1 ‘A Historian’s Work is Never Done’

Aurora Wardwell had been a medieval historian for as long as she could remember. She'd studied the brutal civil wars and political intrigue that punctuated the period with the same fascination that most people enjoyed the latest Marvel films.

She wasn't unattractive, with long brown hair, pale green eyes and a curvy figure, but she has never been fond of exercise so was prone to hiding in thick, cosy jumpers.

It was one such jumper that she was snuggling into now. The library windows had been open when she came in and although there were heaters, they hadn't managed to increase the temperature much in the small room. Nevertheless, this was her favourite place in the world. The octagonal walls were all covered with books, with desks and sofas in the middle to enjoy them. In the summer, wisteria grew outside the window and warm breezes would flow through, but it was winter now and chilly.

It was Saturday night so of course she had the library to herself. This was her favourite time to be in there, she'd sneak out her packet of maltesers and read about her heroes' lives. Her passion for history had started on a night like this, when she'd left the other girls to continue their shallow, two-faced critiques of their other classmates and instead found a quiet spot to finish her history homework on "your family". She'd never looked into it before but after many hours trawling the internet and joining genealogy websites she discovered she was related to the Wardwells of the 1692 Salem Witch Trials. It was after this that she'd begun to take history more seriously and was now in her second year at university studying it.

The noise of students drunkenly shouting in the street below made her look up from her copy of Almond's 'Daughters of Artemis: The Huntress in the Middle Ages and Renaissance'. At that point she finally decided to call it a night before Rupesh, the lovely if slightly quirky member of campus security, had to ask her to leave. She started to put her stacks of books back on the shelf and gathered up her laptop, water bottle and the remainder of her snacks (two maltesers, a bar of Cadbury's and a bottle of innocent smoothie) and swung her leather satchel onto her shoulder. Doing one last lap of the library before she left to get an idea of what to read next she began to climb the stairs to the second floor. As she climbed, she noticed that the exhibition area was roped off as a new exhibit was being curated. Since there was no one about she thought she would take a quick look. A sign told her that the exhibition was part of the new module on 'Magic, Witchcraft and Gender in the Middle Ages' and as she walked around she noted the poppets and wax models that had been the evidence to condemn innocent people in a time of ignorance and mass hysteria. She shook her head and walked on past copies of the 'Malleus Maleficarum' to the 'artefacts of unknown providence' section.

The cabinets were all open or under partial construction but in the boxes beside them were a strange assortment of items dating from the medieval period onwards. Early mirrors and hairbrushes as well as seal matrices, bells and pendants filled the boxes but at the bottom was a small, white smooth piece of bone with runic carving in the surface. Aurora assumed they were runes was fascinated by the object that was preserved so well.

As she picked it up it began to hum and vibrate gently, she felt a sudden rush of warm emotion followed by a deep despair that was so empty she felt it might never end. Quickly she released the object and it fell back onto the table. Too curious to walk away now, she peered closer at it to see if it continued to vibrate when no one was touching it. It was motionless and appeared to be nothing out of the ordinary.

As she prepared to touch it again, the sound of the door caught her by surprise and she turned around quickly, her adrenaline high after the strange object's behaviour. A man with curly brown hair, warm almond shaped eyes and security uniform stood in the doorway.

"Evening, Rory" said Rupesh with a grin "don't you know this exhibit isn't open yet? You're not really meant to be in here."

"Oh! I'm sorry, Rupesh. I just got curious, you know what I'm like with a mystery and it's a room full of things under sheets and signs saying 'no entry', it was just begging me to investigate" she replied in her sweetest voice, hoping he'd send her out with a warning and not tell anyone.

"Of course, a historian's work is never done, I'll give you 5 more minutes then lock up, just because it's you" he said with a wink. I nodded gratefully as he walked away, and turned back to the inscribed bone. I picked it up with more confidence this time and let the emotions flood through me. A pressure began to build and black mist appeared at the corners of my vision, just as I was about to drop it again, I lost consciousness.