Chương 12: Another Sort of Interview

"A scholarship, is it? Recommended by Kaendrian, hmm. He can be a bit of a wild card. But let's take care of this as quickly as possible." The secretary had read over Suria's papers at a glance and now set them back on the desk, which had been entirely cleared. Before she had just viewed him as a threat, a three seal mage who might not have her best interests at heart. Now she looked more carefully and saw a middle-aged man going a bit heavy, less rude than impatient.

He looked Akrashic, but unlike many he didn't wear any hat to hide his thinning blond hair.

"My name is Houdon Droucet," he told her, "and obviously I have your name from your papers. They say you're already capable of glyphic spellcasting, so let's do a quick check."

"Of course." Suria had her stylus and extra talismans prepared to repeat the test, but he waved them away.

"Just show me a glyph."

"You... don't need to confirm I made it myself?" Suria asked as she handed over her pain relief talisman.

"Why would I do that? I'm not trying to insult you, I just need to determine basic competence." Houdon looked over her talisman with a critical eye as he spoke and then nodded.

"Pain relief inscription, looks like. Competent runes, solid form. Show me." Suria took a deep breath and prepared to cast. She had used the spell hundreds of times, even from this very talisman, but still found herself nervous. This was the first time it was for an examination, and the standards here were so much higher than back home. Instead of casting blindly, she gently extended the pain relief spell into the man's back. He grunted and rolled his shoulders.

"Above average casting ability. You've done this before."

"Thank you," Suria answered quietly.

"That's expected, so let's take care of business." Houdon waved aside her thanks and began looking at his paperwork.

"I'm not used to this tedium, so forgive me if I'm slow. Lots of hoops to jump through. We need identification, basic supplies, housing, and so forth." As much as Suria wanted to ask about Shuguja, she decided that it wasn't worth the risk, so she tried to match his pace.

"I already have an identification pin," she cut in between sentences, "and a room in the Taedric Building. So we don't need to do those."

"Oh, so you do." Houdon glanced at the pin she'd attached to her peasant's cloak, then abruptly whipped out his stylus and tapped it.

"Just wasn't fully activated, but it is now. Now, most of your supplies will be given in individual classes, but we give all students a modern stylus. You aren't required to use it, but you might want to." He handed her a stylus made from white stone, simple as that. Suria took it carefully, her fingers tracing over the incredibly soft brush on one side and the smooth wedge on the other. She'd used styluses before during the loop, but this one was actually hers to keep.

"The university does not provide runebooks for students, even scholarships," Houdon went on, his eyes running down a list in front of him.

"It's up to you whether you invest in one. Books, room, and board are all included in your scholarship, and in addition you will be given funds of 10 oss per day, distributed monthly starting now. Otherwise your business is your own."

"Thank you." Suria realized she'd already said that and could easily end up saying "thank you" over and over if she wasn't careful. Houdon didn't seem to notice, pushing forward.

"Next we need to get you signed up for classes, which would be best to take care of now. I trust you already know what you intend to study? First term lasts until thawbreak, so we focus on more intensive classes. Everyone is required to enroll in at minimum two classes, and while there is no upper limit other than your schedule, your scholarship includes a maximum of four. I would advise three, since many are not prepared for the rigor of the curriculum here."

"Uh, wait." Suria managed to get in between his torrent of words without interrupting him too rudely.

"I haven't chosen which classes I want to take. I haven't even seen a full list... do you have one?"

"I am not going to sit here while you look over all the courses." Houdon's frown deepened and for the first time he looked truly irritated.

"It's really better to just take care of this now instead of requiring another meeting. All students are required to take Foundations of Modern Spellcraft, so that's one. We can also place you in Magical History, which is more essential than it sounds, and Civil Magic in the Taedric Colonies. That will-""Sorry." Suria swallowed and forced herself onward.

"I won't waste your time, but I need to consider my options more carefully. Is there somewhere I can find a complete list, then come back later?" For a second Houdon glared at her, then to her surprise his expression softened. He turned away and shuffled through a stack of papers, looking for something. As he moved, he spoke over his shoulder.

"Sorry I'm impatient, it's been... a difficult few days. You've been so much less trouble than the nobles we usually have to deal with at this time, of course we can accommodate you." He turned back and handed her a sheet of silver paper with glyphs along the side.

"The library is closed for final term preparations, but you can make a request. You can actually make a request at any time, but there's normally an expense involved. It will be waived in this case, so that you can make an informed choice." What followed was a terse conversation about exactly what books she could or should request from the library. Houdon seemed to be intending to be helpful, he was just absolutely the wrong person for a meandering discussion about class descriptions or her goals.

