It was easy to spend a week in luxury being waited on hand and foot. My days were a mix of idle bliss as people cared for me in a manner I could get used to. I thought I'd have to make sure Rach and I worked out so that I could be kept in this style.

The blissful time was juxtaposed with the utter frustration of dealing with the bureaucratic behemoth that was the Mages Guild. I almost screamed when I found out that there was an entire school of magic called Bureauromancy, and you could become a Bureauromancer. You would learn unique skills and spells like Bureaucracy – Grease the Wheel, Correspondence - War of Words and Confusion, and Economics - War of Wages. Economics Disrupt, Patternicity - War of Connections, Apophenia and Contracts.

You could earn titles like Pact Breaker and Pact Binder and have a guaranteed income stream for all graduates who chose it as their primary school. It was all laid out in a small pamphlet that the School of Bureauromancy provided to prospective Academy attendants. Each of the other schools had similar informational packages. Getting students to choose a school to major in was fierce competition. Of the twenty official schools within the Academy, some were obviously named, and some had more esoteric connections. Despite my best efforts, I could only find eighteen of them. I was given very evasive answers when I inquired about the two missing schools. No one spoke about them, and they were not listed anywhere.

Due to my class, Mystic Spell Dancer, being on the general Mage pathway and a subclass of Battlemage, I had to enrol in what I considered the Magic for Dummies course. I would not gain a specialisation until I had completed my first three years. Instead, I would dip my toes into most schools and major in one area. I needed this despite having a specialisation.

Claudia had been adamant that I was to enrol as a Level 9 Mage. It was at the bottom of the ladder in terms of magical prestige. I am sure part of my frustration stemmed from being cut off from my friends and being bureaucratically blocked at nearly every turn. The Mage's Guild wanted credits and would take every opportunity to get them from you.

I had to move from my luxurious apartment to on-campus accommodation. I had the choice of a twelve-bedroom shared dorm, one bathroom and food hall for all 40 associated dorms or the moderately private duplex apartment. One was expensive, and the other was purely obnoxious in price. It was not a wonder I found the other side of the duplex empty and waiting for another sucker to move in. Luckily for me, I had some funds. Thanks, Rax. I still felt guilty about the sheer amount of money, and I was going to sit down with Mike, Julie, and now Rach to work out what to do with it all. Having all this cash when others did it rough created a distracting, nagging feeling. I wanted to use it for something good and something that would make a difference, and sitting in some vague System area was not doing anyone any good.

My rooms were quite nice, nothing special, but very comfortable. They also had a small practice area, which I had turned into a meditation area. I had the top floor of a five-story building, which, like anything here, cost more. The room was bright and airy, with a large balcony overlooking a courtyard garden on the ground floor. Once I got to campus, I had two days to register before classes started.

Ugh. End of the world, and I was going back to school.

I stood in line for nearly three hours. It felt like more. I got to the Academy Admissions Office two minutes early and was third last. There were one hundred new admissions. The line slowly snaked forward into the dim hall.

You are under the effects of Weight the Wheel. 20% increase in time perception. Reduced cognition for bureaucratic tasks. Increased chance of making errors.

What? Is that legal? Fuck. Kill me now. I was not allowed to resist this; Claudia had asked me not to. I tried to look just like all the rest of the sheeple.

Once inside, we waited for a turn at the admissions counter, where three admissions officers dealt with each prospective student. Some were spoken to and given actual paper to fill out, which they did, and then they joined the line again. It seemed that most people took at least two goes to get sorted, as I noticed the people were joining the line behind me. Some guards walked up and down, scowling at new mages and making everyone uncomfortable.

I grabbed a fresh latte from my inventory. A guard quickly came forward with a frown and pointed at a no-eating or drinking sign in a dark corner. Even with my high perception, I had to squint at the sign to see that the icons were indeed food and drink. My student account was fined for my transgression.

Finally, I made my way to the front, and a rather dapper gentleman called me forward with a well-practiced "Next". He didn't even look up.

I waited as he finished whatever it was he was doing. Finally, he looked up with a bored look, "Yes?"

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His name tag, which was upside down, read "Mage Benjamin Brophy".

I really didn't snicker.

He must have seen the slight upturn in my mouth as I read his badge because he frowned.

"Yes, yes? Hurry up."

"My name is Sarah Owens, and I want to enrol."

He stared at me.

I waited.

"Where is your paperwork?"

I handed over the one sheet I had been given as part of my entrance package.

He looked it over for close to five minutes.

"Ok, PAC Owens, you must be interviewed as part of your admissions. I need you to fill out these forms and wait until you are called for your interview. Bring these papers, filled out correctly and the appropriate fee."

