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**Lakot** · February 16th, 2013, 04:40 AM

Ben scratched his head, looking up at the mysteriously suspended pages. "Wow, how high up it do you think it goes?" he wondered aloud as she leaped into the air after the mystical paper, smiling in spite of himself as Mori jumped up to the pages. She was so cute when she was excited. Ben shook his head, trying to bring his thoughts back to the task at hand.

He hadn't considered this, he'd thought that they'd be down at eye level, but it figured that they'd be up out of reach. "Maybe, hm...I don't want to push them up any higher. Maybe, maybe if you get up on my shoulders you can reach up and sort of ease them down with the oar". He knelt down on one knee, steadying himself with his hands on the ground. "Let me know if you get too close to the wall, it seems like its just as solid to you as it is to the pages".

**Peeker** · February 16th, 2013, 07:22 AM

"The oar..?" she brightened. "Wait - you -can- get out of the county. Why don't you just get them for me?" she tugged the implement out of his hands, and tightened her grip - the pole tripled in length, looking ridiculously unwieldly, and yet the girl handled it with ease. "There." she put it back in his hands. "Just, y'know, go around the line and poke them down so I can reach them. Then we won't have me waggling around on your shoulders trying not to fall off into the mud!"

At this point, so close to the pages they could see them, what was the harm in using magic to get them as quickly as possible, after all?!

**Lakot** · February 16th, 2013, 06:05 PM

Ben staggered as the oar was shoved into his hands. "Oh, yeah. That'd be easier. Less chance of head injuries too" he grinned, carefully stepping across the line, waiting to see if the oar could pass as well. With a bit of luck it did and he set about carefully maneuvering it into place (not an easy task with a ten foot long stick) above the pages. He slowly eased them down the invisible wall to where Mori could grab them, pushing them out with the oars tip so s he could get a handle on them. After standing in his toes to reach the last, he stepped back across the county line with a wide smile on his face.

"Definitely better than having you up on my shoulders" he said, steadying the oar on the ground. "D'you think these are t he last ones around here, or can you tell if there are any more?" he said, looking around the marsh as Mori gathered the papers. "And uh, you better shrink this if we're done. It looks uh, weird and there's not way its going to fit into my car like this" he said, looking up the length of the extended oar.

**Peeker** · February 17th, 2013, 04:51 AM

Mori clutched the pages to her chest like a teddy bear, and smiled widely. The perfectly-pure whiteness was no longer quite so perfectly pure and white - on its bottom corner, thin silver marking appeared - runes which, she had assured Ben, signified the claimer of the pages, and the time of capture.

"I don't know that I can tell if there are any more until I get back out of the area - if as we leave I hear more pages, we'll know we aren't done.... but I think you were right." she smiled, blushing a bit at having to admit that she'd been corrected. "The wind took care of the whole job for us. Unless something's hidden on a tree branch or under a rock, somewhere."

..but she doubted it. The fact that this many were gathered in one place was already pushing their luck.

Her fingers brushing over Ben's as she touched the ore, it only took a moment before it returned to its regular size. For the life of her, she couldn't understand why he was so fond of the wooden tool - it seemed awfully heavy to her - but it had become rather a badge of honor with him, when they were on these treks.

**Lakot** · February 17th, 2013, 05:19 AM

The oar shrunk down to its proper size and Ben gave it an experimental twirl, finding it perfectly balanced and weighted once again. It's nice when you can get the forces of nature to do your work for you eh? It's like having the wind blow all the leaves off the yard before you have to rake." He kicked his boot against the ground, finding the enchantment on his boots still working. "Well, since we're done here I suggest we hightail it back to my car, so we can get home and eat something hot" he said, as he shivered, suddenly realizing just how cold it was now that they had found the pages. "C'mon, lets go before we freeze solid" he said with a grin, swinging his oar up to give her a light smack on the bum before he tore off across the marsh once again.

--------

A figure lay some distance away from the pair, well hidden from their eyes not by a clever spell, but by a simple stand of grass. As they ran off into the distance the figure carefully took out a scroll of paper already filled with names and numbers to make a new entry.

Moretta of the Chasewoode, Minutae School: 4 known pages collected and continued association with a local guide.

**Peeker** · February 17th, 2013, 07:23 PM

Mori gave a little squeak of surprise, and stuck out her tongue at the boy. "None of that, Mister Benjamin!" she straightened the papers carefully in her hands and hugged them to her chest again. Even an oar-tap on the tush couldn't break the sunshine that now filled her mood. She was closer! So very much closer! Laughing, Moretta broke out into a run - and calling her magic to her, she ran swift as the wind, catching up to (and blowing past) the boy with ease, breathless and cheery, and sitting primly in the little boat as she waited for him to take her to that strange traveling machine and head back somewhere warm, dry, and safe.

