When they successfully downloaded from the gondola, Maxius the Younger abandoned them in the little town outside the purple crystal tree, in spite of his promise. With an appeal to a higher power (in this case the cherished Lawgiver), he ordered a steam-powered autocar to carry him west, toward the jagged spine looming over the fjord, beyond which lay the private hunting grounds of House Aden, the so-called Western Face. Quinn wanted to analyze the little machine, but it was well-guarded by a small gaggle of oculomancers and Aden family soldiers.

The fog was beginning to roll in over the steep valley walls to the east, and soon Seth and Quinn found themselves completely rudderless in the little town. Seth found a little coffee shop called the Seven Witches Cafe, and shortly thereafter he managed to extract directions to the University from one of the baristas. Burdened with heavy wallets, the two brothers set off in search of their destiny, somewhere to the north, lost in the oppressive fog. All the while, Quinn struggled to comprehend the alien sensations that had assaulted him since he received his new aura.

They knew they had found the University when they stumbled upon six belfries surrounding a huge marble fountain. The young men stalking the courtyard all shared that unmistakable combination of aloofness and aimless determination that marked them as college students. In the face of Seth's relentless diplomatic assault, the University students quickly divulged the location of the office of the dean of White Chasm.

The University of White Chasm resembled a type of crumby old castle, not dissimilar to Castle Noxus, but more spread out across lawns and courtyards and the occasional graveyard. Some of the buildings looked dank and uninviting, while others resembled magnificent religious monuments. The dean's office was located on the second floor of the library. It was, in Quinn's estimation, the most terrifying building in the world. The library resembled a clean, well-lit sewer, all narrow bone-white tunnels packed with sturdy wooden shelves coated with varnish and burdened with leather bound tomes. Aden family soldiers with rifles and sabers patrolled the structure, and while they looked intimidating at first, they were in fact quite helpful sources of information.

Up a flight of crumbling stairs within one of the bone-white tunnels, there was a massive wooden door that was so heavy that a soldier needed to be summoned to open it. Beyond this formidable barrier, the two brothers came upon a more reasonable door labeled: "Yana Justicia Sophia, Dean."

"That's a lot of names," Seth observed.

They registered with the oculomancer in the waiting room outside the dean's office, and then they were almost immediately allowed to enter, preempting the students who had been waiting since before lunch.

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The dean's office contained unkempt stacks of papers as well as a small white wooden box painted with some type of winged purple reptile. The box had already been opened and a handful of thermometers were scattered haphazardly around its base. The dean herself proved to be a thin middle-aged woman with a long face and a knowing smile. Like most of the officials and soldiers in the town, she was garbed in black and red, with the unmistakable black swan crest of the Aden clan prominent on her breast.

"What are your names?" she demanded, even before they had closed the door.

"I'm Seth," Seth said as he hastily took a seat across from the woman.

"I'm Quinn," Quinn added as he pulled a chair from the corner to sit beside Seth.

"Why are you here?" the dean asked.

"We want to learn ethermancy," Quinn said.

"Obviously," the dean said. "I have memorized the names and faces of every single Heritor in the world, and you are certainly not heritors. Which makes you commoners. And since this is the only school in the world that teaches ethermancy to commoners, that must be why you are here. Now, my question still stands. Why are you here?"

"To learn ethermancy," Quinn repeated.

"I think she wants to know about our project," Seth said.

"What project?" the dean snapped.

"I'm the world-famous Flying Man," Seth said confidently. "We are going to build a flying machine, and we are going to use ethermancy to power it."

The whole gamut of human emotions danced across the dean's face. It took her three whole seconds to master her extended reaction and restore her face to that of the disinterested bureaucrat. For some inexplicable reason, she suddenly became cognizant of the white wooden box on her desk. She greedily gathered the scattered thermometers into the box and squirreled the thing away under her desk.

"You would not have made it past my clerk without auras," the dean said. "She has the eyes, after all. Very well, do you have enough money to pay for tuition?"

Seth slapped his wallet, which responded with a hearty metallic clanking sound.

"We have enough money to pay for tuition this year," Quinn said. "We also have promissory notes that will allow us to pay for three more years."

He grabbed the documents out of his jacket and offered them to the dean. She regarded them very briefly and then handed them back.

"According to the laws of Lyn in general, and the laws of White Chasm specifically, everything looks in order. While I can tell you are both from Lyn, I would recommend asking an oculomancer for a passport. Do not go through the immigration center if you were born in Lyn. Classes are already in session, so it is somewhat unusual for you to join the University right now. However, there is no legal reason why you should be rejected, and if you have the money for tuition, then I'm not going to stop you from spending it."

Satisfied with her rambling, the dean stamped their papers and waved them away.

"Please ask my clerk to send the next group in," she said.