With a triumphant click on the Enter key, Leonardo finished the last line of his program and saved everything. After a large sip of the coffee, which had now cooled to room temperature, he slowly and carefully read through the entire program on the screen again and memorized everything in the latest version. Then he called up the circuit diagrams on the screen that he had drawn up over the last few days. He also memorized these. He had already drawn the mechanical parts so many times in Auto-CAD that he had them memorized by heart. Slowly, he forced his gaze away from the screen, pushed the swivel chair away from the computer desk and turned his back to it. He had cleared the center of the room. He relaxed with difficulty and breathed in and out deeply and with concentration. The meditation technique that old Majere had forced him to learn had actually proved its worth. What had initially seemed like a pointless strain had brought him a breakthrough. He had practiced with illusions for weeks, trained elemental earth and water spells and still failed miserably when it came to combining all the components. Too many symbols and "magic program components", as he secretly called them to himself. He simply hadn't managed to "project" everything evenly and without skipping anything, as Majere called it. Knowing the formula wasn't enough for him in this case. It was more about reciting it in a certain rhythm, thinking it and "sending" each symbol in the same beat with the same strength. He continued to breathe until he was completely relaxed and his pulse beat evenly like clockwork. He recalled the first symbol. Shaped it in his mind's eye until he could almost see it floating in the air in front of him. Then he imagined "calling" it, making it flash brightly. To punch it into a hard surface like a stamp. He had done it many times by now, but he still couldn't properly describe the feeling he had to outsiders. "Create!" Then the sub-symbols that defined that he intended to create an illusion. Then he determined the properties of the material and used the symbols from the spells to conjure real matter. "Earth", "steel", "water", "wood" and "combination". The formula became more and more intricate. Then came the point where he had always failed in his previous attempts. Where the excitement had distracted him from the spiritual path. Here he had always been distracted by the thought of his triumph. About how he would celebrate his success, who he should tell first and much more. And then later he had worried about failing here again. A vicious circle. Relaxed by the meditation, this time he continued to glide smoothly along the formula. The last part of the spell established a direct connection to his mind in order to extract the exact details that he would never have been able to define so precisely in a formula.

Breathe in, breathe out. He let his thoughts flow through the formula and then relaxed his mind. He concentrated only on his breath. Unconsciously, he felt his memory being searched as the spell gathered all the information he had painstakingly memorized. In front of him on the floor, shimmering streaks distorted his vision, like hot air over a great fire. Then his invention stood there. Created in the time it had taken him to blink. A disk, slightly rounded at the top and bottom edges, almost 50 cm in diameter with a large hole in the middle. Protected by wire grids at the top and bottom, the design of which he had copied from an old pedestal fan, it contained counter-rotating helicopter rotors. At the edge, he had installed all the sensors he could imagine and fit into the limited space. This time, for once, he hadn't had to worry about the high cost of the extremely sophisticated components.

The only problem with the design was the control system. The rotors generated the lift and were able to steer the whole thing in all directions by changing the angle of the rotor blades. However, the drone's flight behavior was more than unstable. A latest-generation computer board would have had to be installed. And Leo didn't even want to think about how long it would have taken him to write the software. It would probably have been easier to hack into NASA or Boeing and steal an appropriate program. But even customizing it would have taken him weeks. Fortunately, none of this was a problem.

Without taking his concentration from the physical illusion of the drone, he felt for the cage with the laboratory mouse. He picked it up and placed it directly on the drone's small "pilot's cabin". He carefully slid out the specially designed base of the cage and the mouse fell quietly into the drone's container. He then closed the Plexiglas window and only then put the cage aside. The laboratory mouse explored its surroundings with trembling whiskers. He looked at it scrutinizingly. Everything seemed to be ok. The little paws and tail were not trapped anywhere. He filled the water and food containers from the outside and then locked all the entrances by pressing a button on his remote control.

The last thing he used was the freshly charged batteries. He could create devices of all kinds, but not energy. At least he had not yet found a suitable spell for it that was within the range of spells he could learn.

After one last scrutinizing glance, he deliberately dropped his concentration. The drone was still there. He went out of the room, got some sweets from the vending machine on the first floor of the dormitory and then returned, somewhat frantically. The drone was still there, glittering and sparkling. The textbook on the spell said that the magician could only keep the conjured object stable through uninterrupted concentration if he or another living being did not touch it. Somehow, everyone had always assumed that only intelligent creatures could be meant by this. At least none of the other students had ever tried anything else. Well, anyway, he could now move on to phase two of his plan.

