Dan winced. “Thanks then. When is lunch in Ormuil?” He knew different cities tended to break for lunch at various times depending on the manufacturing industries which were prevalent in them.
“In about an hour and a half.”
Dan stole a glance at the entropy clock on the young man’s desk. It was a little after ten. “Thanks,” he said.
Ruckus followed as Dan left, sighing. “It smelled nicer inside than out here,” he complained. “I don’t see why we couldn’t have waited in the nice room.”
“Well, unlike spirits, humans have to eat food if they want to live.”
“Don’t spend all your money. Things are probably expensive here.”
“I’ll be careful,” said Dan, looking around. There weren’t many restaurants or cafes around the outskirts of the school grounds, but he thought he remembered seeing an inn on the way which had looked promising. As he exited the grounds through the wrought iron gate, he made sure to memorize the names of several of the nearby shops so he could find his way back.
Sure enough, Dan found the Laughing Eel only a few minutes’ walk from the University. It seemed to be a popular establishment catering to University students. Some people Dan’s age sat within, eating simple meals and drinking tall mugs of a pale liquid not much like the dark beers of Dan’s own village.
Dan walked up to the bar where a tall, thin man turned to take his order. He didn’t seem like Dan’s idea of an innkeeper, but things were different in the big city, after all. Dan ordered bread, cheese, and water, all of which arrived quickly despite the crowd. He ate in slow, quiet bites, hunching down and keeping his bag at his feet, avoiding the attention of the rest of the patrons while also listening in on conversations.
Most of the talk concerned money and dues, and Dan wondered with worry if Nancy’s letter of recommendation would be enough to carry him through his schooling. Dan finished his meal despite anxiety clawing his stomach, and returned to the University to be early for his meeting.
***
The clerk looked up as Dan entered the building. “The headmistress will see you,” he said. “Go through that door and take your third right.”
Dan smiled and thanked him, opening the door and stepping through. Ruckus made as if to follow, but Dan hesitated. “Err, you should probably wait here,” he said.
Ruckus coughed in his irritated way. “If you say so. Any particular reason?”
“I just think I should be alone. This is a pretty important meeting. She might not look kindly on me taking you along.”
“Right, be ashamed of me.” Ruckus slid down beside the door, looking droopily up at Dan and blowing a wisp of air through his bushy eyebrows. “Well, good luck then. See you in a few.”
“Sure.” Dan walked down the hallway, knocked at the indicated door, and entered when called from inside.
The headmistress of the Academy at Ormuil was a middle-aged woman with auburn hair, thick-rimmed glasses, and an ornate robe that didn’t quite seem black. She sipped from a small teacup at her left hand before gesturing for Dan to come closer.
“Err, ma’am?”
“Sit down.”
“Yes, ma’am.” He sat.
The headmistress looked up. “So, you want to join our school. What brings you here so late in the season?”
“I’m afraid I was misinformed, ma’am. I was sure applications took place today.” He shifted on the hard-seated chair. “I already explained to the clerk out front.”
The headmistress leaned in and smirked. “And you want us to take you in? What good is a student who can’t keep on top of the most current information?”
“I’ve done the best I could,” Dan protested with indignation. “I’ve lived in the countryside for most of my life, and I was going off what our local Librarian told me.”
“Oh?” Curiosity played across the headmistress’ face. “Who was that?”
“Miss Nancy Green,” said Dan. “She taught me how to read, along with a lot of other kids, and she’s the one who recommended me. She even sent this letter along that I’m supposed to give you.”
“Let’s see it, then.”
Dan pushed the letter across the table. It wasn’t in great condition after having been clutched in a sweaty hand all day. Dan clenched his fists at his sides as the headmistress slit open the envelope with a thin knife and unfolded the paper within. Her eyes moved along, devouring multiple lines at a time, until she smiled and set down the paper.
