Echoes Of The Seven

Jaxie was frustrated- that much was clear to see even from Claire standing on the other end of the Dean’s office. Like usual in recent days, it was rather full. Contrary to recent days, Eris and Jaxie’s father wasn’t here, nor was that spy-lady’s wife. Instead, their spots were taken up and then some by the other Deans of Marrix. The worst part, though?

Claire couldn’t remember ANY of their names. Well, except for Professor Kull and Professor Maidess, obviously. Since their meetings had taken place primarily in Kull’s office, Claire had become fairly acquainted with the man. Of course, since her, Nima, and Meg were all from Sector Fura, there had been no shortage of meetings with Professor Maidess, either.

Claire chose the simple option; remain silent and never address anyone she didn’t know. Jaxie didn’t have those reservations.

“If there’s a chance that we can go save her,” she growled, “we have to take it. End of conversation.”

The dean of Sector Teer, an ebony-skinned man with a head so bald and smooth Claire could almost see her reflection in it, gave a curt nod. “That is my own course of reasoning as well, but this isn’t something we can decide on a whim.”

Professor Konderlacht, the superintendent of the entire school, clasped her dark fingers over her biceps from her crossed arms- oddly the most casual thing that Claire had ever seen the woman do. Even if she was sitting like she was now, the white-haired lady always held a formal pose. The lack of that was enough on its own to show the stress of the situation at hand.

“Powell is right. There are far too many factors we don’t understand and can’t take into account. Our decision needs to be calculated and intelligent- not rash and chosen by emotional connections.”

Despite being almost as tall as the dark-haired Berserker, Claire was glad to let herself slink into the background as someone not important. She did get a bit of a side-eye from one of the other Deans, the woman that Claire was pretty sure was the Dean of Sector Ohn. However, that eye was then turned back toward Alex when the blonde spoke.

“As much as I want to save her because she’s my best friend, I know that we have to save her simply for the benefit of the Syndicate alone.” Alex sighed, and Claire watched the Knight adjust her dark green shirt. All five of the girls were in decidedly casual clothing compared to the uniform-clad officials, but since none of the five actually had uniforms to wear, it was a moot point. Regardless, Alex’s voice didn’t waver as she continued speaking.

“Eris is the one and only hope that the Syndicate has to fight against the Hollow. If we don’t get her back, we lose. At this point, doing everything in our power to help her is being intelligent. It doesn’t matter who she is to us anymore- she is the single thing capable of saving the world itself. I don’t think we can afford to be cautious anymore.”

A shorter man, actually at a height only beating the diminutive stature of Meg standing a few bodies away, piped in. Although he was one of the shortest in the room, he carried a weight of experience- given the fact he was over twice the age of any other Dean.

Claire didn’t know his name off the top of her head, but the Dean of Sector Feegh was easily seventy years or more, with well-tanned skin and wrinkles over each of his knuckles. The smile lines on his face led credence to believe that he was a joyful man, but brown eyes were turned down in anxiety with one aged hand running through his wispy gray hair. Obviously, being the only Dean over the age of thirty didn’t mean his troubles went away.

“This situation is beyond delicate. In truth…”

His hands braced on his knees- being the only individual in the room that was sitting other than Professor Konderlacht herself. There was a deep sigh before his eyes turned back to the room.

“I think we’re facing the Promise’s Choice.”

That made Alex’s eyes narrow. “You think we’re gonna make the wrong decision?”

The man gave a small nod with a shrug of his shoulders. “The Promise’s Choice. Alda, goddess of the Crossroads, would sometimes lay out a special decision in front of mortals to help put their lives into perspective. However, the decision always came with a curse- the mortals in question would regret their choice and wish they picked the other option. No matter which option they picked, no matter how much thought and effort went behind the decision, it was always going to be the wrong choice.”

He stood from the chair and walked behind it, resting his hands on the backrest. “Not to say that the chosen option was always bad. Just not as ideal as the other. Take into account the situation we find ourselves in.”

The same woman that side-eyed Claire narrowed her gaze- green eyes peeking underneath a few strands of black hair that shook loose from her tight bun. “Either we help Eris, or we wait for Eris to help herself. What’s your point, Peace?”

Ah, right. Claire only remembered it now because of the man’s somewhat ironic name. Warren Peace. War and Peace. He straightened his face.

“We’re operating under the assumption that Eris, Bailey and Leyla have the situation under control, given that no extreme developments have occurred. We can also safely assume that Eris is doing everything in her power to bypass the enchantments of the Obelisk. Doing something like that, however, is most definitely not something that can easily be done. It would require planning and careful execution.”

