Oof, plot mapping is really turning out to be a pain. The next part (which will be ready in the next couple days) is going to be a simple filler arc about Moon and Periwinkle to buy me some time to get everything ready...Thanks for understanding :)

Part 4.25(filler arc), In Terms of Self-Preservation, Ivy...

Moon rendered herself a prisoner of her own bed for three days’ time before her energy decided to return and she could stand on her own feet without support. But what would have been an achievement worthy of celebration was quickly drenched by a message from Xen.

“Oh you have to be kidding me.” Moon complained from her bed. “I’m grounded?”

“Unfortunately yes.” Xen said apologetically, floating beside Moon’s bedhead with hands behind their back. “It’s part of your punishment for leaving the grounds without acquiring permission beforehand. One month only though, and then you’ll have free passage to head out. Also, extra message from director Ivy. Reads ‘Head to Emerald Grove after  breakfast. I have tasks for you.’”

Moon whined and sank into her covers as far as she could. “No! No way! Not in my life I will!”

It was customary for grounded apprentices to do ‘community service’ around the institute, usually boring tasks like documenting files in the archive, dusting books in the library, washing dishes in the canteen and whatnot.

But Emerald Grove. What did that place mean, goodness sake?! That was Emerald Grave, where no one ever dared to approach. The healthy people who did only left it crawling and
weak people left on a stretcher with lots of sirens blaring in the background. Periwinkle just needed to dig a couple holes in her backyard and then the institute would have a second cemetery to boot.

There was a well-known story about the Grove that Moon had heard from Hawkstar. Once upon a time a very courageous apprentice who had a secret crush on Periwinkle (May his
soul rest in peace) gathered up his bravery to sneak into  Periwinkle’s house and gave a surprise proposal to Moon’s dear mentor at midnight. 

Foolish.

The result of the attempt was obvious: Periwinkle left him lying in the ICU for three days before he woke from his coma.

To make her attitude on the matter clear, Periwinkle even gathered the entire institute together for a meeting and announced publicly that she would be making sure that
whoever had the audacity to attempt such an act again would not be lying in the ICU, but in something boxy, made of wood, and preferably with a lid.

After the incident, everyone, including the dozens of people who were still keeping their crushes in the dark wisely kept their distance from her like she was plague incarnate.

That’s Periwinkle Ivy for you. Nothing worth liking here except for her good looks- that was Moon’s opinion.

Xen looked at Moon’s face with worry. “Moon…”

“Hmm?”

“How about I head back and see if I can talk director Ivy out of this, maybe get you over to the canteen to wash some dishes?”

Moon sincerely thanked Xen’s offer to help and politely denied. Talk Periwinkle out of a decision? No thanks, she’d rather not be pinned down and interrogated again.

She got dressed with difficulty and, sighing, dragged her heavy legs towards the north side of the grounds.

Emerald Grove, Emerald Grave, Periwinkle’s accommodation, and devoid of living people in a half-mile radius. No one dared approach it. Moon couldn’t help feel a looming sense of dread as she tried to guess what she would be assigned to do today. Thoughts wandering, she weaved her way through the sylvan
depths of the northern pine forest and eventually stopped in a bright clearing.

Early morning. The sun had yet to rise above the treetops, and meager rays of golden light could only fall through thick branches upon the lush emerald grass covering the ground. Flowers blossomed beside a misty, gurgling brook, cloying the air with the sweet scent of nectar. Under a resplendent pine
was a modest house with creepers growing on the walls. Hummingbirds and bees danced through the air, chirruping and buzzing in turn, flitting from blossom to blossom as though unable to choose out of the kaleidoscopic bunches.

Moon had only one word to say about the picturesque scene: Blergh.

Disgusting. As long as Periwinkle lived here, no matter the beauty, it was disgusting.

But disgusting as it was, she wasn’t powerful enough to do battle with her mentor, was she? She was only fifteen. So Moon took a breath to calm herself and knocked on the
door. “Miss Periwinkle? It’s me, Moon Wolf.”

“Ah. Come in.”

The interior of the house was very messy. Periwinkle sat in the center of the room. Today she was wearing a white shirt and jeans and pair of protective gloves and was busy assembling a pile of mechanical joints and bolts. She was also biting the end of a pencil in her mouth. She glanced at Moon, and through the pencil said unclearly, “Come here.”

Moon came. Easier said than done, because the entirety of the floor was covered by dozens of stacks of books and blueprints and tools, leaving almost no patch of floor exposed. She furrowed her forehead. This didn’t look like the room of a seventeen-year-old in the slightest. It said more ‘midlife crisis scholar’ than anything, and the fact that her mentor’s house looked like this inside came as quite a surprise to her.

