“I have to say, this Hands-on is already starting off better,” Nym said, “I mean, this time, we don’t have to leave before the sun comes out.” Thalos nodded, recalling how difficult it had been to drag Cliff out of bed that morning.

“You took the words right out of my mouth,” Cliff said, leaning over the side of the trailer. They’d left that afternoon for Clearspring, where they’d spend the night before setting out on their teams’ individual missions.

“It is a bit daunting though, that we’ll be spending most of the next week working on this,” Percy said. Teams A and B were riding in a trailer hitched to the second of three trail trolleys. Their big, lumbering caravan was not moving particularly fast, so it would take until early evening to arrive at the nearby city.

“Really?” Jenna said, “I think it’s exciting – well, as exciting as a school assignment can be, anyway.” She was seated between Deb and Penny, and by the way they were acting, it seemed to Thalos like the girls had made up. That was good – with Loria and Cliff, team B had some experience dealing with feuding members. It made the entire atmosphere turn tense, and, considering they were about to set off on a multi-day mission, that would not have been fun.

“Exciting is one word for it,” Penny said dourly.

Deb sighed, shaking her head. “We’ve talked about this – if you want to be a Courier, you’ll have to get used to sleeping outdoors.”

“That’s not true!” the other girl protested, “I mean – you heard Roose talk about it, there are Couriers who deal with intelligence and – and other kinds of jobs in cities.”

“Not many,” Loria said, “the Federation has an extensive intelligence network, and I don’t think they hire Couriers unless it’s something extremely specialized.”

Nym shook her head. “There are more than you think, actually. It’s true that they’re specialized, but, well, governments aren’t the only ones who pay for intelligence work. Besides,” she continued, “they wouldn’t be doing a particularly good job of covert operations if everyone knew about them.”

“I suppose you would know better than me,” Loria said, inclining her head.

“Your poppa’s a Courier, right?” Cliff asked, looking over at Nym.

She smiled awkwardly, nodding.

“They call him the Puppetmaster,” Deb added. Nym turned to look at her, surprise in her eyes. “What?” team A’s commander said, “he’s pretty famous in Crestfall, you know.” Thalos had heard the same from his Auntie, but he’d never brought it up

“The Puppetmaster,” Percy muttered, frowning. “What’s that mean?”

“It’s his Gift,” Nym explained, “he can manipulate objects with it, like puppets, I guess.” Her head tilted to the side. “I think my mother actually came up with the name, though I’ve never heard the story behind it.”

“Is she a Courier too?” Jenna asked.

Nym frowned. “Kind of? She works for the Alliance, at least – she used to be an active Courier, but now she does administrative work. She lives in Crestfall and works at the Marifond branch.”

Cliff clicked his tongue. “So you’re a pure-blood Courier then? Not like us scholarship kids, eh? We’re veritable mutts.” He glanced around the trailer. Percy nodded, and Thalos shrugged – he wasn’t exactly a scholarship kid, but he basically was, considering his auntie was paying for his tuition.

“Actually,” Deb said, “My uncle is a Courier.” Cliff made a noise of shock. “What? I never said I had no connection to the Couriers – and besides, I’ve only met the man once. He doesn’t even live in the Federation anymore.” The betrayal on Cliff’s face was almost comical, and Thalos couldn’t help but chuckle.

“If you don’t mind me asking,” Nym said, looking around the trailer, “Why did you all want to become Couriers? I mean – my dad’s a courier, but that’s not true for the rest of you.” The conversation paused as everyone considered the question.

Loria was the first to answer. “As you know, my father is in the military – well, my whole family is, really.” She frowned. “I suppose I want an identity separate from them, and the Couriers were just the path I chose.”

Jenna nodded. “It’s about the same here – plus some family baggage towards the army. I have to say I’m loving it so far.”

“For me, I have that uncle,” Deb started, “plus – my father’s a librarian, and I grew up reading all sorts of novels about Couriers. Something about the job inspires me, I guess.” She smiled bashfully. “Kind of childish, I know.”

“Not at all!” Percy said, shaking his head emphatically, “or, if it is, my reason is just as childish. On the ranch, it’s always a sigh of relief when the Couriers show up. They come and fix most of our problems without completely emptying our wallets.” He shrugged. “I guess I just want people to have that kind of reaction to me.”

“I’m right there with you,” Cliff said, “Growing up, we relied on the Couriers to come through and fix the little things up for us – an ornery monster, a damaged road, things like that.” He smiled warmly. “When I got the Scholarship offer, my momma wanted me to enroll as a seminarian – she’s the pious one in the family, you know? But the Church always seemed a little too stuffy for me, and the military, too. So – the Couriers.” He turned towards Thalos. “What about you?”

