Part 4
The screams of terror that emanated from the staff room lasted for nearly half an hour, the staff too terrified to open the door and see what awaited them inside. They reasoned it was between the Goddess and her Priestess, and would rather wait for it to subside.
“What do you think is going on in there?” Taenya whispered to Demeter.
“All I hear is the wrath of an angry Goddess, Taenya. Neptis has apparently greatly displeased her.” Demeter whispered back. A sickening crunch came from inside the room, and the screams intensified.
“I think I’m going to be sick.” Joznal Windhammer, the Head of Air Magic said, holding his hand over his mouth.
A few minutes later, the screams stopped, and footsteps could be heard. Then, the door slowly clicked open and a broken Neptis, healed but her clothes drenched in blood and in tatters, appeared at the threshold.
“My Lady will see you now.” she said, her voice monotone as she stared straight down. Her hands were shaking and legs were trembling.
As the rest of the faculty nervously filed back in, they saw the room was completely drenched in blood and viscera, like a great battle had taken place within. Vordea was sitting in the Headmaster’s chair, feet up on the table, looking extremely pleased with herself. As they seated themselves, Neptis closed the door and collapsed onto the ground, motionless.
“Is she?” Demeter asked nervously.
“Dead? Not quite. I admit I was a bit rough with her, but she swore oaths to me, she knew the price of breaking them.” Vordea replied, exhaling black smoke from her mouth. Looking around at the frightened mages seated at the table, she sighed. “None of you are in any danger from me, as long as you assist me.”
“Assist you with what, Lady Vordea?” Taenya asked.
“I am hunting a dragon named Shadry the Oath-breaker.” Vordea responded. “Xilro, you’ve heard of him I assume?”
“Finally go too far?” Xilro asked in return.
“The less that know his crime the better, Xilro. But he has cleverly hidden himself. He’s on Luna.” Vordea said as she pointed straight up. “I need dozens of displacement experts to teleport me up to Luna.”
“Dozens?” the Head of Displacement Magic, Furman Miller, asked.
“Furman, try to move me across the room.” Vordea challenged him.
Furman nodded and concentrated. The teleportation circle appeared around Vordea, but despite trying for several minutes, he could not even get her to budge. He strained until he collapsed in exhaustion.
“What?” is all he managed to ask.
“First, Neptis, lock the door.” Vordea said as she took her feet off the table. Neptis’s arm slowly rose from her still body and clicked the door lock, then fell back down lifelessly. Vordea then clapped her hands and the entire room shimmered as the windows completely blacked out.
“What’s happening?” Demeter asked, looking around.
“I’ve pulled us into a little pocket dimension, if you will. It’s going to take some time to explain to Furman the concept behind why he’s unable to move me even across a room. Alright little ones, get out your recording devices, chalk and blackboards, and parchment, because this is some juicy information you’ll never hear again.”
While from the outside, it appeared the room was only locked for a few seconds, inside, the meeting went on for days. Vordea explained increasingly arcane concepts, having to stop to answer questions constantly. Demonstrations, mathematical equations on chalkboards, almost everything you can imagine in an academic setting took place within. The mages slowly grew less fearful of Vordea, realizing that while she was capable of immense cruelty, she was very understanding and fair to those who did not wrong her. The results of this meeting spawned entirely new branches of science at The University, multiple theses, and even a secret society.
Years onward from the meeting, some have sworn they’ve spotted Vordea at the university doing something or other, but nothing has ever been confirmed. Successive Headmasters say whatever the Gods choose to do is not up to them, and Lord Xilro remains as tight lipped as ever.