Mel sighed contently as she sipped the bitter beverage. Coffee was a rare commodity since most nobles preferred tea, but to Melony it was something divine. Not for its taste but for its ability to keep her up late into the night.

She sat in the communal study with her thesis filling up an entire table. References and predictions, historical records to her theories. Everything was currently organized and easy to read.

At least for her to read.

A black cat jumped up onto the table. Mel froze as it started to walk across the piles of research notes, but it was strangely careful compared to wild cats. Mel rushed to the end of the table and tried to lift the cat off but it was surprisingly heavy.

The cat mewed and gave her a questioning stare. Its red eyes held a strange intelligence.

“Please get off,” Mel sighed. “You’re wrinkling them.”

The cat looked down at the wrinkled page it was standing on. It had tipped over a small pile and a few of the top pages got crunched against its foot.

The cat mewed again before leaping off the table onto the floor, the table itself shifting, knocking over a few of the taller piles and a loud thump resounding during the cat's landing.

“Thank you,” Mel grumbled as she fixed the toppled papers. “Please go to your master and don’t stray too far again.”

“He didn’t stray far to begin with,” a mirthful voice said.

Mel turned slightly to see a girl younger than her standing at the other end of the table reading her notes.

“Please excuse yourself,” Mel growled. “My research is not for public reference.”

The other girl sighed and averted her gaze. The cat rubbed its head against her leg, but the girl was pushed back slightly.

“Strong familiar,” Mel commented as she circled the table, righting her papers and smoothing out the rest of the sheets. “Polymorphed?”

“No,” the other girl laughed. “Golem. Made it myself.”

Mel nodded. The only way for a girl younger than her to have a familiar was to either have strong family connections for a themed animal, or to make one themselves like a chimera, golem, or other artificial being.

“You must be quite skilled,” Mel stated.

“Indeed. I’m called a prodigy in the department.”

“Oh,” Mel replied without reacting. “Lots of prodigy’s at the University nowadays.”

“The term is being used quite often, yes,” the girl confirmed. “My name is Faun of the Tai family.”

Tai? Mel was sure she had heard that family’s name recently. They were not a duke or marquise, though. Mel examined the girl as she finished fixing her table. Her hair was fiery red, almost orangish. Her clothes were also made of a very fine green and white material. She was definitely her junior but she was not wearing the colors of a lower ranked student. The quality of the fabric also screamed wealth so she had to be from a Count’s family at the minimum. Even the threads seemed to be silver, so a family well to do in the Kingdom. Business? Or perhaps owned a mining Island?

“Melony,” Mel introduced herself.

“I can see you are a researcher,” Faun pointed out. “My familiar was interested in your work which is why he jumped onto the table. Studies about a persons ‘core’, specifically the cuts?”

“I will repeat myself,” Mel snapped. “My work is not for public reference or discussion.”

“What about a collaboration?” Faun asked. “Golems are difficult to create, especially ones which possess a bit of intelligence like my little baby here.” She pet the black cat who was watching the table suspiciously.

“Of course it is difficult.” Mel realized the girl wasn’t going to leave her alone so she pulled out a bit of air mana and string. The string flew around and started tying themselves around the piles of paper. “The runes used to enchant the material are static and do not like unpredictable stimuli. As such they cannot have true intelligence outside of extraordinarily rare circumstances.”

Mel gave the familiar a brief glance.

“For example, making a familiar,” Mel concluded. “Such a feat would earn you quite a number of titles, like prodigy.”

“As well as the youngest senior student,” Faun added.

Mel gave her another examining glance before shrugging her shoulders.

“Senior student means you are in your free year to study what you wish,” Mel said. “As such you should be focused on your own research and not mine.”

“Your research is very interesting and I think it’ll overlap with mine very well.”

“You’re out of luck then because I have more to do before I share my insights with others.”

All the papers had been tied and were lifted into an organized pile. Mel was about to grab it to leave but foreign mana broke through hers and took a hold of her research. Mel let out a startled scream when her papers flew up and disappeared into a small bag on Faun’s hip.

“Your insights into cores are exactly what I need to break through my current predicament.”

“Give those back!” Mel shouted. The other students in the communal study paused their work to stare.

“You can have them back once you hear my proposition,” Faun said. “And if you prefer privacy that is fine. Please follow me to somewhere with… less ears.”

Faun turned and started out of the room. Mel stuttered for a few moments before quickly rushing to her to stop her. She reached to grab the girl’s shoulder but her leg hit something solid and she fell onto the floor. Mel looked behind her to see a smug cat purring contently as it glided past her, its tail wagging happily.

“Please stop,” Mel begged.

“Follow me,” Faun ordered as she left the study.

Mel rushed to her feet and started after her. The girl was walking at a quick pace and Mel soon fell into step behind her.

