“You didn’t do well?” Kato asked when Yuriko and Orrin arrived at Shepherd’s Cross. He was sitting in one of the lounges for afternoon tea. A platter full of bite-sized snacks, tea sandwiches, mini-pastries, and scones was in front of him.

“Worse,” Orrin snickered. “She thinks she did too well.” He ducked under her arm when she sent a half-hearted swat at his head.

Kato raised an eyebrow. “Did too well? Hmmm, ah, I see. Hey!”

Yuriko sat across from him and quickly filched a strawberry scone, biting into it just as Kato protested. “Yum!”

“Snack thief!” he protested piteously. “I saved those for last!”

“I can see why,” Yuriko smirked. “thanks, big bro!”

“I’ll go check on Braden.” Orrin excused himself.

“See you at dinner.”

“Of course!”

“So,” Kato continued after Orrin had left, “what was that about?”

Yuriko sighed. “I may have done too well in the exams today.”

“Hmm, most people would be happy at that but I can see why you’re worried.” Kato chuckled as he waved to a waiter. “Another pot of tea and more snacks, please. Thank you.”

“But if I qualify for the Elite Class then I’m back where I started.”

“Well, if you qualify for Elite in more than one Academy then you should have the right to choose,” Kato pointed out. “And even if the class you qualify for is in Sharom, it would still allow you to dictate which course you can take instead of just letting Mum decide for you. That’s still good.”

“I suppose,” Yuriko said glumly. “But I’d much rather go straight into Agaza.”

“Why are you having doubts about it now?”

“Master Antiga.”

“Ah, well. She’s blunt and tactless but she’s one of the best instructors there. She may have been harsher than normal because of me and Marron.” Kato shrugged. “It’s not just up to one person on whether you pass or fail, don’t worry about it. I heard Gethen likes your melee skills, so you still have hope.”

Yuriko nodded and sighed. The waiter arrived with a fresh pot and a cup for her. Kato poured and served her tea, then promptly stole the scone that came with the platter.

“Hey!”

“Turnabout’s fair.”

Rolling her eyes, she sipped her tea, added some honey to taste, and tried to enjoy the rest of the day. Aneurin’s exam was next and she was sure she would flub it.

On that day, Braden came with her to take his Elite trials. He had marked his speciality in trade and economic law, while Yuriko just took the generic exam. She didn’t really want to waste time doing this and Lunette’s Elite trial would probably be a waste of time for her but she had to follow what Mum had arranged for her.

The trials for Aneurin were held in their main administrative building called Fontex Dome. It was the building closest to the campus entrance and the most ornate of the buildings she’d seen so far.

There was a dome, of course, one that glimmered with gold plating, or maybe bronze, she wasn’t sure. It took in and reflected the rays of the Radiant Sun making it nearly impossible to stare at it for long without her eyes watering. It had four wings, each with elaborate carvings. Shaking her head at the ostentatious display, she followed Braden into the main entrance and split off after asking for directions from the receptionist.

There were nearly three times as many examinees taking Aneurin’s trials than Agaza’s. The exam room she was in had nearly fifty students and it was just one of many. When the questionnaire got to her, she felt like gagging. It was much thicker than Sharom’s written exam and unlike Sharom’s, the questions weren’t of the basics she’d learned in preparatory school.

Thankfully, they weren’t required to answer these questions using their Animus as a writing implement, so she buckled down and worked through it as quickly as she could. She turned the first page and her eyes widened at the wall of numbers. Why more arithmetic? Oh, no, these were about coinage.

She felt her head start to throb. Why would she care if the Federation didn’t allow Imperial coinage? The fact that they used banknotes instead of proper coins was a mystery she didn’t really want to delve into. As far as she knew, anyone wanting to buy any of their goods had to exchange their coinage for the Federal Shekel. Of course, they had to be changed back to coins when they left.

Shaking her head at the foolishness of the Haveenians and their allies, she just guessed the answers to the questions. The first part was in a multiple-choice format so at least she had a one in five chance of being right. She hurried through the first part but by the time she got to the second part, she knew there was absolutely no chance in Chaos she’d make it into Aneurin’s Elite class. Not that she wanted to anyway.

