In a secluded chamber within the main building housing the facilities of the School of the Spirit, a Rokuga has been given workspace to prepare for the inevitable confrontation with the forces of darkness … provided they should be located soon.

A rat colored in steely grays and shadowy blacks sits on a tabletop, stuffing herbs into several necklace pouches placed at her side. She pulls out some vials of yellowish liquid and swirls them around before setting them back into a rack of similar beakers. Her movements are patient, but her flicking tail-tip betrays her tension and nervousness.

Looped into several neat coils, Qing's upper section lies back against them, all six hands clasped together to rest in a three-tiered stack in front of him. The mage's gaze is directed at the floor, possibly at the chalk circle around him. Other than occasionally muttering odd-sounding, and unintelligible phrases under his breath, he sits motionless.

The Skreek holds out one of the pouches and eyes it. "No word from the Bazaar foxwatch yet. The folks seem like a pretty tight-knit group… Makes me wish I'd put my tent closer to the Bazaar center than near Darkside." She gives the bit of leather a sniff, nods her head, and starts working on another one to add to the growing pile at her side.

The serpent says nothing, merely dipping his head a few centimeters.

There's a rapid pounding on the door.

She swings her feet as they dangle from the table. "Makes me almost wish that… huh?" The rat jerks her head in the direction of the door.

"Master Qing! Master Qing! There is a sighting!" hisses a voice from the other side of the door.

Qing looks up, and quickly uncoils. "Assemble my retinue. Prepare the diversions. You will tell me where it is while we do so; we go at once." He slithers toward the door, gathering up whatever magic supplies he'd collected on the table along the way, and nodding at the Skreek in passing. "You can tell me what you wished after this is over."

"At once!" hisses the voice on the other side of the door, and then the sounds of scales rapidly scraping over the floor can be heard, marking the unseen serpent's departure.

The rat nods grimly and gathers up her pouches. She hands a couple of stoppered bottles to the Rokuga as he packs his magic supplies. "Here… I'm going to watch your back, but if you need to defend yourself against him, try and splash him with some of this," the rat indicates the vials. "This is the bug attractant. It should give you enough of a distraction to get away." She presses a pouch into his hands as well. "And this will make the bugs leave you alone."

The witchdoctor accepts both, finding separate pockets for each in his mantle, and leaving the pouch open in one of them. He nods back, and opens the door. "Exercise the utmost caution, Ms. Na – Willow. … We can't afford to allow the entity to escape."

The rat nods silently and shuffles behind Qing. "Right."

Outside the School, a Drokar-drawn carriage awaits the rat and the Rokuga. It lacks any insignia that would identify it as belonging to the Collegia Esoterica, though the large number of wolves around or in it might still cause one to suspect that something is up with its passing.

"Roho's Hospital!" cries out a Korv merchant, who looks like he must have flown all the way back from there. "Yosah is there … He has some sort of Lapi-brained scheme!"

"Blast it!" Willow hisses. "What kind of scheme?"

"Yosah? Who is that?" Qing is forced to raise his voice slightly over the clattering of hooves and booted feet. He glances over at the guards, taking a different tangent as well. "Was there a squad of Zelaks available?"

The rat shakes her head. "A friend of Avram's… and a former friend of Francisco's. He was with me when I first discovered the bodies of Avram's family."

Qing's expression doesn't change much, but there's a slight edge in his voice. "I'll assume he has no knowledge of how to deal with this sort of situation. Perhaps he won't be dead by the time we arrive." The serpent grips the rails around the carriage's entrance with two pairs of hands, hoisting his coils aboard. "We move."

The Korv flutters to the top of the carriage. "*KAW!* Hurry!" The carriage immediately starts rolling … toward the inevitable confrontation…

The Skreek hops in beside the serpent. "Blast it all. I hope he doesn't spook the fox… or get himself killed. Why is it that Skeeks always think they can be as big as Skreeks?"