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It was a rainy afternoon during Karina’s first day of school. She had no real opinion about it. She did have plenty of memory fragments on the matter, but she decided not to look them up. She did not want it to pollute her first impression of the place. At the moment, she was in Marduke’s residence. It seemed to her a lot easier than to rent some flat in the city. Her bedroom was quite massive, but the size of it was not too noticeable from the exterior of the apartment. The only thing in on the joke was a kitty cat who had climbed to her open window. The cat belonged to the downstairs neighbor and it was in the habit of climbing. In Karina’s world, the typing of the cat was known as Burmese. It had a slender, long body, and a wedge-shaped head, large pointed ears, and green almond eyes. The cat eyed her bedroom with curiosity.

Still, it did not enter because the roses in the balcony were blocking the entrance. The balcony was rather small, and it had an iron, ornamental railings. Karina had used the balcony to fill it with as many flowers she could. Karina’s room was large enough to fit her King-Sized bed. It was wide enough for her to stretch both her hands. The room had a little library, with some of her favorite books. Like her mother, she adored picture books. She would collect from the locals any new one she ran into.  

Facing the bed, there was a full body mirror. The edges of the mirrors were mosaics made of nacre. The nacres came from different color oysters. The pattern of the mirror was abstract, mimicking the ebb and flow of the waves. The mirror reflected the bed and the tapestry behind the bed. The tapestry was a replica of a work that was millions of years old. It featured a maiden outside her tent, wearing a red dress. Beside her was her lady in waiting, also dressed in red. The servant was offering to the lady a coffer with jewels. Holding the tent open was a poor rendition of a lion and a unicorn. There was also some flags and decorative trees, in addition to golden patterns against a red background.

Beside the large mirror was the vanity she never used, in addition to the cushioned chair and the empty boxes. Should an outsider open them, they would find faux items. They were designed to show the illusion that a normal person lived there. Karina, like her siblings, summoned her attires. The only real items the visitors could examine was her library. Aside from this furniture, Karina had two sofas facing a small, round table. In the center there was an ornamental, golden, and bronze baroque clock. The interior of the clock had the painted image of a cake as seen through a kaleidoscope.

The room itself had an analogous red and golden color scheme. The colors served to highlight the natural beauty of the indoor succulents. Karina had a couple in key locations of different sizes. Near the pair of windows surrounding the balcony, she had two ivory tables with a large cluster of Pereskia Aculeata succulents. At the moment, they had exquisite round orange fruits. When not with fruit, they had beautiful flowers with white petals and a lovely red and golden center. Aside from the plants, Karina had a coffer in front of the bed. The coffer was one of those mimic creatures. Depending on his mood, the mimic would also turn into a toilet, a cabinet, a crib, a giant doll, a piano, a wagon wheel, or a bicycle. The mimic’s favorite form was a wagon wheel. Till Karina had met the mimic, he had spent 30 years as the wagon wheel for a traveling merchant. Whenever he blinked, he would freak people out.

The true form of the mimic was a doggish, like hairless face, the fangs of a shark, round goat eyes, the body anatomy of a dog, with the hands and feet wedged like a ducks, with large sharp claws. The skin was like that of a dolphin, and he had little horns on the back, and head. When he introduced himself to Karina, he said his name was Vindkald.

Vindkald opened an eye and he looked about the room. He rose his peg legs a little bit to see what Karina was up to. The lady was resting on the bed staring at the roof. Indeed, the roof was quite pleasing to the eye. It had a warm, round lamp with a delicate golden glow. The roof also featured a mural. The mural featured rows of heads, with wings. Each row was separated by a checkered board pattern. In one square there was a sun, the other was white with black squares. Each of the faces was stylized but individualized enough to show that it was a different person.

Karina’s face grew somber and she turned to the side. She sighed and then sat up. Her feet searched for her sandals. Vindkald stretched on his support legs and he moved the sandals from under the bed. One of the fairies who had visited the other night had moved them. It was common for fairies to enter people’s room and move about items, from time to time.

There had been a lot more fairies lately thanks to the increase of greenery in the city. Practically every balcony now had plants. Every day, pedestrian walkways were shrunken to make room for nature. Even the stately manors were increasing their garden size. This whole planting business was put in style by the Demon King Marduke. When a King starts a civil projects, and his own home improvement, his citizens are prone to follow it.

