Chapter 161 – Registration
"Here," Seloryn said, right before they were about to leave the restaurant.
“What is this?” Siu asked, seeing her reach into her robes and pull out a thick, rolled-up parchment.
“The basic founding documents we will need to present for registration.”
"Get used to it," Joren muttered as he leaned closer to Siu. “She planned this and probably a dozen other things too.”
“I know.” He whispered back, "I think she had been preparing for this a very long time."
"I can hear both of you." Seloryn said with a deadpan look at the two, "And both of you are right, by the way."
While they were talking, Arya leaned against Siu's arm, peering down at the paper, wearing a thoughtful expression, acting as if she was seriously auditing it; however, Siu could hear her complaining about how bossy Seloryn was, when it should be Siu who is the boss in the Wardens.
"I don't mind," Siu answered her, "Just take a look at this... She listed everything, from founding members to our temporary headquarters. I just don't know if Joren is aware she marked his teahouse as the lodging for the group for the time being."
"Don't tell him!" Arya giggled internally, "It will be funny."
"All good?" Seloryn asked, making Siu finally look up at her again.
"Yep. You pretty much copied how the Wardens work amongst the outers, you just raised the prices of everything."
"Of course. The outers' prices would be laughable here. I also made it a tinge expensive, because we want serious members, not lollygagging idiots. Make them work for those benefits..." Seloryn gathered the papers back, then separated one slip and handed it to Joren. “You need to sign the headquarters permission.”
"Huh?" Joren blinked. “The what?”
“The Resting Reed, we need it for temporary headquarters.”
“My teahouse?”
“Is there another Reed I don't know about?” She asked with a smile.
“No," He grimaced, "And first of all, it is not just my teahouse. I'm only a co-owner.”
“You were already buying the others out anyway; your ex is just being vindictive.”
“And now you want to give her reasons to do it even more?” He asked with a groan while he took the slip, looked at it, then glanced back at Seloryn. “Why the Resting Reed?”
“Because the Red Leaf is too small.”
“Correct,” Quillian said immediately, but then furrowed his brows, "Girl, you even considered my place?"
“A fleeting thought.” She said without looking at the old servant, blushing a little. “The Resting Reed has rooms for private meetings, it is open constantly, and we would have a regular disciple traffic from where we could recruit, so it would be perfect for starting out. Also, it is only temporary, until we find a proper, permanent place for us."
“Wait..." Joren raised a brow because a thought suddenly came to mind: "You already talked to... her?”
"I found her before you, yes," Seloryn smiled like an actual fox, "Your sour sweetheart had agreed to a temporary arrangement, for three months. In turn, she doesn't need to work for those months."
"..." Joren just kept glaring at her, making Seloryn shrug.
"Relax, we will rotate and help out with running it."
"We will?!" Everyone exclaimed, including Arya. The only one who wasn't yelling was Vael, who also broke the silence that followed.
"I will do it." He said calmly, "It would help me keep occupied, and I don't mind."
"Well..." Joren muttered, gulping, patting his back, "Thanks! There,” he said, pushing the signed slip back to Seloryn. “If things go awry, though, I expect the Wardens to reimburse my losses.”
"Yeah, yeah, yeah," Seloryn took the slip, checked it, and then suddenly stood up. “Looks good, so we shouldn't waste any more time. Siu, come with me. Let's get the registration done."
"Then I'm out!" Joren stood up at once, too. “I am going to sleep.”
After the group had dispersed, Seloryn and Siu barely walked a block down the road when Seloryn spoke up, sounding serious.
“We will take a small detour, because we need Ruben.”
“I thought we were going to register.”
“We are, but the two can happen at the same time.”
“Ah, so you know where he is,” Siu said with a smile, while Marly lay flat on his head, Arya walking to his right, holding onto his robe so as not to get separated in the busy street.
“I checked his cultivation schedule," Seloryn smiled, looking around. "If we are on time, we should run into him just fine.”
“You are scarier than I ever thought you could be.”
