Forum Thread

Running through the Chaos, Pledge kept casting circles after circles, but no sight of her dragon. This was all new to her and she had no idea what to do! Maybe Mystember was caught somewhere and injured, unable to fly to her. Drawing another circle she tried to hear out the calls of her dragon and just managed to pick up the cries, running in the general direction of the calls, avoiding these- unknown intruders.

---

Nemiru watched as one of the intruders drew a circle in the air, and immediately he dropped to the ground. The young witch quickly tried to scramble away but was grabbed by the wrist. "I suggest you don't try and run if you want to keep your legs attatched to your body."

Nemiru felt a chill run down his spine at the threat, like somebody had dumped a bucket of ice on his head. He lurched after the two strangers as they pulled him through the halls, finally kicking open the door to the theater room. Inside, Nemiru caught sight of several students and a few teachers. While most seemed fine, the young witch could tell that somehow a few of those in the room had been frozen by this unusual magic. Barcus, Jerbo, and Viney being some of the few. Quickly trying to swallow down the fear rising in his throat, he turned around to find the doors had closed. A few intruders were posted around the room, standing guard.

Gripping his arms tight, Nemiru pushed his way over to Barcus and the other frozen victims. He couldn't quite tell what was wrong with them. Even if he had his lyre on him, the witch doubted it would be a good idea to try and fight the intruders. They could easily overpower him, and he would likely end up frozen as well. Biting his lip, Nemiru sat down next to the still form of his friend. This was really bad.

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In the corner a intruder was holding a cage , lifting the blanket on it for a few seconds, before drooping it back down, followed by scuttling and dragon noises

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Nemiru's ear shifted as he heard the strange scuttling sounds, slowly turning to look at the intruder. Narrowing his eyes he slowly pushed himself back up on his feet. Keeping his hand down, he slowly drew a circle in the air. Without his lyre he was unable to perform bard magic, but he had been practicing construction magic.

It started slowly at first, the wall behind the intruder begenning to jut out as his hands touched the floor. Then in a split second, the intruded was on the ground, rubbing an aching head. Nemiru scrambled foward, grabbing the cage and quickly running to hide in the crowd. He flung the door to the cage open, spotting the dragon from the cafeteria. He pulled the creature out, letting it hide itself in the mass of students before he felt himself get pulled back, the familiar feeling of being frozen washing over him. He scowled the best he could as one of the strangers glared at him, golden eyes staring straight into his own.

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Pledge snuck into a room, the sound of her dragon getting closer until a loud noise startled her. She must be close now.

Mystember looked up at Nemiru, confused

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Nemiru looked somewhat panicked towards the dragon. What was it still doing here? It should be trying to get out of here, or trying to find Pledge. He slowly plastered a small smile on his face to try and convince the dragon that he was okay. To try and tell it that it needed to leave. 'Go.' He tried to mouth, without letting the intruder in front of him see what he was doing.

Nemiru hadn't noticed that they had even been talking to him until another intruder began to speak to the one in front of him, cutting them off.

"Almost all of the students have been rounded up into the determined areas. Only a few still remain scattered in the halls."

"Few troubles here." The one in front of him spoke, clearly giving a look of disdain in his direction. "A couple of mischievous souls but I'm sure they'll fit in just fine."

At those words, Nemiru probably would've cocked his head in confusion, but due to his struggle to move even the slightest inch, the only movement was the furrowing of his brow. Maybe he should've been listening to the stranger earlier.

---

Pledge drew a spell circle in the air, hoping for her dragon to come.

Mystember suddenly seemed alert, sensing something. It suddenly flew off, running into intruders and avoiding those trying to catch him

---

Nemiru grinned as he watched the dragon begin to cause chaos before slipping away. The intruders seemed to he getting a little more antsy as time drew on, more leaving the room and coming back with any remaining students. It was likely they were expecting help to come to Hexside at any moment. Slowly, the strangers began to return even later, giving the young with both hope and fear.

On one hand it was possible that students were becoming harder to find, or that help was coming and soon the intruders would be chased off.

