After what seems like ages, the carriages emerge from the woods. In the distance, Grimmaria College comes into view. A beautiful castle sprawling atop the hill they approach. It is cut from alabaster stones that gleam with the sunlight; bright like a beacon of hope. The flags of Grimmaria wave proudly from the turrets and battlements. It is landscaped immaculately with roses and topiaries nestled amid manicured gardens and curated statuaries. It is unlike anything most of you have ever seen or dreamt of. As you pass through the gates, you notice that the arches are emblazoned with a motto spelled out in gold. Cognitione coram curis. All are equal in the eyes of knowledge.

The carriages circle around the main fountain in a line and the door open by themselves. Arthur dismounts and stretches his legs. "Everyone awake?" he calls with a chuckle. "It's a long way from here to the pier."

A voice sounds behind him. "Yes. It means having a good while to think about what you've done should we need to send you home..."

In the doorway to the school stands a regal looking elderly woman. Her hair is pulled back into a severe bun, streaked with grey among the black. Half rim spectacles sit atop her long nose. Her long purple scholars robes are made of crushed velvet, ornamented in gold thread.

"Ah, headmistress," Arthur says with a bow. "I'll be turning them over to you now, I suppose?"

She nodded and glided gracefully down the stairs. "So it seems..." She wears no expression as she looks around at the teens piling out of the coaches. "I am Vasilisa the Wise and this is my school. I run a tight ship and I expect all of you to adhere to our rules. I know there may be something of a... learning curve... But I trust you will all be putting your best foot forward. Before we begin the tour, does anyone have any questions?"

Q steps out of his ride stretching.  He had taken an entire carriage to himself so it's entirely possible the young man had napped the entire way; though what kind of person could catch some quick shuteye after the Jabberwocky attack was an interesting question.  Nonchalantly walking over to the carriage in front of him he lights as smoke before he helps Ilsa down and nods at Ck; his two friends quickly taking their usual flanking positions beside him.

At the headmistresses question he takes a long drag.  Blowing the smoke out slowly he gives a subdued grin.  "I could go for a snack," he calls back before giving a shrug and adding, "if you're asking."

In reply to Quinten Heart (msg # 2):

Despite having spent the ride talking miscellaneous theories with Eva and Jack, she still seems distracted.  "I'm sorry, but have the delegates arrived yet?"  Yep, apparently she was still preoccupied.

In reply to Quinten Heart (msg # 2):

Despite having spent the ride talking miscellaneous theories with Eva and Jack, she still seems distracted.  "I'm sorry, but have the delegates arrived yet?"  Yep, apparently she was still preoccupied.

In reply to Gisela O'Cuinn (msg # 4):

At the mention of running a tight ship AJ snorts in derision and hops down in a most unladylike fashion to lean against the carriage. She thought about saying something appropriately snarky to captain majestic schoolmarm.... but then decided it would just delay the parade of thinly veiled threats of return to the island.

Q was not the only one able to sleep though. Chasing a Jabberwocky and assaulting/getting assaulted by a king was exhausting. She had dozed on the way over and was just starting to wonder when Drizz would show up when the cat slid out of a shadow under the carriage, a shadow he could not have been in, and rubbed himself purring on her legs.

For all that he was Gi's cat he was pretty much his own being and went where ever he pleased. Aj flicked a loose button at her friend to get her attention and point out her pet had made it with them.

In reply to AJ Rourke (msg # 5):

Gi glanced at AJ and when she signaled the cat, she flashes AJ a look that says 'Can't have everything...'

Chance, for his own self, hops down out of the carriage with all the roguish charm he can muster.   Followed by an extremely thin look for the School marm.  It's a look that Gi and AJ are well acquainted with... that that usually comes with shooting one's mouth off.   One that causes Lucky to slap a hand over his twin's mouth to forestall any comments.

In reply to Chance (msg # 7):

Wolf furrowed his brow.  "I have a question.  What are we supposed to be learning?  And for how long?  I've had my education," he said, holding up one of his huge bare forearms replete with scars.

Jack emerged from the coach on somewhat shaky legs.  The journey had seemed to take forever.  He clicked open his watch, looking at the hands with disbelief.  He let out a puff of breath as he swung the suitcase to the ground, holding the door open for the other lady who had accompanied him.

