Intermission 1: Karrin

'crap crap crap' Karrin thought as she sprinted for the meeting point in front of justicar HQ. She had stayed out too long celebrating with a couple of her friends because she had gotten the assignment she was gunning for, and slept through her alarms, thankfully her roommate realized she was still in bed and shook her awake, setting her to sprint through her morning routine then out the door to try not to make a bad impression on Dean. She had never met him, he was a senior Justicar that never seemed to be in the headquarters, but had requested her specifically for this new assignment, the order was murky on details past that point. She got the the meeting point exactly as the clock struck 8am, and shoved the last bite of her bagel into her mouth. As she chewed she realized there was someone else here, another senior Justicar by the name of Sandra Cullis. "Senior Justicar Cullis, nice to meet you. I'm Karrin Tillo" she said formally. "Are we going to be working together with Dean?"

Sandra gave her a once over before reaching out to return her handshake.

"Please, I'm not in charge of this one, so Sandra is fine. And yes, I suppose so, though He didn't exactly heap on the details."

Before Karrin could respond she saw another figure strolling up to them, this time wearing the robes of a guild council member, and as he reached them he set off a cantrip to keep their conversation private.

"Good morning justicars Cullis and Tillo. I am councilman Theo Derillio, although since you will be spending much of the following month in my home, I believe I'm going to insist on being called Theo. Before I explain why you were assigned to probably the vaguest job in the history of short notice job assignments, I would like to make one thing clear, are you with me so far?" He paused, only continuing once Sandra and Karrin vocalized their agreement. "Good. Now, first and foremost, remember that you are of course in my home. So anything you see or hear outside the scope of your duties is to be held in the strictest of confidences. People come to me for private conversations, and I expect them to stay that way. Now, you have been picked for this assignment by the third member of your group, Dean Umbergrove, who will meet us at our pickup point."

"Pickup point for what?" Sandra asked when he paused to take a breath.

"Your group is going to be spending several years accompanying a new student at the college, who will be staying at my home for the next month until school starts. And while neither your group nor he is in 'charge' of the other, you are the ones with the authority, and he is NOT to be unaccompanied by at least one of you, AT ALL TIMES. Are we clear?"

The strictness of his words him them like a hammer, and they both straightened up and nodded hard.

"Yes sir, councilman!" They both responded.

"Good. Now, Dean sent each of you a note, so here you go," he held a envelope out to each of them then turned to lead them to a close by room."we have a mirror set up in here, so read those and let's go, were running a bit behind this morning." With a glance over at Sandra, who gave her a confused shrug back, Karrin opened her letter and read it as she followed Theo.

"Karrin Tillo.

35, specializes in flora and fauna magics, slightly above average scores on entrance exams, exemplary scores on intelligence and critical thinking tests, generally positive and outgoing attitude. As of the time I write this letter, that's all I know about you as a person, and I hope you are what I need. Theo I'm sure has already rail about the importance of keeping an eye on our new charge and making sure he doesn't get up to anything and nothing happens to him, but to be honest, I don't need you for that, and if that was all that mattered then I would have packed this team with senior justicars and been done with it. That's not what I need from you though. The young man we are overseeing , his name is Logan. I have known him his whole life, all of it right here at his home, which for reasons that will be obvious by days end precluded him from establishing a healthy, normal social circle. Hes incredible natural talent won't help him much as we tear him from everything and everyone he has ever known, only to thrust him into another environment that, once it finds out his truth, is much more likely to spurn him than welcome him with open arms. Let me and Sandra manage the brunt of the authority, and just focus on being there for him, as a person, as a friend, whatever or however you decide to, just be there in case he needs someone that isn't a authority figure. And hopefully, we can get through all this without marring the bright young mind we have been entrusted with.

--Dean Umbergrove"

When Karrin looked up she realized they had arrived at a mirror, and Theo had tapped out a pattern on the mirror, not the normal 5 tap sequence, but a total of nine, the latter four being a locking sequence to connect to a specific, high security mirror. The mirror glimmered and cleared to what looked like the same office they were in, except that copy had someone sitting at the desk. They stepped through and the figure rose from the desk, greeting them over the sound of several pairs of people dueling outside.

"Ahh councilman! We weren't expecting you for another hour!" He came around the desk as proffered his hand in greeting. "Guardsman Frank, welcome to the Black-Fillimak estate." He said, as he shook everyone's hands. "Everyone's outside watching the show, come on out." He smiled and led them out of the office and then across the just barely larger main room of the building to the front door, and as they exited they saw a group of guardsman and another figure wearing the half cape of the justicars watching a pair of figures that seemed like they were attempting to kill each other, as both wielded bladed swords but neither had any kind of armor on. Karrin watched as something dawned on Sandra's face and the guardsman started to make way for them to walk by.

"Wait, when you said Black-Filimak estate you didn't mean..." She started, but then the two figures disengaged and turned towards them, and Karrin got a good look at them for the first time. They were obviously father and son, and while the father had that calm knowledgeable look, combined with his salt and pepper hair told her he was at least several hundred years old, the son was pressing all her buttons. About half a foot taller than her, his lack of a shirt revealed his tight and well defined muscles and abs, along with his black hair and piercing blue eyes, he was... Well, damn, he was hot!

"Might I introduce," Frank started with a smile, "the 6 time back-to-back elderis tournament champion and Crawford's newest mage college student, Jason Elpis Natus Exumbra, and his father, Richard Feron Black, more commonly known as "The Darkblade"

Karrins shock wasn't so great that she missed Sandra muttering under her breath.

"Oh fuck..."