Regina slowly made her way down to the arena, heart racing in an exhilarated manner. It was all exciting. Glory for her school; a chance to prove to the English that they, too, were brilliant and an intelligent force to be reckoned with. She'd gotten Runes as her task subject. Runes...It was almost too easy.

Finally approaching the door, she entered, looking around for anyone else. Where was Vilhelm? Didn't he know they started their challenge today?

Shrugging it off, because Regina was more than competent to handle this task on her own, if need be, she proceeded inside, flashing her false, beaming smile at the crowd. Hello, everyone. How are you all doing? Wiiiiiiiiink. It was a wonderful thing that she didn't get stage fright in these types of situations. Nope, the fifth year lived for a stage and audience.

She was right at home.

...And there was a wall! Getting closer to it, she was amazed, in Regina standards, by all the various markings. There were so many. The task, at first glance, seemed simple enough. She was expected to find runes, right? It made the most sense. In fact, just standing there, eyeing the wall, she easily spotted raidho, wunjo, and dagaz. Upon actually reviewing the task, she blinked.

That was R, W, and D...Maybe that was the challenge. Maybe she was actually supposed to be carving in 'word'...which would mean she needed to find 'othala'.

She continued to eye the wall, waiting for her partner. Perhaps he could shed some light. She could've missed something.

Vilhelm hurried after Regina. He kept his eyes low until he reached her side. His eyes widened at the wall. Muttering a bit to himself, he scanned the surface. Yes, there was wunjo and dagaz. He stole a look at Regina.

"Do you haff wunjo and dagaz?" he asked. He kept looking and easily found raidho this time.

"I still haff one rune to find left," he said, his shyness disappearing in the light of this situation. This was harder than he thought.

Regina shot her partner a smirk. Vilhelm was there! Finally! Although, it had probably only been a few moments. "I do see them." She affirmed; her eyes still not leaving the wall stretched out before them. As she'd continued to look, other words had popped to mind.

'Word', yes, but also 'wind'; wunjo, isa, nathiz, and dagaz. How they would have helped them escaped the arena, Regina still hadn't gotten that far, yet. 'Ward'; wunjo, ansuz, raidho, and dagaz...or maybe it was supposed to be reversed. 'draw' required the same runes. She thought she might have glanced ansuz in the mixture of marks and scratches.

"I was inizially zhinking 'word' as zhe answer, zo be ironic. But now I'm zhinking zhat just because iz says 'four runes' doesn't necessarily mean it'll just be four characters." That seemed next level and something on a tier of learning that would be above normal skill level. There was a rune that looked like eihwaz and that was 'æ'. There was also one that appeared to be thurisaz and that was 'th'. Isa could've been any of the scratches on the wall. So, that would've been their vowel. Too many consonants. One always needed a vowel to be strategically placed in any and all words.

Regina quickly communicated all of this to her partner, almost animatedly. "What are you zhinking?" She reached out and touched his arm. It was unsure what for, though.

Vilhelm nodded as Regina agreed with him. So there were those three runes on the wall, yes. But the fourth one...? Vilhelm turned to Regina with a raised eyebrow.

"Vord as the ansver? But how vould that help us get out of the arena?" he asked her. "Oh, of courze. But now I can see some more runez... how do ve... uh... pick vhich ones are right or not?" Vilhelm turned his focus back to the wall.

Regina was right. They needed to find vowels, otherwise the word would not... work.

"Do you think that ve vill need to unscramble the runez?" he muttered to her, then mentally slapped himself on the forehead. Of course they needed to, otherwise it would be much too simple.

Vilhelm let his eyes flit down to where her hand was on his arm before looking back at the wall. He answered her, "I think ve need to try and make sense of it all. For instaance, I doubt that 'vord' vould help us escape, but I can see 'vind' as vell. Maybe vind vill carry us out?"

A rumble. The walls of the arena shake slightly before they start to move. Time's running out, someone must be close to finish.

You need to hurry before the walls trap you inside.

