushes or something like that. So I propose we all go back to our allotted tasks and try to put this encounter out of our minds."

Eren manages to hold her tongue for a whole second after that, but then cannot resist blurting out: "But please, first tell us who did this to you!"

The stranger regards her with a glint of amusement in his eye. "You really can't help yourself, can you?" he observes. "Didn't your masters teach you that curiosity killed the cat?"

He falls silent, staring first at Eren, then at each of the other apprentices in turn.

"You're right about one thing, though," he murmurs eventually. "The best thing for all of us right now would probably be to go our separate ways and forget that we'd ever met. But now I'm not so sure. For some absurd reason I actually feel inclined to trust you. A completely ridiculous notion, of course, but..."

"N... No it isn't!" Merry blurts suddenly. "You can trust us, sir! I think it's simply awful, what's been done to you. Surely there must be something that we can do to help?"

The man smiles ruefully. "Ah, such a generous heart! Sadly, however, that only makes this harder..."

Before any of the students realise what is happening, the man has grabbed hold of Meredith and produced a vicious-looking knife, which he holds to her pretty white throat.

"Nobody move!" he hisses. "Now, do as I say and I promise that nobody will get hurt, but try something stupid and I'll slit her throat..."

Eren knows that practically this exact occurence comes up in multiple of the saint plays! Generally as a representation of how evil can wear a sympathetic guise, but always reveals itself in the end.

If only she could remember one in which the resolution of the scene was other than to attack the evil right off, and mourn the folly leading to the lost companion afterwards...

Pavel can't help but laugh, much to Merry's dismay.

"As if it isn't tricky enough dodging Imperial College's finest, you now want the Naval Academy on your tail, and are threatening to add the murder of a child to your list of crimes. Well that's bound to help your cause, isn't it?"

"Look, why don't you just let her go, tell her you're very sorry and toddle off, there's a sport? If it makes you happy, we won't even tell anyone about you."

Pavel stands to one side, showing the man an escape route, but not an escape route it would be easy to use while dragging a child.

"If he doesn't apologize," Pavel says to Merry. "Bite his hand, okay?"

Eren pulls herself up to full height, and adds "If you hurt her, you will have a lot of very angry people after you. Merry is nice, people like her." And then realizes that she may be messing up Pavel's plans, so clamps her mouth shut before she says anything further.

"Perhaps I didn't make myself clear," growls the man, holding his knife closer to Merry's throat and making her whimper.

"Sorry though I may be to ill-use a child in this fashion, I'd be even sorrier if my enemies were to find me again. Now, I'd like to think that I can trust you not to give me away. After all, you can see what's been done to me and you know it's not right..."

"That's what I..." Merry begins, breaking off hastily as the man tightens his grip.

"However," the man continues. "I've been very badly served by trust recently. If I just let you walk away now then one of you's bound to let something slip - whether you intend to or not," he adds, with a significant glance at Vey, who has been completely silent so far."No, what I need is some kind of *incentive* for you to keep silent. And I reckon holding on to this little miss'll give me that, at least long enough for me to figure my next move."

"Oh, I know it won't 'help my cause' none, boy," he adds, glaring at Pavel. "And, yes, the last thing I want is more enemies at this point. But I'm a desperate man in a desperate bind. What else can I do?"

He falls silent, frowning.

"But you want me to trust you?" he asks. "Fine then: here's my situation. I'm half-starved, sorely hurt and ill-clothed, and there's scarcely anyone left alive in Syran that I can trust any more, even if I had the means to send word to them, which I don't. My enemies think I'm dead, but if they have the faintest hint that I'm still alive they'll hunt me down and make damned certain of the job this time. I have no coin, no kin and no friends outside the city - and nowhere to 'toddle off' *to*," he adds, glaring at Pavel again.

"So... any bright ideas spring to mind?" he asks bitterly. "Or do you want to hear my proposal?"

