"Well," Memnol thought, "I suppose it's a rather good thing I decided to play it safe with Astral Projection this second trip too. Still, an astral plane that temporarily unifies soul and body? Although, Aura awakening is a possibly related concept or process on second thought… Actually, Aura is a rather further interesting thing now that I think of it next to that context, as it does to an extent, not destroy but sort of weaken the barrier between soul and body, allowing the soul to physically protect the body and alter the world around it. I wonder, if the process were boosted an amount, likely by either magic or some other source of power or the like, could an Aura awakening technically transform someone from their initial self into a form of Outsider? Native Outsider technically or at least most likely, but still. Another idea to store away for now. I have other projects, namely going through that entire convoluted process I've set myself on. Ah well, three epic spells, two crossbreedings, some rampaging before most of those, and an unreasonable number of fabricates should get me it. Well, now that I really think, I could just… I was about to do a long, hard, and currently near-impossible task, when I can simply do it the relatively normal way, with comparatively few risks from it. Right then, that brings me down to just two epic spells and the Fabricates, and two of those aren't even technically necessary, though practically they are. I've done fine without a technical familiar so far, I can continue on without for now and 'settle' for that, perhaps I can look into how some other wizards removed their ability to even have a familiar for something else. That could've been a major time sink for little relative benefit compared to doing it the normal way."

After his realization of how to make one of his plans much simpler, Memnol started putting his Sextant of the Planes back into his haversack, which he was starting to get worried about filling the capacity of, so he figured he'd move much of the smaller stuff such as pens and the like to his belt later before finding a more permanent solution. Probably in the form of numerous Portable Holes. Memnol sighed and mused to himself as he did so, "Why must my mind always jump to the least practical ways to get things done?", though Velvet was the only other one to hear him.

Once he was done Memnol stood all the way up and said to Velvet and Coco standing nearby, "Well, that is all I require. As per our initial agreement, you may call me to one task without needing to bargain further, though all beyond that which was outlined within the initial verbal contract will of course require proper compensation."

In an instant, before either could say anything, they suddenly noticed they were sitting down in their normal room again with Fox and Yatsuhashi sitting down and feeling mildly odd in their combat gear on the beds, Memnol having dismissed the spell.

Memnol then got up pulled his dagger from its usual up the sleeve and splotch on the arm hiding spot, and said, "Would anyone prefer to cut their own hair?"

Fox, of course, said, "Not it!" garnering some more laughter. The Dagger was quickly passed around and four lockets of hair were cut, though Coco did get Fox's for him. Yatsuhashi did give Memnol an odd look, though when Coco saw it she said, "Trust me, this is practically nothing compared to what we saw last time."

Soon enough Memnol tucked away the hairs into different pockets for later organization, he'd already sent an IA to pick up some reusable plastic bags which he was looking forward to, and gave them all a brief, "Pleasant evening then."

He left them and the room behind, walked into the first bathroom he found, was glad it was empty, stepped into a stall for safety, turned invisible, then teleported off to his sewer lair.

Once in there Memnol stepped into the Crunch Zones, and started making an Amulet of Fabricate. Part way through that the Wrights finished making their pairs of Planar Ring Gates, so he spent the time to set them both on making more space in the room into Halls of Silence, which took them out of the Crunch Zones, and Memnol sent out an order to his IA's to look into getting stuff for proper forges or smithies down here for the Wrights to use. At around 5:50 or so in regular time he finished it. The chain of the amulet was thin and made from adamantine and the front had a circular disk design made from platinum with the word 'Refine' engraved in draconic on the back, and whoever wore it and knew the command word could cast Fabricate in a moment just by speaking it, affecting up to 200 cubic feet of most materials or 20 cubic feet of mineral materials at a time. Part of him wanted to add it to the Ring of Sequestering instead, but he knew that him or his wrights putting any more enchantments on the ring in his current state would take a much longer while than 'just' putting it onto an amulet.

Soon enough Memnol put it on at the same time as his normal Greater Amulet of the Planes and after picking up one of each of the Ring gates from the pairs, he was able to use the Amulet just fine to Plane Shift onto the astral plane next to Ozpin's Tower, or at least its astral plane counterpart. He left the gate meant to give fresh air near the bottom of counterpart-Beacon, hidden away in the gardens, and the one meant to vent air near the top, on the roof of a random building facing upwards, so that if there was wind it couldn't just blow the exhaust right back in. A couple more trips around and four fabricates later, and the interplanar ventilation was set up.