"I zthink ve'll need to formulate a vord from zhe runes." That little tidbit was stated clearly in the instructions. Her mind was racing with the possibilities and whether or not dagaz would count, seeing as there was a scratch mark through it. Over-thinking. That's what Regina was doing. She needed to step back and view it as a whole.

"I'm zhinking zhe runes ve'll be vorking with are raidho, wunjo..." Wait, something had just caught her attention. The fifth year moved her face closer to the wall, almost glaring at what she'd thought was the 'dagaz' rune. Dagaz couldn't be used. The instructions were 'well-formed' and the lines that made it up weren't fully connected. There were breaks in them and that alone was enough to make that rune lose it's power.

Everyone knew that.

Her mistake.

"It von't be dagaz. Zee how zhe lines don't connect all zhe way?" She scouted the rest of the wall. It was her hunch that raidho and wunjo were definite parts of the word. They were formed by themselves with no other scratches or marks interceding in their lines. They just needed to identify more runes. Easy enough since there were many she was now taking a second look at. "How about raidho, wunjo, eihwaz, and uruz?"

Suddenly, there was a sound behind them and Regina whirled to look. It'd startled her.

The door was closing.

She swore colorfully under her breath, grin disappearing. She hated getting this serious with an audience watching but Regina was feeling the pressure. They needed to figure this out, like, now.

"Vilhelm, zhe door. Ve must hurry."

Vilhelm whirled around as the walls started shaking.

"Regina!" he warned, but she was already talking. He stepped forward. "Ahh, you are right. I see the disconnection."

He hurriedly tried to figure this out.

"Maybe that vould vork.... but how doez that help us get out?"

All these additional scratches and marks were confusing her. Regina wasn't a novice to Ancient Runes but this was hard. And all her over-thinking wasn't helping their cause.

She stopped short.

Other runes seemed to be making themselves known to her, suddenly standing out among all the others. Was that a sign that her initial hunch was incorrect? It was the only thing that made sense since the letters involved in the previous runes didn't really spell any sensible words.

"Vilhelm, do you zee Isa, Nauthiz, and Gebo like I do?" A second opinion was very much so needed in this situation. Raidho was there and staring her in the face but maybe that was too obvious a selection. Maybe it was there to deter them from other, more hidden, runes; just like that misleading dagaz rune.

Wunjo (w), isa (I), nauthiz (N), gebo (G)..........Wing?

Maybe it was wrong, too. Truth of the matter, Regina did not feel confident at all.

Time was running out and Vilhelm was starting to get frantic.

"Those runez..." Vilhelm scanned the wall. He easily found Isa and Gebo... but he couldn't find Nauthiz. He stepped closer and tentatively ran his hand over the wall, trying to not miss any runes.

"OH yes, I do see those runez!" Vilhelm said. "So that means wing... But I can't be sure if those are the runez... how do ve know ven ve have gotten the right ansver?"

"I'm over-zhinking zhis, aren't I?" Regina tapped at her chin, eyeballing the wall more. Perhaps she was making this more difficult then it really needed to be. That had to be it.

She just didn't know.

Wunjo, raidho, eihwaz, and...a fourth one. It couldn't be dagaz. The rune was disconnected. She knew that much...and Isa? That would've been two 'I's...and that type of word made no sense. Not for this...

"Zhere's something here zhat I'm not seeing." She looked to Vilhelm, then. Really looked at him. "Zake my spot and zell me if zhat helps your perception."

Her confidence was a little shaken and she was frustrated. It was best to rest her eyes a moment.

Vilhelm nodded to Regina overthinking. They both needed to step back for a bit.

"I think I see laguz... Right over there," he said, pointing towards the rune. Wunjo, eihwaz, raidho, and laguz? Would that work?

"Is this making sense to you? I think that time is getting very lessened," he said, anxiously.