“If you live up to the recommendations you were given, I think we can find a place for you here, lateness notwithstanding. I’m afraid I don’t have much time, so I’ll be brief. This letter is a definite point in your favor, but by the look of you, I doubt you can afford to pay for tuition out of pocket. Are you aware of how much it’ll cost?”
Dan’s heart sank. “I was hoping the letter would cover quite a bit of it.”
The headmistress tapped her chin with a well-trimmed nail. “Well,” she said slowly, “which major do you desire to pursue? Are you hoping to take part in something like our Agricultural Studies or Merchantry programs?”
Dan shook his head. “I’m actually hoping to join the magical studies program.” He opened his mouth to say more, but the headmistress cut him off.
“Yes, Weston told me you have a spirit with you.”
“Weston?”
“You met him at the desk.”
”Right.” Dan looked back at the doorway, now closed, wondering if he should have taken Ruckus with him. Turning back, he saw the headmistress fiddling with a drawer.
“Here,” she said, placing a glass and bronze object like an extruded triangle onto the desk. “Put a drop of your blood on the lens.”
“Ma’am?”
She raised the letter opener and grabbed Dan’s hand with her own, pricking his index finger with the blade’s tip and smearing his blood on one of the device’s short ends. “Thanks. Now give me a moment.” The headmistress moved the device in front of a wall-ensconced lamp, peering through it and turning sections of it this way and that, before returning to her seat. She looked excited. “It appears,” she said, “you have affinity with all three primary magic types. As I’m sure your Librarian told you, that’s very, very rare. I’m glad she sent you to us.”
Dan nodded slowly, feeling puzzled. He’d never given a sample of blood to Nancy, and the Librarian had never told him about anything like magical affinity. All Dan knew is he could use Mystic’s beads, though with reading and work taking up all his time he never devoted the necessary hours to meditate and fill the beads. “What does that mean for me?”
The headmistress soaked a cloth in liquid from a small bottle, wiped the device’s lens clean, and returned all three to her drawer. “It means,” she said, “you are eligible to join our Contractor scholarship program. What with the military situation in the East, the government has provided a generous amount of money for students who show aptitude and willingness to pursue an officer’s position. Usually I’d put you through a more precise test, but it seems you’re already talented enough to have Contracted a spirit on your own, so I don’t see the need.”
She paused and scratched something down on one of the papers before her. “Should you decide to take advantage of the scholarship, we can offer the first tier immediately with opportunities to advance over the next few years if you show diligence and aptitude. It would cover all the costs of tuition and of board for the course of your stay, at the very least.”
Dan was stunned. “How much would that cost without a scholarship?”
She looked up at the ceiling. “Yearly tuition is twenty silver, room and board is five, each class has a minimum cost of two silver but usually additional material fees…” She trailed off. “I’m assuming you don’t have that kind of money. Do you intend to reject the scholarship?”
Dan coughed. “I was actually planning on learning to be a Librarian.”
“Ah.” She sat back in her chair. “Well, no, I’m
afraid we don’t have that kind of scholarship for Librarians. They’re not very useful to the military what with being unable to kill humans and all. Common Mystics are more frequently sought out, to be brutally honest.” She pulled a short stack of papers from underneath a paperweight. “Why do you want to be a Librarian?”
Dan looked down at his hands, calloused and scarred from field work, not the delicate hands of a true scholar. “It’s what I’ve always wanted. I love books. I like telling stories, and I like reading them, and I like learning new things. Being a Librarian will let me do all that, as well as make a living at it.” He remembered the night so many years ago when the dark figure had rescued him and pulled him into this new life. “And... There’s someone I want to be like, someone who helped me, and I think helped a lot of people. He was a Librarian, I believe, so I want to be one too.”
The headmistress was silent, and Dan raised his head to see thoughtfulness on her face. “I see,” she murmured, smiling. “I think we can make a small exception in light of your... Abnormally prolific magical talent.”