The next couple of hours were tedious and boring. She tried to give a serious go at answering but so much of it were subjects that hadn’t been tackled during her preparatory schooling. Or if they were, the subject was so obscure that she had probably dumped it from her mind. It wasn’t as if she had an eidetic memory anyway. What was the point of memorizing trade laws, tariffs, taxes, right of way, and whatnot?

Why would she even know how a country in the Delovine plane treated their prisoners, or how much the tariff for cotton and wool were? She had a better time with the questions involving the Empire’s laws but not that much better. She knew, of course, that any artefacts from The Shattering and beyond were rightfully owned by the Empress, no matter who held it at the moment.

The hierarchy and structure of the nobility she didn’t quite know so well, just that any title was bestowed by the Imperial Court, and they always came with responsibilities.

By the end of the two-hour session, she slumped down on her desk and groaned.

She joined Braden for lunch, still at Mama Blu’s. Though this time there were more people eating there, mostly the examinees. Braden ordered a hearty meal while Yuriko opted for more pasta and meatballs. She’d come to enjoy the taste of sweet tea, though she’d still prefer lavan berry juice.

The season for lavan berries was coming to a close. The capital always had them though, a fact often emphasized by her elder brothers in the years past. Just that after the Season of Fire, the price doubled. Well, it wasn’t as if she couldn’t live without them.

Braden looked quite energetic. He ate quickly and talked non-stop about the exam questions. Most of it went over her head. He was fixated with trade laws and tariffs, agonising if he had remembered the correct figure or if he was off by a few fractions. His eyes were bright and he gestured fiercely, quite unlike his normal laconic self that Yuriko enjoyed watching him.

Of course, he had the same pinchable cheeks as his twin did, but since he was recovering from injury, she refrained from indulging.

For the practical exams, the proctors had them play a strange trading game that involved producing resources and trading them to other examinees to meet a quota that changed as time passed. Suffice to say she washed out of the game after the third round. She wasn’t the first one eliminated, thankfully, that honour belonged to a terse young man with serious eyes, a prominent nose, his hair in a topknot. He nearly cried when he lost. Yuriko lost right after he did.

Well, she could have left for the inn already after washing out, since that was the last part of the exam, but she needed to wait for Braden anyway. She sat at the sides watching the rest of the room fight tooth and nail to secure the resource they needed to win. From the sidelines, she couldn’t help but chuckle every now and then at the wide range of emotions displayed by the survivors and the losers.

They are taking this too seriously, she thought.

The boy who washed out first was sitting a few paces away from her, having regained his composure. He glanced at her and scurried closer.

“You don’t seem bothered by losing?” he asked.

Yuriko gave him an amused glance. “Not at all. I’ve done what I could, and well, that’s that.”

“Oh, why still here then?”

“I’m waiting for a friend to finish. I don’t think he’ll lose as quickly as I did.”

“Ah, is he here in this room.”

“No, he’s in the one down the corridor.”

“Aren’t those for the speciality exams?”

“Yes.”

“They probably don’t have the same content as us here in the generals.”

“Oh, you’re right,” Yuriko exclaimed. “Hmm, but I think it's too early for him to be done anyway.”

“Right, right.” He fidgeted a bit more but Yuriko mostly focused on watching the show. The finalists were trying their hardest to convince the other that the resources they had were worth a lot less than they were asking for and that if they didn’t trade, the other would send a legion their way.

After a while, it devolved to more talking and negotiation, while the majority of the eliminated examinees left the room. Yuriko yawned into her hand and decided that Braden must have finished by now.

She found him waiting just aside, with a slightly crestfallen look.

“How was it?” She asked as they started to walk out of the building.

“The practicals were a game,” he sighed. “I lost.”

“Well, I came in second.”

Braden’s eyes widened. “Really?”

“Second one eliminated,” she chuckled.

,Oh, ha ha.” Braden snorted. “You almost made me choke.”

“Well, let’s go back to the inn. I feel the need to spar,” she eyed him sideways, “and since you’re mostly recovered, maybe we should revisit your basics.”