A breeze entered the bedroom, and with it, it came the scent of the flowers. Karina stood up. She came to the window only wearing the sandals. She scented her white and pink cabbage rose. She noted the cat by the balcony. She came to pet the little critter, but he shied away from her. She sighed again. Vindkald opened his coffer mouth and did a mimicry of Karina’s sigh.

Smiling, Karina said, “You are right. I should not allow sorrow to claim me, lets I become like my brother.”

Vindkald repeated, using Karina’s voice, “Not like brother.”

Karina stood in the middle of the room, facing the mirror. She was thinking of what to wear. Vindkald to remind her of the bath, made a falling water sound.

Karina summoned for herself a towel and went to the bathroom. After washing her mouth, she bathed using a nearby fountain. The fountain had hot water, when she felt herself cleansed from filth, she entered the cold bath in the center of the room. The bath was made of marble, protruding from the ground. Since it was Karina who was bathing, the water did not have any smells. Karina could not tolerate artificial scents, or perfumes. They tended to give her headaches. The bathroom was round, and it had four different doors. One door led to a small hallway, with doors that led to toilets. The rest were doors which allowed the other occupants to enter and take their own showers.

Communal bathing was not a thing in Karina’s home. Just when Karina was coming out of her bath, Marduke was coming inside with the baby.

Marduke said, “Morning,”

“Good morning to you as well my brother,” said Karina departing.

Marduke smiled when he heard Karina’s echo say, “Good morning, brother.”

Karina came to look at the little baby. Karina took the little feet, and petted the small little toes, with the small nails. The baby Inana took the foot and began suckling it, as it is the habit of all small little babies. Karina returned to her bedroom wrapped in a large towel. She thought a moment, and then finally she thought up the type of dress she wanted for her first day as a teacher to her students. First impressions were important after all. One had to start with the right foot forward. During her time in this world, Karina noted that the ancient rules of her home world still applied. In accordance with it, Karina summoned all the bling, bling she had. She sported her nicest wool dress, with borders made from golden silk. Around the waist, she had a silk sash. The sleeves of her dress were bulbous, and round. They got closer to the skin past the elbow. On top of the dress, she wore a red cape, with golden patterns. Her large mane was parted, with two little blue ribbons. The dress had an off the shoulder neckline. The purpose of it was to highlight her wide, round necklace made of lapis lazuli and taaffeite. Hanging from it, were tear drop pink pearls, and in the middle of the pearls there was a bezel with an opal. In the center of the necklace, there was a pattern that resembled a dragonfly, the central body was made of musgravite, the wings were composed of benitoite and the pink eyes of Poudretteite.

The bracelets were made of gold. In both hands, she had about 13 of them. One had 5 and the other 7. She had about 3 rings. One was silver, with a tiny blue sapphire, the other was a plain golden band on her middle finger, and the last one was a thumb ring, with an elegant butterfly design. The tiny wings had turquoises. Instead shoes, she wore some ornamental, leather sandals. The sandals themselves had a normal shape, with just a strap, the sole and the footbed. The sole was made of silver, with a golden bath. Its metallic nature made it very noisy, wherever Karina went. The strap, thought made of leather, had an elegant ornamentation to it. The footbed also followed in suit. Since the toes were exposed, Karina was able to wear a little pinky toe ring, with a little topaz for decoration. The anklet was a delicate golden chain, with little pendants.

The earrings were usually the same classical, round golden hoops Karina was so fond off. When she concluded her dressing, she looked at herself in the mirror. She said to Vindkald, “Is there something missing?”

“Something is missing,” answered Vindkald using her own voice.

Karina was thoughtful, in the end, Vindkald gestured to Karina. She came to stand before his ornamental, coffer surface. The carving changed to resembled a Diadem.

Karina asked, “You do not think that is a little bit too much for Karina? When I think of Diadems, I think of princesses.”

“Not too much for Princess Karina,” said Vindkald.

Karina smiled, blushing. In the end, she conceded that technically, she was the princess of Veragerung, considering the fact that she was Marduke’s sister. Karina in the end wore a Diadem. The attire she sported, became the general style for her little school trips. The only thing that ever changed was the color of her dress, and the types of jewelry she wore. The color of the clothing itself always followed a split complimentary color scheme.

With the final diadem added, Karina sighed, and she headed out of the house. As she made her way towards school, she stopped as if remembering something. Upon returning to Marduke’s apartment, she found her breakfast waiting for her. Once she had eaten, she started making her way back to school. It was then when she noticed the position of the sun. Class was about to start.

