We talked for an hour or so before, a well-dressed woman came out from a side area to inform us of the end of today's testing, she explained that she expects all of us to be here on the final day, so that we may choose an academy or institution that fits out talent and ideology, then she beckoned us to leave, in express silence, so I did after bidding toby goodbye, expressing my hope to meet in the future.
Towards the end, he had calmed down greatly, speaking of his family and other miscellaneous things, eventually, he remembered to ask for my results, the look on his face when he saw them was a priceless mixture of abject shock and incredulity, talking to him was entertaining, despite his young age.
We left our separate ways as I returned to my hotel room, training, reading, and sleeping my way through the remainder of the days, before the final day of the assessment, three days later. During this time, I made more progress than expected, reading up on the academies and institutions that will be attending, I found that the one most fitting to me was the aforementioned 'Ivory aquatic tower' after that was a place called 'The Deep Oceanic institution' followed by the 'caliginous order of the frayed' the first two of these put an emphasis on the water element, followed by the darkness, the oceanic institution more so, the caliginous order was a mix between a secret order and an open organisation, with high entrance requirements and a focus on darkness and deception.
All in all, they were each on their own viable options, each with different paths of progression and recourses unique to themselves, I guess I will have to use the information and enticements from their representatives to make an initial decision. I expect them to fight for me and my insatiable greed, well hope more than expected.
Today is the 'day of choosing' (a name coined by myself, for me), and I have currently just left my hotel accommodations, goodbye 'stay night hotel' you will be missed, the streets were crowded with manual laborers on the way to work, occasionally a carriage would run by, inside the 'twilight port city' there is a system for public transport, that being, if you have the money, you can rent a carriage, the system was much like the taxis from earth, but there where different levels of transport you can buy and you pay by the hour.
I, however, won't travel through these means, I like walking, it's a comfort for me, calming me, with the familiar bustling cityscape.
The walk lasted just over an hour as I arrived at the port, and shipyard, entering I was welcomed by the same scenery, except on this occasion there were many more youths, funneling into the shipyard, to enter I had to expend my last remaining gold coin.
The inside was changed, an arched gate demarking the entrance to the open yard, the yard was chosen to host the many academies, inside there were tens of tents lining the stretching wall, and each tent had a group of youths crowding around it, shouting over each other to be heard.
According to what I know, an academy must deem you compatible with their beliefs and needs, before they allow you into their tent, then they will ask a few questions, check your forms and ask whether, or not the applicant is willing to apply if they are they will sign a form.
Later, you will find out whether they accepted your application, if they did and you approve you can sign a contract, pay your fees and join. However, in exceptional circumstances, multiple institutions accept your application, and you can choose freely. In the atypical situation, when a consummate genius appears, or an applicant is exceptionally compatible two or more institutions may use benefits to entice the student.
Some institutions choose not to participate in this practice as they find it derogatory and/or degrading to be 'begging' youths to join, and their pride just won't allow them, others have similar inhibitions that cause them to expedite this tradition making it remarkably rare. Such as, 'we want our members to grow with their own hard work, or pupils of our academy are treated fairly no matter their talent'. Each academy, institution, etc, have its own mandated rules and traditions, some clash causing conflicts or even wars within themselves, to find the 'superior' school of thought.
Looking around I noted a few larger tents, with larger crowds surrounding them, all tents had wooden signs with their respective names inscribed onto them, some using old or extinct languages, most with this use them to flaunt their ancient heritage, others to stay true to their roots.
I read through the many names looking for the three I had selected earlier, the first I found was 'caliginous order of the frayed' their tent was pitch black layered in runic text, and in front of the tent was a totem, the totem depicted a raven, coiling around its talons was a snake, both were carved out of an inky black wood, with deep sanguine rubies decorating their eyes, besides it was the man from the purple room, his dark skin blending with the dark surroundings of the tent, when he saw me looking at their tent, he recognised me calling out.
The deep resonating timber of his voice echoed "ah young alexander, welcome." he looked at the surrounding people crowding the tent, addressing them "pay no mind to this, this boy is an acquaintance of mine, during this evaluation, he will be held to the same standards as you."
He led me into the large tent, opening a divider into a large partition, the room was lit by a handing lantern emitting a deep blue brilliance, the man introduced me to the elderly man, resting in a chair with a lacquered cane resting on his lap, "alexander this is elder Murphy, the leader of our delegation, elder murphy this is alexander the blessed I told you about." elder Murphy smiled kindly speaking in a decrepit voice the opposite of his spirited eyes, his hair was silver white and wispy much like his long flowing bearded.
"You may sit" sitting I noticed the commutable properties of the chair, despite its being made of solid wood, elder murphy noticing smiled "those chairs are from my personal collection, they're made of solid wood from the 'brilliant ash', this specific specimen was over a thousand years old, so alexander." his tone hardened markedly "have you any interest in becoming a member of our, 'caliginous order of the frayed'."
thinking over my options I agreed to sign the form, after that he asked me, a few questions related to morality, he said 'your thoughts align with our school quite well, I think you'll fit in nicely, we base our principles on practicality and secrecy' after that I was led back out to the open shipyard.