The Golden Ticket to a New Life

For most intents and purposes, Aurora had stopped with the whole school tour thing after Cytus had come to the school. Although quite happy to show students around, the mage was generally quite busy, and her extraterrestrial friend had proven to be far more efficient at the job than she. A rather impressive feat when one was capable of quite literally stealing time.

Not that she had ever done so. In the time Aurora had been here, her number of times she had used her ability for anything significant could be counted on a single human hand. A hand that was possibly missing a couple fingers as well.

Today on the other human hand, was slightly different. Cytus, for maybe the first time in her life, was busy.

"Ms. Silivasi-Awren," Cytus had called. Despite Aurora attempting to get Cytus to use her first name, she had either forgotten yet again, or was still uncomfortable with doing so.

"I have a student waiting for admission, however, I am tasked to capacity. Could you please assist?"

Honestly, how could she say no? Cytus had saved Aurora maybe countless hours that had been reinvested into the music department, and into the Chronologists. Taking one student around and doing some papers was the least she could do at this point.

Much like the student, the mage came through the front door clad in a blue textured, pencil-like dress, wrapped in a torn red cloak. A golden gear hairpiece adorned a rather messy blonde ponytail. One person was at the desk. That was probably her student. Cytus was at a desk nearby, assisting another student, and appearing to have some difficulty of her own, considering their likely language differences. Hopefully the Aenari wouldn't be too tired after something like that. Aurora herself however, was quite charged; and ready to take on whatever Cytus had thrown at her.

"Lulu?" Aurora whirled rather quickly behind the desk to grab papers. Including her letter.

"I'm Professor Silivasi-Awren. I go by Aurora. I'm here to answer any questions you might have about the school, and your first day here...as well as tour you if you want."

Aurora whipped out a pen and started scribbling a bit on the letter, indicating that Lulu was confirmed to be at the school, and ready for classes. At least soonish. The paper was going to go through some steps first.

"Apologies if this takes a little bit, I've been out of practice for awhile."

"Nice to meet you too! I teach music...well, sometimes. My staff teaches more often; I just direct the program."

That wasn't to say that Aurora didn't do any teaching on her own. Quite the opposite in fact. But considering she had programs for just about all ages, teaching them all was an impossibility. Instead, she generally taught college courses, and then her students taught the younger kids around the academy. It was a system that worked quite well. Of course, there was always the exceptions. Aurora threw the acceptance paper in the scanner.

"I don't mind the questions. Honestly, I'm sure anyone who gave you this tour would prefer it. We've tried to improve the admissions process, but I suppose after nearly a couple hundred years, we can only do so much."

A final signature from Aurora on the original, and the acceptance paper was filed away...somewhere. Once she put the letters in their designated folder, they tended to disappear somewhere. Nobody was quite sure where. Aurora perked her head up at the dorm situation. Frankly, the dorm policies were a bit unclear. Aurora came out from behind the desk, and was about to head out, nodding her head so that Lulu would follow.

"We've got dorms...both classical and magical. A lot of students prefer flats with separate rooms and common kitchens, others yet prefer small apartments. I have a house a little bit away from the city. You would be correct that there are some strange boarding situations. The overly formal student that passed you off to me? Her species has three sexes as an example."

Aurora didn't get any more detailed with that. The mage left the administration, heading for at least the college dorms that many students came to at first. Yet others moved to a more permanent residence a few weeks later.

"We'll head to something more classical. You don't have to stay here at all, but at least you'll have somewhere to sleep tonight. Do you need help with your bags at all?"

"I used to work the office. The lovely lady in there took over for me since I was getting burned out. She's just been a little busy, so I thought I'd give her some help. As for the size, I would guess something like 7,000-9,000 students. Maybe more. The school is far more well-funded than your standard university, and probably looks much larger than we actually have students."

Aurora's class sizes were much, much smaller than normal. Of course the professor was grateful, but on occasion, these small classes could make the school seem much emptier than usual as well.

"I didn't actually prepare a survey or anything, since nobody ever took them, but you're more than welcome to give me feedback. Don't go too hard on me though, I haven't done this in a while."

Frankly, Aurora hadn't a clue where she was going to take Lulu. Students got bored after awhile, and no doubt that the girl had far different interests than Aurora did; but maybe she could find something.

"Yeah. She may not look the part, but that girl knows far more about mathematics, quantum physics and other scientific topics than many of our instructors. There's little we could teach her. But...she has no idea about cultures outside of her own. Working in admissions lets her learn a little about everything. Her name is Cytus. She loves talking to people, you should strike up a conversation sometime, she may sound distant, but I assure you she'll always be happy to talk."

It wasn't a long walk to the temporary dorms. Mind you, they were just as nice as the regular dorms, but were missing a few of the community amenities that the more permanent residences had.

"There are on-site cafeterias, yes. The food actually isn't too bad, but of course, they have to make food for not just humans, but a bunch of species sometimes. It's tough, so sacrifices are occasionally made. On the other hand, some of the cooks use supernatural methods of creating various meals, so it all evens out. There's grocery stores out and around the city. You're given a small stipend for whatever you might need...or of course, you can work. I'd wager food costs are about average. We have to import, but the island gets a few discounts."

Anything to keep the supernaturals happy and out of the way of other nations. A little fear went a long way towards keeping the spice flowing, so to speak.

Then came a question that surprisingly few students came up with. Accidents. Explosions. Problems. Supernaturals were an inherently violent bunch, even if they didn't mean to be.

