Jason had met Chloe at several functions before and after the girl had graduated from high school, but Chloe had always seemed to regard him as some sort of local wildlife that came with her mother’s job rather than a fellow student. She shared the thin build of her mother, but whereas Professor Rawlins’s mix of button nose and high cheekbones gave her a pixy look, Chloe had indeterminate cheekbones, a beak of a nose, and large ears, presumably gifts from her father. Chloe was with her mother when Jason arrived, leaving the Professor’s office after Jason had knocked. Jason nodded to her, which she barely acknowledged, and then heard the Professor call him into her office, so he put Chloe from his thoughts and entered the room. Like nearly every Classics staff member whose office he had been in, the décor was wood shelves, a desk, a comfortable-looking chair the Professor used, and a pair of University issue chairs for visitors. He plonked himself down on one of these, resting his laptop on his lap.

“You know this is the first time you have ever asked me for a meeting. So far, I have always had to chase you for progress reports.” She smiled in a resigned sort of way. “So, what’s the problem?”

Jason shook his head. “No problem. Well, not really. I, well, I want to change my Thesis subject.”

She looked surprised. “What! This close to finishing?”

Jason shrugged. “I can still finish it if you think I should, but I have discovered something, and, well, I think it would make both a better thesis as well as being a lot more important to Classics research.” There, he had made the outrageous claim that should grab her attention.

She didn’t look impressed with his pronouncement, merely sitting back in her chair and staring at Jason for a moment, a slight frown sharpening her features, making her look more like an evil elf than a pixie.

 “You have made an important discovery?” She shook her head as he nodded. “Where and what?”

She sounded like this had better be good, or else! He flipped open his laptop and stood up.

“I think it would be easiest to show you.” He said before moving over and putting his laptop on her desk. “You know I was looking at those Linear B tablets they found and then those extra ones discovered below the first group which had been stored with a similar number of Linear A tablets?”

She nodded as she had been the one to point him in the direction of the new finds in the first place.

 “Well, they are certainly important in terms of the Mycenean invasion and occupation of Crete and the consequent end of the Minoan civilization. They appear to almost certainly date right from the period of the Mycenean takeover and the lower box, which had the two sets of tablets, clearly points to a continuation and replacement of the Minoan temple city administration by the incoming Myceneans. And if you want me to continue the Thesis as we originally planned, then that is no problem, and it will be finished much sooner than I expected due to that find. But well, look at this.”