“I'm ignoring that.” She shot back with a flat voice, her eyes still scanning the crowd.
Without saying anything more, they moved along the road toward the Nine Hanging Bells. The street widened as they approached the larger terraces where many of the training fields were located, and as they did so, more disciples appeared, making the crowd around them feel as if they were lost in a massive gathering. Despite that, Seloryn was like a hound, following her nose, and without surprise, she managed to catch when Ruben walked onto the main road from a hanging bridge.
"Master," Arya muttered even though she was speaking through their bond, "That woman has better sensory skills than us..."
"Then start training properly," He shot back, making Arya pull herself smaller, "You are in a human form now, just eating and sleeping won't cut it."
“Oh?” Ruben noticed them by then, walking over, throwing a suspicious look at the two, “I would say what a pleasant surprise, but I know that look on your face, Silver Flute.” He said, surprisingly calmly, already guessing she was planning something. "I'm not interested; one trip was enough, as it almost stained my Paragon title."
“I'm not here to invite you to anything," Seloryn lied without batting an eye, "We were going to the Nine Hanging Bells to register a new inner-disciple association.” She added, completely ignoring his words.
“An association?” Ruben muttered, slightly narrowing his eyes, trying to read Seloryn, but before he would be caught up in it, he waved a hand, smiling, "Well, good luck with that for you both."
"Thanks!" She said as Ruben stepped past them, wanting to leave, "Joren says hi."
“Joren?” Ruben stopped, looking back over his shoulder, his smile faltering a little. "He joined?”
“He is a founding member," Siu added, helping with the clear ploy Seloryn was executing flawlessly.
“And I'm not?” He asked, immediately turning around to face both of them, hands on his hips, "Why?"
"I thought you would find it troublesome." Seloryn tilted her head.
“I do, but not if my half-bred brother is founding it. What if he ruins my family's name even further? Anyway, how did you manage to rope him in? No, don't answer that, I know how, because you are doing it to me... Tsk, girl, you are...” He muttered, biting his lower lip, all the dignity and bravado gone from his posture, "You are insufferable.”
“Yes,” Seloryn said without shame.
“Fine. I want to join as a founding member.”
“Good enough,” Seloryn said brightly, pulling out a slip, handing ot over, "Sign it, please, because as a Paragon, you have to make it official."
“Of course, you already had the form.” He mumbled, taking it and flicking his sleeves to produce a quill from nowhere, writing his name down. "I hate all of you.”
The moment he handed it back, Seloryn tucked it away and began walking without looking back. By the time Siu caught up, Ruben was also there, coming along wordlessly as they climbed the steps up to the Nine Hanging Bells. Since it was midday, all the tables were crowded with disciples, but Seloryn led them past everyone, heading towards the registration counter where Siu had also signed up on his first day. The worker behind the counter that day was a woman with tightly pinned hair, wearing square spectacles, who looked up at them from behind her desk the moment they stopped at her desk.
“Purpose?” she asked in a monotone voice.
“Registration of a new Inner Disciple Association,” Seloryn said promptly.
“Name?” She continued asking, activating a formation built into her desk with a swift hand gesture.
“Spirit Wardens.”
"A moment," she interrupted her before she could continue, "I see... The same as the outer collective? Which of you is Siu? Because only he can recreate the same organization, or you will have to choose a different name.”
"That would be me," he said, making the woman's eyes snap to him. “We also want it to be linked,” he added after a quick exchange of glances with Seloryn.
"Mhm." She simply nodded, and after checking Siu's sash, she continued without asking anything else, reaching for a set of papers on the right side of her desk. "You will need to fill these forms."
"Already done." It was Seloryn's turn to interrupt, surprising the woman who took the parchments from her and looked through them, satisfaction spreading across her face.
"Finally, some capable people." She muttered under her breath, nodding as everything was perfectly in order.
