10/30/2026: Strixhaven Broom Lag

The timeline is coming apart at the seams, and nobody on campus seems to own a needle.

Hester visits Professor Thenn hoping for a plan. She receives, instead, a frank admission that the problem is above his pay grade, and, as a consolation prize, an upgrade to the time-travel spell she carries. It will now take nine willing travelers instead of seven, with a discount for the vertically modest. Squid counts as a partial passenger. Hester possibly does too. Nobody asks her to confirm. On her way out she pockets a chronomancy text by one Professor Sigurd C. Bowman, a name that sounds suspiciously like the name of the older Squid who found them in their own timeline .She takes it anyway, just in case this is the same person.

⚔️

KFC has collected Squid from the Votress's yard, where he had been enjoying a quiet afternoon with Ayan. Titania needs him, KFC explained. Ayan must stay. Squid comes the way a cat comes when called: technically. They return together to the Hex.

⚔️

Alistair decided a restorative trance was a more pressing objective before setting out to kill Murgaxor. He wakes with a start to find Squid standing over him. Squid would like Alistair to know that he really does not like him. Alistair takes this under advisement. Again.

⚔️

Reyna packs with care: the fine tools and mithril found beneath the volcano.. Her alternate self watches her pack from the doorway. Alternate Reyna is unsettled by how comfortably this Raina discusses killing professors, given the matter of the late dean. Alternate Raina announces she can't be around her anymore, wishes her luck, and adds on her way out that she hopes the faculty headcount holds steady. It is the nicest thing anyone says all day.

⚔️

Diro packs everything useful, transcript included, and keeps their stand close. The stand is developing. Diro tries to teach it arithmetic, which goes nowhere, but its curiously featureless face seems to smile. It indicates that it has, grown attached to a small bedside lamp, and Diro packs it for his creation. He and the Stand cross campus, and it befriends a squirrel. 

Diro tells it that the squirrel cannot come with them. The stand turns to him and appears to smile again, its featureless face dented as if smiling. And its shoulders are shaking. As if it is laughing.

⚔️

KFC finds Rampart's engagement ring, purchased for her alternate, abandoned in a teacup saucer: platinum, sapphire, a scatter of tiny diamonds, engraved Yours forever, Rampart. She leaves it there. Forever, as things stand, is not looking long.

⚔️

Alister returns to the Votress’s house, explaining that they are time travelers and this world is ending and the little family must come with them to another time.  The Votress declares that Alistir and Titania have lost their minds and threatens to call campus security.

Squid, skeptical after this exchange, agrees to come along but only if Titania really needs them. Alister tells them they do, which is true in the sense that the group needs it to be. They do not share every detail with the child, who comes along because they believe Alister completely. This says something about either their sincerity or their upbringing.

Also secured by Hester, the Wand of Rewind, good for nine uses a day. It recharges if luck is very kind and crumbles to ash if luck is not. Everyone agrees this is fine. And reliving the last ten seconds of life will come in handy.

Hester's duplicate, alarmed to discover why Hester and her company are decamping, is sent to the Biblioplex for tomes of any chronomancy books that deal with the collapse of timelines. The three tomes available there yield nothing.

 The group departs fifty years into the past, with echo of Hester’s promise that she prevents the premature end of Alternate Hester’s timeline ringing in her ears.

⚔️

They land on the steps of the Biblioplex, half a century in the past and mere days before the Convergence Catastrophe, when the Central Tower was destroyed, killing several professors, swallowing a vault's worth of priceless relics and igniting the two arcane fonts, the Star Arch in Archway Common and the smaller within the Biblioplex called the Hall of Oracles

On the Common, seven professors stand at the foot of the Central Tower. They seem to be cataloging items that the Hexmates easily recognize: the Sewermancer Staff, the First Student Spellbook, the Orb of Unspent Stories, the Founders' Fountain Pen, and an Architect's Compass identical to Debbie's. After a time, the professors pack up and agree to reconvene Saturday at noon. The group watches, ever hearing the meeting time, and debates what to do. 

Among the crowd moving toward the Biblioplex is Youngaxor, still a student, still years from becoming the problem, and Quentillius, the teen-aged father of the Quentillius in their own time. 

They clock the party as visitors, mistaking them for potential students touring Strixhavenn, and the Hexmates do nothing to dissuade them from this belief. Alistir explains they are simply visitors, looking at the school, and a bit fuzzy from broom lag. Both Youngaxor and Quentillius accept this, and Quentillius invites everyone to see his band playing at the Fire Jolt cafe tonight, passing a fistful of free passes. Nobody commits to the event, but everyone takes a ticket .

Once they are alone, Titania reaches out with magic to locate Murgaxor's Amulet of Fire Protection. They feel nothing nearby. Either the bullywug hasn't yet arrived in this time, or he is somewhere beyond the range of the Locate Object spell.

The group debates what to do: guard the relics? Stake out the tunnels where Squid was once held? Split up to do both?

Squid has wandered off to examine the gigantic tower, staring upward with a face that is inscrutable to either Titania or Alister.

Alistir refuses to go anywhere near the young, kidnapped Squid will appear in this era in the possession of Oldgaxor. They worry their Squid will be tempted to rescue The captive Squid too early. 

The Squid they brought tugs on Alister’s sleeve, whining, “If I’ve finished helping Titania, I would like to go home.”

Alister persuades the child to stay with them, which Squid reluctantly agrees to.. For now.

By current count there will be three Gaxors in this Strixhaven: the young one, the old one from their home timeline, and the old young one from the timeline they just abandoned. 

“The one we need to save,” Hester adds, looking worried. 

The heroes stand on the steps of the past, waiting for a villain who hasn't shown up.

He's late. They're early. Nobody is on time.