Fionne's Journal Page 1

An oddity of a request went out across the SEEKER Network. It's rank E-S, which Professor Cidraxis has never seen before. The Professor has also suggested I follow up on it, which… I suppose is for the best. I've only done a handful of these SEEKER missions and they _were_ good field experience, but I feel like I'm just about to figure out the Stop spell proper! All I need is a few more lab days… And some more bouncing balls I can practice on. So be it though, I'm headed out in the morning for whatever this Affinity Test is summoned to be.

Fionne's Journal Page 2.1

Lots of people responded to this request, including some old classmates of mine from the SEEKER orientation course. Rico, Evard, Dun… and Naomi, who I'm hoping forgot just how awkward I was when we first met. That was not a good time, probably rock bottom in dealing with Father's… well, I've got a journal already dedicated to those thoughts. I've cut my ties, and I'm happier and far more successful now. We didn't have much time to catch up anyway, what with chasing a robot through the Endell streets. Acceleration continues to save my life, best spell anyone can learn. This break at a coffee shop while the next phase of the test starts is a little excessive, but at least they can make a Regalian Expresso.

Fionne's Journal Page 2.2

I despise. DESPISE, Beregaurd Swallowtail. He's just as much of a prick now as he was when I was growing up. Explains why Mother and Father liked him so much, he fits right in with their stuck up attitudes and ideals about how Magic should work. And what kind of bogus Affinity Test involves hunting boar in a pocket dimension?! Complete with knock off challenges to complicate the matter. If he made it to A rank as a SEEKER, the organization must be full of chaotic… dingbats!

At least I figured out the trick to Stop. Fieldwork has it's perks I guess. Lord only knows what ridiculous challenge he's going to throw at us after this next break…

Fionne's Journal Page 2.3

After all the nonsense Swallowtail put us through, he just left us with instructions to head to a ruin a few days travel from the city. We decided to stay in Endell for the night though. I don't think Dun was a big fan of my choice in hotel, but the Tower to the Heavens is just such a nice building. The views are gorgeous!

I'm looking forward to a respectable mission when we get to the ruin. So far this trip has been borderline silly with the cooking and robot chasing.

Fionne's Journal Page 4

Two of four days into the journey. We had a run in with a merchant that was stopped by guards due to dangers further down the road. He tried to pawn himself as one of Naomi's allies, but she shut that down fast. I'm glad she did, he seemed sketchy.

We also witnessed the phenomenon where a line of light rays rains down on the terrain. I've heard of them, but never seen it. It's dangerous! Dun got hurt trying to cross, but my Regalia Rod's shield spell kept me from getting hit. It's not the only time Dun got hurt either, a vine monster with a poison maw covered him in goop too.

Fionne's Journal Page 6

We've camped out a few miles from the ruins. Evard explained his order's unique way of putting up a tent… though I couldn't spot the difference. I got a chance to talk to to Dun too, about his “it's fine” attitude when he gets hurt. I think I got through to him a little bit though, no matter how much danger you've faced you can't just brush off the small stuff.

Fionne's Journal Page 7.1

I wanted a respectable mission, and jeez. This is some hush hush operation funded by the Academy to investigate a Gate in the ruin that's failing. That's never happened before, not in all the written history we have at the Academy. Professor Farady is in charge of the operation, he's developed some kind of mythril lined body suit that will protect us from the Orific Energies that permeates the world beyond the Gate.

This is cutting edge research and technology being explored here. Part of me is excited by the potential to make real discoveries about the way magic works, but the technology is pretty foreign to me.

Also these body suits are… well, very tight. It's a little uncomfortable.

Fionne's Journal Page 7.2

The other side of the Gate was ethereally beautiful… and extremely dangerous. We went in with a Guide, a ship captain named Humphreys. These spectral jellyfish bumped into Dun (which he actually acknowledged hurt!) and then a light of some kind lured Humphreys deeper into the Gate. Some kind of… energy permutes the place, and shakes our nerves. It feels silly looking back.

We followed Humphreys only to find these cocoons that began to attack us. They used poison magic which really battered us, but Dun came in clutch with his abilities as a Darkblade. That's when more cocoons merged together into some kind of giant insect, which was even more brutal. It had a weakness to Light magic so with a cast of Acceleration I slammed the Regalia Rod's light orbs into the thing. We barely scraped by and from the collapsed pile of cocoon left behind rose something… else. Some kind of insect like human.

It was deadly. It battered on all of us before knocking out Naomi. In the confusion of her fainting Humphreys vanished along with the monster. I wanted to leave then, but the rest of the party said we had to get the orb we were sent in for. Figuring the only way to get them to agree to leave was find it, I burned what was left of my Acceleration magic to power through the search. We found the orb which had… no, it's too silly that something was in it, it's not now, and left in a hurry. I only wish we knew what happened to Humphreys…

Fionne's Journal Page 7.3

There was no rest coming back out of the gate. The camp was in ruins, all the magitech soldiers dismantled… It was a slaughter. We salvaged from the base station outside the gate what we could to patch up Naomi then headed to the main part of the camp. There we found the attack still ongoing. Zoldyk was single handedly holding off some of the other Seekers who passed the exam and a small army of rock golems. He was knocked out just as we arrived so we stepped up to fight a Horo. At the same time, Faraday was being dragged away by another merc!

We had to let the golems destroy all the research done here, all the Orific Suits, everything. It was the best we could do to defeat the Horo launching boulders at us, protect Zoldyk while he was down, and keep Faraday from being spirited away. One small upside… The adrenaline had me cast two new spells I'll have to figure out how I did. I was able to “rewind” Faraday's path through the camp, and create a shield on Zoldyk using the Aura spell as a base.

We were saved by a ship from Regalia, captained by none other than Headmistress Larue! She and a few other big names from Regalia which scared off the attackers. I'm not sure how far away they were, but the orb reacted to my magic and the ship said they picked up speed at the end… So I'm not sure how to take that. On the ride back through the portal Larue explains they're part of a secretive group that's researching the orb, what they call a Black Organ. The Black Organs damage gates in the vicinity and can even permanently disable them if left too long. They've also found Lost Gates that are disconnected from the rest, Setra Gates. The one we entered was a Lost Gate.

There's honestly so much that's gone on… but in short we've been recruited to this group to investigate the Lost Gates and Black Organs. There's another organization out there trying to gain control of them for unknown purposes, and they're who attacked the camp. We're apparently the only ones who can enter the gates due to our high Orific Energy resistance, and we're the only ones with suits after the attack.

I don't have much interest in this as a Seeker… but the new magics and mysteries of the Ancients sure do. Time magics may be my first interest, but researching all this? It'll really let me put my name in the books. Plus it could be really dangerous if the gates start collapsing. Catastrophic even.