After what seemed like hours of pushing rubble later, Aayla finally emerged from underneath the mound of items with a few bruises and a new found loathing for those evil little jerks. Aayla groaned as she surveyed the damage. Almost an entire quarter of the shelves had fallen over. She already felt exhausted just thinking about cleaning this place back up. Aayla got lucky that she was under the first shelf that fell down. If multiple shelves had fallen on top of her then she would still be trapped underneath.
Aayla pulled off the random pieces of clothing and jewelry that wrapped around her as she escaped from the fallen shelves. All except for two particular pieces. The silver cuff and the black bangle. They were stuck on her right and left wrists.
The bracelets just wouldn't come off. She tried pulling, prying and smashing them on the floor. Helplessly, she even tried to find the gremlins. If anyone could break those bracelets, surely those little bundles of fluff and chaos could. Sadly, the gremlins had long scampered off.
When Ramona finally walked in, Aayla was cutting at the black bracelet with a sharp looking knife. Ramona snatched the knife away.
"What by the Celestials' grace are you doing? Why does half of the room look like it was struck by an earthquake in the thirty minutes that I've been gone?"
Well, gremlins are walking natural disasters, so Ramona wasn't exactly wrong. Aayla quickly recounted her latest gremlin encounter and showed her the bracelets. Ramona carefully investigated the silver bangle first. She gently prodded it with mana focused on the tip of her index finger. Suddenly, a tiny spark appeared and Ramona jerked her finger back. She tried again but never got more than static shocks. These tests yielded the same results for the black bracelet.
She slightly frowned. Despite seeing hundreds of artifacts throughout her career, these ones mystified her. Ramona couldn't find out anything about their inner workings at all. The materials had extremely excellent magic conductivity, but she couldn't find the mana source. Their designs seemed ancient, especially the silver one, yet physically they seemed pristine. The best modern artifacts could barely last a couple hundred years before they began to degrade without any restoration efforts. Even with restorations, the best artifacts could last up to 600 years at most. She had never seen a design like the silver one's. As for the black one, it's design was fairly modern but both bracelets should be thousands of years old.
Artifacts of unknown materials and origins that are almost impossible to use or decipher. Could these be ancient artifacts from before that Great Disaster thousands of years ago? Ramona frowned even harder. There's no way that such valuable artifacts would be kept in some random lost and found for centuries. Some major force would have snatched up an ancient artifact a long time ago. Yet, they matched the description of what she'd heard before.
"I'm not sure what these are, dear. They're artifacts. Possibly ancient ones. I've never really seen or heard of anything like them. They seem to be suited for wizards with low magical talent. We have no choice but to keep an eye on them for now and hope they don't malfunction. Try to keep them away from anything magical."
"From anything magical? In a school of magic?"
"Anything too magical then?"
Suddenly, they heard a buzzing noise. Ramona hastily dug around in her bag for a little bit, then took out a flat, palm sized disk. Bright green text illuminated the dark background. She sighed after swiping her finger across the disk to make the text disappear.
"Let's find something to replace your Terran clothes. It's much sooner than I thought, but the headmaster wishes to speak with you."
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The main campus of Nafriton University of the Arcane Arts was an orderly urban area in the sprawling northern wilderness. The wide roads were neatly arranged and paved. Magical streetlamps lined the streets while the buildings were spread apart with lush green lawns surrounding them. The architecture was elegant yet ornate with a Victorian twist.
In terms of land area, Nafriton easily rivalled the size of Harvard University on Earth. Nearly a hundred buildings and decorative structures stood on campus. Most of them were residence halls, medical centers and security offices. In total, there were five class buildings with several floors each near the center of campus. The arena and practical training fields were located on the outer edges of campus.
A few scattered people dressed in long gowns, fine suits or dignified robes quickly walked about. Aayla nervously pulled her cloak tighter and tried to blend in as much as she could. These old robes itched so badly that Aayla just wanted to tear them off. The only good things about them were that didn't smell and they were so out of fashion that they were somehow in fashion again. Fortunately, everyone was in such a rush that no one really paid Aayla any attention. Any gazes cast their way focused on Ramona.
Soon they were in the center of campus and arrived at the Central Administration Building, the gaudiest building Aayla had seen in her entire life. She seriously wondered what sort of idiot would place such an obnoxiously lavish building in the middle of such an otherwise well-designed campus. Even the nearby streets were paved in gold.
Strangely enough, the sign with the building name had some of the words scratched off. Was the building named for some one at some point?
"The headmaster is normally a relaxed, but very sharp, man. Just keep your answers short, vague and honest, and I'll talk for you as much as I can."
Ramona guided Aayla through the empty halls and up the stairs to the highest floor. They finally arrived at an elaborate wooden door. A stern bespectacled man sat behind a desk next to the door.
"Good afternoon, Secretary Laraz. Is the headmaster in?"
"Do you have an appointment today or is this an urgent matter Deputy Heston?"
"No appointment, but he called for us."
The door slowly swung inwards, as if beckoning them to enter.
"It appears you are expected indeed. You may enter now."
Ramona nodded and Aayla followed her into the room. Shelves upon shelves stuffed with books and papers covered the walls. An energetic old man with long white hair, beard and mustache was sitting behind a wide desk at the back of the room. A quill gently scratched away as he moved his hand across a piece of paper. Upon their entrance, the old man raised his head and studied Aayla closely. Ramona lightly coughed.
"Good morning, Headmaster Marin. I have brought my goddaughter, Aayla Glowery, as requested."
"Good morning to you as well, Deputy Heston and… Miss Glowery, was it? Welcome to Nafriton University of the Arcane Arts. I hope the both of you were able to get some sleep after last night's incident."
"Yes, sir. Aayla Glowery."
"And you've come to visit your godmother, from where exactly?"
"… just a small, remote archeological site out in the wilderness."
That's not a complete lie, and she should be old enough to start working in this world, right? Aayla began to mentally scream and squirm in fright. She really should have thought more about her cover story before coming in.
"Hmm. I understand that you've been studying under Deputy Heston for some time now?"
"Ah, only on and off since she was little. Mostly remote and self-study since she travelled with her parents."
"Only on and off? That's a bit humble considering your praises about how adorable and smart she is over the years."
"Haha, well, I might have been just a bit too excited and over exaggerated some things here and there."
"Perhaps. And what brought you here, Ms. Glowery? With the school year about to start, it's a bit late for admittance."
"Headmaster, about that. Some safety issues came up at the dig site, so Aayla needs a place to stay for a while that takes her medical issue into consideration. I was hoping that she could help me with the old Nafriton Residence Hall. Preparations for that dorm are going slowly with all of the construction going on. And it would be wonderful to have someone the students' age to better relate with."
"Oh? So, she's looking for employment? Well, then we'll need to see her ID papers."
"… That may be a bit difficult for now. Her papers were accidentally lost due to said safety issues. We are in the process of getting new ones, but it may take a while."
Headmaster Marin lightly closed his icy blue eyes and stroked his beard. The room descended into an awkward silence. An unseen clock gently ticked each second. As the seconds extended into minutes, Ramona began to think of more arguments to convince the headmaster to allow Aayla to stay.
Aayla's hands fidgeted with the bracelets underneath her cloak. The cold spot on Aayla's back grew larger the longer the headmaster sat in silence. If she couldn't stay with Ramona or on campus, then where else could she go?