Ranvir and the others finished up breakfast quickly, curious to see what a new day at the academy would bring them. Since this was the last day before classes began, Ranvir was hoping to get a look at more students training.

He was acutely aware of how far he’d yet to go, especially after seeing the unintentional display Master Ayvir put on yesterday. He couldn’t even express his own ability, but Ayvir had blanked out the sun for the entire campus.

The moment Esmund opened the doors out of the cafeteria, Ranvir knew something was wrong. People were streaming in by the dozen, each of them guided by a man or woman in the not quite student uniforms, that Pashar had been wearing.

“I guess more students arrived.” Sansir muttered, as they observed the groups moving past. In the span of a few minutes a hundred boys, all the same age as them had been shoved through, and more were still coming.

Every few seconds another group would enter through the doors. Some of them gawked at the interior, others stared intently at their guides, while a few seemed not to care at all.

“Do you think our schedules have arrived?” Sansir asked, looking at Esmund. Ranvir didn’t know how different his schedule was going to be from theirs, if he even got one. Esmund still thought there was a chance that Ranvir would be given all free lesson, studying and training as he chose.

“Let’s go look!” Esmund replied, running for the stairs. He quickly overtook one group that was standing in the entry way. Then ran around another group, almost knocking one of them against the rails as he ran up the stairs, earning himself a stink eye from the group.

Sansir and Ranvir followed behind at a more sedate pace, not feeling the need to run everywhere, especially not when the building was as filled as it already was.

Opening the door to their common room, a few other students had joined it. The room still wasn’t crowded, but there were more people in seats, and doors, leading to other sleeping areas, open.

One of those people was Esmund, sitting impatiently on a couch, waving a handful of papers in their direction.

“What are the chances that he took all of our schedules?” Sansir asked.

“He certainly did.” Ranvir replied, making his way across the room. A few other people of note sprang out at him. There was another group of seven or so boys, that all seemed to have bonded closely. Probably from the ride over, or maybe they were all from the same town. It would have to be a big town though, but it was possible.

Joining Esmund on the couch, he handed them their papers. After quickly swapping their schedules so they fit, they both examined them. The new rhythm of their life.

Ranvir noticed that even at a glance his looked different from the other’s. Firstly, his wasn’t made of starjute paper, but regular paper and therefore had been filled in with ink and quill rather than mass produced.

Morning:

Breakfast

Physical

Noon:

Lunch

Tether

Evening:

Dinner

Free / Elected Classes

It made sense if he had a custom schedule, there wouldn’t be any overlap. Especially if Pashar had spoken the truth about how many students resided at the academy.

“So this is pretty basic.” Sansir spoke up. “Though mine only goes to six weeks.”

Ranvir had to double check to make sure. “Mine too.”

“So spill, tell us about your schedule.” Esmund jumped slightly in his seat.

“Split into one week segments, classes six days a week, then a free day.”

“We know that! The special stuff, tell us the special stuff.”

Ranvir rolled his eyes, but continued. “First week, I will be in space class.”

“Makes sense.” Sansir replied. Esmund just groaned loudly.

“The week after that, I will be in warp.”

“Really?” Esmund perked up. “So, you’re going to be working with me?”

“For a week.” Ranvir cautioned. “Then light for a week, smoke, obsidian and closing it out with ice.” Ranvir finished with a nod towards Sansir.

“Wonder why they only gave us six weeks?”

“I don’t know.” Esmund replied, to neither of his friend’s surprise.

The door to the common room opened revealing a group of seven or eight people. Ranvir looked at them interested. They looked different from the other students. Primarily, they already had their uniforms on. Not only were they on, but they fit extremely well.

“I can’t believe they are making us sleep in these shit holes.” One of them said. He was almost as tall as Sansir, with a broad shouldered frame Ranvir associated with his dad and the other lumberjacks.

He couldn’t help but let out a incredulous laugh. This wasn’t quite as good as the mayor’s home, but it was better than what he’d had at home. Even if it was weird to share his sleeping space with others.

“What was that?” The tall kid, shouldered his way into the room. His eyes caught on Ranvir. “Oh. Never mind, sorry.” He seemed oddly abashed.

“What the heck?” Esmund asked, looking from Ranvir to the man.

“It’s nothing, I didn’t mean to…” The boy seemed to flounder. “I know you… folk don’t always live the…” He paused again.

