Oh no oh no oh no. He casts again while the elementals close with Fouquet and try to bludgeon her out of the air.

She flickers aside, leaving a contrail of mist to blow apart under the elemental's strike, which continues on to slam into the stone of the tower... and bounce off as an unnatural ripple passes through the stone, leaving it unaffected.

Fouquet glances back at the wall, and then lures the elementals to beat on it some more. The stone continues to ripple without being affected.

The air elementals don't seem to notice that they're being manipulated into attacking the tower; they do move around, trying to hit their target, making it not quite trivial to aim them at it, but it's not impossible.

Meanwhile an earth elemental appears, a similarly vaguely humanoid shape made of crumbling stone, and burrows into the ground at Raafi's command to try to dig the girls out.

The earth elemental encounters no surprises, digging around. It also doesn't encounter any girls.

Fouquet seems to have concluded that the air elementals aren't going to reveal any additional ability to do damage. She kills one by flinging herself straight through it, her body echoed by an after-image of water that freezes the elemental into an ice-cloud, before shattering. Then the ice melts down into a torrent which batters the second elemental down into the ground before exploding into steam with a bone-shaking ka-boom.

Sylphid picks that moment to dive-bomb Fouquet, Tabitha and Kirche on her back, both unleashing a cataclysmic storm of fire and ice straight down on Fouquet's head.

Fouquet doesn't dodge this time. She raises one hand, a thick curtain of water forming above her. Kirche and Tabitha's attacks slam into it with enough force to kill an army, but Fouquet doesn't even budge.

(Below Fouquet, on the ground, revealed by the air elemental's destruction, is a spherical cage of water containing Scyelen and Henrietta.)

He teleports into the cage, leaving himself vulnerable for a few seconds while he grabs the girls and begins casting again. (The earth elemental continues its search, unreachable underground.)

It's a very tight fit. Scyelen and Henrietta both gasp in pain as Raafi's weight squishes them against the inside of the water cage. This isn't helped by how, the moment he appears, the cage lurches and soars upward.

Before he can get his second spell off, a hand plunges into the cage and rips Raafi through the water, tossing him back out into the air.

Fouquet hovers beside the cage, not even looking at him. Streamers of water bolt out at Sylphid forcing her to veer away.

Scyelen's wand is in her hand, she shoves it through the water, just barely, but before she can cast, Fouquet grabs her wrist and pulls her out of the cage too. She flings Scyelen away easily, like so much trash. Scyelen gasps and flails, tumbling as she falls.

He loses the spell.

He hits the ground with an unpleasant crunch. A second later, though, there's a blue glow, and he's fine. Another glow, brighter, marks Scyelen's landing.

The ground rushes at her, and Raafi's magic saves her, but... for just a moment there.

Her Element split.

And her fall slowed.

Scyelen scrambles to her feet. Henrietta is trapped. Henrietta is alone.

No.

Her Element split.

Fouquet is still looking up, tracking Sylphid. Distracted?

Scyelen closes her eyes, and goes deep. Drawing on her magic like she never has before.

And between one second and the next, Scyelen becomes a line-class mage.

She raises her wand, and starts to chant. The same two words, over and over. She read the spell in Henrietta's gift. She knows the theory. All she has to do is feel out how to combine her two Elements in the required way.

(Raafi is quickly running out of options. Scyelen is trying something, though, maybe whatever it is will be more effective than what he's managed so far. He pulls himself to his feet and heads over, getting out the entirely inadequate-seeming knife as he does.)

The moment Raafi's hand closes around the hilt, the runes on his hand light up, and power rushes into his body, suffusing every muscle, sharpening every reflex, making him superhumanly fast and strong. The knife in his hand is a part of him like his own flesh, and he can do anything with it (that can theoretically be done with a knife, anyway).

As for what he should do...

"Catch her!" Scyelen yells. "Néant! Annuler! DISPEL!"

Stillness.

Silence.

Emptyness.

A wave of power blasts out from Scyelen's wand. It washes over Fouquet, shredding her water-echo, her attack streamers. It obliterates the fog, the mist. It erases the water cage holding Henrietta.

And then it hits the side of the tower behind the princess, ripping into the stone in a violent shower of magical sparks.

Henrietta falls.

Fouquet turns away. She pokes the wall of the tower, and it instantly dissolves into sand, pouring out a massive hole. She floats inside, among a series of display cases. On the far wall is the backside of that massive oak and steel door Raafi saw during the princess's tour.

He's not looking at the tower; he's got a princess to catch. He runs.

The power of the gandalfr is mighty. It's easy, very easy, to reach her in time, and to catch her gently. Henrietta lands softly in his arms and clings to him.

Fouquet, meanwhile, picks up a specific case, lacquered blue, metal frame, with the academy's coat of arms on the front in gold. She tucks it under her arm, floats back out of the hole she made, and sketches an ironic bow down at Scyelen. Then she flies away, easily out-racing Sylphid.

The fog melts away, the sun returns, and the glass golems all fall apart into sand. The students that were 'dragged off' are revealed to be simply asleep, laying on the grass a ways away.

"You're all right, I've got you, I've got you," he comforts, already scanning the field - in time to see Fouquet take the case and go.

There's really nothing he can do about that, is there.

He brings the princess to Scyelen, setting her gently on her feet and looking around for her guards and for Colbert.

The royal guards are either groaning from being buried under former naked glass statues, or trying to check on the incapacitated students without causing undue awkwardness, but a few are rushing over to check on her.

Scyelen watches Fouquet go, breathless with absolute dread at what she accidentally did, but, she also saved Henrietta. She goes 'oof' as Henrietta releases Raafi and glomps Scyelen instead.

Sylphid comes in for a landing, depositing Kirche and Tabitha.

Composing herself, Henrietta assures her guards that she's unharmed, and orders them to coordinate with the academy staff. One peels off to inform the rest while the remaining three fall in around her.

Scyelen shakes with the fading adrenaline, caught between the three different really important things that just happened.

Raafi steps over to put an arm around her shoulder, subtly encouraging her to lean on him. "Good job, sweetheart."

"W-Was it though?" Scyelen says, slightly hysterical.

The image of the Vault wall shedding its magical protection plays through her head again and again.

She saved Henrietta. She even attained her second Element! She cast a line-class spell perfectly and it did exactly what it was supposed to!

But, "this, Fouquet... she wanted? Ayhrkgl."

Squeeze. "The princess was more important. I don't think you did anything wrong."

Oh founder what if they blame the princess she hadn't even thought of that.

Wait, no, that's obviously ridiculous.

"R-Right. Yes. Okay."

"I am of course relieved that you're both well," Kirche says to Raafi and Scyelen. "But WHAT THE FUCK WAS THAT?!"

(Tabitha is staring at Scyelen intently. "Void," she interjects.)

"Wha? Void? No way!" Kirche says excitedly.

"Yeah. Not really the time, Kirche."

"Hm." Smirk. "Yes, it certainly appears that we have more urgent matters to address."

She skips over and presses her body up against Raafi.

"Tabitha and I found clean air to breath up above the fog, but you all must've been drowning in it this whole time. Oh Raafi, you must let me help."

He pales a little and takes a step back. "No."

Kirche pouts as cutely as she can, letting him move but keeping her hands on him.

"Ra~aafi. Please don't be shy. Come, let my flesh be the relief that quenches your mighty heat! My hot, wet, silken embrace is all ready and waiting for yo~ou."

(Clearly, she is taking Miss Vaux's lessons to heart. She didn't allude to love even once!)

This seems to somehow be unconvincing. He ignores her entirely and turns to Scyelen. "Sweetheart, let's go see what Professor Colbert is doing."