The Opulent Quarrel - Round One: Mademoiselle Primfel's

Will found herself in an empty classroom. It was surely a classroom, possessing many features commonly found in classrooms; a blackboard (still marked with the half-erased lessons of the previous day), a number of old wooden desks and sturdy metal chairs and a teacher’s desk with folders and textbooks and a short pile of marked worksheets. In other ways though it seemed more akin to a dungeon. Those sturdy chairs had worn shackles mounted to the armrests, and there were flecks of blood amongst the chalk marks upon the blackboard. Then there were the jars along the teacher’s desk, heavy jars containing small oily black objects that Will suspected might be moving ever so slightly. This was clearly not the kind of place she wanted to linger.

Will quickly made for the door, it was twice as tall as she was and entirely metal. She fully expected it to be locked. She was surprised when thankfully it pulled easily open, even more surprised and alarmed when doing so revealed something that looked like a nightmare come to life. It was almost exactly the archetype of the harsh old schoolmarm down to the grey hair pulled back into a harsh bun and the beady wire framed spectacles. But there was an obvious wrongness about her. Her features were more sharp than they had anyone’s ought to be, her limbs longer and thinner. Her teeth were like shining white stakes that Will could not understand how they could fit into her mouth.

If she had been carrying her crossbow at that precise second Will would almost certainly have fired it upon instinct alone. In fact, where was her crossbow? She glanced to her belt to discover she was wearing a school uniform (grey, maybe with the tiniest hint of blue) instead of her preferred outfit.

A long finger reached out, touching her beneath the chin and pushing her face up to face the schoolmarm approximation. It was only at this point she realized she had been talking to her. “-your second warning.” She concluded, and then looked expectant, clearly waiting for an answer to a question Will hadn’t heard.

“Sorry could you repeat that?” Will ventured.

The teacher tutted and shook her head sadly. “Sorry, could you repeat that ma’am.” She corrected.

Will bristled. Even though she could not hear it she knew from that exaggerated pronunciation that it was a tone of voice she did not appreciate. She folded her arms and stared down the schoolmarm monstrosity. “I stand by my wording.” she said flatly.

The revulsion in the black pits that served as the creature’s eyes was palpable, but there was also something resembling a smirk around the corners of her mouth. “You, young lady, have just earned yourself a detention.” She was reaching out towards Will with those unnaturally long arms.

Will instantly regretted this course of action. This thing probably did deserve to die (it might be kind of prejudicial to make this assumption based solely on its appearance and apparent ownership of a dungeon but Will was fine with that), but she probably shouldn’t have sought to anger it while she wasn’t sure about the location of her crossbow. Even aside from that there were other things going on right now which might mean it wasn’t worth picking a fight with every living nightmare she stumbled into.

But the creature stopped with its long fingers gripping onto Will’s shoulder and glanced at something behind itself. Will had to crane to the side to see a girl standing behind the schoolmarm creature. She had jet black skin and glittering jewels for eyes and she was wearing the same grey/blue uniform that Will had unexpectedly found herself in.

“-clearly a new girl who doesn’t know any better ma’am.” The girl said. Will wasn’t fond of this description but restrained any outrage she might have felt. The schoolmarm looked back at Will, seeming to scrutinize her this time. Her eyes quickly alighted on the bruises visible at her neck.

“Of course, it would appear that you are correct Ms. Night.” She turned back to face Will entirely. “Welcome to Mademoiselle Primfel’s Ms. Pell. I am Madam Gibarti; Mistress of Remedial Education and Discipline. I will excuse your unruly behaviour this once due to your obvious unfamiliarity with our rules. It is a generosity that you will not receive again.” She narrowed her eyes. “That said, I would still like to know what exactly you are doing down here in the Nocte, in my classroom outside of class hours.”

“I got lost.” Will said, not missing a beat. Madam Gibarti raised an eyebrow. “Ma’am.” Will added with obvious distaste.

“Hm.” Madam Gabarti looked thoughtful. “You must have a spectacularly poor sense of direction to end up all the way down here. Were you not issued with a map?” She paused for a second, not long enough for Will to communicate a yes or no. “I am sure you can pick one up at your assigned dorm.” Increased scrutiny. “You would be… human? Is that correct?” Will nodded. “Ms. Night please escort Ms. Pell to the human dormitory.”