Using the crossroads, Karina summoned herself to the entrance of the school. The students who saw her appear were not the slightest bit impressed. Over the last couple of years, Marduke had made efforts to make magic appear something mundane. The locals were no longer afraid, or even impressed by it. It was just like any gimmick, akin to a dragon breathing fire. Many of the new magic users moving into Veragerung, were not too pleased by this turn of events. They were used to people being impressed by their sheer presence. As Marduke puts it, all that fancy magic can easily end with a well-placed arrow to the forehead, and people can’t stay awake forever.

The entrance to the school had ten guards. One of them told Karina, “Before being allowed to enter, we will have to search your bag.”

Karina lifted her cape and flapped her skirt about to show she was not hiding anything. She added, “I haven’t a bag nor any concealed weapons on my person.”

“Good, while you are inside, you will be required to wear this bracelet, it will suppress your magic,” said the guard.

“Fine, I guess,” said Karina who did not have any magic powers to begin with.

All the students in the non-magical school wore such a bracelet. It was a preemptive measure to keep the magic people from bullying the normal students. Since all the students and teachers had to wear the bracelet, nobody knew for certain who was the magic user among them. The school was for the arts of peace. All the magic stuff was under the army’s jurisdiction. Young magic users went to military school to learn their craft.

The school itself was surrounded by a large, brick fence. The entrance had ornamental iron bar doorway. The floorplan of the school was the shape of a trefoil. The center of it was hollow, with an internal garden in the middle. This allowed for all the classrooms to have at least a couple of windows to see the outside world. The entire building had two stories. The top hallway had a roof lantern, this allowed the hallway to be illuminated by natural light in the morning. The overall design of the building had a nice golden and blue coloring, with white accents. The first floor in the exterior was gold, and the second a lovely shade of baby blue.

Standing at the entrance of the school, there was a cool looking fountain. The fountain was round, with about four steps. The only color came from the golden severed heads. From their eyes, water was emitted. In the middle of the fountain, there was a large, lady head. From her hair, fell most of the water. There was also two hands rising from the water, which were opened as if to greet visitors. The new additions to the school came in the form of three crescent buildings. They bordered the main building but had enough distance between them to prevent shadows from falling upon any of the classrooms. Ideally, the best usage for the space was just to do boxes, but during the time the school was made, Berthame was experimenting with round shaped buildings.

The prime material of all the buildings was cement made from volcanic ash, gypsum, quicklime, silica, clay, and seawater. Since it used seawater in the mix, all concrete buildings made by Berthame did not suffer from erosion when placed by the sea. All in all, the school right now had 7328 students, with a max capacity of 10,000 students. The original buildings had 200 classrooms. The additions had the other 300. The ideal classroom size was 20 students per teacher. To get the ball rolling, all the subjects had to be taught, even if at times, the classroom had only one student. In the center of the school, there was an eight-story high library. It was the building that towered over the others. Its position also served as a clock, as it casted its shadow over all the buildings.

It was in this tower were Karina was to teach. Karina had a love for high places. After repositioning some shelves here and there, a study room had been converted into a classroom for Karina. The maiden walked in the direction of the tower library. As was tradition, there was a number of small dragons perched there. The tower always had a good draft of wind, which made gliding to other parts of the city easily. The dragons were allowed to visit, so long as they did not disrupt class, or scratch or eat any of the furniture, plants, or buildings. Karina passed through the entrance hall, with its quaint little sitting area, with the tea sets, and small fireplace for heating up water, and the small faucet. There were some fellows from the smithy conversing on updating the kitchen areas.

There have been some development in the chimney and fireplace department. Marduke had introduced the technology of Japanese brick stoves. After explaining the idea of it, the blacksmiths of the palace were well on their way to creating the first cast iron, wood stove. Introduction of technology was a sketching business, but as long as it fell within the arts of peace, the auria master allowed a lot of leeway.

In the center of the room, there was an elegant office space. There was a book cabinet, and other office related items. There was the desk, and the office lady. Behind her, there was a pair of doors that led to the other side of the garden, and in the middle of the garden the library tower. The lady went by the name of Begonia Pureheart. Her parents did not know it at the time, but any lady with a flower name was associated with the cheap, criminal prostitutes of Sassari. At the age of 67, she manned the front desk of the school in order to have something to do with her time. At her feet, there was her faithful companion, a black pit bull named Malarkey. Pit bulls were super popular in Veragerung. Many noble ladies had their own pit bull companions. Veragerung had plenty of breeding standards as far as the pit bulls were concerned. They had gotten quite anal about it, due to their contact with Dragon Riders, who took breeding not as a recreation, but as a way of improving their stock.

