Why am I still here? Just to suffer?

Similar to the young man that was painstakingly making his way up the long flight of stairs that lead to the Rune Knight headquarters and hall of the Magic Council, Serilda was not much a fan of the day’s heat wave. While she didn’t necessarily suffer in the sunlight, her affinity for cold based magics meant that she was much more comfortable in cooler climates. Thankfully, the building and her office were both air conditioned. It was a welcomed relief to the warmth, especially for Xiuhcoatl. The large wolf’s starry coat was thick and primarily black, so she typically had an even more difficult time in heat than Serilda did.

As the canine lounged on a large pillow, chewing eagerly on a toy bone like a common house dog, Serilda leafed through a large file on her desk. It had been several months since the attack on Era had placed her in charge of the Knights, and taking over without her predecessor there to fill her in regarding sensitive documents had been tedious to say the least. She’d spent much of her time pouring through document after document trying to gain as much knowledge as possible. It was a task that would drive anyone mad, and even someone as stoic and work minded as Serilda had found herself getting more and more stir crazy as time went on.

Thankfully, there was a light at the end of the tunnel. With Mythal’s help, she had managed to get through the worst of it. There was still a lot of work to do, but none of it was as time pressing as what she’d already gone through. Even the file currently before her was a recent document that the Council had forwarded to her for review, rather than something from an incident that had taken place long before she assumed the role of Field Marshal.

Of course, the lull in work just left space to be filled by complications in her personal life. Victoria had been blessedly silent for most of the day, the Seal keeping most of her comments casual. Adjusting to life as a Seal host had been aggravating to say the least, but she at least wasn’t going through it alone. Mythal was in the same boat as her, and Lux was arguably more of a handful than Victoria was, if in a different way. Still, Serilda was hardly on amicable terms with the Seal of Conquest, not after everything Victoria had done. They disagreed on almost everything, and Serilda spent most of her time putting Victoria in her place and reminding her who was in charge. Needless to say, their relationship was strained.

All this paperwork is dull, the Seal commented in Serilda’s head. I’m hardly needed for this, and we both know you’d rather I’d not be here anyway. Release me for a while.

No. Serilda didn’t even bother looking up from her paperwork, the disinterested response more reflexive than anything else.

Victoria sighed with exasperation. Look, you’ve made your point. You beat me, and you’re the one in full control now. This constant need to assert your dominance over me is getting old. Did I not submit?

I don’t trust you, and I don’t see that changing in the foreseeable future. Just because you yielded and you can’t stray very far from me doesn’t mean you can’t get into trouble. I don’t need you harassing anyone, particularly my soldiers. Until such a time as I feel you can be given slack in your leash, I will keep you where I can control you.

Meanwhile, at the reception area of the building down on the first floor, Valorie watched the approach of the young man. He seemed a bit out of breath, and despite the confidence with which he approached her he stammered his words a bit as he talked. She felt a bit sorry for him, but she had also seen many others come through that door with similar dispositions looking to join their ranks. He was probably just nervous. Either way, it wasn’t her job to judge on that.

She smiled kindly at him. “I’m glad to hear you’re interested in becoming a Knight. You’ll want to speak with the sergeant in charge of recruitment, whose office is located up on the fourth floor.” Valorie pointed toward a door to her right. “Follow that hallway until it leads out into the courtyard. Then you’ll take the fifth door, which will bring you to the stairs that goes up to the officer’s offices. There should be signs if you get lost. Normally they don’t station themselves so far away from the reception area, but we’re still renovating the building after the attack a few months ago.”

At this point Valorie, along with pretty much all the Rune Knights, assumed that everyone had heard about the brutal attack they and the city had suffered. There was still evidence of it around the building in the form of construction to repair damages, though from the looks of things they were nearly done with such work. “Good luck!” Without further ado, she turned her attention away from the young man to answer the phone ringing in front of her, leaving him to follow her rather vague instructions.

Her Void sense alerted her to Doppo’s presence before he even knocked on her door, though she didn’t know it was him until she heard his voice. He entered her office as softly as a mouse and moved to her desk at a gentle pace. Serilda looked up from her documents and gave him a kind smile. “Good to see you, major,” she told him with mirth in her eyes. Despite the teasing about using his title instead of his name, she was being friendly with him. There was also a hint of pride in her tone. She knew the man had worked very hard and overcome a lot of setbacks in his life to reach the place he was, and he deserved the respect of his title even if the two of them were predominantly on a first name basis.

