“Hey, wait up!” Tasha yells, leaping over the table, as I make to leave.

“What are you doing? We have another applicant after him!” Clarisa yells.

“Don’t worry, I’ll be right back,” Tasha shouts back, then to me once she catches up. “Hey, let’s talk outside, okay?”

I nod and go through the door I was about to when she called. Outside is a long hallway with about half a dozen other applicants waiting. “Garden,” I suggest, glancing at them. It’s a short distance away, and no one is there when we arrive. I give her a questioning glance.

“So, you never really said what your thoughts are about joining us.” She’s straight to the point.

It takes a few moments to recontextualize my thoughts to match my cover, but hopefully she’ll just take that as me being serious. “Perhaps I would have been more receptive four years ago, but I don’t think you’ll be a good match for what I want.” I finally say.

“And what do you want?” she naturally asks.

“My family was demoted after the initial conquest of Caethlon because we failed to receive an assignment to take part and so didn’t gain territory. We’re no longer relevant. I don’t think joining the wyvern order will change that.”

“We are a highly prestigious and important order, many would be thrilled at a chance to join.”

“And were I merely trying to maintain my house rather than restore it, I probably would be too. But your order, while prestigious, is insular. There’d be little opportunity to advance outside of it, and advancements inside it seems limited, especially for a non-chevalier.”

“We do have special ranks for mages. In fact, it’ll be rather easy for you to rise since we have so few mages.”

“If the ranks available to mages were prestigious enough for my goals, I would have heard of them.”

“Well, it’s not that there are any rules in our charter that specifically forbids a mage from taking my job.” She points out.

I sigh. “Yeah, ok, wyvern commander would probably be good enough, but you can’t guarantee that I’d get it, and anything less doesn’t seem worth it.”

She pauses thoughtfully before smiling as with the perfect solution. “Well, what if we upped your chances then? We presently don’t have any permanent chapters in the far west. If we chose your mountain for it, making you the chapter head, then not only would that fast-track you to my job, but it would solve your lack of territory problem too. Since the imperial decree that founded our order mandates that any new chapter comes with the territory necessary to maintain our mounts.”

What a horrible idea. Secretly holding a mountain fortress is perilous enough without also hosting a militant order. Bringing them back ‘home’ would be a disaster. Unfortunately, her suggestion does make a sort of sense from the perspective of my cover, so it takes a bit to think of reasons against it.

“Ok, sure, it would kinda solve the territory thing, but not really. At best we’d be breaking even with the cost of the wyverns, and even if we took loans to develop the new territory, that would just force us to maintain more mounts. Besides, there’s a reason why our mountain wasn’t selected: there simply isn’t much arable land around it. I mean, how much do wyverns even need?”

Her face takes on a strange twist of being excited about knowing the answer and reciting something that has been repeatedly drilled into her. “Going with goats for a number of reasons, the minimum herd size to safely sustain a wyvern is five hundred. We occasionally mix plants in the food to make it cheaper, but only with our diplomatic corps since that tends to create undesirable traits in our battle mounts. An average hectare can sustain five goats grazing, so we usually receive around a hundred hectares per wyvern depending on soil quality.”

“For just one!?” I’m a bit incredulous at how well my point is made, and a bit appalled at the thought of killing so many goats. “I don’t think we even have a hundred hectares of quality farmland within five days’ walk of our mountain, and I’m assuming you can’t make a chapter with just one wyvern.”

She shakes no. “The minimum is six.”

“So yeah, that’s not feasible. At least not in the long term since we’ll no doubt lose goats as we move them back and forth between the mountain and the grazing area.”

“The long term will take care of itself by being awarded more territory – something much more easily done at the head of a wyvern flight.”

“Territory from where?” I ask, perhaps a bit more mockingly than I intend. “Any spare land from Caethlon will have long been distributed by the time I graduate, and unless you know something I don’t, then our historical policy has always been to shift to a diplomatic approach in a region after a major conquest. Any further attempt at military expansion there will risk a coalition among the local minor powers, which in turn would risk involving Hyclion in unfavourable conditions.”

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“We do occasionally get awarded territory for our diplomatic work, especially for aligning potential client states which the area is rife with.” It’s annoying how she doesn’t dispute my point but just argues around it.

“My ambition isn’t to lead a bunch of intimidating messengers.”

She laughs. “Those ‘intimidating messengers’ have saved us the hassle of more than one war. But I understand you. The one thing that was clear from your test is that you’re a warrior – you’ll want a combat post.”

…Do I? I haven’t thought of it before. I’m better than my peers at certain types of combat due to my experience, but I’m certain they’ll catch up. I used my ability to get in, but I have no idea what direction to take now that I have. What will be best for the mission, and if I can’t tell, what would I want?

“I haven’t really considered my eventual posting. I just know a lot of things will be wrong for me,” I say finally.