Puppy mills had never been allowed, and under Marduke, the rights and protections of animals had been expanded. This did cause a bit of financial strain on the farming community, but it was quickly remedied through subsidies. The two biggest institutions that Marduke pumped the most resources was the army, and farming. Everything else was superfluous, and only supported if funds allowed.

Karina came to Malarkey and kneeled down to take a closer look at the dog. The dog rose from the floor and showed his back to Karina. Karina scratched his back, and the dog Malarkey smiled.

Begonia said, “Ahem!”

Malarkey returned to his spot, and Karina rose from the ground. Karina smiled when she looked at the doggie. Malarkey was a handsome pit bull, indeed, of quite the mild temperament. His coat was black, with the feet white. The clear, silver eyes were the most impressive. This was a bit unusual for his kind. At the moment, Malarkey was 17 years old. Like the humans, the dogs in Saturnastra had a longer lifespan. The smaller dogs tended to live till the age of 30, while the larger dogs died around the age of 22. Malarkey was getting on in years, but he still had another 5 more years left in him.

Karina was studious of the dog, forgetting what she had come to do in the first place. In the end, Begonia said, “Can I help you?”

“Ah! Yes, I am the new teacher, I am going to be working from the Tower. I was told to see the office lady Begonia,” said Karina remembering herself.

“You are a little late for your first class,” said Begonia.

“Its fine. Nobody is ever on time on the first day, anyway,” said Karina.

“Just don’t make it a habit, Karina was it?” said Begonia looking through her notes.

Begonia then reached into her pocket, and handed Karina a key, “This one is for your classroom, do try not to lose it. Close the door when you completed your sessions.”  

“Ok then, wish me luck,” said Karina bowing.

“Good luck,” said Begonia in a condescending manner.

As she saw Karina pass by, she shook her head with mild amusement. As Karina walked forward, her smile faded away a little, as she remembered something she was desperately trying to put out of her mind. The garden surrounding the tower was organized, and geometrical. There were five paths leading towards the library. On either side of the paths, there were rows of sitting benches. The benches had mosaic patterns, and a couple had a cloth canopy hanging from a stick to provide a bit of shading. The main two paths leading towards the library were surrounded by red barberry bushes.

The others had regular boxwood shrubs. The hedge plants were rather low, and ornamentally cut. The edges had been allowed to grow, and they had an elegant cone shapes. In the middle of the bushes, there was a circular path, cutting through them, further segmenting the gardens. Each garden piece had a different cluster of flowers. The flowers colors were purple and yellow. The most prominent flowers were sweet rockets, Amistad salvias, wisteria sinensis, lilies, tulips, hibiscus, primroses, and the ever-popular sunflowers. The sunflowers were located closets to the Library Tower. As was to be expected, the gardens were filled with bees and butterflies. Since the entire garden was surrounded by a building, there was not much in the sense of a breeze, except when a storm was coming down the mountain.

The bell sounded, and the students started to arrive. It seemed to Karina that the teachers were expected to be super early in their entry. According to the Ultimate Weapon, Karina was not scheduled to begin her class till 10:30. She still had a half an hour of idleness till them. She could have gotten to class a little bit earlier, but Karina could not function before 9 a.m. The days were rather long indeed, consider the time of year, and the 27-degree tilt of the planet allowed for longer days in the summer. It also made the summers and winter more severe than the ones back on Earth. Though, with Fall fast approaching, the days would slowly get shorter. Still, it was barely noticeable. Karina looked up the tower, and then she went inside. It was a standard looking library, nice and clean, and organized. There were several librarians putting things in order and aerating the books. The large windows allowed for plenty of natural light. The library had a cylindrical shape, with a coiling staircase in the middle. From the oculus, glass roof, light naturally illuminated the stairs. Aside from books, there were paintings, carpets, tables, and other thematic decorations. The windows were tall, and skinny.

For every two windows, there was a book shelve. There were also shelves, beneath a recess bellow the stairs. In every even number floor, there was a set of four large study rooms, though many had been filled with more bookshelves. Despite the new influx of new books, most of the top floor was still a study area. Part of the reason was that the higher one got, the less the students there were. Despite knowing how to make an elevator, Berthame thought that stairs were a good way to force students to do a little bit of excessive. The most important tomes were housed on the seventh floor. The more mundane books were on the lower levels.