~~

"If your proposal involves holding Meredith hostage, well then no I don't particularly want to hear it," Pavel says, quite unmoved by the man's sob-story. "But, if you free her now, well then you've got yourself an audience and I'll ask her not to bite you"

"You really *are* a cold one, aren't you?" the man observes, with a note of what sounds suspiciously like admiration in his voice. "Well then, boy, I'll bear your generous offer in mind. What about the rest of you, though? Or does Sir Cold Fish here speak for you all?"

Eren can taste an idea forming, but she can't quite get her teeth into it yet. She needs a little more time, and maybe a little more information, to let it finish forming. She realizes that all of this would be easier if they knew a little more about the man, and how he ran afoul of the supposed sorcerors. To buy time and get some more information, she starts to talk, or perhaps it is more babble, as she keeps half her mind on placing the man, on trying to figure out what his background might be.

"I'm willing to hear your proposal, but not just yet. What you just said sounded all very well, but it didn't make so much sense. On the one hand you say you have no friends outside of the city, yet almost nobody left who you'd trust inside the city, and you don't want anyone to know about you for fear word will leak to your enemies. This seems to block all possible ways forward!"

"Do you want to return to the city—surely you have family there, be it in High Town or Oldtown, who will be missing you? Of if not family anymore, then friends? Friends who will be gathering tonight at the Blue Bull or meeting for staves at Three-Pin Yard and wondering out loud about you, or maybe even shouting your name at the next fountain dispute, demanding to know how you have been silenced, and so maybe putting themselves in danger in the process? And surely a church? What is it that the builders say, something like 'Man may be shifting sand, but the Lords Temporal are the solid rock on which our faith can grow,' or something like that at least" As she asks these questions, Eren tries to see if any of them draw a particular response.

"Or do you want to flee to the countryside where you know nobody, but yet are in reach of the city? Or do you wish to go elsewhere altogether and start anew, under a different identity? Or have you given up on the future altogether, and just want to make your 'enemies' have to work a bit to finish you off?"

At first, the man listens to Eren's rambling series of questions with a look of faintly amused contempt on his face, half smile, half sneer. Gradually, however, his expression changes, growing ever more world-weary, until it seems that all life has drained from him. When Eren finally stops speaking there is a long pause, then the stranger sighs deeply and releases Meredith, who immediately runs to Pavel and buries her face in his chest, sobbing uncontrollably.

"Well all right then," the man says, his face ashen. "No doubt I'll come to regret this, but it seems that I am going to have to trust you after all."

He addresses Pavel first. "A threat only works if it's believed," he observes. "And you clearly don't credit me with the stomach to kill an innocent girl." He shrugs and adds: "You're wrong, as a matter of fact, but I guess that's neither here nor there..."

Then he turns to Eren and inclines his head. "And it looks like I was wrong about you, girl," he says. "Perilously curious you may be, but your questions painted a sorry picture of my life that made me think again. I might not like the mess I'm in, but what your friend said was right: holding my blade to a child's throat doesn't help me none."

He takes a deep breath. "So then. Time for me to answer some of your questions, I reckon. But first, one of my own." He pushes aside his ragged clothing to reveal the tattoo on his shoulder. "Do you know what this is?" he asks Eren.

Now that she can get a good look at it, Eren realises that she does recognise the symbol. It shows a sword, hilt upwards, surrounded by three eyes; one above the pommel, which is open, and one either side of the crossguard, both closed. She nods, remembering Kiki talking about this symbol in the boneyard.

"It's the emblem of Saint Arkat the Liberator, isn't it?" she says. "Or of his order, at any rate."

"Aye, that's right," he tells her. "And I am - or at least was - a member of that order. Which should tell you something about..."

"You mean you're a... a... *knight*?" Merry interjects, in a voice still thick with tears. "But then how could... how could you..."

"Behave like such a villain?" the man finishes for her, with an unpleasant smile. "Well, for one thing, lass, knights aren't all gallant fellows, like you might have read in stories. My Order may have kicked me out, but it wasn't for my rough treatment of maidens such as yourself," he adds. "Hell no! I think some of my ex-brethren would have been more likely to criticize me for being too *gentle* in my dealings with womenfolk."

