Miss Rachel's crystal-clear eyes clouded as the boy asked about Carter. The question troubled her, for even she could not fully answer such a question. It was mildly frustrating for one who had the gift of "knowing". However, she was mildly pleased with the training exercise, and felt that the team was ready to move on and finally finish what they had started in her absence.

"Very well," she said sombrely, and she tapped away at her PDA. She barely took notice of Evelyn, who had flown over to investigate what had happened. Within seconds everyone's PDA began to buzz away as the message was received.



Evelyn sighed audibly as she read the message, for she had just been there a few seconds ago, but she followed Miss Rachel, Johnny and Dom as they walked to the plaza. She took note of the strange aura that Johnny seemed to be emitting, as the origin of the energy seemed to be clearly him. He was changed, more so than when she saw him up on the tower. He was not any more powerful than before, but he was different, as if there was something consistently leaking from him as he walked. It was odd.

As they reached the plaza, they found that others from the group had made their way there as well. Miss Rachel sat on the ledge of the fountain, which had begun to spit water from its ornate spouts due to Maximilian's stirring of the aquifer below the city. The children looked at Miss Rachel expectantly as they waited for her to speak.

"Alright," she began, "The first thing I want to address is Carter," she said while leaning forward and pressing her laced fingers in front of her face as she thought about what she would say, "What he and Johnny did was dangerous; dangerous, foolish and cowardly. Never ever make a deal with a demon. Ever. Nothing they grant you will be worth the suffering they bring in return," she paused to allow her words to sink into their skulls, "As some of the more spiritually sensitive among you may have noted, Carter's presence has completely disappeared; his presence cannot be found neither in our mortal realm, nor the spirit realm. Our assumption is that he has been taken to the Realm of the Heavenlies. While Evelyn's exorcism was perfect, because the demon still had a hold on Carter, it could not be sent to the Abyss. Thus, it was most likely sent back to the Realm of the Heavenlies, in which the Kingdom of Darkness and the Kingdom of Light resides. While it is very odd that Carter, a living human being, was taken through the gates, it is not unheard of for a living individual to enter into the Realm of the Heavenlies. While I don't have any access to the knowledge of the going on's of that particular realm, I do believe that Carter is still alive. However, we do not have the time nor the strength to attempt to rescue him. Does anyone have any questions before I continue?"

Lotus got the he message and sighed before she began the journey back. Once she arrived at the plaza she saw a lady that seemed to know a lot about that Carter kid. Lotus half listened to the strange lady. She allowed her eyes to wander. She wanted to notice as much as she could before leaving.
then the lady asked the question "does anyone have any questions before I continue?" Lotus raised a hand " oh me! Me! pick me!" Lotus didn't wait for a response " So...uh...who are you again? And what was that thing Alice did to get her bow? Can I do that? What happens if I try to eat Dot? What happens if Dot tries to eat me? Do you know who Dot is? Of course not you've been gone. Dot's my tiger." Lotus just kept talking and asking questions about food and tigers, honestly she enjoyed the attention.

As Alice had anticipated, her PDA soon buzzed indicating a message from Miss Rachel. Waving Lotus over, she exited the tower and tapped Lloyd on the shoulder. "New orders," She said, a bit nervously, as she showed him the PDA. Looking towards the sky, she saw Grayson coming in to land. Noticing something odd on the griffons chest, she squinted until she realized it was Phora.

"... Dammit, Phora." The totem user sighed.

"I borrowed this!" Phora said to Lloyd as she released her death grip on the creatures throat.

Embarrassed, Alice decided now would be a good time to head towards the Plaza Apollon. "I'llseeyoulaterbye!" She shouted as she went off on a sprint. Her pixie companion rematerialized, latched onto her back, and for a while Alice said nothing to her.

"Do you like ruining things for me?" She finally said. Phora was silent, instead of answering she hugged Alice possessively.



Evelyn flew off without answering Daniel. Frustrated, he gave Tsubaki a look. "I'm going to follow her," He said, and he did so. Arriving at the plaza at the same time as Alice, they listened to Rachel's words intently, with neither of them having any questions they felt warranted an interruption. Except Phora.
"So what were you doing all this time? Were you finding out who killed Alice's friends?" This earned her a smack on the head from her master.

edit: ninja'd

Ooc: It's what I do.

Evelyn obviously wanted to know what happened as much as Tsubaki, since she flew off in a hurry, quickly followed by Daniel.

"Oh... bye..." She half said, half waved at the two backs.

Tsubaki just sorta sat around on the fountain's edge, twirling her hand around in the water as she waited for the others to arrive. Iter's guidance was all making sense now.