Doppo spoke up to invite her to lunch and a small frown crossed her face. “Lunch? It’s only…” Her voice trailed off as she looked over at the clock on her wall to see that it was, indeed, near about lunch time. “Oh.” After a brief pause of coming to terms with how badly she’d lost track of time, the marshal chuckled and shook her head a little. “I swear, I’m such a mess on the days that Mythal’s not here to remind me to take a breather. I’d love to go to lunch with you.”

Thank heavens.

Oh, shut up.

She was putting away the paperwork and everything was going fine until he placed something on her desk. Before she could even see what it was, he told her its purpose. Serilda was caught so off guard by it that her hand slipped while closing a drawer and she jammed her fingers. An impressive feat given that normally she could wave her entire body through inanimate objects like they weren’t even there, but it went to show how instantly frazzled she’d become.

As she winced and nursed her aching fingers, he placed a second pack down, explaining that he’d tried one and it was quite tasty. Truthfully, Serilda was barely processing his words. Her face was completely flushed with shame and embarrassment, and even a little anger though that was easier for her to hide. In a carefully even voice, she told him, “That’s very thoughtful of you, Chiyuki, and I appreciate your… support.”

She was doing her best to keep herself collected and was mostly succeeding, but that was greatly in part because of who she was speaking with. Doppo had always been well meaning, if odd. If it had been anyone else she might have let her indignation fly, but she did try to show a little extra patience with the man currently standing before her. “I know you’re trying to be helpful, but--”

Serilda’s attempt to gently dissuade Doppo from continuing such gestures in the future was cut off by the approach of a third person. After knocking, the door opened to reveal a young man with bright red and black hair. She did not recognize him as one of her soldiers, and indeed he was dressed very much like a civilian. He took a look at her and Doppo with crimson eyes and his jaw even fell slightly slack when he looked at her. For her part, the marshal made no indication that she noticed this. “May I help you?” she asked him with polite professionalism, eager to steer away from the topic of conversation that Chiyuki had presented.

He explained that he’d been sent here to ask about recruitment opportunities, though he quickly offered to come back another time if she was too busy. For a brief moment she was confused about why a new recruit had been sent to her. As the field marshal, she was already quite busy and for the most part no longer took an active part in recruiting. She had delegated such tasks to a whole office of knights. But then, she remembered about the construction that was still going on.

Happy for the interruption, Serilda gave him a small smile. “This is not the recruitment office, actually, but we can still help you. Please, come in and have a seat.” She gestured to one of the chairs in front of her desk and then took the two boxes of tea that Doppo had given her and placed them discreetly in one of her drawers where she could more easily forget about the awkward encounter for now. Chastising Doppo would simply have to wait until later -- as would lunch.

“My name is Serilda Sinclair. I’m the field marshal for the Rune Knights. This is Major Chiyuki Suzuki, with the combat division.” She gave him a moment to introduce himself and otherwise respond as he desired. Once he was seated, she would ask, “Why don’t you tell us a bit about yourself, and why you want to join the knights?”

This young man was quite the nervous nelly. Was he embarrassed because he’d stumbled into the wrong room? Specifically, hers? Probably. Serilda likely would be just as humiliated by something like that, were she in his shoes. He was red as a beet and stuttering every time he tried to talk. Regardless, she listened patiently as he got through answering her questions. He told her his name was Shen, his age, where he was from, and that he wanted to join the knights because he wanted to help others. He then inquired from her as to whether or not there were other things he would need to do, such as paperwork or some kind of test.

Serilda was starting to get the feeling that Shen wasn’t much of a talker, probably less comfortable in social situations than in ones where he could focus on completing some kind of task. It was something she could accommodate, especially since they did need to have at least some idea of his skills and capabilities before deciding if he was a right fit for them. Though at this point, they needed to refill their ranks so badly that they were talking almost anyone as long as they weren’t an active dark mage. Even if he wasn’t soldier material, that didn’t mean he couldn’t help out with paperwork or medical teams or research and development -- there were lots of options.

She smiled at him, doing her best to try and put him at ease by not drawing too much attention to his nervousness. “There will be some paperwork, yes. And we don’t really have a test so much as an assessment to help us determine what branch you would be best suited for, though most privates aren’t assigned a branch until after they’ve completed basic training.”

The marshal turned to Doppo, pointing at one of the filing cabinets lined on one of her walls. “Major, would you do me a favor and get recruitment packet for Mr. Kadokawa, please? Top drawer, toward the front. There should be several of them.” The packets had informational brochures as well as the starting paperwork Shen would need to fill out for his background check and processing. She also removed a pen from a little jar on her desk and set it down in front of Shen, in case he wanted to start filling it out while they chatted.

