After the wounded are stabilized enough to travel, Lioran remains behind with the survivors. Elion, Saadia, Lydia, and Oskar follow the safer route toward the Mana Academy, carrying proof of the dragon’s death.
The Academy’s outer gate rises from a slope of pale stone, layered with bronze wards. Elion’s altered eyes brighten as the sigils flare, one after another, and the gate shudders in its frame.
Saadia
We seek an audience with Archmage Drokthar Volundar. We bring proof of a dragon’s death, and a matter concerning Elion’s awakened heritage.
Two gatekeepers in dark Academy cloaks descend the steps. Their attention fixes on Elion’s gold-flecked eyes, then shifts uneasily to the sealed reliquary containing a dragon scale.
Mana Academy gatekeepers
Stop there. State what awakened power he carries. The wards recognize draconic resonance, but the Academy admits no unknown force without examination.
Saadia
His power awakened when the dragon died. We are not asking you to ignore the danger. We are asking you to bring this matter before Drokthar before fear turns it into a threat.
✓ Quest Accepted
Gain an audience with Archmage Drokthar Volundar
+ New Item Acquired
Sealed reliquary
“I step forward, determined of getting answers. My name is Elion Draemnor. The gatekeepers eyes widen. Draemnor they ask? Like the Grand Mentor Orythiel Draemnor..? Yes, i answer, hes my relative. He's my great-great-great-great grandfather. I seek to meet with him right this instance”
SUCCESS (Superb Reasoning, rolled +0)
“I step forward, determined of getting answers. My name is Elion Draemnor. The gatekeepers eyes widen. Draemnor they ask? Like the Grand Mentor Orythiel Draemnor..? Yes, i answer, hes my relative. He's my great-great-great-great grandfather. I seek to meet with him right this instance”
SUCCESS (Superb Reasoning, rolled +1)
Elion Draemnor
My name is Elion Draemnor. I seek an immediate audience with Archmage Drokthar Volundar, and with the Grand Mentor, Orythiel Draemnor.
The gatekeepers’ eyes widen. The left gatekeeper is a young adult woman with a slim build, brown skin, tightly braided black hair, and a dark hooded Academy cloak over bronze-trimmed mail. Bronze sigils flare across the gate, responding to Elion’s name and the draconic resonance still threaded through him.
The Gatekeeper on the Left
Draemnor? You mean the Grand Mentor Orythiel Draemnor?
Elion Draemnor
Yes. He is my great-great-great-great grandfather. I need answers, and I need to speak with him now.
The Gatekeeper on the Right
Open the inner way. The Archmage and the Grand Mentor must hear this directly.
The wards withdraw with a deep chime. Both gatekeepers lead Elion, Saadia, Lydia, and Oskar through the bronze-bound entrance into the Academy’s central hall.
“After entering the Mana Academy, i see students, Mentors, Knight Mentors, Scholars and many more type of individual. They seem insanely powerful, i think to myself. But lets not waste more time. Please escort us to the Grand Mentor's Office.”
SUCCESS (Superb Reasoning, rolled +2)
Beyond the gate, the Academy’s central hall opens into vaulted galleries of pale stone. Students, Mentors, Knight Mentors, and Scholars move through the space, their auras controlled and immense enough to make the air feel charged.
Elion Draemnor
Please escort us to the Grand Mentor’s office. We should not waste more time.
The gatekeeper on the left studies Elion’s gold-flecked eyes, then gives a decisive nod. The gatekeeper on the right signals for the others to clear the passage.
The Gatekeeper on the Left
At once. The Grand Mentor will receive you in the upper sanctum. Stay together, and keep the reliquary sealed.
The gatekeepers lead Elion, Saadia, Lydia, and Oskar across the hall. Conversations quiet as powerful students and faculty turn toward the dragon scale, then resume in restrained whispers behind them.
The Gatekeeper on the Right
The Grand Mentor’s office is beyond this arch. He has been alerted, and the way is open.
Bronze wards unfold across the archway without resistance. The doors beyond open onto Orythiel Draemnor’s office, where a vast circular window overlooks the Academy’s glowing towers.
“I enter the office alongside my companions. The man infront of us is my 4x great grandfather. I whisper to them to keep their composure because He is something they have never seen. He could have easily wrecked the dragon we fought. He may be the strongest there is alongside the Archmage, i whisper. as Orythiel is sitting in his chair, he turns towards us and the second later, he appears in front of us. A gentle yet heavy wind blows past us. I anchor my feet to not get blown away. He examines us, and finally speaks: Elion, my son, you finally came, he said gently, yet detached”
FAILURE (Mediocre Agility, rolled +0)
Elion enters the circular office with Saadia, Lydia, and Oskar. Orythiel Draemnor, a bald, deeply lined elderly man with a weathered face, long white beard and mustache, black robes, ornate dark armor worked in bronze-gold filigree, and one luminous purple eye, sits before the vast window, an elderly man whose stillness makes the room feel impossibly deep.
Elion Draemnor
Keep your composure. He is something you have never seen. He could have wrecked the dragon we fought. He may be the strongest there is, alongside the Archmage.
Orythiel turns in his chair. A heartbeat later he stands before them, and a gentle yet crushing wind sweeps through the office. Elion plants his feet, but the force drives him backward across the stone.
His boots scrape hard against the floor before he catches himself against the edge of a low table. The attempt to hold firm fails, leaving him separated from the others as the wind settles.
Orythiel Draemnor
Elion, my son. You finally came.
The words are gentle, yet detached. Orythiel examines Elion first, then each companion, as though measuring the disturbance in their auras rather than their faces.
“Grandfather, it has been years, we have much to discuss, i said, also detached. But first, i must seek an Audience with you and the Archmage, as i bowed, please. Orythiel studies me. Then, the archmage appears in the room, from smoke. He studies us and then greet us. He presents himself. But before he could finish Lydia asks how did he know. The old man, voice full of wisdom answered that the Grand Mentor sent accentuated his mana waves by about an half of one percent and so the archmage detected him and came. Then he continues and tells us that there's no time for the questions. He requests us to start right away”
SUCCESS (Superb Reasoning, rolled -1)
Elion Draemnor
Grandfather, it has been years. We have much to discuss. But first, I seek an audience with you and the Archmage. Please.
Elion bows. Orythiel studies him in silence, measuring the altered resonance within him. The request is granted, but the exact meaning of that resonance remains beyond Elion’s present understanding.
Smoke gathers beside the vast window and folds into an elderly dwarf man with a powerful frame, a braided white beard, copper-brown skin, and layered robes threaded with elemental sigils.
Drokthar Volundar
I am Drokthar Volundar, Archmage of the Mana Academy. Grand Mentor, your signal reached me, and I came at once to greet you and your companions.
Lydia
How did you know to come here?
Drokthar Volundar
The Grand Mentor accentuated his mana waves by roughly half of one percent. That minute alteration was enough for me to detect him. There is no time for every question. We must begin at once.
The audience is secured, but the precise nature of Elion’s awakened heritage remains unchecked. Drokthar turns toward the inner chamber, and Orythiel’s luminous eye stays fixed on Elion as the examination begins.
Quest Complete
Gain an audience with Archmage Drokthar Volundar
Attribute Upgrade: Reasoning Superb→Legendary