AN: Whew, Jane's finally moving out of the village, eh? I do want to apologize in advance and state that I don't live in Europe and have no idea about Oxford other than random tidbits my Internet mates have tossed out over the years. They mainly lived around Cambridge or Manchester, so you can be sure it wasn't much.

I did Google a good bit and watched Youtube tours, but even then I know I'm going to annoy people. So do bear with me, I promise to try and keep the University life generic so I don't mangle whatever fond memories you have.

I could have picked another University, but it seemed more believable that she'd attend there. Plus, it had more videos to watch where it was featured. For those in-the-know, toss me some suggestions for scenes with place-names and descriptions and I'll fit it in to make the school life more believable. It'd be much appreciated.

Chapter 13: Jane's Move to Europe

When August rolled around, Jane found herself dragging her many checked bags into the airport. Her first term at Oxford wouldn't begin until October, so she would have to find housing accommodations and get rid of her luggage. During this time while she waited for the first term to start, she'd go exploring.

The logistics of moving all her luggage to the airport was something Jane hadn't counted on when she was making her preparations. In her mind she knew that she'd need a van, to arrive a few hours early, and maneuver all the bags around the crowd of people before she could sit off to the side and await her plane. Doing all of this in reality was a different matter altogether.

Berta had come by to help Jane's mother and father see her off. As she watched Jane carry down several bags from her room, she was just nodding to herself. As the count of luggage started climbing beyond three to five to seven, Berta put her foot down. "Girly, what are you doing? You're not moving a room over there onto a plane."

Jane looked puzzled. "But I'm a normal girl moving to Europe to go to school. Normal girls have a lot of stuff."

"Normal girls ship their stuff in the mail so they don't have to check the bags, pay the additional cab fares, deal with porters, and drag a train of stuff around behind them while they hunt for a place to stay on arrival." Berta pointed out.

"Where would I ship them to? I don't have an address and Oxford is spread out all over the place." Jane puzzled.

"Studying abroad for first-time students isn't a new thing. I'm sure they have a shipping, pick-up, and storage service over there if you look. It's too late for that now, though. Put all this luggage into that storage ring I gave you and pull it back out when you get to the airport and find a trolley." She suggested to Jane. "We'll roll it near a bathroom and block the view of anyone and the cameras. Anyone watching the tapes later will just think they were sitting around a corner or something."

"That would speed things up." Jane was all for it. "What about when I get there, though? Hmm, I suppose I should just have a taxi drop me off at a hotel while I hunt for a place."

And this was how Jane was first exposed to the annoyances of travel.

~*~

They made the trip to the airport into a little road trip. Jane was amazed. It was one thing to read or see the world in a video, but driving across the continent put things into perspective for her. They'd stop at interesting tourist attractions, try a few local dinging specialties, take a few photos, and move on to the next state. Within a week they had arrived at the airport.

Jane was sad to see them go, but she knew they'd see one another again eventually.

So far, Jane had been paying with cash for everything. She knew it was silly, especially in this day and age. However, she didn't want to pay using her bank account electronically until she was in Europe to reduce the chance of someone being able to piece together her steps of moving across the country from her village.

She wasn't aware of this until she started applying to Universities, but Jane's parents had been listing her as living in the state capital, not their village. Even the village's school had its records being listed as another school in that city. When she questioned this, she was only told that it made it easier for the children who weren't able to awaken to assimilate into normal society without pressure.

This was why Jane, until now, had nothing that would be showing up on the government or another organization's radar. Sure, one of their spies might have mentioned her name, but she had maintained careful secrecy in ensuring she wasn't noticed or only appeared like a normal girl who happened to like games and books.

This was why Jane was so pained to find herself sticking out after she arrived in the UK.

When she arrived, she followed her plan to be driven to a hotel. She paid the taxi and hotel in cash. Then she started walking around the city. Everything she had read stated that housing was constructed around the center buildings of the University. New additions to the school was organically build around it as well. So, housing could be considered in several zones.

During her flight, Jane had pulled up some listings for rentals not provided by the University. She only found a couple of rooms, a single flat, and a studio that was available. She could have found more, but the University required all undergraduate students to be within six miles of Carfax Tower.

None of those listings were a match for her goals. Either they were too cramped, worse than advertised, or taken. She had thought that arriving during break would have left her with more options to choose from, but that was not the case. So, she started walking around the narrow streets and soaking up the atmosphere.

The following day, she started exploring what the city had to offer. She passed little shops that catered to the bright-eyed freshman and transfer student. She had coffee and listened to postgraduate students bemoan their thesis. Jane smiled and felt that she was going to like it here.

Her only blemish in the situation was the lack of housing. She had made a stop to pick up a copy of the University Gazette to see what private housing was available. Nothing caught her eye.