“I-” He frowned, feeling guilty. His reason, when compared with the others, was rather selfish. More than the service or the job, he’d enrolled for the travel permit they issued to all the Academy graduates. Truthfully, he wasn’t even really planning to be a Courier once he graduated. His grandfather had left him a good sum of money, and he planned to wander, maybe eventually continuing the man’s research. But he couldn’t very well tell them that when everyone else was so earnest.

“Come on, you guys know Thalos has to remain mysterious,” Jenna said, her tone teasing.

Thalos’s eyes widened. “Mysterious?”

“You hardly say anything at all,” Penny complained, “and when you do, it’s usually just some sarcastic comment to knock Cliff down a peg.”

“A service we all thank you for, I assure you,” Deb said seriously. Cliff made an outraged noise, and a few people laughed.

Thalos turned to his roommate, frowning. “Am I mysterious?” He wasn’t trying to be mysterious – quite the opposite, in fact. He often felt like he was putting himself out there, with how much he spoke.

Cliff shrugged, still glaring at Deb. “You’re quiet,” he explained, “and that’s most of the way there – add in your tendency to brood and your occasional sarcastic jabs – which do hurt, by the way – and you’re as mysterious as a murder in a room locked from the inside.” Thalos grimaced at the comparison.

“Joking aside, there’s no need for you to have a good reason to become a Courier,” Nym said, “Or really, any reason at all. My father stumbled into the job, and he’s somehow doing fine.”

“It’s the kind of thing that will come to you eventually, I think,” Jenna said, smiling kindly, “you shouldn’t worry about it.”

“And, not to be a wet blanket, but I believe we should be focusing on the Hands-on, right now, not a search for Thalos’s purpose,” Loria said. She turned to Percy. “Speaking of which, you’re from Clearspring, right Percy? Anything in particular we should know about it? I’ve seen the maps, of course, but a first-hand account might be more informative.” Thalos sighed, mentally thanking Loria for redirecting the conversation. Since his grandfather’s death, he hadn’t really thought about what his purpose was, though, perhaps he should, if everyone else was already convinced of theirs.

Percy shrugged. “I’m not really from Clearspring, exactly, just one of the surrounding villages. It’s the same as all of north-east Marifond, I guess – hills and forests with the occasional town in between.”

“Did you end up sending word to your family that we were coming through?” Deb asked, “I know you were thinking about it.”

Percy shook his head. “They’re busy, and I didn’t want to pressure them to try to come into the city to meet me.” He frowned. “It’s a shame our delivery route doesn’t cross through Thatchtop, or else I would have.”

“I would have liked to meet them,” Jenna offered with a sympathetic smile. “I take it that means they won’t be visiting campus for the harvest festival?” Percy shook his head, and the mood in the trailer dampened slightly. After the second Hands-on, the next big event coming up was the harvest festival. There was a dance of some kind, plus some demonstrations from the upperclassmen. Also, students’ parents were invited to visit and observe classes. Thalos, of course, would have no one visiting, but as he understood it, it was quite common for people’s parents to come to observe.

“I’m in the same situation,” Cliff said, “but the way I see it, it just gives us more time to embarrass everyone in front of their parents.” He leaned towards Percy, smiling conspiratorially. “I say we ham up the bumpkin – really go for the uncultured country-boy angle.”

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“Cliff,” Loria said in a warning tone at the same time Jenna leaned forward, swatting him on the leg.

“Ah, well,” Cliff said with a smirk, “we can talk about it after we’ve finished the Hands-on.”

***

“Careful with that one, Thalos,” Cliff warned as he heaved the crate off of the trailer, handing it down. “It’s heavy.” With a grunt, Thalos took the box, piling it with the rest beside the trailer. The caravan they’d ridden was scheduled to make a return trip to Westholden that evening, so they were storing all their provisions and gear in a lot just outside Clearspring. “Coming your way,” Cliff called, tossing three smaller boxes, one after another, over the rail to Thalos. He snagged the first one in his left hand, the second in his right, and barely caught the third, bouncing it off his chest and trapping it between the other two.

“Try not to break anything, Cliff” Roose called from where he was watching them, “It’d be a shame if I had to fail you for breaking something before we even got started.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Cliff muttered, taking the last box and hopping off the back of the trailer, landing heavily on the ground. They piled the last few boxes with the rest, joining the others where they were gathered by the entrance to the lot.

“Good work with the unloading there,” Templar Roose said, “The academy has booked lodging for us for tonight – teams C and D, follow Dr. Harkin, A and B, you’re with me.” As a group they left the lot, walking towards the Clearspring city center before Dr. Harkin and Teams C and D split off, leaving Roose walking with the rest.

