IC - Prelude- Signs and Assignments
The set of buildings in the mountain face was hardly visible if you did not know what you were looking for. Made from various colored rock, they fit in perfectly into their backgrounds,partly covered by the meager vegetation. The rooms extended into the mountain,too. It was, all in all, of a better make and comfort as the hidden City of Grimwall on Orgalos, and there were small hints in the building design and decoration suggesting open mockery of the Black Fleet. Of course, no member of the Black Fleet was likely to ever stumble upon this not-so-humble bastion, because the Hoarfrost Mountains were just not where pirates and their likes were to go. Nor many other people,for that matter,except for the dwarfs the occupants of the complex had a treaty for food and other services with. With the help of science, magic and psionics, there were ways to see from here to many places in the Principalities, but the blank eye view was always the most impressive.
There was no official name for this complex, but unofficial names included The Dump,The school, Palace of Dreamers, The Eye and Prison of Hopes. There were good reasons for all of those names, depending on who was asked. The older man standing in the semicircle alcove overlooking a small valley called it The Hope. It had not exactly been his idea or project to build and run this place, but he was one of the people very closely involved with its implementation. And he was proud of it.
Dressed in a black suit with an equally black cloak, leaning heavily on a cane with a large crystal in his right hand, he glanced at the clock and waited for his class to join him. They did not know it yet, but their lessons were finished, there was nothing more he or the other teachers could pound into them here. It was time for them to go out into the world for good. They had been out, of course, on training trips and excursions. Now they would go out into the world and begin to work to help bring the long time plans of the 6 psionic houses to bloom. They would come back from time to time for new assignments,or to ask for advice, but they would no longer be students.
The doors to the classroom with the spectacular view opened, and they entered. Jhayron the headmaster nodded to them and waited for them to be seated. As usual at the start of the day, he gave them a few minutes to talk among themselves. Their connections to each other were as important as their subjects of study had been. In a few moments, they would learn they were ready to begin their work in earnest.