Twenty minutes after Aronia had been called on, she was fully dressed and making her way through the corridors.
She saw other researchers hurrying between departments carrying stacks of documents.
Wardens changed shifts and assistants argued over catalog numbers.
A remarkably normal morning.
Eventually she reached the welcoming hall.
The chamber served as the archives' primary receiving area for visitors important enough to be admitted beyond the outer gates.
Aronia had passed through it hundreds of times in the years she had been here.
She knew everything about it, down to the last detail.
The only thing that changed was the guests who came here seldomly.
Today, there was another guest.
A woman stood near the center of the hall.
She was young and pale and very still.
A sword hung at one hip. A staff rested lightly in one hand. Neither appeared ceremonial.
Several wardens stood nearby. None seemed particularly relaxed. The woman herself appeared calm.
In her mind, Aronia cursed.
A mage. Wherever a non-initiated one appeared, only trouble followed.
She slowed her approach.
The stranger turned.
Their eyes met, and Aronia cursed again.
She wasn't very good when it came to confrontations, because she didn't care much for them.
That's often seen as rude, and the High Archivist had told her multiple times to be nicer to visitors and important guests.
She had to be nice to a surprise guest who was a mage. Great.
Why her?
The woman looked like the sort of person who had traveled a very long distance for a very specific reason.
And people like that rarely arrived at the Moony Archives with good news.
Aronia prepared herself to walk across the hall. Fortunately, the woman spared her the effort.
The stranger began walking toward her instead.
The wardens visibly relaxed.
Apparently they had been waiting for someone else to handle the situation.
Aronia made a note to remember their faces.
"Aronia Buxus?" the woman asked.
Her voice was calm. Tired, perhaps. But calm.
"Unfortunately."
The woman stared at her for a moment.
Aronia frowned.
"I asked around," the woman said. "I was told you're the one currently researching the shards."
Aronia felt her attention sharpen.
The Archives had not publicly released any information regarding Vault Seventeen. Usually, they didn't release any information if they didn't have to.
That meant the woman already knew what she was looking for before arriving.
Aronia immediately liked the situation less.
"I am researching something that matches that description."
The woman's grip shifted slightly on her staff, then lifted it.
Not threateningly.
Simply enough for Aronia to get a better look.
At first she saw only dark wood, but then she froze.
The upper portion of the staff had been crudely decorated with fragments that looked the same as the artifact she had been researching.
Not just one or two of them, but six.
Six whole pieces of metallic-glass shards protruded from the wood at irregular angles.
The sight made her stomach sink.
"Oh."
The woman watched her reaction carefully.
"You recognize them."
"Yes."
Aronia took a slow breath.
"Oh, I really don't like that."
For the first time, the stranger looked surprised.
"You don't?"
"No."