For the first time since his reckless fellow student Norman had managed to annoy the AI in the university network, he plugged the DSL connection into the socket again. As soon as the computer had dialed in, he could see a hacker attack on the prepared monitoring windows of his firewall. Less than a second later, all the displays showed that everything was OK again. Leonardo was impressed. If the lights on the hard disk hadn't been glowing like crazy, he might even have been fooled. The AI searched his computer. It must have found his letter of apology and the access codes for the drone by now. He tapped another button on his misappropriated universal remote control and the drone activated its WLAN connection with his computer. As soon as the connection was established, the signal lights of the sensors and the engine lit up. The rotors started up and the drone took off, shaking and wobbling. Leo was just thinking about how long the AI would need to develop an appropriate algorithm when the drone's flight stabilized at table height. The front end lowered, it flew forwards, turned an elegant curve through the room and then landed back on the floor in exactly the same place.

The monitoring indicators on his computer monitor disappeared, the display dimmed and gave way to a plain text display: "Apology accepted."

Leonardo could hardly contain himself. Apparently everything had worked out just as he had hoped. The webcam with the built-in microphone made it easy for the AI to see and hear him: "And what do you think of the drone I built for you?"

"The design is based on backward technology, the sensors are completely inadequate and the flight behaviour can only be stabilized with an unreasonably high computing effort. The ability to function as a mobile sensor station and the WLAN receiver, which is extremely efficient considering the technological possibilities, make the drone a useful tool overall."

"I'm glad you like it."

"However, the device needs another status display for the remaining operating time. It is illogical to use a drone whose lifespan is unknown and which could therefore fail unexpectedly at any moment."

Leo looked at the screen in confusion. He pressed a button to call up the drone's control display. The display for the battery charge capacity worked and showed 100% charge: "There's a power indicator for the batteries. What exactly do you want? Is it not accurate enough for you?"

"The electric current powers sensors, communication and propulsion. The actual existence of the illusionary drone is ensured by the life energy of the organic energy source."

"Organic... You mean the mouse? You want a 'status display' for the mouse?"

"Correct. Is that a problem?"

He swallowed a sarcastic remark. "Ahem... no problem. I'll just have to go to the hospital and get the building instructions for the surveillance monitors in the intensive care unit and then construct a simplified version. And then make it small enough to fit in the drone with the mouse. I think I can manage that... somehow..."

"I'll notice as soon as the ad is online. See you then." The monitor went dark. Leonardo sat down in his swivel chair, breathing a sigh of relief, and put his feet up on his desk. That had gone better than he had hoped. Now he just had to find the time to deal with medical technology in addition to his extensive studies.

*

After downloading the first files on medical diagnostic devices from the Internet to get an initial overview, Leonardo decided to relax a little. After a moment's hesitation, he left his laptop in the room and only took his PDA with the most important files. He didn't have to go far to find a few students to talk to. There was a common room on the first floor of the dormitory with a few old tables and chairs where students often gathered to chat. Usually someone had thought to bring a boom box or something similar. When Leonardo entered the common room, he was astonished. The old wooden chairs had been pushed against the wall, unnoticed. Instead, the room was almost overflowing with large, comfortable leather beanbags. Norman raised an eyebrow questioningly. The common room was practically overflowing with curious students checking out the new furnishings and strolling comfortably on the cushions. He recognized the short, fat Chinese man who was maintaining a perfect lotus posture on the shaky surface with no apparent difficulty. A small group of first-year students had gathered around him, relaxed and talking about something. Someone tapped him on the shoulder. As he wheeled around, he saw his old buddy Archeron. "Hi, Arch. Nice new facility. You got something to do with that?"

"I'd like to say the opposite, but unfortunately I can't take credit for it. Rector Argus bought, requisitioned or stole almost fifty of these armchairs from somewhere and then had them brought here. They're now in all the halls of residence. At least until someone steals them and takes them back to their digs."

"Everyone seems to be feeling pretty comfortable here at the moment. Am I looking wrong, or are Norman and Horst over there playing chess?"

"Yes. But Norman has lost every game so far. The third in six moves."

"How did he manage that?"

"He hasn't played much yet. Typical rookie mistake. He did quite well in the last game. But let's move on to more interesting topics: How about those spells I lent you?" "Sure. I think I'm done with the physical illusion now. It's finally working properly. I still have to study the other spells. I haven't come up with anything else yet. That one spell is really tough. I hope the others are a bit easier. I'll give you the books back later."

Archeron pointed to Leo's PDA, which he was still wearing on his belt in a holder: "Back? Did you scan the textbooks I gave you back in?"

"I do it with everything. Paper is so confusing. No index. No keyword search..."

