Arkat Alumnus

5: Secrets

A Warning - The Doctor - The Orb - Painting - The Cartographer's Secret - Snooping
In Demand - The Mural Room - The Snoop - Interrupted -

~oOo~

After a token amount of staves practice, Eren pulls Kiki off to a corner of the yard where she is pretty sure they won't get overheard, then whispers a quick account of the encounter with the wild man in the swamp.

She finishes up with: "I don't know how much to believe him, but something horrible had been done to his essence, so something happened. And he said that Stockfish was part of it. So whatever you end up doing with him, be careful, OK? At least let someone know when you'll be with him, where you are going, and when you'll be done, and if you can, don't be alone and unseen with him, just to be safe, please!"

Having grown up in in a family of performers, in the city, this sort of caution about men is almost second nature - but she'd never before thought of it as a matter of safety of the soul!

Kiki seems a little confused with all this, as if she does not want to believe this sort of thing still happens.

"Well I will be going away with Stockfish and some others," Kiki begins hesitantly and then goes on to explain about the upcoming expedition that is her reward. "But my master will know Stockfish is looking after me and will expect him to behave properly. So I would think there should not be a problem," says Kiki optimistically, her mind set firmly on the enticing prospect of getting out into the woods again...

~oOo~

Having overheard the two girls talk about early morning staves practice and unable to concentrate on very much apart from the fugitive, Pavel heads for Glassmakers to deliver the message that he'd been given by the strange man in the swamp.

Once there, he realises that he isn't at all sure how to go about finding Perronele's workshop, but fortunately he's able to get some useful directions from an passing messenger boy. The entrance is tucked away down an anonymous alley, but there's a skilfully-painted wooden sign suspended over the entrance depicting a glass apple, which the child told him is Perronele's symbol. There are no windows at ground level and just a plain wooden door with another painted sign on it.

Pavel gets no response when he knocks on the door, so he pushes it open and cautiously enters. The interior of the workshop is large and surprisingly well-lit by numerous high windows and skylights and the air is stiflingly hot and full of strange - and frequently unpleasant - smells. The place is a noisy hive of activity, with artisans and apprentices busily engaged in the various processes involved in making glass.

It's a while before anyone notices Pavel, so he has ample opportunity to look around. There are a number of apprentices grinding pebbles, using a huge mechanical device and an implement like a giant mortar and pestle. Others are working the bellows on the various furnaces, while their masters artfully work the raw material of their trade, wearing heavy protective clothing. Away from the hubbub, others are finishing the products of this fiery labour, polishing delicate glass vessels or individual panes of glass in various shapes and sizes.

Pavel quickly realises that there are a number of smaller rooms ranged along two of the walls of what he had originally taken to be a building-sized chamber. The walls of these subsidiary chambers are mostly made of glass, presumably to let in as much light as possible, but they have obviously been manufactured with privacy in mind. Pavel presumes that this is where the glassmakers conduct their most secret techniques. The most that he can see in any of these rooms are blurred moving shapes.

When one of these shapes emerges into the main chamber, however, the young apprentice is shocked to realise that he recognises the man: it is none other than Carrick, his reluctant sponsor. The adept seems to be talking to someone who is still within the room, but Pavel can't make out their features through the glass and can't hear the conversation over the noise in the workshop.

"Oy!" comes a gruff voice from nearby. "What are you doin' 'ere?"

Pavel tears his gaze away from Carrick to see a burly man with a grimy red face glaring at him from a few feet away.

Rightly or wrongly, Pavel hasn't a jot of respect for his sponsor, so doesn't give him a second thought.

"I have a message for the Doctor", he says brazenly.

"Oh, you do, do you?" the burly man says with a frown. "Don't look much like no messenger. Where is this message of yours, then? I'll give it the Doctor..."

"Well, I'm supposed to be delivering the message for my father, Garan."

It's a strange thing, but Pavel isn't quite sure why he says this loud enough for Carrick to hear. Or why he turns ever-so-slightly so that he won't, should Carrick come out, be looking straight at his sponsor.

But Pavel has never been one to wonder about that sort of thing for more than a brief moment. "It's in code!" Pavel smiles innocently at his interrogator.

The man's eyebrows spring up at this last comment.

"Oh, is that right?" he says, struggling to keep his face straight. "In code, you say?" The big man slaps his hands on his thighs and roars with laughter, which attracts a number of curious stares. Pavel also notices, out of the corner of his eye, that Carrick is now staring over in his direction. He also catches a brief glimpse of the person in the room, as he pops his head out to see what the fuss is all about: a rather odd-looking man who seems to be wearing a metal frame on his face that holds two glass discs in front of his eyes.

Wiping the tears of laughter from his eyes, his burly interrogator favours the apprentice with a genial smile.

"I have to hand it to you boy, you tell a fine tale. However, I'm afraid I've never hear of this Garan fellow - your father, you said? - and I'm pretty sure that the Doctor hasn't either. And as this here is my workshop," he adds, with a note of pride in his voice. "My opinion matters. So, young pup - why don't you give me a good reason why I shouldn't just show you the door?"

"Yes sir, sorry sir. Well, it's going to take me a moment to remember the message," says Pavel, every bit the obedient, if dim, messenger. He looks at the floor in concentration. There's something to do with a falcon and..ummm..." Pavel goes painfully slowly, knowing he has the Doctor's attention, and Carrick's.

"Then there's the triple-looped rope, but...no, that's not a part of the message. There's...well, there's a vow and...and there's help needed, see?" Pavel looks brightly up at the proprietor. "I'm afraid I've got it all in a terrible mess," he says, "any chance of a glass of water while I get it sorted out in my head? Code, you know, wouldn't do to get it wrong." His voice trails off and he smiles at the glassmaker again.

Pavel's dissembling is obvious to anyone who knows something of how he works, but Perronele has not met the boy before and consequently falls easy prey to his brazen tactics.

"By the saints, lad, don't tell me you're actually serious about this code nonsense?" the glassmaker booms incredulously. "Well, I guess I should have known... after all, the Doc's always been a little too fond of that sort of intrigue for my liking. I'd best let him decide what to make of you. Only thing is," he adds, lowering his voice to speak in a conspiratorial tone. "He has another visitor with him just at the minute, and I hate to disturb them - th'other fellow is a wizard, see, and I don't like to get the wrong side of that sort."

"Quite right too," a familiar voice interjects. It is Carrick, who has come up behind the burly glassmaker while he was speaking to Pavel. "But don't concern yourself on my part, Master Perronele - Bastian and I have finished our business for today."

The adept seems to be looking past or perhaps through Pavel, as if the apprentice is beneath his notice. Pavel realises that his sponsor used what he can only presume is the Doctor's name, pronouncing his name in the Seshnelan fashion (bas-tyan), complete with the nasal vowel sound on the second syllable.

"Oh well, in that case," Perronele is saying. "Follow me lad..."

Carrick turns and leaves without another word. The glassmaker leads Pavel to the room where he'd seen the adept and knocks on the door frame as he goes in.

"Got a strange lad here for you, Doc," he announces. "Says he has a message for you from... who did you say again? No matter. Anyway, he claims its in some blessed code, if you'll credit it, which tells me that I prob'ly don't want to be hearin' it. So I'll leave you to decide what to do with him," he concludes.

The man in the room just nods, staring thoughtfully at Pavel. Perronele sighs and shakes his head, before leaving the room and shutting the door behind him.

Glancing around the room, Pavel sees workbenches and shelves all around the perimeter, upon which are arrayed numerous glass containers, many of them filled with coloured powders and liquids. He also notices several racks of glass discs, similar to the ones that the man is wearing in the wire contraption on his face. He vaguely remembers a tutor mentioning these things in a lesson, and recalls that they are called lenses.

"You have the message for me?" the man asks after a few moments. "To whom were you told to deliver this message? And by whom were you sent?" His pronunciation of the words is clear, but a little over-precise, suggesting that Safelstan is not his native tongue. He looks expectantly at Pavel and blinks twice in quick succession, his eyes magnified by the lenses before them.

Pavel explains, in a straightforward fashion, that he has been forced (this is the word he uses) by a vagrant in a swamp, to deliver the message to the Doctor, that the falcon has flown the nest. He says, as he was told, that this falcon's wings have been clipped. He finishes things off by telling the Doctor that he is to bring help to where the ghosts dance, if the vow still stands.

"Not very good code, is it?" Pavel concludes.

"That remains to be seen," the Doctor responds seriously. "If we are judging it for its effectiveness in hiding the meaning, then I would say it is most excellent, because I do not comprehend this meaning. If, however, we judge it for its ability to convey this meaning securely to its recipient, then, yes, it is a poor code."

He pauses, then smiles. "But I do not think this was your meaning," he adds. "And I think that this - what did you call him? - vagrant? - I think that he believed I would comprehend the meaning. Which means that there may be a missing item of information that you are not telling me, or that this man expected me to know. Can you tell me anything more about this person? You call him a vagrant, but you also suggest that he compelled you to carry this message. Explain, please."

