As Del settled into her new room, Garivold slipped through the shadows of the corridors following closely behind Jericho. His friend was the only one aware of his presence, though he couldn't see him. No one could see him while he shadow-walked, and Gairovald preferred it that way. Attention only lead to prying eyes and, consequently, interference, intentional or otherwise.
"You ready to see what the assignments look like this quarter?" Jericho questioned.
"Not really," Gairovald replied. "I doubt it'll be any different from normal. Our great and illustrious dean isn't exactly creative."
They fell into a comfortable silence as a group of students passed, gossiping about some trivial thing or other. Gairovald never understood the appeal of groupies. If he wanted mindless followers, golems were a far more appealing and undisputably the more useful option, though the creation of one would attract far too much unwanted attention. Most viewed Gairovald as the antisocial dweeb lurking in the corner, and he was content with that. Let the fools underestimate him.
"It's about time!" Gubler huffed as Jericho arrived at the door. "You're late!"
Technically, Jericho was more than five minutes early, but it didn't matter. Dean Gubler always found something to criticize and it wasn't worth acknowledging him or his childish efforts to exert control.
"We ready to get started then?" Jericho questioned with a terse smile.
A glance behind the Dean revealed that none of the board members had arrived yet. He had expected this would be the case, most of them were still with classes and would likely be about 5 minutes late. It was rare for meetings to begin any sooner than 15 later than the posted time.
"Find your seat before you waste any more time," The dean hissed.
Jericho shrugged and strolled through the door at a leisurely pace. He took his time selecting a seat, then stretched before finally making a point of sitting down and kicking his feet up onto the table.
Dean Gubler fumed in furious silence as he watched this display. As he stood rigid as a lamp post, Gairovald reached out of the shadows for the express purpose of tying the dean's boot laces together. A petty, juvenile prank to be sure, but oh so satisfying regardless. Task completed, Gairovald receded back in the dark void and slipped into the room. All that was left was to watch.
"Have you no respect for anything?" Dean Gubler finally snapped. Gairovald was impressed the man had managed to hold himself back even that long.
"I offer respect where it's been earned," Jericho replied with a nonchalant shrug.
Before the dean could reply, the rest of the board members began arriving including his own sprite, an imp known as Craggle. The dean offered polite greetings, though he maintained his heir of smug superiority. If only the fool understood how utterly insignificant he truly was.
They called him "dean," but technically Gubler was little more than a glorified assistant to Craggle. As a rule, the dean was always a sprite. Fortunately for Gubler and his fragile ego, Craggle was quite lazy and all too happy to pawn off as many responsibilities onto his hapless partner as he could get away with.
"Is that everyone?" Gubler finally asked as the last of the board members took their seats. As expected, it was now fifteen minutes past the hour. "Very well, let's get started."
Gairovald watched with immense pleasure as Gubler tried to take a swift step forward, only to loose balance as his foot caught on the tied laces. The resulting fall and the string of expletives that accompanied it were spectacular to behold. Gairovald made sure to capture the moment in his crystal orb. He then used a swift spell to until the bow in the shoelaces.
"Hurry up would you?" Craggle rolled his eyes. The rest stared as Gubler picked himself up off the floor and sheepishly hurried to his own chair.
For the most part, the rest of the meeting was dull and fairly predictable. They discussed collaboration expectations with military movements along the boarders, weekly tasking schedules for combat and runing students, as well changes to squads with the influx of new students and so on.
"Are there any concerns or questions related to any of the items discussed?" Craggle glanced around the assembly and noticed Jericho's hand. With a growl and a shake of his head he continued, "Of course... When don't you have a complaint? Well, out with it. What is it this time?"
"As always, I still feel we're relying too heavily on our students, most of which have no practical combat experience, for these expeditions to the rune walls," Jericho stated, earning a chorus of groans and complaints from the staff. "I understand you don't want to hear this, but it's even more imperative we take this issue more seriously! There will be a blood moon in two weeks time-"
"So the moon turns red," Gubler spat mockingly. "So what?"
"The blood moon is an influx of chaotic power. Demons and the undead in particular experience massive influxes in power-"
"That's an interesting theory, but ultimately supernatural nonsense," Gubler scoffed.
"Actually, it is proven fact and mentioned numerous times throughout the faculty archives, research journals, biographies-"
"Enough of your ghost stories," Gubler waved him off dismissively. "We have more pressing issues to discuss. The rune walls have protected us without fail for hundreds of thousands of years, and I expect they will continue to do so."
"If you are so confident, then why do we send regular patrols out?" Jericho spoke softly, but with ominous menace.
The room was silent. All eyes were on Jericho who made a point of staring each of them down. All shifted uneasily or averted their gazes as his stare fell upon them. All except Carbuncle, a young sprite new to both the tower and the board who met his gaze with calculating curiosity. Gairovald knew the sprite was up to something, but had yet to figure out what it was the imp was after.
"You invited me hear as a consultant for the interests of the students, so know I speak for their benefit," Jericho continued. "If you send patrols out during the blood moon, hell, if you don't make some changes to how the patrols are operating in general, there's going to be an attack and students and perhaps even faculty will die."