Since he seemed to be helpful in direct proportion to how much time she saved him, Suria took his suggestions for overview books, though she also requested a book about runic capacity as well as one on magical law. The former would be directly useful to her for obvious reasons and the latter might be a way to make progress on her broader goals, even now. As soon as that was done, Suria was escorted out of the office. She was a student at Darkmoon University. It didn't seem real.

Maut-mai beamed at her and went in for her own meeting, so Suria stayed in the waiting room and tried to calm her mind. Technically everything was going well: she had passed her interview and taken care of all her business. She even had a set of books that would be waiting for her, containing the keys to everything she had wanted for so long. Yet she couldn't simply be happy about that, not when she kept thinking about what had happened in the basement the day before.

A full professor was gone, Rije and Shuguja might be dead, and it was all being covered up by some sort of conspiracy. More surreal than all that was the fact that if she had come a day later, potentially even an hour later, she wouldn't know about any of it. She might simply be preparing to attend university, as happy as Maut-mai or any other student. There was a hypothetical Suria - she couldn't help but think of it as another timeline, even if she didn't know how timelines worked - who was completely uninvolved.

Did lives really change completely based on minor coincidences? The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. She played with the silver paper in her hands, wondering if she'd made the right choices for book requests. At minimum she would be able to look over all the classes and make decisions about the future, but how could she know if they were the right decisions?

In a strange way, Suria wished that she was still trapped in the time loop, so that she could make the decisions again. Before Suria could fall too far into her own thoughts, Maut-mai emerged from the office. Even though she had everything set up and didn't need to prove herself, her meeting had taken longer than Suria's. Maut-mai looked somewhat irritated and Houdon closed the door sharply behind her, so clearly they hadn't gotten along.

It seemed impolite to bring it up, so Suria simply rose to meet the other young woman.

"Well!" Maut-mai dusted off her hands showily.

"That's over with. Now we need to buy supplies, and I know just the place."

"I also have a library request," Suria said, holding up the paper if there was any confusion.

"Look at you, getting started already! Fortunately for you, I know exactly where to submit those. If you give them to the administrators they get stuck on a desk forever, but there are glyphic devices that transmit requests directly to the library. We should be able to find one on our way." They dropped the paper into an unmarked wooden box along their way and Suria could only hope that the other woman was telling the truth.

After that they headed into the warren of smaller buildings, where one of them proved to be a store.

"This is the best place to buy basic necessities," Maut-mai told her.

"Of course the finest materials are better purchased in the city itself, but it's easy to be charged too much if you don't know what you're doing. There are official merchants in the Earth Society Building, but they're a racket, so this is better." The store was a single room with shelves absolutely packed with basic supplies. Looking over the items, Suria was surprised at just how cheap many were: paper, quills, and stone for talismans could be acquired for just a few oss.

Any of those would have been far more expensive back at home, but here they were treated like weeds. Of course, not everything was so inexpensive. There was a shelf with blank runebooks secured behind a glass panel, ranging from simple stone slates to elegantly-carved marble books that could hold hundreds of glyphs. The prices ranged just as extremely, from hundreds of oss for the cheapest runebooks to thousands for the most expensive.

Base material had an effect on spell quality, just like runework, but Suria wasn't sure exactly how much it was, and it certainly paled in comparison to the fundamentals. Until she had a better understanding of how much that was worth, she would stick to her talismans. Since her scholarship granted her 300 oss per month, perhaps in a few months she would be able to choose whether or not to invest. By that point, hopefully she would have learned so much that she actually needed a runebook.

For the time being, she simply purchased some paper, practice slates, and blank talismans, since she couldn't resist acquiring such fine quality goods for so little. Everything else she needed would hopefully be given in her classes. Meanwhile Maut-mai purchased quite a bit more, including a tapestry, mirror, and rug for their room. Those weren't what Suria would call basic supplies, but she wasn't complaining... unless she was expected to pay for them. Surely no one would do such a thing?

They made a few other stops in a whirlwind of movement that Suria barely tracked: she could remember the largest campus buildings where she would be spending most of her time, but the smaller buildings and dormitories were still a maze to her. If she could just walk through campus alone, how long would it take her to explore everything and become truly comfortable with the place? Right now that seemed impossible, so Suria stuck close to Maut-mai.

She might have made different choices on her own, but the other woman had saved her lots of time guiding her through the process, so she wasn't going to complain.

"Are you feeling hungry?" Maut-mai asked as they walked across campus yet again.