The headmistress smiled at Gi. "I'm afraid they won't be here until the morning. I think some of the students might be as eager to meet you as you are their parents. All of you. You are nothing if not legend."

Stepping forward to Wolf, she looks him up and down. "What education is it you refer to? To read and write does not make one ready to contribute to their kingdom. You will learn what is beyond the scope of the penal colony, dear boy. You will all have the opportunity to work towards degrees. I suspect you will be interested in animal husbandry, perhaps? We have a law program as well, for those of you inclined to run off at the mouth..." She looked directly at Q. Then to AJ. "And deportment."

In reply to Her Majesty (msg # 10):

"What the hell is deportment? You threatening to send me back already?"

Obviously the island education system (Or lack there of) had failed to include that term in her vocabulary. AJ was not a reader...and books were not plentiful on the island anyways. So she had drawn the connection to deportation instead of how one conducts themselves.

She also had zero concern for noble sensibilities after having Arthur's crotch on her face earlier after the Jabberwocky.

In reply to AJ Rourke (msg # 11):

Drizz could not care less as long as he soon found some tuna and cream...and maybe a lady cat in heat... that would wrap the evening up nicely.  Thinking about that carnal act though made his brain slip to the memory of a highly erotic dream about Nyxia.

He looks for the pixie..and then decides he would be better off just licking his balls in front of the entire royal court...while laying on AJ's foot...

In reply to Drizz (Cat) (msg # 12):

Gisela smiled, a polite though insincere smile.  She didn't correct the woman on what she thought Gisela wanted.  No, she wasn't eager to meet anyone's parents, least of all her own.  Rather the opposite.  It was like a noose around her neck with the delay leaving her waiting for the sudden drop of the floor from beneath her.

In truth, she didn't want to see her father, not really.  She was too sure he'd have her executed, or perhaps assassinated, whichever suited his fancy.  If not that, perhaps sending her back to the island to face death at her mother's hands instead?  If either were the case, then why would she want to waste the time getting to know a place so far from either home.  Heck, why would she even want to bother unpacking and settling in?

No, no, she would much rather get things over with and face them head on.  At least she could say she did it with dignity then.

As to the cat, "Drizz!" she corrected the cat in a half-hiss.

In reply to Gisela O'Cuinn (msg # 13):

The black cat pauses, gives his owner a superior aloof look...and then returns to his bath.

By some miracle, Jack manages to avoid the faux pas of drilling the heel of his hand directly through his forehead.  One gloved hand clutched behind his back, the other nervously clicked open his watch to check the time.  His ears were slicked back, as he tried to avoid attention or scrutiny.  He was not about to allow his own deportment to get him deported.

Q seemingly stairs right through the headmistress before rolling his eyes at Gi. "It's a cat.  They do that," he quips.  "Then again there's a rabbit round her somewhere I can sell you if you want to trade up on the pet...  I'll throw in the rod crammed up his rear for free," he adds with a wry smile.  Isa smiles and even CK chuckles at that, despite the obvious.

Finally turning toward the headmistress he smirks.  "How about politics?  The bigger the lie the more people will believe it right?  Cause I've heard a few decent one's recently," he shot back. "So I think I need to up my game."

"Such a charming lot," the headmistress mused to herself. "Take note of politics. If you don't pay them enough mind you end up escorting tiny miscreants around your school." She smiled and turned on her heels.

"Come along! I'll show you to the library first." She motioned over her shoulders to follow. A dark cloud rolling overhead and the distant rumble of thunder tells you it's a good time to get inside anyway.

In reply to Her Majesty (msg # 17):

"The library," Gisela echoes quietly, moving to loop her arm around her best friend's arm.  With the physical contact, her friend can still sense the tension, but otherwise Gisela does a good job of hiding it behind her smile.  "You thought the one on island was scary.  What ever will you do with one that has more than five books?"  She teases.

In reply to Gisela O'Cuinn (msg # 18):

AJ shivers at the memory, "It wasn't the books that bothered me...dad had a bunch of war books...it was that old hag that thought she was the librarian that gave me the creeps. She caressed those books in a way that made me never want to touc...."

AJ wobbles, a hand going to her head as she groans suddenly, and then her eyes roll up...and burst into white pits of fire. She falls back seizing on the ground and foaming at the mouth.

