Marcellus watched Marcia's retreating form as it cut through the afternoon traffic on the Wizard's Walkway. All the other pedestrians jumped out of her way, keeping a respectable distance between themselves and the imposing figure that was the ExtraOrdinary wizard.

Marcellus smiled as he saw this; of all the ExtraOrdinary wizards he had seen in his long lifetime, Marcia was the most striking. She embodied everything that one would expect to see in an ExtraOrdinary wizard; she was powerful, capable and beneficial to the Castle and its inhabitants. Eventually the crowd knitted back together and she disappeared from his view, with a sigh, Marcellus shut his door.

Dealings with Marcia always made him shaky. At first, when he had just come up to the surface after being an old man for over 400 years, he had thought this was because she was loud and always seemed to take up too much space, but even now, despite getting acclimated to the bustling Castle atmosphere and to his newfound youth, he still found that her presence made him a little jittery and nervous. He never seemed to do anything right when she was around. He shook his head, and then turned to go back to his room where the woman he had met at the Trader's Market a few days ago awaited him.

Marcia's day just seemed to get worse. Since he wasn't with Marcellus, she had expected Septimus to be back at the Wizard Tower with some silly excuse for missing his Complex charms lesson, but once she got there he was nowhere to be seen.

"Hildegarde," she shouted across to the Ordinary wizard scurrying past her hoping to go unnoticed.

Hildegarde turned around with a resigned expression on her face, "Yes Madam Marcia?" she asked dolefully.

"Have you seen Septimus at all today?" asked Marcia, ignoring Hildegarde's less than enthusiastic response.

"No, actually I haven't," said Hildegarde surprised. "Now that you mention it, he wasn't around today with the other apprentices during Tower morning meet."

Marcia knitted her eyebrows. "Well, this is very peculiar, thank you Hildegarde, let me know if you see anything" she said before walking away deep in thought.

Since the morning meets were usually before breakfast, she figured that Septimus had left not too long after sunrise, or, the possibility dawned on her, he might have just never returned to the Wizard Tower the night before. She regretted being so lax with Septimus's curfew as of late; she had thought he needed more freedom as he was growing up, but given today, that measure had obviously backfired.

She returned to her desk on the twentieth floor, and sat staring absentmindedly at the scrolls in front of her. People never realized just how much paper work went into in being an ExtraOrdinary wizard; every morning she was buried with a mountain of forms and petitions that needed her, and this always seemed to be the case, immediate attention. Wizard Tower business, maintenance of the various Magykal sites throughout the Castle, making sure everything ran like clockwork, and the bulk of all this fell on her shoulders.

Marcia sighed, she loved her position as the ExtraOrdinary Wizard, the authority it came with, and the license and access it gave her to practice Magyk, but sometimes she wished there was more to her life than her Magykal career. While she was Alther's apprentice, she had quite a few friends among the other apprentices and also a few casual flings here and there. But in the years since she had succeeded Alther as the ExtraOrdinary Wizard, this group of friends thinned out and the flings evaporated entirely. Her position and her duty to the Castle consumed all her time and left her with no energy to pursue any romantic liaisons, provided, of course, that someone was brave enough to ask her out in the first place, which never happened to be the case. Her purple robes were very effective at deterring any potential suitors.

Breaking out of her musings, she looked out her window and saw that it was already dusk, but there was still no sign of Septimus. Any remaining anger she had towards her apprentice melted into anxiety. She knew Septimus was perfectly capable of looking after himself, but he was still young and at that reckless age when wizards, with their newly gained confidence in all things Magykal, began to experiment, and the fear that he had blown himself up doing something stupid began gnawing at her.

Just as she was about to get up to set up a Seek to find Septimus, there was a knock at her door. Septimus! She breathed a sigh of relief and rushed up. She flung the door open in one swift motion and looked down, expecting to see the familiar face of her apprentice, but instead she was accosted by the figure of a man dressed in red and black robes with gold inlays.

"Marcellus," she said shortly, making no effort to cover her disappointment.

"Marcia," he replied with an old fashioned bow, "I came to inquire about Septimus's whereabouts, has he returned?"

Marcia shook her head. The Alchemist's question irritated her along with the fact that this was the second time she had to see him in one day. "At least he's dressed this time around", she thought. A flush stole over her cheeks as she remembered the afternoon and she turned away quickly to hide it.

"Ah, that can't be good" he said, not noticing her slightly reddened cheeks.

"Of course it isn't," she replied curtly, "even if he had decided to sneak away for the day he would have returned by now".

"You're right, of course. May I come in? It will be easier to discuss our plan of action inside instead of at the doorway."

She turned back around surprised. "Our plan of action? I needn't remind you Marcellus that Septimus is no longer, and indeed never truly was, your apprentice. So if you'd excuse me, I was about to perform a Seek on Septimus," she finished haughtily and began shutting the door.

"No, wait," he exclaimed, propping his foot against the bottom of the door to keep it from closing. "I can help, we don't know what state he might be in right now, of course I hope he's fine, but in case he isn't, I am, well I used to be, the Castle Physician," he reasoned.

While she doubted that his Physikal ability would be of any use, Marcia's expression softened as she saw the concern in Marcellus's deep brown eyes. She knew he was just as worried about Septimus as herself, and so she let go of the door, albeit a bit begrudgingly.

Marcellus bowed again and smiled up at her, "Thank you Marcia."