“My organization has existing arrangements with every kingdom, principality, and academy in the realms. Yours is new, and therefore not among those.”
“So every time we want to see if one of our students has gained a rank, we have to pay youthis?” I gestured at the outlandish sum.
“And there are no refunds if they are not advanced. Also note, there is an additional fee each time one of our testers has to travel to a different location.”
That had to be the hundreds of Obols fortravel to or through a dangerous realmclause. They were acting like they’d have to cross lava flows to reach us. “We’re still in the city. It’s a leisurely hour’s carriage ride from here.”
“Correction. The Under Slump isnotpart of this fine city, sir.” The gnome sniffed after correcting me, likehow dare you insinuate that trash is related to us?“It’s a tumor that hasgrown upon this city’s flank, and frankly, I’m surprised the Council hasn’t excised it entirely.”
“We can come up here. Surely, I could work out a lower rate than this if we were to make an appointment at your convenience and only bring one student at a time who we’re certain is ready to advance in rank. We’d hate to waste anyone’s time.”
Tester Ritter shook his head. “That’s not how things are done around here, Mr. Carnavon. We have a system. That system has rules. Without those rules, there would be pandemonium.”
“Bereft of tradition, we’d be no different than the lawless Slumps,” the gnome added.
I was asking them to test a handful of students, not to police marauding gangs of nightbolgs. “This seems more a racket than a system.”
They both gasped at that, likehow rude, such tone.
Tester Ritter grew rather annoyed by my plain-speaking ways. “It is unfortunate that your Master Haddar has loudly voiced a similar slanderous opinion in public about this department several times in the past. He has been rather vocal in his criticism of how the Nexus Council chooses to manage things.”
So that was the real issue. It was as if every day I got to learn about someone else Gaul Haddar once mortally offended in this city. It was just my luck that the only rank ten who’d adopt us was seen as a barbaric pariah. “Could we discuss?—”
Ritter interrupted me. “Look at the time. I’m afraid I have another appointment I must attend to now, Mr. Carnavon. The watchmen will show you out. Good day.”
Once outside, I fumed for a bit, but standing around angry wasn’t going to accomplish anything. My visit to the testers had proved fruitless, but since I’d come all this way, I decided to stop by a certain location within the Collegium. A saying here in theCore that I liked waskill two birds with one stone.That wasn’t something we said in Fogo, as we didn’t have flesh and blood birds there, since their feathers would promptly catch on fire should they land, but the saying made sense in principle.
Each academy had its own library, full of secret tomes they guarded zealously. I’d been told that there was also a library in the Collegium maintained by the Council, which was open to representatives of all the academies for research purposes. There were no spellbooks there, but rather, this was the place where the city collected all its official documents and records pertaining to magical affairs.
There was no way they’d have let the likes of me in there before, but I was now armed with a fancy letter bearing the stamp of Ambassador Dardick Argent declaring me the official interim representative of a real honest-to-goodness magical academy. It was worth a try.
After asking a passerby, I was told the Collegium’s Hall of Public Records was on the far side of the district, backed up against the mountain. When I got there, I found that it was more built into the mountain than on it, as they’d carved a giant vault straight into the stone. From how everything about it appeared squat and brutal, surely the place had been built by dwarves.
It was much busier than expected, with many people coming and going. By some miracle, my letter actually got me past the watchmen and inside. However, it appeared my luck would end there.
The stern old lady at the counter looked me over and could tell I was no scholar. “What do you want, boy?”
“I’m seeking any documentation you’ve got about a little island in the bay named Korthican’s Warning.”
“Korthican’s Warning, is it?” She laughed in my face. “Are you daft?”
“Not particularly.” The sullen testers I could understand, but I wasn’t sure what I’d done to give offense here already. I hadn’t even shown her my letter, so the government lady wasn’t among Gaul Haddar’s admiring legions. “What’s so funny about my request?”
“You think you’re the first dumb-ass adventurer to come here trying to do research, thinking he’s going to take a run at that place? So, to get in here, did you bribe some sucker from an academy to vouch for you? Or did you just forge the papers?”
I glanced around, but it was just a bunch of other little old ladies on one side of a counter, separated by thick glass and a small window from the patrons who’d been waiting in line to get help. Once the requests were put in, the ladies would comb through their shelves until they found the right documents and bring them back. I must’ve gotten in the wrong line.
“Excuse me, ma’am?”
“Don’t look to any of them to save you, and don’t waste my time acting like your delicate feelings are hurt, kid. I’ve worked here twice as long as you’ve been alive. Everyone here can recognize an adventurer looking for an angle a mile away. We’re supposed to throw patrons out once we figure out they’re illegitimate,but… we can be convinced to look away.”
“This isn’t fake.” I took out the letter and handed it through the window. “I’m from a real academy.”
“Sureyou are.” She took one brief glance at the Argent’s seal, winked at me, then passed it back. “Because public records are only to be used for proper research duties, you’re a right proper wizard doing right proper and respectable wizardly research on some notorious ruins, and not some ruffian adventurer looking for information on how to better plunder the city’s ancient bits. We’veneverseen that before here, no sir!”
Her manner of speaking reminded me of home. “Are you from Fogo?”
“Close. Born on Ohen, but I’ve lived in the Core for a real long time. You barge cadre, boy?”
