We finally get to the Arcane stand where a Wranth is talking to a group of Pre-protectors. He has a lanky build and dark brown hair. On the bridge of his nose sits a pair of glasses, which he pushes up the moment he notices me. He stops whatever he was saying and smiles at me. “You’re Ian. Welcome. Are you thinking of joining the Arcane Trump?”

“Yeah, I am. I was hoping to learn more.”

“Sure thing. We at the Arcane Court- Karenatha Zimear.” The Wranth suddenly stops, giving a little bow as he greets someone behind me. The rest of the Pre-protectors mimic his actions, and I do the same, turning around slightly to see who it was. When I do I pause. It is Grand Master Zarel.

After what happened the first few times I met him, I can’t help but feel nervous now that he is in front of me again. For some reason I am not quite sure of, he doesn’t seem to like me very much. If he were a normal person, I would just ignore his presence, but he is not a normal person. He is a Master. Beneath the god-like Eldest, he is one of the strongest people in the world, and somehow the knowledge of how much power he possesses increases the weight of his dislike of me.

Grand Master Zarel smiles slightly and nods, then the smile is wiped off his face as he turns to look at me. “Ian Walker, please come with me.”

The tone he uses causes me to think that I must have done something wrong, and I spend the next few moments trying to figure out what I could possibly do that will attract the attention of a Master. I come up with nothing, but that doesn’t reassure me.

Grand Master Zarel begins walking away and I turn to shoot a questioning look at Drew. He shrugs, also having no idea what is going on. In the end, I hurry after Grand Master Zarel.

He leads me to the end of the stands, before turning to enter one without a banner. I walk in after him, remaining unfazed when I see a barely furnished office behind the door. After my Pre-protector exams, things like this can’t move me much.

There is a somewhat large mahogany table to our right, with one chair on the side just in front of the wall, and three chairs opposite. Grand Master Zarel settles down into the one chair, before motioning for me to also sit down. I pick the chair in the middle, but I don’t dare relax, choosing instead to sit with my back straight.

“I’ll keep things fast,” Grand Master Zarel begins. “You have yet to pick the Court you intend to join, correct?” I nod. “And what are the Courts you are interested in?”

“Um, Arcane and True Body.”

“True Body… I guess that makes things easier. Before he left, the Eldest asked me to tell you this, you can choose any Court you want to, but if you choose True Body, he’ll help in the formation of your True Body. So now, even though it is a bit rushed, I want to ask you to make a choice. Immediately. I hope you understand though, he isn’t forcing you to do anything. The choice is yours.”

The Eldest wants me to pick the True Body Trump? Why? No, I think a better question will be why me? Even the first time we met, he paid far too much attention to me. I mean, to be honest, I am currently nothing special, so why pay this much attention to me? Yeah, I may have amazing potential, but my fight with Keldin has shown quite clearly that while it is an advantage, a knowledgeable enough person could still beat me up either way.

Either, I think carefully about his offer, and then decide to accept it. The Eldest must have his reasons for asking this of me, and he offered to help form a True Body for me. The strongest man on the planet offered to help me with something so important, it doesn’t take a genius to figure out that whatever he can come up with will be better than what I can.

“I choose True Body.”

He nods, obviously expecting my choice. “Just in case you misunderstood, he only promised to help, nothing more. To that end, he asked me to… supervise things for you. So, I am assigning myself as your mentor. Come to me tomorrow, I won’t be able to spend a lot of time with you since I am usually busy, but I’ll appoint someone to guide you. Once in a while, when I am free I’ll try to teach you some things. That’ll be all. You may leave.”

I nod and get up, leaving by the same door I walked in. I appear in front of the empty stand, but things are different. The sun is far closer to setting than it had been before, also the number of people around is far less than it had been when I first went into that office. It only takes me a second to figure out why, that office had been in the real world, not in the Lands. Judging by how much time I spent in the office, something like an hour or two should have passed here. That leaves the question, did Drew and the rest wait for me? Well, I guess I can only check.

Not too long after I find them exactly where I left them, but this time they are sitting on some makeshift chairs. Daniel is the first to notice me. “Wow, you’re back early. I was expecting you to come back tomorrow.”

“I thought about it,” I reply sarcastically, “But I didn’t want to make you guys wait too long.”

“What happened?” Drew asks, ending out exchange.

“The Eldest wants me to choose the True Body Trump, if I do he he’ll help me create my True Body.”

“Wait, can you start from the beginning?” Lathia asks.

I nod and do that, telling them everything that had happened in Grand Master Zarel’s office. They listen attentively, and the moment I am done they begin theorizing about why they think the Eldest made me that offer. Around a minute passes before Drew pauses to ask me, “Did you accept?”

I make an affirming noise. “Listen, can we start going home? It’s been a long day and I just want to relax.” Today I had done my exams, participated in the Rankings, and then chosen my Trump. I wasn’t completely tired, but my body wanted to rest.

They agree and we leave. We spend a few more minutes talking in the Bookshop before we all finally head home, Lathia making sure to remind me to come to the Lands on the day after tomorrow as that Teacher had instructed. I nod and head home, before locking myself up in my room. For the rest of today, I am going to relax. Then tomorrow… well, there were some noer combinations I had been wanting to test so I might as well do that.