It was later that afternoon that Jane had a wild idea. She was sitting along the sports field in East Oxford and watching some students kick a ball around while having a bit of ice cream. While enjoying the cool taste, she overheard some women discussing a new property along Iffley Road that had went up for lease or purchase. Evidently the property was a period-house with four bedrooms and a private small garden. The women were discussing ways to pull together funds to purchase it outright because they could live there while doing their postgraduate work and rent it out afterwards.

Jane smiled. She quite liked that idea. Especially if it was within walking distance to where most of her classes were.

Jane spent the rest of the afternoon walking around the location. It was a lovely yellow-bricked property with red trim and kept-up landscaping. Looking from the outside, she could tell that the rooms were built a bit narrower than she was use to, but that was to be expected. That day she placed a call in to the broker.

It took Jane awhile to convince them she was serious and solvent enough to afford a nearly $1.2 million dollar property. This was where Jane was annoyed at having to stick out after arriving in the UK. She had to provide a copy of her recent financial histories and prove she could purchase the property. She was sure that a young girl with little-to-no history was going to be raising red-flags.

After another week in her hotel, she was the proud owner of a house. After moving all her bags into the place and registering for utilities, Jane hunted down those two women.

~*~

The two new boarders of Jane's were Melanie and Diane. Both normal women, and both were Economic majors. It seemed that while they were upset at missing out on the opportunity of owning the house, they were perfectly happy with paying a reduced rent compared to the surrounding places. Jane only charged them $700 per month each providing they share full coverage of utilities and food. To this, they quickly agreed.

Jane took the largest room and turned it into a little studio for herself on the ground floor. She had an upstairs room for her bedroom. She didn't want to be below the two women if they were moving around or had company. The studio would overlook the garden and give Jane a place to have a desk and work on her art.

Since Jane didn't want to have to deal with moving furniture each semester, she talked the women into allowing her to buy all of it, leaving them to provide the bedding and linens that they would use. This way any future boarders could carry a few boxes to move in and out, plus whatever else they accumulated. She did bring the women shopping to help her pick out furnishings, however. Jane wasn't a good decorator.

The women had decided on furnishings that would stand-up to a few careless spills if they had company over. Jane wasn't one for large gatherings and the other women didn't seem to be as well. But they did want the option if they brought people over to study. The couch and chairs would be leather in the common room, the rest would be wood furniture.

Each place where people would sit would have a rug, protecting the floor from wear. There wasn't carpet in the house, so Jane was safe from having to replace that if something should happen. It did mean that each room had a large rug, which was harder to shop for than one would think.

The three women couldn't agree on how to decorate the walls. Diane defied expectations in her tastes and favored nature scenes, going against the sleek blue dress and heels she was wearing that proudly stated she was a no-nonsense kind of girl. It was also something she had said four times that day when asked to test out reclining chairs while performing various poses, with Melanie filming with her phone.

Melanie preferred abstract and freer works, like a fractal face or sunburst pattern. Jane had pointed out that it'd be weird watching television in the living room with a giant face that you couldn't tell where it was looking being in-front of you. Diane just didn't see the appeal.

In the end, Jane decided to just use her own art to fill the walls. She told the girls she'd make one or two fractal patterned nature scenes later in the semester and let them look through her portfolio for something she would have printed off for the other rooms.

Overall, she was happy with the result. The house looked fairly mature, since the women were in their mid-twenties. She wouldn't feel bad keeping the homey-yet-modern décor for several years.

Jane ended up being the only person who could cook. Which she found funny, as she only had cooked previously to avoid starving during long training sessions. The three decided that she'd make extra when she was going to cook for herself to start with and see how their schedules worked out. If they ended up being in the house regularly, she'd expand the meal outside of leaving left-overs in the fridge.

With this, the three had worked out a simple living arrangement.

~*~

Jane was right to be concerned when purchasing that property. A couple of weeks after she had settled, Jane started noticing people creeping around. Melanie and Diane also noticed and commented on it. It wasn't until the end of August that Jane learned what was going on.

She had just come home from a trip to a local coffee shop for a latte when she was assaulted by a man with a camera. "Miss Blackthorne, are you here on research for your next book? What does The Mother have planned for Oxford? How will The Church feel about this?"

Snap, snap, question, question. The man clicked his camera and followed her down the street as she pointedly ignored him and considered buying a cappuccino machine for the kitchen.

Later, the picture and details of her now attending the University of Oxford began to appear on the game and fan sites where she was a lesser-known celebrity. The local gamers of Landless Wonders started popping by to see if they could catch her at home or around her part of the city.

Jane was not amused.

So, she decided to do a VoIP interview to be featured in a podcast on one of the gaming news sites to hopefully alleviate some of the pressure and politely request to be left in peace.

~*~

The person Jane was to be interviewing with appeared before her. She was in her studio and had her laptop's webcam running. Jane was watching the broadcaster's feed on the screen and within her head in case she missed any details.