"Yes, yes. Just don't get caught. Majere doesn't like it at all when people associate books about magic with technology. I saw him once when someone next to him was copying a spell on a public photocopier. Oh boy!"

"What happened?"

"So first..." Archeron fell silent and stared over Leonardo's shoulder.

A sudden silence fell as the teacher they had just been talking about entered the hall wearing jeans and a brightly colored Hawaiian shirt. In the dull light of the sky, which was getting darker and darker due to the storm that was brewing, the professor of magic's sunglasses seemed particularly incongruous. Despite the completely opaque lenses, those present could feel his gaze hot on their skin as he glided from student to student, scrutinizing and weighing things up. Professor Majere was known even to the students who had not taken any of the magical subjects. He had a reputation for being tough but fair. However, his dry sense of humor, which took some getting used to, made him difficult to predict. The reaction when he looked like he wanted something was correspondingly cautious. And he very much gave that impression.

Without further ado, he got straight to the point. His voice was obviously magically amplified, as he could be heard clearly everywhere, although, as always, he sounded as if he had only recently recovered from a sore throat. The soft croak and recognizable hoarseness didn't change the fact that everyone felt the power in his words: "I need some volunteers who have no problem carrying heavy boxes." Before anyone could react, he began pointing at students one by one. "You... you... and you. And the three gentlemen who just ducked behind the stairs." He glanced at Norman's muscular upper arms and then at Leo, who was standing next to him. "Also you and the skinny asparagus. Drop everything and follow me. Time is of the essence."

After a moment of shock, Leo dared to disagree: "I'm not exactly the right person for heavy carrying. I mean..."

"With your photographic memory, you can make sure the boxes are in the right places." Majere didn't seem to think it possible that anyone would disobey his instructions. As he marched off at a quick pace, he didn't look back once to check whether the "volunteers" were actually following him. However, he was right in his assumption. They all followed him like lambs to the slaughter. Norman took a quick look around, but apart from Leo, he only knew one other student in the group. Horst, of course, immediately stood out as a suitable carrier. When he also spotted his old acquaintances, he simply took a few larger steps with his sturdy legs and gave them a friendly pat on the back. Norman managed not to flinch, but Leo briefly dropped to his knees in mid-stride and had to be supported a few steps by Horst. "Hello, Leit'la. Do you know what's going on here?" A perplexed shake of the head answered him. The conversations fell silent as the professor continued to pick up the pace without any apparent problems.

The professor led them quickly to the library and swiftly through the door. On the first floor, everything still seemed more or less normal, apart from the almost palpable tension in the air. The few students who had to hand in books did so frantically and then left as quickly as they could. Two female students who were there to borrow books were immediately sent home again and informed of a small, discreet sign at the entrance: "Lending service closed today. Thank you for your understanding.".

We continued on to the elevator and down to the caverns. Here the advance came to a halt as the first students stopped in astonishment. There was chaos in the library, which was otherwise filled with a veritable sepulchral silence. Students, janitors, cleaning staff and people who were impossible to identify were running all over the place. About half of them were heavily laden with boxes or pushing trolleys with more boxes in front of them. The white-haired, old librarian stood leaning heavily on his cane on a large wooden crate in the middle of the room and, visibly overwhelmed, tried to bring a little organization into the whole thing: "The crates with the red stickers numbered in aisles nine to thirteen. Numbered! I don't want to have to move everything around again afterwards! Hey! You'd better watch out! It's all irreplaceable! If I see another box fall, heads will roll!"

Professor Majere motioned for them to stop and went to the librarian to be brought up to date. After the two of them had briefly put their heads together and talked quietly, he beckoned the students over to him and led them to a nearby corridor. Like everyone else, both walls were filled with bookshelves up to a height of almost three meters. As he purposefully pushed one of the thicker books firmly inwards, part of the shelf swung open like a door, revealing a small storage room: "We need you for the away team. You're in luck, that's the much more interesting job. There are linen robes and sandals in the closet here. Take off everything you're wearing and find something suitable from the closet. And I mean EVERYTHING. Including underwear, watches, jewelry, bracelets, piercings and especially cell phones. Not that they'll do you any good..."

The students looked at each other in confusion and then began to change. The robes they found in the closets seemed to come from an old historical movie. Leonardo even discovered an old sewn-in tag from a costume shop in his. Norman had to search for a while before he found a garment that was his size. Most of them were clearly too small. He glanced over at Leo, who had exactly the opposite problem. "Are these supposed to be Roman peasant tunics or what do they represent?"

"I think more Egyptian. I've seen the cut several times in old movies and history books. I would estimate plus/minus 300 years around the birth of Christ."