Berthame took the term, higher learning a little bit too literal. To make accessing the books easier, there were blacksmiths analyzing the structure of the building to find a good place to put an elevator. Marduke was to allow the change, but only if the elevator was aesthetically pleasing. The elevator technology already existed in Veragerung, but most buildings did not tower above 4 floors. The only tall buildings with working elevators were the dragon towers. The elevators were mainly used to mobilized artillery and equipment inside the tower easily. Some private homes did have elevators, but they were the homes of rich, elderly people.

Karina climbed up the stairs with ease. As she did, the soles of her sandals echoed on the marble floor. From time to time, a person reading would shoosh her. In order to be polite, Karina stopped walking around the second floor. Instead of walking, she flew up the rest of the flight of stairs. Now, instead of making noise, she was distracting people with her floating ways.  

When she got to the last floor, one of the librarian ladies said, “You are Karina?”

“Some call me that, yes,” said Karina.

“Was that magic you just used?” asked the lady.

“No,” said Karina, “This silly bracelet drains magical energies. I am not a magical type of person. Flying just comes natural to me and my people.”

“You are lucky. I wish I could fly,” said the lady.

“You can, you just need to put your mind into it,” said Karina.

The lady was about to say more, but one of the students shushed them. The lady bowed and went to continue with her work. What Karina had said was in earnest. The lady did indeed possess latent telekinesis powers. If she truly putted her mind to it, she might one day fly. Then again, most people that have the potential to do something, rarely have the talent for it. Without talent, very few people can make any significant progress, without putting a lot of hours into it. Even then, there are talented people, who rarely bother to even try to do anything.

The view from the eight floor was pretty great. There were a couple of tables, and chairs, with students reading. There were also a few bookshelves as well. The roof of the tower was dome shaped, and in the center, there was an oculus. There were also rows of tiny round windows around the dome to allow light to enter. The holes were not symmetrical. They were placed in such a way as to see certain stars, and planets at specific times of the night, during certain times of the year. The dome was also adorned with personifications of the constellations. The most prominent constellation was the one belonging to Libra.

Karina gave a cursory glance at the roof. She then went to try her key room by room. The rooms did not have a number. After trying 5 rooms, she found the one that the key belonged to. When she entered the room, it was simple enough, with a couple of tables, and cushioned chairs. There was a throne chair, with a podium. The chalkboards were not widely used. Most teachers sat down on their podium and babbled about their subjects, as was the tradition of the day. Karina sat on the chair and found it extremely uncomfortable.

After parting the curtains, light was able to enter the room. Karina made a mental note of everything she did not like about the place. She resolved to have the furniture remove, for her to bring her own stuff, to make herself comfortable. She then went to try the chairs of the students. They were passable, but the little tables did not leave much paper room. There was also the lack of arm rests. She was still sitting down on the student’s chair when she heard the door open.

Based on his clothing, Karina could tell that the visitor was a student. Marduke had recently instituted uniforms. The uniforms were both stylist and comfortable. Every three years, there was a fashion show in the school. The students then voted for the uniforms that they wanted to wear the following year. The winner for this year was pink. A noble troll had paid to rig the elections, and now, all the students at this school had to wear pink. The troll was not even going to school. The fellow just thought it would be amusing to see all the students wearing pink. The troll was also doing a favor to a struggling dress shop that really needed the government contract. Since Marduke was the one who had the uniform idea, he was subsidizing the attires of all the students. They were all perfect fits, with about 10 attires, each for one day of the school week. The school days were 2 days in school, 1 day at home and so forth.

Marduke was using the school uniform election nonsense to beta test elections. So far, the students were not inspiring Marduke much confidence.

The boys had to wear a knee length cotton dress with front buttons fastening under a round neckline. The sleeves were short, with tucks above the hems. The details matched the skirt and drawers. The cotton shirt had double frill collar, and long sleeves. The stockings were knitted and made of cotton, with little pointed shoes.

The girls wore a striped cotton dress, with high round neckline, a long-unfitted bodice, with horizontal contrast color satin insert bands, set between vertical bands of the same color. It also had matching covered buttons, with the edge cuffs on long sleeves, and a hip belt above the knee length paneled skirt. The collar was wide, and lace edged, the lace repeated and was sew into the waist seam, just beneath the cuffs, and on the mid seam and hem of skirt. The stockings were just below the knee and were worn with little black patent leather shoes. The only individualism allowed came in the form of the jackets, which were still required to be pink or white, or the hair ornaments of the little girls.