Pavel blinks at the Doctor. He repeats the message word for word as best he can, patiently. "Look, Mister Doctor," he says, "the guy was a fugitive, a knight of some sort, he had these tattoos he threatened one of the girls from the Academy. I said I'd deliver the message if he let her go. He knows my father, but you don't know him, so..."

"Personally, I don't really care. But, I said I'd deliver the message and I have now. This vagrant is most likely the falcon, if that helps. There is obviously some vow in some secret society and he is calling on that. Most likely he will be waiting where the ghosts dance, wherever that is."

He smiles at the Doctor.

The Doctor's expression changes from amused curiosity to sudden interest as the apprentice speaks. When Pavel concludes, he is silent for a few moments, obviously contemplating the import of this new information.

"Falcon, falcon, fal-con," he mutters under his breath. "Who would that be? And why..." Suddenly he breaks off and then utters a few words in an unfamiliar language, followed by another phrase that sounds suspiciously like a curse. He turns to Pavel, his magnified eyes suddenly very wide, as a flicker of some other emotion - fear, or perhaps something a little more complex - passes briefly over his features.

"You met this man in the marshes, you say?" he demands. "You are speaking of the Graveen Marshes, yes?" When Pavel nods, the Doctor wrinkles his nose and stares into space, stroking his chin thoughtfully with his long fingers. At length he nods himself.

"Good," he says. "Good. I thank you for your delivery of this message. Here," he adds, reaching into his pocket and handing the apprentice a pair of large silver coins. "For your trouble," he explains as an afterthought. His gaze flicks suggestively towards the door. "Now, if there is nothing further..."

Satisified that he has done the bare minimum, Pavel leaves, a pair of coins the richer, and heads for the School of the Sacred image. He pats the folded up wave picture hidden inside his clothing, just to be sure...

~oOo~

Eren blinks, and realizes that she's nodded off. After class she'd gone right to the library and managed to grab a quiet corner in which to think about all that had happened lately. The library has always been restful to her, seeming like the very heart of her beloved school, and now there is the added bond with the old librarian, so it had seemed like the perfect place to seek some order in her thoughts.

Realizing that maybe it is a little too restful, and that she has too much to do to afford time for a nap, she tries to prod herself into action. She is too comfortable to get up and chase off to do laundry, find Kiki, or anything like that. Reviewing her notes right now would be apt to put her right back to sleep. Then she remembers the orb—she can study it without leaving her seat.

She pulls it out from under her last set of clean robes, and grimaces at the contrast between the much used cloth and the pristine orb. Then her attention shifts entirely to the orb, her curiosity overriding her other issues. She lets the feel of it sink into her hands as they cup her, the sensation subtly wrong for simple glass. She thinks about the possible runic associations of glass, crystal, clarity, and spheres. She gazes deeply into it, seeing if there is any slight marks inside that might give her a hint. Then she opens her inner eye and attempts to examine it too with symbolic sight. What did Helmat say about binding magic into items, and how that worked? She brings her entire focus onto the orb, and determined to so immerse herself in the orb that something will trigger some inspiration.

When it comes to the physical properties of the orb, Eren realises that she doesn't really know where to start. She would really need to know more about this type of material, or about who had made it. But how to figure that out? The headmaster only said that it had been donated by the father of a student. Wait a moment, though: didn't she overhear Agnetha saying something about that at the Disputation feast?

Unfortunately, the enigmatic object proves equally resistant to her tentative esoteric investigations. Her symbolic sight only really confirms that it is magical - it gives no hint as to what its purpose or runic associations might be. She does know that it is capable of defending itself - presuming that is what it was doing when Kiki touched it - and that it seemed to lend her strength when she passed through that magical door on the way to Salazari's. Perhaps she could use those apparent characteristics as some kind of starting point.

Eren shakes her head, and mutters "Gah, this is like the story of Saint Xemela trying to draw the poison from the two headed snake, with its heads locked together so that neither one could be reached....and her solution was to get someone else to help. But who could....Oh! Of course!"

With the surge of energy that comes with the idea she levers herself up out of her chair, and trots off to her master's office. Hopefully he'll be there, and surely he'll either know something of the orb or have some suggestion on how she can tease out its secrets.

As she walks she puts straight what she tried, how those efforts failed, and what she'd seen from the orb. And maybe she could drop mention of that essence sucking fiend, he might find that interesting too....no, only after the orb, she'd like him to be proud of her, but that can wait, best not to get distracted.

Master Atlan seems only too pleased to help her.

"Ah, yes!" he says, when she brings up the subject of the orb. "I was wondering how you were getting on with your prize. Some of my fellow masters were more than a little surprised when the Headmaster gave it to you..."

Eren learns that the orb had been presented to the Headmaster by Agnetha's father, the Grandmaster of the powerful Glassmaker's Guild, at a private ceremony in the College, which Atlan had also attended. The gift was rather extravagantly described as a 'token of the long and mutually respectful relationship between our two august institutions', but another prominent individual, who was conspicuously present at the ceremony, had been widely regarded as the true originator of this gift. That person was Lord Savaran.

"The Glassmakers have long been under Savaran's patronage, you see," he adds helpfully. "So it was assumed that the Grandmaster was acting as a proxy for his Guild's patron."

Seeing that Eren isn't following his logic, Atlan explains that the "gifting" of prominent citizens by the Houses is a familiar practice in Syran, usually signalling a House's patronage of the organisation, such as a Guild or a Church, that the individual represents. The Schools, however, had always been keen to assert their independence from this sort of patronage, regarding themselves as peers of the Houses rather than potential clients.

"That's not to say that the Houses don't exert their influence over individual adepts," Atlan adds. "But it's been a matter of principle that they don't have an entire school... ahhm, in their pocket, so to speak. So this gift has been seen by many as signalling a departure from that principle, because it seemed to suggest that the College had accepted the patronage of House Savaran."

Atlan smiles reassuringly at Eren.

"Now, Alphanus may have his faults," he tells his student. "And he's certainly not afraid to go against tradition, but I never thought that he'd sell the College short. So I don't think that he'd actually agreed to anything - this was Lord Savaran trying to present it as a done deal. The Headmaster couldn't politely refuse the gift, so he had to just smile and accept it. But then when he gave the orb to you..."

Eren tries not to blanche too obviously, but she can't help but blurt out "Oh, Agnetha and Aldeth must both be so mad, and whenever they see me...oh no!" Eren can see her chances of ever getting accepted by the in-crowd vanishing before her eyes. Then, almost against her will, her thoughts carry on to broader issues "Will this turn Lord Savaran against the school? Oh, and any adept who has accepted such a present, will that seem like a slap to them?"

Still trying to stay composed, Eren touches the orb, and asks "Should I really be keeping this? Am I just making more trouble for people if I do? I don't want Imperial to have important people angry with us!"

"I don't think you should worry about making trouble, Eren," Atlan reassures her. "And if anyone is angry at you, then they have no right to be - after all, it was the Headmaster who delivered the 'slap' to Lord Savaran, not you. No, I just wanted you to be aware of the situation, in case someone does try to make an issue of it."

He pauses, considering his next words. "To be honest," he continues, dropping his voice slightly. "I think that the Headmaster was wrong to involve you in this... political matter. I may be mistaken, but I don't think that he even considered what kind of consequences his calculated snub might have for you..."

Seeing Eren's troubled expression, Atlan pats her hand affectionately. "Cheer up, my dear," he tells her. "It might be uncomfortable to find yourself used as a cat's-paw like this, but look on the bright side: at least you have gained something valuable in the process. Now, I assume that you have the orb with you? Excellent. Let's have a quick look, shall we? No, no, no," he says quickly when Eren automatically offers the artefact to him. "You hang on to it for the moment..."

He examines the translucent sphere appraisingly for several minutes, his eyes glazing over slightly as he makes use of his arcane senses.

"Interesting," he says at length. "Very interesting. This thing doesn't just have an aura of its own, which would be unusual enough - it seems to have the same harmonic signature as your own!" He chuckles. "I wonder if old Alphanus actually knew what he was giving away? Oh, I'm afraid I don't know exactly what we have here either," he adds, seeing Eren's expectant expression. "But one thing's for certain: it's attuned itself to you now - and woe betide anyone who tries to take it away from you. Good thing I didn't try to touch it, eh?"

This immediately makes Eren think about what had happened to Kiki when she touched the orb - and makes her wonder about the person who had turned her room upside down looking for it. Had they touched it too? Kiki had told her that she'd seen scorch marks around the orb before she touched it, which seemed to suggest that it had discharged earlier...

