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Faith is early to her first class and discovers some unusual classmates.

26th of Cylus 717

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Faith Augustin Champion
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[Scalvoris Town: Viden Academy] Wrong time, wrong place

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26th Cylus, 717
For as long as she could remember, she had wanted to learn. When it had been an impossibility, she had pushed it away but she had always had dreams of it. Then, on the first trial that she was allowed out of Jamal's shop, as luck and fate and coincidence would have it, she met Malcolm, who was a Professor at Rynmere University. She had spoken to him about it, about the place and the learning and she had felt the familiar drive to learn.

Standing, clutching her books to her chest, Faith felt the snow crunching under her feet and saw her breath mist as she stood in the Cylus cold. She wasn't cold, thanks to the blessing of Famula, but as she stood and remembered Faith smiled a slight and ironic smile. Of course, she knew that coveting a place at the University was something she was not allowed to do and so she had told Jamal. He had responded how she knew he would but at the time she considered that right and appropriate. Largely, she still did. The final stage of her punishment had been to go to the university and speak to students, to learn about what they did and irony piled upon itself as that was where she met Tristan Venora who bought her that very day.

If there was one thing that Tristan couldn't abide, it was the idea of owning a stupid slave, he had told her. However, she wasn't allowed to attend the University and so he had hired her a tutor. The rest was history, of course, but the simple fact was that the series of events which led to her being able to attend this trial had come about because Jamal had punished her for wanting to. She breathed in as she looked at the building and she felt nerves flutter in her stomach. The people here had been educated properly, knew a lot of things and had done a lot of studying. She had taken an entrance exam and had been awarded her letter and certificate in Medicine.

In truth, though, Faith doubted that she could do this. Padraig didn't, she knew. Not for a moment did he doubt her any more than she did him. Stowing her books into the bag on her shoulder, Faith looked down at her hands and was unsurprised to discover that they were shaking slightly. Well, this was no good she determined and so she stepped forward. No one jumped out and stopped her as she stepped into the Academy building and the young woman let out a sigh. She was early, she knew, but it was better to be such as far as she was concerned.
Last edited by Faith Augustin Champion on Mon Mar 06, 2017 9:51 am, edited 1 time in total. word count: 463
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Faith Augustin Champion
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[Scalvoris Town: Viden Academy] Wrong time, wrong place

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"You can't go in there! Mustn't be here! No no no!! Not your place, it isn't right, not your place!"
The voice of the woman was high pitched and Faith turned to look in surprise at where it had come from. She sighed as she saw the spirit spinning around and screeching. There were a lot of them here, moving around the place. Faith saw them and, sometimes, they saw her. When they did, when they were lucid enough, she could help them.

This one, a woman in her thirties who looked like she might be a professor, dressed in good clothes and with glasses on her nose. Faith could see the slight transparency of her, but other than that she didn't look injured (some of them did) although she was pale and thin yet that, in itself, seemed to be part of her ~ her clothes fitted, for example. Noticing the details Faith raised an eyebrow.
"You can see me? You can hear me! Oh! Oh that's good! You can't go in there, you mustn't."
Faith sighed, slightly. This was great, just great. Her first trial at the University and she was going to stand in the reception hall, apparently talking to herself. She immediately, however, berated herself for that thought and pushed it aside. This power was given to her by Famula and it was her sacred duty to help these spirits.
"In Famula's service, yes, I can see you. I have to, I have a lesson in there in a break." Faith explained, gesturing to the room the spirit was also trying to point out. With her usual quiet tone, she questioned the spirit further. "What's the problem?"

It was, indeed, in Famula's name that she did this and so Faith made a silent dedication to the Immortal that she might serve her wishes well, carrying out her work.
"It's cold in there. I get cold in there," the spirit explained and Faith frowned.
"It's Cylus?" She knew it was stupid as soon as the words were out of her mouth and the spirit seemed to agree. Letting out a high pitched scream which caused Faith to wince slightly, the spirit was gone.