Regina was chewing at her lip like it was her job. This was stressful. Maybe she'd been wrong about the lines needing to be connected, because the three most prominent runes were STILL wunjo, raidho, and dagaz. Yes, there was eihwaz, but using an 'I' among those letters didn't make sense.

W, R, D, I; Wird? That wasn't a word. Not one she was familiar with.

"Vilhelm, I zhink I was vrong. I don't zhink it'll matter about zhe lines not connecting properly. Something zells me ve still need 'dagaz'." It was just standing out BOLDLY, almost like it was a fresh rune; like it was important...

Regina stopped abruptly and blinked.

Were they pairing this with Divination? Would that be, like, right after this task?! There was a word that might have made sense if she could find just one other rune.

"Look for Jera!" Her tone was urgent, renewed with hope; she herself also doing so. Jera translated to 'Y's, right? She moved her gaze to the eihwaz rune unintentionally, pausing in the jera-search. If they couldn't find 'jera', it'd have to be 'eihwaz'. She'd made up her mind about this word. She was tired of looking. It made the most logical sense and the fifth year was willing to gamble on it. So, that was that.

Wunjo, eihwaz/jera, raidho, and dagaz.

As the girl says the name of Jera, the rune Eihwaz give a visual pulse. Over and over again. Followed by the three other runes she was staring at, on the wall; Wunjo, Raidho, Dagaz.

ooc: The next task is about to begin, but this task will carry on for another 24 hours.

Vilhelm was about to answer Regina when the wall started pulsing. He jumped back and landed on Regina's foot. He quickly apologized, then moved on to the... More important thing.

"Regina?" Vilhelm started. "Do you see the pulsing vall? Vhat doez that mean?" He narrowed his eyes, concentrating on what was pulsing. Eihwaz, Wunjo, Raidho, Dagaz. In that order. Repeatedly. Vilhelm closed his eyes and kneaded his forehead. This was getting very tiring to his brain. I, W, R, D. Wird? Driw? Wrid?

"Vhat doez that mean? I am assuming those are the letter ve need to use-or maybe ze are not! Are ve supposed to eliminate them? Am I over-thinking this?"

Or maybe just Iwrd?

Regina gave him eyes for a few moments, but was then distracted by pulsing? on the wall when she'd said 'jera. Not from any different place that might have indicated it's location. It was eihwaz...and not just eihwaz. The other four she'd been eyeballing for however long were also pulsing like tiny heartbeats on the wall.

She'd thought right.

Wyrd and it's long 'I' sound. Phonetics. Of course.

"It is 'wyrd'; fate personified, using wunjo, eihwaz, raidho, and dagaz; in that order You do know zhe carving spell, yes?" Regina didn't wait for his confirmation, though. She'd already taken off towards the plaque, wand brandished. They'd need to work quickly. He could watch her and learn if he wasn't too familiar.

"Intaglio wunjo." Her determination and focus were both intense upon her face as she said the spell. She'd been forced to get serious in front of the crowd and for now, it didn't matter about appearances. There was a task at hand. "Intaglio wunjo, intaglio wunjo, intaglio wunjo..." Her hand remained steady as the rune materialized beneath her wand tip. Once she'd finished tracing it out, wunjo illuminated.

Perfect.

"You can do zhe next." The eyes she gave her partner were encouraging.

Vilhelm stared at Regina. She was confidently figuring out the runes, leaving him almost in the dust. He closed his eyes and put a finger up: the universal symbol for hold on just one second. He went through her logic one more time.

Fate personified. So the "word" was literally "word". But did that help them get out of the arena anyway? Or maybe they didn't need to, and just carving the word got them out? Vilhelm nodded to Regina's question, but she had already strode forward (still confident) and carved the first rune.

"Okay, I shall do the second rune," he said, stepped forward and pointing his wand forward. "Intaglio eihwaz, intaglio eihwaz. Intaglio eihwaz," he murmured somewhat softly, the spell still working. He nodded towards Regina to do the next carving. Teamwork, yes?