He handed me a small volume of paper.

"PAC?"

He sighed, "Provisional Academy Candidate, don't they teach you anything in orientation?"

"What is the appropriate fee? Nothing about additional fees is in the charter or the entrance package," I asked calmly.

Solace: Do you need me to lower your blood pressure? At your Tier, your emotional responses should not elicit this sort of reaction.

No.

It was almost a growl.

"Next", he said, ignoring me.

I stood for a moment.

"Next", and I noticed a guard approaching me.

I scowled at him and went to a bench to fill out my forms.

Ten pages of yes-no questions about my health, mental health, relationships, and political views. What are they doing? Paper forms. What the hell?

Wisely, Solace ignored me.

I finished filling forms out and waited and waited. The line was gone, and two of the attendants left. All the guards except one left. Benjamin looked over at me now and then. Ten minutes before the office closed, he called me over.

"I will see you now. Bring your paperwork and pay the fee."

Solace paid the fee.

I gave him the papers, which he placed on his desk without looking at them.

"Congratulations, Sarah Owens, Provisional Junior Mage First Year. You are now enrolled in the Academy. You have Enchantment, Illusion Destruction, and GSM. You have one course for each session this year. Don't fail. Here is your first-year course package. Read it before tomorrow. Good day."

He handed me several large books, a scroll, and a box.

"Wait!"

He had started packing up as he spoke. He looked up.

"I need to talk to someone about specific training." Crap. I didn't want to tell him too much.

"If you impress your course instructors, you can deal with them directly. Your appointment with your Path Guidance Officer is midway through your second year."

"I need to see someone about my Path sooner." I tried not to sound needy.

Benjamin smiled, "Well, you should have thought about that when you didn't pay the additional appropriate fee up front and made a fuss about it."

"What? Are you talking about a bribe?"

The academic guide, according to his badge, disguised as a guard, standing behind me, said, "It's time for you to leave PAC Ownes. That is one black mark on your record. Too many of those and your Provisional Guild Membership is revoked."

I didn't entirely flee back to my apartment in frustration.

I did not want to spend the evening reviewing the course materials, so I decided to do that after looking through the packages delivered by the Reserve's Tailor.

I needed the therapy.

I had more than enough academy casuals to wear, so I was happy with the selection that had been left. There was some formal and semi-formal wear with matching boots and accessories. Pins and armbands must have been in this year, as most of the outfits had one or both. There were several official uniforms to wear, so I added them to my Leaf of Broken Seasons.

It had been some time since I updated my Leaf of Broken Seasons, so I spent quality time gossiping with Solace and sorting out an appropriate wardrobe for each class. Thanks to Solace's efforts over the last few weeks, I could fit all the new outfits into the hacked slots. This took longer than expected as I was more critical and less trusting of my fashion sense despite my skills. I knew what I liked but was out of touch with current trends.

I had Caseuna to blame and Rach, who had a unique, if not impeccable, sense of dress. I catalogued the outfits by class with casual, formal and active variations. Most people here wore diverse clothes when out of uniform, so it would be reasonably safe no matter what I picked. Or so I hoped.

I read over the course materials, comparing my experiences here with the brief time I had at James Cook University before the world went to shit.

The Destruction School's course, Managing Mana Aspects, sounded interesting. The scroll included was Mana Dart, an unexpected variation on Ice Dart. The course premise was to teach the different aspects of Mana so mages could eventually self-learn elemental spells from their unexpected base spells.

Enchantment sounded quite dull, but I suspected it would be something I needed if I wanted to continue to learn to be a MagiFashionista. The introduction to Enchanting was a theory base for learning enchanting patterns, and the materials in the box that cost a fortune when enrolling in the course were for learning how to scribe templates with Liquid Mana™ before learning how to do it with our own Mana next year. Loads of learning and practice.

The Illusion course promised to be a cross between a psychology case study and an art class, Introduction to Fake Reality. No classroom was listed, and no course materials. The most useful for me was the GMS or General Mage Studies. This was where I could learn how to use Mana Manipulation – although not the Tier 2 or higher versions. They were for the third year and beyond. Since I had no basis in any mage training, it would be good for me. To say Solace was overjoyed I would be learning some basic magicraft and safety was an understatement.

Once I had read through all my materials and made sure I knew where I was supposed to be and what I would need for tomorrow, I decided to have a relaxing bath and good night's sleep even though biologically, I did not need either.

When I woke up the next morning with the bureaucratic nightmares from the day before being repressed, I used Leaf of Broken Seasons: Illusion Class and left my dorm room ready to return to school.