Of course, no one other than her had heard the screech. The blond-haired receptionist had noticed the new student, though, talking as if to herself and was watching with interest. She'd been there when Faith had been accepted directly on to the Diploma and so knew that the new girl had somehow impressed the Dean. Right now, Felicia was watching Faith with a narrowed gaze and Faith turned and hurried into her classroom.

Where it was cold.

That wasn't actually surprising, usually. It was Cylus, after all, but Faith was Famula's marked servant and that blessing meant that she didn't feel the cold. Yet here whilst her breath didn't mist like it did outside she felt the cold enter her bones and she shivered.
"I told you, didn't I? It's cold in here."
Faith looked at the spirit and nodded. "What's your name? I'll help you, in Famula's name and in her service."
"Lana," the spirit replied, looking as suspicious as the receptionist. "Why would you do that?"
"I already told you. Where is it coldest?" At least none of her classmates or, worse still, her professors were here yet. Though it wouldn't have stopped her if they were.

"Down the hole," Lana replied, looking at Faith incredulously.
Looking around, Faith had only one response available to her. "I can't see any hole, Lana, I'm afraid."
Lana frowned a deep and displeased frown and Faith felt the cold worsen. "Are you teasing me?"
"No, I just can't see it. I'm sorry."
Lana frowned and shook her head, "It's down there, but I can't go."
"What's down there, Lana?"

That seemed to be something of an important question and the spirit looked at Faith with narrowed eyes. "I have to protect them. Keep it cold. It's cold." Faith frowned slightly, was the spirit afraid of the cold or did she create it? The more that Faith understood of the world of spirits, the more she knew that they were confused and confusing. Sometimes, they said one thing and meant another. It required careful navigation and sometimes, it required patience.

"They built it in the place where they lived and died you know. This place. Do you know what it used to be?" At that question, Faith looked at Lana and felt her heart sinking slightly. "They built it where a hospital had been.That's why there's so many here." Oh, that made sense. Many of the spirits Faith could see were, in fact, sporting injuries and illnesses. But there was something more, Faith thought and she kept quiet, just letting the spirit talk. "Here," Lana continued, gesturing around the room which was the main classroom for use by the students of medicine, "Here was the place where the doctors examined them after they were gone. Down there. It's where they kept them, it's why it's cold."

Faith looked at where Lana was pointing, to the hole she couldn't see. "So, you're telling me that the university is built on the remains of a hospital, this classroom used to be the autopsy room and directly below us is the morgue?" It was a blessing from Famula that she might be able to help all the souls, Faith thought and she prayed her thanks for the lesson before the lessons started. Lana looked down at where the hole was and she sighed.
"I was here, right here, when we started building. I saw it and I didn't tell anyone." Faith raised an eyebrow.
"Saw what?"
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Faith Augustin Champion
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[Scalvoris Town: Viden Academy] Wrong time, wrong place

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"Shouldn't have done it! Shouldn't have done it! I saw it and I knew but I didn't want to say!"

The ghost screeched and Faith looked at her calmly. "If you tell me, I can help you."
"Help me?"
"You don't want to be stuck here. You are. I suspect it's because of this. I can make it better, I hope. I can try and, with Famula's grace, I can help."
"They kept the bodies down there." Lana lowered herself down to in front of Faith and sighed, "I think they did bad things to them, there, but they were laying the foundation for the new building. Ceremony and everything. But I saw it, were bones in the ground, I should have said but they were all there. I decided I'd wait until the next trial, it wouldn't matter."
Lana shrugged then and sat down on one of the chairs for the students. "They said it was in my brain, just sitting there waiting. Could have happened at any time. Happened that night."
It was rare that a ghost was so lucid, so clear about their own death but then, Faith thought of something and so asked. "What did you do here, Lana? For a job?"
The ghost smiled and looked around with a sigh. "I never got to do it. I was professor of medicine."

Faith looked up and her eyes were filled with sympathy. But the ghost was gone.