"But enough of that," he continues, turning back to Eren. "You asked about family and friends. I have neither. Those who'd claim me for kin are dead; to the rest, I might as well be dead, for all the love they bear me. Most of those that I might've once called 'friend' cursed me for a traitor and brought me to this sorry state. The few true friends who stood by me are dead - or worse," he adds cryptically.

"There are a handful of people that I may yet be able trust," he amends. "But I shan't be so bold as to name them 'friend'. We have what you might call a common cause and a measure of respect, each for the other, but that's all. If I were still able to ask for your aid - instead of demanding it at the point of a knife - it would involve passing a message to one of these... potential allies."

"Which leaves your other question: what *do* I want to do now? Begin a new life somewhere else?" He snorts derisively. "I wouldn't know where to start. No, lass, Syran is my home, for better or worse, friendless and kinless though it is. I wish to hide from my enemies, that's true enough, but not so's I can escape - I want to bide my time and strike back at them when the time is right! Right now I'm in no state to do that, but - Saints willing - that won't always be the case."

He pauses, obviously considering what to say next.

"So..." he says, eventually. "My fate is in your hands. The very least I'd ask you is to keep this encounter a secret. If you are minded to help me further - and I could hardly blame you if you were not - then there's any number of things I could wish for. However, one favour alone would serve me better than all else: to carry a message in confidence to one of those I still trust. Do this for me and you'll be in my prayers for ever... although I fear that it may also earn you the attentions of my enemies, should we be discovered."

"There it is, then," he concludes. "What say you?"

Pavel finds himself in quite an uncomfortable situation, with Merry crying on his shoulder and an outlaw trying to involve them in nefarious schemes. But something else is bugging him even more.

"Sorry Sir," he gives the second word a slightly cruel emphasis. "But you forgot to say why we should help you rather than turn you in." Pavel smiles.

"Oh, you noticed that, did you?" the man responds, with a rueful half-smile. "And there I was thinking that you might just want to help me out of the goodness of your heart..."

He sighs again, then looks at Pavel with a strange expression. Frowning and narrowing his eyes, he rubs his hand thoughtfully over the abundant stubble on his chin.

"Hmmm... Would I be right in thinking that you hail from Portside, boy?" he asks.

When Pavel nods, the fugitive's face is suddenly split by a broad smile. "Well of course you do!" he declares, chuckling. "I was wondering why you seemed so cursed familiar, but suddenly it all makes sense." He lets out a snort of amusement and claps his hands together in delight. "Ha!" he exclaims. "Who'd have thought it? Of all the people I could run into, it had to be the son of that cursed whoreson Garan Stoneheart!"

He grins at Pavel. "So, how is the old rogue? And what about Bojek? Still dipping his slippery tentacles into everyone's pies, I'll bet. I expect your pappy never mentioned me - in fact, knowing him, he's probably never mentioned any of his old comrades, eh? Hell, boy, but you do have the look of him! Don't know why I didn't see it before..."

"Wait a minute," Vey interrupts, looking suspicious. "I thought you said you didn't have any friends?"

"Found your tongue at last, have you?" the man snaps. "I never said we were friends. Men like Garan don't have friends, do they Pavel? But your father and I share a bond nevertheless, and he just happens to be one of the few remaining people that I trust. Of course, I mainly trust him to look after his own interests, but under the circumstances I think that might just extend to keeping me alive for a little longer."

He beckons Pavel closer and bares his left forearm. "Now lad. You tell me: does this ring any bells?"

Revealed on his arm is another tattoo, small and faded, but still distinct, consisting of interwoven 'ropes' arranged in an intricate triple-looped pattern. It's a design that Pavel has seen before, on his father's arm...

~~

Eren stares, wide-eyed. Her brain is churning, trying to catch up, but things are just happening too fast! It isn't fair, she wasn't prepared properly for any of this. She should have researched tatoos, and bandits, and....

Pavel gawps at the dishevelled knight, his face turning white. Through a dry throat, he croaks, “what’s the message?”