“What’s this?” She asked, picking up a half-assembled section of what looked like an arm.

“Protector.” Periwinkle said simply, not looking up from her work. “That part’s oiled, don’t touch it.”

Periwinkle dabbled in robotics, this Moon knew, and she did it good. It was her knack for things like this, along with her experience in the art of barrier-casting, combat skills and crazy power that made her a welcome presence in the Union despite her terrible temper.

Moon thought for a second about this so called ‘protector’, then remembered Peregrine talking about an automated robot Periwinkle was working on that served to guard against
spirits. She set it down quickly. “Oops, sorry. What should I be doing today?”

Periwinkle tightened the last bolt on the section she was working on and finally took the pencil out of her mouth. “Clean the room. And I mean the entire room, including
the books from the library.”

“W-What?” Moon stuttered, surveying the stacks of thick books piled around them like the walls of a fortress. Most were stamped with the library seal. Genius though Periwinkle was, she was an idiot in terms of self-preservation.

“Do you have a problem?” Periwinkle asked in a tone that meant there were to be no problems.

“…No…”

“Then get on with it.”

A few minutes later, Moon was growing fed up with the ever-growing stack of library books she had sorted out. “Miss Periwinkle, how many books did you borrow?”

Periwinkle was enwrapped in a blueprint. “About two hundred or so.” She said, penciling a few notes down on paper.

Moon: “…” Most books were about one year past the due date. “Then...um... where do you sleep?”

“What?” There must have been some error with the  blueprints, because Periwinkle seemed more annoyed than usual. “The bed of course.” She snapped, rubbing her forehead.

Moon glanced at the bed, barely recognizable under another mountain of books, mechanical components and dangerously glinting tools, including saws of various sizes and an axe. How does this person sleep without cutting her head off?

The entire day passed just like that. Moon cursed under her breath, back stretching painfully as she heaved the last books into a neat stack beside the wall. Cleaning a room might
have presented itself as an easy task, but she wasn’t counting on rummaging one filled with books as thick as dictionaries! She was going to get back to Periwinkle one day, she swore it.

But it turned out that Periwinkle wasn’t going to let her have vengeance without a hard time to go along with it.

Moon stared at the gigantic bookshelf reaching almost to the ceiling and thought her ears were playing tricks on her. “W-What d-did you say again? Miss Periwinkle?”

“Sort the blueprints out by serial number.”

“…”

Periwinkle handed her a notebook. “And document their contents with this.”

“…”

“And remember to clean out the bookshelf once you’re done. I’ll be inspecting your work tomorrow.” A feather
duster was then shoved into Moon’s hands.

“…!!!”

What?! So she was going to have to spend the night in Emerald Grove? But Hawkstar had promised to try healing her wounds tonight! Moon opened her mouth, but Periwinkle pretended not to see and swept into her study without  another word, closing the door behind her.

Schedule ruined and ignored at the same time, Moon glared at the books and felt a strong impulse of Anti-Periwinkle emotion rush through her mind. She was going to burn her house down to the ground! Right this instant!

No, wait, she had a better idea… 

------

-Temporary filler arc completed(1/2)

-Another part (4.75) and I swear I'll get the actual plot going, honest. Figuring out the world setting and major events is turning out to be rather complicated, and I want everything to be worked out instead of improvising later in the future.

Part 4.75, Why be Scrooge?

Periwinkle, goodness sake. How can someone with such terrible tastes exist? Moon had cleared out the entire  bookshelf already, and the only books that could be counted in the realm of pleasure reading was an official geographic guide to the highlands and The Travel Diaries of a Wanderer written by Feral Tunes. Everything else had titles like Advanced  Barriers, Usages and Repairs or Psychological Effects of Energy on the Mind or Cloudbursts-A History and Analysis
or An Introduction to the Forbidden Incantations. Boring. What was lacking here was art. Art fixed everything, Moon believed. And so Moon set to work drawing on some dusty blueprints that must have been left alone for three years, judging by the spiderwebs. She methodically covered half a dozen of them in an hour with various doodles, penciling down whatever came to mind including lots of jokes making fun of her mentor. She could already imagine Periwinkle’s face when she opened one someday in the far off future and discovered them. By then she’d have already forgotten about leaving Moon alone with the blueprints, and all she could do was be
annoyed without a target to let off steam.

The thought was so amusing that Moon was too immersed in her mind to hear footsteps at the door.

And so Hawkstar was greeted with the sight of Moon lying on the floor, giggling to herself and buried in blueprints.