“What are you doing?” Mel whispered. “Stealing a student’s work can get you banished from the University.”

“Between students it is a misdemeanor,” Faun replied. “As long as you get your work back, of course. I have no reason to keep it as I have my own research which I find much more important.”

“Do you even know what I am working on?” Mel hissed. “There are dozens of others working on cores. Go steal their work.”

Faun chuckled and gave Mel a side glance. “They’re protected by their families, or they’re work is irrelevant to what I need.” Faun looked forward again as they reached the door and left the building.

Stars twinkled overhead and Mel sighed as she followed.

“Where are we going?”

“To my workroom,” Faun replied. “And to answer your previous question, my familiar has been watching you work for a while now. You are working on the magic flow of the cores, not just studying the engravings or cuts written in the records. You have a unique view I need.”

Mel glared at the cat. A spy? Its intelligence was much higher than initially predicted.

“You were right about the limitations to artificial intelligence in golems,” Faun continued. “The runes are rigid and cannot continue to learn. B.T. was an exception due to a mistake of mine which turned into a major blessing.”

“You are being very open about your research,” Mel pointed out.

“We are outside and you need context to my research to help,” Faun took a turn toward a forested portion of the campus. “As I said, this isn’t me stealing your work but turning this into a collaboration. Your research will be accredited to you while the golemancy portion will be mine.”

“You’re very generous…”

“I don’t care about the reputation,” Faun laughed. “I want results.”

“You are a very strange noble.” Mel sighed and started to rub her temples.

Faun paused her walk and turned to face Mel. Her face was inexpressive for a moment before cracking into a large smile. “That's right! I am a noble.”

She then rushed past some bushes and bent down. Mel followed quickly and came up short when Faun was nowhere to be seen.

She was about to fear that her notes were actually stolen before the black cat strolled out from a hidden hole in the bushes. Mel peeked inside to see an opened trap door, Faun peeking out of it.

“Come on,” She chuckled as she disappeared inside. “Close up when you climb down.”

Mel hesitated for only a moment before following. The ladder heading down was made of a strange metal, but it appeared like it was brand new. As she started down and closed the top of the trapdoor parts of the walls began to glow like the stars outside. A black shadow paced down the wall and Mel noticed the cat was walking on the vertical surface downward.

“Interesting,” she mumbled as she continued downward.

At the bottom a rough cavern stretched in two directions. It had the feeling of a natural cave. Mel looked down and saw what looked like old footprints going in one direction. The cat which beat her to the ground was sitting a short distance away, barely illuminated by the sparkling lights on the walls.

Mel looked at the ladder one last time, debating on just giving up, but hardened herself. She couldn't abandon her work. He pushed forward and followed the cat into the depths.

The tunnel twisted and turned for close to a half hour until she came to a ledge which overlooked pure darkness. The cat had disappeared and Mel frantically looked around only to see a single pathway following the wall. At the end was an old door.

Mel gulped and slid down the pathway, her back firmly against the wall. Each step caused a few pebbles to be displaced. Mel kicked a few over the edge and listened, but even after a minute she heard nothing. She took in a breath and shimmied as carefully as she could until she arrived just outside.

It was propped open. She rushed inside and gasped for breath.

“Good job,” Faun laughed as she sat on a desk. “I was worried you’d get lost in the tunnels.”

“Where… what is all of this?” Mel stammered.

“Hidden research rooms from who knows when,” Faun shrugged. “This island is full of tunnels like this. Some new, some old, some might even be natural.”

“And that pit?”

“Not a clue,” Faun giggled. “I once sent a flying golem down into it and it never returned. Might have a few monsters remaining from whoever used this old bio-lab.”

Mel’s face scrunched up in disgust.

“Yeah, yeah.” Faun tried to comfort Mel but Mel flinched away when she tried to touch her.

“I thought you did golem work? Why are you using a bio-lab?”

“Because I need to work on a core,” Faun answered.

The door closed with a click and Mel looked back to see the cat had sat in front of it.

“That is why I need you, Melony,” Faun cheered as she threw her arm around Mel and started leading her deeper into the lab. “So let's get working!”

The night was boring. So very boring.

Philip sighed as the stars glowed outside. Emily had given him a small dinner then left him alone. Well, Philip was not sure if it was a dinner or poison from the way it tasted. He could barely keep it down as he ate, but Emily was very clear that he either ate it willingly or she would find another way to get it down his throat.

How in the world can a woman like that be a priestess? Maybe it was a cruel joke of the gods? Or maybe the doomsayers were right and the gods abandoned the world.

Such thoughts made him remember the old woman’s words from the Observatory. ‘Study the stars,’ she said.

Well, without anything else to do Philip decided to do just that. He sat at the window and stared outside at the stars.

There they were. They sparkled. They twinkled. And they just kinda took up space up in the sky.