"We have a group of professors and teachers that are adept in countermagic." She was one of them. "Buildings have countermagic wards that protect against a variety of supernatural abilities. But of course, we do have the occasion problem with a student going a bit crazy. It just happens. Comes with the field. We've had a few...problematic people show as well. Not often, but it does happen."

It was something that always worried Aurora some. There was only so much a small group of professors could do any one time, so they had to rely on more passive measures. It was hard, but they always tried their best.

"I have a habit of not showing my abilities. It works better when I don't tell people. But...I've been trying to be a bit more open. So if you want, I'll show you after the tour? Just remind me. We're almost at the dorm."

A smaller building, but still mostly featured. Aurora walked in, and started up the stairs.

"We have a room on the third floor for you. It should do for now...I'm curious, I haven't read your file at all, since I prefer to ask; what brought you to Starlight, specifically?"

"I understand...although honestly, I've never asked a student what they actually thought of the tour. I've asked about my classes...but never the tour. I figure most students will generally forget shortly after anyways, so I don't bother."

Habit mostly. Most students were just happy to get their rooms and get some sleep. They were smart enough to usually ask where to find something, and Aurora was always more than happy to oblige.

"Cytus always looks busy, but she enjoys the company."

At least that's what Aurora had gotten from her. The lack of visible emotion always sort of confused her, but there was a rather special way around that. Cytus was grateful, certainly, even if she couldn't outwardly show it.

Lulu seemed to be stuck on the discounts comment, and rightfully so. It was a bit of a strange concept.

"You're alright." Aurora knocked on the walls a little bit. "You might not notice a difference, but the walls are reinforced physically, and magically. Sometimes more so if necessary. There are generally senior students and staff assigned to each dorm to keep things quiet. No guarantees of course."

Aurora looked down to see Lulu struggling just slightly.

"Are you sure you don't need help? I don't mind at all."

Well, hopefully she'd say yes. Grabbing someone's luggage without permission was weird. At this point, they were pretty close to her room anyways. Lulu's story was pretty standard as far as many comers to the academy went. She would be getting an education at a relatively safe place for free.

"Is your sister a supernatural too? I'm surprised she didn't get an invitation at the same time."

They were there, Aurora unlocked the room and handed Lulu the key. It was pretty standard; nice enough to stay in for a couple days without getting depressed. Her real dorm would be much better when she got a room.

"Manta Carlos Island is a sovereign state, although other nation-states deny any knowledge of it. Starlight Academy is effectively a service to other countries to take their supernatural population away from the masses...they pay quite a fee to do so. Sounds like a prison; but it's not. You're allowed to leave at any time, but of course, you're not protected outside the island."

It was basically a choice of lifestyle. Aurora went back to her sister for a moment.

"I have a daughter that sounds a lot like your sister. Aloof and hard to find. I'm sure she'll get an invite at some point. Do you have anywhere you wanted to see first? Or are you okay with just anywhere?"

Aurora managed to drag, or at least help drag Lulu's bag up the remaining stairs to the dorm. The exercise was a welcome relief from standard desk work, but as it so happened, while fit, dragging was not Aurora's specialty in any sense of the word.

"We're pretty good at filtering out risks to the dorms before we assign them. It's unlikely you'll get someone on your floor, or even your building that is capable of any real damage. It happens occasionally, but if anyone is going to be harmed, it's usually in a class dedicated to controlling your abilities, or outside of the school."

That wasn't to say control in the dorms was a certainty. Of course the school did it's best to keep people congregated only when they were controllable, but of course, people changed. So did abilities.

"We can't find everyone all the time of course, but a few people are adept at tracking supernaturals, even if the ability is incredibly subtle. I can tell for example that someone is a supernatural simply by sight, but not any farther than that. Some people are better at it. I'm surprised we haven't gotten to her yet. Unfortunately, that's not my forte, so I'm not sure why it might take longer."

It was a shame honestly. The school had found the less dangerous of the two. Aurora could only imagine what would happen if someone from outside the school found Lulu's sister first. The results could understandably be disastrous. The mage smiled however. Lulu was rather understanding of why the school did what it did, which made everything that she was going to go through a little bit easier. At least, Aurora could hope for that.

"If people are scared of you, imagine how frightened they would be of someone that could hurl fireballs, or worse, looked nothing like a human? I hate saying it, but everyone is probably better off, at least for now. As for dorms, there's an evaluation period before we assign your actual room...just a precaution mostly. And the fact we're not as fast at paperwork as we'd like to believe."

The conversation kept switching, but Aurora could easily nod at Lulu's sister's plight of sorts. Once again, Aurora's daughter was a bit of a same. Very human, but with a dislike of staying in one spot. She had since settled down, but the earlier years had been difficult.

"Sure. We're pretty close actually, just right back inside the main building. I'm sure you'll find something you like. If you have particular dietary requirements, we can get you registered to get something that caters more to you. You'll get less variety, but the food will likely be better since it's made just for you."

Aurora started walking out and thinking. It was a shame that she couldn't get food like that from the cafeteria. One, she'd miss the variety, two, she was still very much human, and thus, was easily capable of eating whatever the cooks had made for the day. It would be something of a moral dilemma for making the cooks work harder than necessary for something she didn't really need.

"Do you have any particular interests you're hoping to keep up? I know the island can be a bit of a lonely place without anyone to interact with."