Clearspring was not particularly large – the city itself had around fifty thousand residents, but if you added the villages that surrounded it, that number rose closer to seventy-five thousand. It was a long, flat sprawl of short, squat buildings. Most of them were three or fewer floors, though there was the occasional taller building, apartment complexes and larger businesses.

“You ever been to Clearspring?” Cliff asked as they walked along. Unlike the trails between cities, the roads of Clearsping were paved with smooth cobbles. Most on the streets seemed to be walking, like them, but there was the occasional Magetool car that drove by. Cliff had his hands tucked in his pockets, and by the way he was looking around, Thalos guessed this was his first time to the city.

“Yeah,” Thalos said, “I didn’t stay long, but I came through with my grandfather a few years back.”

Cliff nodded, glancing over at him. “Would you believe me if I said I haven’t?”

Thalos frowned. “Why wouldn’t I?”

“Well you know, I thought I might seem worldly,” Cliff replied with a grin. Thalos laughed – worldly was about the last word he would use to describe his roommate. “Truth be told,” he continued, “going to Westholden was the first time I ever went further from home than Minton.” Cliff’s home was in the countryside of Minton, so that meant he’d never really traveled, ever, before coming to the Academy.

Cliff clicked his tongue. “Well, that’s not true I guess. When I was in the womb, I took a trip to Crestfall when my parents went to a funeral – ‘course I don’t remember it, but I suppose that mean’s I’ve been there, too.”

“That’s dangerous,” Thalos said. About the worst thing you could do when you were pregnant was travel through areas of high magic pressure. They’d talked about it extensively in their Early Magic History class – when the Great Rise happened and magic came into the world, the rate of stillbirths skyrocketed because of magic exposure. Honestly, it was a miracle Cliff had survived at all.

“It’s the Goddess’s own luck that I lived through it,” Cliff said, echoing Thalos’s thoughts. “My momma didn’t even know she was pregnant until they got back.” He grinned. “They always called me their miracle baby.” Thalos nodded understanding. That was probably why Cliff, the son of a pair of mundane farmers, had been born with such a high Magic Rating. It was another topic of their Early Magic History class, and a subject of his Grandfather’s research – if you were lucky, children exposed to magic in the womb would survive. If you were very lucky, they would be born with Gifts. Of course, with subsequent generations, there was more inborn magic, and the next generation could handle more exposure in the womb – and so on, until some natural limit was reached, somewhere around a Magical Rating of 5000. He thumbed at his ring. His grandfather was an expert in such matters, studying the heritability of Gifts and magic.

“Thalos,” Cliff said, shaking him from his thoughts, “you hear my question?”

Thalos blinked. “No, sorry,” he said, “I was – thinking about something.”

“Not a problem,” Cliff said, “I just asked whether you traveled a lot, before coming to the Academy – I always got the impression that you did, though you don’t talk about it much.”

“Here I am, being mysterious again,” Thalos mumbled. He shook his head. “Yeah, I traveled a lot – my grandfather went all over for his research, and since I didn’t have parents, he always dragged me with him.” It’d be more accurate to say he was always traveling. He’d probably spent most of his time in Marifond, but he’d been all over.

“You enjoy it? The traveling, I mean,” Cliff said.

Thalos shrugged, looking at his roommate. “It was my life. Did you enjoy life on the farm?”

“It was my life,” Cliff replied, and both of them laughed.

***

“Hey Roose,” Cliff whined, “how much longer till we get to the hotel?”

Roose turned an amused smile towards him. “Shouldn’t be much longer, I think – Percy, you might know the place. The Wontin Plaza?”

Percy blinked. “The Wontin – yeah, I know it. My family stays there whenever we come into the city.” He looked around for a moment before his eyes widened. “Oh! I know where we are – it’s just a couple minutes from here.”

“Lead the way,” Roose said, gesturing in front of him.

Next to Thalos, Cliff breathed a little chuckle. “Oh, you sly devil.”

Thalos gave him a confused look. “What?”

“You’ll see,” Cliff replied. He nodded to himself. “I was wondering why they sent C and D to another hotel – has to be that theres somewhere in Clearspring that could fit all of us, right?”

“I’ve got no idea what you’re talking about,” Thalos said dryly.

“You’ll see,” Cliff said again.

A few minutes later, they came to the hotel. It was three floors, with no more than thirty rooms altogether. It wasn’t exactly an upscale place, but it had a certain rustic charm to it. They walked into the building. The inside of the lobby matched the outside, with overstuffed chairs and carpeting in warm colors. Roose gestured for them to wait before walking over to the woman behind the counter.

