It took quite a while for Soran to calm his group down again. During the tour, a few small groups had formed and were engaged in lively discussions. Soran showed them the grounds from the parking lot on the south side to the gigantic sports hall and the student residences, which were located directly at the northern end of Nexus University.

There the group passed a small man in his mid-forties carrying a short stepladder and a toolbox.

Soran casually pointed at him: "And over there, by the way, is our janitor, Mr. Schickelgruber. If anything is ever broken in your rooms, just let him know. His phone number and email address are in the brochure."

Norman wasn't the only one staring at the janitor with open eyes. Suppressed exclamations such as "That's..." and "Man, he looks like..." mingled into an excited whisper. The janitor was a head shorter than Norman and had short black hair that was slicked back across his head in a kind of old-fashioned hairstyle with a side parting. He ran the finger of his right hand straight across his tiny moustache. Norman only knew two famous people who were known for such a fly moustache. And this one looked nothing like Charlie Chaplin. With strangely choppy movements, he just lowered his hand, reached beside him and then set up the stepladder with a practiced grip. Demonstratively ignoring the whispering of the group, he began to replace a broken neon tube in the ceiling lighting.

Just as Norman was about to make a comment himself, he felt someone nudge him from the side. The Polish magician Leo shook his head demonstratively and motioned for him to wait until they were out of earshot. Two corners further on, he then said to Norman and some of the other bystanders, such as Horst, who were gathered around him curiously: "Just leave him alone, please. Adolf has a hard enough time here as it is. I'll tell you later. We can meet in the café tonight."

Soran coughed disapprovingly when he realized that his group wasn't listening to him at all and were mostly falling further and further behind. When this went unnoticed, he unceremoniously ignited his power sword, held the glowing blade briefly above his head and drew the general attention back to himself.

Next to Norman, a small, red-haired student leaned towards an inconspicuous brunette standing next to him and said: "He'd better watch out. He's already accidentally lowered his Padawan braid with that hairstyle and is angry about it. He's probably already well on his way to the dark side, so we should..."

Soran had just lowered his arm to switch off his power sword and put it away when he suddenly whirled around, rushed forward three steps and held the glowing blade of energy close to the prospective student's neck. The student's eyes seemed to bulge out of his head in shock as he stood stock-still and carefully tried to stretch his neck as far as possible to get some distance.

Soran sounded irritated, like someone who has to get angry about something over and over again: "Okay, I just heard that! You just said something about the Dark Side of the Force. I can't listen to this garbage anymore. And if anyone else makes Padawan jokes, I'll chop their leg off! The doctors here can fix that... Most of the time." He looked menacingly into the crowd, deactivated the power blade and put the handle back in his belt, but still kept his hand on it. With an effort, he pulled himself together and turned to the whole group again: "I have no idea where George Lukas got his ideas from, but certainly not from my world. In my universe, we have no problem fighting furiously. In fact, I don't fight unless I'm really angry. And it doesn't give anyone wrinkles or asthma like those weird guys in that movie. Besides, this is a force field blade and not a lightsaber. Laser beams don't just end in mid-air. Now follow me to the Faculty of Mathematics..."

This turned out to be a rather inconspicuous building.

"This is one of the more boring faculties. Man, am I glad I didn't have to take any subjects here. Advanced mathematics, chaos and probability theory. Brrrrrr... Horrible!"

Despite his obvious reluctance, Soran knew his way around the winding, narrow corridors of the bleakly furnished building without getting lost. Posters and statues were nowhere to be found here. Instead, some of the walls were covered with large, impressive equations. As Soran wanted to get through the building as quickly as possible, they took a shortcut through one of the unused lecture halls.

While the group swarmed through the currently empty lecture hall, Norman stayed behind to tie the untied shoelace of his right sneaker. When he looked up again, he could see Horst's gaze wandering over the middle of the three large slates. From the last lecture, it was still inscribed with an incredibly complicated formula that covered the entire surface of the board. There were hardly any numbers to be found and of the symbols Norman only recognized some of the Greek letters, roots and what he thought were integrals. Bored, Horst strolled two steps further, then suddenly stopped and turned back to the blackboard with a jerk. His gaze systematically followed the course of the formula from the beginning to the end at the bottom right of the blackboard. With a quick and somehow strangely choppy movement, he reached for the piece of chalk lying around, wiped out the large question mark at the end of the formula behind the equals sign and replaced it with a short sequence of mathematical symbols that Norman understood just as little as the rest of the formula. Then Horst put the chalk back, turned around and strolled on as if nothing had happened.

