Glyph 5: Turning the Page (Part 2) by Morpheus

Chicago Il, Friday late afternoon, Nov 25th 2016

Of course, Scorn didn't have her taken to his main HQ. Trapping her hands like this, probably has experience dealing with spellcasters beyond just the previous White Lady. Took her belt, they need lessons at Whateley for when a spellcaster is caught, unable to use their hands or fingers, and had their holdouts taken or lost.

Scorn, if he harms Bianca, he and his entire organization have signed their death warrant by breaking Whateley's neutrality accords. Funhouse sure does love making twisted copies of people.

“I need to imprint on someone in order to create my reflections,” Funhouse commented in an almost bored voice. “And you were convenient.”

So that is how his power works, like a funhouse mirror, he manifests twisted copies of the person he has imprinted on. Funhouse and the copies have left the room.

White hair and a featureless golden mask, boy, Scorn sure loves to be dramatic. Staying calm and controlled while facing the man who had her family murdered in front of her, Bianca has incredible acting skills to pull this off. He knew Madeline St. Claire, Bianca's grandmother, before she became the White Lady. Just how old is Scorn?

“Oh yes,” Scorn continued. “I knew Madeline quite well. I was but a boy…only a few years older than you when her predecessor was killed. I was with her when she brought the Family to America. I was one of those who survived our decimation in the Great War…”

I stared up at Scorn with my mouth hanging open as I realized exactly what he was saying. “You… You were with the Family.”

“Indeed, I was,” Scorn said with a bitter chuckle. “I became a high ranking Hand…the first and only man to have ever earned that honor. And, for many years, Madeline and I were lovers.”

Okay, I'm starting to see why the 'no male Hands' rule exists, since the last one was Scorn, who betrayed the Family.

“It is obvious that your grandmother never spoke about me,” Scorn continued. “I am surprised at this, as I would have expected to be spoken of as a cautionary tale of why men should not be allowed to learn magic, or a warning for any other who might cross the White Lady.” By the last bit, his own tone had become cold and bitter.

What happened between them to turn former lovers into such bitter enemies? Despised being in the shadows, an attempted coup that failed with disastrous consequences. Okay, the war between the Family and Scorn's group makes a lot more sense now.

Cursed and cast out, it took years to figure out how to contain the curse. So that is why he wears the golden mask. All revenge to destroy the White Lady and her legacy, this man must be stopped.

“I will kill you, of course,” Scorn answered. “But I do not want to risk another hidden heir appearing afterwards and claiming the mantle. If I am to permanently end the legacy of the White Lady, I need to take additional precautions. Once the ritual is ready, I will end the White Lady for all time.”

Crap, she needs to be found and rescued soon. Just business, when you plan to kill her and destroy her grandmother's legacy, that is far beyond just business. Ooo, you just got Bianca mad. Punching Bianca for making an implied threat while she can't fight back, cowards and bullies, the lot of them.

Chicago Il, Friday evening, Nov 25th 2016

No way to get out of the ropes keeping her in the chair, no way to free her hands from the box, nor the material encasing them inside it. Dang, a couple of hours and no progress, she needs a miracle at this point. Couldn't even draw a proper rune with the blood drawn by the goon's punch. Kyle, the goon who punched Bianca, wonders why they didn't just bring her to the Castle. Ooo, the Family knows where the Castle is, if only Bianca could get moved there.

“You know, Mike,” Kyle responded with a chuckle. “I kind of wish I was at the Castle when the Family shows up. I’d love to see the looks on their faces when we tell them that their princess is in another Castle.”

“That would be funny,” Mike admitted with a laugh.

Ugh, a good Mario game quote wasted on these two. What the! How did Lenore, the white raven, find Bianca here? And dropped one of Bianca's spell cards on top of the box. You wonderful familiar. How does Lenore pass right through the glass like it isn't there? Mentally triggering the card at close range, good to know she can do that with cards made using ink created from her own blood.

A rust spell card, now that is something to always keep on hand in the modern world, so many uses for it. Potent too, it got the screws in the chair and the collar as well. Time to escape, but without her belt and holdouts, how? Ouch, every bit of metal in her coat pockets, even the small knife, all rusted away. Spell cards and various writing tools, oh, they won't know what hit them. Exploding runes are brutal when you can lure foes into them, and Bianca just continues to impress.

Chicago Il, Friday evening, Nov 25th 2016

Two of Scorn's men search empty offices for Bianca, armed with devisor weapons. 'Nothing to see here' spell on the door, that spell is one of the best utility spells around. Nice strategy to sneak out and escape this place, rushing will just get you caught.

I was in an office building with multiple floors, and unfortunately, I hadn’t been able to sneak out just yet. The elevator was shut down, and though I could go down the stairs, I found that I couldn’t go very far. A couple floors down, the stairs had been blocked off by some nasty magic, so I’d turned around and had been playing hide and seek through the building since.

Darn it! That means Scorn was a Hand. How is Bianca going to escape now?

*gulp* That set-up for the ritual in the old cafeteria, Scorn intended to kill Bianca and the White Lady's spirit along with her, in case there is another heir. Okay, next paragraph spells out what it would do. That is something even demons would balk at!

I imagined that if I died, then the spirit might try to find some other avatar that it could change to fit the requirements. I seriously doubted that this would work, but then again, I never would have thought that it could change me either.

You can never be sure about what a spirit will do to survive.