In reply to AJ Rourke (msg # 19):

Drizz hisses and just manages to leap out of the way of being crushed by the human timber. He circles AJ and Gi with his tail a bottle brush and hissing at the scene.

In reply to Drizz (Cat) (msg # 20):

"Aj?"  Gisela exclaims, surprised at first, then scared.  "AJ!  AJ!  Someone help!"

In reply to Gisela O'Cuinn (msg # 21):

"What the hell?"

Wolf slid down to the ground and held AJ down in an attempt to keep her from hurting herself.

"No one cares!" Q called back as he lead his group forward.  If the other two had any other mind they didn't show it, but Q clearly was going to keep on with the tour.

In reply to Wolf (msg # 22):

"I've never seen her have a seizure before; have you?" Gisela asks, recovering.  She kneeled by him and her friend.  "We can't hold her, except maybe to make sure she stays on her side.  Keep her safe," she adds, not bossy, but assured.  She didn't know what Wolf did for a living, but she helped out as she could with medicine as best she could on island.

The headmistress pales slightly and rushes to AJ's side. "Out of the way!" she hisses as she begins examining her. She waves a hand in front of the girl's face. "It's not a seizure. I've seen this only once before."

She looks over her shoulder at a pair of dumbfounded looking students. "Get Thatch!" she shouts. They remain frozen briefly before her addendum of "NOW!" sends them fleeing down a corridor.

In reply to Her Majesty (msg # 25):

"If it's not a seizure, then what's happening to her?"  Gisela asks, moving aside for the headmistress.

"It is the same trance of one who is tapped into the life force of Atlantis," she explained as she shook her head. "Thatch may know more."

In reply to Her Majesty (msg # 27):

From out of her corset AJ's crystal pendant floats up, glowing brightly as it defies gravity in a sympathetic reaction to the energies at work...or maybe channeling them.

In reply to AJ Rourke (msg # 28):

Drizz who had gotten over his angry hissing fit nuzzled AJ's face up until that necklace floated out...and then he could not help but bat at it.  The swipes did not seem to effect it at all...it just drifted back to a vertical position over AJ at the end of its leather thong anchor around her neck.

Quin for his part keeps walking as the Headmistress gets dismissed, nodding to his crew and indicating this would be the perfect time to saunter off and do a bit of unsupervised 'exploring'.

In reply to Quinten Heart (msg # 30):

"But she's not - ," Gisela paused.  The weird pirate speech AJ was occasionally prone to, the fact she was left on the beach, the way she took to water better than a fish, it all fell together.  "She's Atlantean," Gisela states, her surprise evident.  "That makes a lot of sense, but how is she drawing on the life force?"

Jack was caught short, following Q's gang's heels by a few paces, as the commotion broke out behind him.  He turned back towards the collapsing pirate.  His lip curled a moment, buying for a moment that she was begging their attention... but the glowing eyes suddenly warranted it.

He paused.  He glanced down at his watch, a bitter dagger of spite and lapine bashfulness encouraging him to flee the scene.  His gloved thumb wormed along the worry-worn crease in the back of the gold casing, as he felt the second-hand pulse once, twice.

He stopped, hovering on the opposite periphery from the scene, one ear twitching nervously as he watched it unfold.  At Gisela's query, he could only raise an eyebrow, pointing a gloved finger at the hovering amulet.

"Three guesses."

In a blur of pixie dust, Nyxia streaked out of the carriage. Being tiny, she could fit herself most out of the way places. The nap on the ride had been wonderful. The sudden commotion, though, had started her awake.

Tiny motes of fire fluttered down in a trail, marking her path. She alighted on the crossbar of a lamp, keeping herself out of the cat's reach.

She peered down at AJ with curiosity.

In reply to Nyxia (msg # 33):

"You have to be more precise with your words, Gisela.  A princess always says exactly what she means and means everything she says.  Precision matters."  Bluma imparted the words of wisdom upon her daughter in a rare moment of lucidity.  Followed by an extended lecture and, when Gisela didn't master the skill in the moment, a beating.

Gisela hadn't spoken for a week after and still tried to avoid speaking around her mother.  Or, rather, had avoided it.  Now it was simple since her mother was back on the island.