While their teacher was arranging their lodging, a finger tapped his shoulder. He turned, and Cliff made a gesture for quiet. Thalos nodded, confused, and Cliff pointed off to the side, where Percy and Deb were involved in some conversation. From behind them, a trio of people approached silently – a man, a woman, and girl just a few years younger than him. Thalos blinked, his eyes widening as he immediately recognized them to be Percy’s family – the man was basically an older version of his son. He looked back at Cliff, and his roommate smirked, tapping the side of his head twice.

“Surprise!” the trio yelled. Percy whirled around, looking like he’d just seen a ghost. A moment later, he was crying and hugging his family. Thalos grinned, only feeling the mildest pang of jealousy.

***

“Well, we got Roose’s letter, and we knew we had to make the trip,” Percy’s mom explained. She swatted her son on the arm. “You should have told us you were coming to town, Percival!” After checking in, they’d found their way to a dining room. They were all gathered around a table, waiting for their food.

Percy was all red-faced and giddy as he scratched, embarrassed at his head. “I didn’t want you to make the trip, Ma.”

She waved a hand in front of her. “Oh, you know we have Uncle Rob to handle things for a night – I know you were just embarrassed for your dear old ma to meet all your friends.” She narrowed her eyes at him. “Whats wrong, afraid I’ll embarrass you?”

“No, Ma, nothing like that,” Percy said, eyes wide, “it’s just-”

“Well then, what are you waiting for? Introduce me!”

“Of course,” Percy said hesitantly. He pointed a finger across the table. “This is-”

“Templar Roose,” His mom said, cutting him off, “I know dear, we exchanged letters.” Her eyes narrowed as she scanned the table. “And that’s Jenna – And Deb and Penny-” She frowned at Percy. “You didn’t say they were all so pretty in your letters.”

“Well, I didn’t want to-”

“The two other pretty ones must be Nym and Loria then. The young strapping boys are Thalos and Cliff then – by the smirk, I’d guess the tall one is Cliff.” She looked back at her son. “Am I right?”

“What kind of letters are you writing, Percy?” Cliff called, snickering.

“Ma,” Percy hissed.

“Oh grow up, Dear – nothing to be ashamed of in writing your Ma and Pa a letter every week. Now introduce us to them!”

Percy took a deep breath, gesturing to the side towards his family. “This is my Ma – she does most of the talking – and my Pa and my younger sister Sylvie.”

“It’s a pleasure to meet you,” Cliff’s Pa said softly.

“Thanks for taking care of Percy!” Sylvie added.

“You know Percy, now that I’ve met them, even I’m a little upset you didn’t tell them we were coming through,” Cliff said, grinning.

Percy’s mom nodded emphatically. “I knew from my boy’s letters that I’d like you, Cliff. When they finally bring our drinks out, lets show them how good old fashioned farm folk make fun.”

Thalos sighed. Already, he could tell this was going to be a long night.

***

“Loria, slow down,” Cliff moaned from where he was sprawled out in the back of the trailer. Their trail trolley, a smaller version of the one they’d ridden to Clearspring in the day before, was far less forgiving than the bigger model, and every dip in the road sent the entire thing shaking.

“No,” Loria said levelly. “Templar Roose warned us not to drink too much last night – if you’re going to ignore his warnings, I’m going to ignore your complaints.” Another rough bump, and Cliff whined a complaint, clutching at his stomach.

“Water, Thalos, please,” Cliff said, stretching towards a canteen that was just out of reach. Thalos looked at his roommate with a mixture of amusement and disgust, sighing as he reached over, knocking the bottle of water towards his open hand. Cliff made a grateful noise as he pulled out the stopper, sipping and spilling some on his shirt.

He’d been fine enough when Thalos pulled him out of bed, and, thankfully, the hangover had not reared its ugly head until after they were on the road.

“Cliff,” Nym said, turning around and looking at Thalos’s roommate with concern, “Loria’s wondering if you set the timer to take the magic exposure readings.”

“Don’t worry, I did,” Thalos said. Nym smiled appreciatively, sparing Cliff one more pitied look before she turned back towards the front.

“I think I’m going to die,” Cliff said after another particularly rough patch of trail.

“Two hours,” Loria barked, “I’m giving you two hours to pull yourself together – after that, we need to start foraging trail-side. If you’re not recovered enough to move by then, I’m going to get mad. You understand?”

Cliff made an indecipherable noise. “I think that means yes,” Thalos called back.

“It had very well better,” Loria replied. Thalos sighed, hoping this wasn’t a sign of how things would go for the rest of the Hands-on.