“What he’s trying to say.” Ranvir explained getting up from his seat on the couch. “Is that we live in ‘shit holes’, I think?”

The man sighed, loudly. “Look, I didn’t mean it like that-“

“It was a clumsy choice of words.” Someone else said, jumping into the room. “Right, Dovar?” He wore a similar uniform to Dovar, but he’d folded the sleeves up revealing his forearms.

“Right. Look, I’m sorry, let’s just leave it at that." Dovar said.

Ranvir felt ready to burst violent red veins filled to the breaking point. Ranvir frowned, he didn’t want to ‘just leave it’. “Okay.” He replied, rolling his eyes and waving them away.

They stared at each other for a long moments, before Dovar slowly nodded. “Fine.”

Ranvir turned mouthing ‘asshole’ to his friends, luckily Esmund managed to keep his mouth shut.

“Are you going to play chess?” Ranvir turned around to find the other guy, with the forearms.

“N- no?”

“I will.” Sansir volunteered.

“Great.” The guy shook his hand sitting down opposite him in a chair. “The name’s Grev, but my dad calls me Grevor.”

“Sansir, good to meet you. And thank you for helping to disarm that situation.”

Grev shrugged, fake modesty clear in his tone. “Pshaw! You know how it is. Not a problem at all.” Sansir let out a chuckle as he reset the chess pieces.

“I was going to go to the office and talk with the reception about a few things.” Ranvir felt noticeably cooler now, the violent red veins no longer feeling like they were going to burst.

“We can go, right after this game…” Grev said, moving one of his small pieces.

The walk to administration was mostly uneventful. There was a steady train of carriages and carts slipping into the complex, dropping off kids, and trundling out again. It was a bit of a mess getting through the newcomers, but only mildly time consuming.

Entering the building, Ranvir immediately headed for the clerk. It was the same boy, Ranvir had seen at the desk the last time, but he’d forgotten his name again.

“Hey, I need to send a letter.” Grev told him. He was offered some rough paper, a quill and some ink. Grev shuffled off to a small table nearby and started writing.

“Hi. I have some questions.” Ranvir said, stepping up to the desk. “Mainly, how much do we get paid?”

“Four silver witnesses a month.” The clerk replied.

There was a loud clatter, as Esmund accidentally kicked a chair. Ranvir took a moment to process the information.

“Four? Are you sure? You don’t mean four eyes?”

“Four witnesses.”

Four witnesses was about what Ranvir got paid for half a year of work at the forge, granted he didn’t exactly get stellar pay as an apprentice.

Ranvir cleared his throat. “I- um. Is it possible to make a transfer to my parents, so that…” He considered for a moment, to only send them a fraction of what he was expecting to earn, but in the end decided against it. “Three of the witnesses get sent back home.”

The clerk paused. “Three? It can easily be done, it’s quite common especially with the… more distant families from the academy, to at least send some of their earnings back home.”

“I’m sure.” Ranvir nodded. “Three. And a letter.”

“I’ll make sure it’s done.” Clerk wrote something down, before grabbing another set of writing implements for Ranvir.

Ranvir decided not to go into too much detail about their traveling. Most of it had been boring anyway. The were a few interesting moments, as they came across another small village, but they never lingered and Ranvir couldn’t remember a single person from them.

He briefly wrote about how amazingly big the academy was. From their massive buildings, to their huge fields, fit for a thousand people. He didn’t write about the little hole he’d found and the thread that spun within it. He wanted something a little more fantastical to tell them about, rather than stretching clothes.

He wrote to them, about the amazing library, full of books burnt on starjute paper. Finally, he wrote about missing them and hoping they were well.

“It’s rare to find so many first years in the administration building.” A woman’s voice spoke up. Ranvir looked up from reading his letter through one last time, while he waited for the ink to dry.

Pashar was standing in the doorway. “I hope you haven’t started any problems.” She looked over them all, briefly pausing on Grev. “If I talk with Himir, he won’t have to tell me about some episode, will he?”

“No ma’am.” Grev said. “Just writing some letters.”

Pashar turned to Himir, who simply nodded in agreement. “Good. Now since you’re already here, maybe I could persuade you to visit the library?”

Ranvir sat up a little straighter, but Esmund and Grev both groaned loudly, slumping in their seats. Ranvir could be forgiven for thinking they’d just been injured from the sounds.

Pashar let out a deep breath. “I guess you can’t hope for miracles. Take care kids, and think it over.”