The interviewer was a moderately scruffy man in his late twenties. He gave off the appearance of a hipster that fell asleep in yesterday's clothes trying to clean up a bit, but not succeeding. He wore a t-shirt with a Landless Wonders in-joke that she didn't get, "If a Dryad falls in the woods, does she make a sound?"

Jane was starting to wonder if she should have chosen someone else to interview with, but this guy's website seemed to have the most local target audience for her message and tended to be the most vocal online. Shortly, the man started off the discussion.

"Today we have with us someone who has been the source of much speculation in the Landless Wonders community over the past few months, Jane Blackthorne. Jane is the author of three books centering around fan fiction of the game's goddess Celest." He paused. "Jane, before we get further in, I wanted to ask something that I've been curious about."

Jane smiled and gave him encouragement. "What's that Roger?"

"Anyone who followed your first books can see that you started out writing fan fiction on one of the more popular communities under the name Celest. After your third book, when it became noticeable that the world and characters could be linked to Landless Wonders, people speculated that you were giving hints that you might be the player by the same name. Especially after VirtuTech licensed your books in the game." Roger smiled. "Any thoughts?"

Jane held out her hands so the viewers could see. "That's certainly one way to view it. Maybe I'm just a fan of the Goddess and her story."

"You're not going to tell us, are you? Viewers are gong to be annoyed with you, you know?" Roger teased.

"I think they would like a little mystery left in their lives. Besides, I'd feel bad if I took away people's claims that they are Celest." Jane laughed. "There's a lot of good videos online with gamers proving their claims. The stunts they put together to defend their statements has almost become a sub-culture in and of itself." Jane winked and added, "You wouldn't want to risk losing a segment of your podcast if those videos stopped, would you?"

Roger shifted in his seat and looked over a list, probably his talking points while he replied. "No I wouldn't, it's one of the higher rated parts of the show." Looking back up after he found his next point, he continued. "You know, you're a hard lady to get a hold of. This would be your first interview. Does this mean you plan to do more?"

Jane shook her head. "Maybe. I am just a girl who decided to self-publish some fan fiction when people seemed interested. At the time I thought I could save a little to go towards a university degree. After the second book I got a bit alarmed at how much attention I was getting on those forums."

Jane looked up into the web camera with a wry smile. "Some of the comments were typical Internet troll, but others were a bit more explicit and vulgar. So I wanted to maintain my privacy for as long as possible. After this week when people found out where I was and even managed to get my picture, can you blame me?"

Roger nodded with a sad look. "So that would be no to any marriage proposals this LIVE feed is getting in the comments? How about with the show host?"

Jane gave a hollow laugh. "Roger, aren't you currently in a relationship with your mirror? I don't like to be in competition with inanimate objects."

He gave a wounded heart gesture with a hand on his chest. "Ouch!"

Jane laughed and looked into the camera and addressed those watching. "For all of you out there watching, I'm going to have to say I'm flattered but decline. I'm not looking for anything and want to focus on my schooling. I hope you'll all understand." Jane gave a forlorn expression, quickly followed by a smile and wink. "Besides, it'd just mean I'd have less time to write. Would you want to be the one to tell everyone else watching that you were the cause the fourth book was delayed""

Roger took that as his queue to get to the reason Jane had agreed to be interviewed. "I certainly wouldn't. Enraged fans are nothing to joke about!" Roger shuffled his papers and continued. "That is a good lead into the reason Jane is joining us tonight. To discuss her stalker issue." He paused for effect and added, "You guys."

Jane laughed. "Right. I wouldn't put it like that, but I am feeling a bit claustrophobic. My roommates are also complaining and threatening to kick me out of my own house. I appreciate the attention, and can sympathize with where you are all coming from, but I need you all to respect my privacy."

After this, the interview flowed into a Q&A segment where Roger asked Jane the main questions she was being bombarded with by her fans, ending the interview.

~*~

Her boarders didn't play Landless Wonders or have knowledge of her books, which made Jane quite happy. It'd have been weird if she had to deal with them as well. Thankfully, after an explanation as to why there was suddenly all the attention, they were mollified and let Jane handle it.

The interview didn't stop all of the overzealous fans showing up, but it did lessen them. Jane had considered placing a few discreet aversion enchantments around the property to prevent loitering. This idea was discarded, as she didn't want to have those supernaturals who happened to walk by suddenly taking an interest if they noticed them. Even if she was in the Advanced stage, she was still mostly a novice compared to a master and only at the highest levels would she be able to hide their presence for all but the most acute detection abilities.

This meant that Jane had to follow the tried-and-true method of informing the police and requesting some help. It wasn't much, but it did leave a record on file for dealing with anyone who overstepped themselves. That and time would let Jane's life get back to normal.

It took two weeks, but eventually most people got it out of their system. By the end of September, Jane could finally walk around freely. Just in time for the new semester.