Of course, simply sleeping the day away when you were the talk of the Academy was easier said than done. Karl hadn’t even had time to sort through his gear to see what was depleted and what needed replacing before there was someone knocking at his door, then another, more insistent knocking.
“Good morning, was there something you needed assistance with?” Karl asked the stern looking woman at the door.
She was wearing a visitor’s pass, which she would have needed to get up the stairs without being redirected by the spell, and she was holding a briefcase in one hand and a clipboard in the other.
“Wonderful, you are still here. Come with me and we can get started.” She announced.
“Started on what? Perhaps you can explain what you are talking about over breakfast.” Karl responded.
“I’m afraid that our time is short, so if you would, we need to be going.” She replied.
“Madam, I have no clue who you are or what you want. If you wish for me to go anywhere except to the dining hall for breakfast, you are going to need to provide more details.” Karl retorted, exasperated by this stranger, who wasn’t even authorized Academy personnel.
If she had been clergy, or from the Bureau of Elite Development, she would have gone to the Headmaster and had herself put on the staff list, so she would have a staff badge and wouldn’t need the visitor’s pass to get around.
It didn’t take long to realize what she meant by time being limited, though. Karl could already hear running down the hallway, and it was hard soled shoes, which only an office worker would wear. The students wore running shoes or boots, and the staff wore either soft soled shoes or military boots, depending on their preference.
The woman looked annoyed as a half dozen more government workers ran up, all wearing visitor passes with their clipboards and briefcases.
One night was more than enough time for their departments to find out about the new Commander, and come up with a plan to try to rope him in.
Karl looked at the massed group of recruiters with his best fake smile.
“Wonderful, we can all go for breakfast together, and you can make your pitches.” He announced, closing and locking his door behind him.
He started to walk, and one of the men in the back, with a nasal voice that made even Thor wince, asked the question that was on all their minds.
“Who might we be competing against? Has anyone already made a pitch for your time?”
Karl turned to smile at him. “Indeed. One High Priestess of the Blue Dragon Clerics, no fewer than two bishops, one Spellblade Clan, and the Bureau of Elite Development have all beat you to the punch and are in consideration. If you don’t think that you can compete with what they are likely to have offered, I won’t be offended if you choose to withdraw politely.”
All but one of them looked a bit nervous at that list of names. They were from smaller special interests, they couldn’t provide the sort of benefits that the church or the Bureau could. The best that they could hope for was that one of their projects caught his interest.
They had been counting on the fact that students are generally naive and unprepared to get him to sign on to a time – intensive commitment, but if he was already calling them out, then the bumpkin from the mines wasn’t nearly as clueless as they were led to believe by his background report.
That had to be that damnable Bureau Agent’s fault. If she had prepped him for this situation before they returned, of course the Bureau would have a head start.
The fact that they were competing against the Church was a given, the clergy used the blanket method. All-inclusive recruitment, everyone welcome.
Everyone who was anyone, and some who would never amount to much, were all approached by the Church, and every Elite tried to keep friendly ties with them because they had all the healers.
Little did they know that it was the Church or the Bureau, but a rather jaded Prince Corbin who had warned Karl that saying no was in his best interests, and then proved it when they got off the helicopter. The fact they were still going after Corbin, despite the fact he had a faction and commitments, showed Karl very clearly that they would never give up.
Alice was waiting at the bottom of the stairs with a gentle looking High Priestess of the Green Dragon, the Nature God. The High Priestess smelled heavily of giggleweed smoke and incense, and her eyes were slightly glazed, but her smile was warm and friendly.
Alice nodded to Karl as he came down. “Do we have room for two more for breakfast. I didn’t hear screaming, so I assumed that things went fairly smoothly upstairs.”
Karl chuckled. “If I had gotten frustrated, I’m quite certain there would have been screaming, yes. I would love to have you and your friend join us for breakfast. High Priestess, you must be hungry.”
As hunger was a side effect of the herbs she had been smoking, that was guaranteed. But the High Priestess curtsied quite formally as she looked up at Karl.
“That sounds lovely. I have brought some tea.”
Alice led them to the staff dining hall, which was nearly empty already, and away from prying ears.
Once they were seated, Alice gestured for the staff to bring them all the breakfast special and drinks, then turned to get the morning chaos started.
“Colonel Valerie will be here in an hour, but she has asked me to inform you that she’s looking to formally recruit you for the Bureau. I don’t know the terms, but it would be full-time agent status, with conditions, probably including finishing your classwork to cover the core subjects.”
A few of the others saw that as a chance to challenge the Bureau Agent. If they were just trying to hire him, that wasn’t much of an offer. He made Commander as a first year student, not like Alice, who only made it to Commander years after graduation.
The green robed High Priestess sipped her coffee, then poured herself some hot water from the insulated pot on the table into a teapot and started to steep her tea.
“I’m sure Agent Alice is omitting some important details because that sounds boring. Even I can offer you a generous stipend and a cute cleric to play with.”
The others looked scandalized, but Karl laughed. “And did the cleric in question phrase it exactly that way, or did she say that she was bored this morning and wanted to go to the woods with Rae and play instead of whatever she’s supposed to be doing.”
The High Priestess looked thoughtful. “It might be the second one. But if you’re Ray, it’s the same thing, really. She’s out in the yard somewhere, exploring.”
[Rae, go find Lotus and keep her from getting lost or injured.] Karl instructed.
The recruiters hit the ground, diving out of their chairs when the enormous spider suddenly appeared in the room, but Rae just ran outside, looking for Lotus so they could make a fort in the woods and look for flowers.
“What in the seven hells was that?” One of them wailed, her eyes tearing up in fear as she cowered under a table.
“Oh, that’s Rae. She’s my partner, and the one that the team’s nature Priestess wanted to play with.”
The High Priestess pointed at Karl as if he had just made a great revelation. “You know, that makes so much more sense. Nature Priestesses rarely want to play with humans.”
The man with the nasal voice glared at Karl and the High Priestess. “If you just wanted us here to mess with us, we can come back later.”
“I would rather you didn’t. Now, please, feel free to make your presentation, and I will give you some warning before more giant monsters appear in the room.”
The High Priestess smiled. “You should warn them about little ones, too. Because even if they insult the little Spirit Snake Shaman, it will still be prohibitively expensive to have them resurrected.”
The man cleared his throat. “As I was about to say, I represent the seventh bank and investment conglomerate, who are working on an expansion into the Southern Wilds, and we think you could be just the person to head security for our new facility.”
A banking conglomerate could likely put up some decent pay, but full-time compound security for a Southern outpost? No, thanks.
Sorry everyone for the messed up chapter orders. I had presecheduled a number of chapters, and they went into Volume 1 instead of volume 2. Hopefully, by the time that you read this, the order will be fixed.