"All this walking has me a bit peckish."

"I could eat," Suria agreed.

"What do you say we go out into Darmkael and find a cafe? I haven't gotten to explore much of the city at all, and I hear they have food from across the world. That's one thing we don't have in Febek-Rai. Not that our cuisine isn't of the finest quality, but we don't have chefs from a hundred nations."

"Oh, I... I was wanting to get back to our rooms. I thought we could eat at the cafeteria."

"Are you sure? The cafeteria food will grow so dreary by the end of the term, and I hear it isn't always easy to get off the campus. They have very strange weather here, if you haven't heard."

"But our books might have been delivered, and don't you want to try on your new robes?"

"I must admit I'm looking forward to that." Maut-mai looped Suria's arm and pulled her faster.

"And the cafeteria is so empty in these early days, it's almost like a private restaurant. We can explore the city later when everything on campus is dreadfully busy." At the cafeteria Maut-mai seemed unimpressed by the spiced meats, mounds of vegetables, and breads on offer. Suria enjoyed all of it, and there was even a tray of pastries that would have cost a great deal outside. She thought she was going to enjoy eating here, unless it really did become as busy as her companion expected.

During the meal Maut-mai spoke almost constantly. She didn't speak while chewing and always wiped her mouth with a napkin after, which meant the talking slowed her down immensely. The conversation was light and yet she hadn't said much about herself or anything personal. Suria still knew almost nothing about her, and the only reason she even knew that Maut-mai was from a noble family was that Lirngelf had mentioned it back in the loop.

Was Maut-mai simply cautious, or did she always maintain shallow conversations like this? Suria knew people made plenty of assumptions about her, so she did her best not to do the same. This woman was likely to be her roommate for the near future, so best to keep her mind open. Once they were done eating, they returned to their rooms and discovered that packages had been delivered.

Maut-mai was delighted to see that her robes were ready while Suria was more distracted by the fact that the people making the delivery had been able to unlock their door. Maybe that was to be expected and there was nothing to fear inside the university, but it left her feeling discomfited. That feeling slipped away when she saw that a package of books had been delivered. Finally. Suria started to unwrap them, but Maut-mai let out an exaggerated groan.

"Suria, please, you can't start reading before you even try on your robes. This is an important part of being a Darkmoon student!"

"I suppose," Suria said with a sheepish smile.

"Let's try them out." Maut-mai stripped off her wrap completely shamelessly to change into her robes, while Suria only set aside her peasant's cloak. The material was pleasantly silky and once she had the robe on completely, she had to admit that it fitted her well. Its cut was tighter around the waist than she was used to, and she missed her cloak's hood, but it was the finest clothing she'd ever worn.

"Wonderful!" Maut-mai spun around in front of her new mirror, making the lower part of her robe flare out around her. Suria's robe didn't do that dress-like flare, but apparently Maut-mai had asked for her own alterations.

"I feel like I'm actually a Darkmoon student now."

"It finally feels real," Suria agreed with a smile. Even though, in her mind, the robes were less important than the package of books sitting on her bed, and her eyes kept wandering back to them.

"Oh, go ahead and read, I can see you want to." Maut-mai released a theatrical sigh.

"I need to reconsider my jewelry anyway, since these colors are so stark. It can be made to work, I'm sure, but it will take some consideration..." Fortunately, Maut-mai didn't maintain any chatter as she considered her outfit, so Suria was finally free to examine her books. She curled up on her bed, glad to find that her robes were comfortable in many different positions, and finished unwrapping the other package.

As she did so, she couldn't help but think that these books might cost a thousand oss or more and they had simply been delivered to her. They were even more valuable than that, because one simply couldn't acquire books like this back in the Westlakes. The first book was the Darkmoon Course Catalogue, a thin volume with a modern binding. She opened it reverently and her eyes swam at the huge number of class listings: almost infinite knowledge at her fingertips.

But she hadn't made her decision earlier because she didn't have enough information, so she set that aside to look through the others. She really wanted to read The Akrashic Taxonomy of Spellcraft, because that was supposed to explain how Darkmoon University divided its fields of magic. After that she paged through Magical Law: An Overview - she had claimed that she was worried about breaking local laws, but it looked like it contained enough historical information that it might be useful for her real purposes.

Last in the stack was The Measure of a Mage, which wasn't exactly what she had expected. She had asked for a book about runic capacity, since hers was woefully inadequate, and this seemed more abstract than she had expected. Yet she soon found chapters dedicated specifically to many different exercises and promising improvements. Suria smiled and began reading.