Gillian blew a stray straw off her nose, feeling it land in her hair. She debated picking it out, but the sight of the bales of hay she shared the wagon with made her realize it would be pointless. If the straw were a little redder and a little muddier, it would fit right in with her unwashed, unbrushed locks; there was no point in keeping her hair tidy when she worked on a farm, especially when it wasn't even her own family's farm.

"How much longer 'til we're there?" Mirko asked for the twentieth time that hour.

"One minute," Chess said.

"Really?" Mirko perked up, adjusting his position on one of the hay bales. He was the only one who had opted to sit on the hay instead of on the wooden railings of the wagon. A hard seat was better than a prickly one.

"No, dumbass. If we were a minute away we would see something by now." Chess scoffed and stared at the empty horizon in despair.

Their surroundings were as desolate as a prairie could be. Tall grass sprouted in waves where the wagon ruts didn't interrupt it, the occasional rabbit shook the waves or braved the ruts, and a few minutes ago Gillian had seen a hawk swoop down and come up with something furry and frightened twisting in its claws. As much as the hawk needed to eat to live, Gillian pitied its trembling prey. The hawk was too much like a magician, gifted with all the skills necessary to crush those beneath it.

The hawks were precisely the people they were heading to investigate. Fieldtrip number 1 wasn't going as well as Gillian would have hoped – mostly because of their free ride's leisurely pace – but the real adventure would begin once they reached the royal city. Then the Discussion Group could truly expand the breadth of their knowledge and even confirm some of the ideas from their previous meeting. Even after two hours of prickly hay and empty fields, Gillian still felt excitement tugging at her chest.

"Let's go over the plan again," Gillian said, deciding to give her friends some source of entertainment so that they wouldn't flee the next time she mentioned a field trip. "After we get to the city, what are we looking for?"

"People in green robes. The newbies," Sonia said. She was the only member of the Discussion Group who had known what magicians-in-training dressed like in the first place. When the soldiers had come to take her brother, they had described how 'wonderful' his life would be in the royal city in an attempt to stop his crying. It hadn't worked, but the memory had stuck in the minds of Sonia's parents well enough for them to be able to tell her the details.

"Right," Gillian said. "And what do we do once we find them?"

"Split up. Ask them questions, but sound like we're in awe of their glorious life. If they aren't the bragging type, move on to a new target." Chess picked at her teeth with a piece of straw as she spoke. She acted disinterested, but Gillian knew she was excited on the inside. She wouldn't have come with them in the first place otherwise.

"Alright. Now give me a practice conversation. Mirko, you're the magician. Sonia, you're you. Ready, set, go." Gillian clapped on the 'go,' drawing an annoyed glance from the wagon driver, Dolly. She was a quiet woman, but she was friends with Gillian's mother and that was all that mattered when it came to hitching a ride.

Mirko immediately sat up straight, raising his nose into the air and pursing his lips. "Hur dur, I'm better than everyone and I like to dress in silly clothes."

That managed to drag a smile out of Sonia's normally sour expression. "Wow, it must be amazing to have powers. I can only dream of that kind of thing."

Mirko burped and scratched his armpit. "Hur dur, I know I'm amazing. Let me show off really quick." He grabbed a handful of loose hay from the bottom of the wagon and tossed it into the air. "Bam! I just made hay out of thin air."

"Wow." There was enough sarcasm in Sonia's voice to fill the wagon, even without its current occupants taking up space. "What will you do with your amazing powers after you're done training?"

"I'll..." Mirko's eyes darted around the wagon, probably searching for inspiration. "I'll crush peasants by making giant bales of hay fall from the sky and smite them." The frightening part of his statement was that magicians truly could 'smite' peasants whenever they wished. Laws protected the magicians from each other, not the lower classes from the magicians. Fortunately, the soldiers sent out into the cities weren't very powerful, and few genuinely powerful magicians wandered away from their life of luxury just to get some blood on their hands.

"Will other magicians work for you, since you're so powerful?" Gillian's only suggestion to her friends had been to use flattery as much as possible. If they encountered a magician trainee with a brain bigger than their ego, they could get in trouble.

They had reached a point in the conversation where anything Mirko said would be pure speculation. And just in time; Gillian could see the tops of the outer city buildings above the horizon. She interrupted Sonia, "That's enough for now. We don't want anyone overhearing us in the city. Don't even whisper anything related to our intentions. There might be magicians capable of super-hearing for all we know."

The thought of a super-hearing magician cast a blanket of silence over the group. As the buildings grew taller around them, each of the three sitting on the wagon's sides migrated to the floor. They all crouched a little lower, even when the hay dug in, keeping their line of sight below the chins of those around them to avoid making eye contact with anyone who might respond with violence. The danger of their field trip had finally hit home.

Dolly cleared her throat. It was the first sound she had made since the wagon wheels had started rolling, so it was enough to make Gillian look up and notice the ocean of green robes before them. This was their chance. As Dolly led the horse to the side of the cobblestone road to make way for the magicians, the Discussion Group slid into the crowd. Their brown clothes pinpointed them as commoners, allowing the trainees to immediately recognize their own superiority.

They didn't even have to introduce themselves.

