The Basement

While Aayla silently wailed in misery, Ramona quietly finished her drink. As she thought, now definitely wasn't a good time to tell Aayla that her secret might have already been exposed before they even began. Ramona snapped her fingers, and the dishes flew back into the kitchen. A trash can hobbled over, sucked up the trash like a vacuum cleaner then hobbled back to its place.

"Ready for a short field trip?"

Aayla grumbled and slowly lifted herself up from the table with a sour look on her face. Suddenly finding out that you will be in charge of ensuring the comfortable stay of 600 prideful students is extremely stressful. Ramona walked towards the kitchen with a dazed Aayla following behind. A set of double glass doors that lead to the outside courtyard was close to the kitchen. They opened with a hard push.

The courtyard could only be described as an overgrown nightmare. A crumbling, dried up fountain was the centerpiece of the area. Many of the stones paving the ground were cracked and weeds grew everywhere that there was dirt. Dead leaves and branches littered the ground. Scraggly bushes haphazardly dotted the courtyard. The veranda's roof was pierced with several gaping holes and any outdoor furniture was rotten.

The only alive looking plants other than the weeds were the hedges lining the back of the courtyard. They stood firm and unyielding to the elements. The sharp leaves felt like cold steel when Aayla pressed her hand against them.

"This is the main courtyard. There's supposed to be a garden area out back, but I suspect that a certain greedy former headmaster who shall not be named sold it off after he lost the keys. Anyways, it's not much to look at now. Let the artifact spirit do its work and things should be restored over time."

The courtyard tour was short and sweet. Ramona guided Aayla into the other wing of the building. Most off the rooms were locked except for the front office near the staircases. Finally they walked to the staircase nearest to the front office. Ramona stopped at the bottom of the staircase.

"This is the staircase to the Women's Wing. The one to our right leads to the Men's Wing, which is over the cafeteria. Each wing has six floors which have enough rooms for up to 100 people each. At the bottom of each staircase are hidden flights of stairs that lead to the basement. Open the door."

Silence.

"Open. The. Door."

More silence.

"Open the basement door? Open the door please? [Mion Getiaurs]?"

Crickets chirped in the distance. Ramona awkwardly turned to the wall and began to run her hands across it. After a couple of minutes of searching one of her hands brushed past a particular pattern which sunk into the wall. She quickly stepped back. With a swish, the floor boards pulled back to reveal another flight of stairs that led down to the basement below. Ramona and Aayla quickly descended the staircase into the darkness below. Two flights of stairs later, they were standing in a cold stone floored room. The light that trickled in from the top of the stairs was the only source of brightness.

"Lights!"

No lights appeared. Ramona tried clapping her hands with no result.

"I said 'Lights'! [Bodva]!"

The lights slowly flickered on to reveal a stone lined basement. From the walls to the floor and ceiling, everything was stone. Metal and glass lamps hung from the ceilings. The room was very wide. In front of them was a long hallway with that stretched into the distance. To their left was what looked like another landing with another hallway before it. Ramona led Aayla to the left hallway. Their footsteps quietly echoed across the stone floor.

"This is the basement. Normally, students won't be allowed down here. The basement contains various storage rooms and the laundry room. Some rooms down here and on the upper floors are still locked. They should eventually be unlocked if we find the keys for them.

Do not ever go into the heart of the dorm where to core is under any circumstances. Without mana, it could seriously hurt or kill you. You shouldn't be able to access it anyways, but just in case be careful when opening any new doors."

After several meters, they arrived at a solid, dark wooden door. With a sharp tug the door creaked open. As Aayla stepped into the room, the lights overhead flickered on to reveal rows and rows of shelves crammed with various items. Books, jewelry, bags, clothes and other various items were jumbled together on some shelves, while other shelves were impeccably organized.

"This is the lost and found. The owners of these items are long gone, so see if there's anything that will fit you in here for now. We should be able to make a trip to Forest Waypoint soon to get you something less… vintage. I highly recommend that you stay away from jewelry, books or anything that looks remotely magical. Any artifacts should be out of power by now, but you never know. Now, I need to find the core again to see if I can get it working properly."

Ramona promptly walked back into the hallway. Aayla slowly examined the isles. Every so often, tiny squeaks and scratches echoed out from the farthest corners of the room. As she walked down the aisles, Aayla peered down each row. Some shelves were crowded messes while neatly organized boxes squeezed their way into every available space on others. The air was cool and crisp, without a trace of dust or moldiness.

Curious, Aayla kept walking towards the back of the room. The room seemed to stretch back forever. She started checking the aisles for clothes. Most of them stank, literally and figuratively with their horrible designs. Aayla would literally stand out less in her Terran clothes.

Every so often Aayla got the strangest feeling like someone was watching her. She would look around then see small shadows scurrying away. Those gazes must just be from the gremlins.

Something clattered to the ground as she passed a shelf. When Aayla looked around to find the source of the noise, she noticed a thick book on the ground deep among the shelves. She walked into the isle and picked up the book. Aayla briefly peered between its plain covers only to find that she couldn't understand a word on any of the worn, yellowed pages. Surely, it was in English yet the words didn't make sense at all when you strung them together. Was this written in medieval times or something? If this was their modern written language, then Aayla would be in serious trouble.

Aayla looked up to find where the book belonged. There was a rectangular empty slot in all of the clutter that was one size too small for the book. Stretching all the way up onto her tiptoes, Aayla reached up to the slot with her right hand. Her hand blindly fumbled around to push things out of the way. She felt some cool pieces of metal before a tiny shock zapped her hand.

Aayla yelped and jerked back her hand. She hissed in pain. Her pointer finger lightly trembled, but other than that her hand looked perfectly normal. Either these shelves held the most recently list items, or Ramona must've been wrong about artifacts running out of energy. She put on a random glove then reached upwards to try again.

When her hands felt two loops, she pulled them out. They were a pair of bracelets. A wide, ornate silver cuff engraved with tiny warriors and a thin, elegant black bangle with translucent gems. Oddly, they seemed like a pair, just like Fire and water.

A tiny sneeze above her attracted Aayla's attention. She looked towards the noise. Startled, her eyes opened wide in shock. Several pairs of reflective eyes on tiny, fuzzy little bodies stared back at her. Gremlins peaked out of boxes and from behind stacks of books. Many were wrapped up in piles of clothes like silkworms. Some even decided to wear all of the jewelry they could possibly fit onto their little bodies.

A conspicuous pink fluff ball regally sat on the top of shelf, wrapped in several necklaces with rings on his paws. Several bracelets adorned his head like crowns. Standing by his sides were a fidgety yellow gremlin and an adorable, sulky purple fluff ball. With a serious expression, the pink gremlin looked like a child pretending to be a king.

Aayla and the pink gremlin stared at each other for several minutes. When she tried to slowly move away, Aayla accidentally stepped backwards into the shelf behind her. Several items clattered to the floor. Startled, the pink gremlin let out a shriek before the gremlins scattered like chickens being chased by a fox.

In the chaos many shelves began to collapse like dominos. Aayla threw her hands over her head and ran towards the main isle. Before she could escape, the avalanche of random items consumed her.