"I'm sure I read about this sort of imprinting enchantment when I was a journeyman," Atlan is saying. "But I've never come across an actual example. I'd be rather surprised if the Glassmakers Guild had knowledge of this calibre of magic, though. For one thing, I understand that their maesterworks, while impressive in their own right, only have a single magical property each. I'd hazard that this piece has at least two: there would be little point in using the imprinting enchantment by itself. No, I'm sure that a true wizard must have had a hand in making this... But who? Unless..."

He frowns, staring into space, and starts chewing his fingernails. "Unless this isn't something that the Guild made at all," he murmurs, after a few moments. "Or at least, not recently. If this is an old maesterwork that they've lost the art to reproduce, then that might explain why the Grandmaster was so upset when the Headmaster gave it away..."

He returns his attention to Eren. "But listen to me blathering on... this isn't what you want to hear, is it? You want me to tell you what to do with the blessed thing..."

He suggests three approaches that Eren could try. She could try to find out more about the nature of the orb from the Glassmakers, which might be difficult if they remain hostile. Or she could do some research in the library. "You may be able to find out more about the imprinting enchantment, if nothing else," Atlan tells her. Finally, he suggests that she might discover more by applying some of the techniques that she's been learning in her Practical Spellcraft lessons. "Of course, that sort of dangerous experimentation might be frowned upon by your masters," he observes, with a wink.

Eren thanks her master for his help, makes sure she knows what readings she is supposed to be doing and when she is to see him next. Getting ready to leave she turns back to her master with one last question: "Do you think it is safe for me to keep it in my pocket? I think someone was in my room the other day when I was out, so I don't want to leave it there, but with all these strange magics... I don't want it doing things to me either, I guess."

"Oh, I wouldn't worry about that," Atlan tells her, frowning. "But leaving it in your room does sound like it's asking for trouble. It's a bit big to carry in your pocket, though, isn't it? Wait a moment," he says, going over to a small chest in the corner of his room. Opening the lid, he rummages around inside for a while, then exclaims: "There it is!" and returns to Eren, handing her a small pouch, made of soft leather. "I've had this for years and never found a use for it, but it should be just about the right size..."

He's right: the orb fits snugly inside the pouch, which can be closed with a drawstring and attached to a belt - or possibly hung on a longer cord and worn under her robe.

Eren thanks her master, attaches the pouch to the belt of her robe, and heads back to her room to get ready for the evening.

~oOo~

After the mornings somewhat disturbing news from Eren, Kiki determines to put it behind her and instead concentrates on framing the painting she has done for Eren. It shows her friend receiving the orb at the end of the dissertation. Kiki endeavoured to capture the real moment with her usual accuracy. Hopefully Eren will like it.

Kiki had not long finished when there was a knock at the door of the studio. When she opens the door, she finds Pavel stood before her, accompanied by one of the senior students.

"I've brought that thing we were going to study." Pavel doesn't greet the girl, his eyes barely even focusing upon her.

Kiki was always brought up to be understanding to the afflicted and Pavel she has decided belongs to that category. So she ignores his lack of courtesy and asks him and the chaperone in. Formalities, such as they were, over she asks Pavel to put the painting out on her stand to they can all see it clearly. Kiki then just sits down and looks at the painting and looks and looks...

After sitting silently and motionless for what feels like ages, Kiki suddenly bursts into action and starts scribbling in her note pad furiously. She looks at the painting from different angles and them moves it around so it catches the light then back into the more diffuse light. The chaperon snorts dismissively at the strange girl and her funny ways but does take the change of pace as an opportune moment to excuse himself for a comfort break and leave the two alone for a while.

Still Kiki has said nothing to Pavel as she waits for him to speak first.

Pavel stands stock still for a good time, just waiting. When the older scribbler who had accompanied him gets bored and steps outside into the corridor, Kiki glances up at the movement and catches Pavel's eye. His eyes lock on the small girl's, for a moment that seems to last an age, then he flinches and turns away to look at the door jamb. He rubs at the corner of his right eye and wipes his nose like a little boy. Then, the moment past, he smiles his winning smile.

"Any progress?" he says, though far more softly than usual.

Kiki turns back to the picture.

It is quite unlike anything that she's seen before. The subject matter is unusual enough and the bold and unorthodox use of vibrant colours is impressive, but there's more to it than that. The artist hasn't merely rendered a thrilling evocation of an enormous wave poised to break, they have captured the very essence of the wave: its raw elemental power, its irresistible motion and above all its awesome potential energy.

However, this accomplishment alone would not impress an Iconographer, or even an apprentice Iconographer - magical representation techniques are, after all, a fundamental part of their School's teachings. No, the aspect of the painting that really makes Kiki catch her breath is the sheer depth of information in the image when she examines it using the representational envisioning technique. It is as if the image is somehow more... well, more real than the wave it represents, encompassing not just a particular wave in a particular instant of time, but all of that wave's history and apparently a good part of its future as well.

The prospect of trying to reproduce even a hint of this extraordinary phenomenon with mere paint and canvas is daunting in the extreme, but Kiki cannot resist the temptation to try. She knows that whoever painted the wave must have been using either an advanced magical technique from her own school that she's not yet been taught about or else something completely new. In either case, the magic is clearly beyond her as a lowly apprentice, but perhaps she can capture the experience of viewing the painting, even if she could never hope to duplicate it in all its glory.

When, finally, Kiki admits defeat, she does so with a heavy heart. She had been so desperate to achieve at least some measure of success with this painting, but it had proven beyond her capabilities. Without the magic that underpinned the image to bring them to life, her attempted copies were hopelessly flawed. At least she hadn't failed Pavel completely - if nothing else she has some insight into why this painting appealed so strongly to him.

"I'd be fascinated to see what you see when you look at it, though," she tells him, after explaining what she can see in the images and what she thinks it means. "I mean, with your envisioning technique."

When Pavel looks blank, she adds: "Oh, sorry - what did you call it again: essence perception? Anyway, I reckon your technique is different to ours, just like your school's magic is different, so you must see something different too."

Pavel still says nothing, so Kiki presses on. "Our tutor said something about it that stuck in my mind. He said that all of the schools teach the same technique for... um, 'opening the inner eye' or whatever, but that's only the start. That's like being able to hear someone speaking without understanding what they're saying. Only in this case, there is no actual language to learn, just abstract stuff that we learn to 'see' as symbols. But each school has its way of 'seeing' - its own set of symbols and its own way of interpreting them. So we might all be able to 'see' the same thing, but what we're actually seeing might be..."

Thinking that Pavel isn't really paying attention, she trails off and sighs. "Never mind," she murmurs. She hands him one of her attempts at a copy. "This was the best I could do," she tells him glumly. "Sorry it's so rubbish."

"It's not bad," the boy finally says, "but I don't think you really understand how water works." He turns Kiki's effort around to face her and points out a difference between the original and the copy. It isn't a difference which she can perceive, though, tired as she is and aware that Eren will soon be arriving to go to Salazari's with her.

Pavel turns the copy about again and looks at it once more. "I think I know what you need to do to fix it," he says...

Kiki thanks him for useful insight and suggests that they meet again and try once more. Once Pavel has left, Kiki packs up the painting she has done for Eren and heads off to her room to deliver it.

~oOo~

Kiki arrives promptly, mindful that Salazari had asked them to arrive promptly at sundown. Retracing their steps from the last time they followed Salazari's riddling path, the two friends find it much easier than before. Even the hurdle that Eren had failed to negotiate previously - climbing a wall to reach "the narrow way" that leads to the cemetery - seems easier now, perhaps because she is better prepared for it on this occasion. The final obstacle - walking through an invisible gate in a wall - is still a rather unnerving experience, but it leaves both girls feeling very excited as they race up the steps to Salazari's panopticon tower.

The sun is just setting as they knock on the door, which makes the view out over the city quite breathtaking. When he opens the door and sees them, the cartographer's mouth twitches in what might have been a smile, but he hastily puts on a serious expression and ushers them inside.

"Hurry now," he tells them impatiently. "There's no time to waste - we have a great deal to do this evening!"

After this gruff welcome, the girls are a little surprised to find a modest feast waiting for them in the huge circular room at the top of the tower. Hunks of fresh bread, a slab of pungent cheese, several jars of pickles and a bowl of apples have been laid out on the table. Their host gestures at the food as he heads over to one of the fireplaces to put the kettle on.

"Go on - tuck in," he tells them. "You won't be a scrap of use to me with empty stomachs."

As Eren and Kiki enthusiastically follow these instructions, the adept makes a pot of tea and then begins to tell them about his plans for the evening. The goal of the work that he has in mind for them, he explains, is to help him perfect his already-comprehensive maps of the city. His apprentice, Inglenook, has been helping him with this for a while now, but Salazari is eager to speed up the process.

"Besides which," he adds, with a frown. "The blasted fellow seems to have gone missing. And I'm starting to get a little worried..."

