Chapter 12: Another Sort of Interview

“A scholarship, is it? Recommended by Kaendrian, hmm. He can be a bit of a wild card. But let’s take care of this as quickly as possible.”

The secretary had read over Suria’s papers at a glance and now set them back on the desk, which had been entirely cleared. Before she had just viewed him as a threat, a three seal mage who might not have her best interests at heart. Now she looked more carefully and saw a middle-aged man going a bit heavy, less rude than impatient. He looked Akrashic, but unlike many he didn’t wear any hat to hide his thinning blond hair.

“My name is Houdon Droucet,” he told her, “and obviously I have your name from your papers. They say you’re already capable of glyphic spellcasting, so let’s do a quick check.”

“Of course.” Suria had her stylus and extra talismans prepared to repeat the test, but he waved them away.

“Just show me a glyph.”

“You… don’t need to confirm I made it myself?” Suria asked as she handed over her pain relief talisman.

“Why would I do that? I’m not trying to insult you, I just need to determine basic competence.” Houdon looked over her talisman with a critical eye as he spoke and then nodded. “Pain relief inscription, looks like. Competent runes, solid form. Show me.”

Suria took a deep breath and prepared to cast. She had used the spell hundreds of times, even from this very talisman, but still found herself nervous. This was the first time it was for an examination, and the standards here were so much higher than back home. Instead of casting blindly, she gently extended the pain relief spell into the man’s back.

He grunted and rolled his shoulders. “Above average casting ability. You’ve done this before.”

“Thank you,” Suria answered quietly.

“That’s expected, so let’s take care of business.” Houdon waved aside her thanks and began looking at his paperwork. “I’m not used to this tedium, so forgive me if I’m slow. Lots of hoops to jump through. We need identification, basic supplies, housing, and so forth.”

As much as Suria wanted to ask about Shuguja, she decided that it wasn’t worth the risk, so she tried to match his pace. “I already have an identification pin,” she cut in between sentences, “and a room in the Taedric Building. So we don’t need to do those.”

“Oh, so you do.” Houdon glanced at the pin she’d attached to her peasant’s cloak, then abruptly whipped out his stylus and tapped it. “Just wasn’t fully activated, but it is now. Now, most of your supplies will be given in individual classes, but we give all students a modern stylus. You aren’t required to use it, but you might want to.”

He handed her a stylus made from white stone, simple as that. Suria took it carefully, her fingers tracing over the incredibly soft brush on one side and the smooth wedge on the other. She’d used styluses before during the loop, but this one was actually hers to keep.

“The university does not provide runebooks for students, even scholarships,” Houdon went on, his eyes running down a list in front of him. “It’s up to you whether you invest in one. Books, room, and board are all included in your scholarship, and in addition you will be given funds of 10 oss per day, distributed monthly starting now. Otherwise your business is your own.”

“Thank you.” Suria realized she’d already said that and could easily end up saying “thank you” over and over if she wasn’t careful. Houdon didn’t seem to notice, pushing forward.

“Next we need to get you signed up for classes, which would be best to take care of now. I trust you already know what you intend to study? First term lasts until thawbreak, so we focus on more intensive classes. Everyone is required to enroll in at minimum two classes, and while there is no upper limit other than your schedule, your scholarship includes a maximum of four. I would advise three, since many are not prepared for the rigor of the curriculum here.”

“Uh, wait.” Suria managed to get in between his torrent of words without interrupting him too rudely. “I haven’t chosen which classes I want to take. I haven’t even seen a full list… do you have one?”

“I am not going to sit here while you look over all the courses.” Houdon’s frown deepened and for the first time he looked truly irritated. “It’s really better to just take care of this now instead of requiring another meeting. All students are required to take Foundations of Modern Spellcraft, so that’s one. We can also place you in Magical History, which is more essential than it sounds, and Civil Magic in the Taedric Colonies. That will-“

“Sorry.” Suria swallowed and forced herself onward. “I won’t waste your time, but I need to consider my options more carefully. Is there somewhere I can find a complete list, then come back later?”

For a second Houdon glared at her, then to her surprise his expression softened. He turned away and shuffled through a stack of papers, looking for something. As he moved, he spoke over his shoulder.

“Sorry I’m impatient, it’s been… a difficult few days. You’ve been so much less trouble than the nobles we usually have to deal with at this time, of course we can accommodate you.” He turned back and handed her a sheet of silver paper with glyphs along the side. “The library is closed for final term preparations, but you can make a request. You can actually make a request at any time, but there’s normally an expense involved. It will be waived in this case, so that you can make an informed choice.”

What followed was a terse conversation about exactly what books she could or should request from the library. Houdon seemed to be intending to be helpful, he was just absolutely the wrong person for a meandering discussion about class descriptions or her goals. Since he seemed to be helpful in direct proportion to how much time she saved him, Suria took his suggestions for overview books, though she also requested a book about runic capacity as well as one on magical law. The former would be directly useful to her for obvious reasons and the latter might be a way to make progress on her broader goals, even now.

As soon as that was done, Suria was escorted out of the office. She was a student at Darkmoon University. It didn’t seem real.

Maut-mai beamed at her and went in for her own meeting, so Suria stayed in the waiting room and tried to calm her mind. Technically everything was going well: she had passed her interview and taken care of all her business. She even had a set of books that would be waiting for her, containing the keys to everything she had wanted for so long.

Yet she couldn’t simply be happy about that, not when she kept thinking about what had happened in the basement the day before. A full professor was gone, Rije and Shuguja might be dead, and it was all being covered up by some sort of conspiracy.

More surreal than all that was the fact that if she had come a day later, potentially even an hour later, she wouldn’t know about any of it. She might simply be preparing to attend university, as happy as Maut-mai or any other student. There was a hypothetical Suria – she couldn’t help but think of it as another timeline, even if she didn’t know how timelines worked – who was completely uninvolved. Did lives really change completely based on minor coincidences?

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She played with the silver paper in her hands, wondering if she’d made the right choices for book requests. At minimum she would be able to look over all the classes and make decisions about the future, but how could she know if they were the right decisions? In a strange way, Suria wished that she was still trapped in the time loop, so that she could make the decisions again.

Before Suria could fall too far into her own thoughts, Maut-mai emerged from the office. Even though she had everything set up and didn’t need to prove herself, her meeting had taken longer than Suria’s. Maut-mai looked somewhat irritated and Houdon closed the door sharply behind her, so clearly they hadn’t gotten along. It seemed impolite to bring it up, so Suria simply rose to meet the other young woman.

“Well!” Maut-mai dusted off her hands showily. “That’s over with. Now we need to buy supplies, and I know just the place.”

“I also have a library request,” Suria said, holding up the paper if there was any confusion.