Nothing Good

“Hello June,” the stranger said, extending a neatly manicured hand to shake his, “I'm Professor Thaya Biroshi, I'm afraid there is an issue, yes.”

“It seems that a demonic entity was drawn to the magic that brought you here. Everyone is okay, but I won't be able to send you to get your things,” Trix said, she sounded genuinely sorry, but June could see a glint in her eyes that spoke of something else going through her head.

“Demonic?” June asked, not sure why that mattered considering Trix said she was a Daemon.

“Its a different thing,” she said as if reading his mind, “they are powerful mages without any morals who have sold away their morals for power. Becoming corrupted beings as a result.”

“Yes, and your world has been protected from them for a while. We won't be able to access it again until the threat is neutralized,” Professor Biroshi said, “but don't worry, since your world is on the protected sanctuary list it will likely be made a priority and should be open to you again before the school year is over.”

June stared at her, she made that seem like no big deal. Dream or no, the idea of being stuck in a strange world with strange people with no way home and none of his things seemed like a bad situation.

“Thaya,” Trix started politely, “June is a human who has only known about magic less than an hour. I think you may have over shared.”

Professor Biroshi's face went a light minty color as if she were blushing green.

“Oh my goodness, I'm very sorry June, I wasn't aware.”

“It-” he took a breath, “it's fine. What am I supposed to do for clothes? I can't just wear this for an entire school year.”

“Don't worry about it,” the one who had introduced herself as Lyric said, walking over, “Since we’re closest in height and build I can keep sharing my clothes with you until we can get you something of your own. And I'm sure Trix knows if there are any ways to make some coin around here.”

“Very generous of you Miss Lyric,” Professor Biroshi said, “and if Trix doesn't know of anything, we can ask the other professors, I'm sure we could all use an assistant from time to time.”

June was glad they were offering help, but a little annoyed that the people who's fault this was weren’t willing to at least buy him a few things.

“I'm sure I can think of some things,” Trix said, “and I suppose I can make this announcement now as it looks like everyone else just got here.” June looked over his shoulder as Anna was the last person into the room, “it isn't much of course, but as a bit of extra motivation the school has approved a small allowance at the end of each week for any students with good grades. Ten gold pieces for anyone with seventy percent or better in all classes. Twenty if you are at ninety or better. And fifty if you have one hundred percent.” She turned to June, “I'm not sure the exact conversion rate for you, but a gold piece is somewhere between five and ten dollars from your home.”

His eyebrows raised, get good grades and he could make the equivalent of five hundred a week, that sounded like favorable math in his mind.

“Money aside, it really is a good idea to attend all your classes and get your work done on time. All of you are around the age where your magic will start manifesting. If nothing else, at least pay attention this year, if you don’t you could end up getting hurt or hurting someone else with your magic,” Professor Biroshi said.

“Besides, magic lets you do cool stuff,” Trix added, leaning against the kitchen counter, “Tomorrow I’ll show you all how to get to campus, and one of the Student mentors will give you all a few pointers on where you need to go for classes and the like. Then after you all deal with the boring orientation bits I’ll bring you by some of the shops in town so you all know where to go looking for ingredients and materials.”

“Not to worry, the Orientation isn’t boring, it’s actually quite interesting,” Professor Biroshi quickly added.

“Excuse me, Professor Gothma,” Tianna started, “What materials do we need to bring? I was under the impression that the university would be providing us notebooks, textbooks, and spell components.”

June could swear he saw Trix’s eye slits narrow at the formal title. “Yes, Tianna, the school is providing the basic necessities. However, if you need replacements, or need to experiment, or to practice so you can pass a class, then you will likely need to buy some materials for your own use outside of classes. And trust me, if you want to pass your classes then you will want to practice and experiment.” She grinned, “besides, there are plenty of fun things you can concoct that the school doesn’t teach, cheaper to throw a party if you can just buy the ingredients rather than buying the finished product.”

“It is highly advised that you do not try making any party potions,” Professor Biroshi said, quickly trying to counteract whatever corruption she was sure Trix was spreading, “it is much safer to purchase anything you plan on consuming from a licensed alchemist, crafter, or vendor.”

Trix shrugged and laughed, “anyways, besides all that I don’t have much in the way of announcements, you’re all adults, make good choices and all that. Don’t piss off your flatmates, we all have to live in this dorm, I’d prefer if we got along as best as possible.”

Professor Biroshi almost looked offended by Trix’s lackluster approach to dorm guidelines, which seemed to only make Trix grin a little more.

“Oh, just a heads up on some rooms in the dorm, the bathroom on the second floor is a bit… altered by magic. It is too big to fit in this building, don’t know what its doing here, but be warned that while I spent some money fixing it there is still a lot of work, for instance the shower divider walls are all missing and need to be replaced, the mirror that was over the sinks got broken, it was the dividing wall, so now if you’re washing your hands you will be making eye contact with anyone using the urinal. I am pretty sure there is some old magic lingering in there from whenever this building was used last, it seems like it was some kind of prank based magic so don’t worry too much about it, but just know weird things could happen in there.”

There were a few grumbles, and June noticed Natalie shifting uncomfortably after the comment about there not being shower stalls.

“Third floor is mine, if you need to talk to me for anything please feel free to come up there, I’ll post my available hours once we get more settled in. Fourth floor and up are… Weird… I would recommend you avoid them for now, but if we ever figure out how to fix them the school would probably give us a good chunk of funding. And finally the basement, it is a mess of cobwebs and broken garbage for the most part. But if you clean that up I’d bet that you could make some good use of it. Now, Professor Thaya and myself need to go discuss some things with the dean. I took the liberty of ordering takeout since you lot don’t know town yet, don’t break the place anymore than it already is.”

Trix finished talking and hooked her arm around Professor Biroshi and steered her out of the dorm faster than anyone could manage to ask her any questions, leaving the nine of them in the living room standing in awkward silence.