RP:A Snake In the Guild
This is a Mage's Guild RP.
Summary:
Magister Templi Dyraxdiin sends the Apprentice Karasu to solve the mystery of the Mage Tower's prankster, and to bring Quintessa along as her rite of passage. The prankster strikes with their true intention, and the duo manage to apprehend the culprit!
Mage Tower
This room is huge, and the entire place is covered in blue and white marble, with many torches and eight pillars reaching up to the ceiling to reinforce the room above, and keep the tower standing. The columns are covered in mystical runes, probably magic to keep the pillars strong, making them able to withstand pressure that normally wouldn't be possible. In the center of the room, there is a spiraling staircase made of glass, and also inscribed with the same type of runes as the pillars, leading to the higher levels of this magical tower. Next to the stairs there is a small desk here with a sign on it. At the top the sign reads... directions for all new mages. There is a door to the south, and you now notice that it too, is covered in the strength giving runes, that leads outside and a door to the west leading to the dormitory, a place for young mages to rest after their studies here.
Karasu heard of the new apprentice-to-be, but knew little else besides that. The spell blade emerges from the doorway that leads through to the dormitories and onwards to the library, dressed in the garb usually worn beneath her armor: a black turtleneck, with khaki pants tucked into her heeled boots, which click along the marbled tiles as she approaches the offices, scroll in hand. She blinks with recognition at the head of black hair turned away from her. "Quintessa?" She calls out tentatively, her mulberry and brown speckled tail swishing side to side. "Are you the mage I'm bringing along today?" She asks with a tilt of her head.
Quintessa turns in the direction of the familiar voice, her face already stretched with large, toothy grin. "Hellooooo~" the hexblade sings, moving to meet Karasu. Pale fingers move to grip the half-feline's hand and she shakes it slowly and deliberately. "Imagine my surprise when the Magister Templi here said we'd be working together!" The changeling could not explain it, but something seemed to be drawing her to the other spell blade, and she was legitimately ecstatic that they'd be spending some time together. "Isn't that amazing?" Quintessa still has not yet fixed her make up and it remains streaked down her face.
Karasu has to will all her strength to keep from laughing when she sees her face. Instead, her lips curve into a borderline deranged smile. "It really is! Hopefully you can assist me with a pest problem we have going on in the Tower." As she says so, a string of obscenities erupts from one of the offices and an instructor comes out, flinging a snake at the floor. "Not the kind of pest I was talking about, but." The instructor glances over and sees the apprentice and trainee. "You, have you still not found the culprit of these cursed pranks?!" When the trio look back down at the snake, it appears to have resumed its form as a wand. "An illusionary spell. Interesting." Karasu remarks with a tilt of her head. Hazel eyes glance upward at the changeling. "Someone is going wild with the pranks around here."
Quintessa let go of Karasu and looks in the direction of the snake. "It wasn't me!" she says, immediately defensive. "These aren't my style of pranks anyway." The hexblade runs over to the wand and stoops down to pluck it from the floor. "Illusion magic? Of course! But wouldn't you need line of sight in order to do something like this." Mix matched eyes gaze out from under strands of black hair. "I suppose you could enchant an item to do this, but why go through that kind of effort?"
You raises an eyebrow at the outburst with a chuckle. "No, someone would have seen you around. The bigger question is, how was this spell activated when these offices are equipped with a barrier that prevents spell-casting from anyone but the resident of the office themselves?" She motions with her claws to let her see the wand. In Karasu's hands, it immediately transforms again. Luckily, snakes are not one of her fears. She pinches it at the cheeks to immobilize it. "This spell is only active to members of the guild?" She gives it back to Quintessa, where it resumes the wand form. Then a realization strikes. "Oriyan, this isn't your wand." The feline says, her eyes narrowing. "Tess, follow me. Bring the fake."
Quintessa finds much more entertainment from the snake-wand than anyone her age had a right to be. She grew up with critters much worse than some little garter snake. "Aw, he's cute." she says before losing interest in it the moment it turns back into a wand. She skips to catch up to Karasu, twirling the wand between snake transformations. "It sounds to me like this is an inside job... You don't think the teachers would pull a prank, do you?" She puts a finger to her lip thoughtfully, "It's gotta be someone in the guild, right?"
You shakes her head. "They got sloppy. It started with harmless pranks, but they've been getting bolder, to do something, something they couldn't do with their own student-grade wand or the standard wand given to Guild members." The duo begins to ascend the staircase, when a squelch comes out from under her boot. "Ack!" The step itself has been enchanted as well, slowly sucking her foot into Xalious-knows-where. Her tail poofs at the sight. "It's trying to spit me out somewhere else, and its hot!"
Quintessa gasps at what is happening to Karasu's boot and she is suddenly glad she isn't the one taking the lead. "Whaaaa," she stops gawking long enough to wrap her arms around the half-feline's torso, trying with all her might to pull her out of the trap. "It's probably sending you to the fireplace!" she said, straining to fight against the sucking -and- keep balance on the stairs. "Or worse!" Another gasp escapes the hexblades mouth as the cursed wand slips from her grasp and clatters down the stairs only to transform into a snake and slither away. "Noooo!" she cries, but remains to help Karasu. "Stop messing around and get your foot unstuck!" Quintessa pleads to the apprentice. "The wand is getting away!"