The cartographer tells them that he's enlisted the aid of an associate to try to find out what has happened to Inglenook, who has now been missing for a week. His apprentice had been investigating an anomaly that the cartographer had identified on his map of Oldtown. When Eren asks him exactly what he means by 'an anomaly' and how he had been able to identify it, the cartographer is evasive.

"We'll come to that later," he says. "Don't worry, soon everything will become clear..."

He goes on to describe the task that he'd like the girls to perform for him. He has identified 'anomalies' on some of his other maps and needs someone to go and investigate the corresponding locations for him, to try to identify the cause of the anomaly.

"But surely you'll have done that yourself," Kiki points out. "When you made the map..."

Salazari smiles. "I think it's time that I showed you something," he says. "That will make all of this a bit clearer."

Leading them over to the other half of the room, which has workbenches lining its perimeter, the adept stops at a curious wooden cabinet that stands in the middle of the floor. It looks like a elongated cube, slightly taller than it is wide, but with a pyramid on the top. He produces a small key, which is hanging around his neck on a fine chain, and uses it to unlock the top section.

As he folds back each of the triangular sides of the pyramid, a soft blue glow becomes apparent. When all four leaves have been folded back, the girls peer curiously within and see a large, glowing blue sphere, slightly larger in size than a man's head. The light that pours from this strange object seems to pulse and swirl, filling the room with eerie shadows and tiny dancing motes of light.

"Behold the Blue Orb," Salazari announces. "Count yourselves lucky, girls - only a handful of people even know of this artefact's existence, and even fewer have been privileged to see it. Now if you'll step back, I'll demonstrate why I felt it necessary to grant you that honour..."

Placing his hand on the orb, Salazari closes his eyes and frowns with concentration. Immediately, the girls notice a more coherent pattern in the orb's strange light show and after a few moments they are astonished to see a translucent, shimmering shape appearing in the air before them. As it gradually resolves, they suddenly realise what it must be: a ghostly image of Syran! But this is no mere map, Kiki realises - it has depth, texture and perspective. It as if they are floating in the air above the city, gazing down upon it from a great height.

As they watch, dumbfounded, the image seems to expand, as if they are rushing down towards the city at enormous speed. It's all they can do not to cry out in fear, but then their apparent plummeting fall comes to an abrupt end and they gaze in amazement at an intricately detailed view of just one section of the city, bounded on one side by the wall. Kiki and Eren can easily pick out roads, piazzas and what seems to be a section of the waterways. They also notice several large buildings that seem to glow much more brightly than the others and numerous other pinpoints of brightness that seem to be joined together by a tracery of incredibly fine lines.

Eren was so enthralled by the spectacle that it was hard to actually analyze it, but it there was one thing that both her father and her master have beaten into her is that the last time to stop thinking is when you see something you don't understand. At first she thought they must be looking through the eyes of some high-flying bird, but as they plummeted she realized that this was unlikely. As lights become apparent she briefly feared that the city was burning, but the colour was wrong for that. That sort of patter, it reminded her almost of something she'd dreamed...

"Tell me girls," Salazari asks, sounding slightly out of breath. "Do you recognise where we are?"

Eren blurts out an answer before she even realizes she's thought of it: "Is this an essential view of Syran?"

"Not quite," Salazari says. "But you are thinking along the right lines. Certainly it is not a purely physical view of the city, nor will you find physical correspondents for everything that you can see here. But I wonder - can you identify which part of Syran we are looking at?"

Eren can't help but think that the lights are significant, so as a last guess before giving up, she ventures the concentrated light is showing the most important thing in her world: "Is that Imperial College?"

"Well done!" Salazari says, looking pleased. "Yes, that element represents your College and these two represent the other schools in Northside. You can also see the various Orders in the vicinity - the Legalists, the Obscurists and the Liberators - and the churches, guilds and associations that are clustered around the Grand Piazza"

He steps into the projected image and points at various elements. "Notice the differences between these buildings?" he prompts, indicating the dense web of fine lines emanating from each of the schools and the sparser equivalents around the orders and other illuminated buildings. The schools are all connected with each other and with numerous pinpoints of light, while the orders, churches and guilds have much fewer connections.

"These lines represent non-physical connections between the elements of the macrostructure; that's why they are independent of the conventional structures and trajectories - walls, streets, paths, waterways - that link the other elements together. The significance of this cannot be overstated: these lines demonstrate that a macrostructure cannot be understood in purely physical terms."

Eren tries to follow all of this, but manages to spare a trickle of attention to think "Oh dear, I hope there isn't going to be a test on this..."

Salazari continues in this largely incomprehensible vein for a while, before - perhaps noticing that his audience is growing restless - he concludes: "But that's enough theory for the time being, I think. Time to put you to work!"

The cartographer concentrates on his projection and the girls once again feel their stomachs lurching involuntarily, as their perspective seems to plummet towards the ground. Now they can see one of the glowing buildings that they'd noticed before in more detail. It is quite obvious that they are looking at Imperial College - even from this unfamiliar vantage point the distinctive geometric shape of the Oratory and the brooding bulk of the Library are unmistakeable.

However, it is to an unfamiliar building on the College's perimeter wall that Salazari draws their attention. While all of the structures around it are crisp and clear, this building - or rather its representation in Salazari's projection - is curiously indistinct and rather disturbing to look at. It is as if they are catching a glimpse of it out of the corner of their eyes, only to have it leap away again when they try to look at it directly.

"You see it?" the adept prompts, indicating the troublesome building. "This is one of the anomalies that I mentioned before. As this is a wizardry school, it might tempting to imagine that it's caused by some sort of obfuscation spell, but there's no evidence of this sort of thing elsewhere in the College and I've found similar anomalies throughout the city. No, I'm confident that this is caused by something else: an unreconcilable discrepancy between two linked, but discrete, macrostructures."

Seeing the looks of blank incomprehension on their faces, Salazari sighs and tries to explain his pet theory again.

"Think of it like this," he begins. "Just as the physical manifestation of a spell in the Material Plane has its logical precursor in the spell node in the Essence Planes, so too the physical structure of a building or a city has its logical precursor in what I have termed - following Hepaximander - a macrostructure. What that worthy failed to appreciate, however, was that the relationships between these macrostructures can be further elaborated by reference to trajectories."

He goes on to explain his theory that the projection from the Blue Orb is the product of several of these 'macrostructures' and 'trajectories'. The former correspond to a discrete physical structure, such as a building, or a wall, or a street, or the city itself; the latter represent the "lines of interaction" between them, most obviously via the city's streets. Salazari seems to gloss over the fact that a street can be both a macrostructure and a trajectory, assuring them that the "apparent duality is, for the purposes of this discussion, insignificant".

The part of his explanation that they find most difficult to follow concerns the "multifarious composition" of what they see in the projection as individual buildings. What he seems to be saying is that these visual representations are composed of information derived from several distinct "sources" - by which he seems to mean a set of related macrostructures and the trajectories that link them. The anomalies that he has identified occur when two or more of these sources conflict.

"What this usually indicates in practice," Salazari concludes. "Is the presence of another, unseen macrostructure, one that I have not already incorporated into my map. In some cases, however, the problem lies instead with an errant trajectory. Whichever the case, there's really no substitute for examining the anomalous structure on the ground. Now in this case, as I'm sure you have already discerned, you two - especially young Eren here - are in an ideal position to investigate for me. That is, if you are still happy to do so..." he adds expectantly.

Eren is quiet for a few seconds, face still screwed up in concentration as she tries to make sense of all of that, or at least to remember it.

With a start she suddenly realizes that he's now awaiting an answer, and quickly babbles "Of course I'd love to help, I mean investigate, or help investigate. Err. Help find the macrostructure I guess?. Or, ummm, sorry I didn't mean to `ummm' I'm trying to stop that. So, where was I? Oh yah, macrostructure OR trajectory, right? But how would we know? With the trajectory would we actually see the building in a different place, like...." and here, without thinking about, she reaches for the image, like she was going to re-arrange doll furniture...

Salazari laughs at the expression on Eren's face when her hand passes straight through the projection. "Ah, it's as insubstantial as the air, I'm afraid, my dear. But I think I see what you are saying... and I fear that you haven't quite grasped the concepts yet. No, if the origin of the anomaly is an unmapped trajectory, then that might imply there is a hidden route between this building and another - perhaps an underground passage. I'm sure that you know the city is riddled with underground passages."

Salazari pauses, lost in thought. In the hush, the sound of the clock striking in the nearby Grand Piazza is clearly audible. Hearing this, the adept frowns.

"Hmmm... it's getting late," he says. "If you're going to have time to investigate this anomaly tonight, you should really be on your way..."

Tonight? Tonight! thinks Eren. Poking through buildings at night!

Eren had not thought that they'd be doing anything so questionable seeming. She'd thought they'd maybe take a walk around outside in the afternoon, not go poking in hidden corners at night!