So, she had time and even if she didn't then she had to do this and so the earnest young human left the classroom which had previously been an autopsy room and found the small door to the stairs which led to the basement. She made her way down and found herself in the pitch dark of the university archive. Archive, she considered, was something of a loose term as fundamentally this was a large underground room filled with junk.

The pitch dark didn't concern her; Famula's favoured did not concern themselves with such as her blessing allowed her to see in the dark. "Blessed Famula, I give thanks for the eyes to see, the will to serve. I will help this soul move over in your name and in your service, unto my final breath and beyond." She whispered her prayer as she looked around at the shaped and wondered what it was that was hidden beneath the sheets which covered most of the things in this room. However there, kneeling in the corner was Lana and Faith made her way over. The ghost looked up and then, simply wasn't there.

Faith knelt and moved away the box that was there, revealing an earth floor. Faith sighed and glanced up at the classroom. With the Academy so newly open it was probably fair to say that no one had yet been thrown out on their first trial, she considered. Then, she put her things down next to her on the floor and she started to dig.
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[Scalvoris Town: Viden Academy] Wrong time, wrong place

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She was never going to be a glamorous woman, she decided, kneeling there on the floor of the University basement with her hands digging in the dirt. It had taken twenty bits to dig down until she found something and Faith was ignoring the ache in her shoulders and the pain in her back as she did. She was growing soft, she thought with a slight smile. As her fingers scraped against something solid, though, she turned her attention to what she was doing.

Clearing away the dirt, she frowned at what she saw there. A small box, wooden and on it carved some crude symbols which Faith did not recognise. Faith realised, looking down at it that was this was, simply put, was a grave. That changed things, slightly. Faith knelt and closed her eyes, putting her hand on the box and reciting a prayer to Famula as she did. She knelt in prayer for a few moments. She gasped as a series of images flashed in front of her, moving too quickly for her to make sense of Faith felt almost overwhelmed with the sudden array of imagery. She took a breath and forced herself to calm down, to approach this in a disciplined and logical manner.

Again, she tried and this time she held on to the images, visually grasping each one. As she did, she realised something. There was the accepted idea that, at the moment of death, one's life might flash before their eyes. That may, or may not happen, but thanks to the blessing Famula had given her, that was what Faith was seeing here, but for this man. This man who was born and remembered his mother as a woman with hair like honey. This man who lived a life and met a woman, sitting under one of the yellow dragon trees, fell in love and felt that the most perfect moment of his life was when he held his newborn son in his arms. All of his life he had lived on this island and he had died here, when it was a hospital and here they had experimented on him and then, finally, they had performed the most foul and evil act of reanimation on him. Faith let out a whimper into the silence of the pitch black room as she felt wave after wave of emotion falling in on her, cascading as the images did.

Looking down at the box, Faith felt tumultuous emotions threatening to overwhelm her, but she was a woman who possessed an enormous amount of self-discipline and so she simply put those to one side for now and considered what she had to do. The remains in this box had to be taken care of and given an appropriate burial, certainly. But the taint of the magic which had been used on him would have to be dealt with.

In the darkness, the earnest fanatic whispered. "Necromancers. I hate those guys."

"You found it. Oh I'm so pleased." Lana was kneeling next to her. Faith smiled at her.
"Thanks to you."
"I couldn't rest knowing that there was someone here who wasn't resting."
"I'll take care of him now, I promise you. You did it, Professor."
The woman who would have been Faith's professor in the lecture room upstairs, had fate taken a different turn smiled at the young devotee of Famula. Faith returned her gaze and smiled at the feeling of warmth and comfort as the golden light bathed over her. So bright it was almost blinding, Faith closed her eyes against it and, when she opened them, Lana had gone and Faith smiled as she whispered. "In Famula's name. Rest."