"Of course, I should have phrased it better," Gisela says with a polite, but insincere smile.  "I simply meant how is she managing to channel it, not the tool she's using.  She has to have some sort of innate power or magic to be able to channel energy.  I am curious if it's native Atlanteans who can do it, or if there is something special about her to be able to draw on the life force."

A shaggy haired blonde boy ran up, out of breath and fumbling with a pair of spectacles. "What's wrong? He says it's an emer-" He stopped short, finally getting his glasses on and adjusted. "-gency..
" he finished, wonderment now in his voice. "Impossible"

The headmistress gestured to AJ. "And yet?"

The boy shook his head. "Atlantis was destroyed in the war."

The headmistress waved a hand in front of AJ's eyes. "There are more things in heaven and Earth than are dreamt of by us. Perhaps we have been wrong."

In reply to Her Majesty (msg # 35):

The crystal and her eyes flare brighter, her back arches in a spasm... and then she collapses in a heap. The light coming from both her and the crystal wink out like a switch was thrown.

A moment latter she jerks awake and sits up breathing marathon hard and gasps out, "Chernabog!...he is, had... was destroying a city.. her-my city?!"  AJ goes from crisp certainty to muddled confusion, the vision fading to memory and then getting as fuzzy as a dream.

In reply to AJ Rourke (msg # 36):

"It's all right, AJ.  It's all right. You're safe.  You're... You..."  She doesn't seem to know how to explain it.  "Look around, nothing's happening.  You're at the university, remember?"

He glanced over his shoulder, and up at the sky, then back down.  "No storms of demons in sight.  I think we're all right for now." Jack took a step forwards, offering hands to both of them on the ground.  "We'd better get inside.  We seem to be attracting a bit of a crowd."  He glanced around nervously at the passers-by that seemed to be clustering around the scene.

In reply to Jack White (msg # 38):

Aj nods uncertainly... to which person and which statement is also uncertain but she does get up again and smooth out her clothes. She looks worried however.

"It was a city, a city in the sea. I was my...I think I was my Mother. They were begging me to come back and then Chernabog came. Mom just laughed at them and ignored the plea Gi."

That realization had hurt the most. She had thought that since mother was not trapped on the island like the rest of them then maybe she had been good. Maybe she could be good too...but her mom had left an entire city to die and laughed.

Her mom was a villain...AJ's world had capsized.

The blonde boy was slack jawed, looking at AJ. He pushed his spectacles up onto the bridge of his nose. "This is fantastic!" he blurted, clearly somewhat socially tone deaf to AJs, or anyone's plight, really.

"She connected with the life force of Atlantis! That means there's something left! We thought it was completely destroyed. I.... I mean, it was swallowed by the sea completely during the war."

The headmistress gave a 'harumph' toward Jack, seeming to agree with the sentiment of not wanting attention but it looked far too late for that. Though other students were giving them a wide berth, they knew something was going on.

"Oh, they are all dead. You're quite right," Phasma interjected in a sing-songy and helpful tone. "I'm sorry, you are?"

"Uh, ah, Oliver Thatch?" He didn't sound sure. Also like it just occurred to him he was talking to a girl. He looked like he might have a stroke.

Lola chuckled throatily and offered her hand to AJ to help her up. "That's the rub isn't it? You mortals think death is so permanent. Got any corpses you can spare? I can demonstrate..."

"If you so much as attempt necromancy on school grounds, you'll be back on that island before you can blink," warned the headmistress.

"Killjoy..." Phasma muttered with a giggle.

Oliver shook his head. "We need to talk," he said, indicating AJ and her comrades.

In reply to Her Majesty (msg # 40):

Drizz meows and saunters in the indicated direction, flicking his tail teasingly at Nyxia the fairy as she flew around the group. He wanted nothing to do with Necromancy...and the Voodoo Princess and the Graveborn girl were no longer toothless here like they were on the island.

In reply to Her Majesty (msg # 40):

AJ was too wiped out, depressed and confused to do anything but comply... and practically guzzle a hip flask that came out of someplace on her attire. Where she had hid something like that in those skirts and bodice was something to be contemplated though.

In reply to AJ Rourke (msg # 42):

"How about we discuss this later, when AJ has had time to process what has happened?"  Gisela intercedes.  "AJ clearly has had an interesting experience and it would do well to give her some time first and finish our original plans of touring and finding our rooms."