Mary woke up to a ray of the bull-reflected sunlight straight to her face, and for a sweet moment, she was just happy to be under her blanket, with her eyes sealed shut. She knew it couldn't last, but it was great.

And then, well...

She rose from her bed and glanced at Rose. The little girl was still snoring, and Mr Spoo was still mostly inactive. Mary noted that the kid kept hugging the metal-gloved hand tight to her chest even in her sleep. She went to the bathroom to get herself presentable to the cruel world outside - there was no reason she couldn't at least try to look good while confronting it. Well, apart from her recently acquired condition that she barely masked with a trinket. And, maybe, a flying saucer just hanging around all the time... although, it did look cool from a certain perspective. Surely. Well, probably. Yeah...

Light knocking on the door brought Mary back to the present. She walked out of the bathroom and checked that the girl was still sleeping. Then, she went to get the door with her right hand already preparing her favourite gesture. She wasn't expecting anybody, so... she decided that it would be better to be cautious unnecessarily than the opposite. Eh, Bromman would have been so proud of her. Actually, she could text him about it, and he could still be...

Mary opened the door to find a familiar face with closed eyes staring at her.

“Hello, Mary.”

“Mortimer. What are you doing here?”

The boy snorted. “Well, I was just wondering the exact same thing. Can you believe the coincidence?”

“What do you mean? It's my room. It's where I should be!”

Just how good Mortimer was at glaring with his eyes closed was rather unnerving, to say the least.

“Do you really need me to spell it out? Seriously?”

“Um...,” Mary trailed off. “Actually, could you, please? I mean... You know, since I really can't be sure what you mean.”

Mortimer sighed. “You have a younger child in your room. And since we do not have a child in our party, she isn't from our party.”

“Well... yeah? She was freezing outside the dorm, alone at night. What was I supposed to do?”

“How about telling me about it once the immediate danger was over, since you never bothered to read through the Academy rules?”

Mary felt something heavy nesting itself in her empty stomach. “So... how bad is it?”

“On a scale from one to ten? Around six point seven.” He sighed again. “But, good job otherwise - Rose might not have been here if not for you.”

“Wait, how did you...?”

The boy snorted. “Yeah, that'll have to wait. I need some tricks up my sleeves to deal with your antics, and the second you'll know what they are, you'll try to circumvent them. I think I'll go with 'magic' for now, and let's leave the rest for calmer times. But really, let me know the next time.”

This book is hosted on another platform. Read the official version and support the author's work.

“So...?” Mary asked, after a long moment of silence. “Have you just come here to berate me, or is there something more behind it?”

“Wear your armour today. And if anything happens, grab Rose's hand, and do not let her go - this should give her some shared protection from your talisman.” His eyes flashed for a second, and he added, “Yes, this could work.”

“...could?”

“Yes, could. The future is so fragile right now that any change significant in the slightest breaks the whole thing like a bowling ball launched by a warship cannon would wreck a house of cards.” He sighed. “You know, you're the most annoying temporary party member we've ever had.”

Mary blinked. “How many of those did you have?”

“Including you? One.”

Well... technically, he'd been correct. That was the most infuriating part.

“Bring it on.”

----------------------------------------

Rose was a really sweet girl once she stopped sobbing and trying to freeze to death. She woke up shortly after Mortimer left and gave Mary no trouble ever since. Still, that metal glove/gun-thingy... It gave mary chills every time she looked at it.

Mary was not jealous. In fact, she was perfectly happy that the girl apparently had some illusion of warmth and safety as they watched the SJWs flying after each other. To be honest, Mary never thought that the robots were even capable of something that looked like... having fun?

“Is Mr Spoo always that... playful?” Mary asked.

“No,” Rose scowled. “He mostly whines about me explaining to him why the world is so stupid. But sometimes we play cards, and once he even agreed to a game of chess! But chess is stupid, so we only played it once.”

Mary frowned. That didn't sound like her SJW at all... It was about the time she started to be suspicious of the flying saucer. It didn't seem to notice, as it was currently busy trying to catch Mr Spoo with that retractable metal arm of his. How much more was there to uncover about the overgrown money-sucking mosquito? It seemed obvious that Rose's robot was a bit different from her own, and the differences could potentially lead to the understanding of what was going on with that infernal machine. If not for the little girl and her unconsciously helpful robot, Mary would never have seen this side of her companion.

The problem was, Rose wasn't officially in Mary's party, and that apparently meant a lot of trouble. But there was always a chance that this would be the one time that everything went right. Right?

----------------------------------------

Mortimer and Paolo waited for them outside the dorm. The day was sunny, with not a single cloud bothering to show up.

“Hello,” Mortimer said as Mary and Rose approached.

“Hey! You must be Rose?” Paolo added. “I'm Paolo.”

“Hi,” the young girl said timidly.

“So, what should we do with you, young lady?” Mortimer asked. “Would you like to go back to Stella? We could lead you to her, explain that you got lost.”

The girl started to shake her head so violently that Mary started to worry about the state of her neck.

“N-no, I can't, s-she'll... she'll...” the girl was on the verge of tears again, which earned Mortimer a glare from Mary.

“Don't worry,” Paolo said, kneeling down and placing a hand on the girl's shoulder. “You don't have to go back there if you don't want to. You can stay with us.”

“I... I can?”

“Of course you can!” Mary said, looking at Mortimer as if daring him to deny it. The boy just smirked at her.

“Ok, then,” Mortimer said. “Let's go to the Dean's office and make it official.”

“Ok,” Mary slowly replied, as the girl leapt to the older boy and hugged him.

Mary had to admit that the expression of pure uncomfortability on Morimter's face was worth any trouble that would arise from this idea. Probably...