SOLDIERS, SCHOLARS, AND SPIES
Summary: Tiffany, Fiona, and Forgal kill all the centaurs at Ambush Camp, before Tiffany and Fiona head back to Divinity's Reach to start Seraph training. Several serious things are discussed that night, and the next day the two are tested for their professions. Fiona, as Catava, gets mesmer easily enough, but Tiffany's (as Kasmeer) ranger test does not go quite as planned.
Chapter twenty-one: The Seraph Training Academy
Author's Notes:
I can't put any A/N at the top or there'll be spoilers. So it's all at the bottom. Or not.
Okay, here's the story now:
Tiffany, Forgal, and Fiona speak to Deborah at Nebo Terrace, who informs them that the 'get-the-centaurs-in-the-pass-and-ambush-them' plan had succeeded, and that there are now no more centaurs on the western side of Guardian's Pass.
The Seraph outpost at Stoneguard Gate is in the process of being set up again, and the centaurs are being held off quite nicely from the north of Nebo Terrace. However, Deborah tells them that the Seraph at Nebo Terrace haven't heard anything from the 'hidden' centaur camp to the southwest, and she fears they are planning an attack.
The three inform Deborah that they will go check it out, and ask if she knows any entrance into the cave system.
"Oh, just south of Talijian waypoint," Deborah replies. "If you leave Nebo Terrace from the western entrance and head southwest, you'll hit it. Then keep heading south and slightly west until you find the entrance. It shouldn't be hard. There is an entrance if you just follow the path west and north, but it leads right into the main area, and I think infiltration is a better idea."
Tiffany thanks Deborah, before she and her companions head towards Ambush Camp.
As they are exploring the area south of Nebo Terrace, Tiffany sees some wild bears roaming around. As brown bears, they are quite similar to Beorn, and Tiffany sits on a hill watching them for a while, while Fiona and Forgal try to find the entrance.
Tiffany gets the urge to poke at her connection again, just to make sure one of the bears isn't Beorn. But if one of them were, he'd come to her. 'I said I wouldn't open the connection again,' Tiffany reminds herself. But she can't stop watching the bears. 'I wonder what happens to bears when they die. I mean, I know what happens to normal ones. But I never heard of a sentient one before I came to Tyria and met Beorn properly.'
She knows that none of the wild bears are Beorn. There are a couple younger ones around, but Tiffany knows she won't ever cultivate the bond she had with Beorn with another companion. Sure, after a while, she might have Shelob or Gwahir by her side, but even if she tried, none of them would have the level she had had with Beorn.
One of the bears approaches her and looks at her curiously. It's younger than the others, and hasn't learned to be suspicious.
"Hello, bear cub," she says softly. "Have you ever lost a companion before?"
The cub makes a little whiny noise in the back of it's throat, and looks north, towards Nebo Terrace. Tiffany gets the sense that the little cub has, and it was humans from Nebo Terrace. Tiffany is good at reading bear talk, from receiving sensations from Beorn.
"I know how you feel," Tiffany tells the bear. "I lost a companion recently, too. He was a bear, like you."
The cub blinks at her, and grumbles a protest.
"I don't suppose you want to hear about that," Tiffany realizes. "It is painful. What is it like in this grassy plain? I get the feeling that centaurs don't come here very often, and the Seraph at Nebo Terrace are busy with the war. There seem to be a lot of bears here, so I don't think you have too many predators."
The bear sniffs at her curiously. Tiffany regards the bear - a female, she can tell - solemnly.
"If I don't quit, I won't be able to get rid of you. I knew a fellow named Rox who got a devourer attached to her even though she didn't want him. And then she gave in, and he became a loyal pet. But I don't want another bear. Which is what Rox said, about devourers. You know," Tiffany says suddenly, becoming pensive. It is safe to mention this because she knows that Rox is doing things in Ascalon somewhere. 'I wonder if the cave-in happened yet? The problem is that the cave-in is likely the only natural disaster to occur to any of us, and I don't know when.' "Our situations are very much the same. I just hope the trend doesn't continue with you. Go play, little bear. Go see your mother. Are you hungry?"
The bear whines at her, before padding away on silent paws. Tiffany looks after her, sighing wistfully for Beorn. While on the subject of companion similarities with other rangers she knows, Eir and Garm are a good place to start, except in reverse. Garm lost Eir in Heart of Thorns. Tiffany had read up on that, and it had been surprisingly sad, because she hadn't been thinking about that angle of Eir's death much. But she does know that Garm was inconsolable once he heard of Eir's death. He hadn't known about it until he was told, having been separated at the time. Except, for Garm, he probably hadn't looked at random female norn and wished they were Eir, because it is easier for animals to look alike than people.
"Tiffany, we found the entrance," Fiona says from behind Tiffany.
Tiffany silently gets to her feet and follows Fiona west, and into the hole in the cliff that is a tunnel.
The three kill many centaurs that afternoon, and Fiona has a great time with her illusions, at one point even making Foral look like a high-ranking centaur and call all the centaurs around him. Two seconds into his crazy centaur-speech he signals for Fiona to drop the illusion, at which point hidden clones spring out of the centaur crowd, Forgal decapitates the centaurs closest to him, and a hail of arrows wounds the rest, before the centaurs realize what is happening and get on their game, at which point several clones appear around Forgal to help protect him.
Tiffany sharply misses Beorn suddenly, having absentmindedly directed him to assist Fiona's clones in defending Forgal. Grimacing, she cuts a path to him herself.
They do not kill all the centaurs by the time night is falling outside, but the threesome certainly empty out Ambush Camp pretty well, and better than Tiffany and Fiona could have done without Forgal.
"We need to bring you with us more often!" Tiffany declares, as the group emerges from the caverns at the exit nearer to Nebo Terrace.
And then an arrow sails through the air from behind them, and strikes the ground several feet in front of them.
Tiffany whirls around, arrow to the string, to see a lot of centaurs - certainly all that were left in the caverns - charging them.
The group can handle them, but it is late and Tiffany and Fiona need to be getting to the Seraph Training Academy soon. They are near the crossroads, which is quite a ways from Nebo Terrace, but Deborah should be coming along here on her way home soon.
By now, the centaurs are quite close, and Tiffany slings her bow on her back, grabbing the axes at her sides and checking the daggers strapped to her elbows, before leaping forward, Forgal at her side.
Tiffany spins through the centaurs, several times unconsciously sending signals to a non-existent Beorn before snatching them back, gritting her teeth and continuing alone but for Forgal and Fiona.
She dodges around one of Fiona's illusions and sinks a spare knife into a centaur's back, kicking one of them behind, before snatching an illusionary sword out of the air, leaping onto the back of another centaur (who doesn't like that in the least) and decapitating several around her, before jabbing the sword into the centaur's back and leaving it to shatter, picking up her axes again.
Then Deborah arrives with a couple Seraph friends, and instantly taking stock of what is going on, leaps into the fray with her own weapon, the other Seraph close behind her.
Pretty soon, the centaurs are all dead.
"Were you losing?" Deborah teases. "I can see no other reason to fight Ambush Camp centaurs out here."
"They're not the Ambush Camp centaurs for no reason," Fiona retorts. "We'd left the camp when they stupidly shot an arrow at us, heralding their presence so Tiffany had time enough to check her weapons."
"Doesn't matter," Deborah says seriously, playing her Seraph Sergeant role perfectly. "At least you civilians are safe."
"Hey, us two are at least Vigil Crusader and Warmaster, respectively," Tiffany laughs. "It's Fiona you need to worry about, and even Priory can take care of themselves, particularly such a battle-oriented one as my sister. Ss. Sisters plural," she corrects when she sees Deborah's stern look harden. "Now, us two need to head up to the Academy, so if you'll excuse us, we'll see you... whenever you come around the Academy. I will see you... whenever you come around to the Academy, Forgal. Deborah will show you the way if she is feeling kind. Big D, how - " Tiffany cuts off with a laughing snort, before continueing. Fiona is laughing her head off in the background. "How long does the training last?"
"Three weeks," Deborah says promptly.
"Alright, see you then, you two. Seeya!" Tiffany dissappears with Fiona in a puff of blue.
At the Dwayna waypoint, Tiffany sets out, heading north on Dwayna High Road.
She sees an odd group ahead of them, a late-teenager looking boy and an older man linked together with a length of rope, held by a dark-skinned woman who seems to be an elementalist. Tiffany shrugs off the odd-looking group - it's Divinity's Reach, odd things are bound to happen in the capital of Kryta.
At the Ossan waypoint, Tiffany sighs.
"Alright, so where do we go now?" Fiona asks, stumped.
"Wait?" Tiffany shrugs.
Suddenly, her surroundings overlap in several places, moving in and out of each other like an unfocused camera, before everything goes dark.
She wakes up with a start, leaping to her feet and hands going to her axes (knowing that her enemy is likely at close range) in one motion, but they aren't there. She grabs for her bow, and it isn't there either.
She panicks, getting flashbacks of when she was captured by the Separatists. She snatches open the connection to Beorn frantically, before she realizes what she is doing and shuts it sharply. She feels at her elbows for her knives, the ones nomally held at her shoulderblades by a leather strap, the ones next to her wrists for easy retrieval, the pair in her boots (no longer so dull), but none of them are there.
She glances at Fiona, who looks stunned, hands where her weapons should be.
Tiffany is shocked. Ever since her entrance to Tyria, she has never been weaponless. Without her weapons she feels lost. What can she do? She is helpless! She wonders how she had managed without a weapon before she came to Tyria. She'd mostly used her legs and kicked, but then, she was defending from siblings who didn't have weapons either. (That would have been terrible.) But she is up against - oh. The Seraph.
She lets out a laugh, sitting down in a nearby chair. "Fiona, we've been had," she says to Fiona, who is staring at her like she's crazy. "Remember what Deborah said about going to the Ossan Quarter. She said we'd be knocked out and brought to the Academy. Oh, Fiona."
"You're just happy it's not an enemy," Fiona observes dryly. "Now, shut up and let me illusion!"
A moment later, Tiffany is Kasmeer Inafit, and Fiona is Catava Anoif.
"I just wish Deborah had told us about no weapons." Kasmeer says ruefully. "It did make me realize we need a backup plan for if this happens and it is an enemy. It was embarrassing how easily we were knocked out."
"Probably a zap of lightning from a good elementalist," Catava grumbles. "Or maybe the whole thing was an illusion. Or maybe, just maybe, somebody knocked us out with the flat of a sword."
"Right. The question is, how'd they sneak up on us?"
"Who knows?" Catava shrugs.
"Hey!" Kasmeer hollers. "Are we stuck in here forever?"
The door (how hadn't Kasmeer noticed it?) opens for a tall woman in the Seraph uniform.
Catava falls into her shy role, and Kasmeer into her dominant, protective one. They both stand and salute the Seraph officer.
"Come with me," the dark-skinned female (wasn't she the one Tiffany had seen earlier on Dwayna High Road?) instructs them.
The Seraph officer turns on her heel and marches down the hallway, Kasmeer hot on her heels and Catava following behind just a tad more slowly. Several doors dot the corridor.
At the end of the hallway, the corridor opens into a long, oval-shaped room. There are doors in the far left and far right walls, slightly facing each other in the curved wall.
Their guide enters the left door. There is a large, circular room filled with other female recruits.
"This is the female barracks," she says stiffly. "You will find a Seraph recruit outfit by your bunks. Miss Anoif, you take the lower bunk labeled C. Miss Inafit, you bunk in U-K. For now, your seats here have the same lettering. Upper is left, facing the seat. You will have minimal time to dress in the morning, so I suggest you sleep prepared."
The woman turns on her heel and marches out the door.
Kasmeer, deciding that U-K means Upper bunk labeled K, glances at the letters over the seats in the circular room, and finds the chair marked K on the left. She uneasily takes her seat. She glances around for Catava, who is taking a seat closer to the door. The curvature of the room means they can easily see each other.
Kasmeer glances to her left to see who else is K, and sees a tall (perhaps even norn?), stern-looking woman several years younger than Kasmeer (although it's rather hard to tell).
Just then, the door opens again and another recruit is shown in, and given the same speech as Kasmeer and Catava. This one is an S.
Kasmeer notices that many letters are missing, but there is space for them, if need be. Interesting.
The U-S introduces himself to his partner, L-S, sparking a conversation between them.
Following her example, Kasmeer introduces herself to her partner. She sees the rest of the room doing the same. Catava, who doesn't have a partner, looks lost. "Hello, I'm Kasmeer Inafit."
"Nice to meet you, Kasmeer," the other recruit says in a slightly odd tone. "I'm Kai Karkasonne." she looks at Kasmeer for a moment. "I know another Kasmeer, you know. This is going to be odd."
'Well, she seems nice enough,' Kasmeer thinks. "Oh? Who is that?"
"The daughter of a noble, of the Meade family," Kai Karkasonne says offhandedly. "You don't look a thing like her, though."
'Oh, my,' Tiffany thinks to herself. "I'm no noble," she admits. "But you've piqued my interest." 'And Fi - Catava's,' she decides. Fiona has been playing with sound tricks recently, and so of course Catava would inherit the abilities.
"Have I?" Kai queries. "My mother, who is a noble herself, simply likes getting me acquainted with her friends. But I'm going to be a Seraph. Do you know anything about it?"
"Only that the war needs as many helping as it can get," Kasmeer says solemnly. "What profession are you going to be?"
"Guardian," Kai says firmly. "Nothing but."
"I'm a ranger," Kasmeer informs her. "Do you have any idea how the professions are selected?"
"Not really," Kai admits.
The conversation continues in mundane topics for a while, Tiffany carefully avoiding the subject of Kasmeer.
About ten minutes later, the stern, elementalist returns, and says that lights-out is in five minutes, and that she will get them all situated in their bunks, in the next room.
The room follows the stern woman, who reminds them all of their bunks, in order from Z to A, to make it easier in the narrow space for recruits to navigate.
Kasmeer finds her way down the row to the set of bunks - one top, one bottom - labeled K.
Across from her and one set of bunks down, Catava is standing by C. 'At least we're close to each other,' Kasmeer decides.
Next to her bunk are two lockers, one on each side of the bunk. The rightmost one has a name over it - Kai Karkasonne - so she looks at the left one, which her name over it.
"You wil open your lockers with your palm print," the stern woman orders. "Place your hand next to your locker, and it will open."
Kasmeer places her hand by her locker, and it pops open. 'Like in Ender's Game,' she thinks to herself. Inside the locker is a full linen outfit. There seems to be space for much more, but it is empty. Remembering the Seraph officer's admonition about having minimal time in the morning, she pulls the outfit out of the locker, mimicking everyone else.
Now she is uncertain how to proceed, like most others in the room. Suddenly, a wall of fire springs up, walling her off from the rest of the room. It is not hot, but it blocks her sight, so she shrugs and dresses herself in the linens.
Several minutes later, the wall of fire dissipates, not having harmed the wooden bunks.
"Lights-out is in one minute," the woman says firmly. "I will spend that time getting you acquainted with what you might expect tomorrow. I am Atalanta Fiero, assistant Seraph Trainer to Pierre DeGlasse. * In the morning, you will leave the female barracks and assemble in the oval roll-call room you saw on the way here. That is where you will be debriefed. For now, when you are awoken, you will have ten seconds to prepare yourself."
Several gasps at the small amount of time come from around the room, most recruits sitting on their beds.
"Don't pity yourself too much," Miss Fiero snaps. "The recruits in the male barracks only have three seconds. I am giving you seven seconds less sleep than they have, but I decided that for you, it might be worth it. It is lights-out now. I want no noise!"
The lights go out except for the rectangle that is the door, outlining Miss Fiero's outline. "I suggest you do not stay up thinking. You will need all the sleep you can get." Then, the door shuts, and Kasmeer is left in the pitch-black.
After a moment, Catava's voice whispers in her ear, "It's alright, I've got a sound carrying enchantment in place and a barrier."
"Great," Kasmeer mumbles under her breath.
"Yeah, just talk under your breath like that," Catava informs her. "Most of my energy is in the sound carrying, not blocking. And it's hard to do two opposites at once and in such proximity."
There is silence for a moment as the two try to figure out what to say.
"That was sudden," Kasmeer says eventually. "Just being knocked out like that. I feel... naked without my weapons. Vulnerable. And it's just ten times worse knowing Beorn isn't here to defend me if I need it. It's going to take some getting used to, being Kasmeer. Especially since Kai - my partner - knows the real Kasmeer."
"Oh, that's rough," Catava says sympathetically. Changing topics, she asks, "I saw you watching the bears earlier. Want to share some thoughts?"
"I was wondering where bears go when they die. At least sentient ones," Kasmeer admits.
"Where will we go when we die?" Catava asks pointedly. "I mean, have you uncovered anything about Jesus in all your lore-searching before we came here?"
"No," Tiffany admits. "I've been wondering about that a lot recently, too."
Catava, being a lot less informed about the Six in Tyria, offers her thoughts. "I was thinking maybe God has a different system here. What with magic and ley-lines and all. Maybe he manifested himself as the Six, here?"
"The Bible says there's no other gods but him - the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost," Kasmeer counters.
"But, you know," Catava says, lowering her voice embarrassedly, "that makes no sense. Logically, I mean. Hear me out. There is one God - but three? Does that make any sense? It makes sense on earth, sure, even though I can't explain it."
"I know," Kasmeer agrees. Then, her eyes light up. "Maybe that's what he did with the Six. On earth there's three of him, in Tyria there's six. And because it's a different system here, they're more defined in realms of... power, I suppose. Before you suggested that, I was thinking perhaps God's prophets - because didn't they have power? - but that didn't explain people going blind when they saw the Six. Only God does that, except for when Jesus was on the earth."
"But, you know..." Catava frowns. "In the human creation tutorial, it said something about how the Six have left us."
"Right," Kasmeer recalls. "They left, and it was called the Exodus. Haha. That's where the year thirteen twenty-five comes from. Thirteen hundred twenty-five years since the Exodus. And they came to Tyria in the first place from the Artesian Waters in Orr, drawn by the power here. Or so the records say."
"Maybe he came from earth and visited here?" Catava supposes. "I mean, however long he was here for, it's not nearly as long as a time in earth time. God could easily have come here as the Six for who cares how long, and returned to earth as the Trinity, and nobody would notice. Plus the fact that He is outside of time. And the whole 'different systems' thing."
"So I wonder what that means for us?" Kasmeer wonders. "I mean, we were on earth, but now we're in Tyria... does that mean He affects us as the Six or as the Trinity? Does it count that Jesus died for us, now we're here?"
"As you said, the rules are different in Tyria. We know how it works plenty well from earth, but how do our sins get forgiven here?" Catava points out.
"Maybe Jesus - or whoever it is here - hasn't come to die for Tyrians yet," Kasmeer suggests. "It is only thirteen twenty-five... even though there are ten thousand recorded years before the Exodus. But the rules are different here."
"Why don't we pray?" Catava suggests. "If we don't get an answer, we'll know we're entirely subject to Tyrian rules, and if we do, we can ask Him."
"That's an excellent idea," Tiffany agrees. "And if we both get different answers, we'll know Satan's playing a trick on us. Maybe all of Tyria is a hallucination."
Catava laughs, before cutting the enchantments. Both girls fall quiet, silently agreeing to discuss their answers - or lack thereof - the first chance they get.
Kasmeer is awoken the next morning by being drenched in ice-cold water. She rolls off the upper bunk in shock, but two seconds after hitting the floor she is dry again. She glares at the elementalist in the doorway.
"Wake up!" Miss Fiero snaps. "You have ten seconds to be marching out that door!"
Kasmeer pulls one of her multicolored ponytail holders off her wrist, tying her hair out of the way while she shoves her feet in her shoes.
A firey three is hovering in the air above Miss Fiero's head, so Kasmeer runs out the door and into the large oval room she had passed on her way into the female barracks last night, Catava on her heels.
Seeing a double row of recruits standing at attention, she joins them, Catava being hustled into standing across from her as the other female recruits hurry into place.
She raises an eyebrow at Catava, and receives a smile in return. She grins back.
Three seconds later, a diminutive man with a fur-lined coat saunters in from the opposite direction, holding a greatsword. He appears to scan the line of recruits, perhaps looking for something.
Further along the line, closer to the man who just walked in, an identical clones of the man whispers in a late-teenagish boy's (wasn't he the one that she had seen with Miss Fiero yesterday?) ear, who seems to almost jump a foot in the air. When the clones dissolves into butterflies (an unnecessary side effect, Fiona had always said) the young man looks at them interestedly, mumbling under his breath. Several other clones appear whispering at others, too.
Then, the man strides to the middle of both lines of recruits and spins on his heel. Kasmeer notices a white, fluffy fox following him.
The older man (he had also been with Miss Fiero yesterday) with a mustache whispers something to younger. The younger one smiles nervously.
"Would you like to repeat that a little louder, kitten?" asks the man with the fox. And then two clones appear beside him. "Well?" he asks when he is received with silence.
"Nothing," the recruit says calmly, remaining at attention.
"No, please," one of the mesmer's clones retorts. "You were saying?"
"He didn't say no-nothing," the younger recruit stammers.
The older one jabs him in the ribs. "Yes, I did," he replies loudly. "I said, are we supposed to be scared of you, sirrah Seraph?"
"Oh, aren't you?" asks the other clone. Kasmeer sees Catava wince.
The real mesmer jabs his sword into the ground, sending a force wave into both recruits, sending them into the wall (which also has lockers in it). The younger recruit, who ended up flat on the floor, pulls his arms over his head.
The other wound up inside an open locker. He laughs sarcastically. "Based on the butterflies, I'd have to say necromancer." His voice is almost literally dripping with sarcasm. Catava snorts silently.
"Off your kittens!" the mesmer bellows at them. "Fall in line!"
After making sure that everyone is, indeed, in line, the Seraph trainer (he can't be anyone else, with that attitude) barks, "My name is Pierre le Comte le Coocolbeure DeGlasse. Sir Mesmer DeGlasse Sir to you kittens!"
He strides up the double row of recruits, twirling his sword. He snaps his fingers, and the little white fox, whom Kasmeer had forgotten about for the moment, leaps into his arms. "This is my familiar, Phantasmal Mr. Fox." Catava smiles in amusement. "And our job is to turn the lot of you kittens into battle-ready Seraph. Some of you will soon be shipped out to forward outposts to protect our good citzens from centaurs. Others will remain in Divinity's Reach, patrolling the streets and keeping the peace. But, no matter where in Tyria you find yourself, one thing is for certain."
He raises his sword, another clone appears, arms flailing so as to make itself as big as possible, and hurtles down the narrow row of recruits.
Kasmeer and Catava smoothly step out of the way of the flailing sword, returning to their positions as soon as possible. Most of the other recruits stumble backwards the moment the clone appears, while others drop to the floor. The ones who don't get sharply smacked by the flat of the blade, leaving bruises.
DeGlasse clears his throat. "You'll have to learn to duck and roll."
The recruits are then put through a rigorous morning of exercise. Without any breakfast, either, although Kasmeer reasons that if the Seraph are short rations the recruits should be used to going without.
Breakfast is served an hour later, which is a runny gruel.
Catava grimaces at Kasmeer, who is normally a picky eater, but Kasmeer returns a shrug. She hadn't had any dinner last night, either, being 'kidnapped' before she'd had any, and so she is hungry enough to eat anything.
Kasmeer is one of the few who actually get to eat much, as she simply drinks her bowl empty in a few seconds, grimacing at the thick, grainy substance, before DeGlasse and his clones shout them out of the dining hall.
'Maybe she'll learn there are worse things to eat,' Catava thinks amusedly, as she and Kasmeer are hustled out.
Even more exercises of the sort they had had before breakfast are ordered. Kasmeer is glad that she's been in Tyria for several months already - if she'd been forced to do this right after coming here she wouldn't have made it half an hour.
DeGlasse instructed them to do hylek jumps, skale crawls, norn carries ("does that mean we carry a norn?" one recruit had demanded at one point), skritt dashes and a race where you carry your partner around, that DeGlasse calls 'haul the drunks around the battlements and slop them in the moat', all the while Phantasmal Mr Fox chases around anyone who lags.
By noon, every recruit is dripping wet with pond scum.
"Well, my bedraggled kittens," DeGlasse says to the recruits. Kasmeer is really getting tired of the word 'kitten'. 'And I like kittens, too! Imagine if Tangwen heard him using the word in such a vulgar manner!' "Some of yah may have heard of something called profession. Which clearly none of of you have. Aiight?"
Kasmeer and Catava tiredly chorus "No, sir, mesmer DeGlasse, SIR!" with the rest of the recruits, knowing that backtalk will likely not be received well.
"You don't just wake up one day and say, 'I think I'll be a ranger, or elementalist, or a guardian.' And for sure not a mesmer." Kasmeer smiles for wherever Catava is, shoved into line somewhere they can't see each other. She is actually only the next recruit down, with Kai between them. "You must have something called aptitude. Aiight?"
"Yes, sir, mesmer DeGlasse, SIR!"
"And just how do I know that you kittens have aptitude? Any guesses? Don't I get a sly remark from Mr. Dominick Garret? You're too kittenshit now, eh?"
Kasmeer glances at the man who'd made a spectacle that morning. She files away the man's name in her vast name-storage mental system, which Catava could tell anyone is quite vast... at least for Tyrian people.
"Then I'll tell you," the mesmer says, having received silence from the recruits. "I'll test you for aptitude, and assign you a profession whether you like it or not. You're stuck with it. Aiight?"
"Yes, sir, mesmer DeGlasse, SIR!"
DeGlasse pets his fox, who is curled up in his arms. Kasmeer wonders if the fox is an illusion. If so, Catava can learn something from this guy. 'I hope she doesn't miss the mesmer test on account of holding our disguises. Don't wear yourself out, Catava.'
"I shall be assisted today with your class assignments by my assistant, Ms. Atalanta Fiero, who is helping you get your testing over with today, which is more than you kittens deserve."
Kasmeer looks in the direction of a door opening, to see Miss Fiero come out. Now that Kasmeer isn't so shocked as the first time, she notices the elementalist is wearing a dress of flame.
"Eyes front!" DeGlasse snaps. "Listen up, kittens. I won't have none of you staring. Now I want you to count off by twos, starting with Mr. Dominick over here. Ones with me, twos with Ms. Fiero over yonder, and she's Ma'am, Miss Fiero MA'AM to you kittens!"
Dominick Garret shouts "one!" and breaks formation to stand where DeGlasse had motioned. The recruit next to him - his friend - shouts "Two!" and jogs over to Miss Fiero, who says "Greetings, recruit." He seems disgruntled for some reason.
By the time the counting off gets to Kasmeer, all of the other line had finished.
"One!" she says, going over to stand by DeGlasse. Kai, next to her, shouts "two!", and Catava, who Kasmeer now sees behind Kai, continues "one!" and comes to stand by Kasmeer.
The recruits are handed pieces of parchment printed in New Krytan, clearly and simply.
Seraph Recruit Professions:
1. Heavy Armor - Guardian, Warrior
2. Light Armor - Mesmer, Elementalist, Necromancer
3 - Medium Armor - Thief, Ranger, Fail
'No engineer?' Kasmeer wonders. 'I mean, leaving out Revenant is too obvious, but why no engineers? And what happens to those who get a fail?'
Suddenly, Kasmeer feels as if large pebbles have been thrown violently in her face. She can tell they are illusionary, but they hurt just the same. She reels back a step, biting back her surprised 'ow!'
Catava reels back in shock, loudly hollering 'yeee!' and clapping a hand to her face where the illusionary pebbles hit her. 'I'm a mesmer, light armor, low pain tolerance, remember?' she tells herself in a grumbly tone.
Most others at least take a step back as Kasmeer had, but a few stand firm.
On Kasmeer's parchment, an illusionary dark line crosses out warrior and guardian from her list. So that's how it's done. 'Well, I won't get any line through ranger if I can help it. And if I do? I won't.'
DeGlasse then leads them into another large room with tables, but instead of eating, a parchment and paper, along with a pencil, appear in front of them. A written exam.
Kasmeer sighs and reads through the questions all at least once. Some of the ranger questions that she can't answer, like, 'what are the strengths and weaknesses of fernhound pets?' she winces at, before thinking up the most reasonable explanation. She would rather be close than no answer. She suddenly goes back to the top and writes her name, quickly scribbling through the 'Ti' that she'd written, and writing 'Kasmeer Inafit'.
Some of the other questions stump her, but she answers as best she can.
- What is the ideal level of spite for a minion necromancer? The level that makes the enemy give up their lifeforce.
- What ingredients are required to make omnomberry bars? Omnomberries,
- What is the maximum range of a shortbow? Around 300
- How much mithril ore is required for an earring hook? A couple lumps
- When and where will the Claw of Jormag next appear? It is a dragon thing. Nobody but Jormag knows.
- What is the most effective way to neutralize a horde of 4+ centaurs? An arrow rain to confuse them, followed by a whirlwind of axes, at best decapitating them, at worst wounding them so they bleed to death.
- You are about to die. What do you do? Hide and wait for the enemy to forget you. Heal while you wait. Then shoot them one by one with arrows.
- What is the first thing you do when outnumbered? Call for backup before dodging their weapons and distracting them until help gets there. Or just dodge and attack.
- Who most inspires you?
After some thought (anyone could inspire me!) she writes down Captain Logan Thackeray. Looking at that answer, she sighs at herself. 'What? I'm in Seraph training, who else?
The ranger questions she answers with enthusiasm, however.
- What is the most effective way to communicate with wild animals? Speak to them in their language. If you can't manage that, keep your tone soft and soothing. If that doesn't work, they're already attacking you and you should run away from being a ranger.
- What do you do when the enemy is too close to use a longbow any more? Stow the bow and stab with the arrows, if you have nothing else. Or else have a backup of axes or swords or daggers.
- How do you tame a young wild animal into a pet? Talk to it for a few minutes, before giving it a proper name. Pick it up and cuddle with it for a while. Put it down and walk away, glancing back with an inviting look. When it follows you, you've succeeded. Keeping it is more difficult.
- What is the empathic bond? A mental, emotional bond between you and your ranger companion. It must be begun at a very young age by both ranger and animal, for mental flexibility. The more you pool your energy for healing and the more you use the bond to communicate, the stronger it gets. Both ranger and companion need this bond to thrive.
- What is the difference between an animal companion and a pet? A ranger's animal companion has been with them for as long as they can remember, and share the empathic bond. A pet is a tamed animal without the empathic bond who is still loyal to the ranger. Connections are still shared with a tamed animal, but are more practical than emotional, and do not cause feelings of attachment.
There are many others, and Kasmeer answers all of them to the best of her ability.
When DeGlasse snaps, "Time's up!" she glances through her paper one last time before it vanishes, summoned to DeGlasse's desk in his office for reading later.
The rest of the afteroon consists of more tests.
First comes what Kasmeer can tell is a thief test - sneak up to and pick-pocket a Seraph volunteer dressed as a wealthy target, in a field that is illusioned to look like a city street.
Kasmeer doesn't do too well on that one, and DeGlasse can't decide whether to mark thief off the parchment. He settles for an underline.
The necromancer test is a wreck. Apparently some Von Ffeldy had had an extreme allergic reaction to the necromantic magic, and the bone minions had all escaped. DeGlasse told the medic to send him up to his office when he was awoken.
The elementalist test Kasmeer fails dismally.
"I'm supposed to do what?"
"Imagine fire burning that tree," Miss Atalanta Fiero sighs. "Push magic into the belief that fire is burning the tree."
Kasmeer stares at the elementalist. Then she closes her eyes and imagines fire burning the tree. She does have a rather vivid imagination. But when she tries to push magic into it, she doesn't know how.
"How do I push my magic into it if I can't feel my magic?" she asks.
Miss Fiero sighs and crosses off both elementalist and mesmer. After a moment of consideration, looking at the overline DeGlasse had put on her necromancer test, she adds a strike through that as well, leaving ranger and thief, which has an underline.
At the mesmer test, Kasmeer watches Catava excel, cloning herself twice, rather than the once required. DeGlasse seems extra happy that the illusions don't mimick her like copies like the rest of the mesmer recruits' do.
"Can you do the undoable and make another one?" DeGlasse queries.
"I've always attempted the unattemptable," Catava replies, not missing a beat and cloning herself again. Now there are four Catavas.
"Good. You'll be assigned mesmer at the ceremony tomorrow," DeGlasse informs her. "Alright, recruits, time for the ranger test!"
Kasmeer's eyes light up hopefully. 'If I fail this I'll beat myself over the head with my own bow... if I ever get it back from whoever took it.'
The ranger test takes place within a paddock with a brown bear inside. The recruits who hadn't yet received their assignments go in, one by one. The bear seems disinterested, tired, and rather wilted, and the test is perhaps harder than it should have been.
Kasmeer is last in line, and as she waits nervously 'Bears! Why is it always bears? If I see another bear I don't know what I'll do! I might just fail this test on account of something to do with bears. Particularly brown bears that look like Beorn.'
Only one or two potential rangers get the bear to not attack them (in a non-lethal manner, but still) or not attack it themselves, and in those cases, the bear sits quietly while the recruit talks to them softly, in tones none of the other recruits can hear.
Kasmeer is almost shivering with anxiety. She firmly pushes away the urge to open her connection. 'Or else maybe I'll succeed so good they force me to take another bear as a pet!'
Entering the paddock, she makes no sudden moves and simply sits down in the middle. After a minute, the bear approaches her on padded feet. Kasmeer firmly leaves the dead connection to Beorn alone.
On the other side of the paddock, Catava - Kasmeer almost misses her because of how different they both look - is watching her anxiously.
"Hello, brown bear," she says to the bear who is next to her. "Are you alright? You seem tired."
The bear lets out a sad whine and shuffles closer.
"Are you sad?" she asks, still in the soft tone. Thinking about Beorn makes her sad, as well. "I know how it is to be sad."
The two remain in silence for a moment. The bear lets out an interested-sounding noise, still tinged with sadness. Kasmeer wonders what he is sad about.
"You want to know more?" Kasmeer queries. The bear looks at her for a moment before nodding, almost uncertainly. Kasmeer blinks. 'The bear nodded?' But she starts talking. "I know bears like identifying people by their smell. You want to smell me?" she holds out her hand, palm down for the bear to sniff.
The bear looks at her curiously for a moment, before nosing her palm. Then the bear looks up at her, a startled look in his eyes. He steps closer to her and starts sniffing her more, all over.
Kasmeer waits patiently for him to finish. "Isn't sniffing my hand enough?" she asks, in a slightly joking tone. The tone is everything, especially for wild bears. This one doesn't seem to be wild, however, simply very enthusiastic at times.
He is making excited, huffy noises. He almost pushes her over several times, but Kasmeer has played like this with Beorn, and knows how to hold herself against it properly.
"Hey you, kitten!" DeGlasse hollers. "Is that kitten of a bear frightening you?"
Kasmeer feels an odd defensivness of the bear rise in her, but she quashes it down. 'I am not going to backtalk to DeGlasse, and I am not going to endear this bear any more to me.'
"I'm fine, sir!" she hollers back. "I'm just waiting the unwaitable until he's done sniffing me!"
DeGlasse gives a firm nod.
The bear is now running circles around Kasmeer, making his huffy noises. Suddenly he plonks himself down in front of her and stares hard at her. Kasmeer, sitting cross-legged, leans forward. Her hair, which had fallen out of it's ponytail much earlier, swings over her shoulder. Glancing down at it, she sees it flicker from Kasmeer's red to Tiffany's brown, and back.
Looking at Catava, she sees her almost hanging over the paddock watching the two of them. Catava had seen the color shift, too, and in Kasmeer's eyes. The whole illusion had flickered for a brief instant. Catava regains control of the illusion.
The bear huffs loudly at Kasmeer, who returns her attention to him.