With a short sprint, Norman caught up with the rest of the group and joined Horst, who had caught up with Leo and Sam to follow their conversation. The two were talking animatedly about Leo's magical powers. When Leo noticed the pretty Goth, he immediately turned to her: "Tell me, Samantha, have you actually been tested for magical powers? Maybe you can join us too?"

Sam smiled: "Unfortunately, no one has ever told me that I have magical abilities."

"Come on, then. Everyone here has some kind of special ability. They won't let anyone in here who's completely normal, no matter how great their grades are."

"Well..." Sam hesitated and thought hard for a moment: "Maybe they invited me because of my singing talent."

Leo shook his head: "That's never enough..."

Sam made a decision without further ado. Secrecy or not, without a reason for her presence here she would attract too much attention and invite speculation. She didn't have to reveal everything: "You scratched your hand earlier. Can I see that?"

"Sure. Here." The young mage held out his hand to her uncomprehendingly. Samanael held it so that everyone around could see the fine scratches clearly. Then she sang a melody. The song had no actual words, but a wave of warmth and contentment seemed to spread around her. The air around the wound briefly began to glow with a faint, almost imperceptible golden light, then the scratches disappeared as the skin healed before everyone's eyes. "Healing magic. Not bad." The few onlookers nodded, impressed, but not at all shocked or overly surprised. "Can you do any more?"

"A few little things, but I think I can still learn a lot here." Before anyone could ask any more questions, Soran urged the group on and led them all out of the building.

Horst casually wiped his hand on his blue jeans as he walked. "Yes, where did I get the white crust on my hand?"

After the Faculty of Mathematics, the group continued through the rest of the university campus. Through the twelve greenhouses, in which all possible climate zones were simulated, from the cold of the arctic tundra to tropical, humid heat (and in which surprisingly large quantities of hemp and poppies were grown for "research purposes" in addition to the exotic plants common in botanical gardens), across the unexpectedly normal sports field to a two-storey building completely covered in white, sterile-looking tiles, which Soran introduced as the university's hospital.

"They have their own hospital? Wow!" Norman was impressed. Soran nodded: "Some of the projects here are a bit... dangerous. And you can't imagine how complicated it would be to explain some of the injuries in a normal hospital." He chuckled briefly as he saw some interesting examples flit by in his mind's eye. "Throwing stars in the leg, for example. Or laser burns, bite wounds from velociraptors or zombies. Not to mention acute anaemia or magical transmutations. Most of these things could not be treated properly in normal hospitals. Here, on the other hand, they've managed to fix everything so far." He grimaced for a moment, suddenly serious. "At least almost everything... But now let's do a quick round. In future, you'll only be allowed in here during normal visiting hours if you want to see a patient. Or, of course, if you are admitted as a patient yourself."

He guided the group through the large glass doors of the front entrance. The entrance area looked like any other clinic. A wide reception desk formed the center of the large hall, around which the flow of wheelchair-bound patients, visitors, doctors and nurses washed. Soran waved to one of the nurses behind the reception desk: "Hi Steffi, we're booked in for the orientation session."

The woman I spoke to looked briefly at her watch and then whistled appreciatively: "And you're even on time. How unusual for you. Are you ill? Should I call a doctor?"

Soran waved it off with a grin: "Pure coincidence. I didn't even remember when we were registered for."

"I actually believe you. Anyway, it's a good fit. Rounds have just finished and dinner won't be here for a few hours. Stay out of the ICU and Delta ward as usual. If there are any questions you can't answer, Doctor Ferguson is on duty right now and is in a surprisingly good mood today."

"Great, let's go first then..."

A side door opened automatically and a group of doctors, orderlies and nurses rushed in around a stretcher. A plump little woman with short blonde hair and a stethoscope around her neck struggled to keep up with her short legs. When she saw Soran's group of students standing in the middle of the room, she sped up a little and pointed energetically towards the exit: "Soran! Get these tourists out of here! Out!"

"But Doctor Ferguson, I had arranged the tour with your office..."

"That was before your fellow student here decided to have his arm ripped out. And to keep things from getting too boring, he drank an elixir from the experimental lab that interferes with our magical and psionic healing methods. Of course, none of his panicked colleagues mentioned this before two of our healers pumped all their EV reserves into him. It'll be days before they can even think about healing an arm again. Now I get to keep the guy alive with mundane means and try to stop the arm from rotting so we don't have to clone him completely. So get out of here!"