After a few minutes most of the team had made their way to her, including Miss Rachael, which sat down beside her. She began an important speech, and Tsubaki listened intensely, leaning over so she could see Miss Rachael's face better. When Miss Rachael paused for questions she was suddenly bombarded with some from Lotus, which is right around the time Derrek entered the group. He was of course, yawning and rubbing his face after failing the get a nap, again.

After receiving the message, Damian reluctantly got to his feet and made his way to the plaza. He got there just in time as Miss Rachael explained about Carter, then she asked if anyone had questions. Almost immediately, Lotus threw a barrage of questions that he felt didn't deserve an answer. As she rambled on with questions, Damian rolled his eyes and spoke out, interrupting her. "Shut the hell up, all your questions are pretty damn stupid. Ask something that deserves an answer."

Lloyd couldn't help chuckling at Phora's grip on Grayson, though he could tell Grayson wasn't taking it as easy and didn't find it as humorous as he did. Before he had a chance to say anything else to Alice, she turned and bolted towards the plaza, after getting the message from the PDA. In response, he shrugged and also went to the plaza, with Grayson also running closely behind. Surely things wouldn't get awkward between them right? 

As Lloyd and the rest of the group met up in the plaza, Miss Rachel revealed to the totem user what seemed to be troubling the bulk of the group earlier: a kid named Carter, who accepted a demon deal, seemed to be missing but still apparently still alive. When she was done, Lotus immediately jumped at the opportunity and threw a ton of questions at Miss Rachel with Damian calling her out on it. Having no questions, Lloyd kept quiet. 

Johnathan listened closely to Miss Rachel and was relieved to find out Carter was still alive, though his status and health conditions were unclear. It was a bit disappointing to find out they weren't going to find him anytime soon, but finding out he was okay was enough to tide him over. He wanted to ask where she had been all this time, but Phora had already jumped on the question, to which the underclassman eagerly awaited her response.  

Logan couldn't believe what he was hearing. Not only was Carter alive, but they could apparently mount a rescue operation at any time. A year ago, he would've suggested that they all go try to retrieve him this instant. Now, though, after seeing what these demons were capable of, he knew they wouldn't stand a chance. Even so, he wasn't the type to let something like this go.
"I have a question too." the junior interrupted. "When will we be ready?"

Hearing Damian's shout Lotus turned and looked at phora "Ya phora shut up. Some people are asking important questions here. Now where was I? Oh ya. So about the thing Alice did to get her bow... I'm not that good at math but I think she said something about adding. And...." Lotus continued the attack of questions eagerly without a second thought. This time she asked questions about the various artes and ghost or demons.

Miss Rachel listened earnestly, though she locked eyes with Lotus and her eyes flashed golden as she firmly said "Silence". Lotus felt her mouth shut and try as she might, she could not say anything more. She then gave Damian a stern, yet understanding look.

"As Li earlier explained to you, my name is Doctor Dawn, though you may just refer to me as Miss Rachel. I am the school psychologist and guidance councillor, and I am omnivident just like you, though my particular arte is Oraculum, while you are Animalium. Dot is your spirit familiar, so no, you cannot eat her. In the s**** there is a weapon vault, all of you newer members will need to visit it to acquire your own weapons, though I'm quite proud of how most of you have been doing without them thus far. I know many things, so don't worry about what I do and do not know.

To answer your questions Phora, yes, I've been looking into the mystery of the bus explosion. My colleagues and I have noticed a significant increase of demonic activity on a global scale. We're seeing activity almost on the scale of the last War of Souls. However, the angels, as usual, refuse to cooperate with us, so we don't know what's going on in the Realm of Heavenlies. In fact, the information that you have obtained from that demon is the greatest lead we have right now, as disconcerting as it is to know that a demon prince is walking among humankind." She paused momentarily, to allow what she had said to sink into their heads. Finally she turned to Logan, with a gentle yet sad expression.

"I believe I spoke too generally when I said we do not have the time nor the strength. There was no implication of 'yet'. One may only be invited into the Realm of the Heavenlies. So I do not know how or if we will be able to save Carter from whatever plight he is presently in, no matter how powerful we are. That doesn't mean I won't continue to research a way in."