For the next ten minutes, they just stood there, silently waiting as the woman kept moving her hand over the formation on her desk, clearly interacting with something the trio couldn't see from their position. Everything went smoothly, right until the point when her hands stopped, and her brows began furrowing.
"There is one issue." She looked up at them, sounding a bit uncertain, "One of your guest members is not a Hollow Song disciple and is marked as a political prisoner."
“Well... Yes,” Seloryn said softly, glancing around the others, but not even Ruben had anything to offer this time around.
“I cannot record him in the association without explicit disciplinary clearance. His situation requires not only an Elder's approval, but it... Well...” She paused, reading something, "It needs a High Elder's stamp on it. I don't know who this Vael is, but his position is... problematic."
"We should have guessed as much," Seloryn shrugged, "We will try to get permission, so we can exclude him for now, then."
“I will mark it down and open an inquiry towards the elders," The woman offered, clearly ready to help with how prepared the group was, rewarding their efforts with her own. "As for the temporary headquarters, it's logged in now, but you will have to get a permanent one within the year, or the group's permission will be revoked.”
"We will work on it as our highest priority." Siu nodded, prompting the woman to smile slightly as they continued their registration.
“Please do," She nodded, then fixed her glasses. "Okay, we are almost complete. Thanks to everything being organized, this was the smoothest registration I had to deal with this month... or year. The last thing I will need is an Elder's signature, validating everything."
"Yes," Seloryn reached into her sleeve. “I have it prepared.”
"Just perfect," The worker looked at her with an actual smile, reaching out for it. “For an inner-disciple association, especially one with Paragon members and an outer-linked branch, we require an Elder to verify everything.”
She had just finished speaking and was about to touch the sealed letter when they all saw the formation on the desk flicker, then... it made a chiming sound. The woman behind the counter froze when she heard it, taking multiple seconds before blinking her eyes, just when the formation flickered another time.
“Something wrong?” Siu asked the question everybody was thinking of.
"..." The woman was unable to answer first, and she had to swallow so hard it almost had an echo, "The... The... The Elder acknowledgment requirement... has been waived.”
"What?" Seloryn still held her letter between two fingers, going white, thinking something had just stopped them from establishing the Wardens. "Why?! Who blocked us? I know some elders, we can present our arguments through them if needed!"
"N-no, that's not needed," The worker continued, looking up at them. “Your authorization has just been accepted, and all the administrative review has been bypassed. Even... the person named Vael has been authorized to join...”
"Huh?" Both Siu and Seloryn looked at each other as both of them were thinking that the opposite was happening.
“By whom?” Ruben asked at once, just as surprised as the others.
"Well..." The worker looked at the formation, her face still as pale as the moon, "There are no names attached, but... To push it through, that has to be the work of a High Elder, because even the relevant fees were waived."
"But... Who...?" Seloryn muttered, as both she and Ruben were now looking at Siu, who just shrugged, shaking his head. He didn't want to say, but he had a guess that this may not even be the work of a High Elder... But a Grand Elder. Naturally, he wasn't going to speak of that fact at all.
“Well,” the woman said softly, recollecting herself and returning to a professional posture while sitting there, “That saves me a lot of work. With this, the Spirit Wardens are now a recognized Inner Disciple Association,” she said, voice carefully formal, reaching under the table and then handing over a black tablet to Siu, “This is your founding permit and constitution. It has to be displayed at your headquarters at all times, both the temporary and the final one. If any disciplinary member conducts a check and it's missing, you will be in deep trouble.”
"Thank you," Siu said, taking the tablet, and it was heavier than it looked. The moment he touched it, the words Spirit Wardens shimmered across its surface, and then it began scrolling, listing all the members and their positions. "I guess it is official now."
"Yeah, and with this, there is only one thing you have to do," Selorny said, audibly relieved.
"Which is?" Siu asked, glancing at her, as even he didn't expect there would be something else up in her sleeves.
"We will have to go back to the outers," Seloryn smiled, and it was touchingly warm, especially after she saw how Siu's eyes began to widen, "You will have to officially announce it to them."