In the rector's office

Principal Argus stood annoyed in the center of his office with his eyes narrowed tightly and concentrated. Large round eyes appeared on his big bald head every second, looked around and disappeared again. He had already spent the last three hours doing the same thing, he would spend the next few hours doing the same thing until he succeeded! Or not. He wiped his desk completely clean with a frustrated gesture. Files, notepads, a "Best Rector Mug" of mysterious origin, a cheap plastic pen holder full of Montblanc fountain pens and a thick pile of "really important documents" that his secretary had placed on his desk. Everything was carelessly thrown on the floor: "Dragonspawn! I'd give three of my eyes if I was only annoyed by followers of Mandatus."

At least they stuck to the rules. After all, they worked for the personification of the cosmic order. Even if they sometimes surprised him, because they occasionally used rules he didn't know, he got along with them. But this lot...

He crushed something crunchy without looking. He couldn't even begin to predict these guys. In three other parallel worlds he had allied himself with the local variants of this brotherhood, but in this one they had actively avoided any contact. What were they doing near his university anyway? The Brotherhood of Saint Ding-Dong had its headquarters in a soup snack bar in an obscure little village in Tibet. And there they were concerned with harmony with the Tao or Dao, whatever that was exactly. He had noticed them a few times in Germany too, but so far always on the road. He once spent a boring afternoon entering all the sightings into the computer. The result, however, was a simple "search pattern". Not even the AI could tell him what the monks in their yellow robes were looking for and whether they had found it. And now there were almost a dozen of the guys hanging around in the immediate vicinity of his university. He could only see them with great difficulty and usually lost sight of them immediately. That was what bothered Rector Argus most about the monks of the order. They used magic to disguise their presence. And over the centuries, the Order had created a myriad of magical artifacts for this very purpose. The prayer wheels, condemned by all dragons, continuously hummed magical commands into the environment. Only true followers of Eris should be able to use magic! Not that it should have been made a rule...

After all, magic was a gift from Eris to his followers. The god had spent countless years finding loopholes in the orderly creation of Mandatus. Since the Primordials had relinquished some of their powers and could no longer alter the natural laws of their respective universes, they had naturally had a loophole built in. A way to make minor changes. Eris researched the possibilities of accessing this system. After numerous experiments, he found ways in which lesser beings could also use this "magic", as he called it. In most cases, extensive rituals and actions, meditations and hours of chanting were necessary. Only in this way was it possible for humans to shift their own thoughts to precisely the telepathic frequency that the universe actually only expected from Primordials. And for most, countless repetitions of these exercises were necessary until they were able to mentally formulate the mental symbol commands with sufficient precision. Over time, Eris had refined the whole thing further and further and passed on his knowledge freely to the inhabitants on an incalculable number of worlds. They soon began experimenting themselves, the results of which Eris then incorporated into his teachings if they were successful. By now, the system was already very advanced. However, the monks of Saint Ding-Dong must have picked up an ancient version somewhere. His targeted spells and his magical ability to change the position of his eyes were completely confused by it. Complex magical formulas mixed the prayer wheels with meaningless sequences of commands and confused symbols. The result was rarely a working spell. And never what the magician had planned.

"If only I knew what these monks were looking for in my university. It's not as if I would turn them down if they wanted to enrol. I could keep an eye on them here. They would be such wonderful allies... If only they would talk to me!"

Principal Argus stopped and kicked over his wastepaper basket in frustration. More for the sake of completeness than out of real anger.

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Then he wondered: "Did I just say all that out loud?" He looked around carefully to see if anyone had been watching him during this embarrassing slip. To his relief, he couldn't see a live spy, cameras or anything similar. He rubbed his chin thoughtfully with his right hand. He had found himself talking to himself more often recently. It sometimes helped him to speak his thoughts out loud when he was thinking. He was just not allowed to fall into complete soliloquies...

That would be a clear sign that he was slowly mutating into a stereotypical crazy arch-villain. And he didn't consider himself evil at all. Or crazy for that matter. Definitely not crazy. He had to think of something. He walked thoughtfully along the wall in his office. Natural laws like gravity were for bores. Of course, he couldn't just tell anyone about his plans and thoughts. After all, they were secret and employees these days were simply not trustworthy enough. "These days! That's it."

Unconsciously, he began to speak out loud again. He took his cell phone from the holster on his belt and pressed the speed dial button for his secretary: "Miss Moneypenny?"

"How many times do I have to tell you: My name is Mrs. Schulz!"

"As long as I sign your paychecks, I'll call them whatever I like. After all, I put one more zero in front of the decimal point than your last employer."

"Well, that's a..."

"Yes?"

His secretary sighed resignedly: "It's all right. What can I do for you, Principal Argus?"

"Inform Professor Majere to give a letter from me to the next class that goes to Sir Richard. And get me a student to wait in my outer office and deliver the letter as soon as I have it ready."

"Is that all? Why don't you just call him yourself... Oh... I remember. Majere, wasn't that the lecturer who doesn't think much of telephones?"

"Correct. I'm glad he reads his syllabus by now when we print it out for him. With Sir Richard, on the other hand, I don't even need to try with anything other than a neatly handwritten letter."

The principal tapped a button to end the call and pulled out three drawers in his desk one after the other until he found suitable paper and a pen-and-ink writing set. Three broken nibs, a pen knife thrown into the wall with force and two inkwells tipped over in anger later, he had also worked out how to use the blotting sand to prevent the ink from smudging before it dried.

He read through the letter again carefully, put it in a suitable envelope and sealed it. Then he handed it to an impatiently waiting messenger and went back to his paperwork, whistling happily to himself. Now he just had to find a way to drive these annoying monks away or at least find out what they were up to. And maybe find the missing students who had disappeared somewhere in the dimensions. Just so Professor Majere would finally stop annoying him. Principal Argus wasn't particularly interested in a few missing students. The veil kept assuring him that he could at least make contact enough to realize that at least one of the students was still alive. There was nothing more to be found out due to the dimensional distance. He would pay attention to the matter at the next opportunity. He made a note to that effect on a blank piece of paper lying around and then carelessly dropped it on the pile still lying on the ground from his previous outburst of anger.