"Sure. My room, how about? I've got some interesting things to show you."

She brushes a hand through her hair - and there's a charm bracelet on her wrist, bronze or a burnished gold with teardrop rubies and flat metal disks and a single prominent tiger charm, that almost certainly wasn't there a second ago.

...Huh.

"How forward. Okay."

"I've never been accused of being shy."

She stands, offering Ellie a hand up.

She takes it.

And off! Ruby's not in Ellie's dorm, but she's close - of course, the first years are pretty grouped together - and closer to the gardens, anyways. Her room's on the top of four floors, apparently a converted attic of an old row house - a single, though still about as cramped as Ellie's room, with less headspace in exchange for a bit more floor at the edges. The only places to sit are the bed and desk chair.

"Welcome! My place is your place, make yourself at home, etcetera etcetera."

She takes a seat on the floor, cross-legged. The ceiling is lower than she'd like.

She grabs something from under the bed - a small jewellery box.

"Do you believe in magic?" she asks, only a bit teasingly.

"I believe in things that have evidence supporting their existence."

"What sort of evidence would you like?"

"What sort of magic are you proposing to show me?"

"Hm... It's quite a broad sort. But I suppose there's some very obvious basic elements..."

She stretches -

And rather smoothly turns into a tiger.

"-Whoa."

"I know! It's cool." She stretches, and her black stripes curl into smoke, and her eyes blaze red. "And quite the nice super power."

"I... guess I have a confession to make."

"Oh?"

She concentrates a moment.

"Yeah."

She makes a delighted noise.

"I hadn't smelled an artifact on you! And a pretty one, too."

"I only found it yesterday."

"That explains it. You won't have had time to bond, yet."

"Congratulations."

"So you've had yours for a while? Do you know- more about how they work?"

"About a year. And, yeah, though I don't know everything - the ones I've gotten for experiments vanish if I poke them too much."

"How many have you found?"

"I have mine, three in that box, and five I've destroyed. I also know more than a few active wielders - there's at least one among the upperclassmen here, but if there's any others they're being better at hiding themselves. I've met at least a dozen wielders beyond the ones I got the artifacts from, but I also travel really widely."

"Are they all- cats?"