He held up one hand. “For example, if Eris is devising a way for exactly three people to escape whatever prison realm they’re supposedly trapped in, then sending these five girls in to help her would only make the situation worse. Instead of three people being stuck with a way for three people to get out, now eight people are stuck, and Eris has to come up with a new solution that may not even be possible. For all we know, the extent of her materials may only allow for three people to escape.”

He held up his other hand. “However, the sudden presence of these five being designated as ‘Wonders of Artifice’, could very well be a part of Eris’s attempts to escape. It may be a way for her to try and make contact with us, with the belief that we would come to this exact conclusion. That we would use the connection to send them in after her and therefore aid in some elaborate plan we don’t understand. Unfortunately, we don’t have a way of knowing which version is the reality of the situation. Whether this is a message from her in an attempt to get our help, or even a piece of her own plan that she’s hoping we stay out of, we only have our two options.”

Both of Professor Peace’s hands came to rest on the chair once more.

“Either we charge in recklessly and discover that it’s a plan only hindered by our actions, or do nothing and learn that she was seeking our help all along. I fear that we’re trapped in a situation where we’re forced to choose an option we know is going to be the wrong one.”

“Or,” that same woman- black hair in a tight bun and green eyes the shade of venom- spoke up. “You could stop being all ‘Doom-and-Gloom’ about this and we can stick our heads together to figure out what the right course of action actually is. That’s what we’re all here for, after all.”

Professor Konderlacht nodded. “Major Resoto is right. If we are to go forward, it should be with the presumption that we aren’t in a lose-lose situation and can therefore make a correct decision via educated hypothesis.”

Sector Tol’s Dean- one with both sides of his head shaved oddly close to the skull so that the middle part draped down like a blonde mixture between a mullet and a mohawk- remained stiff in a ‘casually-formal’ military stance while he chimed in. “What are the educated hypothesis- hypotheses?... Err, what is the information we’re going off of, Ma’am?”

Konderlacht turned a glance over to Professor Kull, who was leaning over the side of his desk, having made way for the superintendent to take his seat. The Dean of Sector Saez let out a short sigh.

“Disappointingly little, I’m afraid. The only thing we can gauge with relative certainty is that Miss Kadell has levelled up at least once, and has gotten a new skill that lets her give other people a skill to boost their level progression while also sharing in their sin collection. Because she managed to apply it to these five girls-” The Dean motioned in the direction of the five newly-enrolled students scattered in various locations through the room.

“That confirms that Kadell is not only still alive, but presumably in a relatively safe condition or environment where she is able to further her crafting and get to this level. However, we don’t know the intent behind these five being designated as ‘Wonders’. It could be that Kadell is using them for part of her own plan, is trying to communicate and ask for assistance on our end, is attempting to inform us that she is alright, or it may even be as simple as testing out a new skill she received. Unfortunately, my main belief is that we would most likely be better off waiting and avoiding to take any actions that could threaten Miss Kadell’s own plans to escape.”

Claire wasn’t sure why, but she found her voice surging forward.

“You don’t want to help her?”

All eyes turned to the Evoker, who suddenly felt a little bit like she had a frog in her throat. The room was already pretty small- cram in a dozen people and Claire was sweating despite the temperature being rather comfortable. A small, dainty hand slyly easing into hers set her heart rate back into pace. Claire glanced down to Meg beside her- who continued to look forward as if nothing was amiss. Unfortunately, that didn’t completely ease her fears- just moved them into different places.

After all, the butterflies in her stomach didn’t seem to know how to fly properly. They were there, yeah, but they just kinda… sat there. Their wings weren’t fluttering in the way Claire would have expected. If they were floating about and bumping into each other, it would have at least meant that Claire knew how she felt. Having the hots for her roommate would have been so much simpler if Claire were head-over-heels.

What was it supposed to mean if the roommate she’d been fantasizing about finally spent a night in her bed, but the ground didn’t move?

What was it supposed to mean if the reason she’d even suggested hooking up with other people turned out to be completely right?

Thankfully, Claire was pulled away from her internal struggles by a loud sigh passing Professor Kull’s lips.

“I do wish to aid her, but my hesitancy is because a new theory has recently been brought to my attention. Some of our researchers are beginning to believe that the Obelisk is using Miss Kadell’s energy to… ‘repair’ itself. If that is the case, and Miss Kadell’s presence is making the Obelisk more powerful, that would include each of its enchantments- including the very one designating prison realms as one-way and is presumably preventing her from getting back. If we are to believe this, then having these five girls all now connected to Miss Kadell and containing her energy suddenly go into the Obelisk in a rescue attempt, it might just make that enchantment even harder to bypass than it already was.”

