Space Witches 1: The Book of Witches

13. The Black Lady

The view from the street of The University of Ancient Cultures had given a false impression. Of course if I had studied my map in more detail, I would have realised just how big it was. It was just that the buildings were so old they only had three stories at most, and it sprawled over a considerable area, whereas more modern universities might consist of a single high-rise building. But here it was, square after square after square surrounded by old red brick walls, each square with its own little garden. There were libraries, lecture theaters, stairs, old pillars, vaulted ceilings and windows of colored glass. I walked through lots of squares, and opened many doors and walked through some ground floor halls only to find myself in yet another square.

To put it simply: I was lost.

After having wandered around for half an hour I simply sat down on a bench.

"I suppose they have so few applicants they don't want to let them get away..." a voice said.

On another bench in front of me, almost hidden by a large rose bush on the opposite side of the square, was the guy whose toes I had squashed, just sitting there with his back pack.

"Oh, so you're lost too?" I asked.

"Very much so, I'm afraid. I was just waiting for someone to walk by so I could follow them somewhere," he ruffled his dark hair. "I'm Miro, by the way. My family originally came from Egypt, which is why I am here, really. They are very proud of ancient Egyptian history and one of us had to be an Egyptologist. As my old aunt is... well, not getting any younger... they decided it was about time for one of us to apply to this university. My sisters refused. Too stuffy, they said. So the lot fell on me."

"Interesting... why on earth does your family want to have one Egyptologist in the family?" I asked, "Oh, and I am Nina. From the Nordic Plate."

"Pleased to meet you, Nina," Miro smiled, "and it has to do with our legacy. Or anyway, that's what they tell me."

"Legacy?"

Miro nodded and continued, "We have in our possession some volumes of ancient Egyptian scripts. Museums have been trying to buy them from our family for ages. It was going on even before the Impact. We managed to save them all from the catastrophe."

"Well, shouldn't they be in a museum?"

"It's a bit more complicated than that... it seems that we get to live on the Palace Plate for as long as we are taking care of those ancient texts and studying them. If we give them away, the trust that feeds us will kick us out."

"That sounds rather... strange," I tried to find the proper word, "what kind of trust is that?"

"Well, that is kinda strange too. My aunt knows, of course, but she has never explained it to me. It has to do with a certain group of... people. Unusual people..." Miro clearly did not want to tell me what the group was. "All we know is that someone owns the place we live in, and pays all our costs in return for us keeping the library and researching it in order to find... something."

"Ok, that is officially odd," I said, wondering why he was telling me all this.

Miro seemed to be having second thoughts about the discussion as well.

"Tell me about it..." he said, clearly changing the subject, "but I am quite certain that I'll be accepted here as a student, as the professors all know of which family I'm a member, and they are all drooling over the possibility of being allowed to have a peek at our texts. And you?"

"Nah... I wasn't really applying for real. I was more interested in seeing the Library of Ancient Tomes. This was one of the few opportunities that outsiders have to get into the University Plate so I pretended I was applying to a university."