The talk

The next morning as Firlea and Mary were sitting in the hall, as usual, waiting for the morning's written test, the talk in the room still seemed to be around Limia. It was their last day and by the end of the day, the list of who would be accepted for training would be announced.

Aari Furnlow stepped out and walked to the front. The hall fell in silence as everyone was watching him, waiting to hear what was next.

“Good morning and congratulation to make it to the last day of evaluation. Today will be different from the other days” the aari spoke to them.

“Today we will hold personal interviews with each one of you. The interview will be held by five aari, we have four groups of interviewers to make the process go somewhat smoothly. When you are not conducting your interview, you will remain in this hall” he continued, and a soft murmur was heard in the hall.

“Discussing the content of your interview is strictly forbidden. Anyone being caught doing so will be rejected immediately. When your name is called, please move to the one that called your name and follow them” he finished and walked out of the hall.

Soon the first four were called to their interviews. Mary and Firlea sat and talked as they tried to take their minds off the nervousness that they both were feeling. All around the room people were doing the same.

Some were moving around, joining conversations for a brief period before moving to another group. Others were sitting in their place, talking in the same groups. Everyone kept an eye on the door to see when the ones that had been called would return.

As the morning continued, one thing was clear. There didn’t seem to be a fixed time for the interviews. Some of the people that were called were gone for twenty minutes, others for almost an hour.

Everyone was itching to ask the once that had returned about what went on during the interviews, but no one dared. The air was filled with anticipation and dread.

When they broke for lunch neither Mary nor Firlea had been called. The tables were unusually quiet during lunch. The ones that hadn’t been called seemed to lack appetite and just pushed their food around their plates. The once that had been called, kept to themselves.

It wasn’t until mid-afternoon that Mary’s name was called. She almost jumped up from the bench she was sitting on and with a quick glance at Firlea she hurried towards the young aari that had called for her.

Mary was led into what looked like a classroom. The desks had been pulled back, creating an open area at the front of the room. Behind a long table, four aari were sitting and there was an empty chair. The young aari that had escorted Mary, took her seat at the empty chair.

In front of the table, a single chair stood facing it. Mary walked up to it but waited to sit.

“Welcome Mary, please have a seat” Furnlow said, he was sitting in the middle seat behind the table.

“Thank you” Mary said and sat on the chair.

“We will be asking you several questions, they can be both personal and academic, if you don’t want, or can’t, answer one of them you can just say so. We expect honest answers. Do you understand?” he told her.

“Yes” Mary said, nodding.

“Good. I will start. How did you prepare for the evaluation?” Furnlow asked.

Mary hadn’t prepared at all, but should she say that? Didn’t that seem like she didn’t take it seriously? But if she had done badly and claimed to have prepared, she would look even more incompetent, and they had asked her to tell the truth.

“I didn’t prepare aari Furnlow, I found out about the evaluation two weeks before it started, and it didn’t occur to me to study beforehand as I didn’t know what type of evaluation we would go through” Mary answered honestly.

“You are sir Teeran’s daughter, is that correct?” An elderly aari asked.

“Yes”

“And he didn’t arrange for you to have help with preparing for the evaluation?” a blond aari asked.

“No, he didn’t. I did spend time with my mother in her garden and helping her with her herbs and patients. But that wasn’t as a preparation for the evaluation, it’s something that I always do” Mary told her.

“If I understand it, you originally come from Domne” Furnlow said. It wasn’t a question, but Mary still said ‘yes’.

“How long have you been in Salmis?” he then asked.

“It has been almost three months now” Mary stated. There was a brief moment of silence as the five aari looked at her.

“Before you came here, did you take any lessons to adjust to your new home?”

“No, the decision for me to come here was made very suddenly and just the day before we left. There was no time for preparations. But during the journey here I got help in learning Salamis and once I had been a month in the city the Lady was kind enough to find a tutor for me. So that I could learn about the city and all the customs and so on” Mary said.

“If you become an aari, what branch would you like to join?” the elderly aari asked.

“I’m not sure” Mary said hesitantly. “As I understand it, it has a lot to do with what your natural abilities are, what elements your magic is strongest in, and I don’t know if I have magic and if I do, what elements it consists of. I would just like to be placed somewhere where I can help people” she then explained.

“Do you think you can train to be an aari and adjust to living in Salmisara all at once?” the aari that had escorted her to the room asked.
Mary thought about that for a while, it was a good and important question.

“Yes” she finally answered. “It may be a bit more work for me than for someone that is born here. But I have the support of my family and friends, and I know that this is something that I want to do. I’m prepared to put in the extra work, I’m used to working hard.”

After that, the questions revolved around things they had learned during the two weeks and those were easier to answer.

“Thank you, Mary, Telon will escort you back. I will join you in the hall at the end of the day to let you know who’s been accepted” Furnlow finally said.

“Thank you” Mary said, standing up and following Telon out of the room. When she entered the hall, she saw that Firlea was sitting on the bench where she had left her.

“Haven’t you been called yet?” Mary asked.

“I have, yours took a long time. Mine was much faster” Firlea said.

The two friends continued to talk, avoiding the subject of the interview as best they could. After another half an hour, everyone had been interviewed and they were all just waiting for the results. Another two hours passed by and it was now almost six o’clock. They had never been held for this long.

The tension in the hall was high when Furnlow finally entered and made his way to the front of the room. Everyone fell silent, waiting for him to speak.

“I have the results here” he started and held up a scroll he held in his hand.

“I want you to form a line. One at a time you will come up to me and state your full name and I will give you your result. If you have questions regarding why you didn’t make it, or if you want your results from the different tests, please step over to the right-hand side where my colleagues will be able to help you” he said, gesturing at six aari already seated behind desks along the right side of the hall.

“Once you have your results you will go down to the docks and be ferried over to one of the river fields. For those who are accepted, you will get written instructions before you leave today. Please note that the decision today is final, there is no appeal. But you are more than welcome to try again next year. Let’s get started” he finished and waited for the first of them to walk up to him.

Mary and Firlea nervously joined the line of people, waiting for their turn. No one in the line spoke, all ears were focused on Furnlow as he handed out the results to each new person. Mary noted that more people were being turned down than people were being accepted.

The people that got turned down had different reactions, some started to cry and ran out of the hall, others got angry and walked over to the other aari to demand to know why. Then some just looked more determined and walked over to get their test results. Probably to be able to study their weak points for next year.

Mary got more nervous the closer to Furnlow she came. She counted down the number of people before her in line. Ten, eight, five, three.

Firlea was before Mary, she stepped up to Furnlow and stated her name. Mary was focused on Furnlow. She clearly heard him say that Firlea had been accepted and Mary smiled as she saw her friend's shocked face. Then it was Mary’s turn. On shaky legs, she took the few steps up to Furnlow.