The man’s blue eyes looked sad as he lifted his hands from the desk and returned to a semi-formal position with his hands behind his back.

“And that’s operating under the assumption that the connection alone would even allow them to enter the Obelisk in the first place. Not to mention whether it would be enough to bring them straight to Miss Kadell, or if they would end up in a normal hostile environment of the Obelisk like before. Worst case scenario, they could simply end up in a different prison realm, and then we have yet another problem on our hands.”

The room was quiet for a moment. Claire could practically hear Jaxie’s blood pressure rising- wanting to argue and say something to try and convince them to dive right into the Obelisk to save Eris. Unfortunately, it seemed that even the Berserker couldn’t quite find a chink in the armour of Professor Kull’s reasoning.

A less-than-cautious healer didn’t need to find a chink. She just hit it head on.

“Well, I still think it’s worth a shot. If we can’t even get into the Obelisk in the first place, then we don’t need to worry about it. If we can, and it’s just a normal Obelisk run, then again- we don’t need to worry about Eris since we can’t help her anyway.”

Meg released Claire’s hand and stepped forward.

“If we can enter the Obelisk, and we end up in a different prison realm, then yeah- that’s a bummer, but it still isn’t that bad. Eris would get out on her own anyway, and then she can probably use these magical womb tattoos she gave us to find wherever we end up and come get us. Meanwhile, we’d be somewhere we can probably get some crazy progression from being her ‘Wonders’ and having crazy levelling boosts. Even in that worst-case scenario, there’s a chance we’d come out of it at like… level ten.”

The redhead shrugged. Although she wasn’t wearing her signature casual wear of pajamas and flip-flops; jeans and a t-shirt were still much different than the uniform-clad Deans. Claire was also second-guessing her own choice of her normal red shorts.

“And then if we do enter the Obelisk, and we manage to end up wherever Eris is…” Meg gave a little dramatic twirl, then stepped back into the position she had been before- beside the tall Evoker. “Bada-bing, bada-boom, we’ve got a winner. We can help Eris out, catch up on all the weird shit that’s happened, maybe fuck a little bit since that’s kinda her deal, then magic our way out. No problem.”

Claire blinked, watching Professor Maidess do the exact same thing just on her other side. The well-tanned woman had a bump of extra-curly brown hair sticking from the top of her head that looked like a cat ready to pounce if Claire squinted at it, and an expression of exhausted amusement painted across her eyebrows.

“Being unreasonably optimistic tends to have a way of making bad situations sound far, far more accessible…”

Meg grinned. “Thanks. That’s what I was going for.”

From a few people away, Nima frowned. “It still doesn’t address the potential issue of our arrival in her predicament ruining an established plan, as Professor Peace theorized. If Eris requires a very strict alignment of circumstances, five new people showing up would quite clearly make things worse.”

“Yeah, well his theory also said that Eris could be desperately needing our help right now, and relying on us coming to save her.” Meg rebutted. “Me personally, I think the odds are better if we take action instead of waiting around.”

The older Dean chimed back in solemnly. “That’s if we aren’t cursed to pick the wrong decision…”

“Captain Peace, pull yourself together!” Professor Konderlacht nearly spat out the words. “Just because we’re facing a difficult choice doesn’t mean it’s a cursed one. There is an educated decision to be made, and we will make the right one. We will simply talk this through and then-”

Claire’s attention to the superintendent’s words were brushed away by a sudden, powerful urge to blink and rub her eyes that went unfocused faster than she could even comprehend it. Prying them back open, she could see everyone else in the room was doing the same, at least a single moment before Professor Maidess had shoved Claire backwards and out of the way while stepping where the Evoker had been a moment before.

The straight-faced Dean already had a small blade held in her grip, interposing herself in a defensive position between Claire and the center of the room where something was now present that hadn’t been there a single second previously. Fortunately, Claire was tall enough to see over Professor Maidess’s poof of curly brown hair. A quick glance proved that the same had happened with every single other member of Claire’s party- each of the five girls had been shoved backwards by whatever Dean was closest, all of them acting faster than the students could comprehend in reaction to a sudden, immediate threat appearing from nowhere. Much like Professor Maidess, Professor Konderlacht even whipped free a weapon from somewhere hidden in her uniform- though hers was a simple-looking wand of pale wood now pointed directly at the new person in the room.

However, the moment that followed was silence thick enough to scoop up with a spoon- broken only by a choked gasp from both Jaxie and Alex. Claire herself could only blink in shock. After all, the very person everyone in this room had been talking about trying to save, was now standing in the dead center of the room.

Furthermore, Eris was completely naked.