The tone of voice left no room for discussion. Soran quickly gathered the reluctant group and shooed everyone out through the front door again. "Not much to see in there anyway. Let's go by the library instead."

Norman gave Leo a questioning look: "EV reserve?"

"Élan Vital. You'll learn that in your undergraduate studies. Just wait and see."

A few steps further on, they stood in front of a building with "Library" engraved in large golden letters above the wide entrance door. On either side of the entrance stood statues of Roman warriors. With shields in one hand, but large feathers instead of swords in the other. Norman nudged Leo next to him and pointed at the statues: "The feather is mightier than the sword, eh?" Leo nodded and looked around a little nervously. "I'd better stay in the background. Some of the books I borrowed a while ago are already a bit late. Almost overdue. The librarian better not see me until I get around to handing everything in."

"Why didn't you just pack them this morning? Then you could hand them in right now."

Stolen story; please report.

"I'd love to, if I could find them. I last put them on the shelf in my room. Right between the Buffy DVDs and the 'Really Forbidden Codex by Uschurr'. And when I came home from university a few days ago, they were gone. Oh well, they'll turn up again." He looked a little doubtful himself for a moment, but then just shrugged his shoulders and pushed the thought away. He gave Norman an encouraging pat on the shoulder: "Now get ready for something."

As the two turned their attention back to their guide, they caught the last part of his speech: "...and as you can all see, the building, like many others, is completely surrounded by a strip of grass. And those little inconspicuous signs at the back? Can anyone see them? It's almost impossible to read them from the path without binoculars. The text is the same as on all the other signs on lawns: 'No trespassing'. And if you can read it, you're usually already standing on it. And that's not a good idea."

Norman couldn't help but make a quiet remark: "As if these gardener types could be anywhere."

Leo sounded surprisingly serious: "One word: mines"

"You can't be serious!"

"Try it."

"I'd rather not. I'm attached to my legs."

In the building itself, Norman, like many other new students, stopped in surprise. He said what almost everyone was thinking: "This is totally... normal!"

White modern bookshelves with standard works, encyclopedias and modern novels. A wide counter made of white plastic where the books were handed out. Everything was scrupulously clean and tidy. And above all... quiet. After a moment, everyone looked around uncertainly. All the students moved almost stealthily through the room. At the counter, notes were passed silently and books were handed out. The few conversations took place in whispers. Soran simply stood there waiting to allow everyone to gain a first impression without being influenced.

After a while, the first quiet conversations began. When Norman tried to say something, Leo quickly waved him off and put his index finger to his lips. Around them, other students began to look nervously at the new arrivals.

Before the group could disperse, a soft rhythmic knocking sounded. It came closer and suddenly got a little louder as the culprit stepped around the corner. A stooped older man with snow-white hair came into view, leaning carefully on a stick. A disapproving expression had been etched deep into his face over the years. His hoarse voice was more like a whisper, but in the surrounding silence it carried throughout the room: "Who have we here? Mr. Soran Pardan and a whole gang of rowdy troublemakers."

He came closer and walked carefully along the row, seeming to memorize every single face. Although he made an obvious effort to remain inconspicuous in the background, Leo was also found. "Ah, and Mr. Leonardo Darwinzki. Surely you wanted to hand in your late books?"

"I... I'm afraid I've lost them, or maybe they've been stolen. I..."

The old man casually waved him off. "Not so bad. I'll arrange for an invoice to be sent to you. The books were quite old, I think 20% of the new price will be reasonable." He patted him on the shoulder again and then turned to leave. When he had already half disappeared into the next corridor, his voice was heard again: "And please keep your voice down. This is a library."

Leo looked at the somewhat confused expressions of the other students and then quickly ran over to Soran. "Did you hear that? I thought I was finished. The 'Old Man' has never reacted so calmly to late books. And to lost ones? Something's not right here. He's never been in such a good mood!"

Soran nodded. He also looked visibly shaken. "For a moment, I thought he was going to start smiling! We'll do another quick round and then finish the tour." He beckoned the group to follow him and led them around. Compared to the flowery descriptions and short stories he had given so far, this time he limited himself to very obvious and brief statements.

The more they looked around, the more restless Norman became. "Leo, tell me, what's supposed to be so special here? Even our public library was bigger and more interesting than this!"

"So? And did your public library have something like this?"

"An elevator? Yes, we had that too."

When the elevator door opened, he raised an eyebrow: "Ok..., the cabin is a bit bigger than I'm used to. And the mirrored walls are of course stylish. But still nothing sensational."