“What are you doing?” She asked curiously, peeking into the room.

“Hawkstar!” Moon squawked, caught by surprise. She sat up and hurriedly scraped some non-vandalized blueprints over her unfinished work. “I- I was cleaning the floor. You know, Periwinkle’s orders.” She improvised.

“With your clothes?” Hawkstar said, trying not to laugh.

“Well, I couldn’t find a mop…” Moon said sheepishly. “What are you doing here? I thought you were busy for the whole day.”

“Well, I’m finished with everything.” Hawkstar said, tiptoeing into the room as to not make too much noise. “And I couldn’t find you in the dorms so I asked around and heard you were here. So I came. With dinner. I guess you haven’t had any?”
She raised a plastic bag in her hand for Moon to see.

Moon’s eyes lit up. “Oh! - Well that’s really nice of you! Thanks a lot!” She scooted back and cleared out a spot on the floor. “Have a seat. I’ll see if there’s some tea lying around-”

“No thanks.” Hawkstar said quietly, putting a finger on her lips. “I snuck in! If Miss Periwinkle finds me here it would be terrible for both of us, wouldn’t it?”

“Oh. I guess you’re right.” Moon said, scratching her head. Darn it Periwinkle, ruining things even with her absence. Someday she would have to throw a revolution or something.

“Here you go.” Hawkstar handed the plastic bag over.

“Spaghetti?”

“No, sorry. I thought you might get tired of eating the same dish over again. Fried rice and eggs.”

Moon opened the lunchbox inside and felt herself drooling a bit as a scent of delicious food hit her square in the face. “It’s ok. Gosh, I could cry right now. How would I ever survive without you, Hawkstar?”

“Save your tears for after you finish eating.” Hawkstar said with a laugh. “I tried to keep it warm but my guess is its already cold.”

“Don’t mind if I do then!” Moon said.

“No one’s rushing you. Don’t choke.” Hawkstar reminded futilely, but Moon had already began her attack. She shook her head, sat down beside Moon and quietly watched her
demolish the contents in a blur of cutlery. Moon was famished. The cold salad she had had for lunch barely filled her appetite, and she was glad to have something real to eat for once.

“That was… great.” She sighed, rubbing her stomach and setting down the empty lunchbox after a few minutes had passed.

“So, which did you like better? Spaghetti or rice?” Hawkstar asked nonchalantly.

“Spaghetti. Defenitely spaghetti.” Moon said promptly.

Hawkstar chuckled and shook her head once again. “…How about I try to heal your wounds? I’ve memorized a couple spells these days.”

The spells, it turned out, were courtesy of Xen. They had an incredibly detailed memory of most of the scriptures on  incantation from another old member of the Union, The Ironwing Foundation, from where they had studied before the Institute had been founded. It was only thanks to their  altruistic sharing of various healing and regeneration spells that the Institute had managed to pull through the major barrier leaks occurring on their watch.

Moon sat with her back to Hawkstar, whose hands were enveloped in a faint green glow as she slowly ran her fingers over scratches and swellings. They quickly began to fade at
contact, returning to normal. It hurt a bit at first, but as Moon got used to the feeling a great sense of contentment slowly filled her mind and heart.

“That's everything I can manage. I got most of them, but there are still a couple of bruises I can't deal with.” Hawkstar said after a while, the glow fading from her hands.

“Ok.” Moon stretched experimentally, and noticing a significant improvement in her mobility, “Wow. Thanks. Thanks so much.” She searched for something else to say but failed. After a few seconds of trying, she managed to squeeze out awkwardly: “You’re the best person I ever met”.

“Aw, it’s nothing.” Hawkstar waved a hand with a smile and motioned at the scattered blueprints and books. “Periwinkle wants you to clean all this up? You sure it won’t take a whole night?”

“It will, but what else am I supposed to do about it?”

Hawkstar’s smile grew. “I’ll help you. Secretly. She won’t have to know, will she?”

“I-I think I can manage myself!” Moon said hurriedly, partly out of worry that Hawkstar might be caught and partly out of fear that she might discover what she had done to the blueprints.

“It’ll be fine.” Hawkstar insisted, taking Moon’s hand in hers and giving it a comforting squeeze. “She won’t find out-”

“Find out what?” An icy voice asked from behind them.

Moon froze and glanced back over her shoulder. Periwinkle had opened the door of her study and was looking out at  them, hands held behind her back. She didn’t look pleased, judging by the cold look she was wearing. She glanced at their interlocked hands and then at both of their faces.

“What might you two be doing?"                                           

“M-Miss Periwinkle!” Hawkstar stammered, voice dropping into a mere intake of breath as she rose from the floor.

