Eli POV

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I then reached a moment of decision. Even if I decided to run I would be in the middle of enemy territory, besides this was my original destination. I motioned my acquiescence towards the man that had the attire of an office worker with a plain white shirt and brown coat to get on with the tour.

As we were making our way towards the farthest left building I decided to sort out my seemingly irrational resistance to this situation.

'What would have happened if just decided not to come here at all? Would they have let me just go along or would they have hog tied me and dragged me here kicking and screaming? I guess its more the principle of the thing rather than the practical side of it.'

I had a distinct feeling that the church wasn't the only organization that lacked a live and let live world view.

We came through the front doors and into a reception area. To the left was an entrance to what my nose told me was a dining area and what looked like a lounging area towards the back. "This is your main base, you can get meals and sleep here while working and learning."

"When do classes start?" I asked.

The man raised an eyebrow at this. "At this academy the only scheduled events are award ceremony's and recognition of great achievements. Of course, you will be required to complete certain basic courses before you can start doing commissions or harvesting materials with the Diamonds blessing but the classes are entirely self paced."

"How much for all of this?" I asked as I readied myself for the blow.

The student attendant looked surprised, I might very well have been the first person to ask him that. He then cleared his throat.

"The total for food and housing is paid as a lump sum of 10 gold over the course of four months" He said.

The expectations that I had were so woefully inadequate for this huge sum. Fortunately, the attendants initial incredulity at the concept of financial worries gave me an early enough warning that I was not left totally blindsided.

"What if I lived off campus?" I asked hopefully.

"Well you would not be charged anything. People with magical talent are rare enough that the academy will more than break even for setting up commissions and processing the materials you harvest, so the upfront cost will be covered by a loan until it is paid off. I must warn you though, the rules require you to complete the basic courses before you can get to work... if you want tutoring on any of the advanced courses you will be charged for them upfront." The subtle moments of pauses and reaching into memory showed the mans lack of practice in discussing these issues.

"Also, the classes enforce a dress code which you will be charged....hmm, 50 silver for the clothes if I remember correctly."

I thought about it for a long moment and asked if I could take a moment to go over things.

"Of course my good sir" the man said.

"Hostess, allow this young man in." He motioned towards the woman behind the stand by the doorway.

She was a simple woman in a blue and white waitress outfit in the older middle ages style. After giving a light bow she led me into the large dining area with a floor of blue and white squares. The seats were a dark oak wood embellished with roses and the tables all had a bright white cloth draped across them. Most of the students were in robes with stripes of blue and white with a unisex undergarment that covered them from collarbone to a foot above their feet in a grey sheet. All of them being attended by large numbers of waiters with black shirts and pants with white aprons moving tankards and dishes to the student from the two sets of large double doors where I assumed the kitchen was. Both of these classes of people had a large number stop to look at me, although most managed to keep their inspection barely noticeable.

I decided to sit at a small alcove sunk into the wall with a bench laid with plush red seating clearly meant for someone wanting to dine alone and ordered a steak with milk while I set the cross bow down leaning against the table. Strong alcoholic beer still being reserved for some one past the age of 21 and the hostess probably wouldn't have bought that I was an untold thousands of years old with a newly made body. Speaking of age, I looked around and saw that all of the students were around my near 17 age to mid 20's. I would have thought that an academy would be taking in juniors as young as 12 but all the students seemed to be near or fully post puberty.

The steak came and as I cut into the tender seared meat I worked out my plan. Listening to the surrounding conversation I overheard that some pretty important people are on their way here. The main draws were Andrew, the president's son and Ryan, who came from an upcoming family. But the brother of Andrew, Jeff, was also someone of interest. A lot of the women were going over their plans for getting into the inner circle of these boys. Nobody apparently had any interest in their own magical workings so I retreated to my inner thoughts.

'What I want to do is get the tech for my connector up and working. Although it might be better to focus on cloning and mind transfer first, who knows how many decades this will all take. First things first, I am not forking out such a ridiculous amount just eat and sleep. Maybe I'll take some large warehouse for my home/workshop, the places around here don't exactly seem like high brow real estate.' The meal was interrupted by the same attendant from before. He had the same uniform as the other students in a bundle and a metal pin with a plain circle which he set down on the opposite side of the table.

"About 30 minutes after dawn the students leave for the class rooms. The attachment of guards will be by the entrance so you won't miss them. But if you do there is another attachment that leaves every hour or when there are enough students who need to go."