The length of the girl’s skirt was considered somewhat indecent. When the problem was brought up to Marduke, his answer was, “If your eyes make you sin, I will poke them out.” 

It was one of these pink uniform students that opened the door to the classroom. He appeared to be a young man, of 14 or 26 years of age. His height conflicted with his youthful, innocent face. He had large expressive grey eyes, and silver hair as well. Those with a bit of goblin blood in the mix tended to have unusual hair and eye coloration. His frame was slender, and delicate, like that of a girl. As such, the color pink suited him well.

When he spoke, he said, “My name is …. Casimir Silver, yes, that is my name. I heard this was the free optional class being offered by the Princess of Veragerung. I haven’t anything better to do, so I decided to pass by.”

“Are you a current student, or did you graduate?”  asked Karina.

“I completed my career, two years ago, and I had a little bit of idle time, from my shop and so I decided to expand my mind a little…” said Casimir. He seemed eager to ramble on, but Karina said.

“This is a free class, there is no need to over explain yourself,” said Karina gesturing to the teacher’s podium.

“But that is your seat madam,” said Casimir.

“I suppose,” said Karina getting up, “For today… Next time you come; the place might look a little different.”

“The teachers are not allowed to customize their classrooms,” said Casimir.

“It is a good thing I am not a teacher then,” said Karina.

“You are not, then what are you doing here?” asked Casimir.

“I am here to teach a class,” said Karina.

Casimir was thoughtful for a second. Remembering his former schooling, he decided not to press the issue any further. He chose a random seat, and then started to wait. As it is the tradition for bored students who are waiting, he brought out a book to read from his backpack. Karina stretched her limbs a bit to look closer, to see what Casimir was reading. When she saw the book, the light of understanding came upon her. She decided to change her lesson.

Karina looked at the time. There was still twenty more minutes to go. Sitting down on the table, she started making weird sounds, and blowing raspberries, and kicking up the floor with her sandals as it is common of bored children. The door opened again, and this time four people entered. The first person entering was somewhat out of breath.

He was complaining, “Whose idea was it to have a class up so many flights of stairs?”

“It better be worth it, cause otherwise, you won’t see me here tomorrow,” said another fellow.

The first person who spoke was a 13-year-old halfling named Babysel. He was part human, part unseelie fairy. From his human mother, Babysel had inherited his ebony skin, his delicate hands and large mane of hair. From his father fairy, he had gotten the tiny antennas, the snakeskin on the hands and feet, and around the eyes, the fur around the head, and the small wings. The wings were similar to those of a leopard print moth. These fairy parts could change at will, but Babysel did not know this. This was how his father always looked when he was with his mother, and so subconsciously Babysel emulated him.

The other person who was talking to Babysel was Janus Koresi, the son of the high priest Flamen. Flamen was being a little bit of a bother lately, with his insistence on religion playing a bigger role in the new government, and the return to wholesome family values. When he heard of Karina’s class, he insisted that his son attend it, in order to become a better, wholesome citizen. Since Janus was a bit of a tool, he went for it. Janus has misty, amber eyes. The type of eyes that sought a world that only he could see. His blonde hair was really short, with no distinguishing sign of individualism. Since he was 17, his face was starting to gain a more, mature look. Slowly, he was turning into his father, which was part of the reason why Janus despised mirrors as of lately. To distinguish himself from his old man, he was growing a small little mustache, as a sign of rebellion. Since he was working on bulking up, Janus was also pretty tanned. He was slender, but he had hints of pectorals, and small musculature on the arms and legs.

The following person was Carmenta Lini. She had received Karina’s letter, about the class, and had read too much into it. Since she did not know what to expect about the new citizenship exam, she decided to take the class to play it safe. She was an exiled dark elf, of some 421 years of age. She had made her money as a midwife, and a healer. She was currently living in a small home, with a large garden. Her only companions were the baby dolls she avidly collected. Since she was a dark elf, she was photo sensitive, and so she wore a burqa. Since pink was the current color in the school, her burqa was pink.  

Aside from her, about 17 other students came inside. They are not relevant, because after the first lesson, they never came back. Karina noted the time, and then she said, “Well, if that is everyone, I will start the lecture.”

“Aren’t you going to call roll?” asked Janus raising his hand.

“This is a free class, so you are free to leave and never come back. I don’t see the need to call roll, since I know who all of you people are,” said Karina.

“Is that so,” whispered Babysel, not too convinced.