3 crystals that are essence batteries. Use them yourself, and Scorn won't have enough essence to do the ritual. Or do what you did, best to be thorough. Stay and fight, Bianca, what are you thinking? I know you are tired of running and hiding from Scorn and his people, but you can't do this on your own. Oh boy, she is going to stay and try to wipe out Scorn and his goons to end their hunting her once and for all. Yes, fight your way, sneaky and laying magical traps.

Chicago Il, Saturday early morning, Nov 26th 2016

A dozen spells covering the hallway and in chalk that matches the beige tiles, this is going to be brutal.

For the last couple of hours, I’d moved through the building, going from floor to floor and leaving a trail of spells behind. Most of them were completely unnoticed, their locations hidden by ‘nothing to see here’ spells which gently directed people away from those particular areas.

This is going to be like Home Alone taken to 20 for how dangerous the traps, aka spells, are, isn't it? Already drained one of the crystals, whoa.

“Cheap, fast, or good,” I muttered in annoyance. “Choose two and be glad if you get one.”

In magic and in engineering, this is the way.

Prep finished, time to set everything into motion. This is going to be glorious. Yes, the escape and evasion class is a must for many students this year. Wards to warn her of enemy movement, turning off the 'nothing to see here' spell to lure her enemies into the traps she has lain. They think they have her trapped, hehehe. Magical landmine, and both men are definitely dead.

There go most of the other 'nothing to see here' spells. 'Look here' spells with spell traps in the area, this is a killing box. A few areas are hidden with 'nothing to see here' spells for Bianca to hide in. I hope the traps do their job before Scorn comes back. Bianca, when an entire organization led by a magic-user bent on destroying your grandmother's legacy and killing you is the threat, killing them to survive shouldn't bring you guilt. The fact that you feel any shows you are a good person. That much essence to do all this without using blood ink, eep. Yes, if you write out a detailed description of everything you did for this, I'm sure Ms. Grimes would give you extra credit.

One wrinkle of the situation that I don't think has fully registered for Robert Grace is that by kidnapping Glyph, he's potentially opened up Crysis to retaliation by the family. Said retaliation would be petty and likely counterproductive, but depending on how angry they are over the situation, the fallout may hit quite close to home.

Holding Bianca in essentially an empty room and removing (most of) her holdouts was a reasonable precaution. However, Scorn's crew doesn't seem to have realized that her coat is a holdout too. I know it was stated that she lined it with defensive spells, but a sufficiently creative (or desperate) mind can turn them to other uses. I half wonder if Forte may have been behind the metal in the box, but there likely are other devisors who could have made it.

It seems Funhouse hasn't learned the saw about loose lips sink ships. Bianca might not be able to do much with her understanding of how his skills work now, but it may turn out quite handy later.
It seems Scorn has a taste for theatrics. I suppose that comes with the turf. And Scorn knew Bianca's grand mother before she was the white lady. Please don't tell me this whole mess is because he felt jilted by her.
Villainous monologuing, good for plot exposition. It seems that Scorn has always been the ambitious sort. It also seems that his actions are the reason behind why some things are the way they are. Scorn as a hand... Does that mean he is practiced in the art to some extent?
I wonder if one of Scorn's actual objectives is to become the next white lord. He didn't say as much, but the thought had to have been there. If it is, I wonder how much he values his manhood.
Scorn is planning a ritual to put the White Lady to rest. It seems to me that he doesn't know how the White Lady came to be, or at least not as well as Bianca does. The White Lady and her quirks came about as the result of an assassination attempt, IIRC. I wonder if he was able to get access to Bianca's powers testing file. Things could be more problematic if he did. I wonder if the ritual will be driven by a spoken component. If it does, I could see things going sideways quickly.

More loose lips. The Imp would get a chuckle from the princess is in another castle line, but the rest of the loyal wouldn't. Enter Lenore. Can she carry a message? Marcus would likely be interested to know where she isn't, even if it doesn't rule much out. Well, she may not be able to carry a message, but she can bring a holdout. I'm going to guess it's the `brittle` spell.
Ok, `rust`, not `brittle`. Close enough. I think the minions are confident enough that Glyph isn't in a place to do anything. Nothing like a bit of complacency to edge things towards a downfall.
And the minions failed at disarming the White Lady. I hope Bianca will take note of this lesson, if she ever finds the roles reversed. Let's see how well stocked her library of glyphs is.
Exit stage right with a bang. Bit of a tried and true for Bianca, with serious results.
Ok - Glyph is still stuck in the tower. Unfortunately (sorta), combat finals haven't happened yet. If they had, I could see Glyph taking a page from Morgana's book. Something tells me this is the sort of thing Morgana would have run into, had she taken a conventional exit in her final.
Glyph found the ritual site. I'd say her analysis of what she could (or couldn't) do was fairly solid. If she was able to get down to the basement, she probably could use her explosion glyphs to start a chain reaction, but getting there would be the tricky part.
And I think the Imp would be proud at Glyph taking the path of evasion. Bianca knows she's outnumbered, and is smart enough not to pull a last stand unless it literally is that.
Two hours grafitting the building with runes. Why am I getting the vibes of what she did to Exquisite in the tunnels, just on a larger scale.
For certain members of the school, I think both BMA and Survival are a must. Bianca seems to be one of those.
Gloves are off - Scorn is playing for keeps, and you need to too.
Trying for school credit. The worst that could happen is Mrs. Grimes says 'no'. And you'll probably need/want to talk to the psych department when you get back.