"God Clan? You mean you have the bloodline of angels and demons in you?"
Harley plonked down onto the soft mattress that Helen had conjured, and seeing Helen's slightly surprised expression, Harley spread her hands and explained, "Sorry, but I'm not from your universe. In fact, I don't recognize New York that you just mentioned. The city where I live is called Gotham, in New Jersey State."
"New York isn't far from New Jersey State." Helen also jumped onto the bed, chose to sit crosslegged in the middle of it, and looked Harley up and down.
The girl in front of her with platinum hair seemed older than she was, already in her teenage years. She had fair skin, a sweet look, but for some reason, she emanated a touch of gothic gloominess, something quite unusual for girls of her age.
"My other father, or you could understand as a mother, belongs to the Asgard God Clan. You must have heard of the Norse mythology, right?"
"So, the gods of this universe are the ones from the Norse mythology? Like Odin and all?"
"Yes, what about your universe?"
"We have many - for angels, we have Lucifer, Michael, Gabriel, etc., and for demons, we have Beelzebub, Azazel, etc., I heard from Diana earlier that Zeus also genuinely exists."
"Do you have Cosmic Sorcerers in your universe?"
"What's that?"
"Uh... a type of powerful creature living in the cosmos, rarely understood by the human race." Helen rubbed her cheek with her finger, seemingly not sure how to explain it to Harley. After thinking for a while, she finally said, "They are existences opposite to the interstellar civilizations. The entire race consists of only one powerful individual, and each is unique. Among them, the powerful ones can even occupy a whole dimension and are called the Dimensional Demon Gods, such as Mephisto who governs Hell, Dormammu, the Dimensional Lord of the Dark Dimension, and so on."
"Then what about the magic in this universe?" Harley asked again. "Who do you borrow from? ...wait, you do have to borrow, right?"
"Essentially, yes." Although Helen gave an affirmative response, she still shook her head and said, "But by the time I was born, humans no longer needed to borrow."
"Then what do they rely on?"
"They started by stealing and then tricking, what I mean is a kind of 'comprehensive financial activity'...."
Harley did not entirely understand Helen's meaning. The two exchanged information about their respective universes. By the end, Helen was entirely leaning against Harley, nuzzling her arm with her forehead, saying, "I don't know why, but you look a bit different from the people of this world, like darker, but I like it. Sometimes I feel the people of this universe are too cheerful."
"Come on, I'm already the most cheerful amongst us in our universe." Harley spread her hands, rolled her eyes and said, "If you had met a certain person who came with me, you would know what real darkness is."
"Let's not talk about this for now, let's discuss about school. What grade will you be in?"
"The old mage told me that I could go directly to the fourth grade, but she also said that if we adapt well, we could skip grades."
Helen gasped, she changed her position, no longer leaning against Harley, and moved a little further away from her. She looked Harley up and down again, sighing somewhat, "It seems she has a lot of confidence in you, I hope you can handle it."
"What does that mean?" Harley looked puzzledly at Helen.
Helen shook her head, seemingly feeling that this was hard to describe, but soon, she snuggled back onto Harley. Both girls leaned against the headboard, their heads together. Helen's eyes darted around as she asked, "Have you taken any preparatory classes in the village?"
"No, we were thrown directly into the noble master's study by the Supreme Magician. We almost fainted just now due to altitude sickness."
"Wait!" Helen exclaimed. She straightened her back from her languid position, looking intently into Harley's eyes, "You mean, you've been to the study of the Supreme Magician? Who took you from there? Was it Master Ancient One?"
Harley noticed a glimpse of anxiety on Helen's face. She blinked, shook her head and said, "No, not the old mage. They call him Master Song, and there's a young girl named Sheryl, who's not much older than me."
With a sigh of relief, Helen loosened up again. Harley noticed that something was off and squinted at Helen, asking, "Who is Master Ancient One? Why do you seem a bit afraid of her?"
"I..." Helen drawled, she introduced Master Ancient One to Harley using the most straightforward language, then began, "Right now, the study of Kamar-Taj College is shared by two Supreme Magicians. From time to time, Master Ancient One would come back. I'm just worried... the study is too messy."
This made no connection at all. Harley's eyes narrowed even more and she drew her legs up onto the bed, sat cross-legged like Helen, and bombarded her with questions.
"What happens if Master Ancient One comes back? The one responsible for cleaning the study is that young girl, Sheryl, right? What are you worried about? How could the study be too messy?"
