Chapter 330: More Than One Door

Chapter 330: More Than One Door

By Monday evening, Elena was writing recruitment appointments sideways up the margin of her calendar.

She had brought it from home, along with the work records needed for her transfer. It now lay on the visitors’ guesthouse table beneath three different prospectuses. His parents had arranged leave for the meetings, and Elsa’s school had sent work to cover her absence. Jin had never seen his sister finish assignments so willingly.

"Tuesday, Meridian at ten," Elena said. "Your father’s transfer call is after lunch. Wednesday, Elsa, you’re finishing those assignments before we go anywhere. Thursday is Jin’s blood test—"

"Morning," Jin said. "It’s quick."

"Thursday morning is Jin’s blood test, and the lady from the Bellmoor program wants to call Thursday at six." Elena tapped the pen against the square. "And the other one. The one from Saturday."

"Sablecourt," Elsa said from the couch.

"The one from Saturday wants any time that suits the family, which is very kind of them and doesn’t help me at all."

Elsa had a prospectus open on her lap and another two on the cushion beside her. She had been rereading them for three days. The top one showed a training hall full of sunlight. Jin noticed her tracing the edge of the floor with a finger.

Her phone buzzed. She glanced at it and sat up straighter.

"Another one?" Arthur asked.

"Just a confirmation. Tomorrow." She tried to sound casual about it and failed completely. "They said they’re looking forward to meeting me."

"They are," Jin said.

"Why, though?" She looked at the phone again. "Two weeks ago nobody was looking forward to meeting me."

"They’ve found out what you can do," Arthur said.

"I can’t do much yet," Elsa admitted.

"That’s what the teaching’s for," Jin told her. She looked pleased enough with that answer to read the confirmation again.

Meridian’s admissions office overlooked the east training yards. Jin had passed its doors before, but on Tuesday morning Elsa was the one expected inside.

Deputy Director Ansel Brooke met them at the door himself. He was tall and slightly stooped, with reading glasses pushed up into gray hair, and he shook Arthur’s hand, then Elena’s, then turned to Elsa and shook hers with exactly the same seriousness.

"Miss Astor. Thank you for coming in."

Elsa went pink and said, "Thank you for having me," which she had been practicing on the transit.

Two students were sparring with their beasts below the office window. Elsa watched until Brooke drew out a chair for her at the long table. Jin sat beside her, grateful for a meeting that didn’t involve walking.

"I’ll tell you what we can offer, and then I’d like to hear what you want to know." He folded his hands. "A place in our incoming class, with an individual wind-control track. We don’t have a full wind faculty — I won’t pretend otherwise — but we have two instructors with strong air-affinity backgrounds, and we’d bring in a specialist once a month for your talent specifically."

"And a Gold (Low) first beast, selected from our partner breeders once we’ve matched your affinity. That’s the best beast incentive we’re able to make. I want to be plain about that. We don’t have deeper stock to draw on."

Elena looked at Arthur, who had gone very still.

Jin thought about a crate in a hatchery basement, an Iron-tier lizard egg, and fifty thousand credits that had been every credit his parents had. A Gold beast, handed over as a welcome. He found he couldn’t think of it as only Low Gold. He didn’t know how anyone could.

"That’s generous," he said, and meant it.

Brooke turned back to Elsa before discussing the preparation program.

"You’re fifteen. You’d join us at sixteen. What would you want to be doing in between?"

Elsa hesitated, glanced at her parents, and then asked the question she had clearly been saving.

"If I got the beast now, would I have to raise it by myself? Before I start? Because I’ve never — Jin did Glitch, and Flicker, but I’ve only ever watched."

"No," Brooke said. "If you joined us, you’d have access to our stable staff and our junior preparation evenings. Two a month. And your brother’s here, of course." He smiled slightly. "I understand he’s picked up some experience."

"He has," Elsa said, with a sideways look that was pure pride.

Arthur asked about practical assignments, supervision outside the walls, and whether talented students were pushed ahead before they were ready. Jin recognized the careful way his father followed up an answer that wasn’t specific enough.

Brooke explained the preparation and supervision required. When Arthur asked who could refuse an unsafe assignment, he named the responsible staff and offered to send the written policy.

Elena asked about boarding. Brooke explained that living with family nearby could be arranged; the rental they were considering was only a couple of kilometers away.

Elsa looked out at the training yard, then at Jin.

She’s picturing it, he thought. Walking over after school. Coming to find me in the stalls.

It was a nice picture. He could see it too.

By the end of the meeting, Jin was glad he’d sat down early. His legs still felt heavy when he stood. Elsa slowed to walk beside him, holding the information folder against her chest.

They compared notes that night in the guesthouse’s small dining area, moving the prospectuses aside whenever someone needed their plate.

There were five serious approaches now. Bellmoor offered a Silver (High) beast, tuition support, and an established remote preparation program. Sablecourt wanted to assess Elsa for its wind cohort before confirming the full package. A privately sponsored program had sent nineteen pages that Arthur was still working through.

The academy that had first written after the egg search had also called. Its Gold (Low) offer came with a premier freshman program, though the instructors it had introduced were mostly lightning and earth specialists.

"They were very nice on the call," Elena said. "But I kept waiting for them to say wind."

"They said it twice," Arthur said.

"Twice in an hour," Elena said, marking a question beside the faculty list.

Elsa had lined up the beast pages side by side. Gold (Low). Silver (High). A photograph of an empty stall with To be selected at enrollment printed underneath.

"I don’t want the one that’s biggest," she said slowly. "I want the one where they’ll actually teach me. And—" She looked at the Meridian brochure. "I like that I’d know people."

"That counts," Elena said.

"Does it?" Elsa asked.

"Of course," Elena said. "You have to live with the choice. Being comfortable there matters too."

Jin almost told her how close the preparation rooms were to his dormitory. He stopped himself. Elsa already knew he wanted her nearby.

Instead, he asked her to show him what she’d liked about the other programs. She pointed to a lesson recording from Bellmoor, where an instructor guided a student through keeping a current steady. Elsa had tried to follow it without using her talent, moving her hand along with the student.

"I’d want someone to tell me when I’m doing it wrong," she said. "Before I spend a week practicing it wrong."

"That’s a good question for the next meeting," Jin told her.

She wrote it down herself. By the time the cups were cleared, she had three questions for every academy, and had stopped ranking them solely by how impressive their photographs looked.

The message came at nine-forty, while Elena was making tea.

Elsa read it and didn’t say anything at all. She turned the phone around on the table.

[Elemental Academy — Office of Admissions]

[We would be glad to visit your family in person on Thursday afternoon, if convenient. Our representative will travel from Shelter 2.]

Arthur put down the brochure he’d been holding.

"Elemental," he said.

"Is that good?" Elsa asked. "It sounds good."

"National top tier," Arthur said. "Getting in from somewhere like our neighborhood is a big thing." He was quiet for a moment. "When I was your age, I knew one person who got in. We talked about him for years."

Elena set the teapot down very carefully.

Jin looked at the message again. Travel from Shelter 2. A representative from a higher-tier shelter was coming to meet Elsa. He wanted to see what they offered almost as much as she did.

Elsa was staring at the phone as if it might change its mind.

"Thursday," she said. "Mum, what’s on Thursday?"

Elena picked up the pen. "Your brother’s test in the morning. We’ll keep the afternoon free."

Elsa was already opening Elemental’s prospectus. This time, Jin leaned over to read it with her.