**

"Since ages past, the Empire has searched for the best and the brightest. To curry imperial favor is not merely the highest of honors, but the greatest of challenges. Our Forefathers sundered mountains and ruined realms in their attempts to be held favorably in the sight of the Empyrion Throne - the Gilded Halls and the Ancestral Arch are full of the trophies and treasures which that favor produced. But it is now too great a risk - rather than have the masters work their magicks for the Imperial eye, they send us - their best and brightest - to an insignificant place, and watch our work. A game. A contest. To please and amuse the Throne, and earn its mark on our hallowed traditions."

Mori had her socked feet up on the glove compartment as they drove, slung back low in the car, paging thoughtfully through her new treasures. Three. Three more made five..!

"There are two-hundred hidden between the ley-lines of your land. And twenty of us chasing after them. And those who can gather the most, and act in the most spectacular fashions, to do honor to their School, will earn that Favor when the game is won and the pages all collected."

**Lakot** · February 18th, 2013, 03:58 AM

The venerable old Ford creaked as Ben took it around a curve, making a supreme mental effort to keep his eyes on the road and not the yarn-spinning girl sitting beside him. "You know, if I hadn't seen you do all this with my own eyes i'd think you were crazy. But I guess it makes sense, better to test you guys out away from home. Although I take offense to insignificant" he said with a laugh as they stopped at a light, swinging left. "Never mind, i'll give you insignificant. Insignificant is a pretty good way to describe Kingsborough County"

"But uh...sundered mountains huh? Good thing there aren't any around here" he said as they drove past fields and houses, buildings growing more numerous as they closed in on Cataract. "But uh, you guys can't do that can you? The ruining and sundering is something just your Masters can do, right?" he said nervously.

"So the game ends when all the pages are collected? Can you take pages from others or are they always yours once you find them?" he said, mind turning to ways to secure his house against magical intruders. "Would it even matter? Taking a page from another wizard or whatever sounds pretty spectacular in itself".

**Peeker** · February 18th, 2013, 04:36 AM

"Uhm, yeah. I mean in theory, any of us -could- do something... y'know... really destructive. But the circumstances would have to be incredible - and its doubtful we could even really do it, then. That sort of thing takes... just.... ages and ages to study, y'know? We can all do alot of stuff, but I don't even think my Master could turn the air above Havershen to a great leaden plate, and crush the whole town to dust." -the light way she mentions it sounds like something out of a fairy tale: like a cow jumping over the moon, or building a snare to trap a god - but also like something she knows to be history, clear, true, and irrefutable.

"It could be done. People could do crazy harmful stuff, or even steal our pages! Not to me, I mean. I don't think so, at least - my way of protecting it is pretty darn good." she nods, though. "But I mean, sure. Stealing pages from someone else is a way to show that you're.... I guess.. sneaky. Resourceful. There really aren't any rules."

She steeples her hands in her lap, wiggling her wrists over the corners of the pages. "I promise I'll protect you, though. You've been such a big help to me, Ben. I'm not going to put some page above our safety - not when there's so many left!"

**Lakot** · February 18th, 2013, 05:13 AM

"Well I guess that's good. It's probably best to keep your magic less uh, sundery. Getting the cops attention probably wouldn't be good, even if you can walk through walls or whatever your crazy magic can do" he said as he navigated familiar streets. "Well, I feel safer already knowing you're watching out for me. Think you can whip a 'protection from everything' spell? I'd sleep a little easier at night knowing no one is going to drop a giant lead sheet on my head. Hell, you should probably put one on the house so no one drops a giant lead sheet on that too".

Benjamin swung into his driveway, tugging the keys out of the ignition and hopping out of the car. "Get those pages all squared away and i'll see if I can get us something halfway decent to eat" he said as he unlocked the door and stepped in, pausing as a wonderful smell hit him. "Well, foods taken care of. Smells like Lily made dinner before she left for the hospital" he said with a wide grin as he made his way into the kitchen.

**Peeker** · February 18th, 2013, 05:32 AM

"Oh! Her food is really good. Even though I'm not used to your 'Kingsborough' cuisine, yet." tugging off boots and jacket, Mori stumbled through the house, and headed for Ben's room. Or more accurately, his closet. Opening the door, there appeared not a stack of coats and jackets, but instead a little corridor which led to a very rustic-looking room which was far more in tune with Moretta's tastes. Her world was not so processed or technological as this one - and while its wonders were all well and good, she still preferred the simple charms of her homeland.

The cabin was actually in the woods far off from Ben's home, but the little pocket tunnel made it more of an invisible addition on the boy's house, between the walls. It smelt of rich spices and foreign scents - foreign to Ben, at least - no wood smelt like that anywhere in Maine. To Mori, it was home, right now to the big quilt on her bed. It was here that she worked some magic, hiding away her new treasures --- a thing which she kept private even from Ben, so as not to let him be responsible for knowing how to give them up.