A dark-fantasy checkpoint game.

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Judge the gilded students of a walled school of forbidden magic, distill their attention into Mana, and buy a cure for your dying sister before the mentor's tithe comes due.

The bargain

You are not corrupt. You are cornered.

You are the underpaid warden of the gate, the one ungifted soul inside a walled school of forbidden magic. You took the post for a single reason: your sister is dying of the hollowing, and the Academy's rationed arts are the only cure that might reach her. An honest wage never will.

The detention master has an answer, and a smile. He offers a Binding Sigil that distills Mana (the essence a cure needs) from the attention you pay the gilded daughters who pass your gate. It shields you from the Headmistress, who would see you expelled and cast back outside the walls, where she dies. The price is a weekly tithe. And favors.

Every illicit look is for her.

What you do

1. Work the gate
   Read each student against the day's edicts, cite what they flout, and decide who passes. The rules tighten as the term wears on.
2. Feed the Sigil
   Every glance pays in Mana. Upgrade the Sigil to see further, bank what you earn, and race the cure against the calendar.
3. Answer the mentor
   The tithe falls due each Sunday. Pay, and the walls stay open. Fail, and you are cast out, and she is lost.