"Tonight? heheh, does it need to be at night? It might be easier to get access during the day....." Eren trails off as she sees Salazari's expression. Part of her wants to argue, but how could she disagree with such an impressive mage? Besides which, her pride argues against that she is afraid to poke around the buildings at night.

She swallows, and tries again "Tonight? I'm not sure I understand that well yet...can you at least give us a list of the sort of thing for which we should be looking?"

Salazari waves his hand dismissively at this suggestion. "If I knew what you were looking for, I wouldn't need to send you, would I? It could be a concealed structure that isn't discernible from outside the building, or it could be the foundations of an older structure with a particularly strong morphic resonance. But I'm not expecting you to solve the mystery all in one go - I just need you to see if there's anything obvious that might account for the anomaly. So keep your eyes open and your wits about you and try to report back everything that you see, no matter how trivial it seems. And I'm sure that you'll be able to dash of sketches for me, won't you Kiki?" "

"Yes sir" Kiki affirms automatically. "I will sketch anything that looks out of place. Eren, will all the building be open or do they lock bits of it off?"

Eren thinks about it, trying to figure out what building that is, and then to try and figure out what security would be in the way.

If it's the building she's thinking of - and it's rather difficult to be certain when viewing it from this perspective - then they're unlikely to come up against any security. From what she can remember, the building contains a dank changing room with a malodorous privy, which is sometimes used by students engaging in sports and suchlike on Clayday afternoons. There's also a large, dimly-lit storeroom. The latter is filled with a variety of irregularly used items - such as chairs, long benches and trestle tables that are used for outdoor events in the College grounds - as well as a lot of worn sports equipment and some less readily identifiable junk. The storeroom door does have a lock, Eren remembers, but she can't ever recall a n occasion when she's seen it closed.

When she relates this to Salazari and Kiki, the cartographer nods happily.

"If your description is accurate," he tells her. "Then I have high hopes for you. Observation and recollection of details - even apparently trivial details - are essential skills for an adept. Now, I think that I'd better prepare you for your excursion and send you on your way - otherwise we'll be out of time."

Then, apparently noticing the wary reluctance on Eren's face for the first time, Salazari frowns. "There isn't a problem, is there? You don't have something else to do this evening? Listen, if I'm to follow your progress, then it will have to be..." He breaks off, shaking his head. "Ah, but I didn't tell you about that part, did I?"

He takes a deep breath and sigh. "My apologies, girls," he tells them. "I should have explained this earlier. Your observations on the ground will be valuable, of course, but I'm also going to be following your trajectories and their interaction with the macrostructure. Which means that I'm going to have to cast a spell on each of you. Don't worry," he adds, grinning. "It won't hurt..."

"That makes sense. How long will the spell last?" Kiki asks with a little concern. The idea of someone being able to track her every movement she finds a little creepy.

"Only a few hours," Salazari replies. "That's why I need you to go this evening. As I said before, this is the sort of thing that I normally have Inglenook to do for me, but he's... well, I think you would attract less unwelcome attention in this case anyway."

Eren is a little bit worried, perhaps more than she would have been before meeting the ragged man in the swamp. Still, she can't quite imagine saying no to Master Salazari, so she dips her head in agreement, then clarifies by saying "I'll do it. Let's just....do the spell part quickly, please."

Salazari chuckles. "Don't worry - it'll only take a moment..."

~oOo~

A short while later, still feeling rather uncertain about the task that Salazari has set them, the two apprentices are making their way back through the streets of Syran to Imperial College. As promised, Salazari's spellcasting had been over and done with in a matter of moments, leaving the two girls to marvel at the sudden appearance of two tiny motes of light within the adept's cartographic projection of the city. These, he told the, were 'sympathetic representations' of each of them, which would allow him to follow their movements through the city and - more importantly - within the mysterious building that is their objective.

By the time that they have arrived at the College, the clock shows that the third hour of the night is already well advanced, leaving them only an hour and a half until curfew [1]...

Kiki intends to let Eren take the lead - it is her college after all - but she does plan to take a careful note of their route through the building and to sketch anything that they decide looks a bit odd.

"Here, I think this is the right place," says Eren. "Door should be over here... but I suppose maybe we'd best do a walk-around first, just in case it is something on the outside?"

"Say, it is going to be pretty dark inside, I'd imagine. Kiki, I don't suppose you have a spell for providing light, do you?"

"Oh you mean my Magic Lantern spell. Yes I have that one ready if we need it. Although a normal light or candle would be easer if they are around. Sweat before spells as my mum always says."

The girls' initial scouting reveals that the building is built into the external wall of the college, a tall stone barrier that presents a real challenge to any errant apprentices attempting to sneak back in after curfew. To the untutored eye, the building seems to be made from the same sort of stone as the wall. Eren remembers from her college history lessons that the wall had been built soon after the foundation of the school. This does at least imply that the building isn't of particularly recent construction.

The door is not locked and there don't seem to be any passers-by around, so they quickly nip inside. As Eren had anticipated, the interior is very dark, although there is a little light streaming in through some high windows. Kiki's magic lantern spell proves invaluable, however, especially when they decide that they've exhausted all of the possibilities of the changing room and its privy and turn their attention to the storeroom.

Again, the door to this room is unlocked, in spite of the old but serviceable padlock that adorns it. As Eren had recalled, the room is surprisingly large, but almost completely filled with a jumble of old furniture and miscellaneous junk, which is piled almost to the ceiling. This, together with the lack of light coming in from outside, makes it very difficult to get a clear impression of the room's walls or even its dimensions. Fortunately, however, there is just enough space to walk between the stacks of chair and piles of benches or boxes, so the girls are able to wend their way around the room.

"It's like a maze," Kiki observes. "You'd think that they'd want to store this stuff in a slightly more orderly fashion, wouldn't you?"

Eren nods absently, then gasps. "That's it!" she exclaims. "Perhaps this really is a maze. The question is, what's at the centre..."

Disappointingly, there's little to see in what they tentatively identify as the middle of the room. Even establishing this had been no mean feat - Eren had to lift her friend up onto her shoulders so that the smaller girl could see the room's walls over the top of all of the furniture. In the course of doing so, however, Kiki makes an interesting observation.

"You know, I think this room is bigger than it ought to be," she says. "I mean, bigger than the outside of the building seemed to be. And I don't think we've actually been in that part over there yet," she adds, pointing.

Eren frowns. "But we found our way over to the wall on that side, didn't we?" she observes.

"Yes, I think so," Kiki replies. "But it looks like there may be a big alcove on that side, which we never found our way into."

Tracing their way back through the maze, the two apprentices try to reach the part of the room that Kiki had spotted, but they quickly realise that none of the narrow corridors between the boxes and furniture actually leads into it. After puzzling over this for a few moments, Eren chides herself for a dummy when she realises that the 'walls' of the maze aren't actually impassable - they're only stacks of furniture and boxes, after all.

Working together to shift one of the stacks, Kiki and Eren have soon made themselves an entrance to the barricaded-off area. At first sight, there's nothing particularly exciting to see here - just a lot of dust, some broken crates and a ramshackle cupboard in the corner. It's only when Eren opens the door of the latter that the alcove's secret becomes apparent: the back of the cupboard is missing and there is an opening in the wall behind it. And just visible in the gloom beyond are a set of stone steps, leading down...

Having grown up amidst stories of the strange and dramatic, Eren may have a slightly skewed sense of the probable. So it is that the stairs seemed inevitable--and that she's glad they'd hidden the lock under some furniture inside the room (she's half convinced that otherwise as soon they found the stairs _someone_ would lock them into the room, forcing them to take the stairs).

Eren stares at the stairs for a long moment, then finally forces out "Well....I guess going down there is what we signed up for. I think we must be in the wall now, don't you? So maybe this leads to a way under it? But only one way to find out."

After another pause, she adds "I hate to ask this, but can you go first? If I'm in front of you, in those narrow stairs, my body will block the light, leaving me going down in the dark, and you'd only see my back. This way we'll both be able to see more."

"But first...." Eren inspects the cupboard to make sure that it does not have a way it can be locked from the outside.

Reassured to discover that the cupboard has no surviving handles, let alone a locking mechanism, Eren motions the smaller girl inside and cautiously follows her down the stairs. The light from Kiki's magic lantern casts eerie shadows on the walls, which does little to calm Eren's nerves, while the steep pitch and crooked steps of the staircase force the two apprentices to tread carefully and take their time. After descending for a short distance, the stair turns sharply to the left, then does the same again after no more than half a dozen steps. The walls on either side are mostly covered in crumbling plaster, but Eren notes vertical lines of stonework protruding through the plaster on a couple of occasions.

When the girls finally reach the bottom of the stairs, they find themselves in a narrow passage, but this almost immediately emerges into a perpendicular passageway, which stretches off as far as they can see (which isn't very far) in both directions. This new space is quite different to the stamped staircase: it is broader, with a higher ceiling, and the walls are made of well-finished stonework. In the area illuminated by their light source, the girls can see a couple of brackets on the walls, but nothing else catches the eye.

