Académie Royale de l'Arcane

[After Cirdan leaves]

Matrisse opens the door and sees the mage and the white-haired young man standing there, and smiles. These people look like paying students, and even though they're very clearly foreigners, they don't look like the wrong sort of foreigners.

"Why, hello there! I don't suppose you're here to enroll, are you? Come on in."

She sips her coffee and sits down behind her desk, gesturing for the two to sit in a pair of rather stiff-looking chairs in front of it.

"So...how can I help you?"

The assistant archmage blinks, unaccustomed to people coming in her office and not asking to join the academy in one way or another. She takes another sip of her coffee, taking a long and slow slurp rather than her usual quick gulp.

"Hmm...someone to help you find your item? Well, I'm afraid I cannot spare any of the staff. They're here to teach, and classes are still in session. Still...perhaps one of the students could do it. As an extra credit project. I suggest going out to the students and asking them for help."

She fiddles with her pen, absently. Normally, when someone came in her office, she would be signing something at this point. It's very odd to be doing something else.

"Can I help you with anything else?"

"Hmm..."

Matrisse thinks for a moment, tapping the pen against the desk in a sharp pattern. Tap tappity tap tap...

All of a sudden, she realizes who could help. The man who all the faculty go to when they misplace items.

"Ah, I've got it! Professor Echoes can help you out. He's a sort of time mage, but he's good at finding things. I'm not sure if he's in his office right now, but he should be there by the time you arrive. He's just that kind of person."

She gives the two some directions to the office and sets them on their way. 

     Sucette walks across the campus in this, her final term at the Académie.  Earlier she had met and listened to all of her school friends, listened to every "welcome back," "we missed you," and "we were so sorry when we heard."  She read every raven- or magic-sent note, saw every knowing sideways glance.  Then that seemingly endless meet-and-greet orientation ended.  Thank goodness.

     She'd sent notes, too, to each of her professors.  Sent them as floating glyphs, wafting through the air until the reached the appropriate office or home study.  Or lavatory, she supposes, depending on where the prof was.  One of the first aeromany spells she ever learned.  These notes confirm to the teachers that she was really coming back to school, really going to finish, too.  They didn't explain her absence, of course, but by now everyone knows why.

     Now, in the afternoon of the day before classes begin, she sits in the open commons for lunch.  Hopefully one of her professors would get back to her today.  Or maybe one of her friends might show up.  A real friend and not just some acquaintance or noble jackass that just happens to know her. 

     None of her friends or profs messaged her back while she waited in the commons.  Maybe she is being impatient.  Or maybe no one at this school really cares that much about her.  It could be both.  Disappointed, Sucette gathers her things and prepares to leave.

     It is then that she notices the fire.  Some foreign student is attempting to cook some small animals right there in the open commons.  Why would anyone do that?  Is she practicing some culinary magic?  Strange, sure, but she's seen stranger things before at the Académie.

     Lady Noyé watches the scene for a moment.  But then she averts her eyes when the woman—a Land Tiller?—looks over to her.  She doesn't want to be caught staring.

     Share her fire?  It's the middle of the afternoon.  It's the middle of the commons, even!  The fire doesn't look magical or in any way related to the lessons of the Académie.  It's just a cooking fire.  It shouldn't exist let alone be shared.

     But what else is Sucette going to do?  No friends worth mentioning.  No profs that care anything about her.  She has nothing to look forward to but a final semester of classes, tests, and practice.  Drudgery, all.  So why not share this foreign student's fire.  It can't make her life here on campus any worse.

     "Sure," she finally says to the woman's offer.  "Thank you.  I don't think we've met before.  I'm Lady Noyé from La Côte Rocheuse."  She smiles and tries to be a polite as possible.  In spite of her appearance, this cook fire woman may be nobility, too.  One never can tell with foreigners, what with their strange ways and customs.

"Vera of the Celadine, nice to meet you Noyé."

Vera says giving the girl a friendly grin as they walked over the fire. Once side of the rabbits was beginning to turn brown, so Vera turned them to make sure they cooked evenly. Just as Vera was about to say something more, Roy walked in. It took the vampire all of seven seconds to produce chocolate. She rolls her eyes and gives him a mock suffering smile.

"No Roy, I'm just about to have lunch. I don't need to spoil it with chocolate."

"Aww..."

Roy was somewhat disappointed when they both declined the chocolate. After all, the package had just arrived from his uncle, and he didn't want to eat it all on his own. He could, but that would be rather sad and lonely. Putting the box of chocolates in his backpack, he glanced over at the rabbits. It wasn't often that he saw Vera eating fresh meat. Usually it was deer jerky.

"Um...nice to meet you, Lady Noye. So, Vera...how do you catch rabbits? They're pretty tricky, and fast too. Do you set up snares?"

The girl's insistence on being referred to by her full title caused Roy to see her as somewhat snooty and uptight, although he figured that she probably had her reasons.

"Right that's what I said, Noyé."

Vera says cheerfully. She didn't put much stock into titles. The druidess notices Noyé's awkwardness around Roy. That was odd, Roy was practically the most harmless person to have ever lived. Being uncomfortable around him was like being comfortable around... a gerbil. Shrugging her shoulders she answers the questions.

"I used a sling to catch the rabbits. Druidic magic makes it easy to find them and easier to hit them. Druidry is also why I have a fire in the common rooms. One of Gaia's laws, I may only eat meat I hunted myself. So if I want to eat meat I gotta hunt and usually cook it myself."