On the Spot

Fate and Cait met up with Samantha and Venden at the Office of the Imperial Guard, splitting up afterward as they each joined a separate line in the wood-walled room.

Each person in line wore the robes of the Royal Mage Academy, most wearing white or brown with only a single person in silver robes, indicating their status as an Adept.

Judging by this student's age, he was a third- or fourth-year, with a closely trimmed brown beard and the air of a dignified noble. The storage rings on his fingers were gaudy and plated in gold and silver, with various gems on them.

Which, in Fate's experience, meant this student was a complete jackass.

The six lines leading into the Office were only thirty or so people long each when they joined the wait, which quickly shrank down until it was Fate's turn to step forward.

"Name?" asked the person behind the counter, a pretty young woman with a smile on her face and expensive clothes on her back.

"Fate."

She scribbled that down on a piece of paper. "Last name? And the name of your Familiar."

"Don't have one. And his name is Kravoss."

Scribble. "Reason for this visit?"

"Housing."

"Due to?"

"The destruction of the Royal Mage Academy."

"All right," with a flourish, she finished jotting down what she was writing and turned her brown eyes up at Fate. "And are you applying for the Guard as well?"

"If I can."

"Okay, then. Once we finish up here, I need you to go to the line on the far left over there. That's the line for Guard applications. As for shelter, if and when you are accepted into the Guard, they'll give you a spot in the barracks.

"Until then, the Empress is currently having a temporary shelter constructed for Royal Mage Academy students to live in until either they join the Guards, the teleportation pads open, or the Academy is rebuilt.

"Estimates say it will be done by the end of the day. Head to where the Academy used to be and look for a Sergeant – that's a Guard in blue armor – and he'll direct you to the shelter."

"Thank you," Fate said.

After making sure that was all he needed to do, he stepped into the previously indicated line to register for the Guard. Venden joined him soon after, with Samantha and Cait a few people back.

"A temporary shelter," Venden said. "Better than nothing, I suppose. I'm not going to gripe about free stuff."

"I'm just glad I had everything important on me," Fate replied.

The only thing he had lost in the destruction of the Royal Mage Academy was his spare student robes. Everything else was in the storage ring on his finger.

'You forgot about my bed,' Kravoss lamented. 'That soft foam cloud is forever lost to me.'

'You can always buy a new one,' Fate said consolingly. 'And at least you still have your hat. Where there's a dashing Dracok, there's a way.'

'That'll be hard to do now that Travis practically fired us.'

'He didn't fire us,' Fate corrected. 'We're just… on leave. Think of it like a vacation.'

'A vacation where I get to sleep on the cold, hard ground. How fun,' Kravoss replied sarcastically.

"I didn't have much anyway," Venden said, replying to Fate's earlier statement. "Everything important, I kept on me as you did. I'm just happy that this happened AFTER the Black Dragon stopped going for my throat."

"Yeah, being stuck in the streets isn't the best protection," Fate said jokingly.

"I never even got to buy a Spell…" Venden sighed longingly. "They're limited to second-years and up. That was one of the things I was looking forward to the most."

Soon Fate was at the front of the line.

The man behind the counter took basic information on Fate's identity, entered it into the crystal ball in front of him, and spent the next three minutes going through Fate's records.

Fate waited patiently as the man did his job. He had always heard that bureaucracy took ages, but so far it was going by fast. A few minutes extra wouldn't hurt him, considering he had nothing better to do.

The man looked up at Fate after his investigation and gave Fate two options.

Since Fate was everything Old Man Travis had said earlier, he could join the Guard here and now, and the next several months to years of his life would be devoted to training and battle.

Or, he could leave, live in the Academy's temporary shelter until the school was rebuilt, and return to his studies once the rebuilding was finished. This option came with the high likelihood of being drafted later to take part in the war efforts.

"Keep in mind that the Guard will teach you many of the things the Academy does," the man warned. "For those topics they don't cover, they can be convinced to find you a teacher if you show talent in a certain field and can prove its usefulness to the Guard.

"On the other hand, these 'extracurricular activities,' as the Guard likes to put it, will be paid for with your own coin, and this time won't be coming out of your time devoted to the Guard.

"You'll receive a hefty discount for your enrollment in the Guard, but it will still cost you."

Fate didn't have to put much thought into it.

Sitting around for a year or more doing nothing, versus gaining hands-on experience and becoming what many Royal Mage Academy students aspired to?

Fate applied for the Guard on the spot.

The man behind the counter directed him to a door set in the left wall, handing him a stamped form.

"Go through there, hand them this paper, and they'll finish up with you."

"Thanks," Fate said, and went to where he was directed.

"Next!" called the man as Fate walked away. Venden stepped up, but Fate was already through the door.

He entered a room with the same wooden walls and lacquered floor as the previous one.

Rows of chairs lined the walls and middle of the room, some filled but most empty, and at the back was another, larger counter, behind which stood a middle-aged man who didn't look pleased to be there.