Walking through the gates, my first impression of the school itself was, much like with the city, underwhelming. There were a large number of people out and about – I’d estimate that the school probably held close to a thousand students – and they were dressed in a wide array of clothes which made it immediately obvious at what everyone’s wealth and status levels were. With a glance, you could see that the poorest students were wearing dull, colorless, hand-me-downs that barely covered them; whereas the wealthier students of more importance wore fancier silks, satins, and velvets of bright hues and shades to conceal themselves in.

I couldn’t help but think that this school was a place where preferential treatment for the wealthy was prevalent, which I guess made sense since the whole city itself seemed based on the needs of the rich over the poor. Since I didn’t want to get the ‘silver spoon’ treatment, and since I didn’t want to get a ‘completely worthless trash’ type set of statuses, I’d have to try and see where ‘common Joe’ fits into the scheme of things.

Without asking anyone for directions, I simply wandered the area for a bit. There was a forge on the west side of the school, and it seemed as if I could learn glassblowing, metalworking, and smithing there. Not far from it was a building with a lot of lumber stacked near it; which I assumed was probably a workshop for carpentry or woodworking.

Off on the northern area of the walled-off enclosure was the practice area. There was a field with straw and wooden dummies which people could practice slashes or archery against; a field where several boys were wildly swinging a wooden sword or another weapon while older gentlemen berated them for their stupidity; and a field where several girls and one guy were practicing magic.

Since I’d never seen another man who could work magic, I sat on the bench of a nearby set of picnic tables and watched for a while. He didn’t seem very talented to me, so I’m assuming he was a new recruit like I was, but all the young ladies were cheering him on and clapping every time he did something more than produce sparks with his hands. The way they fawned and pawed over him was almost enough to make me ill. Even the teacher would walk around and stroke his hair from behind while giving him seductive little words of encouragement!

Mother had warned me to be careful showing my magic in the outside world; male wizards are desirable by the women; and from what I was seeing, I believed it! This guy seemed like a bumbling idiot to me, and almost every woman around was drooling over herself to butter him up. His ego was going to grow to become larger than what his talent and body could support, so I quickly labeled him as ‘dangerous idiot number one’. He seems to be going under the wildly presumptions wizard name of ‘Mageflame’, but I think I’ll always know him as DINO from now on.

Dino is someone to avoid at all costs!

Finally getting up and moving on, I checked out the rest of the school. There was a guarded building in the northeast corner of the school area, and from what I’d learned from De’Nara and Le’Nara, I’d assume that to be where the healers, alchemists, and summoners all practiced at. Alchemy and healing both had various dangerous ingredients which needed to be guarded, such as poisons, acids, and rare monster parts, and summoning always had a chance of the wizard losing control and letting a beast loose. It made sense in its own way to keep those things together so you could maximize the number of guards available to respond to an incident of some sort.

On the east side was the main classrooms, with the cafeteria located on the bottom floor of the building. Smells of various foods wafted out and around and made my stomach grumble slightly. I’d been eating a bunch of fruits and travel jerky and such on the way here, (along with whatever the goblins had been serving; I didn’t look too closely as I tried to eat and not offend them), and now the smell of freshly cooked food made my mouth water in anticipation. I needed to check in!

On the southeast side was a building with two bored looking guards leaning up against the wall and looking half asleep. They reminded me of the guards out by the gate, so I assumed these were here more for looks than real purpose – so I made my way in their direction. This looked like the ‘Building of Paper Pushers’ to me!

“Excuse me, Sirs,” I told them politely. “Is this where I go to register?”

“Second Floor. Administration.” One of the guards thumbed towards the entrance behind him without hardly even looking. The other one looked almost as if he was asleep on his feet. This place just gave off all sorts of vibes of enthusiastic awesomeness!

Walking in, there was an area off to the left, with a naked girl in shackles, sitting bored in front of what looked like nothing more than a closet. Seeing me stare at her, she stood and asked, “Got a cloak, pack, or something for me to store, Mister?”

“I’m sorry,” I told her as I nodded my head left to right to indicate I didn’t have. “I’m just looking for administration.”

“Second floor, Mister.” She walked out and stood beside me and pointed down the hall to where I could see steps going up.

“And what’s on this floor?” I asked her curiously.

She walked down the hall and I followed closely behind her as she pointed to the first door on the left. “Here’s where the messages and packages come to, and where you can go if you have any you need to be delivered. Messages can be delivered free to anyone who attends the school or stays at our dorms. To deliver to the city is a fee of two copper for the first six circles or a silver to deliver to the outer rim. To deliver outside the city requires the use of the messenger’s guild, and they have a representative here who can discuss the price depending on how far you wish for the message to travel.”

“That’s convenient,” I told her as she started on down the hall further.

“These next few rooms are for slaves or workers only. It’s where they store and sort a lot of the messages and packages that come until they can be delivered, and it’s also where a lot of the school records are held. For a small fee, you can have someone help you access the public information on various things from the school here.”

“Such as what?” I asked, all curious.

“Task records, member profiles, student grades, group standings, teacher and counselor ratings. There’s a lot of information available in the public records, Mister. It’s unfortunate that a lot of people don’t use it very often. You can learn a lot about whom you might be attempting to form a group with if you just come here first and look up their school records. I’d suggest never joining a ‘pick up’ group, without first researching the members a little beforehand. I didn’t, and now I’ll be spending the rest of my days a slave for my foolishness.”

