“So, welcome to my place I suppose?”, currently in his room, Umbrum was clearly embarrassed when he received the first one which was a young man with a dashing look, blond hair and blue-eyed, his outfit seemed to be filled with pockets, on the outside, on the inside… he seemed to be quite polite and respectful as well. His ample clothes seemed to hide quite a lot of things, he initially thought.

“What is your name and profession? Or what you are supposed to be?”, Umbrum immediately sat on his chair and tried to make himself comfortable, letting go of his body while crossing his arms, keeping a stern look, or so he tried as much as he could.

“My name is Mark, seventeen, Mark Erich, my father was a merchant, so, normally, I would doomed to become one as well, however, fortunately, my father is obsessed and fascinated by Magic. If I could get my own life and freedom with the Magic Association, I would be greatly pleased, everyone would be pleased.”

A young promising merchant, so that was what he is. His father is willing to give up his greatest fortune for magic then? Isn’t that quite… the young mage did not know how he felt about it, but definitively not good as far as he knew.

“Your motivation is basically because you wish to be free and have your own life? Mind explaining a bit about this… and it will be great if you could give me your goal.”, he preferred to have many more details instead of only this, which first gave him a bad impression, at the very least, the person in front of him was honest. It was the only good point he found.

“It’s either that or I sign a contract I do not wish to… another solution will be running and living on my own, but all I learnt was how to trade, to play with the prices, and so on, how would I survive in those conditions? Then… I suppose it is simply to break my ties with my father who simply treated as a way to continue his might. ‘I have a talented son while you don’t.’, as if I was simply an item. I want to get away from that.”, hearing that, Umbrum nodded and began to write something about this person, a resume of his previous replies as he is not sure if he says the truth or not. Trying to stay as stoic as possible and not to show any emotions, he then continued on an indifferent yet forced tone, his voice was a bit low.

“I see… once you get magic, how would you feel? What would you like to do? How do you see your future? If you are not talented in magic, would you strive for it or give up? Then, if you are more talented than your peers, what would you feel about them?”, in his opinion, it was rather important, what is important between them should be the relationships or they would end up like the Esoteric Syndicate who closed themself to the world around them, with as relationship only one thing, power.

“That is… could you give me a few minutes to think about it?”, Umbrum shook his head and said on a frank and blunt tone which contradicted with the image of himself he showed until now.

“Can you give me a moment to find an answer that could give me your favors? Of course not, you reply to me now, if not, in three seconds…”, he tried to remember how he was interviewed by Drake the first time, do not give any opportunity to the other to think properly about what he would say.

“I-I will feel stronger… and would like to rise up… my future is probably bleak… I would strive until I can feel safe. Superiority, I would neither help or deter them however.”, it was not bad, but it was not that good either, at the very least, he still had some humility, he wrote down what he thought about.

“Okay. I think it should be enough. Just, don’t ever try to deceive anyone here, you will basically be courting death. Because, if you lie, Drake can easily discover everything about you, all of your secrets, all of your tricks, and so on.”, giving this warming with a small smile, after a few minutes, Umbrum gave a sigh and almost fell off his chair, he stood up, took a deep breath and seemed to be wordless, what could he say? Since the very start, who was the most stressed among the two of them?

“I…. am sorry for… well… I was a bit… errr… harsh?”, spectating to such a difference between what happened before, during and after this questioning, Mark restrained himself from laughing. His face seemed to be so dumbstruck, while the previous minutes were horrible, the possibility of chuckling at such a foolish expression was worth the try, on top of that, did he lose anything? Not really, it was a gamble, he never expected to be easily taken by the mages. So when he noticed that they were prone to invite him, he was expectant, he would be disappointed if it didn’t work out, although he would be proud of himself.

“Hahahaha! No need, no need! Honestly, that was quite shocking when I saw your attitude suddenly changing like that, I wondered if you were wearing a mask, but I guess, you just changed it because you needed to, for Drakecor Valon Aesitla, or just Drake as Notitiam, that damned information broker, I knew he must had some backing, but for them to be mages, it was really unexpected, I suppose he won the big prize!”, if he knew, if he knew. While Mark seemed to be falling deeper and deeper into his fantasies, someone knocked at the door.

“Open! The servant down there told me you were finished!”, the first reaction of the young mage would be : “What servant?”, now that he thought about it, he knew more than Drake and him residing here, but who else than them particularly? He never saw them around, as if they were hidden somewhere. For sure, it was confirmed in his mind, these soldiers, away in both daylight and night, were present, wandering between the walls, above the ceiling, under the ground… they must be somewhere.