Oh darn it. “Miss Periwinkle.” Moon murmured, gulping again.

Periwinkle walked into the room. She surveyed the room and paused as her eyes landed upon the lunchbox discarded in the corner. “Emerald Grove is surrounded by detection  barriers and various wards, Hawkstar. Did you really think that sauntering up to my front door would go unnoticed?” 

Hawkstar bowed her head. “I’m terribly sorry.”

“She didn’t mean to come!” Moon cut in, standing up as well. “She was only keeping her promise to check on my wounds tonight.”

“No, no, it’s all my fault.” Hawkstar said, voluntarily taking the blame and looking at Moon to stop her from saying anything else. “I shouldn’t have entered, my apologies Miss Periwinkle. I was being irresponsible.”

“…” Periwinkle’s eyelid twitched as she looked wordlessly at the two apprentices, who, without any planning beforehand, were now uniting against a common enemy with but a split
second of decision. And she had barely even said three sentences. “I always appreciated the powerful bond of your friendship that brings you together in times of difficulty… and, judging by your looks, it appears that I am the source of it.”

“Miss Periwinkle…” Moon began.

“I don’t want to hear your voice now, Moon Wolf.” Periwinkle said sharply. Moon withdrew, muttering under her breath. She honestly had no idea why Periwinkle content with making
everything complicated these days.

A period of silence settled in between the three people in the room. Neither Moon nor Hawkstar dared to move a muscle.

Suddenly, Periwinkle turned and began to walk out of the room.

“Miss Periwinkle?” Hawkstar raised her head and asked, voice quavering a bit.

“Leave, Hawkstar.” Periwinkle said icily. The tone of her voice would have frozen water. “Head back to your dormitory. And I want to see a handwritten copy of the institute’s rules lying on my desk tomorrow.”

Hawkstar bowed her head once more and turned to leave. Then she stopped. “Miss Periwinkle, Moon’s wounds are not fully healed yet. She needs repose. For her sake, don’t fatigue
her too much. Please.” 

A flash of anger sparked in Periwinkle’s eyes, but to Moon’s amazement it vanished in a second. She closed her eyes for a second, inhaled, shifted her weight and nodded.

“I will keep your advice in mind.” She said flatly, betraying no emotion whatsoever.

Hawkstar let out a breath she had been holding and shot Moon an assuring look, who watched as she escaped the room, bringing the lunchbox along with her.

Moon sighed, returning to the forgotten pile of blueprints on the floor. “I’m really sorry, Miss Periwinkle… I-I’ll get back to work…”

“If you’re tired, I will not force you to stay.” Periwinkle said quietly.

Moon thought she had heard wrong. What? Freedom out of the blue? No, it was too good to be true. No matter how strong a bond Hawkstar had with her as her oldest apprentice, Periwinkle wasn’t one to change her mind on a whim. There must be a catch of some sort.

So she chose the wise answer. “No! I’m not tired. I’ll stay here.” She announced determinedly.

“Your choice.” Periwinkle said with something of a smirk, raising an eyebrow. Then she left.

It was well past midnight when Moon finally finished her task. Yawning, she glanced at the door of the study. A line of light was still visible under the door.

Still not asleep yet? She wondered, pushing open the door a crack. “Miss Periwinkle, I’m done with- oh.”

Periwinkle was lying on her bed, a book laid open in front of her. The bedside lamp was still on, casting a warm orange glow on the walls. A pencil was still held in her right hand, its point nearly touching the paper. A gear was clasped in her left
hand which was dangling off the bedside. She had fallen  asleep in the midst of her research.

Freezing as to not make any unwanted noise, Moon watched her mentor from afar silently. Due to all the items piled on the bed, Periwinkle could only spare herself the smallest of spaces to sleep. She laid on her side, curled up into a tight ball as though she was trying to compact her body into the smallest form possible. The lamplight cast dark shadows over her eyes and face, and her blue hair was bleached in the orange until it seemed gray. She appeared so small, so insignificant in  comparison to the backdrop of books that for an instant, Moon forgot about the unhappy event an hour ago and felt a rush of sympathy for her mentor. 

Periwinkle…Moon wondered. What was her mentor being so grumpy over, these couple days? Was it really because she
missed Eclipse’s funeral? Or was it something else? 

You are such a great writer!

Part 5 is in the works and is going to be very long, being the turning point where the actual plot begins. (There will be new characters introduced!)

In the meantime, a new Identity card needs to be filled for a important side character:

The Victim

Name:

Age:8 (Do not change)

Pronouns:

Appearance:

Black or Red:

Other: