The 9th of Aggrave, Year 373 P.R.F. (High Lunar Cycle)

  The Cetimos Ministry of Summoning’s Testing and Isolation Facility #2, on the outskirts of Drebos Altimas

  "You know, if you're really hoping to be rid of me, you might consider being a bit more cooperative," Lady Elutria imparted, slyly. "We tried to get your skills assessed this morning. If you hadn't decided to be needlessly willful, we could be done by now. A little paperwork, a quick trip back to Drebos Altimas, and we could have had you up in front of the Ministry's registrar by tomorrow. Maybe think on that."

  Master Thomas frowned at this, and leaned forward in his seat. I'm pretty sure I was frowning myself. But it was Rudolpho who managed to speak first. "Hmmm. Now that's an interesting thing to say. The assessment of Secia's skills is one thing, but there are also the Tests. When I expressed my belief that Secia had passed the Tests of Restraint, Passion, and Thought, I seem to recall someone vetoing me on two of those. And of course, it's the summoner who has the final vote on these matters."

  Rudolpho’s words may not have led any visible frowning by Lady Elutria, but the smug look on her face disappeared into her more unreadable mask. "At the time, with the information available to me, that was the only responsible call I could make. It's not as if I suggested she failed the tests. Just that I couldn't yet agree that she'd met the required criteria. No other summoner is asked to make those judgements so quickly. It's only reasonable that I wait until I had more opportunities to properly observe Secia."

  "Hmm, yes. But then, no other summon needs so little time and assistance to begin speaking with us."

  "I'm willing to acknowledge that the circumstances here aren't typical," she allowed, cautiously.

  "But you just spoke with such confidence of having Secia up before the registrar by tomorrow, if only her assessment was complete. But that would only be possible if she had passed all of her Tests...?" suggested Rudolpho, leadingly.

  Lady Elutria sighed. Then she began to recite flatly, "Now that I've had additional time to observe Secia, including how she has chosen to handle and react to the challenging circumstances we've presented her with, it is my professional judgement that Secia has passed the Test of Passionate Spirit, as well as the Test of Reasonable Thought and Judgement. Happy?"

  Rudolpho broke into one of his wider grins, "In my role as the senior mage present, I do concur with the summoner's assessment in these matters."

  Hesra kept a more stoic look on her face, but her tone was approving as she stated, "I do hearby witness this judgement, and note it for the record."

  The three then paused, and Hesra shot Master Thomas an expectant look. "Wha... Oh! I too witness and take note!" he finished. I'm not sure if Rudolpho was smiling any harder at this, but Hesra permitted a small upward tick by one corner of her mouth. Lady Elutria didn't quite roll her eyes, but I got the impression she wanted to. "There, happy?" she asked Rudolpho.

  "Oh not quite. I did say all the Tests," prompted a very amused Rudolpho.

  Lady Elutria squirmed ever so slightly in her seat. Much more reluctantly, she stated, "...It is my professional judgement that Secia has passed the Test of Quality of Spirit. Barely."

  "I'd like to add my concurrence, if appropriate, but I can't do so unless I properly understand what I'm agreeing to. There are many difference ways one might pass the Test of Quality. Which three virtues has Secia demonstrated?"

  I hadn't been entirely sure what to make of things so far, but I admit my ears did perk up a little at this. Given the glance Lady Elutria gave me, I suspect she noticed. With another sigh, she stated, "Honesty, compassion, ...and mercy."

  Rudolpho showed a modicum of surprise at this. "Honesty and compassion, I'd certainly guessed. I heartily agree. But I must admit that I had assumed the third would be patience. Mercy?"

  Lady Elutria shook her head tightly. "I cannot support patience. The judgement would be tainted by... circumstances."

  "Still, you believe she's demonstrated substantial mercy?"

  "Yes."

  "Is that all you intend to say?"

  "Yes."

  Rudolpho continued to look slightly incredulous, but seemed to decide to let the matter go. "While I'm unaware of the way or ways Secia has demonstrated mercy since being summoned, I also cannot conceive of any credible reason why I should object. I am happily willing to defer to her summoner in this matter. And given my personal judgement that she has also demonstrated both honesty and compassion, I will also concur that Secia has passed the test of Quality!"

  Hesra and Master Thomas each chimed in with another "Witnessed and noted" of their own, and relaxed a bit in their seats, smiling.