The man's face lights up. "You'll do it then? Good lad!" he says. He is silent for a moment, obviously lost in thought. Then he nods to himself and continues, speaking carefully with an intense expression on his face.

"Tell your pappy that the message is for a fellow that I know only as The Doctor," he says. "He should ask for him by that name at Perronele's workshop in Glassmakers. The message is as follows: the falcon has flown the nest, but its wings have been clipped. If the vow still stands, let him bring help to where the ghosts dance."

He frowns at Pavel. "Can you remember all that, boy?"

"Yes I can remember all that", Pavel says, "but I haven't seen my father for a year. He's on the Lake."

He looks at the man blankly. "I will deliver this message though".

"A year, you say?" the man muses. "That's a cursed long time, even for an old water dog like Garan. And on the Lake too? He was always a river man when I knew him. Still, can't be helped. If you think that you can deliver my message, lad, then I'll be doubly indebted to you. But now," he continues, glancing around at the other apprentices. "I reckon I'd better leave you lot to your... errr... studies."

"Remember," he adds, with a sharp glance at Vey. "Not a word of this to anyone. Things will go ill for me if my enemies were to learn that I'm alive, but rest assured that they'll go ill for you if they learn that you met with me."

"Are... are you threatening us?" Merry stammers, flushing.

"Not at all," the man replies, with a wry smile. "I am clearly in no position to deliver on such a threat. But mark my words: if those cursed vipers find out that you've spoken to me, you'll be forever tarnished in their eyes. Better to stay out of this business altogether." He gives them a wave and weary grin. "Pray that you never see me again," he tells them cheerfully, then sets off into the reeds.

Only when the stranger has disappeared from sight do the students realise that he never told them his name.

Eren lets out a long breath, then comments quietly to Vey "I don't know if you got a look at his essence, but I sure don't want to mess with anyone who might do that. I really do think we should keep quiet about this. I do with I could talk to Kiki about it, mind you... but best not to, I suppose."

~oOo~

Kiki and Jandrell glumly watch the swamp dragon depart.

While its likeness is fresh in her mind Kiki tasks out her sketch pad and quickly does some drawings of the elusive creature. Jandrell does likewise and the two are soon comparing the results of each other work. Then pausing to finish of the last of their food the two friends head back to Stockfish to relate their finds.

"Please sir, I am pleased to confirm the existence of the so called 'Swamp Dragon'..." Kiki begins. "Also it was not a catch as such, but we also found evidence that at one time there was a raised path through the swamp, created presumably by humans. Do you know anything more about these people?" she asks, out of curiosity.

"Swamp dragon? Swamp dragon!" Stockfish blusters. "Don't be ridiculous! Everyone know that's just a story made up by the peasants to vex their betters. What's this?" he adds, glancing at the scale.

"It's a scale from the dragon, sir!" Jandrell tells him excitedly, momentarily forgetting her customary shyness. "Really it is! Only it wasn't a dragon - more like a great big lizard! Kiki fed it lamp oil! Look - we both drew pictures of it!"

As he examines the scale and then the drawings, he expression on Stockfish's face gradually changes from scorn, to disbelief, to astonishment and finally to delight. By now, most of the other students have returned to see what all the excitement is about, crowding round to try to get a glimpse of Kiki and Jandrell's drawings.

"Extraordinary! Extraordinary!" the master is saying to himself. "I've never seen the like! Wait until Gallowglass hears about this!" Then, turning his beaming face to the two girls. "You have truly excelled yourselves, my dears. There is no question that this is the finest catch of the day! Regrettably, however, as I said this morning, there can be only one winner of this contest. To whom should I give the reward?"

Jandrell blushes. "Oh, definitely to Kiki," she tells him, before her friend can say anything. "It was her idea to look for the dragon in the first place and she's the one that got us close to it - I was just happy that I got to see one!"

Stockfish smiles at her. "I only wish I'd been there to see this fabled beast myself," he confides. Then, turning his dazzling smile on Kiki: "So, young lady. It seems that the Iconographers do a better job of teaching animal lore than I would have credited them. And your talents as an artist are a obviously a boon in this field. Why, I believe that I am actually looking forward to teaching this class," he concludes.

