As the whirling of gears died down and the hole opened in front of Derrek, the boy let of a sigh of pride. However, now he was done with what he was tasked, and even though the call of adventure called to his adventurous side, he wasn't sure that he was even allowed where ever the hole might lead, or for that matter, could even physically go where it lead. He could even finally take a nap since he technically did everything asked of him. Though mysteries were compelling, so he turned his PDA's brightness to full and flipped it around to illuminate the hole. If something of interest (and a way down) were visible, he'd likely go check it out, otherwise, he'd give up.

---

"Oh, you liked my song...?" Tsubaki whispered. "Um, I didn't plan on singing it you know, it's just... something about this place-" *disgruntled horse noises* "Sorry, I can sing more if you want me to. I'm no Carminis, but if you want a song, I can try."

The shy girl brought out her PDA and began to hastily scroll through some things before opening a classy instrumental piece and turning up the volume. But before anything else time seemed to all but stop. What was she about to do? Sing for others? Sure she liked singing, but she didn't really do it in the presence of others, not on purpose, at least. And these horses seemed almost human, eerily so even. And even if they didn't seem like humans, it would just be weird and awkward to preform for horses anyways. But, still, she had to try something, and they responded to music so...

...

Tsubaki quickly reached out and stopped the PDA, much to the protest of the equines, but then set it up again with a piece more 'pop' feeling. She had to do this right, this wasn't going to be a question or a lullaby, this was going to be Tsubaki taking charge, as much as Tsubaki could take charge, at least.

[Tsubaki]
I don't know -- you
..
You don't know -- me
..
I think that -- though
We're starting to see
Each other, for we are

Don't go to -- fast
..
Don't go to -- slow
..
I think that -- maybe
We're starting to know
Each other, for we are.

Tsubaki began to limber up a bit an move with the song at this point, right in time for a bit faster pacing.

[Tsubaki]
It must start now
Some, way -- Some, how
And you, know! It's got to begin
We gotta reign it in
It's something we can't pass up (no!)
It's the master plan
This something we must hold up (whoa!)
I can see it, and now you can
-I know.

She was feeling it now, the power of song, lifting her up as metaphorically as her arms were lifting her onto the log-and-x fence. She was jamming now.

[Tsubaki]
So hear me out! This re-quest!
Live it out! I be-hest!
Of you
This is isn't a plea, this is me!
Telling you
..
I know you

So hear me out! This re-quest!
Live it out! I be-hest!
Look inside! You know this isn't right!
Reach out! To catch the light!
Hold on tight!
..
That light, is me...!

And as the music faded Tsubaki stood slightly bow legged, torso twisted at a slight angle with both hands across the chest, and then thrusted one hand out, open palmed at the stallion. Then lost her balance because of it and fell into the horse's pen.

Looking up pitifully she added, "Please?"

"Not so fast," spoke up Basil from the back of the room as he casually walked to where the others stood around Daniel in his bed, "If this is who I think it is, we have nothing to worry about" he said calmly, with a slight smile on his lips, "They cannot find their way into this pocket dimension without magic. That rules out most of them. There is someone who may be driven enough to use magic to seek us out, however, she's in a bit of a debt with myself."

Ashley looked at Basil incredulously, even though he had been a member for over two years now, she didn't know what to make of him. He was an enigma, practicing the magics of enchantment and the arcane. He seemed to know so much about the supernatural, and she didn't know why. She had always assumed that he had perhaps been descended from a clan of magi, but it was only a guess. "I'm glad you can be so sure, but how can we know for sure that these witch hunters won't break into our realm"

"These...witch hunters...will not kill us," replied Basil confidently with a cool air of sureness. Ashley looked at Helena, who shrugged in response.

"Very well," she said with a sigh, "I will trust your judgement Basil," Ashley turned to face the rest of the group, "From now on, we will not practice magic outside of our pocket dimension. In all honestly, I'm a bit relieved it was witch hunters," she said while turning back to Daniel "I've heard rumours of demons about lately, and I'd like to remind all of you, especially you Calliope, we do not use demonic energy in our order."

"What?! You think cuz' I'm black that I'm just gon'-" started Calliope, but she was stopped by Ashley raising her hand.

"You practice voodoo. You know how those magics are, don't start with me" Calliope huffed and crossed her arms. "Now Daniel, where on Earth did you come upon a spell to summon creatures from the Ether?"

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As Johnny walked onto the second floor, he found various tables on the level where students worked, in the back near one of the bay windows worked Bernice and Adam with books opened all around them.

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Cinder recoiled as the barbed tail hit her in her side, and Laurel clung tightly to the wyvern to ensure that she did not fall off. Using this as his opportunity, Erynder swung his staff at Laurel, hitting her in the back.

