At 8:30 in the morning, Nero woke up to the wonderful sound of a working alarm. The night before, he had spent 30 minutes programming 3 alarms to hit one after another with a 1 second delay between them. The result was a delightful tune; one which was entirely NOT a waste of time. Greeting the new day with a smile, he stretched his arms over his head in victory.

Stepping over the robes he had discarded the night before, Nero walked past his desk, which was littered with notes on magic and questions he wanted answered. While collecting his last clean robe from the cabinet, he noticed the new end table, that was delivered the night before, was still sitting by the door. Giving his backside a scratch, he went into the bathroom for his morning ritual.

Only 20 minutes later, he was dressed and ready for the day. Shoving his dirty clothes into the provided laundry bag, he thought to himself, ‘I need to get more clothes, this is my last clean robe. I’m sure as hell not going to wear the starter commoner gear I woke up with.'

After grabbing his link, Nero threw his satchel filled with study materials over his shoulder, and left for the dining room. The hallways were relatively empty, apparently everyone started their day a little earlier than Nero.

On the way to the cafeteria, Nero dropped his laundry bag through the laundry-shoot in the hall. The information in the link said that it would be returned to his room within 2 days. Resuming his walk, he idly wondered if he will return to see it sitting on his bed and folded like a laundry service in the movies.

So far, he’d been having a productive morning.

Nero enjoyed the fact that this world had 30 hours in a day. Considering that he liked to sleep, he figured that he could get a good 10 hours of shut-eye, and still be up at 8:30. After a quick shower, he’d be at work by 10, even with a coffee and a danish on the way, all while not having to rush.

Making his way through the illustrious halls of the Center, Nero exchanged polite nods with the few people he passed along the way. ‘Walking everywhere will be good for me,’ he thought to himself.

With a smile on his face and a pep in his step, Nero made it through the lobby, hoping to avoid the hawk. Luckily, she wasn’t there, and the coast was clear. Heading into the dining hall, he wondered where everyone was. There were some people scattered throughout the very large room, but this was the emptiest he had ever seen it. Nero was unaware that most people were already in classes for the day.

Shrugging, he decided he didn’t care what everyone was up to. Blissfully ignoring the things he didn’t want to think about, he went to get some coffee and a full breakfast. Nero had no reason to settle for a pastry, as he had nowhere to be.

Seated and happy, Nero connected to his link (which he thought of as this world’s phone-equivalent) to check his messages. The feeling of looking at his phone while eating his breakfast was glorious. Checking the pings that were waiting for him was easy. Unfortunately, It seemed he had accidentally ignored a few requests for his presence.

Mrs. Salvatore had pinged him earlier in the morning. She wanted Nero to meet her at 7 in her office. Apparently, the meeting was going to be about a different, LATER meeting that she was going to have with Nick, Ms. Averett, and Captain Angelton. It seemed that Nero was supposed to attend that meeting too. Since the meeting about the meeting was confusing, he put it in the pile of ‘things to deal with later’. Labeling the message read, he moved on to the other pings which were waiting for his attention.

Mrs. Salvatore had written another ping, this one had more information about the meeting scheduled for 8 which was the meeting the first ping had warned him about. There were other pings from each of the meeting attendees about various things, but he barely glanced at them, and just marked them as ‘read’. The situation was getting out of hand.

Nero finished his breakfast, his smile now gone. With a sour look on his face, as his morning was ruined, he decided it was best to just go deal with the source of his frustration. After turning in his dishes at the cleaning station, Nero headed off toward Mrs. Salvatore’s office. He thought it best to start with her, as she was the first ping sender of the day, and also the one who could probably fix all the other issues that were brought up in the very official looking m-mails. ‘I need to remember to start calling them pings,’ he reminded himself.

Using his link to navigate the hallways to Mrs. Salvatore’s office was no problem, and he soon found himself standing awkwardly at her door. He pinged it, and waited for the feeling of welcome.

Tapping his foot and humming to himself, Nero internally congratulated himself on his patience.

Instead of the feeling of welcome he was expecting, he received a connection request from Mrs. Salvatore. Mentally opening the connection, he was about to say ‘hello’, when a disgruntled Mrs. Salvatore beat him to the punch.

“So you’re up. Why didn’t you pick up the pings this morning, or at very least, read the pings I left?” she asked, without preamble.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

“Um… I always turn my link on ‘do not disturb’ before going to sleep. It was real easy, I just had to think about making myself unavailable and the option came up. What time do people normally get up here?” he asked.

Over the link, Nero could feel it when she sighed. “Just stay at my office, I’m on my way,” she said and then ended the connection.

Nero looked up and down the hallway. There were nice little wooden benches and little pedestals with artistic pots and other useless crap. Although, he thought some of the paintings were nice. The artistically carved wooden edge-work along the ceiling and floor wasn't bad either.

Nero walked over to one of the padded wooden benches, it was about 6 feet long and looked extremely sturdy. Bending over, he picked up one end to check its weight; it was pretty heavy. Setting it back down, he tried to ignore the looks that people were giving him as they passed by. Deciding that he should be more productive, he pulled out a book and sat down.

A few minutes later, while Nero was reviewing how to construct the spell form for pulling water out of the air, he felt Mrs. Salvatore’s gaze. Looking up, he saw that she was still at least 20ft away. He furrowed his brow in confusion.

‘That is weird,’ he thought. It appeared that he was getting really good at recognizing people by their psychic fields.