"Uh..."
Helen didn't seem very good at lying, and more importantly, the innocuous atmosphere of this universe made it hard for a Gothamite, like Harley, to be fooled by her deception. Although Harley wasn't known for her detective skills, the dark nature of her own universe meant that Batman wasn't the only one prone to suspicion.
"You're definitely hiding something fun from me!" Harley huffed, "If you don't tell me, I'll tell Master Song!"
"Oh my, please don't." Helen moaned with her head tilted back, then said, "We've only just met, you can't just expect me to spill my secrets to you."
"But secrets are only fun when they're shared." Harley shook Helen's shoulders vigorously, "Just tell me, I'm interested in anything fun in this world, maybe I can help."
Helen looked rather conflicted, her lips pursing again and again, her still baby-fat cheeks puffing up as if unable to hold back the secret.
In the end, Helen couldn't withstand Harley's persistence. She edged towards the side of the bed, jumped off, beckoned to Harley and said, "Follow me to my room, I'll show you something."
Harley was cautious but not overly so. This girl was a fun-seeker through and through. Her affiliation with Shiller may not have turned her fully into Harley Quinn, but she still harbored a touch of madness and had no qualms taking risks for a thrill.
Harley followed Helen to her room. Their rooms were next door to each other, perfectly mirrored in layout, each containing a large bed and a huge cabinet by the bed. Helen knelt down, rummaging through the bottom drawer. After a while, she took out a book.
Harley's curiosity perked, moving closer. Helen blew some dust off the book cover, then traced the inscriptions on the cover with her fingers.
When she withdrew her fingers, the words clearly inscribed on the cover made one's head spin - "Necronomicon".
Harley gasped, she closed her eyes tightly, then shook her head, "Are you serious? This book emanates an astonishing darkness! Where did you find it?"
"From the Supreme Magician's study."
Harley visibly stiffened. Helen looked around. She ensured no one was in the corridor before returning to the desk with the book.
She placed the book in the center of the table, proceeded to bring a chair for Harley, and both of them sat down across from each other by the desk.
The blizzard in the Himalayan Mountains was still ongoing. Outside the round Zen window, a howling storm was visible. As the bright light reflected from the snow penetrated into the room, all pieces of furniture cast long, cold shadows.
"Like you, I didn't enroll normally. We'll talk about that part later... But, you might've noticed, I'm more logical than a normal child my age. This wisdom comes from my father, well, one of them."
"Don't ask any details. Just know that I'm both a God and the descendant of a unique genius in the universe. In addition to a wise mind, he also passed on a strong curiosity to me. So, when I walked through the portal to the Supreme Magician's study, I touched some things I wasn't supposed to."
"This book?"
"Yes, I'm certain Master Ancient One had only just left the room, and before she did, she was studying this book."
"What's so special about this book?"
"I'm trying to find out. However, it means something even more serious - the current Supreme Magician Strange has absolutely no knowledge about this book's existence." Helen lightly tapped the book's edge, saying, "Otherwise, he wouldn't have let my admission portal open in his study. He doesn't even know that The Ancient One was using the study then, I don't know why she hid it from him."
"Doesn't sound like a good sign."
"Of course not." Helen shook her head mildly. "When a mage studies something behind everyone's back, it means their desire to possess knowledge has surpassed their thirst for truth. Otherwise, why not solicit collective advice from more brilliant minds?"
"And the extreme desire to possess knowledge will gradually obscure one's existence," added Harley. "When someone has reached their peak strength, they can easily fall into this state. They believe there's an ultimate answer they haven't yet obtained, and for that answer, they are willing to pay any price."
"That's what I'm worried about."
"But that's no reason for you to steal the book! It'd be better to let The Ancient One study it!" Harley exclaimed, her eyes wide open. "At least if some creature were to crawl out of this book, she could beat it!"
"I could beat it too, the creatures are not scary." Helen looked into Harley's eyes, adding, "What's scary is that the elephant is in the room, and we're not noticing it."
As the scene gradually froze on the lavishly decorated, gothic-style "Book of the Dead", the people in the Rodriguez College's office were seemingly portraying a mysterious tableau.
"My teacher never mentioned this book." Strange's eyes slightly squinted, the crisscrossing of his eyelashes added depth to the darkness in his eyes.
Shiller's expression was peculiar because if he remembered correctly, the author of this book was none other than Shiller Rodriguez.