Gandash finished his portion of the written test early, and was one of the first to leave the classroom. Xerxes took every last second of the time available. He spent a lot of time adding “what if” sections to the end of his essay. Like “what if the Abhorrent have swords” or “what if there’s a landslide”. He hoped the teachers would interpret them as him really thinking about the question.

He still had two important “what ifs” left in mind when the teacher announced the five-minute countdown. In the end, he barely managed to scrawl a concluding sentence down to tie the whole essay together.

I’m screwed, he thought as he trudged downstairs to the dining hall, where they were serving deep-fried kibbeh with a pomegranate sauce and some sort of salad.

Gandash was still working on his lunch, so Xerxes joined him, bringing a plate full of kibbeh but no salad.

“That was fun, huh?” Gandash said.

“Fun?” Xerxes said, dunking a kibbeh into the sauce. “More like torture.”

His friend looked at him with an eyebrow raised. “That bad?”

“Yeah.”

“What was your essay question? I’m curious if everyone got the same topic.”

“Lead three mages and a bunch of troops against some Abhorrent in a valley.” He took a bite of kibbeh.

“Same as me! What mage lineup did you pick?”

Dunking the kibbeh again, he said, “The obvious one. Asgagu, Nasaru, Balatu.” Even out of the corner of his eye, Xerxes could see Gandash flinching. He looked up at his friend. “What. That’s not right?”

Gandash shrugged slightly. “I doubt there’s any completely right or wrong answer. But at the Seer level, Nasaru mages can only cast a small shield that protects one person. What good is that going to do overall?”

Xerxes took another bite as he considered Gandash’s words. “Well, shit. I didn’t think about that. What lineup did you pick?”

Gandash grinned. “All Hasasu.”

“What? Are you kidding? But… you can’t do that!”

“Why not?”

“There were four mage types to pick from. You were supposed to pick three out of the four.”

“Said who?” Gandash asked. “The test question didn’t mention any limitations like that.”

“W-well,” Xerxes spluttered, “what about yourself? You’re not a Hasasu mage!”

“They didn’t say you had to include yourself.”

Xerxes couldn’t think of any further argument. “Okay, fine. But Hasasu mages? Why? Their spells aren’t good for fighting!”

“Like High Archon Kingallu mentioned in the lecture two days ago, the Base Empathics spell works on Abhorrent. And think of the range. Basically, you use the Hasasu mages to pinpoint the location of the Abhorrent, and especially the juveniles. Then you send in three units of light infantry, with a single unit of heavy infantry to protect them. The archers and javelineers will wipe out the juveniles before they have any idea what hit them. With them out of the picture, the rest of the Abhorrent will be easy to deal with. In fact, there might even be time for the light infantry to get to them before they react. At least, that’s the idea. I came up with three contingency plans based on….”

Gandash began to drone about some sort of complicated ‘flanking maneuver,’ until Xerxes found his kibbeh and pomegranate sauce more interesting. His friend was still going when Xerxes finished his meal.

“Okay, okay,” Xerxes interrupted. “I get it.” He crawled out from the bench seat. “Tell me more later, alright? Right now I think I have a headache coming on.”

“Oh sure.”

Back at their dorm room, Xerxes lay on the bed for a time, his eyes closed, trying not to think about all the seemingly countless test questions he’d been clueless about. Gandash never showed up.

Eventually, Xerxes prowled the campus a bit looking for his friends. The entire place seemed eerily quiet. But when he stopped by the library, it was packed. Gandash was there, and Katayoun too. He even spotted Enusat at a table. Apparently, everyone was focused on last-minute studying.

But there wasn’t any point in studying now. Feeling like he had nothing better to do, he went to the forest clearing and did a bit of solo longsword practice before settling down at the base of a boulder to do some meditating. He’d never recovered fully from the spellcasting on Mannemid, and wouldn’t be able to perform a Flush without maxing out.

That evening, he did some restless rune study, then slept early.

The next day passed similarly.

When Thirdday came, he felt ready. Waking early, he ate a light breakfast and made sure to be the first person to show up at the assembly hall in the very back of the university building complex. It was a large, echoey room that was large enough to easily fit several hundred, with wood floors and a vaulted ceiling.

This phase of the testing was much more in line with Xerxes’ strengths. The first round involved going through a series of ‘stations’ where the students would interact with a teacher to display various skills and abilities. Each station was walled off by temporary curtains, giving a small amount of privacy inside.

At the first station was a burly mage Xerxes didn’t recognize.

“Name and home starisle?” the man said.

“Xerxes from Mannemid.”

“Noted. I’m going to assess your unarmed striking. Put on these gloves.”

After the striking assessment came grappling. Then weapon proficiencies, including obvious options like short sword and shield, spear, and staff. There were a few exotic additions, such as a whip, war flail, and curved daggers similar to the ones Satashusar had used back on Mannemid. No longsword, which caused Xerxes to frown in disappointment.

After that, the group was led out to one of the back fields, where they were put into groups of four to display horsemanship. That included both solo horseback riding, and charioteering.

There was a short lunch, and then they met again near the main assembly hall. Once they were all gathered, a teacher led them around a corner and down a hall, then had them line up against the wall.