Regina watched with baited breath as Vilhelm got down to business. Her eyes were greedy, taking in the sight. What was after this, she wondered. They'd been slow in completing the task but hopefully they'd finish. Finishing was top priority, yes?

With eihwaz completed, the fifth year retook her place and raised her wand again. "Intaglio raidho..." Utter concentration had fitted her features, not leaving any room for slacking or doubt. This was the right word. She believed it deep down in her gut and it would work. "Intaglio raidho, intaglio raidho..." Forming this particular rune was a bit more involved, of course. A straight line and then a series of diagonal ones. One, two, three; like so. "Intaglio raidho, intaglio raidho..."

Moving away from the plaque again, Regina leveled Vilhelm with more eyes. He'd take the last and then...what? She didn't know what would happen next. SOMETHING would happen, though.

Vilhelm nodded as Regina finished carving her rune. He decided to just finish carving, then they could figure out what came next. He stepped forward, ready to carve dagaz.

"Intaglio dagaz," he said, as forcefully as he could. "Intagllio dagaz." They could do it. "Intaglio dagaz." It didn't matter that people were watching, because they could complete the task. He knew they didn't have much time left, but surely they could pull it off? "Intaglio dagaz." He finished with a final wave of his wand. He stepped back to see what would happen next.

Unless they had to figure out how to get out now?

As soon as the runes are carved on the empty plaque, they sizzle and shift presenting a new puzzle:



Interpret the puzzle correctly, follow the instructions accurately, and your way out of the arena will be guaranteed.

...And the Divination aspect of the task rears it's ugly head.

Regina read the clue several times, trying to decide how to interpret it. 'Wyrd' meant 'Fate' basically, so that was telling in that respect. Spread your 'fate' on the heath. 'Heath' could have meant many things but she was going to assume the definition 'open uncultivated land' given the situation.

"Spread your fate on zhe ground?" Her tone was low and thoughtful. The next line mentioned 'Draw'. Did that mean they were to actually draw something on the ground in front of the plaque?

"What do you zhink?" She asked her partner, still thoughtful.

Ah. Vilhelm nodded, considering smacking his head. Of course there was to be Divination in this task, how could he forget? He allowed himself a smile - they had carved the right answer - then read the plaque. "Spread your wyrd on the heath, draw your stones out not with greed, outside it shall take you if you heed."

So... In order to get out of the arena, they needed to spread their wyrd on the hearth????

Then Regina spoke. Spread your fate on the ground. Ahh, that made more sense. But it actually didn't really... What was their fate and how did they put in on the ground? Vilhelm paced for a bit, then dropped his wand onto the ground. Maybe his fate was being a wizard? His brain lit up and he himself went down on the floor, laying on his back. This probably wasn't right, but he couldn't be docked points for trying to figure this out, right?

"I'm just thinking," he explained to Regina. Think, Vilhelm, think!

What was Vilhelm doing?

"I don't zhink this is the zime to lie about." Regina's look was a touch surprised. It was muddy and gross down there. He was going to ruin his clothing. Yes, even at a time like this, she cared about that sort of thing.

Back to the puzzle, though; how confusing. Her mind drifted towards different forms of Divination that might have used stones. Lithomancy, Ornithomancy; kinda. It was so cryptic. Of course, it couldn't be that. They didn't have any stones with them to work with; or runes for that matter.

Wait. Not runes in the conventional sense...

Maybe they were meant to actually draw the runes on the ground? That would make sense as far as the 'Spread your fate on the ground' part went; the second, too. "Draw your stones not with greed." It was a long shot. So totally long and entailed a lot of work.

"I zhink ve're meant to draw zhe runes on the ground and do something with zhem." Regina didn't know what yet. Perhaps Vilhelm would know because her brain HURT. So bad.

To show conviction in her thinking, she went ahead and starting drawing the runes out. If it worked, it worked. If it didn't...Well, they tried.

There is another rumbling sound before the riddle on the plaque disappears, and the walls start producing white foam announcing the end of the competition. The grand doors to the arenas open up.