I shocked awake as the carriage rolled to a stop, blearily rubbing at my eyes as sounds of civilisation bled through the carriage, signalling that we had, at least, arrived somewhere inhabited. As I clambered out of the back of the carriage I looked around me at the area, taking in our destination and why we stopped. The people bustling around were mostly a mix of twelve to 15 year olds, with the occasional older instructors appearing every so often heading somewhere or teaching a kid.
“Lively eh kid?” A voice called out from behind me, revealing itself to be John as I turned around and looked at him, “don’t worry, you’ll be one of them soon enough, have fun finding somewhere quiet to meditate though” he guffawed, walking off and leaving me to crystal for her to deal with me again.
“I’ve half a mind to report him” Crystal grumbled under her breath, climbing out of the carriage, “ well, lets get you registered” she continued and began to walk off. Quickly following her, I kept looking around as we walked, trying to see if there were any tells that someone was particularly strong. There wasn’t, although the nobles were easy to pick out, what with their fawning crowds of kids surrounding them.
We came to a large tent, strangely serene, where crystal called out a “reporting” into the tent entrance before we promptly entered. The first thing that popped into my mind was that this man was old, with his long white beard, wrinkles, and both his aura and demeanour that spoke of years of experience. The second was “rude brat”. My reasonable reaction was to suddenly flick my head to both sides, much to the amusement of both the old man and Crystal, before he “spoke” again. “You wont find much there, try thinking a bit, what could we have in common?” he cryptically spoke, lips not moving, and it struck me a moment later. “telepathy?” I exclaimed, eyes widening, I had been wondering how I could get that, given I was apparently on a “Mentalist“ path, and telepathy is basically the butter in the bread and butter combo of any mind based power set. I immediately tried to feel my mind out as I awaited his response, not willing anything to happen as a result, just trying to feel, as I felt a tendril of through connect to my mind. Immediately paying full attention to it, I passively felt around the tendril, examining it and attempting to form my own toward Crystal to test. “hmmm, gifted. We’ll assign with a gilded brat, hopefully they’ll both learn something from that” the old man snorted in my head as he returned to writing something on the papers on his desk. “party him with Seris and a couple of her friends, lucky brat” he chuckled, ignoring us further as Crystal grabbed my shoulder and led me out. As we walked out, I formed an attempt at a tendril of my own thoughts, each strand braiding itself with the others in order to keep coherence as I touched Crystal’s mind with it. ‘Hello? Can you hear me?’
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Skill Telepathy: Learnt
Crystal flinched, before turning to me with a weird look on her face. “ did you just learn how to do that?” she asked,
‘yes?’ I responded, tilting my head a little as I looked up at her surprised expression.
“I suppose he saw you beginning to learn that while he spoke with us, explains why he decided to place you with Seris of all people” she responded, making me worry a little. Just who was this “Seris” to warrant that “of all people” at the end of her sentence I wondered, noticing we were moving toward a larger tent. As we entered the tent, I looked around at the rows of bunk beds, with other boys my age occupying about half of them, and almost every top bunk was naturally taken.
“You’ll be collected tomorrow morning to meet your new party, good luck kid, you show promise” she left behind her as she turned around and left me there in the tent, with a bunch of people I don’t know, in a foreign place. Lovely.
“Sooo, hey?” I awkwardly called out, looking at the other boys who were now watching my every move, as one walked over to me.
“Yo brother, welcome, don’t worry, we’re all friends here” he called out as he swung an arm around my shoulder and led me to a bunk in the corner of the room. “Name’s James, I’m on my second year here, almost out of this place and on the road to riches hey”, he explained, elbowing me in the side. “Don’t worry, I'll help guide you while I’m still around, here, this top bunk’s still free” he finished as we stepped up to the corner bunk bed. “The chest on the right is the top bunk, not that you have anything just yet, but when you do remember that” he explained, gesturing to the two chests at the foot of the bunk bed.
“thanks man” I said, climbing up onto the top bunk and laying back on it, “my names Ecrais by the way” I called back down to him, relaxing into the surprisingly decently soft bedding.
“Ecrais? You a noble or just got a fancy ass name?” he responded,
“Nah, I’m not a noble, although I think my dad may have been somewhat of a big shot adventurer” I rolled over to look over the edge of the bed and responded,
“Heh, everyone's is around here it seems” he smiled back, “oh well, I’m heading off, feel free to hang out, an instructor will fetch you tomorrow as that woman said, so there’s nothing you really need to do.” he called, heading over to his bed somewhere on the other side of the large tent, other guys moving to let him pass with a hint of respect in their eyes, it seemed he was looked up to by most people here, wasn’t hard to figure out why, he seemed pretty nice overall.