Much to the surprise of the six adventurers, Montgomery led them out of his office and towards the heart of the academy. Between classrooms and common areas, through numerous winding hallways lined with lockers and doors to classrooms, the seven of them travelled.

Perception Check: 20

Dianna passes.

Dianna took note of the second time she walked past a certain classroom door, which she made note of initially for the paper garland strung across it denoting someone's birthday. Then she noted the third time she walked past it. Then the fourth, this time coming from the opposite direction.

"Is this a tour?" Dianna asked sarcastically. "Or is there a reason you're backtracking us like this?"

"I see nothing gets past you," Montgomery shook his head and smiled. "Are you familiar with the different types of magical seals?" Montgomery took a deep breath as he prepared a simple lecture.

"I see!" Mina nodded enthusiastically. "A wayward seal!" Mina glanced back and forth at the other five members of the group, who looked at her with blank faces. "Don't you know? It's a special type of seal or ward from the objectual family, which requires something to be done in order for the seal to open. In the case of a wayward seal, the seal will only open if a specific path is followed."

Montgomery blinked rapidly, his educator's momentum completely killed. "Very good," he said as he composed himself.

"How the hell you know that?" Chix asked.

"Objectual seals are basic training for most druidic paths," Mina explained. "Many druid circles hide their secrets behind hidden pathways."

"Druids?" Dianna looked surprised, or as surprised as someone like her could look. "I'm surprised you keep such high company."

"It's nothing special," Mina replied sheepishly, "my mother and father were both druids from different circles, and they made me join a circle at a young age."

"I see- nepotism!" Lawrence chuckled. "My favorite."

"Is it really alright for us to be unsealing a-" Simon began, "...Praetor?" he whispered at the end.

"It's fine," Montgomery shooed him. "This is just a seal on the hidden door. The real security comes after."

"And you trust us with this information?" Dianna asked coldly.

"Of course!" Montgomery replied laxly. "And besides, I doubt any of you would remember the route."

Dianna raised an eyebrow at him.

"Sure, fine, maybe one of you would." Montgomery shook his head.

The path was long, winding, and complex, which both exhausted the party as well as put them at ease. Dianna at one point asked if the wayward seal worked both ways, meaning the Praetor in question would have to follow this route to escape, to which Montgomery replied that it unfortunately didn't.

Finally, the seven arrived before a small, simple doorway, tucked away in the northeast quadrant of the school. Montgomery pulled out a small silver key, unlocked it, then opened it and ushered the other six inside.

The interior of the room was exactly how one could imagine a janitor's closet. Cramped, dimly-lit, and littered with small objects. The seven of them struggled to all fit into the one room, but fit they did.

"Whatever comes next, you better do it quick," Lawrence grunted, his face nearly buried against the wall.

"As quick as I can," Montgomery replied halfheartedly.

Montgomery turned and face the wall nearby. He breathed in deeply, then began:

"The ultimate object of education is not to teach, but to enlighten. Students are not meant to emerge from class with a greater understanding of the material you have taught, but are instead meant to emerge with a greater understanding of the world in its entirety. Math, science, art, literature; these are all naught but different languages by which the world can be understood, and different lenses through which the world can be viewed. Ultimately, I have not succeeded as an educator unless my students have been changed for the better."

The lights in the room brightened, and turned blue in color. Montgomery exhaled, having finished that all in one breath.

"What the hell was that?" Lawrence asked. "Some kind of mantra?"

"A cipher seal," Montgomery explained. "Mina, would you care to elaborate?"

"I've actually never heard of a cipher seal," replied Mina. "What is it?"

"Allow me, then," Dianna chimed in. "We had a couple of these back at the monastery. Cipher seals are magical locks that respond only to certain words or phrases. Elaborate cipher seals, like this one clearly is, are guarded by an entire paragraph."

"This one you do need to complete to get out," added Montgomery, referencing Dianna's previous inquiry. "I went with something I would never forget, and that my little prisoner would never bring itself to say."

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"Impressive!" Simon cheered.

"I'll say," Lawrence nodded. "Say, Dianna, what were the seals on your monastery?"

Dianna opened her mouth to begin, and then stopped herself. "You almost got me," she shook her head and admitted. "I'll say it when it's true, you almost got me."

The group laughed, including Dianna.

"Yeah, that's good," Montgomery laughed. "Anyway, check this out!"

Gravity gave way as the room entered freefall. With frightening speed, the cramped closet raced downwards, pulling the assembled group up against the ceiling. Laughter turned abruptly to screams, as the group clutched each other for dear life- besides Montgomery, who laxly reclined in the air, pretending to laze against an invisible chair.

As soon as the fall began, it ended. Within five seconds of the drop, the screech of brakes clamping down- machines that none of the assembled besides Montgomery knew of- coupled with the rapid return of the seven people to their feet heralded the end of the worst of it. The screams died down as calm returned, as the room gently slowed to a stop at the bottom of whatever invisible track it followed. The door opened, and the six adventurers brushed themselves off and let go of each other, pretending as best they could that they'd kept their cool.

"Ahem," Lawrence coughed, letting go of Alphonse. "That was... something."

"My favorite part of the trip, honestly," laughed Montgomery. "Five seconds of zero gravity. I'd think you guys would be used to it by now."

"Why?" Simon asked genuinely.

"You ever plummeted to the ground at greater than nine point eight meters per second? It cancels out the force of gravity, meaning you don't go up or down."