  Lady Elutria asked Rudolpho, half-sarcastically, "Satisfied? You've made your silly point. Secia's passed her Tests, and you've cornered me into admitting it. Are we done here?"

  "Not quite," said Rudolpho, taking a more serious tone. "It's true that we need to complete our assessment of her skills before we present Secia to the registrar. But there is more than one acceptable way to do that. And it's only until a summon passes their Tests that we are required to isolate them in this facility. Now that Secia has proven in our eyes that she can be trusted to behave herself here in our world, confinement is no longer necessary."

  "You mean...?" I asked, hopefully.

  "Potentially, yes. But again it's also the summoner who has the final say here, on which form of assessment might be most appropriate and effective."

  "You obviously have something in mind, old man. Just tell me what you want me to agree to, so I can tell you properly how foolish it is," an exasperated Lady Elutria prodded.

  With another smile, Rudolpho offered, "I suggest a field test. Rather than taking the High Road back to Drebos Altimos, why not make our way back overland? A few days at our leisure, allowing Secia to demonstrate a wide range of skills, should she possess them. We could even take a detour or two, if there is something special we need Secia to demonstrate."

  The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

  "What? All this, this, this pointless maneuvering, just so you can turn our duties into what? Some kind of working vacation?!"

  "I'm being entirely serious," Rudolpho said, although I'm not sure the broad grin on his face was particularly convincing on this score.

  "You know..." Master Thomas began, "...hmm. Even if it were to take us two whole weeks to make our way back, we'd still be returning to the city in just under a month since you received your commission, with a summon ready to be fully accredited in tow."

  Some of Lady Elutria's affronted demeanor thawed, but she said nothing. I held my breath, unsure what might sway her to let me leave this place, and its attendant sense of confinement regardless of however nicely it might be decorated. But after a beat Master Thomas continued, "We'd even be back before the start of the Rathways Summit."

  "If it's truly permissible for us to assess Secia in another locale," Lady Elutria glanced at Rudolpho for confirmation, "I suppose that out in the valley is as practical a place to conduct it as anything we could accomplish here. I can only trust my senior mage and advisor has some legitimate basis for these recommendations, and I look forward to having him clarify this for me, in detail, before I truly consent and we depart. But I see no need to hold everyone here while he does so. I respectfully ask that the three of you begin preparing for our departure, unless I find Rudolpho's logic... less than convincing." She looked upward at the sky, and continued "Please pursue your preparations with the assumption we'll depart early tomorrow morning. We may as well get one last night's sleep in a proper bed, before we deliberately go out of our way to wander aimlessly in the wild. Now if you'd leave Rudolpho and I to speak privately, I have some words for him."

  *****

  It was with an excited bounce in my step that I followed Hesra and Master Thomas down the stairs, back into the tower, to begin packing for our imminent departure. For me, this mostly meant trailing behind Hesra as she went from one storeroom to another in the upper portion of the tower, among hallways on the far side of the kitchen where breakfast had been prepared not so long ago. I had no real idea of where we were going or what Hesra intended to retrieve at each stop, but I still found it fascinating to see just how much was tucked away. Not to mention the sheer variety of goods on display.

  Oversized backpacks and some waxed canvas from one storeroom was a fairly straightforward acquisition, although I wasn't expecting to see so many identical backpacks hung from wooden racks. I didn't exactly have the time to properly count them, but I'm almost certain it was more than thirty. A different storeroom was entirely devoted to crystalline rods of various colors, almost identical in length and each nearly as long as my forearm. Hesra carefully selected two of them, one pale blue and the other pale green, before turning to leave. When I asked her what they were, she smiled and said "It's so no more than one person will need to keep watch at a time as we sleep at night."

  From another room, I was told one anonymous canvas sack contained a collection of portable cookware. But Hesra also collected from that storeroom five small tin boxes that I could easily hold stacked atop one hand, confusingly described as "bedrolls". I had thought some large glass bottles protectively cushioned within a wire frame might be potions and got quite excited, but Hesra laughed and corrected me with "lamp oil". From yet another storeroom, Hesra picked up another sack, much smaller than the one containing the cookware and light enough to comfortably be hung from a belt, along with what I'd swear were a small pair of metal pliers. I could make no sense of how they were intended to be used, even after Hesra claimed that it was 450 ft of spare rope, for our collective use on the road.