"<Away!>" she yelled, in a foreign tongue that Lloyd could understand, though before he could respond, he was pushed away by a sudden force of energy emanating from Laurel's raised hand.

"Ah, so we're going to us The Speech now are we" smiled Erynder, glad to have a challenge. Cinder and Laurel flew out of reach of Lloyd/Grayson and Erynder, where she quickly knocked an arrow.

"<Alight!>" she yelled once more in The Speech, and the arrow burst into flame as she loosed it at Lloyd.

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As Damian fired a more powerful bolt inside of the orb, he could feel more energy coming from the orb. Looking inside, he could see many bolts of lightning bouncing around within the sphere. Again, raising his hand with the orb and focusing on it, all the metal objects within the vicinity rose around him, orbiting around him as if he were the sun.

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OOC: Awesome use of the PDA

The PDA illuminated what appeared to be a hall filled with various suits of armor. They were all metal, though of varying different sizes and heights, each of them wielding different weapons, and tools. If he weren't in an ancient city, he would have assumed that they were robots of some sort in a deep sleep.
Above the suits of armor the words "DORMIENTES" was carved into stone on a low hanging ledge above.

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The horses were absolutely mystified by Tsubaki's singing and they all, save the stallion, sauntered toward her, whinnying in s**** as the girl performed for them. Some of them even appeared to be moving their heads in time with her singing.

The horses all moved aside just as she thrust her hand at the stallion, who looked at her in almost a state of shock, and shook its head as she fell onto the ground into the pen, the other horses were silent. The stallion was a beast of honour, once upon a time a familiar for a gifted Animalium, though its spirit remained to watch over the ancient city, once its master passed away.

As Tsubaki looked up at the horse, she could see that it was mulling over a decision in its mind. Eventually it bent its neck towards her and nudging her with her head; he approved of her bravery. It backed away from Tsubaki and began to use its hooves to make an image on the ground.

Immediately, Tsubaki recognized that the symbols the horse was showing her, were sigils.

The Speech? Lloyd thought, utterly confused. He hadn't felt this way since he found out about the Omnivident. This was raising more questions than it did to help Lloyd finish his Totem Quest. However something made him smirk. If Laurel just saw Lloyd/Grayson and Erynder dodge that arrow, what difference would it make if it were a flaming one? At an amazing speed he flew past the arrow, and reached out to slash at Cinder's neck.

______

Johnathan felt his heart skip a beat. What if they didn't accept him and ignored him? What if he trips and falls and they laugh? What if they're extremely judgmental? What if this is a prank? His mind thought of all of these questions and more at once, making all types of scenarios as to how this could play out. As far as he were concerned they were just strangers. He hadn't socialized with the people outside of the DAC until now. No, he told himself, we're all human, they're just like me-- except for the Omnividence. To minimal avail. Part of him knew how stupid it was to stress over this, but he couldn't help it. He could face demons and ghosts and this made him nervous?

Walking over, he said, "Hey," and his voice cracked a bit, in the beginning which he did a mini frown at, "Mind if I join you guys?"

"Well, I suppose that means we're free to leave whenever then." He pondered for a moment about what exactly he was going to do now that his entire day was freed up. There wasn't anything especially interesting at the school for him to do, and here in Apollon all he could do was meditate or laze about. "You wouldn't happen to be busy with anything today Evelyn, right?" He wasn't quite sure why he decided to give this a shot, but he figured that she was the only person in school he could even consider to be his friend and maybe with a little luck she would be willing to pass some time with him.

"I really don't have anything to do today myself. Nothing to really occupy my time." he continued to explain. "So I have quite a bit of free time on my hands and nothing to really do with it."

Damian peered around, bewildered at what was occurring. He found that he was not quite sure what he was even capable of anymore. This seemed an opportune moment to experiment. He knew he could cast lightning and manipulate objects that use electricity thus far and these metal objects were clearly charged greatly. He wondered if perhaps this meant he was capable of manipulating charged objects. With his free hand, he raised it as he cleared his mind, then focused greatly on attempting to move a metal object.

Daniel was still nervous. Basil was Omnivident, so he knew about Alice, but she seemed ready to pay back any debts with violence.
He was a bit nervous about showing them the book he snatched, but he told them anyway. "I've come across a few 'tomes', or instruction books, something like that," He said to Ashley. "One of them is filled with some language I don't know, and the other one is just about unreadable. The first book is alive I think. I can ask it a question and it flips to the page I need. I'm a bit scared of the other one. I have no idea what that thing is capable of, but I want to get it translated so I can start learning from it." He looked to Basil. "Are you really sure she won't come after us? That Pixie told me I'd be burned at the stake. I held her off with the Ether, sorta on accident. I'm pretty sure she won't just accept me hanging around back there. Have you ever used the Ether before? I'm still full of that energy. I could try some advanced magic and I'd probably be successful. If you guys want, I could teach you."