Now, to address present matters. I am aware that the missions that I have given you in my absence have yet to be completed. That's completely fine, however, it is imperative that we wrap them up. On Thursday, Li, Dom, Lotus, Lloyd and Derrek, will be heading to the scrap yard to deal with the ghost; Logan, Maximilian, Johnny, Damian, and Daniel, will be finding Ms. Ignianus' kettle; and Alice, Tsubaki and Evelyn will be heading to Ms. Sullivan's home," she clapped her hands together and sighed, "Well, that's all I have to say, Lotus, you may speak, but speak with wisdom" Lotus felt her mouth loosen as the words were spoken by Miss Rachel, "You may leave, just walk through that door" she pointed behind them to a door standing in the middle of the plaza that clearly wasn't there before, that led back into the s****, "If you would like to discuss anything further with me, feel free to do so, otherwise... Dismissed!"

Lotus tried to speak at certain points in miss rachel's cuspeech unsuccessfully. She was filled with anger first growling, then when she was able to speak she rubbed her jaw.
"so um...what does your power let you do? And still what does adding have to do with spawning weapons?" Lotus asked still curiously. Dot manifested beside her as she spoke. Dot the spoke to Lotus " So did the cat have your tongue?" Lotus simply roared at Dot.

Maximilian was fairly late by the time he had finally gathered with the rest of his classmates, though he had arrived just in time to hear Miss Rachel's breakdown of their future operations. It made him entirely too happy to find out that he wasn't required to perform any task until Thursday, which would give him plenty of time to relax and simply enjoy life around the school.

"If you would like to discuss anything further with me, feel free to do so, otherwise... Dismissed!"


Maximilian turned to face the door, though he had no real intention of leaving just yet. Quickly he redirected his attention back towards Miss Rachael. "I have a bit of question, not really something that needs much discussion." he raised his voice slightly as he moved a few steps closer to Miss Rachael. "Are we allowed to stay here? Atleast... for a little while?"

After hearing which mission he would be going on, Lloyd had allowed Grayson to disappear. He liked the fact that they would start his first mission in Archlight on Thursday, giving him some time to socialize with the kids around the school as well as in his group, but a bit disappointed because Alice wasn't going on the same mission as he was. Also because he already had his weapon, a swordstaff, he wouldn't need to go to the weapon vault. Before he left, he decided to make sure everything was cleared up with Alice as he didn't want to have anything weird between them. 

Approaching her, Lloyd began to speak. "I hope there isn't anything awkwardness going on." He lowered his voice in case anyone still lingering around decided to listen in.

As soon as Miss Rachel dismissed the group, Johnny left through the doors that led back to the s**** that apparently appeared out of nowhere. His intent was to go back to his room to practice and see what else he could do with his new energy abilities. Though he was a bit reluctant to use his sigils again, because of what previously happened when they were in use, but Johnathan hoped it was just a one time event. Actually, he didn't want to risk trying his energy abilities out in his room as it was proven to be a bit unstable. Turning back, he headed back into Apollon and went up to Miss Rachel. 

"Is it okay if I stay in the s**** and practice my new abilities in case history repeats itself or can I practice it back in my room since I discovered I have them?"

OOC: Sorry sorry got busy this weekend, and I've been loring. Yes, loring, the verb to lore; I invented it right here.

In response to Lotus' question, Miss Rachel looked over at the girl with a smile "In a nutshell, anything I say is possible. Anyways, once you acquire your weapon you need to recite the spell "Ad arma" to summon your weapon from any location into your hands. I would tell you about the dangers of magic, et cetera, but that is for your peers to reveal to you."

"The door to Apollon shall remain open for all of you to use whenever you like. Try not to venture off the island though, we are in the middle of the Atlantic ocean after all. I have given you all written consent of absence for the week in your classes, you may go to your classes or choose to stay here or even in the s****. You may also choose to simply go to your classes, if your academic studies are of concern. I, however, have guidance work to attend to, so I will be in my office." She got up from her spot at the fountain and walked through the door back into the s****.

---------------------------------------------

Evelyn listened very closely while Miss Rachel spoke. She was fairly interested in the talk of the Realm of the Heavenlies, she had never heard about any other planes of existence besides her own and the spirit realm. She was further intrigued by the notion that Apollon was on an island, though it did explain the subtropical breeze that blew about them. She too wanted to stay in Apollon a little longer, explore the ruins that had remarkably not even been scratched while they battled throughout the city.

Logan grimaced as Ms. Dawn continued to speak. Had the bus incident not been enough? Was loss just something the omnivident would have to learn to cope with? He knew that it was better not to dwell too much on past failures, but that was difficult for an Antiquarium to do. As the counselor finished speaking and took her leave, Logan sauntered off toward the building that had been marked "Library" on the map. He wasn't quite ready to leave Apollon yet. Maybe he'd find something interesting there to raise his spirits.