"Now just tell me that they have time machines here too." It was clear from Norman's voice that he thought this was very unlikely, but still possible. It was amazing how quickly the university made sure that everything was soon considered possible.

Leo fiddled with the rope that was being used as a belt. "There are no time machines."

"And why..."

He was abruptly interrupted when Professor Majere, visibly impatient, stuck his head through the banging door: "Everything ready? Good. Let's go!"

He hurried everyone through the hustle and bustle to a corridor that was particularly busy. The reason for this quickly became apparent when it widened into a room about thirty meters in diameter with a gleaming golden archway in the middle. Arm-thick cables led in all directions to large, chaotically assembled machines on the walls. Three technicians were busy pouring a kind of orange-golden sand from large glass containers into small openings.

Professor Majere pointed to the square in front of the portal and ordered them, in an unmistakably threatening voice, to make themselves useful and not to show their faces outside the library again until they had permission from the librarian himself.

The view through the archway was distorted by a slight shimmer in the air. As if by rising hot air over the desert, a room built of large stones without mortar could be seen on the other side, lit by numerous torches and a few oil lamps. Young men and women, presumably students in disguise, were busy in a bustling stream carrying obviously full and heavy crates out and empty crates in, only to leave the walled room again through two doors at the back. Some of the porters had great difficulty carrying their loads properly. Sack trucks were obviously in short supply and some crates had makeshift carrying poles or handles attached to them. The greatest confusion was right in front of the archway. Standing on a wooden crate there, Norman spotted someone he knew. Soran was trying to organize the chaos with a clipboard and a pen in his hand. However, he seemed completely overwhelmed: "All green boxes to the left to aisle 14. To the left if you like! That's right. And they come over there to aisle 23 and put them on the left... Left as far as I'm concerned, smartass. And you guys over there, move to the side so others can get through."

This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.

"Hi Soran." Norman waved to him. Soran looked up from his clipboard a little longer. His face instantly brightened, as if the sun was rising over the storm-tossed sea. "Finally, some reliable helpers! I knew I'd find a few competent volunteers. I can't get anywhere here with the incompetent bunch that the librarian has pressed into work."

Two of the students who were carrying a heavy crate had heard him and gave him a dark look. Soran immediately winked at them conspiratorially: "No offense. You know what I mean." Grumbling, the two of them moved away. Soran turned back to the new arrivals and now spoke a little more quietly: "Anyway, it's nice of you to volunteer."

Norman and Leo looked at each other briefly, grinned and then waved almost in sync: "We always like to be there when there's something to do."

Soran picked up a thick folder that was lying on the crate in front of him and opened a page that he had marked with a sock as a bookmark: "Here is the plan of the surrounding corridors. The storage rooms here, here and here have already been cleared. The two storage rooms here are currently being cleared out. The red boxes go in this one, the green ones here and the yellow ones there. So everything is at least roughly sorted. Mr. Schickelgruber is on his way to get a few more helpers with whom he is putting up all the shelves to sort the new stuff. It's going to take us weeks to finish, but for now it's all about getting everything through the gate until we run out of stuff."

While Norman's thoughts lagged a little behind, Leo had already taken possession of the plans and began to leaf through them with interest. He pulled a pen out of his breast pocket: "Can I make a few notes?"

"Go ahead. They're all copies the librarian made for me."

Leo tapped on the card: "Are the doors closed here?"

"Yes. We've cordoned off the surrounding corridors so that people don't keep getting lost."

The pen flashed across the paper as if of its own accord, crossed out a few doors and drew three large circles in the corridors, each connecting a storage room with the portal room: "If you open the doors at these points here and redirect people in this way, you suddenly have three large circuits that no longer get in each other's way. And with a few colored arrows or signs at the points here, no one can get lost so quickly."

Soran frowned thoughtfully as he tried to understand the logic of the plan. Then he slapped Leo gratefully on the back: "Man, rookie, you're brilliant. I'll organize it right here. You can organize the other side just as well. Best..." He pointed to the still slightly glowing portal, but Norman interrupted him before he could continue: "Yeah, but what's behind it?"

"Has no one told you that yet?"

"No. Not a word."

"Really?" Soran grinned.

"No!"

"Then I'll be careful not to spoil the surprise. Just go through. Jane can explain everything over there."

Meanwhile, Norman's face had taken on a slightly annoyed look when he realized that they weren't going to get a sensible statement again. When he heard Jane's name, he looked up in pleasant surprise: "Jane? Pretty, about this tall..." He pointed at a height of about 1.65m. "...golden hair?"