Cinder recoiled as her neck was scratched, thankfully her violet scales protected her from any severe damage, however in turn, Lloyd had made himself vulnerable. In a split second, Laurel had a dagger in her hand and swiped at one of his forelegs, drawing a tiny bit of blood.

"<Strike!>" yelled Erynder from atop Lloyd's back and a bolt of lightning flew towards Laurel and Cinder striking them and causing them fall towards the ground, though they managed to recover. Erynder pat Lloyd's back reassuringly "It's alright Grayson. As long as we work together, we've got this"

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Adam and Bernice looked up at Johnny. It was quite apparent that they had not even noticed his arrival, so engrossed in their studies they were.

"Pull up a seat!" smiled Adam as he slid a chair out from the table for Johnny to sit, "We're just doing a bit of studying for exams coming up. Bernice here was helping me with a bit of history." Bernice looked up and smiled shyly.

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Evelyn quickly thought to herself wondering if she had made any prior engagements. Bernice had invited her to study in the library earlier that day, but she had no intention of toiling away her day in books. In fact, she wasn't even sure whether she intended to do much studying for exams at all. Her grades were not entirely a concern for her, her powers were.

"I believe I do as well" she finally replied, "Perhaps we could do something together? Anything in mind?"

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Using his mind to move one of the metal objects Damian found that the object did not even budge.

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Ashley looked at him with one of her arched eyebrows, why was it that everyone who came from that archive club seemed so mysterious. Here before her stood a boy, still new to magic, yet he had multiple tomes, one which seemed to describe some of the tomes of yore. Even more strange was that he had mentioned a pixie, in all her life she had never come across one of Faekind.

"A pixie?" she said out loud, almost more of a question to herself than to Daniel. Faekind were incredibly illusive on Earth, they seemed to have all disappeared following some sort of event that is scrubbed from history. How had Daniel come to run into one, and why was it going to burn him at the stake? Typically they did not care for mortal matters, so what if they were practicing magic, magic is what ran through their blood, more or less.

The more Daniel spoke, the more suspicious she became. Why was he so interested in the ether? He said that it filled him up. That was quite worrying, the chaotic nature of Aether was never to be trusted.

"Can you trust glass?" spoke a musical voice crackling like fire, "Its cold beauty bent into wondrous shapes, with a gentle tap it shatters, and your hands are covered in your own blood."

Everyone in the room stood up, wondering where the voice had come from, immediately on their guard. Ashley rubbed her temples, this was all too much, too soon. Why was this happening now?

"Ah hell no!" exclaimed Calliope, "Listen to him, if he's got some sort of book of spells to summon creatures from the ether, then let's get us some guard dogs. It's either him, or Imma mojo somethin' up in mah room." She looked at Ashley squarely with a defying glare.

"SILENCE!" exclaimed Ashley, the lights in the room flickered, it was a rare display of power, Ashley never truly let on how powerful she was as Archmagus of their order. "We will wait, if what Basil says is true then they will not be able to find the entrance into our realm, which we have hidden already. However, as a precaution, I will look over the spell that Daniel has described and determine whether we have the required ingredients."

This wyvern was no pushover so far. Lloyd wondered if this battle would decide if he would've ended up with Cinder instead of Grayson. Recovering from the last interaction, he attempted to get in close for Erynder to make another strike.

----

Johnathan felt a huge weight being lift off his shoulders and had been relieved that they hadn't noticed his embarrassing moment. Taking the seat offered to him, he returned a small smile to Bernice. Maybe this hadn't been such a bad choice. He still really didn't need to be here.

"History? What exactly were you studying about?" He asked casually.

"Woops, failure number one." He was by no means actually upset however, he was somewhat enjoying this experimenting. As for what he just tried, clearly he alone is not capable but given the more... interesting qualities of this bauble, there may be a way to manipulate the objects with it. Now was the time to figure it out, Damian then lowered his empty hand and raised the bauble where upon he relied on the power in the bauble now to attempt to at the very least rotate the metal objects.

Daniel was more worried about the voice in the air than he was about the other mages' conversation, so he missed most of it. When it came back to him he heard Ashley say she would take a look at the spell. "Okay, I'll grab the book." He opened the door and found himself at the end of the hallway. Using his key, he unlocked the first door and was suddenly in his room. The key was pretty nifty, the boy thought to himself. His book was still on the page that described the ritual. He picked it up and took it back to the makeshift infirmary. "Take a look. You can feel the magic, can't you?"