She stood and walked to the back of the room where a small safe lay. The woman pulled out a thick sheet of paper which she handed to Dan. “Sign there, and there, and print the date in the upper right-hand corner.”
Dan scanned the paper and did as instructed. It was a letter of scholarship, but the text was so compact and archaic he had a hard time understanding the specifics.
“All right,” said the headmistress upon his finish. “As long as you pursue an education in the magical arts, we will provide you with room and board, as well as a two-silver discount on yearly tuition. At any time you may switch to the Contractor military scholarship, no questions asked, at which time your financial situation will be adjusted.”
Dan felt his heart sink at the headmistress folded the sheet in half and put it under one of the larger paperweights on her desk.
She smiled. “Now, things aren’t as bad as you look.”
Dan blinked. He didn’t have anywhere near the amount of money which he needed to stay, even with the scholarship. He opened his mouth to explain but the sharp-eyed woman waved away his words.
“We have many students with your same level of financial dependency and so have arranged a program which allows students to pursue University-sponsored clubs for a few months in preparation, in addition to very generous loan interest rates.”
“Club?”
“Think of it as a miniaturized and non-officiated guild. Some are even backed by real guilds. They’re a solid way to earn money if you’re a student.”
“That’s a... relief.” Dan smiled.
“But everyone else has had a few days to decide what they want to do, so you might need to resign yourself to less-than-pleasant work,” the headmistress said.
“That won’t be an issue,” Dan replied. “I’m no stranger to hard work.”
”Good.” The headmistress waved a dismissive hand. “Take your paper to the admissions office. My assistant will tell you where it is.”
“Thank you, ma’am.” Dan stood, gave a final nod of thanks, and left the room. Ruckus raised his head as Dan returned to the main chamber, cocking his ears to the side in question. “How’d it go?”
“I find it hard to believe you weren’t listening in the whole time with your super dog hearing.”
“I was napping.”
“Sure you were. I got accepted, and they gave me a scholarship. Not as much as I was hoping, but maybe as much as I could’ve expected.”
“Good. We won’t have to live on the streets as you pursue your sophisticated and noble education.”
“I might still kick you out if you keep up with the snide remarks,” said Dan. As they made to leave, Dan leaned over the clerk’s desk. “The headmistress said you’d tell me where admissions is located.”
The clerk smiled. “Congratulations! It’s always nice to see an unlikely student actually make it. You don’t want to leave the main building. Take the second door there, someone will help you down the hall.”
Dan thanked him and set off, Ruckus in tow. He paid his tuition and received a blue ribbon stamped with three black glyphs which he was told would grant him entrance into student-only sections of the University. He took it gratefully, pinned it to his collar, and exited the building.
Chapter 3
He was told to return in an hour, at which point they would have found him a suitable building to call his home. In the meantime, Dan decided he would check out the clubs the headmistress had mentioned. He exited the tall building, returning to the shrubbery-filled grounds. Fewer students walked about than before, coming mostly from around the side of the complex. Dan went against the grain of traffic and found himself among what looked like an impromptu fairground of ramshackle tents and thin crowds.
Young people Dan assumed to be students stood in front of the tents calling out above each other for students earn some silver for the semester.
While many of the clubs looked interesting—merchantry, woodworking, cookery, and even scouting—most of them had already filled by the time Dan got to asking. Many were in various stages of packing up, in fact. He had arrived at the very end of the period students tended to join clubs, and all those he found interesting were already full.
Dan began to feel discouraged. He needed money, but the only clubs left were rather undesirable. Variations of waste removal remained quite available, but didn’t pay well, and while there were a half-dozen choices of manual labor, they required the purchase of equipment. They would only pay well a semester or more down the road. Dan had begun to think the waste removal sounded like a decent alternative after all when a hand grabbed him by the shoulder.
“Hey, I haven’t seen you around before.”