"You'd think they could leave some torches or lamps or something down here at least" Eren grumbles, but quietly.

Wanting to get this done and back into larger, better lit, and more clearly public places, Eren waves to the left "Why don't we start that way?"

As they start down the corridor Eren keeps trying to look back over her shoulder, but the shadows thrown by their bodies keep her thinking she sees movement, making her even more keyed up.

After travelling for only a short distance, the girls find two doors, standing opposite each other on either side of the passage. Peering into the gloom further ahead of them they can see a wall, which implies that the passage either terminates or reaches a junction. Cautiously trying the handles of the doors, they discover that both seem to be unlocked.

Kiki eyes both doors and there frames for any differences and then makes a choice.

"Oh well lets try this one first," she says, opening the left hand door and entering.

The first thing that Kiki and Eren notice as they walk into the room is an eerie luminescence. There are no immediately obvious sources of light and no torch-brackets on the walls, but the entire room - which measures about 10 x 20 metres - is visible, its walls, ceiling and floor bathed in a faint bluey-green glow. The walls are made of the same finished stone blocks that they had seen in the corridor and the door that they have entered through is on one of the long sides of the rectangle. They can see no other exits.

The second thing that catches their attention is a large and complex circular design, which has been drawn on the floor at one end of the room (to the right as they entered). Both girls immediately recognise it as a portal inscription, but the design is unfamiliar. Inspecting it more closely, some of the symbols that it incorporates make them both shiver involuntarily - most notably one of the standard ideograms for Hell...

"We shouldn't be here, I think. Whatever this is, its big trouble….."

Despite her words, Eren can't help staring at the diagram. She wonders if she can figure out the associations of the portal design. Here is the hell symbol, she knows that one well from Church, but can she make out other elemental associations of some of the others, or find common-ground with the teachings of Helmat? They've started to learn how to make the Imperial portal of power, so the basic principles binding it all together should be similar. What was the analogy her master used? Right, that the Imperial Portal had seven "door pillars" defining its basic structure, bound together by a multitude of `lintels' of varying dimensions Eren had still been struggling to wrap her head around the network of lintels, but the idea of some basic structural pieces is mostly clear enough. Could she figure out the equivalent in this diagram? Some should tie into the elements, which she understands well enough, and like the hell symbol some of them may show up in Church usage, or in The Rule.

After staring intently at the diagram for a while, Eren breaks off with a sigh and massages her throbbing temples. The inscription doesn't seem to follow any of the basic rules that she'd been taught in Portals and the few symbols that she does recognise don't seem to make any sense. She's also increasingly conscious of a dark and menacing aura that seems to hang around the room like a miasma.

Shuddering at a sudden chill that creeps up her spine, Eren looks away from the inscription and tries to collect her thoughts.

Then she notices that Kiki is sketching it out. "Oh, that is a good idea, we can try to sort it out more later. Only, I don't think it would be good to be caught with a diagram like this. Could you kind of disguise it or something? Like maybe give the detail of the symbols in different places than the overall diagram, so it isn't so obvious what it is? Also, if we think we might get caught before we are out of here, maybe I should use my secret pocket spell to hide it?

Kiki nods, scribbling away diligently, but she quickly realises that this task is beyond her. The sheer intricacy of the inscription makes rendering it accurately on paper a monumental challenge, but adding in the pressure to do it quickly (how long is t until curfew?), with just a pen and paper, plus the less-than-ideal lighting and Eren's well-intentioned advice about disguising the diagram, and... well, it soon starts to seem impossible. After struggling with her drawing for a few minutes, Kiki admits defeat. If she only had more time, more light, her paints and easel...

"We'd better keep moving," Eren remarks. "This seems like the sort of place that, if it gets used at all, would get used after dark. I hope the other room isn't as creepy!" Eren shudders, then heads for the room across the way.

The second room seems to be a mirror image of the first, with one notable exception: there is no inscription in this room. There are, however, a number of bas-relief murals on the walls, depicting various scenes or events, presumably historical. The first two that the girls look at seem to show a great battle in a forest and a council of wizards - perhaps taking place in the Oratory? Before they can examine these and the other murals in detail, however, they hear the sound of footsteps approaching from outside in the corridor...

~oOo~

As it is approaching dinner-time when Pavel leaves Kiki's, he decides to head back to the Academy. Most students tend to dine with their families on Wildday, so Cook usually makes something a little special for the handful of students that - by choice or necessity - do come to eat at the school refectory. Stopping off at his hall first, Pavel is a little surprised to see Gorbo there; he normally spends the evening with his doting mother, who makes a point of cooking up a feast for 'her little treasure'. Perhaps this means that Gorbo's dad - who is a sailor like Pavel's own father - is home at the moment.

"Oh, hullo Pavel," Gorbo says, noticing him. "Adept Carrick was looking for you. Said 'e wanted to see you in 'is room, straight away like. Not in trouble are you?"

When Pavel gives no immediate answer, the corpulent boy frowns. "Oh, and I meant to ask you 'bout Merry too. What exactly did you say to 'er on the field trip?" he demands, his face flushed. "Poor lass 'as been in bits ever since..."

Pavel gives the stout fellow a thin smile as he quietly changes his boots. Splashing some water on his face he goes back out the door again. He's not that hungry anyway.

The door to Carrick's office is open, so he walks straight in. The adept is sat at a writing desk, poring over a manuscript and doesn't notice the apprentice at first. When he does eventually look up he looks surprised, then irritated.

"What are you doing here?" he demands, sharply. Then, obviously recalling that he had sent for the boy: "Oh. Yes. Gorbo delivered my message then? Good of you to come so promptly. Unexpected, but good nevertheless. Just a moment..."

Carrick carefully rolls up the manuscript that he has been reading, places it in a tube and puts on the lid. Pavel glances around his sponsor's office, noticing a stack of similar tubes in an open cabinet. he watches silently as the adept goes over to the cabinet and replaces the tube, before closing the cabinet door and locking it with a small key.

"Now, I expect you already know what I want to talk to you about," Carrick says, turning back to his charge. "So lets not pussyfoot around, eh? You went to see a gentleman of my acquaintance called Bastian this afternoon - an unusual enough event in itself - and I understand that you had a message for him. I want to to tell me what that message was and from whom you carried it."

"Much as I'd like to, I'm afraid I can't tell you." Pavel is quite blunt and quite honest. "See, when we were on the field trip yesterday, I had to swear to keep the message secret else, this...person...would have done something very nasty to one of the other students. According to Gorbo, she's quite upset, though I probably shouldn't say who she is. I don't think she swore anything, mind."

Pavel smiles at the master.

For a moment, Carrick looks like he's about to start shouting at Pavel, but then an extraordinary thing happens: he starts to laugh instead. It's rather forced and unnatural at first, as if his throat isn't really used to making such an unfamiliar sound, but then he seems to relax and his harsh laughter trails off into a chuckle.

"Well, well, well, Pavel," the adept says at length, wiping tears from his eyes. "You never cease to surprise me. Oh, I didn't really expect you to volunteer the information just because I demanded it - that would perhaps have been even more surprising. But this! Refusing to tell me out of a sense of... honour, is it? And at the same time telling me where else I might find some answers." He snorts with amusement. "You've really outdone yourself, lad."

Pavel frowns, unsure whether his sponsor is being sarcastic. Now Carrick is also frowning, his good humour apparently having fled almost as quickly as it surfaced.

"You'd best be careful, though, boy," the adept warns him. "Whatever your reasons for agreeing to carry this message, and whoever persuaded you to carry it, there's potential for some serious mischief here. I won't force you to break your confidence - after all, I can just ask Bastian what you told him - but I will need to find out which other students are involved in this. Was it just M... I mean, the lass? Or were there others?"

"The others?" Pavel looks quite blank. "Well, I don't think I can really say who they were either, can I?"

There is a moment's silence.

Carrick sighs. "Very well. If you won't tell me, then I'll just have to find out by other means. But don't go away thinking that this is the end of the matter. And come and tell me immediately if anyone else asks you about this..."

"Is it okay if I go and eat now? My stomach is starting to complain."

Carrick sighs. "Very well. If you won't tell me, then I'll just have to find out by other means. But don't go away thinking that this is the end of the matter. And come and tell me immediately if anyone else asks you about this..."

Pavel leaves his sponsor's office with just a few words, quite satisfied that he dealt with the situation quickly. By the time he has reached the end of the corridor of the Masters' Hall, he has quite forgotten the incident. Soon he is tucking in to the special luncheon, sat quite alone (Merry hasn't appeared, but he doesn't even notice).

His thoughts turn to the wave picture. He starts turning the thing over in his mind, several of the other students staring at the unusual sight of Pavel lost in thought.

