Ada left Arbon’s office feeling much more at ease. The Rebirth of Knowledge was an apt name for the old man. When she inquired him on how to safely move a floating Divine Cloud and on how to easily go there and back, being both a professor and a deity of knowledge as he was, he calmly launched into a lecture.

Apparently, though gods vary in their abilities, all gods have fundamental abilities related to their Domains. A key one is an Anchor. Any god should be able to create an Anchor in the mortal world. This Anchor was like the opening of a wormhole which would connect to another opening lying either somewhere in the main temple of the god’s Domain or at a location designated by an Anchor in the god’s Domain. When she visited the domain of the Goddess of Life, that particular platform in the forest must have been an Anchor.

Arbon explained further that there was the added benefit that if there were sufficient Anchors in the mortal world forming a perimeter covering an area large enough to hold the Domain, the entire Domain or a piece of the Domain can also be teleported into the mortal world. The caveats here were that no god can place his or her Anchor in another god’s domain and that his or her Anchor cannot be within a certain range of another god’s domain. The exact distance depended on the relative strengths between the gods’ domains.

As far as on how a god created an Anchor, this he did not know. Ada had no idea how other gods did so but for her, everything was through the System. To test this, Ada initiated systemhelper and requested to make an Anchor. It did its usual greeting and gave her a few options for types of Anchors. The class existed in the standard library and its description matched what Arbon stated.

She didn’t want to proceed to make an Anchor right there since she wasn’t sure how to remove it once she made it. She did not want a permanent Anchor right in the demigod’s office, or temple as he liked to call it. Arbon was kind and generous but he also carried secrets. A big question that remained in her mind was what god or goddess he regularly interacted with to prolong his life. Whether it was on purpose or not, he sidestepped answering this question during their entire conversation which was quite surprising considering how open he was with his own identity. Ada was not about to open up her gates to someone who may have allegiance to another god. This meant that she would need to find a secluded place to experiment later.

She wanted to ask more questions but they ran out of time. Though she thought that they had an hour to talk, he clarified that when he stated that he needed at least half an hour to prepare for his class. Near the end of their conversation before she left, Arbon informed her that though he was perfectly willing to talk with her, the Academy itself required a formal process to interact with any gods. Since she was to talk with the other Board members and the Magister to request their assistance, this would be considered a formal process.

When she asked him what it entailed, he gave her no further details but instead instructed her to go to a spellcasting chamber called Chamber 13 by noon. He lent her a map to help find her way there noting that since it was on the other side of the campus, it would take her at least an hour to reach there at a normal walking speed. He recommended that she doesn’t do anything to catch unwarranted attention which meant running at superhuman speeds or casting any of her spells until after her presence was formally acknowledged by the Magister. In case she somehow did get noticed beforehand and questioned, he also lent her a silver badge which showed that she was a formal guest of his. If anyone wanted to question her, she could just show them the badge with his name on it. She tucked the small round metal in her right pocket.

Her good spirits quickly soured after the first minutes when she went down several dead alleys. The map turned out to be a complete dud since it was poorly drawn and tried to squeeze every detail on a small piece of paper. Even with her eyesight, she couldn’t make any sense of it. The dark marks that she thought meant doors actually meant giant impenetrable thorn bushes. What frustrated her more was the lack of any help from the mages around her. Everyone seemed to be dashing in one direction or another before the first bell rang. When she tried to walk close to someone to ask for direction, they would walk away from her and continue their way.

After an hour of fruitless searching, she decided to use her Compass which led her to a huge monolithic building with ionic columns and surprisingly few windows. After she walked in, there was no one inside and it was eerily quiet. The inside was like a giant maze which took another hour to find a back exit out. This was because the original front door had somehow disappeared once she went inside.

Once she saw sunlight again, she approached the matter much more carefully this time and was finally able to identify the building where Chamber 13 was located after some trigonometry with square blocks indicating buildings that she could identify. The presumably correct building was a three-story rose-colored brick building that would not have looked out of place in an actual American university. She sighed with relief when she passed by lecture halls with packed students and a number of smaller classrooms with students walking in. It was a busy time since there were only ten more minutes until the next class started. The students and lecturers rushing by paid her no attention at all.

She snaked her way through the passing groups and went down several hallways towards what she hoped was in the right direction of Chamber 13. The number of people in the hallways trickled to almost no one as almost everyone who was planning to attend class have found their classrooms.

As Ada turned a corner, she saw two familiar figures twenty paces away walking in her direction. Ruciella and Leanne were dressed in identical robes. They had their heads down and The young mage was talking animatedly about something while Leanne listened intently and nodded on occasion. They were a sight for sore eyes since she was sure that Ruciella would know the way.

But first, she wanted to tease Leanne a bit. Her Sage had on an identical albeit larger version of a mage robe with the same red color and design as that of Ruciella. Ada thought the outfit she made specifically for her Seer was far superior in quality and design; in fact, she would go so far as to say it was perfectly made. However, for a robe made by actual mortal hands instead of materialized by the System, the Academy robe was of decent quality with no noticeable seams or markings. When they were within earshot, she said loudly. “Well, well, now! Just look at Leanne’s outfit! It looks like we have another bona fide mage now!”

Leanne looked up in surprise. She blushed and then swallowed before she spoke. “Uh, no, this is just so that I can fit in. What you provided is much more elegant and beautiful. There’s just no need for everyone here to ogle at it.”