Janus nudged him with the elbow, to remind his friend of his manners. For some reason, this made Karina think of a little dog, correcting a pack member. Karina was going through a bit of a dog phase, and now everything reminded her of canines. After being quiet for a bit, Karina said, “Well, let us just hop to it. First the basic tutorial, there is no lesson plan. I am just winging it as I go along. There are many new laws, and the easiest way of learning these laws is to understand the logic behind them. If you understand how these new rules work, you won’t have to spend all your time trying to memorize it.”

Karina saw a hand raised. Pointing to Carmenta, she said, “Ask your question!”

Carmenta looked about a little bit confused. Then she said, “I wasn’t raising my hand.”

“I know, you were not the one, but that other fellow just wants to ask something stupid, and so I am ignoring him,” said Karina.

Carmenta had always had many questions, but she was the type of person who rather have another fellow ask the question. IF it never turned up, she would either resign herself, or try to look for the answer herself.

In the end, Carmenta said, “Is there going to be any exams?”

“No, just a little bit of homework, which is also optional. If, you do your work well, I might give you a sticker, or a cookie, but only if it pleases you so,” said Karina in a condescending tone.

The students who were not going to return started murmuring about themselves. Babysel and Casimir too started talking, Karina sat down on the throne, and brought out a nail filer. Janus seeing the ruckus took it upon himself to bring order. Standing up, the preacher’s son said, “Quiet! All of you!”

The students flinched at the sound of his voice. When he spoke in with such a stern voice, Janus sounded like his father. There was an eerie silence, followed by a cough. It was only broken when the door opened slowly. A short-winded lad of 15 entered the room, and sat down. He was called Lucian Uradel. He was the male heir of a noble family. He had a pale form, with medium length black hair, and clear blue eyes. Despite having magical abilities, he had chosen a different path. Since he had a numerical fixation, he had recently graduated as an Economist. He was handling the finances of his family, investing here, and there, and doing business related nonsense.

He was there for purely financial reasons. He needed to get up to date on the new codes, to prevent any fees. Some aspects of the new laws were a little bit too broad, and confusing for him, and he thought it would help to get some clarification.

When he entered, Karina said, “Glad you were able to make it Lucian. You did not miss much. Now that everyone is here. I am going to start with the lesson. So, pay attention or whatever.”

“Back in my home, some teachers would use parables to instruct the students. They were simple tales, that had some sort of moral lesson or nonsense attached to them, I think. I did not read the entire definition. Anyhow, this is the first and most important lesson, so pay attention. In a world very different from this one, where there was a single moon in the sky, there was a man who wanted to sell spy secrets to a group of people known as the Soviets…” started saying Karina.

“Where are these Soviets now?” asked Lucian.

“They are nowhere, them and their descendants died billions, and billions of years ago,” said Karina. She then continued, “Anyhow, he found one of their agents, who was attending a trail. He showed him some of the secrets he knew about the agents and on the person being judged. Curious, the agent asked him how he had gathered the information. The fellow said he was offering them not technology, but a spy network. Since the agent could not make decisions, he brought the seller to his superior. The superior asked him to tell him something he did not know. The seller said to the superior that his son had male lover. The superior angrily demanded to know who that person was. The superior went to see the fellow, and he caught his son in the act. The male lover was caught and tortured. While the victim was bleeding out, he started to listen to the Soviet torturers talking nonsense, when the victim heard that the superior’s son was probably worse off, the victim revealed his true nature.”

Karina paused to see who was engaged. Most of the students were weirded out, and not understanding what this had to do with anything. Janus was writing everything down, as was his habit. He was not listening at the moment, only his hand responded to the sound like an automaton. Only when he got home, and he read his notes over the top, would he realize the weirdness of the story.

Since nobody was asking questions, Karina continued, “Anyhow, the mangled body of the young man…What I mean is that the brat was a mess. The body that was missing an arm and a leg, from the tortures morphed. It became strong, and large. A knife materialized, and he swiftly made quick work of those who had tormented him. After breaking free, the creature rescued his lover from his abusive, Soviet father. The End. Any questions.”

“When you say the body changed? How did it? Was the man a dragon?” asked Babysel.

“Planet Earth never had dragons, so no, we had dinosaurs, though,” explained Karina.

“Are dinosaurs like dragons?” asked Janus.

“No, they are more like very large lizards, with no magic, more the pity,” explained Karina.

“And this Earth? So, your Soviets are from another world?” asked Lucian.

“Meh, you are missing the entire point of the story,” said Karina.

“What is the point?” asked a very confused student who was never to return.

