7. The Academy
Arxet stood before the riders academy with trepidation. True to their word Rubis and Jiru had brought her home without mentioning a thing to Emren about his stay in the pit. He’d only been given a mild scolding about being out too late the night before going off to the academy. Despite his late return to the rider’s home he managed to get up well rested in the morning. Napping in the pit had certainly helped despite the accomodations.
Idami had slunk off as they exited the guard station without a goodbye. He didn’t blame her, it was just disappointing. He didn’t get to meet many other coldmarked people, and he thought the two might have hit it off just a little. But that’s just how it goes on this bitch of a world.
He’d been awoken early in the morning before the sun could even rise in order to get ready. Emren insisted he bathe before entering, presented him with an additional more formal set of robes to wear in classes, and a bag filled to the brim with lamb jerky, dried fruits, and nuts. “They provide trainees with food, of course, but you may need something in the middle of the night, or something quick between classes. You’ll need your energy!” she had told him.
He still couldn’t fathom why this woman cared about him so much.
His instructions upon arriving at the academy were to find the registrar who would be stationed at the front and give his name. Apparently because he was chosen by Amjazel or whatever he would be expected. They must have told the academy about him beforehand. Hopefully it came with some kind of perks at least.
The academy was a smaller more contained complex nestled within the northwestern corner of the already walled off grander Ministry compound. Tiamat’s massive ziggurat was visible at the center from here, even with the rest of the homes and minor ziggurat’s surrounding it. The monolith of stone towered over the entire city, three times the height of the next tallest around. From here Arxet could even spy a group of dragons crowding around the top. Some were smaller, around Rubis’s size, and some were as big as Amjazel or even bigger. A flash of purple among the throng made him wonder if Amjazel was up there. Dragons were supposed to have excellent vision, could she see him from here?
Just past the gate inside the academy Arxet found a crowd of students all jostling for position in an uncoordinated line. A horse sized sandy brown dragon was curled up in a shallow pond to the left of the commotion, watching with bemusement. Many students were too distracted by the beast to notice their spot in the line being usurped by other less easily impressed folks. Arxet just scoffed at the smug thing and pushed forwards in the line, assuming the registrar was somewhere inside. Almost none of the other students here had rider armor already the same way he did. Most just seemed to come in everyday street-clothes, and judging by those there were people here from just about every corner of the continent. Did they seriously come all the way out here just to be a dragon’s special little helper? Not every applicant even got to be a rider, most of these losers would end up regular priests if they weren’t chosen. Sure they got decent housing, decent pay, and job security, but cleaning a giant holy flying lizard’s rear end with a wet rag or whatever the priesthood did was hardly appealing to Arxet.
After a fair amount of sidling between other students, ‘gentle’ shoves, and a little bit of patience, Arxet finally made it to the registrar at the center of the crowd, an elderly ratfolk. He was clearly a rider, judging by the crest of the ministry seal emblazoned on his broach, which displayed a pair of draconic wings sprouting from a sun over a rolling sea. The man looked up at Arxet, who had come with his visage well protected under his armor, and with an unnatural cheer that shook Arxet to his cynical bones asked: “Hello there, youngin’, can I get your name?”
“Arxet.” He replied curtly. “Amjazel is entering me. I should be expected.”
“Family name?” He turned over the scroll in his hands to search.
“Don’t have one. I should be on there somewhere.” He peaked down over the scroll himself.
“Oh, here. I see. Amjazel put you in under her own family name.” The man handed over a broach with the ministry’s seal on it, with an amethyst cabochon in place of the sun.
“Wait, what? We’re not-”
“Oh don’t worry about it too much, it’s fairly normal for a dragon’s chosen to enter under the same name as the dragon who entered them. Just remember to write Sunborn on any paperwork you fill while you’re here.” He wrote something on the scroll and passed a bag to her. “Your room number is 44, your key and a beginner’s scribing kit is inside. There will be a commencement speech in the courtyard in an hour, please be sure to attend as they will be explaining schedules afterwards.”
Arxet was speechless for a moment when he heard the name. Sunborn was a moniker for Tiamat herself. She wasn’t a sun deity originally, but after the great freeze it had become associated with her because of her help in melting the snow and ice that had coated everything. It made sense that Amjazel would bear the family name Sunborn, but he didn’t deserve that. This had to be some mistake. Anyone with half a brain would find it offensive someone with a coldmark could bear the name Sunborn even as a temporary measure. “R-right. I’ll get over there and wait.” He slid the broach into the bag and started pushing back out through the crowd.
Halfway back out as he waded through the rest of the students he’d be ‘competing’ for a dragon with he bumped into a familiar face with the breastplate of his armor as he shoved his way out. “HEY! DUMBASS! WATCH WHERE YOU’RE GOING!” He looked down to find the desert fox from the previous afternoon glaring up at him. She seemed to recognize his armor as well and narrowed her eyes. “What are you doing here?”
“I’m going to the courtyard to wait for the commencement, if that’s allowed.” He tried to sidle past the fox. She was one of the only folks here in armor that wasn’t a rider suit. Her Stefaian steel armor stood out against the crowd rather stunningly with its silvery veneer. It was a wonder he hadn’t seen her sooner.
