Are wands even enough anymore?!

An Unexpected Encounter

The slap on her cheek whipped Viktoria's head to the side, waking her in an instant. Gasping, she propped herself up on her elbows, her beautiful deep red dress now spotted gray with freckles of dust.

"Finally, I've been shouting at you for the past five minutes, man!" Ann's face was all Viktoria could temporarily see.

Still dazed by the fall, she sat up and gingerly placed the back of her hand against her forehead. A feeling of absolute sickness started to spread through her, as if acidic rocks had been shoved down her esophagus and now rested in her poor stomach.

She may have changed worlds, but the dark art's rot was still very much eroding at her soul. Weakening her. Debilitating her to the state of whatever the fuck this was. She saw it in her reflection that very morning. She was feeling it in her bones.

"Crowley left me in charge of you. He said classes started tomorrow morning, so we should clean up now and hit the hay, yes?"

"Ay..." Viktoria nodded, trying to get up but another wave of nausea forcing her back down started crawling on her skin.

"The headmage also told me he'd allow you to keep the blades, as they seemed pretty expensive, but you are not allowed to take them with you outside of this dorm. He says it's for the other student's safety."

At that, Viktoria let a half chuckle spread across her face. "He considers me out of my mind."

"You are out of your damn mind!" Ann replied, almost immediately, though she did so more as a 'matter of fact' than an accusation. "Something's not right with you. One doesn't just carry knives just for the sake of it. If it were my decision, I'd have taken them from you entirely and wouldn't have let you within fifty meters of a kitchen."

Viktoria couldn't really bring herself to care. She acted pretty reasonably by her book, now that she thought of it. What human being would just quietly accept they've changed their worlds in the blink of an eye?

She still didn't have any idea of where her family may have gotten, although to be sincere they were the least of her problems at the moment.

And this maiden? She acted so sheepishly purely because she didn't have any idea how to defend herself. Her first instinct had been to run away.

Even children know that one should never run from a wild animal, and for all she knew at the moment, that cat-looking thing was exactly that. This girl lacked any sense of self preservation, and Viktoria was not going to apologise for acting in her best interest.

After a long pause, Ann spoke anew: "You're going to attend this academy."

"It is imperative that we start to gather as much knowledge about this world as possible. What brought us here tonight was no random coincidence. It was a spell, a charm, even a curse, perhaps. If it cannot be undone , then we must find a way home trying to recreate that same spell or looking into the resources that this world has to offer. None of which we can do if we stay in this sorry excuse of a dorm without external intel."

Ann sighed, placing a hand on her hip sassily. "Got it. You go attend classes and collect magic-y information to bring us home. Splendid . Now what am I supposed to do meanwhile?"

Viktoria's eyes landed on the girl's hand, now stretched out to offer her help in getting up. She wrinkled her nose up at her. She needed no help from anyone, especially from this one.

Ignoring the hand offered to her, she slowly got to her feet, leaving Ann's hand hanging awkwardly at her side.

"Just because you do not have permission to attend the courses offered at this academy, doesn't mean you cannot access its facilities. There are no knights keeping watch, from what I have gathered during our little stroll outside. You can go to the library and start filtering out useful information."