“My pleasure ma’am.”

Madam Gibarti smiled. “It was an experience to meet you Ms Pell. Do try to behave yourself and hopefully our paths need not cross again. Somehow I doubt it though.” Madam Gibarti strode past Will and into her classroom.

“This way Pearls.” Ms Night said, grabbing Will’s hand and hurrying off down the corridor in what appeared to Will to be no different to any other direction.

“Call me Will.” she replied.

“Here’s a little tip, one rebel to another; don’t try to fight them Pearls.” Ms Night lowered her voice as she lead Will through the maze of harshly lit corridors. “ I tried, I hated the subtle ways this place tries to reshape who you are, turns out they’ve got plenty of non-subtle ways to achieve the same ends and you don’t wanna find out what they are. Not everyone here is as quick to anger as The Beast herself, but sooner or later you push hard enough you’re gonna wish that you hadn’t.” She glanced back and Will, giving her her widest smile. “Trust me, the best way to rebel is to play the game; do whatever you have to to get out of here. Don’t give them the satisfaction of breaking you down.”

Will heard none of this good advice, thanks to the fact that Ms Night gave it whilst facing forwards Will remained completely unaware that any advice had even been offered.

Will’s attention was fixed on her surroundings; the heavy metal doors and occasional barred windows they passed. As they made their way through the dingy corridors of the Nocte, they passed only one other person; a slight girl with elfin features and a look of panic upon her face. She appeared to be being dragged forwards by some unseen force.

After a minute or so navigating through the bleak indistinguishable corridors they came to a room containing at its centre a spiral staircase. The staircase both ascended and descended, though glancing down the stairwell there was nothing to be seen but blackness (there was a box with wooden torches, Will presumed, for those unfortunate enough to seek to descend further). Ms Night led her up the stairs to the first floor, where the harsh electronic lighting was replaced with the gentle sunlight of morning. Here they left the stairs, though the stairs themselves continued upwards, leaving the stairway chamber, down a short corridor (which was noticeably more pleasant than the basement had been) and into a courtyard.

There was a plaza area at the centre with a number of benches arrayed around an elaborate fountain spraying some kind of black liquid dotted with what appeared to be stars. The courtyard was filled with exotic plantlife, notably something resembling a willow tree but with pink fluorescent leaves stood on their immediate right. On the far side to the left there was an enormous plinth engraved with the words “Mademoiselle Primfel” in a number of languages at once. Atop this pedestal stood a conspicuous absence.

Ms Night turned to face Will. “Human dorm is just through those doors, past the statue of Primfel.” She pointed past the empty plinth to a set of human sized doors. “Present yourself to reception and they’ll let you know where to go.”

“Thanks.” Will said automatically.

“You’re welcome Pearls.” Ms Night gave her a wink. “Come and find me at Concepts sometime. Ask for Kys.” With that she let go of Will’s hand, and jogged back in the direction that they had come. Will watched her go, reasonably sure she’d missed something but unsure what.

The courtyard was reasonably quiet, busier than the basement had been but barely. A couple of girls in uniform loitered in the plaza whilst others hurried to wherever it was they were due. Will took this moment of relative peace to consider her situation.

Thanks to his erratic movement from one battler to another and his constant glances down at his sheaf of notecards, Will had had a difficult time keeping a line of sight on The Sophisticate’s mouth. As a result she’d missed much of the introductions and explanations, she had however got the gist of the thing; that he expected they would kill one another simply because he told them to. Will was not good at doing what she was told. She resolved to make friends as hard as possible with everyone as soon as possible.

(Though that said there were a couple who had that sort of look to them; that too perfect beauty she’d learned to spot as the sign of a fae in human form, maybe she could acquiesce to The Sophisticate’s demands just a little… for a good cause.)

Will made her way through the courtyard to the plaza, pulled off her backpack and set it down on the nearest unoccupied bench. She opened it up to find her crossbow and quiver of bolts neatly packed alongside her clothes and atop that a map of the Academie. Will started to work out how she could best wear her crossbow and quiver with her uniform when she considered that maybe that might not be the best idea. She’d have to ask what the rules on weaponry were.

Everyone who had been loitering in the plaza started to hurry off, and Will supposed that a bell had probably sounded. She slipped her backpack back on and hurried off in the direction of the Human dorms.