Leonardo Darwinzki had put on a sturdy jacket against the night air before he set off for his first lesson in necromancy. Actually, it wasn't really so chilly that he couldn't manage without a jacket; after all, he was used to much colder temperatures in fall and winter in his home country. But then he would certainly have had problems hiding the 'tools' he really wanted to take with him. The generous inner pockets now concealed a flask filled with concentrated liquid garlic essence, two oak stakes and a sturdy metal cross, which he had found after a surprisingly short search in the small general store on the university campus. There was obviously a demand for such items here.

He met Norman at the door of the student hall of residence, who had put on a lined sleeveless work vest in addition to his long-sleeved wine-red shirt and was leaning comfortably against the wall next to the door. He casually threw one of the two shovels that he had placed next to him on the wall over his shoulders. He held the other out to Leo as he walked towards him. "Hi Leo. I brought you a shovel too. I somehow thought you'd forget."

"Thanks." Leo looked at the shovel Norman held out to him like something a dog had left in the street. Reluctantly, he took it and threw it awkwardly over his shoulder. "Well, let's get on with it."

A recently arrived depression had brought cold winds and dark clouds from the north. Light wisps of fog drifted over the university grounds without significantly obstructing the view. The initial conversation about the highlights of the previous day's tour died down after a short while. While the well-kept shrubs and trees had still resembled a recreational park during the day, they now cast deep shadows in the light of the street lamps at the edge of the path and formed countless possible hiding places.

Growing increasingly nervous, Leo fumbled in his pocket for the metal cross and looked around carefully. Without taking his eyes off his surroundings, he murmured quietly to Norman: "I hope none of the vampires in the class have decided to have a snack first."

Norman tried to sound unimpressed, but unconsciously lowered his voice and listened tensely for strange footsteps: "Pah. I don't believe in vampires."

"I hate to tell you this, but there's no question that vampires exist! My elective subject in the first semester was Mystical Biochemistry. And we were allowed to examine a vampire right at the beginning. The guy was almost two meters tall, had long scary fangs and claws like knife blades. Fortunately, he was tied to a huge stone block with thick steel chains the whole time. The lecturer said it had fallen out of one of our experimental dimensional portals and was biting wildly. He never revealed whether anyone was killed and how they were able to capture the beast."

Norman interrupted him: "You're taking the piss again!"

"No really! No fun at all! We took blood and tissue samples and did some interesting experiments with UV lamps."

"You tortured a vampire with UV lamps?" Norman looked at his fellow student, not very pleased.

"No! What do you take me for! We held the tissue samples under the UV light. They drove the vampire away almost unscathed with a forklift truck and a stone block..."

"Almost unscathed?"

"Well, Professor Majere cut off one of his fingers to show us the accelerated cell regeneration. But it grew back completely after less than a minute. Didn't really seem to cause the vampire any pain either. Although you couldn't really see that through the gag..."

"Sounds nice. I hope we don't have him as a lecturer too?"

"Sure thing. We'll have it the day after tomorrow. Majere's teaching the basics of elemental magic to first-year students this semester and otherwise just some pretty wacky special courses. For example..." A soft crack sounded in the dense rowan bush directly to the right of the path, which was poorly lit by lanterns that were a little too far apart. Distracted by the conversation, Leonardo naturally feared that his brief moment of inattention had led him into an ambush. Reflexively, he pulled down the shovel he was still carrying on his shoulder and swung it in a wide arc through the shadows. Something bent down under the shovel just in time. Driven by the sudden rush of adrenaline, he pulled the hand with the still tightly clutched metal cross out of his pocket and thrust it wildly at the cowering figure. A stifled scream rang out and a human-sized figure moved away from him in the shadows. While Leo, now even more frightened because he had actually hit something, backed away and held out the cross in defense, Norman, unimpressed, pulled a small LED flashlight out of his pocket and shone it into the bushes. A pale teenager was crouching on the ground with his hands close to his face. His voice trembled slightly: "Are you vampires?"

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"Nope. We're completely harmless. Are you okay?"