Leo put on a fixed poker face. The entire group fitted easily into the five by five meter room. As soon as the doors had closed behind the last student, the elevator gently descended. Norman looked at the somewhat unusual arrangement of the elevator buttons. The buttons were all arranged one below the other. From the third floor to the first floor normally, then three times as far apart and only then the button for the basement.

The elevator continued to accelerate. Norman couldn't help but think of the elevator in the TV tower in Berlin, which he had also ridden up and down once. The idea was silly, of course. A university library couldn't possibly go that deep into the ground.

The hum of the elevator took on a slightly deeper tone as it slowed down. Norman felt his legs getting heavier again. Without further warning, the four previously mirrored walls suddenly became transparent, revealing the dark walls of the elevator shaft. Only a few struts still blocked the view. While Norman tried to come up with a witty remark, the elevator left the dark shaft. Indirect light fell into the cabin from all sides. Now free and falling through the room without any discernible suspension, the transparent walls of the cabin revealed a view of a huge cave that stretched for several hundred meters in all directions. Countless airships, barely a meter long, illuminated the room with their glowing white shells as they silently circled the cave ceiling, driven by tiny propellers.

Norman suppressed the urge to spontaneously scream and cling to the transparent wall in panic. He took a deep breath, turned to the broadly grinning Leonardo and then said in an imperceptibly trembling voice: "Okay, now I'm impressed."

The other students also managed not to panic too obviously. The fact that the elevator continued to slow down instead of speeding up, as one might have expected, did much to calm everyone down. Horst looked completely unimpressed and visibly relaxed as he looked around.

Sam was more concerned with the ceiling than the view. She was obviously very interested in the escape hatch. What that was supposed to do for her, however, was a mystery to Norman. After all, there was nothing here to escape to without wings.

The chubby Asian man, whose name Norman had not yet caught, smiled briefly at Norman, then turned back to the plump blonde student next to him and spoke to her reassuringly. Judging by her somewhat greenish complexion, she must have had some problems with a fear of heights or something similar.

Norman looked down again and examined the cave floor. The huge area was criss-crossed by double rows of bookshelves that formed a veritable labyrinth. There were numerous openings in the cave walls through which the rows of shelves led further into the underworld. Numerous students strolled leisurely through the corridors or reclined in the leather armchairs set up at some of the larger intersections. Directly below the elevator, somewhat difficult to see past the floor, which thankfully remained opaque, was a large open area with a flat white marble column about half a meter high and nine meters in diameter at its center.

A little later, the elevator car landed on the landing and opened the door. Soran stomped ahead, waving, and waited until everyone had left the cabin. Then he first showed the group the small Greek bust standing at a handy height on a pillar next to the short staircase to the landing platform: "If you want to go back up, just press the button here in the left eye. The right eye is a screen on which the waiting time is displayed. Of course, the elevator only lands when the platform is completely empty. However, you shouldn't stand around at the top, because sometimes the elevator only brakes at a height of about 1.5m. And by then, you could have a nasty headache." He waited until the somewhat tortured laughter had subsided. "We'll just take a quick tour of the most important departments now. If you're looking for something later, make sure you get a map. There are always some in stock in that stand over there... Well, at least there usually are. They're probably just out. You shouldn't have any problems with a map. In the center of each intersection, you will find a brass plate with a number on the ground. The numbers are also all marked on the map. Getting lost is therefore impossible. Over there are the computers with the table of contents. You can also print out directions if you wish. If you're in a hurry, you can also ask one of the assistant librarians to get something for you. But that will cost a fee of 20 euros."

With many more explanations and amusing anecdotes from students who had lost their way in the many branching corridors, Soran led the group through the lower library. At one junction, Leonardo noticed that Norman separated from the group and wandered curiously into another junction. Shaking his head, he hurried after him: "Hey! Unless you've pocketed a map somewhere while I wasn't looking, you should stay with the group." Norman waved him off. He wasn't worried about getting seriously lost with so many students out and about. Surely the stories were just to stop students from getting lost all the time and disturbing others with their studies by asking for directions. Besides, he had seen something in the side corridor that interested him far too much to simply ignore it. They had already passed several crossroads and alcoves where ancient marble busts, antiques, weapons and once even a complete suit of plate armor had been set up for decoration. He pointed to the large granite boulder that had caught his attention. The hilt of a gleaming sword protruded from the waist-high rock. Norman pointed to it reverently: "Is that the real Excalibur in there or is it just a really good imitation?"