"You know Jane? Then why that blissful grin? She rips your heart out and uses it embalmed as a paperweight."

"I don't understand what you all always have."

"So you don't know her after all." Soran patted him on the shoulder encouragingly. "I'm sure you'll soon understand what I mean. But right now, you'd better run through the portal. Old Majere is already looking rather impatient." Ignoring all protests, he pushed the whole group towards the shimmering glow. Under the gaze of the teacher of magic, they joined the two lines that disappeared into the gate. Beside them, students streamed back out of the gate in a second line. Norman noticed that most of them had sweaty and heated faces. Much worse than should be normal even when carrying crates.

The line in front of them came to a standstill as the portal formed a massive bottleneck. Students wanted to get through from both sides and everyone was carrying boxes and other containers. As a result, there were constant clashes and jostling under the archway.

Horst quickly took the lead and paved the way by taking the load from a small business student who was already overburdened with the empty crate and simply marched through, balancing it with one hand on his right shoulder. The others followed closely in his wake.

The view through the portal seemed somehow distorted, as if you were looking through rising hot air in the desert. Through fogged-up glasses. On a foggy day. In the hustle and bustle, they had no chance to take a closer look at the phenomenon. Before he knew it, Norman was on the other side and took a step to the left to get out of the crowd. The first thing he noticed was the heat. A dry and scorching heat that made him sweat spontaneously from every pore. The floor of the large room was paved with coarse sandstone, which was also used for the walls. Large, glassless windows let in the scorching sun of a cloudless sky next to him. The room itself had been practically emptied out. The few pieces of furniture, small, primitively made chairs and tables, had been piled carelessly against the walls. The two doors on opposite sides of the room had been lifted off their hinges and placed out of the way. The windows were on the third side. As there was nothing interesting to see in the room itself, Norman went over to take a look at the view. His breath caught involuntarily. He was obviously on the third or fourth floor of a larger building. Below him stretched a city of countless small, two-storey sandstone buildings with flat roofs. Behind them, a wide river shimmered in the sunlight.

At first glance, he realized that something was wrong here. Smoke was rising from countless small chimneys, but there were hardly any people to be seen. Only a few heavily laden slaves rushed through the dusty, empty streets. At first he thought that the people had huddled in their houses because of the heat, which didn't seem illogical to him. Then his attention fell on the riverbank. Difficult to see from where he was standing, the city ended there at a wide harbor area. Sunlight was reflected in the countless spearheads and swords of an army waiting there almost motionless. Barricades were visible in the few streets he could see from his vantage point.

From his elevated position, numerous sails could be seen on the horizon. Ships. Leo stepped up to the window next to him with interest: "Are those ships back there?"

"Looks like it. And the way they're lined up down at the harbor, it doesn't look like a state reception to me. Man, there must be hundreds of ships! I wish I had binoculars so I could see who they are."

"Do you know many people in ancient times?" Leo grinned at him reassuringly. "No offense meant. Let me see what I can do..." He thought hard for two minutes and then muttered quietly to himself: "Binoculars actually only bend light and concentrate it... Illusions bend light too... I would need two convex and one concave lens, or was that the other way around..." Finally, he straightened up stiffly and stared fixedly out of the window. He raised his hands: "Simple optical illusion!"

Norman shook his head unwillingly: "I still think you'd make a much better impression if you muttered more impressive spells. Why don't you really try Latin or ancient Babylonian or something else exotic?" Leonardo grinned, but was not distracted.

In front of him in the air, three glass-like translucent discs almost a meter in diameter formed one behind the other in a line towards the sea. Light played across Leo and the students, who were now curiously gathered around him, as it refracted and reflected in the illusions in ever new ways. Finally, the image stabilized in the rearmost pane. However, the water was at the top and the small, now clearly recognizable ships were hanging upside down and mirror-inverted from above. Leo scratched his head for a moment, perplexed, and then shrugged his shoulders: "I could solve that with more lenses, but you can cheat with magic." He snapped his fingers twice, causing the disk to rotate around its own axis, first crosswise and then lengthwise. Contrary to all the laws of optics, the image rotated with it and was now the right way up. Somewhere, far away, a few physicists were probably quietly whimpering in their graves.

In the meantime, a few other students had noticed the visual show and gathered behind the new arrivals with interest.