"Look at this. Where are you from - outside the city I hope? I can't imagine even the outer city dwellers allowing themselves to reach such a state of dishevelment." The ocean of green released a member into the open street, her meticulously measured steps making her look like a bad actress in a play. Gillian couldn't help but be impressed that someone could be so caught up in appearances that they made reality seem unreal.

Despite her earlier confidence in answering Mirko's questions, Sonia was dead silent in response to the girl. Her eyes focused on the cobblestones beneath her feet as if she were confronting her worst fear rather than a nearly harmless trainee. But Chess was ready, her broad shoulders thrust back and her fists clenched, ready to battle anyone who dared insult her. Gillian had no doubt that Chess would win the fight if the other girl was still early in her training, but fighting magicians was not what they had come to the city to do.

Gillian quickly put a hand on Chess' shoulder and smiled at the girl in green. "Hello! We're from a town a couple of hours from here. Are you really a magician?" She forced her voice higher so she would appear younger – then the trainees would think she was just a curious kid, not an information-seeker.

The girl's sneer immediately spread into a smile. "Why yes, I am. Want to see what I can do?"

Behind her, Gillian heard Mirko cover a snicker with a cough. His magician act hadn't been that far off. Gillian ignored the interruption and nodded with what she hoped looked like an excited smile.

The girl immediately raised her hands, the robes swaying beneath her arms like wings. She frowned, her face scrunching like she was about to pass gas. Gillian bit back a smile. At the sight of the product of the girl's efforts, Gillian's smile dropped on its own accord. A ball of wind rose into the air, sucking in everything lightweight from the environment around it. That meant dust, but it also meant pebbles. On their own, pebbles were fine, but when they were traveling in a circle faster than Gillian's eyes could track, the pebbles from the street became a deadly weapon.

Fortunately for Gillian's dangerously close face, the ball of wind died down after a few seconds and spat its contents back onto the ground. The girl and Gillian both coughed as the cloud of dust puffed back into open air.

"Damn," Mirko said.

The girl smirked. "I know. And I've only just started training. I'm a natural." The look on Chess' face implied that the girl would find out what it was like to fight a 'natural' at fist-fighting very soon.

Gillian jumped into the next line of her mental script, hoping that the conversation would end before Chess' fuse ran out. "Where do you think you'll work after you're done training? I bet you'll have your pick of whatever job you want."

"Of course. Unfortunately, everybody has to shadow magicians with similar abilities for a few months before they can actually apply for jobs, but I'll probably be able to shadow someone important. A castle magician. Or even better, a Councilmember." She grinned at the last word, though Gillian had never heard of a Council before.

"Wow." After hearing Sonia's exaggerated 'wow' in the wagon, the word didn't sound right in Gillian's mouth. But the girl didn't react, so Gillian continued, "Is there a specific Councilmember you want to shadow? What do they do, anyway? I'm just a peasant, so I don't really know much about the important people." She mentally cringed as she said the last sentence.

"Well I want to shadow Anna Fallory, but she's telekinetic so they probably won't consider that similar enough to wind."

Sonia raised her head a little, her eyes still not leaving the cobblestones. "Do you know any telekinetics?" That had been her brother's ability.

The question made the girl scowl – she clearly preferred attention when it was focused on herself. "There's one who graduated a few years ago. He was a braggart, though. Thought he was better than everyone just because he started his training so young. And the bastard got a spot on the Council after shadowing Anna." With every sentence, the scowl warped her face further.

Meanwhile, Sonia's face fell and Chess' hands formed fists again. It was officially time to end the conversation. Gillian quickly interjected, "It was an honor meeting you. I wish you the best of luck in your studies, though I doubt you'll need it." With a sorry attempt for a curtsy in her muddy trousers, Gillian gripped Chess' and Sonia's arms and dragged them down the street. Mirko followed behind them, lost in his own world as always.

As soon as they were out of earshot, Gillian wrapped Sonia in a hug. "Don't worry, she was probably lying. If someone that egotistical says another person is full of themselves, they're guaranteed to be lying."

"It probably just means they're enemies," Mirko added. "Usually mean girls talk shit about people who disagree with them. That means your brother – if this guy is your brother – is her enemy, and an enemy of that big of a jerk has to be a good person."

Sonia nodded along with Mirko's words, but her expression remained grim. "But if he's the kind of person who jerks hate, he's probably made a lot of enemies here. He could be in danger."

Gillian had known Sonia long enough to know that once she started down a negative train of thought there was no getting her off the tracks. Her best bet was a distraction. "Listen, that's just one magician. If we're going to make this trip worth it, we need to get information from a lot more than a single trainee. Mirko, you pair up with Sonia. I'll go with Chess. Target a mix of personalities if you can so we can get multiple perspectives on the royal city." Gillian hoped that by pairing Mirko with Sonia, some of his eternal joy would rub off on her. Mirko wasn't the smartest guy, but he had the personality of a puppy in a field of food scraps.

They set off in different directions, targeting individual green robes as the trainees dispersed into the growing market crowds. Chess still looked furious, and Sonia still looked miserable, but every member of the Discussion Group set aside their troubles for their task. Today, the mice would chase the hawks.