I raised an eyebrow "The classrooms aren't on the campus?"

The puffed up chest and beaming smile told me this was a proud subject.

"The headmaster believes in a strict line between work and home life. Although, unlike some academies who have everything in one place." The dismissive hand wave made it very clear what he thought of these lesser schools. "It would be more proper to say the forest, this fort, the classrooms and the Base are all part of our 'campus'. Having the school work be at the constant fore front would also get in the way of our quotas, which the Progression Front would certainly take issue with."

"But if the students are forced to walk a sizable distance to the class rooms wouldn't that put off the important work towards the quota's?" I said, confused on how an academy would have anything but a work life for its students. I also bristled at the mention of the Front. If they were here then my stay would be very short one, magical learning could be done elsewhere but those fucks being around would probably lead to a slugging match at some point.

"My dear boy, the quotas are for pregnancies." He responded with an amused look.

A dawning understanding came over my mind. 'Oh quota's as in... babies, not diplomas. This academy is part baby mill as well as a school.'

The look of concern on my face puzzled the attendant, but he must have put it down to concern over how any children I made during my stay would be treated if they were caring for so many children already.

"The academy works with the government on this issue as well as the Front. The stipend for mothers of mage sired children is very generous no matter their relation to the academy. If you have any other concerns, know that any of your children will be well cared for and checked up on by the local authorities, even if they stay with family."

Some of the surrounding women who were eavesdropping felt touched at this concern for my kids. A few even considered making a move but when they saw the bare circle of the pin on top of my clothes they left me alone, slightly disappointed at the lost prospect. I noticed this movement and took an attentive look around, really taking in everything and not just rushing to get to the meal.

There were mostly women here, with a few men dispersed about. The gender imbalance wasn't as painfully obvious as the first town but it was definitely still there. I drew some stares earlier but he assumed that was due to the chain mail veil and odd silver hair with my purple eyes. I had no delusions of normalcy in my appearance but it is the one over the countless ages I have come to identify with.

Now another possibility presented itself.

"Well thanks for the meal. I'll decide if the academy is for me and meet in the morning for class if I am up to it." This drew some more looks from the surrounding listeners. The attendant likewise furrowed his brows in consternation. He then gave a light cough and adjusted his collar.

"The Diamond academy has claim to all magical talents in the northeast region. Refusal is not an advisable course of action."

A hard moment of clashing wills came and went, whatever my combat and technical experience, I knew the advantage of being on home turf was a hard one to overcome. I then acquiesced with a sigh.

'they have a fucking CLAIM on me? All right, just ...1,2,3,4,5,6,.....' eventually I calmed down enough to reach a decision. Taking my things I then made for the gate and was out past the small garden entrance onto the main road. Sure enough I got a vague feeling of being watched about halfway to the bridge. Turning around I saw a group of white and blue liveried guards just passing through the crowd. I picked up my speed and came up to the guard station in front of the bridge, which had no line this time.

"Hello just heading out." I said quickly.The muscular man with the simple metal helm and leather armor to go with a scarred face, more typical to a gangster than a man of the law, nodded lifting up the bar.

I was now a free man. But as the guard was raising the bar the squad of guards finally got through the masses and caught up.

"STOP!" The lead man said. He then proceeded to get up in my face, his black hair had a few strands over his face, which had a contrast to the red tinge in his cheeks.

"Listen here you little shit. I can't imagine what princely, high and mighty existence you had before now. But your ass belongs to the academy now."

The man took a deep breath, and then leaned back, slightly.

"Postman, make sure everyone knows that if he leaves it has to be on official academy business. As for you. If we suspect you're trying to leave again, every law enforcement official from here to Adia's tears will hear about it and they will drag you back here. Bound and carried if needed. Do I make myself clear?" He said, the anger only slightly receded.

I gritted my teeth, but he knew I had no choice. No good choice anyway. If I put up any further resistance, they would probably install a tracker or even a permanent watch on me, if I continued to fight. Magically capable people were apparently worth enough to legally allow kidnapping for the academies.

'Besides this was my original destination' I tried to consul myself.

I gave a nod and the guard huffed before storming off with his entourage.

'The best course of action maybe to just go with my original plan, the magical knowledge gap between me and the fuckers working here is too vast. All I could realistically do is quickly shoot two of them and glow at the others. All right, I saw some warehouses by the river. Whatever I end up making there's no way I'm sharing it with these assholes.' The stubborn streak not completely extinguished. I then made my way down towards the river side dock off to the left of the bridge.