Mrs. Salvatore walked past Nero while giving him a crisp nod that he charitably labeled as a greeting. Without breaking stride, she opened her office door with a wave of her hand, and walked right in. Nero packed up his book and followed.

“Sorry about missing the meetings that no one told me about,” Nero said, preemptively fending off the anticipated verbal assault.

Mrs. Salvatore offered a 'sniff' in displeasure, then sat behind her desk and summoned some paperwork out of thin air. “Generally, people wake up around 5 or 6. They go to sleep around 29 or 30. Only children sleep more than 5 or 6 hours a day. Are you a child Mr. Walker?” she said.

Not liking the tone, and fully intending to not fall into this dynamic with her, Nero sat down and crossed his legs. “Yes, I am. As a matter of fact, I’m 4 days old. If there is something I don’t know, it’s the fault of those who have been entrusted with my education."

Before she could respond, Nero changed the subject. "By the way, was there any problem with the paperwork I filed last night? I should now be a worker-associate of the Center, right?” Nero asked with a smirk.

Normally people were intimidated by her management voice, but Nero seemed immune. She sighed, and Nero could see the defeat in her eyes. As a result, his smirk only grew wider. They just sat there staring at each other for a good ten seconds.

“Fine Mr. Walker. Can we move on please?” she asked.

Breaking eye contact, she stood up to get herself a cup of coffee from a tray with a pitcher and several mugs. Turning, she offered a questioning look to Nero to see if he wanted one. Receiving a nod, she poured him one as well. After handing him his mug, she then returned to her seat.

“Your paperwork was all filed. Apparently, the Center’s hub didn’t see anything odd about you choosing Nick as your advisor; probably due to the fact that paperwork was already filed for you to be assigned as his lab technician. Because of that, Nick was able to look up your whereabouts this morning through the link. When we realized that you weren’t missing, and were just still sleeping in your room, we did what we could without you. Of particular note was Ms. Averett’s attendance. Last night, she contacted Captain Angelton after finding out that he had spoken with you yesterday. I don’t know how she knew, but she inserted herself into the discussion concerning your class options. She spent a good deal of this morning’s meeting ensuring that you will be properly trained in combat. Nicholas was of the opinion that you would only take basic classes in order to keep in shape, while focusing your time on combat classes exclusively for mage-training,” she said.

Sighing deeply, she continued, “As your advisor, Nicholas should be dealing with all of this. However, as he has never BEEN an advisor, and to be honest, technically neither have I, we had intended you to be included throughout the decision making process. Alas, that plan failed miserably. It is now almost 10:30, and nothing has been finalized.”

By the time she had finished speaking, Mrs. Salvatore had started to glare at Nero as if it were all his fault. Nero knew he better interrupt her before she built up a new head of steam.

Speaking quickly, he said, “Well, I was up late last night studying. You know, really hitting the books. Then this morning I had a really good, healthy breakfast, and then came straight to you when I realized you wanted to see me.”

She snorted, as if Nero had made a joke. “Right. Well, now you can go deal with Nicholas. I won’t be seeing you much, as I have actual work to do. He will act as both your employer and your advisor, so from now on you will be his responsibility. I don’t entirely approve of the deal you have with him, but it is not my place to interfere with your path.”

She then stood up and gave a slight bow. Mrs. Salvatore then implied an end to the conversation by saying, “I truly hope your path remains wide and clear Mr. Walker.”

Recognizing the goodbye for what it was, Nero stood up. The entire situation felt so awkward that he had to ask, “So is that how people say goodbye? I’ve heard it a few times. I mean that whole ‘path remains wide and clear’ thing means 'goodbye' right?”

Mrs. Salvatore looked a little startled, she hadn't been expecting a reply.

Taking a second to formulate a response, she said, “Well typically, if people are going to be seeing each other soon, they just exit the conversation at a logical conclusion point. But right now, since we have a likely prolonged separation, the phrase of wishing someone’s ‘path to remain wide and clear’ is appropriate. It is a polite way to end an interaction on a professional level, as like with a teller, or a merchant. You don’t really say it in a personal interaction. The phrase ‘good bye’ while clear in it’s meaning, doesn’t really MEAN anything.”

Nero felt a little bad. “I know this may sound odd, but you’re one of the few people I know. I don’t want our only relationship to be purely professional. Don’t you have a saying for friends or something. Maybe like, ‘see you later’?”

Vera’s eyes softened a little as she smiled, “There really isn’t one. But now that you mention it, I’d consider you at least an acquaintance. How about we see if we still know each other in a few years, and we can work up to friends.”

Nero realized that people just took a really long view of personal interactions here. Lifespans being what they were, people required a lot of history to be considered a friend.

“Oh, well, even if I’m not your friend, I consider you mine. Our interactions have been professional, but I know in my heart that you are looking out for me. I trust you, and I hope we'll see each other around. Have a great day… I mean, may your path be wide and clear,” he said.

After he stumbled through his goodbye, Nero tossed her a wave, and then made sure to close the door on his way out.

Standing in the hallway, looking at the door, he thought about how old she must be. She’d been married 50 years. She could easily be over a hundred years old, and Nero wouldn’t know. To Nero, she looked, at most, 35.

With a frown, Nero couldn’t help but think to himself, ‘If people live these crazy long lives… then how the hell do they think a 14 year old is an adult? Aren’t years only 300 days here? If I had a calculator, I could figure out what that would be back home. Regardless, that is way too young.’

Shaking his head at the local customs, Nero checked that he had everything he came with. Tightening the strap on his satchel, he walked off.