She hung her head and a sense of sorrow seemed to emanate from her, so I gently patted her on the shoulder. “Sorry, Mister.” She looked up at me with her pale brown eyes and shook her head left to right. “I’m sorry. I can’t please you, at the moment. There aren’t any other slaves back yet to watch the floor. If you want to wait a few moments for one to return, then I can be with you.”

I jerked my hand back almost as if it’d been burnt! All I wanted was to offer her a little sympathy, but apparently slaves like her were free to use to indulge one’s pleasure with. No wonder she was sad! Sitting and watching the closet, and moaning whenever someone wanted her to, seemed to be all she did around here! And to think – De’Nara had offered to let me have Lee as a slave if I really wanted her!

“That… that’s OK.” I told her while trying to smile. “Maybe some other time, then.”

I thought a joke might help me feel better at least, but she just nodded. “I’m not well trained yet, but as long as there’s someone else here to watch the floor, I’ll do my best. They call me ‘Swallow’, and I’m best with my mouth, but you can enjoy me however you wish. I’m certain the school would be happy for me to have more practice, as long as you’re not one to break anything. Bruising is fine, but school policy doesn’t allow breaking unless you wish to pay the healer’s costs.”

“That… That’s OK,” I repeated. “I should probably go ahead and talk to them upstairs. The idea that the worst that would happen is I’d get stuck with a few healer’s bills for ‘breaking’ parts of a person really bothered me, and I rushed on up the steps and away from Swallow.

Immediately on reaching the second floor there was a wide opened sitting room and a receptionist at a desk looking bored while glancing over some papers. “Can I help you, sir?” She asked in a bored nasal tone.

“Uhh... I hope so,” I replied. “I’m Michael, I’m here to attend the academy.”

“Do you need to sign up, are you transferring from a different school, or have you preregistered?” The woman, who was dressed in a simply looking white dress was wearing glasses and had her hair up in a bun. She’d only glanced briefly at me, and really didn’t seem that interested, as she was busy pulling out papers and glancing over them.

“I’ve preregistered,” I told her while sitting down by hobo-pack, opening it and digging out a few letters. When I handed them in her direction, she took them without even looking up and checked their contents while making little “Umm hmm” sounds to herself.

“It appears that everything is in order. Do you wish a common room, a semi-private, or a private room?”

“What’s the difference?” I thought I’d taken care of all that stuff, but apparently there were a few things you had to decide on when arriving.

“A common room has four people staying in it,” she told me, “whereas a semi-private only has two, and a private room is just you.” Before I could ask about the difference in prices, she went on. “Common is ten gold a month, semi-private is twenty, and private is thirty. All rooms come with free meals and snacks in the cafeteria and have a curfew from night’s bell till morning’s bell. The wing leader of your floor will check in to make certain that you’re in your room on time, and failure to make room-call can result in fines, demerits, lack of privileges, and school punishments.”

I didn’t like the idea of sharing a room with other people; it’d be hard for me to practice my magics around a bunch of roommates; but I didn’t want to stand out by paying for a private room either. Thirty gold was what an average commoner made in a month’s time. I don’t think very many would be willing to spend that amount just for a private room, unless they had wealth and status. Of course, I had wealth and status; I just didn’t want anyone to know it.

“I’ll take a common room,” I told her, a bit reluctantly.

The woman nodded to herself, made a few checks in a box on the page in front of her, and then pulled up a key and handed it to me. “That’ll be thirty gold for the semester, and another five gold for the two weeks before the semester begins. We’re currently on a break between semesters, so there’s no curfew. If you have a place to stay in the city, you don’t need to rent a room until classes begin. After the start of the semester, all students are expected to stay in the dorm rooms, unless they can show proof of property in the city where they live.”

Nodding, I pulled a small pouch out of my boot and withdrew a single gemmed coin from it. The secretary looked up a little bug-eyed as she took it. “One Andorian King’s Crown,” she told me.

Crap!

Have I blown my cover already? I’d forgotten to change my travel coin into a smaller denomination before coming here. Andorian King Crowns were worth fifty gold coin – they weren’t something that a normal traveler simply pulled out of their purse. Nervously, I waited for her to ask me where I’d gotten such a coin – I was trying to come up with a good excuse, but failing as my mind was blank – but I was relieved when she finally sat it down and pulled a few coins from her drawer and sat them back on the desk.

“One platinum, five gold is your change,” she told me in her monotonous paper-pusher voice. “You’ll be in room 204, at the Eagle House, on 6th Northwest. The quickest way to get there is to head past the outer exit. Would you like an escort?”

“Nah. I’ll find it,” I told her. I just wanted to get out of here now, before she might ask me about my coin.

“Do you want a guide to show you around the school?”

“No thanks. I’m good.”

“Then,” she looked up and finally smiled towards me slightly, “I think we’re done here for now. Classes begin in two weeks, and you should receive your schedule and counselors name sometime next week. A message will be delivered to your room, and if you need someone to read it for you, you can come here and one of the slaves on the first floor will take care of that for you. Your wingleader will introduce their self to you before the semester begins and will give you all the dorm and room rules. If you have any questions about classes, or the school itself, feel free to ask either them or your counselor for advice; that’s what they’re here for.”

“Thank you,” I told the lady as I took my change and key and tied my stuff back up into my pack.

“It’s been a pleasure,” she lied to me as I headed to the door. It’s never a pleasure for a paper-pusher to have someone bring them more work to do. If there was any pleasure involved in it for her, it was in seeing me leave.

And, like that, I was registered at the school and had a key to my new room!