Leo took another step forward and tried to pull Norman back. An attempt that the much more muscular architecture student simply ignored. "Watch out! It must be a vampire! Look at the way he's holding his face! The cross must have burned his skin badly!"

The accused immediately spoke up indignantly: "You almost put my eye out with that thing!"

"Leo, put that thing down before you hurt someone else with it." Shaking his head, Norman bent down and held out his hand to the man lying on the ground. Still a little hesitant, he let himself be helped up with his right hand. He still held his left hand in front of his left eye. What Norman was dragging along the illuminated path looked anything but dangerous. The slight, blond student looked suspiciously at Leo and only came closer when he put away his metal cross and mumbled something vaguely apologetic. "I'm Norman and the would-be vampire killer next to me is Leonardo. Are you part of the basic necromancy class tonight?"

"Do I look crazy? Everyone knows the course is crawling with vampires! I've just come from my seminar in public relations."

"At this time of night?" Leo slipped his hand back into the pocket with the metal cross.

"Yes, yes, I know. Only jerks who annoy the student service end up in the evening lecture. I know what they say. I just found the university too late to sign up for the normal lectures. And now I can stalk through the bushes every evening and hope I don't get eaten."

"You're exaggerating." Norman looked over at his fellow student, seeking confirmation: "Aren't you? He's exaggerating, isn't he?"

Leo still didn't take his eyes off the student, but had visibly relaxed in the meantime and taken his hands out of his pockets: "As far as I've heard, we only have very few real vampires at the university. But there are always rumors that one of them couldn't control himself. They are supplied with blood, but apparently that can't really stop their hunting instinct. And since a student actually disappears here every few months without warning, I'm a bit worried." He held out his hand: "I'm sorry about the eye, anyway. Shall we give you an escort? By the way, what's your name?". After a moment's hesitation, he shook his hand surprisingly firmly. "You can call me Piri, like everyone else. I'll come with you to the medical faculty building. It's on the way for you anyway if you want to continue towards the main exit. There should still be a nurse on duty there who can take a look at my eye to be on the safe side."

The three students set off. Norman looked around much more attentively and tried in vain to get a conversation going.

On the way to the bus stop in front of the university campus, more students joined them. Most of them looked quite nervous, and as he paid attention, Leo could make out some suspicious bulges in bags and coats. Almost all of them, like him and Norman, were carrying shovels or spades of various shapes and sizes. In hushed whispers, small groups formed at the bus stop, eyeing each other suspiciously. The only exception was a slender, stunningly pretty student with golden curls standing confidently alone at the edge of the group. Even in the semi-darkness of the few lanterns lining the gravel path, Norman could make out the unusual color of her eyes. An almost luminous shade of gold. Of course, he immediately recognized the young woman he had met briefly on his first day of study at the fire in the city. Without thinking, he went over to greet her: "Hi Jane! It's nice to see you again so soon! Are you magically gifted? I mean, surely you can cast a spell on men like that?" Norman realized he was babbling and didn't know what to say next. Jane obviously had no intention of helping him any further, as she just smiled at him with obvious amusement. He was saved from his embarrassment by the clattering of horses' hooves and the rumbling of wagon wheels coming from the darkness. "What's that?"

A few lights approached from the darkness. Somehow the arrangement resembled a car headlight, but they were too high and not nearly bright enough for a car. As the yellow flickering of the first pair of lights came closer and closer, more lights appeared behind them. As half a dozen horse-drawn carriages with drivers in old-fashioned clothes on the coach box drove into the neon lights of the bus stop, Norman felt a hand gently place itself on his arm. As he turned around, he looked into a pair of gold-colored eyes: "So you didn't read the course description?"

He shook his head wordlessly at first, as he had the feeling that words would just get stuck in his throat. Then he pulled himself together: "I had actually read through everything. The lecturer was listed as Richard Horace and the class location was '1799'." She continued to look at him promptly.

"There was a footnote at the bottom of the number saying that you should be at the bus station in front of the university half an hour before classes start. However, I couldn't find a list of the corresponding address anywhere."

"That's not an address." She let go of his arm and got into the first of the cabs that had just stopped in front of the bus stop sign. "It's a year."