language Plot

The first Thursday that the Mysteries of Ames class meets.

The first Mysteries of Ames Friday "lab"/"recitation."

Darcy demonstrates to the class that about half a mile into Ames Forest, all navigation and atmospheric measurement instruments start to go haywire.

During a Friday lab meeting, Darcy leads the class to a remote and mysterious fairy ring, referred to in local legend as the "Circle of Woe."

It's called that because everyone who's ever stepped inside it has stepped out of it extremely emotionally distraught.

Darcy tries to listen in on a conversation between Uncle Jules and Tanner Addison. The very fact that they are associating causes her trust in Jules to falter, and she grows wary of him, leading the rest of the class (minus Rex) to grow *less* wary of *her.*

Laurel asks Page to get coffee with her to "catch up" before a Friday lab. She is acting very strange. There is something she wants to tell Page, but she's having trouble getting it out. She asks Page to meet her by the woods the following day, and says she knows it sounds strange, but to trust her.

After a month of spending Friday nights in Ames Forest, nothing sounds strange to Page anymore.

Page has followed Laurel's directions and met her by the woods. Laurel leads her to Maplewood, where she is introduced to her dryad family for the first time and told the truth about her mother.

Of course she's excited, but it's also really hard to process that this was kept secret from her for so long.

There is an unassuming Addison R&D satellite trailer close to the quarry and away from the other lab trailers. Darcy has gleaned from snooping on Jules that this trailer is significant to a shady Addison operation, and she telekinetically pickpockets Rex in class on Thursday in hopes that one of his keys will give her access to it (it is strange that he keeps a very full keyring when he lives in a newer dorm that is unlocked with a swipe-card). Instead of completing their scheduled Friday lab, Darcy asks the class (minus Rex, who has been skipping labs for "frat meetings"/parties for a few weeks now) to come with her to examine. She makes it very clear that Dr. Devine Does Not Endorse This.

Amongst high-tech equipment, they find half-dead and mortally wounded dryads, in limbo between tree and human form, strapped to metal racks. One, still semi-conscious, struggles to explain how she got here before passing out entirely. The MoA class is forced to hide and then flee as campus security approaches, but Darcy manages to grab a small vial of something.

...And Laurel enlists Page's help.

After what they saw the night before, the class has lost all faith in Dr. Devine. They are fairly convinced that Mysteries of Ames itself is connected to whatever Addison is doing in that trailer, and that there's much more to this than they know. Page confesses to the class that she knows more about the dryads, and tells Laurel about what she saw. Later, Laurel takes the class to Maplewood and explains the prophecy to them.

Despite all the danger surrounding them, Maplewood itself is protected by a confounding spell. It is the second night of the midwinter festival when the five visit, and Maple and her daughters welcome them to partake. Page, meanwhile, already struggling to process that she is half-dryad, struggles even more to process that she's the chosen one, and grows angry at Laurel, who she feels has been manipulating her.

Under mounting scrutiny from both Dr. Devine and the Addison corporation, the crew has resolved to retrieve the armor crystals for the Maplewood Dryads so that they can defend themselves against Addison Co. without depleting their magic. They stay this first night in Maplewood.

The boys' families are informed by Darcy (still technically the TA, according to her email signature) that they are on a "class trip." Since driving is too dangerous, and Page and Darcy's protective magic will be more efficacious under the cover of the woods, they have to take the journey on foot.

On the way, they search for the Oakwood crystal in and around the abandoned factory built upon what once was Oakwood, but they find nothing.

They stay in Elderwood a day more than anywhere else, since Elder is asleep when they arrive. Elder provides them with enchanted weapons in addition to the silver cuff.

With the quest becoming more and more perilous, the journey home takes a while.

-The foggy evening they leave Elderwood, they are met with a stampede of towering, skeletal-thin horses, some of them mounted by shrouded figures. After a longer and more difficult power struggle than any they'd encountered on previous days, Darcy is captured by one of the riders, and Silas is nowhere to be found.
-Page, August, and Jesse spend a few hours searching desperately for their missing friends, but after this proves fruitless, they must continue on with the quest by getting back to Maplewood with the cuff (which they had assembled hiding near the old factory after leaving Elderwood) as soon as possible.
-That said, the much more severe threat of the skeleton horses means that they have to spend much more time hiding and evading conflict, especially with their animal whisperer gone.
-When they arrive in Maplewood late the night of the 15th, Maple informs them that Silas is back as well, and that he returned with a silvery stag who was supporting him as he walked, exhausted. He is resting. Darcy's whereabouts are still unknown.

At about 2 in the morning, Page, August, and Jesse have just settled down after hours of talking and drinking to ease their nerves. After the boys have dozed off, Page gets a nearly incoherent text from Darcy, who is asking for help. Page begs her to either tell her where she is or share her location, if she can manage either. Darcy manages to convey that she is in Devine Hall, and Page throws caution to the wind, immediately leaving to get her.

Everyone else is asleep when she leaves, she gives no indication of where she's going, and after getting Darcy's text, she turns her phone off again (which they've been doing to strategically preserve battery). When August, Jesse, Llewelyn, and Lark wake up to yet another person missing, needless to say, they are not super thrilled about it. However, Page returns a few hours later, carrying a weakened, wounded, and debilitated Darcy bridal-style back past the magical border of Maplewood. When Page has gotten Darcy to drink water and rest, the boys give her a talking to about running off and doing stuff alone. Not only is making herself a lone target like that a strategically stupid move, they would also be crushed if anything had actually happened to her, which it well could have.

The Mysteries of Ames class, the Maplewood dryads and family, and the visiting Magnolia devise a plan to lure the Addison forces back near campus in an attempt to expose them, for disproportionate violence if nothing else. They resolve to leave the (steadily depleting) safety of Maplewood in the wee hours of the morning, laying low (but not too low) in unprotected forest until the horses arrive.

Every "soldier" they could muster will either be in tree form just on the safe side of the barrier or hidden in the shadows, including Clover (Silas's dear/deer friend), and trusty mosswolves are obscured as shrubs.

A break of dawn showdown at the edge of the forest near campus, a few hours long, between the Addison squad (gray mages, skeleton horses, poisoned dryads, and college-aged family friends of the Addisons) and the Maplewood Alliance (aided by sympathetic students, though few are back on campus yet).

Page "dies" temporarily; Jules essentially induces a magical heart attack (and her friends, who at this point all have either new or significantly bolstered magical/intuitive gifts, essentially keep her alive with the power of love). When Callie leaks the footage of the battle, Devine is unseated as president, and Addison simply lays low. Neither of them suffer *legal* consequences, though, just hits to their reputation (and barely, for Addison) that necessitate more cunning on their parts moving forward.

Lark is killed. Cottonwood is killed after being told not to leave Maplewood in the first place. Poplar, knowingly aligned with Addison, is killed by Dogwood, and both sisters feel great remorse in the end for the ways they've hurt each other.

Ames is still dealing with strange publicity and even more rumors than usual after the battle. The ancient, ineffectual Arnie Gladwyn serves as interim president while the Board of Trustees selects a new leader; unfortunately, Addison's influence over the school (even in relative disgrace) means that it will be one of his shills. Maplewood is impenetrably fortified and safe now from wrongdoers, but at what cost? Maple herself is still declining, and her sister and daughter are dead. As the main five and their close friends struggle to readjust knowing what they know, the Spring Gala approaches, and they manage to put aside the existential weight of what they've participated in to engage in some good old-fashioned interpersonal angst.

There's gonna be a sequel I just don't know what yet