Those Lacking Divine Appointment Needn't Apply (Open to 3 Students)

To gain the Goddess' teachings one had to apply briskly. She had set it up on the School's bulletin board, the notice had read of an exclusive class open to only five students; not only run by the Goddess Haze but allowing weapons and promising combat. She assumed the places must have been taken immediately. The tabs plucked from the bottom of the board, placed at the entry-way to the lecture hall.

She hadn't payed attention to who took them nor when. She had no reason to. Only the best and most studious of students would be attending their classes enough so as to notice. Naturally, with so few spaces, they must have gone lightning fast. Her having put up the letter just the prior day.

Unfortunately however; her students had already disappointed her, not one was early enough to greet her with a lounge chair nor fawning over her very presence. No drinks nor gold had been presented to her. Disgusting. Shameful. This lesson would have to be exceptionally brutal, it was what such naughty the students deserved after all. She would make this lesson particularly grueling, as if it were not already.

The Goddess stood at the base of the Academy's mountain. Any further and she would be knee deep in flora and fauna. How gross. To mingle with insects, that was the student's job. They were supposed to clear her passage so that she could set up this very lesson. But with none here, divine intervention was required. She strayed from the academy's own cut path (which led down the hill and into the forest Eventually connecting with that of the civilian's who wandered the forest from Bellemuse) and began to cut her own.

Without the slightest of hesitations the Goddess raised her right hand and from it fell heavy smog, thick in debilitating poison. With a thought she cast it before her. Eating a perfectly symmetrical and rectangular path into the forest. The plants turned black and dead, shriveling up before she could step on them. Crushing them to dust. The Goddess walked until she found a clearing, no trees for a good stretch of around ten meters in all directions. Perhaps it's intended use was as a picnic site, but the Goddess was about to change that. She walked to the clearing's center and brought her hand to the ground.

Suddenly the dense purple spanned out, coating the land surrounding her. Not five seconds later she lifted it, and life was barren from the land. The black dust was quickly blown away by the weak winds, scattering the ash throughout the forest. In it's place was left dry, lifeless, land. No seeds would grow in it for many many seasons.

She smirked to herself, enjoying her own show of power. Without even trying she had created a new path, the Eminence Haze Pathway she so dubbed it, leading to a whole new facility the school could use. A training ground in the forest. It's applications, why, they were wider than the meager mortals could even believe. She had crafted this dirt path in less than a moment, a path which had never been there before. If that was not symbolic for her person, she did not know what was... well, perhaps if it were pathed in gold. But this was a start. A path she had crafted on a whim, even if it were a dusty brown colour.

The Goddess was dressed in her regular garbs, for she would not be fighting today, though she had brought her weapon for disciplinary purposes. Not that she would need it. The long dress with a slit up one side, elegance was key.

She stood in the center of the newly formed arena, retrieving her mace from her purple hand bag and inspecting it thoroughly, awaiting her pupils. Could they not find their way, why, they must be blind deaf or dumb not to notice the path she had crafted.

The Class Notification Details:

Roux had picked up a tab for a special combat class the day before, curious to see what that would constitute and eager for an opportunity to gauge his strength against other students. It was perhaps a quarter to high noon in Syne when a ruckus had started in the dormitory before Roux lunged out from his window, helmet half on, threatening to fall off if not for the hand holding it in place and sword, roughly perpendicular to him, just narrowly avoided catching on the sides of the window. Crap, I’m gonna be late! he thought to himself, having been occupied with odd jobs  all morning. The last taking far more time than he’d thought it would and leaving him filthy with dirt and dry mud.

Coming to ground, his eyes flicked all around, seeing the other students both coming and leaving, their attentions pulled for a moment by his stunt before returning to their business. Content with that, he strapped his sword tightly onto his back, and jimmied his helmet on before hunching over and breaking into a sprint.

The journey, while not overly tiring, would take time. Enough so that the idea of simply taking flight seemed much more appealing. But this was not the time for thought. He had only to focus on pushing one foot in front of the other faster, then faster still. The world began to lose color, his vision narrowed, all that was left was himself and the path directly in front of him but then, the ground beneath him seemed to widen as his vision did; and, in a moment, the rest of the world was there again, full of color and life. It was then that he realized that he had arrived, only barely past noon, only now feeling the sweat that had worked itself out of him as well as the rate at which his heart had been pounding against his chest.

Taking long deep breathes, he looked around for his professor and fellow students as he tried to still his heart. It didn’t look as if anyone had come yet. Have they all left already? If I knew I was THAT late, I really would have just flown over here. His heart rate had more or less normalized by then as he noticed a path that had not been there before, traces of corroded plants quickly fluttering off the ground. With no other leads and time still running, Roux proceeded down the path, hoping to find his class, else, find something else worth doing.

As he came to the end of the path, it opened up into a wide clearing which gave off the feel that he had just walked into a dueling arena; and, standing in the center was a woman dressed in some extravagant outfit which he could not help but think that it did not seem practical for combat. In her hand, there was what looked to be a golden mace, which gave Roux the impression that it was more a decoration than a weapon. Roux could not imagine her as anyone but Madam Haze, but, with the lack of students around, he was still unsure of the situation. Taking a deep breath in, he placed a hand around his mouth, as if to act as half of a megaphone before hollering.

“Excuse me, are you Madam Haze?”