Elaine froze in her tracks. *Whoosh. The dagger missed her by a hair and implanted itself on the wall.

“Wha-”

“I told you not to throw that damned dagger!”

A man and a woman started arguing and Elaine’s presence was ignored. She didn’t mind at all. Just stood there and waited until their argument somewhat died down to furious whispers.

Finally, they seemed to settle down and it seemed as if the woman was walking up to her but she just calmly plucked the knife from where it had landed besides Elaine’s head and returned to sit near the back wall, visibly annoyed. The man followed the woman and they started arguing once more before the man sighed, walked over to Elaine and held out his hand.

“I apologize for what you had to witness just now and...the knife. I would appreciate it if you kept that between us.”

His eyes were locked on hers and his gaze was firm. “Her excellency is not in the right frame of mind at the moment.”

Elaine had to admit, he was hot. Especially compared to the men in Ourbournth. She shook his hand. “Of course. You don’t have to worry about that.”

He gave her a little smile and pointed towards a row of chairs. “Take a seat over there and we’ll start introductions when the others arrive.”

Elaine plopped herself on a chair and let her mind wander. The woman looked so familiar...Where had she seen her before? Elaine was flipping through locations of where she may have seen her when she looked around the room and realized it was nearly full. Almost all the seats were taken. There had to be a minimum of at least 100 people. The room was buzzing with the sound of girls nervously chatting, discussing what they’d do if they became a noble, gossiping about the ever handsome prince and swooning over the man who was casually hanging by the back of the room.

About 4 minutes passed and when it seemed the room couldn’t get any fuller, the woman stood with a smile plastered on her face and walked towards the front of the room.

“May I please have your attention.” she calmly asked. The chat died down almost instantly and soon the room was so quiet, you could hear a pin drop.

“Thank you. I’ll keep things brief. My name is unnecessary. All you need to know is that I am an ambassador representing Aharea.”

Audible gasps could be heard around the room and the atmosphere shifted. Everyone knew that Ourbournth and Aharea weren’t exactly on good terms. They had gone to war several times and there were many malicious rumours about the Aharean government. Elaine gasped despite herself. Until now, no-one had physically seen the ambassador except the royals, guards, and some maids and they were under a high confidentiality contract. The ambassador’s arrival had been all over the news but Elaine had assumed that the ambassador was a male. After all, almost all high positions in Ourbournth were taken by a male. Maybe Aharea was different.

Elaine was even more confused. Her being the ambassador meant that there had been no chance they could have met but she could have sworn she had seen her somewhere.

Ailith held a hand up and the room silenced again. “I will start by saying that I am only a substitute for another teacher who was not able to make it today; however, I WILL be watching over everyone as a helper and I believe I speak for both the teacher and me when I say that mutual respect between teacher and student is a must. Disrespect of any sort will not be tolerated.”

Ailith gave the audience a stern look and Elaine along with the audience nodded rapidly.

“Today, we will do a quick briefing of the takings of the trial before you head off to testing. If you do happen to pass the first 3 tests, we will meet again soon. Until then, I wish you all the best is the upcoming months and I hope that if we do meet again, it will be in a more refined manner. Thank you.”

The girls in the room clapped politely and started rising from their seats.

Confused, Elaine turned to a girl sitting next to her. “That’s it? Aren’t we learning anything else?”

The girl cocked her head and smiled. “You must not know much about the trials. The first day is always signing in, orientation, and basic testing. There are several tests you need to pass in order to enter the ‘real’ trials.”

“Oh.” Elaine was smiling inwardly. 3 tests. That meant a higher chance of not passing. “So we just go home now?”

“No. This is just the beginning. Now, we go to the testing room.”