With the sea as a backdrop, a gigantic fleet of ships could now be seen. White, rectangular sails and double rows of oars on both sides, so that they seemed to run across the sea like a strange kind of water beetle. Clearly Roman galleys. Involuntarily, all spectators expected the appearance of a small, clever and a large, chubby Gaul. Unfortunately in vain. Norman looked with interest: "Tell me, Leo, the building we're in right now... Well..." he hesitated, as he wasn't sure and didn't want to embarrass himself, but then couldn't find any fault with his conclusion: "Well, our librarian is totally interested in the contents of this building. And he's in an extreme hurry. The Romans are just arriving outside. I'd guess I know where we are right now. This is..."

Leo smacked his forehead with his hand, the illusion of the optical lenses disappearing abruptly as he dropped his concentration: "The Library of Alexandria! We're in Alexandria, just before the Roman invasion, during which the entire library was burned to the ground. Of course!"

Norman grimaced briefly. That had been his idea, and now Leo had the full attention of everyone around him again. So be it. Everyone knew he was the first to get it. Everyone knew that, didn't they?

His train of thought was abruptly interrupted when Leonardo patted him on the shoulder with obvious enthusiasm: "Do you know what that means?"

"Yes we..."

"We are clearing out the Library of Alexandria before the great fire! All the lost knowledge of antiquity. All sorted and cataloged in one pile!"

"Ahem... You mean it was sorted before a horde of forcibly recruited students stormed in here." Leo turned to him, visibly startled: "Oh my God! You're right! We have to make sure they don't mess things up right away!" He turned on his heel and was about to set off, dragging Norman behind him, but right in front of him he found Jane standing in the way and stopped. She looked him confidently in the eye and began to applaud slowly and demonstratively: "Quickly recognized. That's great. Now if you'll follow me, I've been assigned to give you an overview so you can make the best use of your respective talents." She turned to the students, who were standing around curiously: "And you'd better get back to work too. The Romans showed up three hours earlier in this reality than our records show happened in the university timeline. And at our current rate, we won't even have cleared out a third of the library before the torches start flying."

She turned to Leonardo and deliberately ignored Norman's attempts to attract her attention: "You have a powerful magical talent, above-average intelligence and a photographic memory. The librarian has informed me that he has specifically requested you." She glanced briefly over the other new arrivals and then added casually, "And a few more people to carry boxes."

Norman gasped indignantly: "Hello? Do you think we're good for nothing except carrying boxes?"

"No. Horst can probably still help with the calculation of the time we need until the complete evacuation."

Before Norman could come up with a quick-witted reply, she turned around again, wandered through the room and pointed to a large sketch of the library on the wall, which had been taped there: "On the first floor, we've probably got pretty much every available student with hypnotic powers or mind control spells in use at the moment to fool the guards at the gates into thinking that everything is all right. We also sedated all the staff and lined them up in one of the storage rooms. We divided the helpers into three groups. The first group made sketches of all the rooms and shelves, the second group packed scrolls in moving boxes and crates, printed out barcode stickers with laptop printers and labeled everything so that you could see where everything came from afterwards. And the third and largest group transports the full boxes home through the portal and empty boxes back again.

Leo absorbed the information like a sponge and read through the pencil notes on the large sketch on the wall: "Sounds reasonable. What's the problem now?"

"The sketches are too imprecise, shelves are constantly missing or incorrectly numbered, or the rooms are not clearly marked. The stickers don't all stick because we got old stickers from the warehouse and the glue is no longer good. What's more, some of the fools just stuff the scrolls into the boxes the way they fit." She thought for a moment: "I think those would be the most common problems."

Norman watched in fascination as Leonardo chewed his lips thoughtfully, then reached into his breast pocket and realized with irritation that his pencil holder had found no place in his robe and had remained in the university. Jane wordlessly handed him a pencil, with which he immediately began to draw on the sketch: "When we've cleared out the rooms up to here, we'd best make a cut and move on to a new system. The wooden poles on which the papyrus rolls are wound have round disks at the ends. The first group should number each shelf on these. From top left to bottom right. With a Roman numeral for the shelf and Arabic numerals for the scrolls. And the number of the room and the shelf is also written on each box with a sharpie..."

While most were concentrating on following the torrent of ideas, Norman noticed a change in the general flow of movement behind him. He turned around and saw some students hesitate before stepping through the portal. The previously razor-sharp edges of the glowing archway seemed to somehow fray and form smoky outgrowths. "Leo..."

"Not now, if I don't find a way to speed this up considerably, we won't even make it halfway before the Romans are in here or we run out of Gallifreynium. We should..."

"Leo, you should really take a look at this."

"What then..." He turned around, annoyed, and glanced casually in the direction Norman was pointing. He was almost about to turn back when he stopped and suddenly stared very intently at the portal: "It almost looks like a portal overload. Strange, because if it were, the monitoring sensors would have sounded the alarm long ago."

