Chapter Two

“Okay…” I said, staring at the book.

“Maybe I just accidentally grabbed it with my stuff this morning?”

‘No, I didn’t’ I think ‘but what other explanation is there?’

“What if I…”

I take the book out, and put it down on my desk. I then leave the room and shut the door.

I take a look inside my bag and…

“Ooooookay, what the fuck is going on here?”

The book has returned to my bag. I didn’t even notice it’s arrival.

“So, I’ve got a teleporting book… That can’t be normal.”

I open up the book again to check if any of “The Rules” from before said anything about the book being so clingy.

“Nothing in here said anything about it teleporting around the place… wait…”

The book didn’t stop at the first page. There were new words in it.

I started reading.

> ----------------------------------------

>

> So, your first lesson is on “Items of Return”! What is an “Item of Return”? You ask? Well it’s actually very simple to explain, and very easy to test. See the nearest window? Chuck this book out of it. Don’t worry about having to go retrieve it, it’ll be fine.

>

> ----------------------------------------

And that’s it. A single paragraph appeared in the book like it was always there.

“I suppose there’s only one thing to do.” I say with some hesitation.

“The fifth floor… This better do what I think it’ll do…”

I walk back into my room, open the window, and toss the book out of it.

“Okay, now we just look in the bag, and there it is.”

The book returned, safe and sound, into my bag.

“Is it limited to just the bag?” I ask myself.

“Oh I am sooo going to figure this thing out.” I say, resigning myself to not sleep at all that night, there were tests to be done.

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Okay! Good news. I have figured out how the book works, or at least how it behaves; I don’t actually know how it teleports.

1. The book, when I’m not looking at it, is a bit… position unstable, we’ll say.

2. When it does it’s teleport stuff, it’s impossible to notice what happened until you actually see it. I literally cannot feel it displace the stuff in my bag, or anywhere else it teleports.

3. It likes to always be within arms reach of me, and does everything in it’s power to get there.

Examples:

a. When I’m fully kitted out, with bags or pockets, and I chuck it out of a window, it appears in one of those places.

b. When I’m not wearing anything with pockets, It’ll hook itself onto my belt. Yes, I don’t know how, but with out me noticing, it “grew” a little hook and was attached to my belt.

c. When I wasn’t wearing anything for it to hook onto, It simply teleported to the nearest surface to me. When I was near my bed, it ended up there, when I was near the desk, it ended up there.

4. It won’t ‘arrive’ at the place it’s decided to teleport to if you’re looking at the destination. In the event that you are looking at it’s chosen destination for long enough, it picks a different one.

And finally, the strangest rule of them all.

5. If I think really hard about where I want it to land, and all the previous rules are satisfied, it lands there.

It doesn't even have to be thrown out of the window, I can just will it out of my bag and onto my desk, as long as I’m not looking at either.

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I can even get it to teleport to places where it normally wouldn’t go, like on the roof of the other dorm across the yard. Although as soon as I look away, it comes right back.

Now, onto the bad news… I may have spent all night experimenting on the book… and it’s morning now.

“Well shit.”

It’s a good thing classes start in like six days. If I had to go to class like this, I’d just fall asleep.

Speaking of which… *Knock Knock*

“Dorm meeting! All students must attend at least the first one!” someone yelled from outside my door.

Dammit.

“Okay!” I yell back. This is not going to be fun.

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The meeting room wasn’t all that big, only like eight people were there, the dorm meetings were divided by each floor of the building, and we were on the least populated floor.

“Sorry for being late everyone.” I say, as I enter. “I’ll be honest in saying that I forgot. I didn’t sleep last night.”

“It’s fine! We’ve all got some nervous energy.” I recognize her as the one who called me to the meeting, and orientation.

I want to refute her claim that I’m nervous, and tell her I was just testing something, but someone speaks up before I can.

“Damn your tall!”

Really? That took all of what? Twelve seconds?

“Wow really? I’ve never noticed. Not one time in all my life have I ever noticed that I’m a bit taller than average.” I just give ‘generic sarcastic response two’ to her.

She looks a bit pale “Oh I’m sorry! I just… I mean…” I stop her.

“No, it’s okay, it’s just that’s the first thing everyone says to me, and I’m just a bit tired of it. I’m not actually offended, but I’ll ask that you’re not so blunt about it please.”

“Okay…” she replies hesitantly. “I’m Casey, may I know your name?”

"I'm Triss" I reply.

“And on that note, I think it’ll be a good idea to call this meeting to order. This meeting is just for introductions, and division of responsibilities. I’m Samantha Lance and I was picked to run the meetings by the dorm head, please introduce yourselves.”

“I’m Casey Allen.”

“I am Lethra, No last name, that’s not a thing amongst my people.”

“Leah Peri, nice to meet you all.”

“My name is Rro’Kall, though you may all call me Rho, or Kall; few people can pronounce it normally.”

“I’m called Nephrra Loe. Pleased to make your acquaintance.”

“I am known as Mave, you may not know my family name. Know that it is rude to ask.”

“I’m Triss, Triss Ovalia, hi.”

“Okay, with introductions out of the way, we can move on to division of labor. I volunteer to take on the administrative duties for us. Any objections?”

“May we know our options first?” Leah asked.

“Certainly, this is the library floor of the building, and thus one of us must work with the head librarian of the school to keep the books clean and cataloged. One of us will have to do admin work, such as filling out room assignments, and making requests. Requests are for furniture, lighting, enchantments, permission slips for various items to enter the dorm, that sort of thing. We’ll need a few people to clean the halls, and a few people to run errands, like bring the morning breakfast and so on. Finally we’ll need someone to deliver mail to us from the post box in the main building. Any questions?”

“I think I would like to work as a cleaner. I cannot stand a dirty living space, so I might as well do it myself.” Lethra said.

“I shall join her! It will be good to do physical activity.” Mave agreed.

“I believe I would be okay as a runner for the dorm, I’ll do the deliveries.” Casey said. “I need to spend a lot of time in the main building anyway, might as well check for mail while I’m there.”

“I’ll be an errand runner. Nephrra, you should join me, it’ll be just like when we lived in the capital.” Rro spoke up.

“Sure, I can do that” she replied.

“Okay, that’s just about it. Only the librarian and the administrative positions need to be filled. Triss, will you be challenging me for the role of administrator?” Samantha asked.

“No, that’s okay, I can work in the library. I like books anyway.”

“Well then, that’s settled! Now, on to the next order of business…” She started.

I’m so tired…

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For the rest of the meeting, I tuned out of the conversation. It’s not like they needed me anyway.

I found out something interesting though. The book doesn’t teleport when anyone is looking at it. Not just me.

I couldn’t get it to teleport off of my belt almost the entire time.

I did get it to once, I think, but since I was just thinking “anywhere but here” I have no idea where it went during that time.

Finally the meeting ends and I get to go back to my room to sleep.

I don’t even bother setting my bed; I just land in it and pass out.

Whatever I needed to do today, could be handled tomorrow.