He turns to the assembled students and claps his hands together to get their attention.

"Gather round everyone. I am very pleased to announce that this contest is over and we have a winner! Congratulations to Kiki and thank-you to everyone for your efforts and collected specimens, which - in some cases, at least - have been most illuminating. If you will all pack up your things now, we'll return to the college..."

"Now," he says, turning to Kiki once more. "We'll talk about your reward in my office when we get back, but... what was it that you were saying earlier? Something about a raised path? Why don't you tell me about it on the way?"

~~

After the departure of the fugitive, Pavel moodily snaps at Merry, reinforcing the stranger's prohibition, and glares at the others so that they know they are included. In the stony silence that follows, he then explains to the girl what they are going to do with the stonefly that he caught earlier - they have to show it sailing across a body of water to the master.

And this is just what they do. Pavel tips the little insect out on to a pool of water and blows at the sail-like wings it puts up, sending it across the pool into the reeds. He isn´t really concentrating, though, so it is fortunate that Merry is there to add the odd puff at the insect and to smile winningly at the tutor.

Stockfish still seems a little contemptuous of the Naval College pair, but even he can't ignore the interesting specimen that they've turned up - nor Merry's irresistible charms. He's not exactly fulsome with his praise, but in the end Pavel goes away feeling that he has won at least a modest victory.

Pavel finds it hard to summon up the enthusiasm for another specimen hunt, however, which doesn't go down at all well with Merry.

"What is wrong with you?" she exclaims, when he greets her suggestion that they return the reed beds with a disdainful look. "Do you want the blessed Imperials to show us up again? Or the scribblers, even? Can't you make a bit of effort?"

When he doesn't respond to this, she heaves a great sigh and lapses into silence. When, a few minutes later, Stockfish annouces that the competition is over and that one of the scribbler girls has won, Merry scowls at Pavel fiercely.

"Well, I hope you're happy now," she snaps. "Oh, it's all right for you - you always seem to get away with doing the bare minimum. You can just go off doing whatever you like - like haring off after a fugitive or walking out of the Disputation - and then you come back and shrug and the masters just pat you on the back and say 'Very well done, Pavel'. But... this is a big opportunity for me and I... I never... I mean... Oh, it's just not fair!" she concludes, bursting suddenly into tears.

"And... (sniff) and... (sniff) and..." she manages, between sobs. "And I could have been *killed* back there! And you were just... just... so *casual* about it!"

With a pitiful wail, her pretty face crumples into a mask of woe, tears streaming down her face and snot bubbling from her nose.

The boy stares at Merry in bafflement. First that strange vagrant talking about his father and now this!

The others are looking now, but Pavel doesn't notice. He just lets his eyes go unfocussed and looks in Merry´s direction until, getting no response, her sobbing quietens some. Noticing that, he focuses on her face and squints a bit as if trying to work out what she is on about.

"Well he didn't actually do anything to you, did he?"

Pavel really doesn't seem to understand why Merry is so upset. Realizing that fact, Merry starts sobbing again and wanders off alone, in complete misery, avoiding Pavel all the way back.

~~

After the man disappears, Eren is glad to split away from the somewhat disturbing Naval College boy, although she briefly considers offering to trade partners — Merry's giggles might scare things away, but at least around her Eren would not feel so awkward and prone to put her foot in her mouth. With a quiet sigh she decides that the suggestion is not apt to go over well, and she'd have to anyway explain why she wanted to trade.

She asks Vey "Which way?" but he doesn't seem to have any better idea than Eren does, although he points out that the crowd of people, commotion, and general people-ness has probably scared away most creatures. It is his final comment that "They must feel like their peaceful swamp has been invaded by a horde of giants" which give Eren an idea. She almost babbles as she tries to get it out to Vey quickly.