  I wasn't completely useless, though - very swiftly, I was pressed into service as a pack mule, awkwardly carrying our growing collection of travel goods. Nor was I the only one asking questions. From time to time, Hesra would query me on whether I knew any spells to smooth along one mundane aspect of woodcraft or another, to which I almost universally needed to reply "no". But I did get an approving glance once when I mentioned I could purify our food or water of diseases and toxins. I received a second one when I confirmed I could ward the group against biting insects and foul gasses, whether settled into a campsite or up and moving on the road.

  She did also ask me about what I could contribute to our camp skills with a... less magical approach, and was much less impressed with me. For all that I'd spent much more of my time as an adventurer out in the untamed wilderness instead of tucked behind a city wall, back home in Thersia, I'd never really felt the need to dig a firepit, or stake out a tent. I tried to convince Hesra that I really was as well traveled as I claimed, and had voyaged across both deserts of sand and deserts of ice with equal ease. But her skepticism only seemed to grow the more I shared, much to my confusion.

  Each time Hesra and I became overloaded, we returned to the dining hall where we had eaten earlier to drop off another load of goods. Master Thomas had been collecting his own piles, which as near as I could tell mostly consisted of various foodstuffs in different containers. Although given my experiences with Hesra, I wasn't quite sure how well I could trust my judgement on this score, either.

  It was the fourth time we returned to once again deposit yet another load of travel supplies, both familiar and not, that we found Lady Elutria sorting and organizing the various piles.

  "Still departing in the morning?" Hesra asked, cheerfully.

  Lady Elutria didn't look up from her work, but she acknowledged Hesra question with a businesslike nod. "Yes, we will be."

  "Excellent! We've gathered nearly everything, I think. We have the armory yet to go, but I thought that'd be best seen to with all of us present. The others?"

  "Rudolpho's in the kitchen. He thought people might appreciate lunch soon. I think Thomas is still raiding the larders. I'm not sure why; I'm not sure we even have enough room in our bags for everything he's grabbed already."

  I took a more proper look at where Master Thomas had been piling up his selections, and I had to admit Lady Elutria seemed to have a point. The bags and boxes came to about my waist, and the pile was maybe more than twice as wide. I had to smother a quiet snort, and Lady Elutria looked up at me from where she was sitting before glancing away. It had been very quick, and I was hesitant to believe my own eyes, but maybe she'd had a slight smile of her own? I couldn't say for sure; it was not something I was used to seeing.

  *****

  The three of us working together managed to get about half of everything we'd collected sorted and tucked away in one bag or backpack or another - that is, half of the non-edible supplies; we’d yet to touch the foodstuffs - by the time Rudolpho began serving up lunch. Master Thomas returned once again from some hallway I'd yet to explore, several sacks clutched in each hand and one dangling from between his teeth, which he added alongside everything else before sitting down to join us in the meal. It almost felt companionable... but no one seemed inclined to chat as they ate. I honestly wasn't sure what to make of it.

  I almost considered trying to break the ice myself, but I was having a hard time coming up with some item of small talk I could bring up, without worry that I might be asking something I shouldn't. Whatever ease of conversation Master Thomas and I had shared this morning, while waiting for the others to arrive for their breakfast, seemed to have fled me now. I remained excited to see what could be seen outside these walls, and was curious about what our journey might actually be like, but my words continued to fail me. It was rather disquieting, actually, and I wasn't sure what to make of it.

  And so by the time we'd finished eating, my excitement had become somewhat shadowed by the addition of a sour edge to it.

  *****

  I helped carry our lunch dishes back into the kitchen, and then handed them one by one to Lady Elutria. She arranged each of them carefully, in what I now recognized as this kitchen's wash closet. I'm not quite sure what the logic was that Lady Elutria was following - just why one bowl was placed there, like so, while this other bowl went over there, angled that way. All the same, I did feel at least slightly proud to now know just as much about things here as I did. I might not be as comfortable with the common conveniences these people knew and took for granted, but I could learn. And between this and our earlier quiet cooperation with the packing, it did feel like maybe Lady Elutria and I could find a way to get along, after all.

  Still, even if I had reluctantly agreed to forgive her for everything up to her apology earlier, I hadn't forgotten her glee at the idea of my petitioning to break our bond, either.

  Dishes seen to, we rejoined the others, who had been continuing to work on the packing. Rudolpho looked up at our entrance, and stated "I think this might be a good moment for us to stop by the armory."