“The point is that love conquers all, and that sleepers have a very bizarre quantic nature,” explained Karina.

“Quantic? How do you spell that?” asked Janus.

“Q. U.A.N.T.I.C.” said Karina. She added, “It means their bodies don’t follow the normal rules that bind waking people like you or me.”

“What is a Sleeper?” asked Casimir.

“A sleeper is a powerful, ancient being. Every living creature can give birth to something that may become one. When a person sleeps, they gain cosmic powers from the Palace of Creation. It is the place you call the Dream World. When they awake, their bodies and minds are nourished. Sleepers have a stronger connection to the Dream World. Sometimes their dreams bleed into reality. When a Sleeper is actively dreaming in the physical world, he is called a Dreamer. They are not malevolent by nature. Since they refuse to wake, and the fact they have turned their backs on the reals world, makes it hard for them to tell if they are in this world or in the dream world,” explained Karina.

“Why is this important?” asked another fellow.

“Because I was getting to that. At the moment, there is an active dreamer among us. You can tell who that person is by the way it talks, their behavior, and the way they just sorta appear on you, and yet, you feel as if he has been walking with you for quite a bit. They have a certain psychic or mental influence among the lesser lifeforms, and if angered, they will get violent, and will show no pity, because nothing is true in dreams, and since they think this is a dream world, and not real, then your deaths, will not mean a thing… since this dream can be any of you students, but not me, since I am know I am me, you have no other choice but to be nice to one another,” concluded Karina.

“You know what I think, you are just here looking for a new hobby. You maybe the princess, but what you are teaching us is a waste of time,” said a different fellow.

Karina flushed said, “How dare you call me on my bullshit! Do that again, and I will flunk you so fast!”

The student who was calling Karina on her nonsense got up. He was soon followed by 17 other students. Only the named five remained. With them gone, Karina smiled and breathed in a sigh of relief. She then said, “What a bother! They just came here to try to humiliate me. Even if I taught them the way as the others do, they would have critiqued me.”

“Are you really a mind reader?” asked Lucian.

“Meh!” said Karina shrugging her shoulders, “I am good at guessing.”

“So, that bizarre lesson was just to get rid of the troublemakers?” asked Janus.

“I suppose. They will now return home with their own little stories and use their little reports to turn this free class, into a political thing to use against my brother, or whatever. Schemers gotta scheme,” said Karina.

“But what do these brats have against this brother of yours?” asked Casimir.

“Have you been living under a rock?” asked Carmenta.

“Sorry, I was never much for politics,” said Casimir.

“There is nothing to tell,” said Carmenta, “Rulers come and go, but nothing ever changes. What you are seeing, is just the ancient struggle between the nobility and the monarchy.”

Karina came to Casimir and she petted his head, as she did with small children. Smiling she said, “Don’t worry your pretty little head. As long as my brother has absolute control over the army, the nobility can’t do a thing. An empire without its army is like person without legs, that legless person is helpless, and can’t get very far, and he lives under the mercy and charity of others. And as you well know, the world is rarely merciful or charitable with the weak.”

The students were thoughtful for a bit. Janus wrote down the thing about the army. He thought he could help his father with this new information. Currently, Flamen was working on making the nobility more pious. To make his cult stronger, Janus realized that they should instead focus on the army.

“Well, I think we should return back to the main subject of our conversation,” said Karina.

“So, you are going to give the real lesson?” asked Babysel.

“That was a legitimate lesson. In my home, we tell stories, and then try to get some sort of moral lesson out of it or whatever,” said Karina.

“So…what’s the lesson here?” asked Babysel.

“Well, let me ask you a question. In my story, who performed the deviant behavior?” asked Karina.

“The son of the superior, the one who was with the Dreamer dude,” said Janus.

“For being a priest’s son, you don’t have an intuitive grasp of what is good and evil. Do you, son? You disappoint me,” said Karina.

“The problem were the spies who were torturing a man because he was mildly inconvenient to his superior,” said Casimir.

“Bingo!” said Karina. She reached into her pocket, and she brought out a chocolate chip cookie, “I am glad that somebody is getting it. For homework, I want you to read pages 71, 91, and 732. The logic of this story applies to these new laws. Once you read the lot of them, then you will understand, and you will know how to behave yourself in the public realm in the near future.”

The students wrote down the number of the pages. Afterwards, they lugged out of there, with their extremely large law book. Marduke had mass produced the book with the laws of the land. No longer could the citizens excuse their crimes, by saying that they were not aware that something was illegal.