They were… so very… interesting.

Philip yawned and laid down on the bed. There was nothing to do…

The creaking of the door to his room broke him from his stupor and turned to see who it was.

An ethereal vision of a person glided across the floor. Their feet did not touch the ground but the floor creaked as if they were walking. It appeared to be a woman in a long, flowing dress. Her ears were long and pointed, her hair flowed as if being blown by an invisible wind.

She turned to look at Philip, and he stiffened. It was as if his blood froze, her gaze was empty. It was like staring into a void, pits which fell into eternity of pain, loneliness, and suffering. She opened her mouth but Philip did not hear anything. Then his head erupted in pain as he covered his ears in panic.

Whatever he heard was nothing like he ever heard before. It wasn’t a sound but more of the feeling of a powerful mage’s aura crushing down on his skull. But it was different. It felt as if all the warmth in the world had disappeared, leaving him burning in the cold.

He tried to scream but his voice didn’t come out. Or did it? The pressure was too much.

Then a bright light filled his vision and the pain lessened to almost a bearable amount.

Philip opened his eyes and saw the figure was only a few steps from him with its hand stretched out. His body reacted without thinking as he leapt back in the bed and hit the wall. The figure did not move but instead started to spasm while staging in the air.

Another flash of light burst in the room which stretched around the ethereal figure encasing it in a bright shell. The light faded but a magic script remained in the air.

“Begone evil spirit,” Emily’s voice resounded. It was heavy like the creature but it held warmth instead of deathly frost. “By the Holy Goddess’ light I banish you from this realm into the realm of Death. Rejoin the cycle and be reborn.”

Another flash lit up the room and the runes circling the creature lit up and rushed the creature. It tried to dodge but all it could do was flail around uselessly as glowing bands were now constraining it.

As soon as the runes touched it another wail of pain erupted and a smell worse than Philip imagined possible filled the room.

The next moment the light grew bright until it Philip had to close his eyes from the pain, but even with them closed they seemed to burn through his lids. He covered his face with his arms until everything went dark again.

Once the light was gone he felt a hand touch his arm and he flinched away before realizing the hand was warm.

“Are you okay?” Emily’s soft voice soothed the painful ringing remaining in his ears.

Philip tried to open his mouth to ask what happened but a painful cough was all he managed to do. Emily gave him a gentle smile before sitting in the bed next to him.

“Undead,” Emily answered without prompt. “It is why I was so instant to keep you here while you recovered.”

Philip tilted his head questioningly. His throat now felt dry, drier than he ever felt before. Emily waved her hand and a small gas of liquid appeared in her hand.

Philip saw no apparent magic but didn’t care at the moment. He took the glass and drank it in a single gulp. He almost regretted it from his mouth puckering up from the extremely bitter taste of a healing potion, but between the dryness and that he would take the bitterness.

“The existence of mages attract the creatures of the netherworld,” Emily continued. “Normally you have magic, which is the opposite element of them. Because of this magic they are repelled so they cannot hunt mages without a mage purposefully seeking them out.

“But your core is currently damaged and not creating enough magic to repel them. So you are in danger until it heals.” She finished

“But… why would Blackledge want to take me under his care before I healed?” Philip had to ask. Was the man trying to attract the undead? Was he secretly a necromancer?

What a blasphemous thought. Who in their right minds would search for creatures like that?

Emily sighed and patted his leg comfortingly before standing.

“He either thought his magic was strong enough to repel the undead on its own, or he didn’t know.” She looked outside the window into the sky. “The more likely answer is he didn’t know because mages do not like thinking about stuff that they cannot control.”

“That makes no sense,” Philip complained.

“Welcome to the Noble World,” Emily muttered. She turned and gave him a quick examination.

“I will keep guard for the rest of the night, so please try to rest until morning.” She turned and left the room. One last flash stretched out from her fingers and hit the wall of door frame as she left and spread across the walls all around the room. A slight shimmering continued afterward.

Philip was curious about the spell and touched it to examine it but it felt like it wasn’t there outside a bit of warmth. Not a single piece of magic string was weaved into it, but it appeared to be similar to the shield spell which locked the creature?

He heard the door click shut and lock, but he had not desire to follow her. He sat back in the bed again, but this time he was not feeling tired in the least.

How could he when creatures like that could appear out of nowhere?

He looked out the window and looked at the sky like Emily did. The stars twinkled like normal… but there was something different.

He pushed himself up and focused on an area in the sky that felt off. There used to be seven stars close together there in a tight clump but now the clump appeared to have flattened out slightly. No, not flattened, but the stars had spaced themselves out more.

Was this what the old lady meant? What was that constellation? Who or what myth was tied to it?

Philip sat late into the night observing the sky until the sun broke through the horizon. Luckily, there were also no more appearances of horrors from beyond the grave.