On the other hand, it could mean that very few students were left, and soon they would begin whatever they had planned. For surely this was all part of some great scheme. It was too well executed to be anything but.

Nemiru's eyes darted towards the stage as he spotted movement, watching as one of the intruders stood up straight with a great air of authority. "We will begin now. Any latecomers will simply be unfortunate enough to miss the wonderful explanation we have prepared for you all."

The witch could hear soft murmuring fill the room as students tried to figure out what the figure meant. Nemiru had to admit he was also rather curious.

"We have come to Hexside with a proposition for you all. One I believe is rather simple. Join the Time Coven, or forfeit your life."

Gasps filled the room from both students and teachers alike, and Nemiru felt his eyes widened. Time Coven? How had he not heard of any coven before? Looking down at the ground, gears started to click into place. He wasn't frozen in the air, more of the time around him was slowed down. Now that he thought about it, he was slowly getting closer to the ground. But he was able to see things in real time, right? Unless he wasn't... or maybe the air around him was slowed in time to keep him suspended there?

It also made sense as to why his lyre would cease to make any sound. Freeze the strings in time and no noise could be made, meaning no magic would be cast. Nemiru was shaken from his thoughts as a hand grabbed his wrist, and immediately the young bard felt he could move freely again, at least if it weren't for the firm hand grabbing him. A new kind of magic he had never heard before, it felt almost like a dream. And here he had the chance to learn more about it, he could join the coven and practice magic unheard of. Even though his method of discovering this coven was certainly unsavory, he had to admit the offer seemed tempting.

---

Pledge was expecting a small dragon flying to her. not a Griffin crashing through the roof. How exactly did she do this? How did it respond to her magic? It stared at Pledge in confusion before sitting down.

Mystember flew over to Pledge, looking terrified. "What's wrong buddy?" Pledge asked, stroking his scales. The little dragon pointed the way he came, gesturing for Pledge to follow

---

Nemiru blinked once more looking up at the Time Coven member who had a hold of him. He felt a little flushed, realizing his air headedness might have gotten ahold of him again.

Surely they were expecting him to answer either yes or no. To join their coven or die. Nemiru would have loved to join, but his parents would surely disprove of this course of action, joking a coven that acts like a bunch of criminals. Besides, he could barely even settle on the bard track, how was he supposed to be happy with any decision offered to him at this point!

Biting his lip, Nemiru tried to think of a way out. Maybe joining this coven wouldn't be totally awful. He could deal with only using some long forgotten magic for the rest of his life, right? Besides, if he didn't his life wouldn't last much longer. He clenched his fist tight. Frick.

---

Mystember lead Pledge and the Griffin (who for no reason followed them) to where everyone else was. The little dragon was too scared to open the door and stood on his owner's shoulder in fear.

Pledge slowly opened the door, trying to keep the griffin from going out of control. Seeing how her last class went, she had no confidence in training that thing. Drawing a circle to enhance her hearing, she decided to listen from afar.

---

Nemiru kept mulling over his choices as the strange coven member seemed to grow a little more frantic. What the young witch was currently more concerned about was the fact he was even considering joing, almost forgetting the death threat looming over his head. The one on the stage began to continue their speech as students were being corralled into a corner, though Nemiru and all the others that had been frozen were being held down in the middle of the room still.

"We were once one of the main covens, but the others began to fear the power we held. We were exiled and hunted down, but still we survive. The time coven is capable of manipulating every second of your day, and our time has come to overthrow Emperor Belos' reign."

Nemiru actually jolted at those words. Overthrow Belos? Messing with the fingers of his hand not held firmly in place, Nemiru held his breath. He would have to accept, no matter how upset it would make his family. He wasn't quite sure he was ready for his life to end just yet. He would miss bard magic though. And his small construction magic he would occasionally practice.

---

Pledge listened from her spot. used to be one of the main covens huh? But overthrow Belos? That was bad. Much bad. Very. How have they not noticed her? Pledge was determined to stop these students from joining, but she wasn't confident enough to cast spells incase she was well- punished.

