lathany

Over in the School of Cadej, we discussed what we wanted to do next. Some of the party wanted to visit the School of Peaks to discuss ways of defeating the Fourth and some wanted to go to the School of Pearl to learn magic. Eventually we agreed to travel to both, starting with Peaks.

It was at this point that the Squire (

smiorgan) was given a piece of information from one of the sages. He was told that no pure-blooded human (which he was) could travel beyond the schools. Meaning that he would never return to Monde. The Principal of the school was challenged with this and he told us that it was not necessarily true. There was, it seemed, a scroll kept by the school explaining about travel through the portal back to Monde (it had been written for the school on request). However those of the school were forbidden from reading it and the school was still debating whether we should be allowed to see it.

Eventually (actually within a few hours) we were taken to the box containing the scroll and told we were allowed to read it on the grounds that we shared it with none of the sages of the Schools Cadej, Peaks and Pearl. We opened it and discovered that it was written by Lord Grasp giving the perspective of the Lords (and Ladies) of Tointier who - according to this at least - had made the journey several times.

It seemed that the portal would indeed destroy us. But we could be remade on the other side in Monde according to what forms we chose/perceived/adapted. Whether we had Image or Human blood appeared not to be a factor, much to our surprise. Grasp commented on his reservations in placing the details in writing. He also remarked on how some of his companions seemed very changed by their travels and some remained, at least physically, the same.

The other discussion held before we left Cadej concerned Sigurne's (

ealuscerwen changing appearance (the skin on her face was becoming thinner and rougher). Upon asking the skull one of its voices agreed that this had happened before and explained that it was not so much an illness as a state of mind that was causing the transformation. Sigurne remembered being told that she had been warned she was unsuited to travelling the full circle but could not remember who by.

Taken to Peaks by a sage we were taken at once to meet the leader (Warden ? Or was it more of a fighting name ?). She told us that we were to come to her whenever we had questions. We started a discussion upon the possibility of overthrowing the Fourth and all was going well when a Hunter grabbed the Squire and accused him of being a danger to the entire School.

It turned out that Peaks had Pure Path Hunters who looked out for the safety of the place. And it also turned out that the Squire has been touched by Weapon. This is regarded as an unacceptable danger.

We discussed it. The Hunter also commented that Sigurne was a pure-blood human (which surprised us given that the Squire had told us we were all tainted by Image blood). Then the Squire, Imogen and Sigurne decided to travel to Pearl leaving Katako (

triskellian), Sable (

frax) and Andreas (

onebyone) to continue the discussions. They showed the skull to the leader and she told them it held the Unity of Sages (didn't we already know this ?) and seemed unconvinced that it would help us against the Fourth. They also learnt that no-one has faced the Fourth (or the Walled Stone) and returned, unless they switched sides. Eventually the three remaining in Peaks decided they could learn little more and followed us on to Pearl.

Pearl was fascinating to those of us who wished to advance out magical studies and boring to those of us who didn't. Particularly as no weapons could be used within the School, not even for training purposes. So Sigurne and Imogen studied Word Art, Katako studied Dream Sorcery, the Squire studied history and Sable and Andreas got very bored. And then we agreed to move on.

We were shown the portal back to Monde. It brought out feelings of dread within us that some of us found almost impossible to shake. It was a couple more days before we could all agree to go through it. And that was after we were introduced to a sage in the School who had made the journey. A sage who warned us that we would be hunted when we returned to Monde (we didn't care, we had been hunted before we left).

When we faced the portal ready to travel through, the School asked us to go one at a time and were upset that Sable and Imogen chose to go together. And we each travelled through, were destroyed, then were recreated in Monde. Sigurne regained her face, the Squire aged about seven years but the changes to the rest of us seemed minor.

We arrived in Tointier in a little building in the middle of a lake. A building that could not be seen from the outside. The families, believing us to be their returned Lords, came to collect us. It seemed that the Lords had asked them to take any other travellers to the shore so they ferried us back to the city. We then left a message for the Lords to read upon their return and debated where we should go to find Ghol.

Any comments/additions appreciated.