Chapter 11

Whoever Captain Hector was, it didn’t seem their highest priority to consult him, rather to just continue on with the day. If I had to guess from the lack of other people around, it was possibly because he was wherever everyone else is.

“Do you know why this place is so empty? Or who this Captain Hector is?” I asked Christopher quietly while we ate an evening meal.

After the evaluation, we were all filed into the dinner hall, with the exception of Brontus who was quietly ordered by Bradey to cool off elsewhere. It was a simple meal, a bowl of soup and roll of bread. It tasted like water, lacking spices in the boiled vegetable broth with overly stewed bits of meat, and the bread was borderline stale and lumpy; I never realized how much I could miss my father’s meager culinary ability. There was no look of pride on the cook’s face as she set the bowl in front of me and put the roll down directly on the long table that stretched from end to end of the hall. She simply moved on and silently did the same for the next recruit. Even with all of the ample space, three identical tables that ran the length of the room, we all stayed together, with the exception of the adults who sat at the next table over.

“I don’t know him specifically,” Christopher began in a lower tone so as to not rise above the hushed conversations around us, “but if I had to guess, he would be with the others in the capital.”

“Ok… pretend I have no idea why that would be.” I was sure my face gave away the confusion I was pretending I didn’t have.

“Ah,” he sighed, as if not at all surprised by my ignorance, “there’s something of a… international diplomatic convention going on at the moment.” If I had to rely only on my experience in this life, I would have been far more confused, but I simply nodded for him to go on. “Officially, it’s to foster peace between the bordering nations; eat, drink, be merry and all of that. But with tensions the way they are, I think the military mages might be there as a show of force,” he whispered. “And it’s not like we’re a significant part of the army, numbers-wise, so I imagine that they would want as many as possible.” He glanced over and I followed his gaze to where Bradey, Scolffice, and the other blue cloaked mage were eating, one table over. “They left the bare minimum here to contend with it, it seems.”

“So, did the rest of you… decide you wanted to be…?”

He chuckled, his tone a bit dark, but at least understanding enough to not force me to finish the question. “Well, we aren’t all in the same situation as you. Most of us didn’t exactly choose to become mages.” I bit back my retort. “I was at one of the training facilities until my… graduation a month ago,” he explained. I stared at him blankly. “I mean, you know they don’t openly recruit, right? Besides you, there’re just those two rich kids that started, but otherwise I take it that you aren’t from the Oster or Sandun training facilities?” he asked.

I shook my head. “I grew up right outside Gleban… I don’t even know where we are right now.”

Christopher let out a low whistle. “That’s about a daylight’s ride northwest of here.”

“I travelled for a whole day?” I wondered aloud. “I just woke up here this morning.”

He nodded. “Ah, yeah, the, uh, ritual can really take it out of you. It’s not uncommon to be out for a day,” he confirmed. “Didn’t realize you were so fresh though… I assume you had a rough night, but don’t worry, it gets easier.” He gave me a consoling smile.

I was a bit surprised to hear him fairly accurately describe my lack of restful sleep, despite its length, but Bradey spoke from his seat first. “Alright, finish up. Most of you did well today but it’s lights out in thirty.” As if on cue, Brontus stepped in, stepping over to join them but not before shooting me a sour glare.

I looked out the window and saw that the sun was starting to dip. My sense of time was still a bit off, feeling like it was earlier than it appeared to be, but the sun didn’t tend to lie in my experience. We all finished eating in relative silence, mouths full with watery soup to get down the dry knobby bread.

I was one of the last to stand, taking a bit longer to finish. I only noticed as I did so that the four adults had subtly surrounded us on four corners. I was sure that it wouldn’t escape the notice of the others but no one seemed to let on, as if it was simply business as usual.

Wait, I’m not sleeping in that dungeon cell again, am I!? I began to panic as we were walked through the halls of doors. Most appeared the same, a uniformity to their closed wooden paneling and dark frames for which only a few exceptions marked doors of apparently greater prestige. I, however, was more focused on my internal worries than the varying hues displayed in the hallway.

We suddenly stopped, either by one of the recruits in front or Bradey who was leading, but I nearly bumped into Christopher who walked right in front of me.

One by one, each youth sorted themselves in this hallway, filtering evenly into one of the eight rooms that lined the hallway, each with two children passing through. I didn’t get a good look inside as each pair was equally quick to open and close the door, blocking my view, but it seemed logical enough that this had to be the dormitory.

I was left standing there alone.

The third blue cloaked mage, who I hadn’t heard speak yet but was the one that had escorted Christopher from his desk earlier, stepped over to me. “Hello, Ren, I believe? You can call me Andor.” He was more soft spoken than the other three adults and kept shifting his stance. “You are in this room,” he informed as he motioned with his hand to indicate which.

Oh thank goodness, I thought as I was relieved to not be sentenced to another night of manacled comfort. Brontus glared at me while Bradey yawned and Scolffice looked dead to the world, or maybe just dead. I quickly stepped into the room, making my escape from their looming figures and wasted no time closing the door behind me, almost bumping into it.

“Ah, so that’s why I had this room to myself,” Christopher said as he looked up at me from his spot on one of the beds. The room was a mirror image: two beds, two dressers, two small baskets, all balanced with a single window with vertical bars running its length on the other side of the glass. Even the sunset was in on the motif, setting below the horizon right in the middle of the window. The only exception to the total symmetry was Christopher, sitting on one of the beds, along with his discarded clothing in the basket on his side. He had already changed into pajamas, switching the light blue for white. I noticed one of the drawers on his dresser was open just a crack and figured that it would be the same on mine. “The rooms are quite nice here, spacious at least.”

I felt like I was in a closet. It wasn’t that bad, but it was noticeably smaller for the pair of us than my personal room had been. I didn’t tell him this, instead just nodding along. “Yeah, they’re… nice.” I pressed a hand down on the bed. It was a touch firm and flat, but I was too tired to care. I collapsed face first on it, abandoning the thought of opening my dresser or changing into sleepwear. I thought I heard Christopher say to try and sleep well and I mumbled something of a return, but whatever it was disappeared from my memory as the night took me.