In December at Hogwarts, the castle’s stone walls seemed saturated with cold.
Most of the students scurrying through the corridors were in a rush, their faces a mix of anticipation for the Christmas holidays and dread for the upcoming final exams.
This collective anxiety hung like a low-pressure system over the common rooms and the library.
Stelle wasn’t particularly sensitive to this kind of atmosphere, but she still found it a bit too noisy.
It wasn’t the noise of sound, but the sensation of too many thoughts crowding together.
She needed a quiet space of her own.
Besides, this highly regimented lifestyle was starting to feel a bit dull.
And so, on an afternoon when light snow was falling, she decided to give herself a break and embark on a pure Trailblaze.
She wandered aimlessly around the seventh floor, her mind swirling with scattered desires: *I want a quiet place to sit…
somewhere where people won’t easily find me…
a place where I can dump all the little trinkets I’ve picked up…* As she passed the blank stretch of wall opposite the tapestry of Barnabas the Barmy being clubbed by trolls for the third time, a smooth, ancient-looking wooden door appeared without a sound.
Stelle blinked and gently pushed the door open.
The sight behind the door made her eyes widen slightly.
It was an incredibly vast space that seemed almost endless, as if a massive chunk of Hogwarts had been hollowed out.
Items hidden, forgotten, and discarded over countless centuries piled up here like mountains, forming a bizarre forest of junk: dilapidated furniture, mountains of books, rusted suits of armor, chipped and broken statues, tangled Quidditch gear, and jars and bottles shimmering with suspicious glints of light…
The air was thick with the scent of dust, old parchment, and a stale trace of magic.
To most wizards, this place would be the very definition of chaos.
But to Stelle, it was absolute heaven.
“Woah—!” she let out an uninhibited, awe-filled cheer that echoed through the cavernous room.
Her eyes lit up like lanterns, sparkling with a pure, burning excitement.
She even spun in a circle right where she stood, throwing her arms wide as if to embrace this entire world of treasures.
“Discovery!
A new base!” she declared, her tone laced with a touch of smugness, as if she had just conquered a new continent.
She even placed one hand on her hip, mimicking the pose of a video game character.
Like a little raccoon returning to the primeval jungle, she plunged headfirst into the ocean of treasures.
She scrambled up a mountain of broken chairs, standing at the summit with her hands on her hips to look down upon the world; she crawled into abandoned, cobweb-draped bed curtains, wrapping herself up to pretend she was a mysterious ghost; she flipped through moldy books, and shook bottles filled with unknown liquids.
Completely losing track of time, she immersed herself in the pure joy of rummaging.
She found a length of rope that knotted itself, a whistle that blew square soap bubbles, and a comb that snored softly whenever she ran it through her hair.
She stuffed every interesting little trinket she found into her pockets until they bulged.
Just as she was trying to drag a mannequin dressed in a Victorian gown—which was taller than her—out from under a pile of old school desks (she thought its expression was wonderfully serene, making it perfect dorm roommate material), she tripped on something.
Her elbow clipped a stack of boxes next to her, and she nearly took a tumble.
*Clatter!* With a loud racket, several boxes of varying sizes tumbled down, kicking up a cloud of ancient dust.
Stelle rubbed her bruised elbow, but her gaze was instantly drawn to one small wooden box that had fallen open, revealing its contents.
The box looked extremely plain, almost shabby, devoid of any decoration.
A thick layer of dust rested on its lid, as if it hadn’t been touched in centuries.
She knelt down and brushed the dust off the lid.
The box itself was quite ordinary and had no lock.
“Let’s see what treasures are hidden inside for the Galactic Batter!” she said with a cheeky grin, flipping open the lid.
Inside, there was only a small, folded piece of heavily faded silk.
Stelle picked up the silk; it felt feather-light, as if it might disintegrate at the slightest touch.
She carefully unfolded it.
The silk was paper-thin and nearly transparent.
Right in its center, embroidered in silver thread that almost blended into the fabric itself, was a pattern: a twisted, mocking smiley face.
It was identical to the pattern on the seven Elation Tokens in her pocket.
The exact moment she recognized the smiley face, the seven plastic tokens that had been sitting quietly in her pocket suddenly warmed up.
They began to vibrate in unison, emitting a low, cheerful hum.
Instinctively, she pulled them all out and spread them across her palm.
Something extraordinary happened.
As if pulled by invisible threads, the seven tokens floated into the air, slowly orbiting the ancient piece of silk.
The silver-embroidered smiley face on the silk seemed to spring to life.
It began to shift and flow, emitting a soft, moonlight-like glow.
Soon after, the entire piece of silk, along with the glowing smiley face, dissolved into wisps of silver mist.
Like iron filings drawn to a magnet, the mist flowed into the seven spinning tokens.
In this miraculous fashion, the seven tokens began to coalesce.
The seven tokens stopped spinning and gently floated down onto Stelle’s palm.
They now felt warm and smooth, as though they were alive.
Once more, they lit up simultaneously.
This time, the light was no longer scattered, but converged into a single beam of light as warm as a winter hearth fire.
Within the beam of light, the tokens began to fuse and reshape.
Finally, the light receded, and a palm-sized communication terminal settled into Stelle’s hand.
[Interdimensional Communication Terminal – Activated.
Status: Standby.
Energy Level: Low.] [Note: Can be slowly charged through the user’s Elation-aligned behaviors, or quickly charged by completing specific Trailblaze Challenges.] Clutching this newly born device—a miracle bridging two worlds—Stelle stood frozen for a long time.
At first she was stunned, but then the corners of her mouth began to curl upward uncontrollably, widening until she broke into a beaming smile.
She didn’t try to use it right away.
Instead, she cradled the terminal and sat cross-legged on a pile of old cushions, soft as clouds, that the Room of Requirement had conjured for her, surrounded by the glittering mountains of junk she had just excavated.
The terminal resembled a Xianzhou Jade Abacus, its casing rippling with an indescribable, colorful sheen that looked like a digital glitch.
“So Aha’s ultimate reward is a terminal?” Stelle tapped the screen with her finger.
The screen flickered, displaying a pixelated emoticon: (`∀´).
She tried pressing a button-like protrusion on the side.
Static like that of an old television screen began to flicker across the display.
“No way!
Is it breaking already?!” Stelle cried out in horror.