As if on cue, numerous red lights suddenly flashed in the small, inconspicuous console standing next to the portal and a second later it began to beep loudly. The steady stream of incoming students with empty transport containers dried up and one of the technicians who had been operating the complex system of the dimensional portal on the other side rushed in, slightly out of breath: "The portal is overloading! We can't get it under control! Everything back immediately, as quickly as possible! Drop everything and flee! If you're not through in ten minutes, you'll probably stay here forever!" Before anyone could say anything back, he jumped back through the portal. Nothing else he could have done or said would have convinced those present more quickly how serious the situation was.

Leonardo immediately rushed to the small console to look at the exact readings. Jane shrugged her shoulders, tore the sketch off the wall, crumpled it up and threw it unerringly through the portal: "I heard the man, everyone out, but all the technology in this room is coming with you. Everyone grab something and run!"

Norman looked at the erupting chaos for a moment and then leaned over to Jane, who stood like a rock in the surf and calmly watched as students around her frantically grabbed equipment and scrolls and ran through the ever fraying portal. "Didn't you say earlier that downstairs, pretty much all of our mages were with..."

Jane jerked around and stared at him angrily for a moment, as if it was his fault that she had missed it. Then she reluctantly twisted her expression into a kind of approving smile: "You and the big one are coming with me!" She accelerated from a standing start to sprinting speed and swept a petite student who had been helping to label the boxes out of the way. Norman grabbed the still somewhat confused Horst by the arm and tried to pull him behind him. An attempt he could have saved himself. He could just as easily have tried to drag the pillar of a Roman temple behind him. When he grabbed hold of an immovable obstacle while his legs continued to run, it almost threw him backwards. Pure reflexes kept him on his feet. Horst looked around, clearly confused: "What's going on?"

"We have to go with Jane to get the students on the first floor! Come on, come on, we don't have a second to lose!"

"Na guad." The giant slowly but inexorably set off. Norman sprinted ahead so as not to lose sight of Jane, as he was still completely unfamiliar with the building. Leonardo might have been able to memorize a building plan at a glance, but it would have taken him a lot longer. He could still see her golden curls through the next door as she turned into a side corridor. Pursued by the heavy footsteps of Horst, he ran on. Along a corridor, down three flights of stairs and then straight ahead until he saw her coming into a room, shouting loudly. When he arrived, he was amazed at the extensive vocabulary she used to insult those present when they didn't run off after the first few sentences.

When he arrived at the door, the first mages were already rushing towards him. A black-haired meatball began to stagger after the first few steps. Norman just managed to catch him before he crashed into the opposite wall. He sounded exaggeratedly out of breath for the short distance: "Thanks... I just... renewed the sleep spells on the Egyptian... sentry. Give me an hour or two... and I'll be fit again. But right now... I can barely walk ten steps... straight ahead."

Now Norman understood why he looked so exhausted. Strong, magical spells required a great deal of concentration. Too much of it drained the magician's body as well as his mind. "Horst!" The muscle man came trotting up with persevering strides just as Norman was already shoving the magician into his arms. Other students ran past around him without paying any attention to them. The massive eyrie rolled through the stream like a glacier through a forest. "Carry him up, he'll never get up in time on his own."

Horst nodded, picked the chubby guy up in his arms like a child, turned around and trotted back again. Norman took a second to shake his head appreciatively. The guy didn't even seem to notice that the magician weighed at least 80 kilos. Then he followed Jane into the large room. There were dozens of cots lined up against the walls, on which the tanned Egyptian guards were sleeping peacefully. Jane was currently using sinister threats to stop three of the students until they each grabbed one of the carrying handles of what was obviously quite a heavy piece of equipment and dragged it upstairs, groaning and cursing. The thing looked as if someone had welded three chrome-plated computers together and then decorated them with countless semi-precious stones from a New Age store. The architecture student hadn't the faintest idea what it could be, but Jane seemed to think it was important enough to slow the students' flight considerably. With a quick but thorough look around, Jane just made sure that nothing else important was left behind. Obviously satisfied, she turned around and beckoned Norman to follow her back. At the door, he grabbed her by the arm and stopped her. A raised eyebrow was the only sign of surprise she allowed herself. Under the serene gaze, Norman suddenly felt like a schoolboy in front of his teacher. A damn pretty teacher in an impressively stuffed toga. He swallowed, but immediately got out what he wanted to say: "What about the sleepers?"

"What about them? Most of the spells will lose their effect in about twenty hours. Then they'll wake up and wake the others with a few slaps or the traditional bucket of water. Okay, after that they'll have a little trouble explaining to their superiors why the top two floors are almost empty."

