>>6280337You and Alvin shake hands. While you weren’t thrilled to see the Adjunct go, you still greatly appreciated all the help he’d provided during your journey. Not only did he offer you guidance in this strange land, but he fought alongside you, as well as helped to increase your repertoire of spells. You could respect that the man was leaving you in order to better follow his own dreams. You just hoped that it didn’t mean that the two of you would one day meet again as enemies should you find yourselves on opposite sides regarding Tartarus. All things considered though, you liked Alvin, and you considered him to be a friend.
>“Be well. If you see me coming to topple your bosses, you’d best stay out of the way. Play your cards right and maybe I’ll give you a promotion.”Alvin laughs good-naturedly. “See you later, Tristain. One last thing, Nadia is waiting for you down below. She’ll be wanting to speak with you.”
With that, the Adjunct takes his leave through a hallway, heading deeper into the Royal College. Once you lose sight of the man, you take his advice and head back downstairs, where you see the researcher sitting off to the side by her lonesome, ignored by the various students of the College going about their business. As you approach her, you notice that she seems tense. The usual carefree and flirtatious sorceress has her head down, reminding you of a scolded child. She looks up once you draw close enough, and you note the scowl etched on her face.
>“What’s with the look? Don’t tell me you’re leaving me too.”“On the contrary.” Nadia says. “The Royal Sages have terminated my position with the College. They said my services are no longer required.”
>“What? They fired you?”Nadia nods her head slowly, her hands clutching at the air as if she were grasping for the throats of her former masters. “They told me that my research into the nature of Quintessence was too dangerous to continue. They ‘assured’ me that they disposed of it after Kosmas brought it back from Shangri-La, and that no further work regarding it would be done. Then they thanked me for my efforts, and let me know they’d be in touch should they need anything.”
Nadia growls in frustration. Getting up from her seat, she walks up to you in a huff, frantically voicing her displeasure. “Do they have ANY idea how many countless hours I poured into my studies? The progress that I’d made? How close I was to mastering the manipulation of Quintessence to create new life? And they just…fire me? As if I were some simple handmaiden that kept botching their tea order? The absolute NERVE of those wretched fools!”
Nadia’s rage stirs the beginnings of a scene, and now others in the College are beginning to take notice of the two of you.