“Hmm,” she considers my consideration. “Well, what about this? You don’t strictly need to be part of the order to have a wyvern mount. It’s uncommon, but not unprecedented to simply give you a wyvern along with funds to feed it in return for some specified services. The simplest would be for you to agree to be seconded to us whenever we’re called to battle. This way we’ll get your ability when we most want it, and you remain free to pursue your more ambitious post with the aid of a wyvern mount. After all, even if you don’t know exactly what you want to do, I can’t think of many things that wouldn’t benefit from having a wyvern under you. Even purely administrative posts would be helped by the travel speed.”

This does seem like an ideal compromise, with nothing from either cover or true mission opposing it. However… “I just don’t want to have to feed it so many goats.” I finally admit.

She laughs far too hard. “What? You don’t eat meat?! I did not expect that after seeing your tests. That’s hilarious!”

I blush, sensing mockery but not understanding the gibe. “I eat meat, I just don’t seek it out.”

She wipes her face and forces herself to stop laughing. “Well, whatever, I guess that’s kinda a deal breaker then. Oh well.”

“I’m sorry we couldn’t come to an agreement,” I say, surprised to find it true.

She shrugs. “No matter. My vice commander told me to find some good mages, but I guess she’ll have to make do with the second best. Hopefully the rest of the list won’t have your reservations or I’ll get a real earful when I go back.”

“Yeah,” I say with the image of a much more serious woman constantly frustrated by her superior’s attitude. A pang of sympathy for her underling briefly takes me. “…Listen, either way it’ll be at least eight years before I could join; a lot could change in that time and it’d be foolish to pre-emptively refuse a job. Write me a letter detailing what you’re willing to offer, and I’ll keep it just in case.”

Her expression perks up. “You mean it?”

I give a scrunched confused expression. “Do I mean I don’t know the future and might need a fallback plan? Yeah, I think I can safely say that. You better not be taking any more meaning than that.”

“Of course.” I do not believe her. “Well, I’ve been out too long. Don’t want to keep the judged waiting.” She immediately runs off at superhuman speed before I can say another word.

Right… well that’s done with… I got in, now what? I didn’t realize until Tasha addressed it, but I have no idea what sort of posting I want after I graduate, just something that will help Caethlon. I guess I assumed opportunities would arise if I got in, which, if this conversation is any indication, I still think is likely. But it’ll be harder to assess them if I remain without a plan.

So, what will most benefit Caethlon, and what do I want? Combat has its appeal as it comes with its own base level of prestige, and opportunities to sate the itching too. But perhaps something administrative might be better for the mission. Perhaps a governorship in a colony? It would take me away from the centre of things but would also come with the most power at the least oversight.

Which is exactly why such posts are coveted and hard to get. I’d take it if offered, but going after it exclusively could be a mistake. So maybe I should go Erika’s route and embed myself in imperial infrastructure. It would have the least opportunity, both for advancement and sudden betrayal, but might make me the most connections.

“That bad, eh?” Alan says I enter the carriage. “Oh, well, you tried your best and there are other academies.”

I blink at his greeting before realising what he means. “What? Oh, no, I was just thinking about something else. Sorry, I forgot why we were here. I got in.”

His turn to blink before replying. “You got in? Like, they told you already?”

I nod. “They said there was no need to send it to further committee.”

“Huh, I thought that never happens unless you were right under the threshold for auto-passing.”

“It was mostly off the back of the breakthrough test.”

“…Just how well did you do on it?” His voice has a strange hesitation to it.

I side-eye him, not seeing where he’s going with it. “Ser Terry gave the gist of it before we left for the party.”

“Your enthusiastic friend? He’s a knight already? Anyways, I got the impression you did well, but he said you ‘killed half the enemies yourself’ which I assumed was hyperbole.”

“It wasn’t. At least if you only include mages and squires, though I did kill a few mundanes too.”

“…I see.” His face is pure surprise.

“The conditions were meant to simulate Caethlon.” I explain.

“…Do you think it was wise to display your experience so openly?”

I shrug. “It was either that or risk not getting in. Besides, I did hold myself back some and came up with a decent explanation for my cover.”

“Right…” His eyes flicker to the side and I get the sense that he’s worrying about something other than my cover from how he reacted to mention of it. Suddenly his face leaps into a broad smile with no trace of his previous worry. “But you got in! That’s great! You worked so hard, I’m happy for you. Obviously, we’re celebrating. Someplace new. Oh, it’s also custom to host a party.”

I give an alarmed look.

“Well, maybe it’s not the best idea since most of the people you know are from the exam, and they’ll be having their own parties.”

“Assuming they pass,” I say.

“Well, probably best not to invite those who don’t. It might be seen as rubbing it in.”

I nod… Perhaps I could have a small party just for those that wouldn’t be hosting their own. Ser Terry for one. Bart was fun and… the only one who comes to mind is Clara Talwin. Did we interact enough to invite her? Might as well, she seems like a good contact in any case. Those three should form a good base for the party. A little too small on their own, but I’ll let them bring others or invite a few more if they don’t have anyone. Emily maybe, though she’ll probably be hosting her own – reading through it while charging exorbitant prices for her cream.

I laugh, causing a side look from Alan. I think I’m actually looking forward to this. It’ll be… fun.