"Wherever we go in the swamp it must be like that, that we are so big most creatures will notice us coming and hide or flee. But now that the others have left, if we stay totally still, maybe they'll not notice us, and come back! We just need to keep our eyes open, I guess scanning in different directions, methodically covering the areas, scanning mostly with eyes, not head. Make sure you are in a comfortable position to stand, but where you can move quickly, and so that if we swing our nets we won't hit each other."

Eren follows her own advice, wishing she knew more about the natural world. She really wants to help Vey catch something impressive! She firms her resolve: no matter how miserable this is, she'll give it her best effort, for Vey's sake.

At first, Vey seems rather non-plussed by this approach and faintly embarassed by Eren's obvious determination to help him. When, however, much to his surprise, her gambit pays off, he at last manages to make his own contribution.

Hearing the sound of a small creature approaching, he motions Eren to be quiet and still. Then, demonstrating surprising grace and skill for a normally rather ungainly lad, he moves silently and slowly to a better vantage point and a firmer footing. Finally, with a quick grin at Eren, he swoops on the unsuspecting beastie with his net. Triumphantly holding it up, her shows her their catch: a small, rather stunned-looking frog with attractive and colourful markings.

"Fantastic!" he exclaims. "Your plan paid off after all. Lets go show this to old Stick-In-The-Mud, shall we?"

"From what I can tell, Stockfish really is a bit of an old stick in the mud," Eren observes. "Very pro-Imperial, formal taxonomy, and all of that. So we should hit him with whatever facts we can recall, I think. So, what is the descent of frogs, in the scripture? Were they a water deck creature that moved up, or a land deck creature that moved down?"

~oOo~

Kiki decribes the remains of the bridge and the road to Stockfish as the class wend their way slowly back to Syran. The master nods sagely.

"Yes, I think I know what you must have stumbled across," he tells her. "Many centuries ago there was supposed to have been another city between Syran and Galin, which many historians believe was situated on the Graveen peninsula. I find it difficult to believe that it can ever really have amounted to much, given the surrounding terrain, but I am told that there are still ruins to be found in the depths of the marshes. Presumably the structures that you found are the remains of an ancient road."

"Now, tell me more about this swamp dragon..."

~~

Slogging home, Eren can't help but be bothered by coating of mud. At least most of the other students are also fairly muddy, although few come close to her complete coverage. She'd worry about that more, if she were not worried about Kiki potentially being alone with Master Stockfish. She doesn't know if she can trust the ravings of the man they met in the swamp, but she thinks his warning should at least be passed along to the Scribbler girl.

To her frustration, however, Kiki is hard to get alone. Stockfish is monopolizing most of her time, and some of the other students seem eager to talk to her about the swamp dragon.

Eventually she decides that delicacy won't serve, at least not in the measure that she can summon up, so bluntness will have to do instead. She hurries up to Kiki, ignores Master Stockfish's face at her accompanying swamp smell, and jumps on a brief pause in the conversation. "Kiki, could you make early morning staves practice tomorrow? After, there is something I want to show you in the library."

Stockfish looks rather irritated by this interruption, but when Kiki looks at him for permission, he sighs.

"Go on then," he says. "Talk to your friend. But don't forget to come to see me in my office when you arrive back at the College. We still have to discuss your reward..."

With a last, rather sharp glance at Eren, the Master saunters off to speak with some of the other students.

"Yes I can make practice tomorrow," Kiki tells Eren. "But are you sure your arm is OK? I have some mexel weed ready if it's still stinging. Wish I had a chance to get a closer look at what did that," she adds looking at the teeth marks on her friend's arm. "What did it look like?"

As Eren describes the creature, Kiki starts sketching out what it she thinks it looked like. When finished she shows it to Erin.

"Anything like this?"

"Well, yah, except maybe a little shorter... but... I was also looking through symbolic vision, and there it looked like, well, something like hunger, but not exactly, maybe hunger with a bit of hunter and a bit of death? It all happened so fast it is hard to remember. But I guess anyway you can't draw that stuff in, because it isn't something you see with your eyes."