Karasu has her foot halfway through the trap when she curses aloud. "Let go, get the wand!" Once Quintessa lets go of her, she makes quick work of untying the boot. The force of launching herself backwards sends her down the stairs and nearly onto the hexblade. "Ah!" She grips her head when it bounces off the marble. "We need to get upstairs!"
Quintessa runs down the stairs and launches herself onto the snake, "Gotchu you little bugger..." She squeezes the snake's neck as it writhes in her hand until it poofs back into a wand. "Karasu!" she rushes over to help her, "Are you alright? Come on!" She helps her get to her feet so the can go upstairs together.
Karasu jumps to her feet, now half barefoot, and takes the steps two at a time to reach the upper level. At the end of a hallway, a hidden door is opened from behind a painting of Administrator Brenwyn. From within, a student emerges with a rune in one hand and the teacher's wand with the other! "You!" Karasu goes to lunge forward, but still half barefoot, she takes a tumble wearing her one heel. The perpetrator begins to flee!
Quintessa grins a creepy grin whenever she gives chase, "I don't think so!" she calls after him, leaping over Karasu with surprising athleticism. "You wanna play with runes, do ya?" The hexblade reaches into her satchel, pulling out the twin powered rune Redlceth had given her last night, "Two can play at that game..." But hadn't Redlceth given her some sort of warning? With her bare hands the changeling held up the rune, polar ice metal square side pointed at the floor down the hall from the prankster. She focuses a pulse of raw energy into the rune, creating an ice slick over the cobblestone floor. Now the fool would surely slip. The hexblade begins to cackle then- "Youch!" she drops the rune, it having heated up quickly like Redlceth had warned her. "You won't escape me!" she calls, doubling back to grab her rune, bouncing it back in forth in her hands as she returns to the chase.
Karasu has to sit up to untie her other shoe while all this is going on! Stupid, stupid, stupid! She's vaguely aware that her nose is bleeding from greeting the floor with her face, but there's no time to be worried about that! She springs up to her bare feet just in time to see the thief fall, and to see Quintessa doubling back for her own rune. She runs to catch up, which takes little time with her partly feline muscles, and digs her claws into the ice slick to run over it before tackling the student. The two roll around until they slam into the wall. The student bolts upright and the hood falls back to reveal a pale elf. "You little snake!" Karasu gives the elf a knee in the stomach and snatches the rune from his hand. "I-I'm sorry, I just-- I just needed it for a spell!" The spell blade looks at the rune, then to Quin with a face that says 'can you believe this guy?'
Quintessa slides across the sheet of ice, coming to a halt next to Karasu, looking triumphant that they just caught this guy. "Needed it for a spell, huh?" She holds out the wand that had been enchanted to turn into an illusionary snake. "A spell like this?" She gives the feline girl a look that says 'I know, right?' She puts her own rune back into her satchel. "You're going to get into a lot of trouble for this." She glances at Karasu's bare feet. "And you owe her some new shoes!"
Karasu examines the rune, scoffing. "Alright, what do you need a thorn rune for? What kind of spell needs-- What was your name again?" Her eyes show no mercy when she looks down at the kid. The student answers meekly, "H-Hengsun..." Karasu interjects. "What kind of spell needs a thorn rune, Hengsun?!" She yells, making him flinch. "That's quite alright, girls." The elder mage ascends the stairs and holds his hand out for his wand. Karasu raises a foot to kick the kid, and he cowers, holding it out in surrender. "Hrmph." Karasu passes it to Quintessa to give Oriyan. "I imagine a carrier owl to Rynvale elves at this time of year will not bode well for you, Hengsun." The mage glances down disapprovingly.
Quintessa passes the rune and the wand to the outstretched hand of Oriyan as she gives him a toothy grin, "Here ya go," she says before stepping back away from the elder mage. The changeling turns to her companion and asks her ,"So, that's it? I'm in the guild now?"
Karasu blinks a few times. She had totally forgotten about that. "Well, you did help me apprehend the suspect, so I suppose I can put in a good word." The half-feline winks. "It's alarming how smart he was for such a STUPID KID." She yells, making the elf slip on the ice as he tries to stand up. "Most people aiming for a rune like this wouldn't even have bothered to cast minor enchantments to see if they'd get past the defenses first."
Quintessa snickers at the elf as he slips, "Not smart enough though, if he really wanted to test the defenses he should have been casting spells that little less obvious." She cackles, "What an amateur! He lead us right to him." She gins at Karasu, "You know what? Your taste in men may be questionable, but you're a pretty awesome teammate in my book. I'd gladly go into battle or whatever this guild wants me to do with you at my side."
Karasu felt like the world's greatest upperclassman right until the end. Her face turning pink, she chokes out, "Can we stop talking about that?!"