A family send-off and a path to the dock

"Pythia, dearest, you're late for your lesson, and Alexander needs to go."

Your mother makes great shooing gestures with her arms from across the room. Your sister's dress ripples with an uncanny wind.

Pythia rolls her eyes at Mother and gives you a kiss on the cheek. "I'd love to keep you another year, Lex, but duty calls. They say I might start second term. Don't make any enemies before I get there."

"Pythia? You've already been enough trouble to your brother. Come along."

"Coming, Mother," she says, giving you a wink.

You shrug on the band of your traveling bag across your shoulder. It was your da's when he went to Boarbristle. Not your grandfather's, there's some story about what happened to that one, but at least there's some family luck in it, you hope. It feels good, steady. Bigger on the inside than the out. Pythia hid inside it once, and nobody guessed where she was.

Your father's waiting outside. "Buck up, Lex, you have nothing to worry about," he says. "You'll have a year of preparation on those first-years. They'll never see you coming. Mistress Hawk was quite complimentary about your interview, especially your practicals."

"Yes, Father," you say.

You had been accepted to the Boarbristle Academy a year ago, but circumstances had prevented you from starting on time. Fiammetta Hawk, the Tutor of Minerval, conducted an interview and practical examination to assure that you were still ready to begin. Pythia was expected to start a year after you, but here you were starting when she was supposed to, and perhaps she'd be following a half-year later.

"Deep breath, grab hold," your father says.

He raises a grand black umbrella with a gilded tip. You feel butterflies in your stomach. You close your fingers around the grip above your father's hand.

"Such beautiful flying weather," he says. "Aloft!"

The umbrella unfurls with a snap of fabric pulling taut, and up you go, with twice the butterflies now.

Your father disdains flying brooms. Your mother made sure that you and Pythia can fly them, and one of your mother's old flying brooms is tucked inside the bigger-inside-than-out case. A good quarter of your traveling case is your mother's assortment of "just in case!" items.

"Glorious!" your father exclaims.

The view from the flight is expansive and grand, you would agree. The umbrella's lift supports you, so you're not holding your entire weight by one hand, but soaring to giddy heights with nothing underneath wasn't the purest glory you could imagine.

The air grows thin and chill as the umbrella reaches the top of its arching flight and starts descending. You alight on the top of a grassy hill with tufts of scratchy purple heather and thorny yellow gorse sprinkled about. A faint path leads down the hill toward a sparkling, dark blue lake, where a boat awaits at a dock.

Your father folds the umbrella and claps you on the shoulders. "This is it, Lex, here you are. Onward!" He points down the hill. You accept a brief, stiff hug and walk down the trail toward the boat.

As you arrive at the dock, a young woman in white-trimmed black robes startles at your appearance. She's tall and slim with a yard-long head of silky black hair rippling in the cool wind off the lake. On her shoulder, she has a silver pin in the design of Minerval's emblem, the gorgon-headed Aegis.

"Welcome, firstie," she says. "Oh, I know you. Mister Halladay." Her tone of voice steadies, a touch less slapdash. "I'm Prefect Clawson. Pipistrelle Clawson. Hawk told me to keep an eye out."

There's a little fluttering in the breast of her robe. "Shh, Fledermaus, sleep," she whispers, her fingers inside her robe, stroking something unseen. "Shh." The fluttering settles down. "I advise you not to get a bat as a familiar," she tells you. "But I love him and I can't part with him now."

"Where's everyone else?" you ask. "Am I the only one on the boat?"

She laughs. "No, no, you're just early," she says. "Ferry won't be sailing for another hour. Perfect time to sit and make daisy chains, or however you like to amuse yourself."

Alexander has some time to use, or to wait.

Some possible options:

• Chat up Prefect Clawson. You may ENCOUNTER her and ask her for news about Boarbristle or see if she might grant a FAVOR to avoid getting hazed. As a member of your House, roll +CUNNING(+2) to ENCOUNTER her. On a 10+, you are sufficiently charming that she'll give you a +1 on your next Move. Your next Move might be dealing with the Chilly Tarn, or asking her for a FAVOR which you can use sooner (avoid the hazing) or later (help with something at Boarbristle or in Minerval).
• Use the time to prepare. Take a CUSTOM MOVE on Cunning to finesse against the hazing by magical preparation; on Diligence to recover quickly. In each case, a success on the custom move will allow you to take +1 or +2 forward as a bonus to the challenge.
• Let the others arrive and cast BLENDING. You could do this after either of the first two choices. On a 7-9, take a +1 Forward to talk your way out of it (Ambition) or to sneak out of it (Cunning, and perhaps a flying broom). On a 10+, anyone enforcing the hazing will simply ignore you. (The Prefect won't forget meeting you, but she'd stop paying attention to you).
• Describe the other students who arrive at the ferry, and whatever seems interesting about them. Maybe you know them, or they recognize you or your family name? You can listen in on their conversation, and BLENDING might cause them to let down their guard and reveal something interesting. You may ENCOUNTER one if you want something specific from them. In this case it's +Ambition (+1) for Draconis, +Bravery(-1) for Leontes, +Cunning(+2) for another Minerval, or +Diligence(+1) for a scholar from House Beavertail.