Who is Marnie?

“They turned out to be totally different, right? They boys? What were their names, again?” Minichi reeled, laughing.

She was walking with Marnie after dinner.

“You are so happy!” Marnie.

“Yes. I first thought that those might be so spiteful but..” Minichi couldn’t stop laughing.

“...were not so bad, right? I told you.”

“Indeed.”

The moon shined on their faces as they walked. “You know, the moon in my world looks different. There are more dark spots,” Minichi pointed. “On evenings like this, I would often walk in a park with my friends and Ms. Telly. This makes me a bit homesick.” She added, still looking at the moon.

A cold breeze brushed against their hair as they walked down the Bergman alley.

“Huh? Bergman alley? Did Master Bergman live around here?” Minichi clasped on to Marnie’s sleeves.

“Did? He does. That’s his house.” Marnie pointed to a small hut. The lamps have been put off. It was late at night.

“Huh, that? I thought he lived in the castle?”

“He did. But he retired here many years ago, when I was very young.”

“This must be one of the safest neighbourhoods” she remarked as she looked around at all the closed shops: groceries, metalworks, and what not. Some signboards claimed to sell mana crystals too.

“I didn’t think mana crystals were sold like that.”

“Not many shops do. This one is one of the few.”

They walked back to their dorm. Shortly after a little chat, they went to bed.

“Tomorrow, I’ll show you around the campus,” Marnie had said.

“I would need to make a battery.” She thought as she kept her phone. It doesn’t have much charge left.

-

That night, Minichi had a dream. A dream of the past.

She was there on the highway, with Ms Telly, Rimi and Hataki. They were clicking selfies when something hit their car and the next thing she saw was a blinding glow. She couldn’t even see herself.

She could hear voices, arguing voices. But when she called, “Mom? Dad?”, she didn’t get a reply. Instead the voices morphed into cries of panic and fear.

It was the night of the mana beast attack. The screams of the townsfolk hummed in the air. She turned around, only to find herself in the carriage. Was that Mobi? She wasn’t sure.

They passed by crushed houses and devastated families hurdled by them. They were looking at her. Some people came by the roadside and began slapping their palms on the glass window of the carriage. “Take us with you,” they said. First a few, then a dozen and before she could realise, the windows were blocked by desperate hands. Their voices intensified, more and more.

And then, the glass shattered.

-

Minichi woke up. Bright rays of sun fell on her face. She felt sweat on her forehead. Her blanket was on the floor. “A nightmare,” she thought.

Later that morning, she visited the Academic Dean.

“But Miss Minichi, all the courses have already had their midterms.” he said.

“Not before the next semester then?”

“Unfortunately. If you want to learn swordfighting, you can join the Blade Girls.” He added.

-

“Ready for the tour?” Marnie asked. She stood across from her on the courtyard. “It’s so lovely today, isn’t it?” Minichi squinted her eyes as she looked up. “Where are we going first?”

“Come along.” Marnie waved her hand.

They walk along the paved roads, around the lecture halls and departments. “That’s the Central Library. You can find all sorts of books here. Wanna check it out?”

“It’s been a long time since something felt familiar,” she said. “The libraries look alike; I am getting goosebumps” she rubbed her arms as they entered the building.

The soft sunlight entering though the large windows created a dreamy atmosphere. “A lot of people are studying here.” Minichi observed.

“Yes. Most of the researchers spend their time here.” Marnie smiled at her.

“You’re also a researcher, right?”

“Yes”

“Do you work here as well?”

Marnie waited for the question.

“Yes. Do you want to see my office?”

“You have an office here?” Minichi raised her eyebrows.

“Of course I do. All researchers get an office. Come with me.”

Minichi follows Marnie to a small cubicle. “It’s a lift”

“Lift?”

Marnie put her hand on a marking on the wall. There were other markings too.

“Are these numbers?” Minichi asked. “I vaguely remember them from the books.”

Marnie glanced at her and smiled. “Yes, that’s zero, one, two, three and four,” she pointed at them and pressed a button.

“Whoah, what’s happening?” Minichi freaked out from the blue glow that covered the lift.

“We are being teleported to the fourth floor. This is a teleportation lift. It’s not like the electric lifts but serves the..”

“Electric lifts? How do you..?”

Marnie suddenly clenched her fists and held on to her skirt. “I didn’t know. I thought you might have them as well and you mentioned electricity so I thought it must be run by electricity. I was hoping you’d say I was wrong but it seems I was right.. It’s a mere co-incidence, trust me.”

Minichi had a doubt. “How does she know so much about electricity?Is she also from my world? She never really asked me to tell her more about it as well. Is she hiding something? Does she actually know about electricity?” But she smiled and said, “Yes we do.”

“Whoah, this place looks so cozy! How do you even work here? I would certainly sleep all day” Minichi exclaimed as they entered Marnie’s office. There was a large round window with sofas underneath and a long blackboard on the wall on the right.

“Are these calculations for your research?" Minichi leaned at the complicated equations written on the board.

“Yes, I had much of my lead from this ancient stone plate.” She opened a box.

“A blueprint?” Minichi leaned closer.

“I think so. See these drawings? We researchers believe this is the source of your prophecy. This thing is quite old actually. Not exactly this one, this is a replica. But the original one is estimated to have been created 950 years ago.”

“Nine-fif…before the war?”

“Yes,” Marnie nodded in agreement.

“I think it’s a blueprint. In my world, we used to work with very similar drawings. We called them blueprints.”

“Uh huh. So, you are saying this is a design for something?”

“A portal. I think it’s a portal.” She leaned back. “Do you think we can copy it on paper? To study it properly?”

“Huh, sure. We can do that. But look, it's already time for lunch. We should head out soon.”

“Oh right. But, Marnie. Before we go. Would it be possible to order some materials like sulphuric acid, lead and some other stuff? I want to make this thing called a battery which basically stores energy. Currently, when I run my generator, I have no way to store the power generated. A battery will help me do that.”

“Okay, lemme write them down. Care to repeat?”

“Yeah yeah. Also, I need some pipes and some metals for making a better version of my generator. In my world, we call it a steam engine. Not exactly what I am planning to build but it is similar.”

“Yeah, absolutely.” Marnie, for some reason, didn’t ask a single question about what these were. She seemed to have understood it all. This struck Minichi. “I don’t see any electrical items here and I don’t think a steam engine or a battery has been made before. She didn’t say anything. But that’s more of the issue here. She didn’t say anything. As if, she knows it all. Am I overthinking? I don’t think, at this point. I have to find out.”

-

“Hello, what’s up?” Deiter sat down across from Minichi at lunch.

“Deiter! How are you doing? Is your stomach fine now?” Minichi waved.

“Already good friends, huh?” Marnie squinted her eyes as she looked at Deiter. “Where’s Reynfrid?”

Deiter looked to the end of the hall where Reynfrid was seated.

“Man in love, huh? Well, you don’t seem to be different either. I know why you’re here.”

“You do? No. I am not here to talk to you.”

“Yeah, yeah. I know.” Marnie smirked.

“Oh that reminds me. Marnie, after lunch can you take me to where the Blade Girls usually are? I want to join them.”

Deiter and Marnie looked at Claudia, who sat beside Minichi. She joined them today. Claudia looked up as if to say, “What are you looking at?”

“Well, we are doing a tour so yeah.” Marnie looked at Claudia.

“Yosh, let’s finish this quickly” Minichi gobbled.

Deiter looked at Marnie, as if asking for an explanation. But, Marnie shrugged and smiled back and didn’t speak a word.