Dan turned and drew back as he saw the intense, almost glaring smile of a young man about an inch taller than himself. He had bright red hair cut short and pulled back in ragged, spiky clumps, and on his shoulder rested a little orange lizard. The boy’s eyes were blue and his teeth were very crooked, but he seemed friendly enough. “Hi, I’m Richard, and this is Soo.”
“My name’s Daniel. Oh, and the dog’s name is Ruckus.”
Ruckus barked and looked up at the lizard-like spirit on Richard’s shoulder. “How d’you do, little salamander?”
Soo chittered something back.
“Hi Ruckus!” said Richard. He turned back to Dan. “You still looking for a club?”
“Maybe,” said Dan, wary. “What are you selling?”
“Only the best opportunity you’ll find all year!” said Richard. “You ever wanted to be an adventurer?”
“What?” Dan shot a glance down to Ruckus, who gave the approximation of a shrug.
“I’ll explain on the way.” Richard strode off through the ever-thinning crowd, and Dan followed with awkward steps, trying to avoid pushing past people as Richard wove expertly between them.
“I’m a member of the Treasure Hunting Club,” called Richard over his shoulder. “I noticed you have a Contract, so I thought you’d be just the sort of person to round out our squad!”
“You have it wrong,” said Dan, trying to keep up as they hopped over a short shrub. Ruckus passed underneath it instead, emerging with twig-snarled fur. “Ruckus doesn’t give me any useful magic, he’s kind of just a friend I’ve had for a while. How’d you know he was a spirit, anyway?”
“The eyes.”
Dan looked down at Ruckus’ bemused face and realized the spirit dog was indeed rather human-like in his expression. “I guess I’ve been with him so long I’ve never noticed. I don’t know much about spirits.”
“You’ve come to the right place, then. Anyway, doesn’t matter if you can’t use any great spells. We’d kind of take anyone at this point. And here we are!” Richard had stopped in front of a ragged tent. Two figures sat by the entrance on barrels, looking bored.
Dan felt pity as he approached. Neither looked thrilled to be there.
A gi
rl with red hair very much like Richard’s stood up. “Finally snagged someone, did you?”
Richard laughed and pushed Dan forward. “Come on, introduce yourself to everyone!”
Dan sighed, looking around. The girl who addressed him was short with long hair, and he guessed her to be Richard’s sister. The other student was male and not much taller. His build was frail, and he had powdery pale hair and skin like Dan had seen on Northerners journeying through his village on their way to Rimoir. The boy’s dark eyes were large behind thin-rimmed spectacles.
“My name’s Dan. Can someone explain what’s going on?”
The girl rolled her eyes. “I’m Tarissa, sister to the idiot who dragged you here. Tor Pin’s the Northerner. Marit will be back in a minute. We’re trying to get our treasure hunting club off the ground, but we don’t have enough members after those knight-damned cowards from last year quit.”
Dan glanced back to the student who had dragged him there. “Cowards?”
Richard threw an arm around Dan’s shoulder, making him flinch. “We’re really the most productive club, but nobody wants to take risks.”
“There’s a decent chance of a good payoff,” said Tarissa.
“Yeah?”
“But a pretty high likelihood of grave injury or death,” she continued apologetically.
“Huh,” said Dan, feeling like a mouse walking into a wolf’s den. “You know, I’d kind of like to stay alive.”
Richard coughed. “Sorry, I should have explained everything before I led you over here.” He shrugged. “I don’t blame you if you want out.”
“I was never in to begin with,” said Dan. “And you’ve not actually explained what you guys do here, just given me reasons not to join.”
”They’re all dense,” said a voice from behind him. Dan turned and saw who he assumed to be Marit. Her shoulder-length hair was gold, and her eyes were like bright amber set into a gentle, acorn-dark face. She strode with graceful confidence that belied her unassuming form.
Dan felt as though he had seen her somewhere before, and it bothered him. He took a hesitant step back as the newcomer approached and eyed him from head to foot.
The Black Librarian Archives Page 2