The Griffin was laying down, half confused as Pledge was

---

With the speech nearly finished, the time coven intruders began to prepare to apply the coven seal on any student not quite willing to die yet. Nemiru nervously shook in place. This was it, all this time he had been panicking over which coven he really wanted to join for nothing. He wouldn't really get the choice anyway now.

Just then a small rumble echoed throughout the building, disrupting dust and knocking over items that had been precariously balanced. Was there a fight going on somewhere? Had the Beastkeeping track animals gotten out and were running amok? Regardless of what was happening, many students used the brief moment of distraction to cast spells, and the room broke into chaos.

Nemiru himself drew a circle, throwing himself backwards along with the one holding him. As his palm touched the ground, the floor rose up to wrap itself around his captor. Time seemed to slow down and the young witch cursed. Time magic, that was right.

---

Pledge saw the chance and cast a spell circle, letting the Griffin go berserk. It flew around, squawking and pulling on the hair of the intruders. the young witch remained in her spot, casting another circle to send off her little dragon to breathe small bursts of fire and be annoying.

---

Nemiru hit the ground with a small grunt once his personal time had returned to normal. The one he had been attacking was picked up by the griffon and was now dangling in the air. His lyre was still laying discarded somewhere in the school, meaning he would be unable to use any bard magic, and he wasn't quite sure if he wanted to use more construction magic.

Sweeping one of the coven members off their feet, he ignored the chaos in the room, focusing entirely on his survival. The area rumbled once more, pieces of the wall slowly starting to break apart and fall to the ground. He watched as a few construction and plant track students worked to keep everything together. Nemiru found himself pulled off of the intruder he was attacking and in a split second his face exploded in pain, a strange metallic taste entering his mouth. The witch's nose was likely broken.

It was going to be difficult, facing off an enemy that could manipulate time while he was restricting his own use of magic. Time seemed to slow down again and in one blink of the eye he found himself choking for air as an arm was wrapped firmly around his neck. A potion flew his way, and Nemiru was alerted to its presence by Barcus.

Grabbing the potion, he uncorked the lid, splashing it up in the face of his attacker as they fell to the ground screaming. He wasn't sure what it did, but he certainly wasn't going to question it. A flash of white appeared in the corner of his eye, and Nemiru turned to find a small troop of Emperor Coven guards were facing of with the intruders. His eyes were wide as he watched the fight, and he barely even noticed the piece of the wall flying towards him until Jerbo pulled him back by the shoulder. It still managed to hit him in the head, but the damage wouldn't be as bad as it could have been.

---

Pledge watched Mystember scorching the clothes of the intruder. Emira and Edric were in the distance, casting illusions and confusing the intruders. Pledge remained in her hiding spot, trying to figure out what she can do when the Griffin returned to her for no reason, throwing a intruder into the wall

---

Slowly but surely more guards of the Emperor's Coven filtered in, their silver bird masks beginning to outnumber the Time Coven members. Nemiru leaned against Jerbo as the student slowly let him down, before the other former detention track kids joined him on the floor. It was actually starting to calm down pretty quickly, though most students had begun to slow down and overused their magic.

Nemiru pressed a hand to his nose to try and stop the blood for a little bit, but quickly found his hand covered in red. With a sigh, he shut his eyes, waiting for the sounds of combat to end. Finally things grew quieter, and it was safe to assume that the intruders had either fled or been apprehended.

---

Pledge stroked the Griffin, asking if she could ride it. The griffin nodded, picking up Pledge and taking off into the sky again.

"Anyone need healing?" Pledge asked, dangling from a griffin

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A hand plopped itself down on his shoulder, making Nemiru jump and quickly look up, slightly wincing as his vision spun. The silver mask of an Emperor Coven guard stared back at him.

"Nemiru, are you alright?"

The young witch shrugged. "Mostly. Could've been worse for sure. I got lucky..."

Nemiru almost reached out for a hig but hesitated, seeing the blood all over his hand and face. He didn't want to ruin his dad's cloak. He watched as his dad stood up, the white cape hanging over his form as he held up a hand to flag down the student on the griffon. Nemiru gave a small smile to his dad before he left.

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