“You know you can ask to get around someone instead of just barreling over them, right?” She jabbed a finger into his neck where there was a gap between his helmet and breastplate.
“But ignoring people works so much better. Perks of not being pocket sized.” He tried to keep pushing through only to get grabbed by the collar of his cuirass.
“Then I’ll just not let you ignore me. Apologize.” She wrenched him down to her level, forcing him to lose balance and fall on his ass. As his helmet hit the ground his visor opened, revealing his face beneath. The fox’s scowl turned from furious to cruel as she laid eyes upon his coldmark. “How do they even let people like you in? Isn’t there a rule against it?”
“Thought so too, they didn’t give me much of a choice.” He pushed the fox off of him and stumbled to his feet. He wasn’t used to the extra weight the armor gave him, or how it sometimes limited his movement, even as light as rider armor was compared to most other armors.
“What? I don’t think they let criminals serve their sentences scrubbing the dragon latrines.” She followed him out of the crowd, her heavy boots announcing her presence even as he refused to look at her.
“No, but it’s not like you can say no to a dragon when they tell you that you’re going to the acadamy.” He pulled the broach from his bag and flashed the amethyst in the sunlight. The significance of the broach had not been explained to him, but it didn’t take a detective to notice that no other students were getting these, and to connect the significance of the amethyst with the scales of the dragon who’d forced him into this. It was a badge of honor.
“Bullshit! Who would pick you?” She fumed at the sight. “You stole that didn’t you!”
“How about you go get back in line and ask? I hear they’re only accepting 300 applicants per season, you wouldn’t want to miss your chance and have to wait for the next semester, would you?”
She froze at the suggestion, her eyes still staring daggers straight through his armor and into his skull. It was clear she didn’t want to let him have the last word, but there were easily 400 people in the courtyard attempting to sign up. If you weren’t chosen by a dragon it was first come first serve, with only the possibility of getting in later if someone flunked out.
“Well? Better hurry, little fella.” His voice dripped with sarcastic concern. He was realizing he should have kept his mouth shut and let her miss her chance to sign up. That way he wouldn’t have to deal with her.
The ‘little fella’, however, was enough to put her over the edge. She waited for him to turn around keep walking before kicking him in the back of the knee, landing him flat on the ground a second time. He managed to roll over to dodge her attempt to stomp on him, but sitting up found himself in the perfect position for her to deck him head on. His ears were already ringing from his helmet hitting the ground, the armored fist flying at him might actually knock the sense out of him with how strong this fox was for her size. He closed his eyes instinctively and tried to bring his arms up to block, but the punch never came.
He opened his eyes again when he heard the fox grunting and the sound of armor hitting the sandstone walkway. A russet skinned human woman in formal robes far nicer than Arxet’s was standing before him with the fox’s arm grasped firmly in one hand, the fox left hanging limply from below. “We do not attack other students outside of training, are we understood?”
“Teeechnically she’s not a student.” Arxet pointed out with a cheeky grin under his helmet.
“Not now, Arxet.” Her tone was mildly impatient, but her expression betrayed her true feelings. There was a small smile at his comment. “Go, get registered, before you cause any more trouble. I don’t want to hear any more comments about coldmarks either, are we understood, applicant?” She lifted the fox with one arm and placed her back on her feet as easy as she was lifting a sack of onions. The fox nodded and dashed off back into the crowd without daring another word against the woman.
Once the fox was clear the mystery woman helped Arxet back to his feet as well. “Sorry about that, I should have stepped in sooner, but that crowd can be difficult to circumvent.”
“I appreciate it, but I had it under control.” He began to dust himself off again. “You uh, a rider or somethin’?”
“Or something. I’m a… high ranking member of the ministry, here to survey applicants and audit some classes for them to make sure everything is up to snuff. Unfortunately I can’t do much about the sorts of people who apply.” She removed Arxet’s helmet and pounded out a dent in the back with her bare fist like it were nothing. “If you have any other issues with her please let a member of the ministry know. We’re trying to take a stance against anti-coldmark discrimination.”
“Oh, you’re sure doing a great job.” He snatched the helmet back and shoved it down over his face again. “I totally don’t feel like I have to hide my face here or anything.”
“Technically covering one’s face is against academy safety regulations.” She crossed her arm and smirked at him. “But… I’ll make an exception this one time. If anyone says anything tell them Fatima Mattar gave you special permission. You’d better go find a good spot in the courtyard before the rest of the students get in there. The dragons who are interested in bonding this year will be watching, as well as those who entered students. You’ll want to look your best.”
His heart skipped a beat when he realized he would get to see Amjazel again. He was terrified of getting another tongue bath from her, sure, but maybe he’d be safer in a crowd, and able to get a better look at her sparkling purple scales. Rubis’s were nice too, he supposed, but size really did contribute a lot to the majesty she- he snapped himself out of the train of thought. Majesty? Really? She was a terror. He’d be better off finding a dark corner where she can’t see him. “Yeah, I’ll be sure to find a spot with the right sight-lines. Thanks, lady.” He waved her off and moved further into the courtyard for the speech.