The university was a bleak old building. Most students acted as though it were something prestigious to go here; I reckoned they were just lying to themselves. The inside of the large building didn’t look much better than the outside. I noticed that the lockers lining the main corridor were badly worn and mostly dented; it was a surprise they were still able to lock properly.

A ditzy-looking elf girl bumped into me as I walked over to the teaching roster pinned to a notice board. “I’m sorry, miss,” she said, her speech rapid. Looking at her, I noticed her eyes were all over the place. A drug user; by the looks of it she used some mixture of uppers and downers. Before she could walk away I grabbed her shoulder and turned her around. She started to speak in the elvish tongue, and her tone sounded both begging and threatening.

“Don’t worry, I am not here for you or your drugs. I am looking for Professor Victor Linnaeus, can you tell me where he is teaching now?” I asked her.

She snorted “That washed-up old goat of a lion? He isn’t teaching right now, not that he does that a lot anymore,” she replied.

I sighed. This place hadn’t been much to begin with, but it was seemingly slipping faster than water on melting ice. “So where is he then?” This time she replied, spitting out something in foul-sounding elvish again. I was getting annoyed. “I don’t speak elvish, you know” I said.

She flipped me off and repeated in English: “That’s what the fucking roster is for, bitch.”
“Elves on drugs are always such a sad sight, don’t you think?” I heard from behind me. As I turned around I saw a tusked, green-skinned girl standing behind me. “Damn lightweight can’t handle her pixie dust,” she continued.

I fought the urge to catch up with her and hit her in the face as she walked off.
“Are you a student here?” I asked her. My question seemed to anger her.

“What, you think just because I’m an orc I can’t go to school except if I’m a janitor?” she snarled as she gave an angry grin; the one only orcs were able to pull off.

I shook my head. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean it like that. It’s just I haven’t seen much of the clan folk around here; most stick to the outskirt regions of the city.”

She gave me a grunting nod and pointed at the roster. “The professor of art is in his office on the third floor. Let me take you there, I’m going there anyway,” she replied as she led the way.

“I must say I never heard of pixie dust; is it actual dust from pixies?” I asked her as we walked through the hallways.

She laughed loudly. “If that were the case then pixies would be high out of their tiny skull the entire time. No, it’s just the common name for it; it’s more a mixture of all types of stimulant. The elves recently got their hands on it but can’t quite handle the stuff. Dinah, who you met there, is actually a nice girl if she is not on it.” We turned a hallway and started to climb a staircase.

“But what do you use it for? To relax or stay awake?”

She once again shook her head and laughed. “You are a funny one, you know that?” she said. “No, it’s for learning. It helps you remember stuff better, it makes you calmer and more receptive to information.” She gave me a foul look. “You mean because I am an orc I have to be a gymnastics major?”

When we reached the fifth flight of stairs she was panting a little. “I thought orcs were known for their stamina,” I said jokingly.
I sighed and gave her an exasperated look as we reached the top. “Are you going to play the orc angle the entire time?” I asked her.

She once again laughed loudly, and pounded me on the back. “It’s good to meet someone with a sense of humor!” she said as she held open the door to the third floor for me.

It was a dreary place. Half of the offices here were empty and the ones that weren’t seemed to be filled with smoking or boozing students. The orc girl looked at me and nodded. “They don’t use the third floor that much anymore. The professor is at the end of this hallway,” she said.

She turned around and walked back the way we came. “Didn’t you say you were coming here anyway?” I asked her.
She turned back and smiled at me. “I’m going to one of the other offices,” she replied, and walked off.  

Next Chapter: A meeting with Victor