Olivia soon changed into her
swimming costume, and had a look at one of the pools. For the Aquatic center
had three 50 meter pools. ‘This will do,’ she thought as she looked around. She
also saw that there was a diving pool, with multiple boards at various heights.
Olivia did a couple of laps.
Freya arrived at the Overview of
Influences on Auroran Art lecture. She saw that there weren’t as many as in the
other units, although it was still a sizeable number, some of whom she had seen
in at a distance in the other lectures.
“Freya! I knew you would be
here,” Alexia said.
“Alexia?”
“Like, I only need to do two
Architecture units per semester.”
“Got it,” Freya said.
“And this will help me too.
Knowing what comes from where will certainly help me in my career.”
Olivia got out of the pool,
refreshed. It felt good to be in the water. The activity made her forget the
tiredness from not sleeping much, and she didn’t have to think about her
difficulties with reading. She also didn’t have to think about the historical
mysteries she had found the previous day.
Alexia waited while Freya talked
with the lecturer. ‘I thought so, but she’ll share when she wants to.’
It didn’t take long for Freya to
finish. “All four,” she commented.
“All four, what?” Alexia asked.
“I’ll be able to get help, if I
need it, in all four units,” Freya answered.
“You sound like you were
uncertain that you would.”
“School was far from easy,
especially when I was younger.”
“Oh,” Alexia responded, at a
loss for words.
“ADHD, you know.”
“I kind of figured.”
“It’s not like I hide it,” Freya
said with a smile. “But I have learned to embrace it. It is part of me.”
“That’s a good attitude to
have.”
Freya nodded.
“Where are you headed?”
“I have heard of a café on the
art gallery’s roof. It sounds like a perfect place to view the centre of the
city.”
“I’ll come too. I’d like have a
look too,” Alexia said.
It didn’t take them long to get
there. They walked up to it on a ramp from one of the walkways. Freya saw that
there weren’t that many other students there.
“It looks like it’s quite
modern,” Alexia commented. “More like sometime in the past 40 years.”
“It certainly does,” Freya said.
Freya started sketching the view
as she and Alexia waited for their coffees.
“What do you think about it?”
“It’s a great view. It’s
probably why they decided to put the café here.”
“And there’s a good breeze too,”
Alexia added.
“Quite relaxing and refeshing,
with a hint of mint.”
“Mint?”
“Oh, the synaesthesia,” Freya
responded. “Sometimes there is a taste to some textures.”
“That must be a lot to take in.”
“I do get overwhelmed sometimes,
but I have adapted to that.”
“I guess you would have had to,”
Alexia said.
Freya nodded. She was thankful
that the overwhelm hadn’t happened yet that day, but it sometimes happened when
she didn’t expect it too.
As Olivia left the Aquatic
Centre she felt the fatigue returning, but it wasn’t overwhelming. ‘I can
function, and read up on those mysteries.’ She then headed to the Library. She
was ready to look further into the Nordic Era.
Olivia entered the Library and
found the place more hushed than the day before. ‘Most of the students are
either in classes or looking into the sports activities,’ she thought as she
looked around the Grand Atrium. She went up to one of the directories. ‘The
Nordic Section or the Information Science Section?’ She shook her head and went
to the Nordic Section.
“Aurora at the Beginning of
the 9th Century,” Olivia murmured. She opened the book and ran
her text to speech pen over the Introduction.
“Aurora in the year 801 is
commonly considered to have fully recovered from the end of the Roman Era,
despite the Eastern Archipelago remaining independent from Urbs Aeterna and
allied to the early Byzantine Empire against both Aurora and Charlemagne. The
Raid on Lindisfarne had occurred some years earlier, but Aurorans had thought
themselves safe from the Norsemen as it was thought that they would focus on
England and the other parts of Britain and Ireland…”
“Done,” Freya said as she took a
sip from her coffee.
“Done?” Alexia said she looked
over the sketch.
“Done for now. A preliminary
sketch.”
“It’s looks very good for
something that’s preliminary.”
“Thanks,” Freya said. “I usually
do a rough sketch first.”
“I’m a little like that, in that
I have been designing buildings since I was young, playing with building
blocks. It wasn’t always what I wanted to do, but It seemed that I have a knack
for it.”
“Many people are like that.”
“I guess so,” Alexia said as she
sipped her own coffee.
“Everyone is different when it
comes to their creative expression.”
“That’s obvious, but I guess I’m
learning how different people can be.”
“The same here.”
Olivia listened as the book
again said that many primary sources about the events in the early 9th
Century had been lost. ‘But a small amount, surely.’ She continued listened,
and then paused. ‘Wait! What are the statistics for how many records from that
era have been lost?’ She was sure that would be important. ‘But where would I
find that information?’ She suspected that would a long term investigation.
After spending some time at the
café, Freya and Alexia went down into the gallery.
‘But where to start?’ Freya
asked herself. She grabbed a pamphlet. “We’re on the top floor, which has
artworks created in the modern era.”
“How is that defined?” Alexia
asked.
“Since the beginning of the 19th
Century.”
“That makes sense. The beginning
of the industrial era.”
Freya looked at the pamphlet
again. “Then the Early Modern Era is on the second floor. The Renaissance on
the first floor and part of the ground floor, with the Medieval period,
including the Nordic Era taking up the rest of that floor. Artworks from the
Roman Era and earlier are in the basement.”
“Much simpler than the library.”
Alexia commented. “But then the building dates from the Renaissance.”
“There’s probably some other
building that got repurposed.”
They then entered one of the
rooms and started looking.
“This is very large,” Alexia
said after they had looked at several paintings.
“It would probably take us years
to properly appreciate all the artworks,” Freya said. “That’s how large the
collection is.”
“And you say that some went
missing?”
“Yes. A number of mysteries in
Aurora’s history of Art.”
They spent over an hour going
through the gallery before deciding they had enough for the time being (and
Freya was finding herself overwhelmed).
Olivia entered the coffee house
cafeteria across the Square from the Library. ‘This is charming,’ she thought.
She was still thinking about the discrepancies she had found. She knew that
there was a pattern there, but she knew that she needed more data.
Freya and Alexia left the Art
Gallery. Freya was overwhelmed by looking at all the artworks in a short period
of time, but it had been worth it.
“Are you OK?” Alexia asked.
“I’m fine,” Freya answered.
“Just a little overwhelmed by looking at all that art so quickly.” She closed
her eyes briefly and took a deep breath. She then opened them again and looked
into Alexia’s. “It’s part of the neurodivergence.”
Alexia nodded with a smile. “Got
it.”
“It has made me more resilient
than otherwise.”
“So, lunch?”
“Yes,” Freya answered with a
slight giggle.
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