Vincent Waseygoose POV
Province: Storm Country, Urlocke.
Location: Merina City, Dwarven Magical Tower.
Owned by: Leila Family.
A man in his late 30s was seated in one of the peaceful rooms located on the 5th floor. His blank ferret eyes overlooked the stacks of papers littered across his desk. A small parchment with a delicate reminder sat on the very top of the pile.
'Fledgling's, Young hopefuls, Admission's Exams location.'
He sighed deeply before smoothing his wet hair over his skull. His hair was raven black and lavishly combed using expensive grease he had bought from a fellow who looked like a noble one day.
He carried a hook nose with a thin, small mouth, which gave him the mask of a shrewd fellow. The saving grace towards his looks was his smooth unblemished skin. Giving off the impression that he was still rather youthful. Of course, he had his mother’s lineage to thank for that. A woman with partial Elven blood coursing through her Nordic veins.
*Knock-knock-knock*
“Lord Vincent, may I come in?” A deep voice sounded on the other side of the door.
Vincent sighed despairingly. He only had 10 minutes of peace before they found him again. Today, he knew from the beginning of this laborious day that it would be another bothersome period without any respite.
Vincent moved casually towards the closed wooden door. He unhooked the iron bolts away and allowed the weightless frame to creak open. Standing with his back turned towards the doorway, and he continued trying to look as though the most important thing existed outside. A man entered the room with him, clad in dark leather and with a sword glued to his hip.
“Forgive the intrusion, my Lord, but the fourth emissary has arrived. In total, 4 unseen colleges have sent delegations to observe the trials, whilst 4 have decided not to bother.
A deep sigh escaped Vincent's mouth. He was placed in charge of overseeing the Admissions exam today. His family name hailed from a lineage of old nobles who eventually became a wizarding family with great influence in this side of the Storm country. The only issue was that they were one of many wizard families on this land, and competition for resources was hectic. If not, Vincent might not even be in this god-forsaken country. If only his house hadn’t forced his hand to take on this job, he thought pitifully, knowing this was simply done on the off chance they could curry favour with the celestial court.
“I want the names of the four who decided to ignore our calls?” He spoke with a false fire in his voice, knowing very well he could do little to nothing about their choices to refuse.
“Of course, my lord. Let me see…” the guardsman started to unravel the large parchment in his gloved hands loudly.
“ Out of the 4 attendees from the unseen colleges. The absent schools are… The Divine School; Harmonia Temple, School of Enchantments: Cascadara Covenants. The Abyssal Church at Voiden: the School of Illusions and finally Umbrillian Falls, School of Necromancy.”
Vincent heard the names, and a deep frown set against his face. Those colleges were choosing not to give this trial day any face. That meant the Celestial council would surely be calling for him to provide a detailed report as to why those schools didn’t deem this important event necessary and whether going forward, it, in fact, was all that necessary to begin with. Vincent didn’t really care if that was the case or not; on one hand, the most troublesome of schools had actively chosen not to attend. That was a positive. But he didn’t like the idea of him being in charge of the last open trial admissions test on this island, especially if it were to be scrapped going forward. No doubt those old crones would look for anything to make it the fault of his family. Black lines soon appeared against his forehead whilst he tried to find a positive.
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“Who have Brighthorn sent to delegate matters on behalf of their recruitment?” he turned around to ask the young faced fellow with a spotted face and greasy blonde hair.
“Let me check…” The young man pressed his eyes against the oiled, skinned parchment. The coarse sheet made crunching sounds beneath his busy hands.
“Wh-what? Is this I’m reading…”
“Spit it out then, who have they sent over or do they mock us the same way as the other Arch mages do?”
“N-n-no, my lord… if this proves to be correct. I mean…according to this, L-l-lady Douma has personally come”
Vincents legs almost wobbled the moment he heard that name. He rushed towards the lad standing in boiled leather and snatched the parchment from his grasp.
“Let me see- Give it here!." His eyes busied over the parchment with an eagerness as though his gaze could swallow everything.
"Well, I’ll be damned. Bloodletter personally made the trip here…but why?” Although a part of Vincent was relieved that someone of her status was personally attending, he couldn’t help but suddenly feel a cold sweat drenching his back.
It was as though a divine beast had uninvitingly appeared on his doorstep. He was aware of the rebellion rumours once fixated with her name; behind every powerful Arcanist, there were always murmurs in the dark. ‘This is sure to cause some stir where those big wigs are held up.’ He could also imagine that his family's name would be plastered against countless scrolls and documents regarding how the day went. The corners of his thin mouth curled into a mocking smile. He noticed the look of sheer fear riddled against the youth's face watching him.
“Ahaha, this is fantastic, the more the merrier I say. Good work and let me know if there are any surprises during the exam…better yet I may just take some time out to spectate hmmm perhaps she’s here to poach on a genius who’ll be participating.” Vincent played with that idea but wasn’t completely confident in it, since he was aware of how serious the unseen colleges took recruiting the next gifted Arcanists. Most of the wizard families or Highborne nobles would’ve already been approached by one of the colleges in secret. The open trialled admissions tended to consist of the poor folk or those who might’ve just been unlucky and missed out upon the selection beforehand. The latter were very few and far between though. So again, Vincent was left in the unknown. He shooed the young fellow away and was left alone in his courters when a sudden rogue thought sent a cold chill running down his throat.
He couldn’t help but nervously thumb the sapphire-coloured gem attached to the golden ring squeezed onto his thin finger. Vincent wore a tense expression as he rummaged through a small bag filled with his items. He took out a blue orb and placed it on the table.
He waved his hand over the orb, “ Hear my voice orb of knowing…password…Grasshopper.” A bright light spoke from the centre of the orb. A few moments later a cold chilling voice broke free.
“I thought you had forgotten allll about us Vincent Waseygoose.”
“Tch, I’m guessing you heard all of that then. So is there anything I should know about?” He inquired nervily from the orb
“ Aha, that tone feels like you hate us. But to answer your doubts, then no, Douma Bloodletter’s arrival, as far as we know, is on her own accord. You have nothing to hide no? After all you’re merely our eyes and ears so worry not… it seems for once your mission might not be so boring.”
Vincent rested his back against his leather chair, gazing into the open air. He very much doubted that would be the case.
"Ah, but there was something else." The deep voice spoke from the orb.
Vincent's attention was half roused; he cocked a single eye towards it.
"The doors to the Court of 23 stars have opened. Something has stirred the celestial court awake. Hmm, news regarding someone powerful has reached their ears."
"Like w-w-who?" Vincent understood very well what that could spell for the world if so.
"I can't confirm, but this usually has the feel of a powerhouse's demise. We will know more very soon. But keep your eyes open, and let us know if anyone intriguing catches your eye. The admissions begin in 3 months? That should be enough time to prepare well."
"Yes-yes-I know." He half waved the nagging away. Vincent was too stressed to allow anyone else to bother his already clogged mind.
"Good, and don't fail us."
Vincent waved his hand over the orb again. “ Sleep.” The light dimmed, and the voice faded. He stood up from his seat in silence for a little bit, lost in thought about whether or not he was fighting on the right side of this war.
He sighed before rubbing his temple. By chance, he glanced over his desk and caught the name and short description of one of the young hopefuls attending the admissions. He drew an intrigued look of surprise. Unsure if he was seeing things correctly.
"Ice affinity, 17, S-s rank? by the Gods. Why on earth is such a monster attending so late." He buried his eyes deeper in the length scroll before drawing away at the sound of a rogue noise from the outdoors. He sighed before sneakily removing the page from the pile and putting it between the inside of his robes.
"Demoria ey, hmm, I look forward to meeting you."