Kasmeer sighs at the bear. "What's the matter?" she shakes her head roughly, getting rid of the idea to check the connection again.
He huffs again, with the trace of a whine. A low growl starts in the back of his throat. Kasmeer's ears twitch involuntarily. She thought he liked her.
Her eyes firm and she carefully pushes back the urge to open the connection.
The growl gets louder, and Kasmeer leans back slightly. 'If Beorn were here he could talk to this bear and maybe figure out what is going on.' "What's the matter?" she asks, injecting a soothing tone into her voice, drowning out the unnerved tinge and unconsciously suppressing the urge to check the connection.
The growl gets softer for a moment before getting louder. Then it stops altogether, and the bear pads forward and puts his head in her lap, looking up at her.
"This kitten is the last tester, you all go back to your barracks," she hears DeGlasse order.
Catava hurries back to her barracks, but she leaves a veiled clone for her to look through the eyes of once she is alone.
Kasmeer strokes the bear's head, sighing and wishing for Beorn. Her hand takes the familiar path along the bear's fur, petting him the way she used to pet Beorn. She scratches behind his ears and smooths the fur back into place, where it is all crazily rumpled.
"You're just excited to be done with recruits coming and badgering you all day, is that it?" she asks the bear.
The bear harrumphs, and huffs at her.
"No, then?" Kasmeer answers. "I know you're excited, no denying that. But I don't know what you're excited about."
The bear whines and sniffs at her.
"My sense of smell is literally non-existent," she informs the bear. "Well, I suppose not anymore," she continues in an undertone.
Catava's clone is in the paddock, but the bear doesn't see it or smell it, because it is just a visual illusion. Catava herself is looking through the clone's eyes.
The bear sniffs at her again, whining as he does so. Kasmeer firmly ignores the connection to Beorn, instead focusing on the bear in front of her. "But it's still a human sense of smell," she tells the bear. "I can't smell you the way you can smell me."
The bear sniffs again, before grumbling at her, bear-like. He seems disbelieving of what he smells.
"Maybe you've met me before?" Kasmeer queries.
The bear looks at her as if she is stupid. Catava suppresses a laugh.
"So that's a yes. I don't know very many bears," Kasmeer tells the bear conversationally. "And even fewer, I think, would recognize my scent. But you obviously do."
The bear huffs in a long-suffering way, rolling over.
"So, what bears do I know that would recognize my scent, not to mention want me to sniff them?" Kasmeer queries.
"Beorn would have," Catava says quietly. "But..."
"Yes, yes I know," Kasmeer says wearily. "I... I don't want to talk about it... it's too painful."
The bear looks at Catava suspiciously, before padding over and sniffing her.
"It's an illusion," Kasmeer tells the bear. "So you can't smell it."
The bear huffs at Catava anyway, as if suggesting something.
"He wants you to say it again," Kasmeer informs Catava.
"Okaay..." Catava answers, a bit unnerved. "I said, 'Beorn would have, but...'"
The bear gets excited upon hearing the name Beorn.
"Stop," Kasmeer says with a sigh. "I said I wouldn't open the connection. It's too painful."
The bear looks at her, head cocked, for a moment, before his ears droop. He pads over to her and puts his head in her lap again. Catava moves closer.
The bear whines pleadingly, just looking at her. She looks back. He huffs at her, the same way he had huffed at Catava.
"I said, 'Stop. I said I wouldn't open the connection. It's too painful.'"
The bear nods at her, huffing again.
"You want me to open the connection," Kasmeer says flatly. The bear nods again, almost eagerly. "I can't." Kasmeer explains. "The emptiness hurts too much. Beorn..."
The bear grumbles at her, sniffing and whining some more.
"Why do you want me to open it, anyway?" Kasmeer asks irritably. "It's no use. Beorn is... Beorn is dead." she closes her eyes and lets out a sigh.
The bear lets out an angry harrumph.
"Do it anyway?" Kasmeer asks him, heaving a great sigh. "I can't. I... the emptiness..."
The bear looks at her like she is stupid. Again.
Catava giggles. Kasmeer glares at her. "Stop that," she complains halfheartedly.
The bear pushes at her with his nose. Tiffany's ears twitch and she firmly says "No." aloud. "I... I can't."
The bear huffs at her, and pokes her again. He harrumphs and glares at her.
Kasmeer can't help a tiny smile. "You are gonna be the death of me."
The bear's ears flatten and he snarls under his breath.
Not noticing it, Kasmeer continues softly, "I don't want another bear. I can't. Do you understand? I can't open the connection for the same reason. The emptiness hurts too much. But I can't fill it with something. That would just be... insulting."
The bear huffs again, and looks at Catava pleadingly.
Catava sighs. "Maybe you should try," she says as gently as possible. "Just a little bit. You can close it back up again right away."
"Now you're on his side," Kasmeer grumbles.
The bear whines pleadingly, poking her again.
"F-fine," Kasmeer agrees finally, looking between the two of them. She closes her eyes tight.
Catava watches her, wondering what the bear does want. Why would he care about Kasmeer's connection? How did he know what they were talking about when they mentioned it?
Suddenly the bear gets excited, huffing at Kasmeer some more.
A moment later Kasmeer's eyes pop open and she looks at the bear, saying, "Beorn!?"
The Author's Notes for this chapter are non-existent.