Chaotic End to the Semester

The next day, a cloud of gloom cast shadows over campus. Before dawn, soldiers arrived and the university was on full lockdown. News about the attack on Forest Waypoint spread throughout the student population overnight. Startled and furious that they were stuck on campus, the students anxiously walked around campus trying to figure out what was going on.

The Student Council worked tirelessly to keep the students calm. Students, faculty and staff were encouraged to stay in their buildings. The complaints were endless. No one would notice if a few students would disappear for a couple of hours.

The Nafriton Residence Hall as a notable exception, however. The gremlins would steal things, typically shiny things, from whoever tried to leave the grounds. They also set up some traps that would horribly embarrass their victims around the exit. Unfortunately, the Residence Council couldn't remove them right away due to 'staffing issues'. Thus, most of their students were tightly contained. Only the most determined would leave.

Aayla was supposed to deliver an end of semester report, but that was indefinitely delayed. Ramona came to check on things, so Aayla just submitted the report through her. Shortly after Ramona left, Nurse Rouse summoned the Residence Council to the abandoned music room.

Daren would occasionally peak at Aayla while they waited. At first, he only found her a bit interesting because of her condition and her help during the True Order attack when they met. He still thought that Aayla was eager to marry the best man that she could find just like other girls. That's been his experience anyways.

While they worked together on the creature cases, Aayla just treated him like a normal person. If anything, she tried to stay away from him. Aayla did that to everyone aside from Deputy Heston, so she didn't treat him any differently.

Daren thought that maybe she wouldn't be so bad to know better. He found that she had a very unique knowledge base. Common sense things weren't that common to her. Yet she knew everything Terra and was fearless handling mana resistant magical beasts.

Last night he thought that she was finally making her move, but she still didn't. For some reason, a sour feeling spread in his heart when he thought about that. Normally, girls tried all sorts of tricks to get close to him. Was Dormi not just an excuse to get closer to him? Was he just not her type? Unlike Chris who was a pretty playboy, Daren knew that there was nothing wrong with him.

If Aayla knew any of his thoughts, she would scoff at this arrogant guy who's way too full of himself.

The few members were quickly assembled, including Chris with some significant eye bags. Nurse Rouse called the group to order.

"I have some bad news, some worse news and some news that's neither good or bad.

"The bad news is that all travel and communication between campus and the outside world is restricted due to the worse news. Forest Waypoint was attacked last night by a large beast wave. These beasts have silver collars, so the True Order is assumed to be the culprit.

"The military raided a compound just after dawn this morning. All of the research was destroyed and the employees were all dead. This was an independent group with no outward ties to the True Order, so there's some confusion about the True Order's exact involvement. In any case, with the base destroyed as long as we take care of the remaining magical beasts the attack should end.

"The final bit of news is that the final exam scores have been posted. I have the envelopes here that we can deliver to each resident's room. No gremlin deliveries allowed."

Nurse Rouse pointedly stared at Aayla when she said the last sentence. Aayla guiltily looked away. Mail had the tendency to get lost when sent by gremlin courier.

Renee and Aayla were tasked with the Women's Wing, while Daren and Chris took care of the Men's Wing. Out of habit, Aayla started pulling cookies out of her pocket. Renee quickly pushed her hand back in and shoed away the bright-eyed gremlins. Aayla guiltily looked away as Renee glared at her.

After they started stuffing the letters underneath doors, students started crowding around. Aayla and Renee were forced to put the box in Aayla's room so they could hold people off long enough to safely hand out the letters. They were finished in less than thirty minutes.

Only two letters were left. One for Renee and one for Aayla. Aayla nervously sat on her bed as Renee took the box back downstairs. Aayla closed her eyes and unfurled her letter. She finally breathed again when she saw her grades. She pulled of an 'A' in both Ancient Celes I and World History Before the Great Disaster. For Magic Theory, she got a solid 'B'.

Aayla nearly cried until she got the hiccups. She literally knew nothing about magic before she came here. Even passing was almost a pipe dream yet she got a 'B' in that class. Aayla had never worried about her grades before on Terra. This was a new experience that she never wanted to have again.

However, Aayla wasn't the only one who cried. Whether it was tears of joy or sorrow, the entire student community experienced a wave of emotions. Their results are finally out. Those who passed were generally happy, until they saw their rank and the exam placement list was posted. As a part time student, Aayla wasn't on that list.

Competition amongst the top rankers was fierce. Daren scored at the top of his year cumulatively and for all of his classes. Chris scored in the top ten. Meanwhile, The Butterflies scored nowhere near the top except for Corrine, who was in the top fifty. She had seriously kiss up to Vanessa to prevent her from flying into a rage. Corrine marked this wrong into her accounts to get payback later.

The foreign exchange students were some of the best in their home countries, and they continued to do well at Nafriton. Many were secretly unhappy with foreign students taking their places. Despite the Student Council's best efforts, many in the conservative and progressive factions became very upset. Perhaps the cause was all of the recent stress, or maybe it was someone fanning the flames behind the scene.

In either case, the powder kegs known as Vanessa and Lysander exploded. Neither of them had the best of tempers, and firmly believed in the superiority of Chinebarian nobility. They couldn't stand commoners or foreigners scoring highly on a good day.

Vanessa raged in her room. Furniture was smashed. Clothes ripped to pieces. The entire residence hall could hear it before Dormi restricted the sound coming out of her room. All the noble young ladies blushed in embarrassment. Several of the noble young men did to.

Corrine put on a good show of pretending to calm Vanessa down. However, she might have actually used the foreign exchange students as a scapegoat for Vanessa's rage. She also might have had something to do with Vanessa's curses spreading all throughout the residence hall.

Furious, several of the foreign exchange students filed complaints against Vanessa. Nurse Rouse and Aayla picked up the task of mediating between the foreign exchange students and the other residents in the dorm. Chris gleefully volunteered to help. Anything that he could to anger Vanessa Landrienne made him extremely happy.

Corrine and Marc delicately handled the situation in Vanessa's place. The situation was resolved with some coaxing and gifts from Corrine and a subtle reminder from Marc that technically Vanessa was venting in her private quarters. Vanessa never showed up herself.

The foreign exchange students could only swallow their anger. They and other factions remembered her rudeness. On the contrary, the reputations of Corrine and Marc increased. Even the progressives liked their calm and precise approach. They felt that they saved the face that Vanessa lost for the Chinebar Republic.

When Aayla later heard that Lysander physically injured an exchange student, she counted her lucky stars that he was no longer in her residence hall. That raging lunatic was not her problem. The thorn in her side was the excessively vain problem child.

An entire week went by before the beast wave was cleared up enough for the students to travel. The train stations were crowded as the students desperately tried to get home for break. Those who lived the farthest away simply stayed on campus since travel time would wipe out the break that they had left.

Aayla didn't see them off, but heard about City Lord Innello Forolan's personal visit to campus to pick up his nephew. The remaining students talked about it for days. They also talked about how Vanessa Landrienne once again made a fool of herself in public by calling City Lord Forolan 'uncle-in-law' then getting ruthlessly shot down. Aayla wished that she could have seen such a sight.

As campus calmed down, the roots of disaster wormed their way all throughout the country. Many of the travelling students didn't make it home. Ever so slowly, the True Order made its next move in the game to control the nation and greatest magical power on Tellus.