"Of course." He gives a couple nods of goodbye to the people he was talking with and makes to follow with alacrity.

Centho leads Alex several doors down the hall and into a small office, furnished only with a writing desk, a bookshelf, and a couple of chairs. The furnishings do not quite share the washed-out quality of the magus himself, but they do seem to fade into irrelevance with curious ease. Centho seats himself behind the desk and motions for Alex to follow suit. Then he says, in the same soft voice, "Welcome to Grawtosh Academy, Alexandr Lustig. What do you imagine achieving here?"

"If I'm honest, I don't really know. I'm looking to learn as much as I can and perhaps qualify for the awakening ritual. Magic is an incredible thing but I haven't really been able to study it before not seriously. Assuming I do get awakened I like the idea of learning illusion magic and also counter magic. What Lilian and Aeschivus were able to accomplish was quite inspiring. I would love to know enough to do that."

"In time perhaps you shall, and perhaps then the scope of your imagination shall grow. That is our purpose, here in the Order of Dreams, to nurture the imagination of our members and to see their dreams given form within Creation.

"At the moment, I imagine myself in need of a skilled and reliable apprentice. It may take some months to bring you up to the requisite standard, but Lilian spoke highly of your potential. Should you prove acceptable, you would owe me service as your parens under the laws of the Petronian Orders. Should you disappoint, another magus of the Order would accept the responsibility of your teaching. Do you, now, of your own will, seek apprenticeship with the Order of Dreams?" 

"I do." Alex says with as much of the gravity of the moment as he can manage.

"Then you shall be tested, and we shall see whether our dreams coincide." 

Over the course of the next hour, Centho grills Alex on a wide range of legal and practical questions. There's basic grammar and rhetoric and math and astronomy (easy enough, at Alex's skill level), Imperial and Petronian legal code (difficult), and magic theory (increasingly difficult and with kind of confusing underlying assumptions), interspersed with questions about Order politics and interrelationships (of which Alex is largely ignorant).

Alex answers everything to the best of his ability. None of that really approaches the topics he's worried about sharing.

Centho is patient but utterly unrelenting. He takes notes with a sharp goosefeather quill; it doesn't scratch. 

Eventually, the quill is put away. "Your mundane education appears adequate," Centho begins, in exactly the same tone as his prior questions,"and I do not expect you will fall behind for a lack of basic literacy or diagramming skill. Your grasp of Imperial law would be acceptable in the provinces but insufficient for any participation in Arbis affairs; your grasp of Petronian law is...impressive for a newcomer, but still lacking in a few crucial areas. You could nonetheless pass the bare minimum standards for legal knowledge required for apprenticeship, although a more thorough education in both legal codes would serve you better. 

"Your grasp of Petronian theory is spotty at best, but that can be easily remedied by study of textbooks not descended from the works of that knave Charlenius. Or a season of study under Alidade, who is the finest theorist Grawtosh has despite what some fools believe. Your Miezan is passable for mundane concerns, but not for complex discussion and magical Arts, and your accent is noticeably foreign to Arbis.

"I expect all of these deficiencies remedied before you are Opened to the Arts. How you accomplish this is up to you; I will see to it that the full selection of beginner courses and non-restricted sections of the Grawtosh library are open to you. Winter solstice should provide enough time. Do you have questions?" 

(It is currently near the beginning of summer.)

A new quest is available! 

On The Rise

Objective: Raise your Abilities to at least the target level before the winter solstice, and pass the Opening Exams. 
- Artes Liberales to 1 (COMPLETE)
- Petronian Law to 1 (4/5 XP)
- Imperial Law to 1 (COMPLETE)
- Miezan to 4 (0/20 XP)
- Magic Theory to 3 (2/15 XP)

Reward: Eligibility for the Opening ritual of the Order of Dreams, apprenticeship to Primus Centho of the Order of Dreams, +1 Might XP.

Bonus objective: Raise your Abilities to at least the target level before the winter solstice, and demonstrate your knowledge to Primus Centho. 
- Imperial Law to 2 (0/10 XP)
- Petronian Law to 2 (4/15 XP)
- Order Lore to 1 (0/5 XP)

Reward: Improved relations with Primus Centho, improved relations with the Order of Dreams, +2 Might XP.

Failure: Loss of apprenticeship to Primus Centho, worsened relations with the Order of Dreams, delayed eligibility for Opening of the Arts. 

"That all sounds doable. Should I take it that part of the test is of my ability to plan towards such goals and seek out appropriate assistance?"

"Yes."

"I think I understand then. I'll ask someone else about the procedures around joining classes."

Centho nods, once. "You are dismissed, Alexandr Lustig." 

"Thank you. I'll do my best to impress you."

He nods back and then walks back to the room where everyone else was. Assuming the building doesn't change around him on the way.

If it seems to he'll just go the long way via the Atrium.

What has the building ever done to suggest it might misbehave in such a way. Really, how suspicious of him. Even the glowing-orb-brackets remain innocently in the same place they were an hour ago. 

The reception room looks more or less the same as well, but it's considerably more occupied. When the door opens, someone says "That's him!" and a dozen people attempt to crowd around Alex all talking at once.

It's an interesting change to so firmly the center of attention. He'll smile. He's actually pretty optimistic about this challenge.

If there's any quick to answer questions he might say something but otherwise he'll wait for them to be a bit more calm.

It's kind of a garbled mess until a frowning beak-nosed man looking a few years younger than Alex raises his voice over the hubbub. "Alright, that's enough, back off." He has to repeat the order a few times to get it to stick, but it does cause the crowd to sheepishly give Alex some space.

"What did Primus Centho want with you?" the young man demands. 

"He was testing me to see how knowledgeable I am. He's considering taking me as an apprentice if I can address my shortcomings quickly enough." There's a twinge of a worry that people will try to sabotage him based on this but he didn't think of a deflection in advance and lying isn't something he's skilled at to begin with.

chatter chatter "apprentice!" chatter chatter "for an hour?" chatter chatter SHUSH. "What sort of shortcomings?" asks the youth, half-glaring at the rest of the murmuring crowd.

"He was most disappointed by my ignorance of Meizan, with Magical Theory being the other main area of concern. There were also a few other areas of study he suggested."

"Miezan isn't your first language, then? Where did you learn magic?" 

"I learned Meizan from a young age but the people where I grew up mostly spoke Umbrican. I mostly got practice reading and talking to my grandmother and some merchants passing through. As for magic, I mostly learned from books. The only teacher I had was a hedge mage who just taught me the basics of control."

A few of the crowd edge away from Alex at "hedge mage", looking subdued, though a couple others seem if anything even more excited. 

The youth smiles brightly. "Oh, don't worry about that. I'm sure you'll get along just fine, no matter how backward your education may have been." 

There's a sigh from behind him. "Lay off with that Vizier crap, Philotheus," says the fellow previously playing the not-lute. 

"I expected better of you, Shadwick," sniffs Philotheus. "Do you propose to associate with a barbarian hedge wizard? What's next, a study of Scaled One mating rituals?" 

"Great idea," nods Shadwick agreeably. "Want coauthorship on the tractatus?" He waves at Alex while Philotheus sputters. "Shadwick Thule. I've never been to Umbrica but I hope to one day." 

Alex may note they are both wearing similarly fine silver-white robes trimmed in purple (or at least the appearance thereof). 

Alex expected something like that but thought, perhaps naively, that it was better to be open about things than leave it to rumors.

"Oh, I know scattered books are no match for proper instruction and a library like Grawtosh's that's why I'm here. It's good to make your acquaintance Shadwick."