Leo shrugged his shoulders with exaggerated modesty. With some effort, he suppressed a proud grin: "Oh, it's real, of course. A few students brought it back after a trip to an arthurian times Dimension. Even the Dean of the Faculty of Magic couldn't get it out of the stone, so they just put it here at some point. You're welcome to give it a try, of course."

Norman looked eagerly at the glittering hilt of the sword, but hesitated: "I'm not even English, how am I supposed to be the King of England?"

"How long back do you know your ancestry? Three generations? Four? Before that, it could have been anything."

"As a child, I often listened to the Arthurian legend as an audio book. I kept dreaming about how I would pull the sword out of the stone."

"You and all the other children. But go ahead and try. Come on, the sword won't bite. I've tried it before too."

Norman hesitated: "You know, if I try now and can't draw the sword... No. I think I'd rather keep dreaming about doing it. Come on, let's see how we catch up with the others."

With one last longing look behind him, he turned and the two sprinted off, following the distinctive murmur of their group. Behind them, a slight glint seemed to pass over the blade of Excalibur. Surely just a random reflection of light.

After they had caught up with their group a few corridors away, Norman thought of something: "Tell me, if they took Excalibur and the stone back then, what happened to young Arthur?"

Leo just shrugged his shoulders: "No idea. I've never thought about it. He'll probably lead a relatively boring life in this parallel world. But he has a good chance of not being killed with a sword."

In his mind's eye, Norman saw a magnificent kingdom going to the dogs, while the old wizard Merlin tussled his beard every day and wondered what had gone wrong. The thought gave him no peace. While Soran continued to tell a long anecdote about the construction of the part of the library he referred to as "the endless gallery", he nudged Leonardo lightly: "Wouldn't it be better to give Excalibur back?"

"I don't think that would do any good now. After all, the sword has been gathering dust here for at least thirty years now. Arthur Pendragon should be an old man by now. Unless..."

"Unless what?"

"Well, I'd have to look it up in the directory. It could be that time runs subjectively slower in Arthur's dimension. That's the case in a few dimensions. You go there, experience a few pleasant months of vacation and come back just in time for the exam."

"Do many people do that?"

"Nobody does that! Not only would you need free access to a dimensional portal or transporter and, of course, a destination world where you actually want to go on vacation and which happens to run slower. If someone has already done something like that, they haven't told anyone else."

"Too bad. Tell me, is there going to be another big surprise or is that it for this tour? My capacity for surprises is slowly running out."

"No, I think that's it for now. The rest of the 'surprises' will come in the course of my studies. Soran has already set course for the elevator again. It's a shame, really, because I really ought to make a detour to the Martian technology department. Well, I'll just come back later."

*

At the end of the tour, Soran gathered the group around him again briefly and rubbed his hands with satisfaction. No casualties, only one slightly injured person, no major damage to property. That had gone much better than the tour at the beginning of the last semester: "So, guys, that's it for now. You should be able to cope with this so that you don't get lost all the time in the first few days. If necessary, there are plenty of other students around who can show you the way. You will all be accommodated in the student residence on the east side. The room assignments are in the brochure you received. If someone wants to swap rooms, they can contact the Student Secretariat. Even if you agree to swap with someone, let them know. So that's it then. Have fun with your studies!"

With a final wave to everyone, he said goodbye and walked off.

The rest of the group stood around a little indecisively, then some walked away and others formed small groups of like-minded people to chat a little more.

Norman found himself together with the people he had had a good chat with during the tour. Leo, Horst and Samantha, who had stayed in the background most of the time and listened more. Perhaps she had been embarrassed to admit that she had healing powers. Norman couldn't quite understand that, he would have been happy if he could do something like that.

Leo looked around in a good mood: "It was fun getting to know you. And to explore the grounds again. What do you say we meet at the café tonight at eight? Over at Café Fraktal there's great coffee and brilliant cocktails."

The newly graduated architecture student pulled out his map of the university grounds and took a look. "Café Fraktal? I can't even find it here..."

"That's because it doesn't 'officially' exist." Leo grinned proudly. "The year before me managed to eradicate an already rather unpopular and remote basement classroom from the curriculum. The university administration thinks it's locked, but a few students have converted it into a cozy refuge. It's staffed by student volunteers who are paid for it from the student party committee budget. A couple of mates and I have taken care of the decor and made it a bit more cozy in the meantime. You'll love it. I'll explain how to get there..."