The dockside for the large river had a long row of warehouses about the size I was looking for, so I came up to one of the guards patrolling them and asked if he knew who I would have to talk to about buying one for my personal use. The guard left one of his buddies in charge while he went to get a higher up. The guards only had a short sword and some leather arm wrists and shoulder pads for armor. So when the other guard was left alone he would have little chance against this big lug with a huge cross bow. We were both aware of this fact but I just sat down on a nearby barrel and leaned back so the guard could relax.

After a few minutes, the guard had fetched his higher up and was being soundly scolded about protocols as they came up.

"Just blow the low threat whistle next time, leaving him alone.... Where's the buyer?" A man with brown over coat and white undershirt was apparently the manager of this establishment. His clean grey pants told of a man who did most of his work behind an office desk, which made sense considering his rather portly figure and well maintained black hair.

I got up and made a slight head bow. It was at this time, seeing the three men standing before me that I noticed the wooden pins made up of a single line on their chests. It was hard to make out against the browns and grey's of this worlds peasant clothing but they were discernible now that I had a moment to look them over. 'So that's the symbol for non-magical people'.

"Well you don't look like someone who does a lot of business in shipping goods. What would a gentlemen from the academy want with a warehouse? If you don't mind me prying." The manager asked.

"I care little for the company of the people at the academy. But more to the point this is simply a cost/benefit situation. I could probably work, sleep and eat in this area for a good year at a fraction of the cost to stay at the academy dorms." I said, I didn't mention the added cost that I expected they would rifle through my stuff eventually given my status as a mage, but I could work around to their 'curiosity'.

"Well the newer ones we have here are pretty well stocked up... Although we do have one out closer to the water. If you would follow me." The man lead us off towards the pier.

We then headed off to the left. A few yards off was a smaller building that was half in the water and half on land but it was still clearly a warehouse having two floors and about 60 feet in length from front to back with 20 feet in width. It had the same barn-esque shape of the other warehouses with two windows on each floor near the front. But when we got inside there were cobwebs in the various corners and the dock door letting in boats at the river entrance on the far side had clearly not been worked in a long time with its latches suffering the rust caused by long exposures to a moist environment. This whole back end looked more like a platform for receiving with a long area on land for immediately storing the goods behind the stone lisp meeting the water.

But it wasn't a complete mess either. The heavy support beams and walls didn't have a bit of mold or decay. On the outside the building was still painted and maintained to the same standards as the other warehouses.

I looked at the manager with a raised eyebrow. "This place is oddly maintained. I could understand letting it rot or keeping it up for emergencies but it wouldn't be fit for use with the river facing doors having their metal workings rusted like that."

"Bah! Its a classic case of bureaucratic bullshit. We signed on to maintain the warehouses and work cargo for the local commerce guild but somehow this old thing got mixed up in the maintenance agreement so now we have to 'maintain structural integrity but not operational status'. At least with you living here we will have some use for it" The man grumbled.

"How much for rent?" I liked what I was seeing and this was one of those rare decisions that came rather easily to me.

"Well I don't know what magical workings you're planning on doing, so how about a down payment of 20 silver and after 3 months it will be a silver and 20 coppers a month with an agreement for compensation for any damages incurred" The manager said after working out a few of the expenses.

"Alright, I can take those conditions" I said, money in these quantities wasn't a big worry for me right now. I was concerned about how the manager was so insistent on me paying for damages. The laymen of this world linking working with magic to explosive destruction sent a tendril of hesitance through my mind.

I then went out to the local market to buy some soap, blankets and a hammock as well as other various smaller items I would need. If I was going to live here I would need to get to know my way around the local area. Stopping at a blacksmith, I had the helm broken down and remade into a simple veil holder that leaned more on the neck and shoulders with the addition of some more metal and cotton cloth. The constant back and forth on my scalp was starting to chafe so this seemed like the next best solution.

When I got back from this long day of searching and browsing I laid in my new hammock on the second floor in the back leaving me behind a corner where any intruder would not be able to snipe me from the ground floor or the two side windows. This world heavily valued artificial light with the enormous expense of candles and their ludicrous tax, or magical artifacts and their ludicrous tax. So I had to fall asleep with the sun with all of the other denizens in this new home.