As a group, we all headed for the Sanctuary.

I wasn't nervous, per se, but I was in cognitive overdrive. I'd entered the world today, and I was lagging behind it. I had to catch up, but with everything from sensory information to the implications of events, it was taxing. The future was getting exponentially complicated.

But I had a plan. I think. Things were getting fuzzier in that department.

Whatever, I'd roll with it.

It was a short trek for our collective around the slope and up to the entrance of the Sanctuary. The doors were no longer hanging open, but people were still coming down mountain passes towards them.

Kendall stepped through and held the doors for everyone else.

The huge Sanctuary, with its domed ceiling, had wide open stone floors with cracks running through them. In certain places, the rock jutted straight up to form partitions or overlooks. There was a kind of amphitheater off to one side of the room, looking down on a blackboard. Then there was an area on the other side with computers, work spaces, and a shooting range. There was an overlooking room with a one-way glass wall, and just beneath that higher craggy outcropping was a gateway, with powerful vault doors. Everything, though, revolved around the center area, which was a sort of no man's land, which everyone avoided. There was a circular steel platform there, slightly raised from the ground. It had rings, dividing sections of it, with the outer border a glowing barrier. It was slightly foreboding, I felt.

A man in a blue suit was down in the amphitheater, with several people standing around him, talking. We five walked down and came within earshot.

"-Don't wanna talk about that. Anything else?" He was saying.

"Professor Porter, how many disciples will you be taking?" A girl asked.

"I'm interested in finding one or two talented Guild worthy Magi."

"So you're only taking in two disciples?"

"I didn't say that." Porter was watching us as we came closer. "Here comes one of my students. Kendall, right? Blackthorn."

"Yes sir," Kendall said. He motioned for us to stay put and approached to shake Porter's hand. Porter stared at the hand and Kendall awkwardly dropped it.

"You've gotta earn that." He turned back to the crowd. "Tell your professors that I will be accepting transfer students, but to stop poking their eyes around here with magic. If they want to talk to me they can-" he trailed off, staring off in my direction.

Oh. This could be problematic. Wait...

His gaze was cast over my shoulder, I whipped my head around to see who he was looking at. A young brown-skinned dude in a black suit and tie, with dark red shirt and black hair. He was smiling.

"Go back to your professors, get lost," Porter said.

The black suit walked with dignity, control, as he descended to the blue suit. It was strange, the contrast between them. Everything about them was different, aside from gender, I could think of no connecting factor.

Ashes had an amused grin, watching the interplay. Bored personality, I thought. He arched an eyebrow as he saw me checking on him. Odessa seemed disinterested. Anna was watching, but her demeanor gave a hint to just how little control she was capable of exerting. And me, of course, I was watching too, maintaining no interference.

Kendall though, in those few seconds the black suit walked, looked very stiff.

"Porter," black suit said, "professor Wulff sends his regards."

"Tell him I said hi, then. And thank you, Christopher, for this morning. Thought about it some, and you were right. I'm going to be great with young people." Porter said it with a kind of scary undertone.

Christopher just smiled, knowingly.

Kendall spoke up, "would you like me to present my work, Master?"

"None of that shit, just Professor. And yes. Good timing, Christopher. You called yourself magus, at the hearing?"

"Yes." I had no idea what was going on there. Kendall seemed not to, as well.

"You're in the Guild then?"

"I am." His responses were instant, almost mechanical.

"Good, come give me your opinion on Kendall's work. He could use an extra set of criticisms."

"It would be my pleasure. Come on Kendall." He said it like he knew him.

This is fantastic. My head ached, but there was just so much to focus on here.

"Y-yeah." Kendall looked to his team, I mentally dubbed us. "Come on."

Porter lead us to the center room platform and thrust a finger at Ash.

"Me?!" Ashes exclaimed, mockingly.

"Get in the ring, Ashmedai," Kendall said.

Ash hopped up on the platform with a skip and sauntered into the middle.

"This is Ashmedai, the Traitor. He assisted in the Hell Campaign and ended up in my keep. And that is the object of my thesis, repurposing resources that would be otherwise wasted."

Resources. The character profile of her I was building proved accurate when I checked, and Anna was cringing.

"-Ashmedai is a demon, which under oath is actually loyal. A valuable asset."

"Amen!"

"Silence. He's a tier three spirit of deception. His directly offensive powers are lacking. But I work with what I get."

While Kendall talked Ashes went about pulling knives from behind his back and throwing them on the ground. They couldn't all possibly have fit in his skinny jeans. They clattered loudly against the steel floor.

"Warfare and weaponry can be automated, but in the Hellscape an insurgent would be a uniquely useful tool," Christopher said.

There was a joke there, I think.

"Agreed. Next," Porter said.

Odessa went up as Ashes came down from the platform, giant sword still in hand. The knives had disappeared, at some point.

"Also recovered from the Hell Campaign, Odessa Dragonsbane. She had cleared a large sector of threats, on her own. Once the sector was claimed, she was brought off the battlefield. Her sword is heavily enchanted, but she herself is not an enchantress."

She swung the sword and I could feel the very movement in my chest. It seemed lighter than it looked, in her hands. No doubt an imbued trait. Just as I doubted it worked for anyone but her. The sword slammed down into the platform and dug deep into the steel.

"Next," Porter said.