Lotus nodded agreeing with Alice. In a split second Lotus dash off leaving a plume of dust in the air, by the time it settled she was put of sight. As lotus ran she used all of her senses to located the person she ws hunting. She stopped before turning and bolting into another direction. She dashed till she finally stopped behind the human. Lotus thought for a second trying to put her words together. She finally spoke " Hey, Alice? Who the hell is Daniel?" Lotus said from her spot behind Alice.

In a split second Lotus was right behind Alice. Light as a feather on her little paws, Alice thought. "Don't sneak up on me like that!" She said, wishing she had a newspaper to swat the catgirl with.
Did she really not know who Daniel was, after all the time she spent down here? "Daniel is... Well, you know... Daniel. He's short, skinny, brown hair and eyes, controls glass. You should pay attention to your peers, y'know. Now, go get him tiger!"

"Well... Besides when we've been out to investigate with the others, I really haven't been into the city all that much." Initially Maximilian thought it was in poor taste to suggest an activity after he had already gotten his way yesterday but, he was generally interested in Darren and if Evelyn knew of something that interested herself within the city he wouldn't feel as if he were corralling her into doing only the things he was interested in. "To be completely honest I don't really know anything about Darren but I think it might be nice to explore the city and see what it has to offer. I'm sure you probably know of something to do in the city." His tone quickly changed to a more inquisitive one. "Your sisters at the very least must have mentioned something about Darren to you, right?"

Cinder appeared to be looking fatigued, the pace of her flapping wings having slowed since the beginning of the battle. Lloyd was proving to be an excellent and worthy combatant. She flew in a downwards spiral, away from Lloyd as he went to approach her once more, and landed on the ground of the arena where they had began.

"He is worthy" she said in a cool voice, as Laurel slid off of her back, it was clear that the battle is over.

"Woohoo!!" shouted Erynder from atop his back, "You hear that, big guy?! You get to go the Earth!"

As Lloyd landed on the ground, the ancient-looking elf that had spoken to him earlier stepped into the centre of the arena, standing in front of Lloyd/Grayson.

"Grayson, son of Lydia Silverbeak" he bellowed "Your path has been long and arduous, and yet, you shall have many more challenges facing you should you continue on this path. Earth is a realm very different from our own. Aether, the lifeblood of Avalon, does not exist in all things as it does here, rather it is a capricious force, on which you cannot rely. As such however, your powers will be greatly weakened, and you will find yourself in a diminutive form. This is why the strength of the bond between yourself and your human is vital. You will rely on each other, you on his spiritual energy, and he on your protection.

We wage war against the unseen, and uphold the sacred oaths the Children of Avalon made with the All-Seers millennia ago. This we shall do until the end of time, and this task you have dedicated your life. You shall taste mortality, and experience the wonders and horrors of humanity while on Earth. Be strong Grayson, son of Lydia Silverbeak, and trust your human as he shall trust you. You shall be one."

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"The Revolutionary War" replied Adam "There are a few books here, but some of them are totally weird!" he pointed to one book in particular "This one talks about some sort of secret war happening in the middle of the American Revolution, crazy huh?!"

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As Damian held the bauble, he felt the energy again pulsing from within. Once he raised the bauble and focused using its power he found that he was able to rotate the metal objects around him. If he focused on particular objects, he could choose to influence that one alone, or all of them around him. It was quite a versatile artifact.

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Ashley looked over the spell with arched eyebrows, every once and a while nodding to herself.

"I have everything except for moss from a henge, and" she read the next part out almost as a question "the blood of a half-breed..." she scrunched her face into a frown, "I know about henges, we can only find those in the England...or maybe Scotland...but I don't even know what they mean by a half-breed. Half of what?" she asked this out loud more so to herself than to Daniel, as she did not expect him to know what she was talking about.

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Evelyn thought for a few minutes, thinking of places they could possibly go to within the city. Of course her sister had told her about various places, though it seemed that they mainly focused on places which she should avoid, at least until she was ready, whatever that meant.

"Actually," she said finally remembering something that sounded intriguing "There's a teashop called Tea Tyme that we could always go to, they have an incredibly expansive selection of teas. My sister Stephanie actually worked there for a bit, helping the plants and whatnot. Would you like to go there?"

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LOGAN. Tsubaki, Darren. LI. DOM.

Alice and Lotus can continue~

Lotus listened to Alice flinching occasionally due to the sharpness of Alice's voice. She knew Alice was a popular being in the academy, which explained how Alice knew everyone.
Lotus looked around.
"How am I supposed to track someone I don't know. I've only interacted with you, Lloyd, and the weirdo that shoots lighting." Lotus sat there tail flicking up dirt as it slithered across the ground.