Once this was done, Memnol had decided to eat among the other students today, so he invisibly teleported to a typically secluded spot on Beacon, one of the roofs, and then he felt a slight vibration from a belt pocket. Memnol pulled out his scroll to see, well nothing until he ended the invisibility for a moment. Once he could see the scroll he saw had been sent a message from Ozpin, "Report to my office soon, important meeting."

Memnol of course immediately teleported to the courtyard, went visible while out of sight, then walked to the bottom of Ozpin's tower and pushed the button to request the elevator. After a good few moments, the elevator arrived, and when Memnol considered it's previous apparent speed from the trips up and down before, he was almost certain that all the button at the bottom typically did was inform the Ozpin, or whoever the office occupant was, that someone requested the elevator. From there he figured, correctly, that it would then be either sent down or not by some other mechanism. What Memnol didn't know about was the camera system that let Ozpin check who it was.

Regardless, the elevator soon opened to reveal the Headmaster's office. Inside was Ozpin standing in front of his desk, Glynda beside him, and a young woman with a dark complexion who was a touch less than a foot shorter than Ozpin, and a solid three feet shorter than Memnol if he were to stand completely upright, with brown hair, brown eyes, and some rather visible face marking, stood slightly to Ozpin's other side.

When Memnol brought his Vatic Gaze across her, as he had developed the slight habit of doing when meeting possibly noteworthy new people, his cheeks gave away his smile when he found that she was a caster. One that was, compared to Ozpin and himself, so incredibly weak that either of them could probably wipe the floor with her without so much as stopping whatever they were doing since her highest spell level according to the gaze was merely 3rd, but a caster nonetheless.

Quickly putting the pieces together Memnol said, "I take it you would be Amber?"

Amber nodded and said, "Yeah. And you're-" Amber took a quick moment to go over it in her head again, "Memnol Elodyr, right?" After Memnol's brief nod she put a hand forward and said, "It's really nice to finally meet you. I can't say thank you enough for helping me."

Memnol took it and shook for a moment, saying, "I am simply glad that Headmaster Ozpin and I aren't the only-, pardon a moment." He turned to Ozpin and said, "The room is secure I trust?"

Ozpin said, between a couple sips from his mug, "You don't need to worry about that."

Memnol said, "I understand, Headmaster." "If it is unsecure, it is like this deliberately."

Memnol faced Amber again and said, "I must say, It has been a while since I met a fledgling caster like yourself."

Amber said, "Oh, yeah, Ozpin did tell you that I was a Maiden, didn't he? You even knew my name last week, I heard you say it to Ozpin in the infirmary."

Memnol was more than a touch caught off guard by the first part, but somewhat hid it by clearing his throat and said, "I was informed that you were also capable of magic, and you are indeed a maiden, though don't misunderstand, this is certainly not an attempt at anything."

At this Ozpin cracked his typical grin while Amber started lightly laughing. Ozpin said, "I suppose I should tell you some more of the details. The Maidens are the four women, one for each season, who can use magic aside from myself."

Amber interjected and said, "But you can too? I know Ozpin and Qrow both told me that, but still, you know? It's almost hard to believe. Well, no, It's not that hard to believe, but you understand, right?"

Memnol considered very briefly how to answer that, before he decided the most pertinent way of doing so, and quickly cast Limited Wish. It caused Amber and Glynda quite the stir when a 5x5 wall of violet fire from the duplicated Wall of Fire appeared to the side of the room, though Ozpin remained mostly calm and said, "That won't actually damage the room, will it?"

Memnol said, "It only harms creatures on one side of it or that touch it. As such, I recommend against, well, touching it. It'll dissipate in a few minutes."

Amber said, "Woah, that's good. I think if I practice I could do that too, though."

Memnol said, "I chose that specifically for that reason. In fact, from what I can tell, it is only just beyond your reach. Still, it is at about your stage where every caster thinks they're such great stuff since they can cast a Fireball or Lightning Bolt or two, and I was like that too as well at that time."