"Well that what a lot of these non-realistic stiles are all about. Though I don't like a lot of those. But I suppose now I'm getting to see a bit more magic I can guess better what they were trying to say. But it still does not look right to me. Perhaps every one see these things a bit different when it comes to magic sight."

Kiki pauses with that 'deep in thought' look Eren has come to know.

"Now that would be an idea. Could I paint an idea from magic from another's point of view? Can you think of any of your magical images that you would fancy having committed to canvas?"

Kiki looks down "Though in a probably crude way... At first anyway."

~~

Kiki dutifully heads for Master Stockfish's office when she and her classmates arrive back at the College, having been given directions by her friend Eren. The door is locked, so she concludes that the master hasn't arrived back himself yet. He turns up a few moments later, his customary broad smile firlmy in place.

"Ah, Kiki! Excellent, excellent. I won't keep you for long - come in, come in!" he says, unlocking and opening the door for her.

His office is roomy and richly-appointed, but it's quite different to any of the masters' rooms at Sacred Image. For one thing it seems rather gloomy, as there's only one small window and that's partly obscured by heavy curtains. It's also filled with a great deal of furniture, mostly well-crafted and rather opulent, but all in different styles and using different shades and types of wood. None of it is really to her taste, which makes it even less appealing in combination. Perhaps this is the reason why it seems so... oppressive.

"Now, my dear," Stockfish says, seating himself at his desk and gesturing at a chair. "I promised you a reward. Truth to tell, I originally had something else in mind, but your encounter with the elusive swamp dragon gave me an idea. It's clear that you share my fascination with animals, but I think that you also have something that I lack: a gift for winning their trust, which allows you get close to them. I envy you that, I really do."

"And that's what inspired me to offer you a different reward," he tells her, his smile growing even broader. "One that I wouldn't normally dream of offering to an apprentice. I'm planning an expedition, you see, and I need an assistant with just the sort of gift that you seem to possess. So tell me, Kiki: how would you like the chance to meet one of the rarest and most beautiful creatures that ever lived?"

"Why, thank you, sir - that is most kind. I would like that. But you may have heard my gift also causes problems as I tend to be on the animals side. So could you tell me what you want the creature for?"

Stockfish's smile broadens. "Why to study it, of course! Like you, I am passionate about the creatures that share our world and committed to studying their forms, behaviour and unique characteristics. I only wish that I had a little of your gift, to enable me to pursue these studies with more success."

"Obviously you would need to get permission from my master first," Kiki notes.

The adept nods. "Naturally."

Kiki fires out a rapid string of questions until Stockfish manages to get a word in. "Would I be the only one from the class going along? Is there a map of where we are going? How long will with it take..."

By this time she is jumping up and down a bit with excitement.

Stockfish laughs warmly.

"Well, it seems that your enthusiasm for this expedition is clear!" he observes. "As to your other questions... Yes, you are the only student that I plan to take with me - we won't have a hope of finding our prize if we take a crowd with us! There is a no map, I'm afraid, but we will not need one - I am already familiar with our destination. It's less than a day's travel from here, but we may be occupied for a day or so once we get there, so I expect that our expedition will take us three days in total - four at the outside."

He pauses. "Tell me, my dear: have you heard of Arkat's Wood?"

Kiki nods, feeling a little thrill of trepidation. It's a notorious section of dense forest due north of Syran and north west of her home village of Nortark. Her mother has told her many stories about this place, and often warned her against visiting it by herself. Kiki treated this instruction as a word of caution, rather than a proscription, so she her visits to the Wood had been restricted to short forays into its outermost perimeter, but even these had been thrilling enough. One had included the encounter that inspired her notorious painting...

"Ah," Stockfish is saying. "Then I think you may have some idea of what to expect. But do not be concerned by any tales of peril that you may have heard. While it is undeniably a strange place, which can unnerve the unwary, you will be quite safe there with me..."

He goes on to tell her that he would like to begin the expedition early next week, but he will first need to secure permission from her school and from his own headmaster, which may take some time.

"Can I count on you, then, my dear?" Stockfish asks eagerly.

~oOo~