“Alright, Mark, you can leave. It looks like she has a timely timing, as expected I suppose.”, the end of his sentence felt off, it gave an odd aftertaste, was there something strange to her timing? Was it what he meant? Of course, he meant nothing, he just shared his thoughts like he usually does, though, that was something Mark did not know.

A few minutes later, Umbrum was in front of a girl, a peculiar one that is. She had purple hair and sharp eyes that seemed to scold everyone that was in front of these, constantly judging people he supposed?

“Oh, that’s you, what is your name? Age? Job? Or what you were supposed to do?”, even before she could take a seat or anything, questions were directly asked, before Mark could give advices or anything, questions already came over her, and it seemed that Umbrum did not have the time, his voice was prompt and unwavering, of course, it was temporary.

Before Mark left, she heard the words he left.

“It will be fine, just relax.”, since he said and that they knew each other since a while, she immediately felt a bit better and concentrated on what will be going on.

“My name is Initia Attonia de Calor, nineteen years old, young noble girl that was supposed to be married, well, I was a housewife. I just accidentally smashed my partner’s genitals.”, what should he do in this situation? Umbrum was initially shocked and felt scared at this thought, while it may not be the most useful part of his body, it is still a sensitive one that transmits pains. Her voice, despite being quite mellifluous, seemed to be exuding disdain. How would Drake react? He took a second to calm himself and announce to her on a composed tone, or so it seemed.

“Another threat and you are out. Don’t reply to my warning, else you are out as well.”, listening to his seemingly cold voice, she sighed, she thought that what he showed before was acting, in other words, he never was a foolish mage like common people. She felt a bit disappointed, during a fraction of a second, she wondered whether she should leave or not.

‘I might as well give it a try.’, she thought as the disappointment was dismissed and sent into the depth of her mind, then the procedure continued as it should have been, through basic questions.

“What is your goal by joining the Magic Association?”

“I am just curiou-”

“I see, once you wield magic, how would you feel?”, curiosity according to Umbrum was not a convenient goal, as he said, it requires a lot of sacrifices, and would she sacrifice something for curiosity? She would inevitably regret it.

“Ah, eh, nothing much?”, that was better than superiority or so he thought as he kept on asking questions. Initially, he had a bad impression of her.

“If someone is less talented than you, how would you feel about them?”

“Why should I car-”, neither bad nor good, gradually, his opinion on her was neutralized.

“How would feel about them if you are more talented?”, this time, it seemed that she will not reply to his question. Initia simply stared at him and clicked on her tongue as annoyance crept on her, being cut off so many times in a row felt irritating, wishing she could just take her sword and slash at him, she bit her lips and then sighed.

“I suppose we are finished, it is enough.”, after noting everything on a piece of paper, he sighed and rubbed his forehead, the act was dropped. The young women glared at him, fury could be easily seen on her face as it was completely red, as well that her fists were closed and kept on tightening as time continued to flow.

“So… uhm, I suppose you can leave? And come later once Drake chose whether you stay or not according to our reports.”, his voice seemed to be softer, as if the ice melted and that he was liberated from a burden. Sincerely, Umbrum felt awful from cutting off each time her words, however, he simply took example on Drake, on how his interview went and decided to copy him. Unexpectedly, it was not really hard.

“Oh and I suppose you are lucky, since you are more likely to be accepted. I was interviewed by Drake, it did not go well for sure.”, if it was not bad mouthing, Attonia did not know what it was. Now that she thought about it, they are lucky, even if according to her, Umbrum was a faker, he was just an apprentice in the end, a rookie compared to the two others.

Acknowledging this fact, she wondered a few seconds how could they end up with someone like this, wouldn’t they have another comrade like a great mage? Something seemed off now that she thought about it.

However, she knew now that she should not mess with people like these, when she thought about the spell this young mage showed on thee ground floor, her whole body trembled out of fear, what if it happened to her? And the two others were worse.

“Indeed.”, and then she left the room, lost in thoughts, when the door closed, Umbrum fall onto his bed and laid down as he felt the comfiness and warmth of it. A very long sigh escaped his mouth, it lasted a few seconds. He looked at the ceiling, stretched his arms and felt relaxed.

“It’s finally finished… it was so stressing!”, for once, he rose his voice. Usually, only when his emotions piled up till the container doesn’t have any space left, he will do something out of his character, but this time, he was just happy to have gotten rid of Initia and Mark, both of them stressed him, he needed to keep this straight face, he felt so… repulsed, wearing this mask, acting like someone he was not, while it was effective, it was disgusting.

At least, now, he does not need to do so, he can just rest.

“Ah…”, and then, after closing his eyes, no sounds could be heard, only a weak snore, hitting the walls, echoing and fading.