Chapter 4

Chapter 4

"Looks like nobody's coming." Ben said, giving Lehie a self-deprecating smile, while she for her part only looked more and more uncomfortable as the hours passed.

When she came to wake him up this morning she gave him a rundown for the day. First she took down the information from his card for each of the representatives to inspect, after which they would take an hour or so to decide who exactly to approach and what offers they would make. Everyone was to stay in their rooms with their caretakers as they heard out each offer, and afterwards they could go out and discuss where they thought they were going to go with everyone else, in the hopes that they would each choose what would be right for them instead of getting swept away by what any of the more charismatic students picked.

"I'm going to be honest here, your offers probably won't be as good as your classmates unfortunately, just try and keep your expectations in moderation."

When she told him that he hadn't been bothered by her words, it was already clear his skills weren't as incredible as what he had heard from the rest during dinner, but he originally hadn't cared too much. As long as he could find stable work to keep himself alive that should be enough. But here he was a few hours into the interviews, having finished a book on magic with a section on enchanting Lehie had managed to find for him earlier to help pass the first part of the day, and his prospects were looking grim.

"Don't be so negative." She told him, trying to force some cheer into her voice. "There's just a lot of students they probably want to look at first. Someone will come."

He tried to give her a more genuine smile than before and went to re-read a few passages of his book that caught his eye. As he was trying to understand a few of the trickier concepts in it he heard a knock on the door.

"I told you someone would come!" She said, getting up and hurrying to the door.

For his part he was ready to accept whoever it was and whatever they were offering, but his hopes were quickly dashed.

Lehie pulled open the door to greet the representative that should have been behind it, but her face froze at the priest who was there instead.

"All of the representatives are done with their discussions, it's fine to come out and talk to the others about where you are considering now."

"That can't be right." She protested. "Nobody has talked to Ben yet!"

"Wait, he didn't get an offer?"

"I thought I heard him say his skills weren't great yesterday, but just how bad are they?"

"Isn't that too sad."

"Feel like he maybe didn't want to have everyone aware of that Steph." Will reprimanded her. "So what will you do?"

"He'll come with me! I got plenty of the representatives offering to accommodate me however they could, getting you to come shouldn't be that hard." She told them, trying to ignore the looks she caused to sprout up everywhere.

"Thanks but I'm going to pass on that, I think being baggage will actually be worse than sticking out here on my own. Besides the church offered to let me stay here until I figure out what I want to do, and they'll even provide me with some money when I do, it won't be so bad."

"But you'll be alone!"

"Well then you guys will just have to visit me when you get some breaks."

Steph still didn't seem happy about any of that, and Will was at a loss as to what to do as well. Eventually they just had to accept his choice, even if they didn't like it at all.

Things had quieted down around the table as they were talking, people couldn't help but be curious about his situation, but eventually it all picked up again as he focused on his meal.

They all talked about their offers and what each representative would provide or where they would be going, some of them having abilities so impressive or important that nations actually decided to share them, just to ensure they would get the best training they could.

He only got snippets of conversation as he tried to focus on his food, but it was enough to make him want to crawl into bed again and just hide from the world for a while.