After a while, he takes himself to the library. He studies so infrequently that he has to explain to the librarian who he is to be granted entry. He sits himself down at one of the broad blue leather-topped tables and looks around, trying to get his bearing. Books. Lots of them.

Well, he might as well have a look at the books. Perhaps open some of them and see if they have any pictures in them.

Soon he has a pile of books, discarded due to a lack of images, and is starting to sneeze. A couple of tomes do have paintings within them of Lake Felster scenes, and it is these upon which he focuses his attentions.

Once again, Pavel finds the unfamiliar task of studying both disturbing and strangely exciting. The books with the pictures prove to be rather disappointing, but they do give Pavel another idea.

Thinking back to what Kiki had said about the wave picture - how it seemed somehow more real that it had any right to be, as if the artist had captured some aspect of the wave's essence in the image - he recalls a book that his tutor asked him to read last year. It was called "Water: A Logical Investigation" and had something to do with the essence of places - more specifically, of rivers, streams, lakes and the like.

Upon locating the book, Pavel is disheartened to find that it is completely lacking in illustrations. No wonder he hadn't bothered to read it before! Frowning with concentration, he makes a determined effort to read some of the dense text and is eventually rewarded with a passage that throws some unexpected light on the picture.

"Some observers have speculated," he reads, slowly and with difficulty. "That even those smaller and less conspicuous water features that might otherwise be regarded as a part of a larger body - such as currents, eddies, whirlpools, or even waves - might potentially have a discrete essential component of their own."

The longer words are cumbersome and daunting, and their meaning elusive, but Pavel tries to read around them to grasp the implications of this assertion. The author seems to be saying that a wave could have an essence - that is to say, an aspect of its make-up that extends beyond the physical. Perhaps that's what Kiki could see when she looked at the painting with her - what did she call it? - envisioning technique.

Curfew is fast approaching and Pavel's head feels like it is about to split in two, so he isn't able to do very much with this new insight. He's almost certain that it is significant, but he still can't quite put his finger on the reason why...

Despite his difficulties, though, he carries on for just a bit more. An image comes to his mind of himself stood on the prow of a ship, commanding a school of water essences to do his bidding. His father is stood on the docks, glowing with pride.

For once, he feels a chill run down his spine. A tear of pain squeezes its way out of his eye and her focuses on the swimming text. He imagines himself casting a gigantic wave at the docks and even smiles for a second, then casts the image from his mind.

This perseverance is rewarded by a further and more substantive insight. If Salazari's picture really has captured the essence of the wave in some way (as Kiki seemed to think), then it might offer some unique insights into the nature of water essences - the kind of insights that adepts in his school have been lacking since the days of their Founder, Evanard Reedwalker.

This last thought rather takes Pavel by surprise, but he realises that it is one of the things that has been bothering him about his school. Famous though the Academy is for the practical benefits of its graduates' water magic, the institution seems almost wholly uninterested in expanding or refining that magic. He knows that all of the other schools, especially the Imperial College, have a strong emphasis on original magical research and relatively large numbers of non-teaching staff. By contrast, he's only aware of two research fellows in his school - one of whom is his sponsor, Carrick - and doubts that the masters devote any of their time to research.

This hidebound attitude is also strongly reflected in the Academy's teaching methods, which emphasise discipline, tradition and rote-learning over innovation and experiment. Until now, Pavel hadn't really given much thought to this, or to his own lack of enthusiasm for his studies. His tutor, Madam Olyna, had always been patient with him and did her best to encourage him, but never really managed to engage his interest. Thinking back to his recent practical lessons, however, he realises that he instinctively wanted to discover more about essence manipulation - more than just learning and repeating a set of instructions by rote, at any rate.

Perhaps this explains why he finds the wave picture so compelling: it gives him a tantalising glimpse of what might be possible, if only he could find a way to go beyond the all-too-rigid boundaries that have characterised his magical education thus far...

~oOo~

Hearing the footsteps, Kiki immediately gets out her sketch book sits down and starts copying the 'council of wizards' mural, as way of explaining what they are doing there, in case someone comes in and finds them.

Eren whispers to her: "I might be able to distract them further down the hall with my 'Throw Voice' spell, and maybe we could sneak out behind them. Should I try it, or do you want to try and talk us out of it? You are probably better at that than I am."

Kiki looks up at Eren and smiles reassuringly. "Just sit with me nice and quiet," she says softly. "Its not as if we are doing anything that's actually wrong," she adds, with conviction.

Kiki seats herself so as to be in plain sight if anyone comes into the room - looking quite calm, working away at her self appointed task. Of course, this also means she is being quiet and not trying to draw any attention to herself. Eren follows suit, grateful for her years of practice at focusing in spite of distractions, because there are surely distractions here! Still, she forces herself to look at the murals, try to interpret them, and to see if she can relate them to the stories that she know.

As the Eren and Kiki try to busy themselves with the murals, they hear the footsteps coming closer, then stop, apparently just outside. Grateful that they had remembered to close the door behind them, they strain to hear what the unseen person is doing. Both girls jump involuntarily when they hear the sound of a door opening, but breath a sigh of relief when they realise that it is the door to the other room.

"C'mon, let's get out of here!" Eren whispers urgently to Kiki "They have to have noticed that the furniture upstairs was re-arranged, they'll come looking for us here soon."

"We have not done anything wrong and they are still very close I believe we should just sit tight and wait. Anyone would think your college was full of Sorcerers or somesuch, the way you are acting."

Eren chides herself for being such a worry-guts, reasoning that if Kiki thinks they're doing the right thing, then there's almost certainly nothing to fear. Determinedly mastering her nerves, she returns her attention to the murals and tries to stay calm. Working her way methodically around the room, Eren soon finds it surprisingly easy to forget about the unknown person nearby. The murals are individually fascinating, but the story that they seem to tell in combination is nothing short of a revelation.

It is her knowledge of Imperial College history that first gives her an insight into the nature of the murals, but she quickly realises that there's more to them than mere history and that their subject matter is by no means limited to her College alone. Her familiarity with the Saint plays provides a further insight, leading her to a conclusion that fills her with so much excitement that she almost forgets about the possible perils of their predicament.

The first mural that she examines shows a gathering of wizards in the Grand Oratory; Eren immediately recognises the distinctive portrayal of the College founder, Helmat Silverbeard, shown prominently amongst them. Judging from the portrayal of some of the other wizards, this can only be a depiction of the infamous Convocation of Adepts, Silverbeard's ill-fated attempt to unite the three indigenous schools of Syran.

At this time, the rivalry between the schools had been fierce, frequently spilling over into duels between their adepts. Helmat argued that this conflict was an illogical distraction from their common purpose, that they should instead share their knowledge and work together to expand their understanding, but his proposal had been roundly rejected by the leaders of the other schools, including the founder of the Naval College, Evanard Reedwalker. Undeterred by this, Silverbeard had gone on to found the Imperial Library, which would later became a shared resource for all of the city's schools. No doubt he would have been delighted by the current joint teaching experiment, Eren muses.

The connection between this and the other murals, all of which seem to feature wizards in a various contexts, doesn't become plain until Eren recognises the subject of another one. This shows a slightly later scene from Syran's history, recording St Merovar the Builder's miraculous repair of the city walls after a ruinous siege [2]. As in the version of the event that she's familiar with, Merovar is assisted in this feat by five unnamed wizards. In the play, the role of these worthies is rather glossed over, but the mural shows them all in some detail and Eren immediately recognises two of them from the Convocation mural: Helmat Silverbeard and Evanard Reedwalker! Reedwalker, she recalls, had originally been an Imperial College graduate and a protégé of Silverbeard, but he'd left after a violent disagreement with his mentor and ended up forming a rival school [3]. His rejection of Helmat's proposal at the Convocation was regarded as the key to its failure. So what were these two doing here working together, less than a decade later?

Looking at the other murals with new eyes, Eren now sees the common theme that unites them: cooperative endeavours involving adepts from rival schools. She doesn't recognise any other specific historical events and has the distinct impression from many of the murals that these joint ventures had been undertaken in secret. She can't decide what is more surprising: the fact that there are so many examples of such cooperation or the fact that someone has gone to so much trouble to commemorate them. As far as she knows, the rivalry between Syran's schools has been unrelenting since Helmat's time; indeed it has only really cooled to the current, ostensibly peaceful, status quo in the last twenty years. It's hard to credit that some of those supposedly bitter rivals had in reality been quietly collaborating in private, while their fellows fought - often quite literally - in public.

Before Eren can give any further thought to the significance of this revelation, however, she hears the door of the room opening and turns, heart racing, to see who it is. She and Kiki both catch a brief glimpse of a young girl's face - vaguely familiar, but difficult to place - before she turns and flees...