She tapped her finger against her chin thoughtfully. "Come to think of it, if I were in their place, I'd keep guarding the entrance, wait until the Romans were in town and then burn the place down. I wonder if that's what happened to us."

Norman was shocked. "You would destroy the accumulated knowledge of antiquity just to avoid problems with your employer?"

"Being slaughtered by the Romans or ending up unemployed in the gutter and starving to death doesn't sound particularly desirable to me. And I don't think any of these guys can read."

She turned around and set off on another sprint back upstairs. This reminded Norman again how much of a hurry they were in. He spoke so quickly that he almost stumbled over his own words: "Wait! The Romans could come by at any time with the torch and set the building on fire. And if the sentries are still lying here asleep..."

Jane stopped, annoyed, and completed his sentence: "...they'll all burn to death." It sounded as if she took it as a personal insult that these people were stopping her from escaping by having the gall to lie here helplessly. "Can you lift the sleeping spell?"

She looked around the hall, which suddenly seemed very large and crowded. "I won't be taking counter-magic until the fourth semester at the earliest."

"So late?!? Shouldn't that be the first thing you learn in case something goes wrong?"

"Most counterspells require you to know the spell you want to undo. I'll learn the sleep spell myself next semester." She snapped her fingers thoughtfully as she recalled everything she knew about sleep spells. "The spell ends due to the passage of time, counter-magic, really loud noises... or if the body is injured." She looked Norman straight in the eye and then pointed vigorously with her thumb over her shoulder at the door. "Run."

"Are you sure that..."

"Run!"

It wasn't a conscious decision. He had just wanted to question Jane to make sure she hadn't overlooked anything, that she hadn't had any hasty ideas that would harm the sleeping guards. He simply decided to trust her. Without hesitating any longer, he sprinted past her and through the door, heading for the stairs as fast as he could.

Small flames played around Jane's fingers, which she had raised to head height and pressed together as if she would snap her fingers at any moment. She concentrated and mumbled something in a language that the guards wouldn't have understood if they hadn't been fast asleep. Brighter and brighter tongues of fire played around her fingers, then she snapped. A shimmer spread from her hand and raced from there to the center of the room, where it exploded with a loud bang. The blast reverberated through the room, toppling cots and knocking most of the sleeping people over. She hadn't even waited to see the result before turning and sprinting after Norman, but she was sure that no one had been seriously hurt. The shockwave was too slow for that. Another advantage of magic in her eyes. A grenade or even just a firecracker could have shredded eardrums or even broken bones at close range. The magical shockwave was slow and controlled. She had originally planned to use the spell to stop a possible surprise attack by a horde of Romans. Now she had toned it down and used it for a much more boring purpose. As she climbed the stairs three steps at a time, she briefly considered whether she should learn the spell normally. She had only prepared it once and felt the magical energy in her mind evaporate after using it. Where she had just been able to remember the formula and the necessary symbols exactly, there was now a vague, gray void. What she did remember was the long list of spells she would have to learn in order to understand all the necessary theories and formula components she would need for this one spell. And most of them seemed useless and superfluous on their own. So she would probably leave it at preparing the formula at home again. Maybe two or three times. You never knew. Then she had already caught up with Norman. He was fit. She had to give him credit for that. Well, she had some innate advantages that he didn't stand a chance against. But she had to secretly admit that he had reached an impressive speed. For a human. Of course, she didn't show him that. She easily passed him.

"Hey, did you take a smoke break on the way?"

"I... don't... smoke..." He actually managed to kick it up a notch.

In the last few meters, they could already hear a hissing whistle, a sound that made their teeth tremble. Bright orange light kept flashing towards them like strobe lights. A large, humanoid figure suddenly stood in their way. Jane whizzed past him unimpressed, but Norman was about to put on the brakes when he recognized his fellow student Horst: "You're the last ones! Hurry up!" He waited until Norman was next to him, then gave him another push, which gave him a little speed boost, but also sent him lurching forward completely out of control. The portal had long since lost all solid form and, surrounded by orange-gold lightning, took up more than half of the room as a shapeless, billowing blob. The last three students stormed through one after the other. Jane, who was the first to shoot through, saw the waiting semicircle of other fleeing students in the university, who were crowded to the very edge of the room waiting for the last stragglers. She could already hear the shouts of her fellow students cheering her on to get out of the danger zone as quickly as possible, then the shouts suddenly became muffled and quiet. The familiar faces suddenly moved away and she had the feeling that she was falling. Then the world shattered into shimmering shards and there was a bright flash around her and she lost consciousness.