"Noted," said Mina blankly, her thousand-yard stare fixated directly ahead of her. Though she was looking at the room before her, it didn't register with her brain until Montgomery stepped out and into the chamber.

As he did, the other six followed, and gazed around the round chamber in awe. It was a massive dome of a room, about thirty feet tall and sixty feet wide, that seemed to be hewn crudely from the stone around it. There was no elegance or sense of architecture to the cuts- it was instead as if the room was carved hastily and urgently. The room was dimly lit on all sides by blue flames, an iconic spell named Infinite Candle that most people learn by the time they turn thirty. But most important of all were the five taut chains that stretched down from five equally spaced points in the ceiling down to a singular humanoid figure at the room's heart. The chains were forged of an alien yellow steel, which shone with a purple iridescence that none of them- not even Alphonse- had seen before.

The group stepped forward, and approached the chained figure, bound to a kneel with its arms outstretched. The chains shackled it on each of its wrists, each of its ankles, and around its neck, and their tautness fully prevented any form of movement. The figure greeted them with a scowl, certain of the inevitable visual dissection it would experience.

It was a largely masculine figure, its body covered in scales that were an incandescent rainbow not unlike bismuth crystals. Its muscular figure rippled beneath these scales, tensing and contorting as if poised to break free at the very fraction of a second opportunity presented itself. Its face was humanoid, but bore two pairs of eyes, each of which shone with a burning purple malice. It lacked hair, but instead bore a crown of scaly growths, which protruded from its scalp in such a way to create a crest around its head, somewhere between a halo and an arrangement of standing stones. Along its throat was etched a deep sigil: one long horizontal line, and one singular dot beneath it, apparently deeply inked into the creature's body like a tattoo, but with a haphazardness unlike modern tattoos. Despite its regal physiology, the creature was clad in damp and dirty rags. Most notably, the ground around it was saturated with dried blood, and to what or whom it belonged to was a burning question in everyone's minds.

"Meet Praetor the Sixth," announced Montgomery, "Milleboreaus. Ruler of all dragonkind."

"Milleboreaus?" gasped Simon. "I've heard that name before... where was it..."

"It was Dagon," Dianna confirmed. "He shouted that at the dragon that came to our rescue. I had thought briefly that was the dragon's name... but we already knew its name to be Krythemum. I suppose that explains everything. Or, well, some things."

"That doesn't surprise me," Montgomery shook his head. "Dagon's always been big on blaming Praetors if the things they represent misbehave. To it, a Praetor is meant to lead by example, though Millie here doesn't exactly think that way," Montgomery nudged Milleboreaus with his feet as he said that last part.

"Is it finally my turn to speak, oh gracious captor?" a deep, bellowing voice scoffed. It was immediately menacing, though nothing it had said was inherently fear-inducing. Each word it spoke dripped with malice and with hatred, so much so that one could feel the atmosphere of the room change as it spoke.

"It is not," replied Montgomery smugly. "Don't worry though, we'll be out of here soon enough, and then you can go back to being all alone."

"It would be a privilege to be rid of you," Milleboreaus rolled its eyes.

"I'm sure," laughed Montgomery. "I've just come to introduce these six adventurers to you."

"Your class pets? Why bother."

"Much more than that, actually," Montgomery knelt down, and looked Milleboreaus in the eyes. "The six of them found your Ark."

Instantly, the chains rattled with great tension as the Praetor attempted to surge forward. It struggled against the chains, threatening to rip them from their bindings to the wall.

"You lie!" it shouted.

"I most certainly do not," Montgomery laughed. "Go on, tell him what the name of the ship is."

"Th- the Zailiens," said Simon, hesitantly.

The chains rattled again, as Milleboreaus nearly took a whole step forward, its arms pulling forward as if to strangle anyone and everyone it could get its hands on.

"So... it is true then..." the Praetor said bitterly. "Our Ark soars once again... and these... these..." it lashed its arms out in frustration. "These worthless mortals! They have taken possession of our sacred craft, our birthright! Tainting it with their vile flesh and rancid air! Worthless, insignificant insects! Nay, to call them insects is a dishonor to Ghayal-Artka! You are worth less than rotten meat and twice as revolting!" Milleboreaus continued to thrash about in its chains, hopelessly incapacitated.

Montgomery stepped back, and the rest of the group did the same, eager to be away from the raging Praetor.

"He's harmless," explained Montgomery, "just a big old baby now."

"Is it really... safe?" asked Mina. "You know, to have him chained up beneath the academy?"

"It's the best place to keep him, believe it or not," Montgomery sighed. "The conflux of magic here at the heart of Pillosa is half the reason the seals I maintain can exist. The lake we're under is a natural bed where magic collects, and makes for a good wellspring for all the spells cast throughout the academy.

"So we are under the lake," noted Dianna.

"Of course. It's also a last-ditch effort in case Millie gets out- we can try and drown it. Though I doubt it would work."

"So..." Lawrence inserted himself into the conversation. "Whose blood is that?"

"Millie's," Montgomery added bluntly. "Every so often it tries to rip off its own limbs to get out, so I have to come down and stop it."

"That sounds like... a big problem," added Mina hesitantly.

"Less than you'd think," smiled Montgomery. "It can't regenerate as long as it's got those shackles on it."

"And why not?" asked Simon.

"Siderite," Montgomery began to walk away, and gestured for the six of them to follow.