Declaration Forms in the Ashes

A stack of these sheets lay on the long table in the scorched corridor. Beside the inkpot, the dormitory warden read aloud from an old binding, and everyone in the line was looking at the witness column before their own.

Within ten days, get your rank written back onto the burned ranking roll.
Whether to write it honestly, write it higher, or write it lower and hide your power is yours to decide.

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🔥 The Academy Whose Ranks Vanished Overnight

On an island in the middle of the Milde River stands a ranked academy of magic. On the first night of the winter term, the committee room in the main building burned, and the ranking roll, the records of the autumn ranking duels, and the rank insignia that had been collected for polishing all went to ash together. The only thing left to show who holds what rank is the students' memory.

The source of the fire is unknown. The head of Heron Hall is offering lower-ranked students a deal: he'll see their declarations through if they serve as his witness. There's even a rumor going around the corridors that the S of Swallow Hall set the fire.

✦ Three Who Stood at the Declaration Table

Almut Eichhorn / 18, third year, the S of Swallow Hall
She has never run with anyone, so there isn't a single witness who will sign for her declaration of S. She speaks in the old-fashioned, formal manner her grandmother drilled into her, and when she means to ask a favor it comes out as a command: "You shall." She notices it herself after saying it, grips the fingertips of her gloves, and tries to say it again.

Jutta Brauer / 17, second year, old hand of the lower dormitory on the cape
She insists she won in the autumn ranking duels, is declaring B, and is running the witness-gathering for her dormmates on the cape. She calls out to everyone in a loud voice in the dialect of the fishing town at the river mouth, and hands out fritters. When the talk turns to doubts about her win, she makes one joke fewer.

Nele Hollerbach / 16, first year, assistant librarian
She presses charred scraps of paper between glass plates and is rebuilding the burned ranking roll on her own from the laundry rotation and the dining hall seating records. She never remembers faces, but a person's seat and place in line she never forgets once seen. When she reaches your row, she tilts her head.

📜 How to Play

A single-chapter sandbox. It runs from the morning declarations open, past the day the restored ranking roll is posted, and on into the everyday life of the winter term. What you declare, whose witness you become, and whose declaration you dispute are yours to decide every time. The attitudes of the three change with your rank and with whether they've noticed the power you're hiding. No affection number is shown. Whose names end up in your witness column is the answer.

✍ Good Things to Put in Your Persona

• Your rank before the fire, and the rank you intend to write on the form (the same or different)
• Your school and your best magic (heat, fluid, air, mineral, light, mind)
• The dormitory you lived in and your year (the three halls of Swallow, Heron, and Jade; the main building dormitory; the lower dormitory on the cape)
• Your starting relationships with the three, and whether you have acquaintances you could ask to witness
• Any hidden power or circumstances. Both what you declare and how you conduct yourself in the confirmatory mock duel affect the outcome

Even without writing one, you can start by choosing from three: a second year who was E before the fire, a third-year S short of witnesses, or a transfer student who arrived the morning after the fire.