Ada smiled. “Ah, I wasn’t being sarcastic. I was actually giving you a compliment. It fits you well.”

Ruciella chimed in. “I think so too! Perfect fit right? Lucky for us there was one hanging there of the right size in the wardrobe of the storage room.”

“Yup, you know what they say about being in Rome.”

Ada suspected her disciple was anticipating another long tangent on a topic of little interest. Leanne asked the question with a detectable note of resignation. “What do they say in Rome?”

“I’ll keep this one short. There is a saying When in Rome, do as the Romans do. The proverb means to follow the traditions or customs of a place being visited. So here you are in the Academy and you should follow their dress attire and rules.”

Ruciella’s ears perked up. “Ah, we have an equivalent proverb of sorts. When in the ocean, swim like the fish.”

“Is there any saying that you guys have which are not related to the ocean or fish?”

“Well, there’s a lot about rivers too.”

“Forget I asked,” Ada sighed.

“Now that we have greeted each other, I’m wondering if you’re also attending class with us?”

“Unfortunately, no. I was actually hoping you can help me. You see your old master Arbon has requested that I go to Chamber 13 at promptly noon to undergo some kind of trial. He wasn’t entirely clear on why I needed to go there first instead of just going ahead with having a meeting with the Board and Magister.”

“Hmm, I wish I can tell you but the only thing I know about Chamber 13 is that only the tier one professors are allowed to use that one. Students like myself have only ever used chambers 1 to 7.”

“I have about a million questions but I think if I ask them all, you’ll miss your entire class and then some.”

“Ditto! I am half dying from knowing what you and the Master talked about. I probably have two million questions. You know if the next class wasn’t my favorite and I have a special demo today, this would be the perfect time. As it stands now, we have maybe two minutes.”

“I do wonder but is 13 considered unlucky in your culture?”

“13? Why 13? It’s just another number. Oh, it must be in the Divine World right? I didn’t realize magic in numbers was a real thing but maybe it is different over there?”

“It’s something called superstition which sadly still exists in abundance where I’m from. Thanks though for trying to help. Now, I’m just wondering if you guys can just tell me where it is? The Compass here isn’t helping at all.”

“Of course it won’t. The Compass only leads you to the center of the Academy which is nowhere near Chamber 13. You’re in the right building at least which is a good start. Here, let me draw you a map since our official map is so terrible that no one understands it.”

With a quick flourish, Ruciella drew out a stylus from the sleeve of her shirt and a small pad. She started scribbling on it. There is no way that is a tablet. Ada leaned closer and observed that it was like a reusable writing pad. She had a boogie board and maybe this was the magical equivalent of one. Ruciella remarked, “Neat right? No chalk or quill needed. The markings will stay there until you wipe it with the eraser on the other tip of the stylus. Nothing else will remove it. Some famous artificer with a name I can’t pronounce invented these writing tablets several decades ago. He decided to call it the Scribbler which is an incredibly silly name that never caught on.”

“Well, what do you call it?”

“I actually call it the scribbler since I think it sounds funny. Most people just call it a tablet or pad. Give me a minute and I’ll have your map ready.”

Glowing magical lights for lighting and writing tablets. I wonder if these amenities are common for the average household or just for small elite groups? If the latter, Will Gibson is right in that the future is already here but it’s just not evenly distributed yet.

Ada knew that there would be plentiful opportunities for questions and observations while she’s here so she pushed the thoughts aside. She needed to check on her first disciple and friend in this world. “It’s been a few hours since you two left. Did you eat and rest well?”

Leanne nodded. “The food was quite delectable and the bed was quite comfortable. I have always known that only the wealthy or extremely talented individuals attend magical academies so it was no surprise that their living accommodations standards are high here.”

“Oh, you didn’t need to share a bed with Ruciella in a tiny student dorm room?”

Leanne laughed. “I was afraid that would occur. I have perceived as her as the type who no one would want to share a bed with.”

Ruciella looked up for a moment and gave a glare to Leanne. “You know I’m standing right here trying to help your master.”

Leanne turned to her and apologized. “Sorry, my joke was unnecessary. I truly appreciate you guiding me everywhere.”

Ruciella chuckled. “Well, actually, I think you’re probably right. I tend to sprawl out when I sleep.”

She turned back to her pad. Ah, almost done here with just a few more lines. This building is just huge.”

Leanne continued. “Yes, I did have my own bed and in fact even my room. The room was small but the bed was quite large and comfortable.”

“That’s good to hear for sure. You know I don’t even have a room here? Arbon didn’t think of arranging one for me since he probably thought that since I don’t need to eat, sleep or do any of those bodily functions, I don’t need a place to stay. I would still like some privacy though.”

“When I see him, do you want me to raise this point?”

“Ah, not your problem. I do need to pass their trial and then maybe we can bring up where you and I are going to stay assuming they let us stay here.”

“And we’re done!” Ruciella proudly exclaimed. With one quick movement, she handed the tablet to Ada and then ran off around the corner. “Here you go and I’m off. Leanne, you better follow me or you’ll get lost. And Ada, good luck!”

Leanne waved a quick goodbye before disappearing around the corner with Ruciella. Well, glad those two are getting along better than expected. Now let’s see if I can decipher Ruciella’s map. She took one look and groaned. “How am I supposed to make sense of this? I think the original terribly confusing map might actually be better than hers.”