Amber said, "It's magic! Actual magic! I've been a Maiden for a long time and I'm still impressed by what I can do! How are you able to be so, I don't know, nonchalant about it?"

Memnol gave Ozpin a look, the classic "Should you say it or should I?", to which Ozpin did a classic return gesture by slightly tilting his mug towards Memnol.

Memnol smiled and said, "Separate senses of scope and scale, I suppose, Ms... I suppose we haven't had a proper introduction, have we?"

Amber said, "Oh, I guess not. Well, I'm Amber, the Fall Maiden."

Memnol said, "Memnol Elodyr, Archmage." He then looked over to Ozpin and asked, "Was this meeting the primary purpose of my presence here?"

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Ozpin took a drink from his mug and said, "One of two. Amber is going into Vale today, and I'd like you to accompany her."

Memnol said, "Guard duty, I'd presume?"

Amber was the one who responded, "Oh, I'm sure it'll be fun! Maybe you'll even see something you like too!"

Memnol said, "Ah, going out for some shopping. Well, there's only so many hours in a day." He turned to Ozpin and said, "Permission for us to leave?"

Ozpin said, "Have a nice day," and typed something into a scroll of his. Memnol's felt his scroll vibrate a moment after, but knew he was meant to read it later. Soon enough, Memnol and Amber departed down the elevator together.

Once they were gone, Glynda looked at Ozpin and saw a sort of tiredness she'd seen some times before as he let out a deep and long sigh, then he quietly said- well something. Glynda had heard whatever language Ozpin spoke in only from him, and only a couple of times before. All she could tell was that the language was inherently operatic and it was something beyond ancient.

Glynda walked up to Ozpin's side, put a hand on his shoulder, and said, "It's not your fault. You weren't the one who did any of that to him, you had no control over it, no way to have control over it, you didn't lead him to be who he is, and you're doing what you have to."

Ozpin said, pausing for just a moment to return to the modern tongue, "But I did use him, a young man and one of my own students, as an assassin with barely any hesitation. Straight from my lips."

Glynda said, "After he said he had assumed it was already part of your agreement. An agreement that, after you translated that conversation for me, I understood he put forward in the first place. He was the one who marched on into this office and practically insisted on it."

Ozpin said, "He didn't come to me that time, though."

Glynda said, "That's just not possible. We both know this. But even then, you gave him a choice, and he made it on his own."

Ozpin said, "Yes, but-"

At this, Glynda drew her weapon, The Disciplinarian as it was aptly named, and smacked in on his desk as she said, accentuating each name with a gesture, "Just like Me, James, Raven, Qrow, Taiyang," she pointed right at the cross pin on Ozpin's scarf, "and Summer."

Ozpin was silent for a long few moments after that, until he said, "You're right. You're right on all of that, every last part. I guess this old and senile man just needs his caretaker to get him back on track now and then." He had more levity towards the end.

Glynda said with a grin, "If you're senile, then where does that leave Howard?"

Ozpin said, "No, he's a very different case. He's been having those since before he served in the war he told me. Not abnormal at all."

Glynda said, "Since he served Mantle, and met you putting his best bullet forward, you never seem to mention."

Ozpin said, "Details, details, a veteran's a veteran and he's a decent man. Seems to have an almost perfect memory for every last one of those books, too."

Glynda said, "When he's awake. He's been falling asleep at the desk quite often now, deliberately from what I hear."

Ozpin said, "Yes, a week or so ago he told me that the dreams were starting to get clearer for some reason. He's been trying to get some clarity from them, apparently it's actually slightly worked."

Glynda said, "Really? How?"

Ozpin said, "Apparently he's able to see more of the details of one of the fish things now."

Glynda said, "Hm. The ones that had, what was it again, the three eyes?"

Ozpin said, "Yes, 'All of them just as red as my good one back in its prime' he says."

Glynda said, "Odd dreams, although most dreams are like that, his just seem to be recurring more often. Regardless, the next most pressing issue is the dance, I've forwarded you Team CFVY's most recent…"

Business went on more or less as usual for a school from then on.

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The elevator down was quiet, though idle conversation picked up slightly once they left. They talked of nothing very important, Amber was simply curious as to how classes at Beacon were. Memnol responded that they were, "Rather easy, but still interesting and in one case, entertaining."

