I ended up having a really good night’s sleep last night. It was strange. I closed my eyes and then the next thing I knew, I opened them as the alarm was going off. No strange dreams, not odd lying awake for several hours in the middle of the night. It was really strange. Good strange, but now I feel slightly unbalanced. I’ll soon be right again though once the day begins. And let’s kick it off with the morning writing prompt. Timers set for fifteen minutes.
I like this. So many elements to play with.
Tuesday, October 21st: It was broken when we got here.
“It was broken when we got here,” Stella said for what she was certain was the eighth time. Again, the Sergeant scowled at her. Despite all of them saying the same thing, he seemed intent on blaming them.
Stella knew it was easier. The security team was working with a skeleton crew at the moment. All available personnel were requisitioned to help with security for the big visit. Proctor Lestan’s visit required all of the extra security it could get. While he was popular with the people, he was less popular with the noble houses and there had been several attempts on his life during his campaigning tour.
The problem was that someone, or several someone’s were using the lapse in security at the Collegium to stage a series of break ins. Sometimes things were stollen, other times nothing appeared to be missing. On occasion the break in featured so much damage no one was quite sure if anything was stolen or if anything missing was simply destroyed.
The remaining security were facing pressure from above and Stella was certain that if he could apprehended someone then he would at least temporarily be able to claim a victory. Unfortunately for him the group had all come over en masse from the Dean’s lecture. He was walking them back. He claimed it was for safety but Stella knew his mistress was housed in a nearby cottage and he hoped that after dropping them off for the night he could visit her.
Not for the first time Stella wished she didn’t know that.
There were many things her abilities gave her privy to that she wished she didn’t know.
At the moment though, it was helpful. While the hard pressed Seargent may contemplate pulling in the lot of them just so that he could claim progress, he was loath to put the dean in the position of criminal mastermind and head of their little gang.
He finally seemed to accept that he was not going to making an arrest, even though he still watched them all closely. They were allowed in to survey the wreckage of their hall. Upstairs were their personal quarters while the downstairs was shared space. There were sitting rooms with comfortable chairs and couches. Shelves filled with books and knickknacks, with the kitchen and dining room towards the back. All was in chaos. Anything that could be smashed was, anything fabric was slashed to ribbons. Stuffing exploded out of formerly comfortable reading chairs and books had pages torn out and tossed about like confetti.
Even the pictures on the wall were damaged. They were all reproduction prints in the downstairs rooms, nothing personal and nothing valuable. The glass in their frames were shattered and the prints themselves were shredded, hanging in strips from the frames.
Nothing appeared to be whole.
It was a lot to take in and as they proceeded inward Stella was stunned by the destruction. It was pointless. She could see destruction caused my a violent search or when looking for valuables. That was not what this was. It was destruction for destruction’s sake.
Ten til Midnight 