~oOo~

Leaving the Library, his head still whirling with the exciting implications of his insight into the wave picture, Pavel is walking towards the College gates when something - or rather someone - catches his eye. The girl in question - by the looks of her, a young neophyte - wouldn't normally have merited a second glance, if it wasn't for her rather curious behaviour. Pavel can't help but smile - her misguided efforts to be stealthy are having the opposite effect. But she's quite obviously an Imperial student anyway, so why is she skulking by that building and looking around in such a nervous fashion? Hmmm, and now she's trying the door and creeping inside...

In a bit of a daze, he follows the girl to the doorand listens at it. Without really thinking, he opens the door himself and enters. It's dark inside, but he can hear someone moving up ahead and follows the sound. As his eyes adjust to the dim light, he finds himself in a large storeroom, which seems to be full of furniture and assorted junk. Pavel can hear the girl somewhere ahead, creeping around between the stacks of chairs. Cautiously following, he slowly makes his way through the maze of furniture, tracking her more by ear than by sight. He's a little perplexed when she seems to disappear, but after searching for a few minutes he finds a staircase hidden in a closet and guesses that this is where she must have gone.

Picking his way cautiously down the first few steps, Pavel pauses, realising that he won't be able to see anything if he goes much further. He wonders how the girl managed to find her way - he hadn't seen her using a lamp or a candle. After deliberating for a few minutes, he hears voices floating up the stairs from down below. His curiosity gets the better of him and he descends blind, feeling his way unsteadily down the stairs.

It's not too difficult to begin with, but before long Pavel misses his footing and lurches forward. Fortunately, he stumbles into a wall and manages to find his balance again. Following the line of the wall with his hand, he realises that the staircase makes a turn to the left. Treading very carefully he negotiates the corner and breathes a sigh of relief as he feels the wall straightening out. Stepping forward with confidence, he takes the next few steps in quick succession... and steps on thin air again.

The next few moments are an increasingly painful blur as Pavel jolts down the stone steps. When he finally comes to rest he's convinced that he must have broken every bone in his body, but a quick audit seems to suggest that he's escaped with just bruises. When he clambers, wincing and groaning, to his feet, however, he feels a sharp pain in his left knee, which makes putting weight on it almost unbearable. He wonders how he's going to make it back up those stairs...

Bent almost double, Pavel hobbles over towards where the stairs must be, the girl he was following forgotten.

When he steps on a small stone, the pain that shoots from his knee, seemingly right into his brain, is almost too much and he groans out loud in pain so as not to pass out. He slumps to lean his back against the wall and feels for the stairs with his left hand. Finding the first step, he crawls over on his hands and one knee and turns over to sit on the stair.

Fortunately it is pitch black and no-one can see Pavel as he slides up one step at a time on his backside. This proves to be a painstaking - and painful - process, but at least there's no chance of him falling down the stairs again. There's no way that he's going to make it back to the Academy before curfew, though - it'll take him forever to limp all the way to the other side of the city!

~oOo~

Kiki calls out to the fleeing girl in her high sing-song voice "Hi, it's only me - Kiki. Want to joint us?"

The receding footsteps slow and then stop. Eren hurries to the door, and tries to glance out at an angle to see if she can see or hear the girl (standing so she would not be visible from the door across the hallway). The small figure is just barely visible in the shadows, standing a little way back along the corridor. The door to the other room is shut.

"W... what are you doing down here," the girl asks in a small voice. "W... w... won't you get in trouble?"

"Oh, we are students - Eren here is studying the murals in this room and I am copying them for her. As for trouble, studying is what we are meant to be doing so that won't be a problem," Kiki adds with confidence.

Eren adds softly "Yah, it isn't like this place is locked up or anything, it is just that these murals aren't well known. But we do need to get going soon, curfew must be coming up soon."

"Curfew's not for ages yet," the girl assures them. "But what are these murals that you're talking about. Can I see them? I'm Imogen, by the way," she adds, coming a little closer. "What is this place? And how did you find it? I never heard of it before?"

Kiki smiles to her "Sure they are just in here" she gestures Imogen to enter. "I have been doing my best to copy them for reference but I am not sure that I am doing them justice," Kiki adds modestly. "Not sure what it is called I suspect that this room has been forgotten, which is a shame"

As their mystery guest moves into the light, Eren is once again struck by the impression that she's seen this girl before. Not that she should be surprised by that - she's obviously an Imperial College student, after all. Then she remembers: when she and Vey had taken Kiki to the matron's office after banging her head, Imogen had been the girl that they'd seen lying unconscious on a bed.

Before the three girls have a chance to look at the murals, however, they hear a noise from the far end of the corridor...

Eren clamps her teeth down on a comment about the crowds parading through this place. Instead she whispers urgently "get in here" and without waiting for compliance grabs the third girl's arm. Using her superior mass she hauls the smaller girl insde the room, then tries to swing the door a short of shut, as quietly as she can.

"Well here are the Murals. As you can see they have been done by a master," says Kiki pointing at the murals out and trying to steer the girl towards them.

Imogen glances at the murals with evident disinterest. "Huh," she says. "Yeah. They're really... great. But what about that noise outside? And if it's OK for us to be down here, why is *she* looking so nervous?," the small girl adds, pointing at Eren.

Just then they hear a distinct groaning sound from out in the corridor. Kiki recognises the sound of someone in pain.

"And," Imogen continues, paying no attention to the sound. "What's with that portal-thingummy in the other room? It looked cool and kind of scary," she observes, her eyes sparkling with excitement. "D'you reckon we could use it to summon up a... a... oh, I don't know: maybe a demon, or something?"

Kiki ignores the girl and, forgetting other possible dangers, heads out the door in the direction of the groaning. That someone needs help comes first.

"Hello is someone hurt?" she calls out, as she heads for the stairs looking to help.

Having climbed only a dozen stairs or so, Pavel hears a familiar voice. Is that Kiki? His shoulders relax a bit and he calls out:

"I fell down the stairs and hurt my knee. It's me, Pavel."

"It's ok I'm here now" Kiki says comfortingly as she kneels down beside Pavel. "Now lets see what's wrong with you". "Looks like you have put your knee out of joint," she says, after checking him over. "Now I can try and put it back just now or we can carry you up to matron?"

Knowing Pavel a bit, Kiki gives him the choice, once she is sure there is nothing more seriously wrong with him.

"Put it back," he says.

"Eren" Kiki calls out to the big girl. "Eren can you hold him while I try and put his knee back in joint? With you work on the boats I'm sure you have seen this before,"" she tells her patient. "Now this will hurt. Do you want something to bite on?"

Pavel shakes his head saying nothing. Kiki says nothing about how pale he looks and takes up position round his leg.

Eren hurries out of the room at Kiki's call, wincing at all the noise they are making. Looking over the situation, she sees that they are already a number of stairs up.

"Look, let's just get a bit farther up, so we aren't so visible from the hallway. Also, let's see if this spell will work--Pavel, after I cast this, try not to say anything, cause hopefully whatever noises you make will come from the other end of the hallway...."

Eren casts her spell, but she's not entirely sure whether it has worked or not. Frowning, she watches as Kiki tends to Pavel's injured knee.

"Now this is the difficult bit for you," Kiki is telling him. "Can you try and relax and not fight what I am doing? You are a lot stronger than me after all."

She rubs some salve round the knee. Then, judging him ready, Kiki uses leverage rather than brute force to put the knee back where it belongs.

With Eren helping to hold the patient steady, this strategy works perfectly and the knee moves back into place with a satisfying pop, which makes Pavel yelp with pain. Eren cringes as the sound echoes up and down the corridor, but there's no sign that anyone else has heard the noise. When the patient cautiously flexes his knee, he announces that it feels much improved. It's still very sore and rather swollen, but it's definitely in better shape. He still isn't looking forward to the long walk home, though...

"What's he doing here?" asks Imogen, scowling at Pavel. "Don't tell me he's come to see the murals too..."

"I doubt it." mutters Eren. "I'd like to hear his answer too, but let's get out of here first. Pavel, here, you can lean on me, or just use my staff if thats easier."

Pavel smiles at Imogen, wondering what murals she is talking about, and takes Eren's staff.

Kiki looks longingly at her sketches, but none the less agrees. "Yes, lets get him somewhere he can get the weight off his leg," she suggests.

~oOo~

[1] Curfew: Time is measured in Syran using the standard Western pattern of two 16 hour periods ('day' and 'night'); the beginning of each period is called the 'first hour'. Both periods are more commonly divided into 'quarters', with the second quarter starting with the fifth hour, the third quarter starting with the ninth and the final quarter starting with the thirteenth. Apprentices are officially expected to be back in their cells by the beginning of the second quarter.

[2] This was during Bailifes the Hammer's siege campaign in 1413, i.e. a little over 200 years ago.

[3] The first school to be founded was Tenebrous Wisdom, in 1282. Imperial College came next, in 1365, followed by the Naval Academy in 1402. The School of the Sacred Image was actually founded earlier than any of these, but its Syran academy was not established until 1493.