Amber said, "That's good, what's your favorite?"

Memnol said, "It's a toss-up between Doctor Oobleck's history class and Ms. Goodwitch's combat class."

Amber said, 'Y'know, I never really got what the amazing deal was with combat class. I mean I kind of understand, battle rush and all that, but I never really liked it."

Memnol said, "Eh. It's more the feeling of victory for me. Direct combat is one way to manage, even though it isn't ideal."

Amber said, "Oh, you prefer to keep your enemies away?"

Memnol said, "Like any sensible practitioner, yes. Ah, would this be our bullhead?"

Amber said, "Yep, just us and the pilot."

Once the flight had started, Memnol pulled out his scroll and said, "I need to check something, don't mind me."

In his messages he found one unread, from Ozpin, "Amber knows she's supposed to be back by around 7, make sure she's back no later than 8."

Memnol put the scroll back away and, figuring there would be a decent amount of time, took out some rare inks and a piece of blank printer paper, as it turns out modern materials worked fine as long as it was of proper quality which the brand of paper Beacon let students use was, and started writing out the spellglyph for one of his favorite spells that he'd planned on using in a couple days.

Amber, rather curious, asked, "What's that?"

Memnol replied, "Pieceglyph, very complicated, very precise, needs my focus for now, won't explain further."

The rest of the bullhead flight over was quiet, he hadn't quite finished it however, but he was fine with that. As they exited, Memnol followed Amber dutifully as she went about her day. First stop was a dust shop. Just before they went a poster on the front on the shop, "The 40th Biennial Vytal Festival - Hosted by the City of Vale".

Memnol said, "Pardon me, what's the Vytal Festival?"

Amber had a look of shock on her face, "You don't know what the Vytal Festival is?!"

Memnol said, "Born and raised quite the distance from Vale or any of the other Kingdoms, and even then I secluded myself often in research and the like. So no."

Amber said, "You've got to go! It's a great big festival where all kinds of people from, well nearly everywhere, all get together. There's all kinds of stuff from everywhere, food stalls, technology exhibitions, entire miniature carnivals, open markets, everything!"

This did manage to catch Memnol's attention, mainly the exhibitions part which he was already concocting ideas on just how to jumpstart one of the schemes he had cooking.

Memnol said, "Actually, if it's okay with you Ms. Amber, could we make one more stop if time permits when your own business is done?"

Amber said, "Yeah, of course."

Their second stop was an upper-middle end clothing shop called Dornstroms. For some reason Memnol couldn't quite figure as he saw them, there was some form of movable barricades in one of the back rooms as an employee passed through, and he swore there were shovels and barbed wire behind those.

As they were walking through the shop Memnol had stopped at a certain point and asked Amber, "Ms. Amber, what are these?"

Amber looked over and almost laughed, "You've seriously never seen those before?"

Memnol said, "No, but I like them. Quite the amount actually. Even if I'll have to make my own to fit, a prototype would be helpful. And what is this material it's made from?"

Amber did laugh very quickly, almost a giggle, and said, "They're just cargo pants. I don't know, you can check the tag some time. Go ahead and throw it in the cart if you'd like, I don't want to leave you feeling dragged along all day with nothing for it for yourself."

Memnol shrugged and did so, then noticed the time that had passed by now, and said to Amber, "Excuse me for a moment, I'll be right back", pointing towards the bathrooms.

Amber said, "Oh, yeah. I'll meet you in front of the store if I don't see you earlier, okay?"

Memnol nodded, though he paused to hand her 30 lien for the pants as well as order the IA's to stay behind and guard her, before making his way over to the bathrooms, ducking into the disabled/single stall, locking it behind him, turning invisible for safety, and teleporting off to his sewer lair. Pleased to find the next two halls of silence were finished, Memnol then set the Wrights on two rather different projects. One was set on a pair of aesthetically particular Boots of Swiftness, and the other on a two weapon Speed Necklace of Natural Weapons. The whole process, including the few moments of freezing water and turning it into the needed materials from the crunch zone, took about ten minutes or so in real time. Once that was over he teleported back and gave his hands a quick wash, he rather liked the modern ubiquity of soap, then met back up with Amber.