“Oh, uh, spare me!”

“No.”

The last Elite Trial was for Lunette Academy. Orrin also took this trial, though it was mostly on a lark.

“What is Lunette for?” she muttered.

“Medicine, blacksmithing, crafting, and probably Animatechnician,” Orrin answered absently. “I hope the exams are easier than Sharom’s.”

“Who knows, Sharom wasn’t that bad,” Yuriko commented.

“Says you.”

“Which would you rather go to anyway?”

“Sharom,” Orrin said firmly, “although Lunette’s courses included crafting, what I really want to focus on is runescribing.”

“You’re really passionate about it, aren’t you?” Yuriko smiled.

“It’s what I’ve wanted since I was five,” Orrin smiled. “Braden to handle the trading and me to create the goods.

Lunette Academy was the biggest one amongst the four Academies. They took up the entire southern part of the campus with its wide, sprawling buildings. The initial venue for the exams was in a place called the Crafters’ Hub, a five-storey affair with tall windows which were left open. The place was bustling, not because of the examinees but from the varied traders and craftsmen.

They were met with a proctor and this time, Yuriko and Orrin were sent to the same examination room. The written exam was quite basic, compared to Aneurin’s anyway. It was more a test of what knowledge they retained over the years than anything new but it was more comprehensive than Agaza or Sharom’s.

Yuriko answered easily, though she made guesses on about a quarter of the questions. She was sick of arithmetics though and thankfully, there were only a few questions on that subject. She finished the written test with ten minutes to spare and met Orrin outside. They ate lunch at Mama Blu’s and returned early for the practicals.

For the second part, they were given a choice on which one to take. The one Yuriko picked was to carve a wooden figure of the sample, which was a militiaman carrying a Plasma Caster. The entire thing was only a handspan tall and they were given four hours to accomplish the task.

Yuriko picked up the wooden block and the carving knife from the proctor and made herself comfortable on her seat. She’d never carved anything before but this was the easiest task she could take. One of the others was actually forging a combat knife from a steel ingot.

Time passed quickly and she had a malformed chunk of wood by the end of it. It had arms and legs but the head was too big and the limbs too crooked. It looked to be carrying a club, too, instead of a rifle. She was ashamed to put her name into this travesty, but turning in nothing would be worse, so…

The proctor stared at her offering, shook his head and said, “Well, here’s a nice bit of kindling. You probably don’t have any talent with sculpting so I suggest you find another craft. Hmmph, it’s not as if someone like you needs a craft.” He tossed the carving back at her while her face turned red. “Get going.”

Biting her lip, Yuriko gave a short nod and left the room, heading straight out of the building and the campus. She only remembered that she left Orrin behind when she was at the waiting shed. Even more red-faced, she tried to return to find him but with the hustle and bustle of the place, and with the exams having just finished, there were simply too many people walking around. She gave up and made her way back to the inn.

‘Why am I so annoyed?’ she wondered. ‘Well, I know I did a bad job of it, it was my first time doing something like that after all!’ But still, she was irritated. She almost threw the carving over the cliff but was afraid it would hurt someone in the Lower Ring.

Can’t stand not being perfect?

The thought was tinged with amusement. She snorted to herself and placed the wood into her pocket. She’d do better next time.

She settled for some afternoon tea alone since Kato wasn’t in their room and who knew where Braden was? Orrin came up to her half an hour later, eyes wide and tears in the corner of his eyes.

“You didn’t wait for me?” His bottom lip was trembling.

“Sorry. I was distracted,” Yuriko gave him a wan smile.

“Oh, that bad?”

At her nod, he snorted. “Well, you didn’t want to go to Lunette anyway, right?”

Yuriko’s smile grew wider. “Oh, you’re right. I forgot about that,” she muttered sheepishly.

“Well, we only have to wait for the results. All of it will be on the 70th,” Orrin snorted, “that’s less than a week until registration.”

Yuriko sipped her sweet tea and nibbled at a scone. A weight had gone off her shoulders and one way or another, things had already been decided. She only hoped that she succeeded.