The timetable seals with a final chime. Before the faculty can disperse, a bored aristocrat, a young adult human man with a lean build, a sharp narrow face, and swept-back black hair enters the court in a wine-red coat, jeweled gloves, and a silver-muzzled hound at his heels, followed by three liveried attendants carrying a locked purse.
Odran Vale
Lord Odran Vale offers royal coin for the complete course. A fourfold candidate deserves instruction worthy of her rarity, and an audience worthy of the academy.
One attendant sets the purse upon the registry table. Its weight makes the wood groan, while the aristocrat studies Femme Soule with more curiosity than respect.
Odran Vale
In return, she demonstrates against an opponent prepared with wards and enhancement. Nothing lethal, naturally. A small exhibition, and a generous one.
The Admission Examiner
You offer funding for her education while placing her first lessons beneath a patron's spectacle. Those terms require scrutiny.
Faculty Clerk 3
The purse could equip every branch for a season. The demonstration could also display the academy's rarest admission before the capital.
Hemme shifts closer to Femme Soule, his pride tightening into watchfulness. Across the court, the four instructors fall silent as the purse gleams beneath the elemental banners, and the faculty weighs prestige against the danger of making her training into entertainment.
✓ Quest Accepted
Secure safe terms for Lord Odran Vale's sponsorship
✓ Quest Accepted
Learn what Lord Odran Vale truly wants from Femme
“I secure safe terms for lord of an vale's sponsorship whilst I inquire what lord odran vale truly wanted from me”
SUCCESS (Great Reasoning, rolled +1)
Femme Soule
I will accept sponsorship only under academy terms: no private command, no unsupervised demonstrations, and no claim upon my lessons or reserve. What do you truly want from me, Odran Vale?
The Admission Examiner
Those conditions are entered into the offer. The academy controls her instruction, safety, and spellwork; Lord Vale receives no authority beyond the agreed audience.
Odran Vale
Fairly put. I want no leash on you. I want to know whether the capital has found a genuine prodigy, and to be the patron whose name is remembered when you rise.
The aristocrat's practiced amusement thins into candor. His gloved fingers leave the purse untouched as the attendants wait behind him, and the faculty listens for the cost hidden beneath his courtesy.
Odran Vale
In exchange for the funds, I ask for a public demonstration after your instructors approve it, and a place at the first audience. No secrets, no dangerous trial, no command over your education.
The Admission Examiner
Then the sponsorship is accepted on those terms. Any exhibition requires academy approval, your consent, suitable wards, and a right to refuse without penalty.
The admission examiner seals the terms beside the purse. Odran inclines his head, satisfied but no longer pretending this is charity alone, while the academy records the sponsorship without surrendering Femme Soule's authority.
Quest Complete
Secure safe terms for Lord Odran Vale's sponsorship
Quest Complete
Learn what Lord Odran Vale truly wants from Femme