She lifted the box and prayed over it, blessing it and the contents of it, in Famula's name. She prayed to Vri, that this soul be remembered by those he loved, those who loved him. That they never know the sorrow of knowing their loved ones remains were so treated. Then, she opened it and looked inside. The contents were bones, but they were unlike any the young woman had seen. These had been from his time as a Necromancers Thrall, she knew and he had been used to practice upon ~ the bones were damaged, having been attacked whilst he was a Marrow Thrall. Faith ran her hand over one of them, the tibia, feeling the damages done.

With the realisation of what had happened here, Faith realised that the symbols on the box were far from benign. This was a necromantic abomination and she was finding a stash, rather than a grave. Faith felt anger and disgust well up inside her as she considered that this box marked the bones as property, from one Necromancer to another. With deliberate and calm movements, the young woman shrugged off the shawl she wore, took each bone out individually, blessed it in Famula's name and laid it on the shawl. When she had all of them, every last one, Faith wrapped them up and put them into her Domain bag with care and reverence. Then, she looked around and found a large and heavy rock which she could just about lift.

Lift it she did and she carried it over to where she knelt again next to the box. Before she did anything else, she copied the symbols so that she could look them up later. Then, closing her notebook she hefted the rock and spoke. "In Famula's name and by the light of her lantern with which she lights the way in the darkness, you aren't having him again. No more." Raising the rock she spent a cathartic minute smashing the box to pieces.

She picked up the bag and collected her things, then went back upstairs, washed and tried to make herself presentable. As she walked into her classroom she realised that she was, in fact, a few moments late. The professor, who seemed to be about the same age as her, if not a little younger, looked at her with a stern expression.

"Your name?"
"Faith, professor. I'm sorry I'm late, it won't happen again."
"I am well aware. Next time, I lock the door when I enter. Be on time or do not be here. Sit."

With a sigh as she complied, Faith thought that, all in all, it could have been a whole lot worse. Really, it was just a case of being in the right place at the right time and given the opportunity to serve.
Off Topic
The power she uses to see the man's life is "Memorabilia" and is in my CS here. If it's appropriate, knowledges in it would be great!
I'm going to deal with the bones in a separate thread.
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Arlo Creede
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[Scalvoris Town: Viden Academy] Wrong time, wrong place

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Review: Rewards

Faith

Story: 5/5
Collaboration: 0/5 (Solo)
Structure: 5/5

Knowledge:

Lana: Ghost at Scalvoris University
Lana: Would have been professor of Medicine
Psychology: Overcoming nerves and uncertainty
Psychology: Sorting out the agendas and motives of ghosts
Theory of Necromancy: Symbols
Theory of Necromancy: Thralls
Theory of Necromancy: Animation
Theory of Necromancy: Using symbols to mark remains amongst necromancers
Viden University: Scalvoris Campus: There be ghosts here
Viden University: Scalvoris Campus: Built on the former site of a hospital and morgue
Zuuda: Memorabilia: Flashes of memories from a gravesite
Zuuda: Memorabilia: Can be overwhelming and impossible to interpret
Zuuda: Memorabilia: You need to slow it down
Zuuda: Memorabilia: A very emotional experience

Fame: General Good Deed. +1 Giving the gift of passing on. +2 Total Fame: +3

Devotion: Honoring the dead in Famula's name. +1 Putting aside your own needs in favor of Famula's ideals. +2 Dedicating your actions on behalf of another to Famula. +2 Praying to Famula. +1 Helping a spirit find rest in Famula's name. +2 Blessing the remains of the dead in Famula's name. +2 Prayer to Vri. +1....Total Devotion: +11

Loot: N/A
Magic: These points and knowledges cannot be used for domain magic

Comments: Interesting thread! I really enjoyed reading this one, and loved the history of the University and what it's sitting on top of. Gives it lots of extra character. I also enjoyed the exchange between Faith and Lana, it made the ghost a more sympathetic character. There were a couple of places where it appeared there ought be paragraph breaks and weren't, but not enogh to distract from the story. Any concerns, you know where to find me. Thanks!
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