Amber said, "Well, that's all I really had to do. Just wanted to walk around, stretch out. Where did you want to go?"

Memnol said, "Ah, one second for me to check my scroll." ... "This way," and he started walking along.

----------------------------------------

Amber was almost fascinated by how Memnol seemed to so heartily embrace so much boring stuff. The main word here was almost, since after arriving at the small government office some while ago, waiting, then filling out some forms and waiting again, Memnol had spent the last fifteen minutes reading through an agreement most people would've signed before the clerk could finish speaking. The next half an hour was spent in a roughly similar way to Amber, and she didn't even say anything until she was outside again with actual sunlight on her to bring her from the stupor she'd practically gone into.

Amber said, "That was so boring. Did you get what you needed from there?"

Memnol said, "Very much so. You are now looking at the proud founder and sole proprietor of the Weave Solutions Corporation."

Amber said, "Wait, you just started a business there?"

Memnol said, "I have the official company logo right here." He held up a piece of paper with the symbol, which he drew from more than a few sources to make.

The base of it was a large eight cogged gear, a holy symbol of Primus or Mechanus, held in a left hand made of metal. The hand held it in a particular way with its fingers, where if you connected the fingertips with lines, as the logo did, you ended up with an upside-down star shape or pentagram, a holy symbol of Asmodeus. Inside the cog Memnol's rectangular Arcane Mark, now also his official emblem, touched the inner edges and the Arcane Mark's also circular center had an eye, which made the overall logo also a left hand holding an eye, a holy symbol of Vecna. The Cog was depicted in a metallic gold color, where the hand, eye, and pentagram were depicted in metallic silver, and Memnol's own Arcane Mark was depicted in a deep sapphire blue.

To put it simply, he had managed to make one image that, if constructed properly as a necklace or some such, could potentially serve as a holy symbol to three different gods, then stuck his own Arcane Mark in the center too, and called it his company logo.

Amber said, "That's pretty detailed. You made it yourself?"

Memnol said, "Well of course. Pardon the amount of time that took, there's quite a bit more paperwork involved when you declare that you're technically based out of a not yet built location in Menagerie."

Amber said, "Why Menagerie?"

Memnol said dryly while waving his tentacles around some amount, "Yes, I also wonder why I had decided it'd be best to choose Menagerie, yet that reasoning eludes even me, despite all eight of my non-walking limbs attempting to grasp at it."

Amber said, slightly embarrassed, "Oh, right. Sorry."

Memnol said, "Bah, it's of no importance. Well, all of our business is done rather soon. Shall we return to Beacon?"

Amber said, "Yeah, that sounds good."

With that the two of them started walking back to the bullhead docks. Partway through the walk they IA Gold, scouting ahead of them, reported that in the alleyway was a disheveled man with a pistol listening to them approach. By the look of it he intended to mug them. Memnol gave the IA permission to kill, and one quietly whispered Disintegrate later the potential mugging was gone, and the trip back to Beacon was otherwise uneventful.

Once they were off the bullhead, Amber said, "Thanks for going with me Memnol."

Memnol nodded and said, "I'm simply doing as I'm assigned. I suppose I may or may not see you around, regardless, good evening for now."

Memnol and Amber then went separate ways. Memnol went over to the library, waving to the librarian on the way in since he was awake at the moment, then went for a corner and called a pair of the Beacon patrol IA's to him in addition to his usual retinue, Bronze and Blue, then teleported with the lot of them over to a spot near Kuo Kuana. A few seconds later after some mental math, and he had teleported around 500 miles east, near the center of his land. However despite the temperature, Memnol didn't exactly find it to be a warm welcome.

That might've just been due to the, if his eyes weren't deceiving him, 8 Devastation Scorpions which happened to already be approaching his direction by chance and, based on the suddenly more deliberate movement, had just noticed him.

Memnol ordered the IA's not to interfere and said, "I had thought that the whole 'Dangerous Wildlife' preventing expansion thing was overblown, but now that I'm actually the one trying to claim some territory, I think I understand both why they'd be rather insulted by being given this and told to deal with it, and why the kingdom with the least potential landmass still has a 'take it if you can' policy. This is going to be tedious for a little bit."