Deciding it was best to give him a little bit of information, she continued. “We have three major branches. Combat focuses on your traditional soldier work, such as patrolling the streets and keeping the citizens of Fiore safe from the day to day issues that arise. Then there is special operations, which focuses more on espionage and information gathering. The last one is engineering, which heads our research and development goals and keeps the army up to date with technology both magical and mundane.”

Serilda didn’t want to dump too much on him at once, but she figured a quick explanation of their branches would suffice in helping them both figure out the best way to approach Shen’s candidacy. “I guess what we need to know in order to properly assess you is what branch interests you the most, if any, and what kind of skills or talents you might already have. Are you trained in any magic or combat, or perhaps a trade of some kind?”

“Thank you, Doppo,” Serilda said as the major moved to get the requested documents for Shen to take a look at. The recruit in question fumbled with the pen she offered him. Why was this poor young man so nervous, she wondered? Serilda knew that she could be intimidating to some for a number of reasons, but somehow she got the feeling that Shen’s anxiety had nothing to do with his present company. Well, maybe Doppo’s company. The Major had a habit of unnerving people just by being himself, which wasn’t really Doppo’s fault. He was kind, just odd and a bit socially awkward. Still, Serilda didn’t miss the way Shen’s eyes kept darting back to the major’s like he half expected the quiet man to devour him whole.

...Probably best not to tell him what Doppo’s magic was, for now.

Setting it upon herself to try and help the young man relax a little, she gave him a small, but warm smile. “Would you like some tea?” Presuming he agreed, she stood to go make some as he explained more about his skills. Or rather, lack thereof. There was a small bar against a wall that had an assortment of drinks, both alcoholic and non. Serilda didn’t drink much herself these days, especially after that one time, but she liked to keep that sort of stuff handy for whenever she had guests in her office. One of the things on the small counter was a kettle that was magically enhanced to fill itself instantly with perfect temperature water for tea.

The one thing he did make note about was that he apparently had the ability to smell blood for miles. Interesting. Serilda’s expression was neutral as she poured three cups of tea, but her mind was churning a bit. If his affinity was for blood she could help him… but the thought was a bit sour for her. The marshal herself had only recently come into the possession of exceptionally powerful blood magic, but she didn’t exactly want that magic. In fact, she detested it and went out of her way not to use it as much as possible. Blood magic was often seen as evil. This wasn’t true, of course. No magic was inherently evil. However, it was often used for horrible things. Did she really want to pass such dangerous skills off to another person?

She would have to give it some thought. Picking up two of the glasses with her hands, Serilda walked them over and offered them to both the men in the room with her. Once more, she smiled at Shen in a comforting fashion. “We offer training to everyone that joins us,” she told him reassuringly. “You’re not the first person to come to us that hasn’t had the opportunity to pick up fighting abilities beforehand, and I’m sure you won’t be the last. Besides, the ability to use a weapon or to cast spells… those things are important, yes, but not as valuable as integrity.”

Walking back over to the bar, she picked up the third drink for herself as well as the kettle, which she set on the corner of the desk closest to Doppo. Knowing him, he’d probably already finished his cup and was ready for seconds. It was simpler to just let him have access to the tea making item and let him refill his glass at his leisure. “When men and women come to us, I’m less concerned with their fighting skills so much as where their hearts are. Fighting and magic can be taught. But caring about the wellbeing of others, having a passion or desire to protect the innocent no matter the cost to yourself… not everyone has that.”

Sitting back down across from him, she held his crimson eyes with her own crystal blue ones. There was a demeanor of understanding and ease about her that made it clear she wasn’t judging him in the slightest for essentially having to start at the bottom. “If your desire is to help defend Fiore’s citizens against those who would hurt or take advantage of them, then I promise I can provide you with the tools and the skills to make that desire a reality. We can teach you any kind of weapon that might seem suitable for you, any kind of magic that catches your interest. All I need is people that are willing to try, even when trying seems… daunting.”

Given how used to Doppo’s mannerisms and habits that Serilda was, she wasn’t at all alarmed or concerned about the sheer intake of tea that the man was displaying, nor the way he simply sat there in almost eerie silence watching poor Shen. The recruit accepted the tea with thanks, and then sipped it as he listened a bit to what Serilda had to say.

By the end of it all, he reassured her that he was willing to do what it took to become a knight. She could only take the phrase of “I’m desperate” to mean that he was in a bit of a tight spot when it came to careers, but that didn’t mean that he didn’t believe the Rune Knights was a last resort. He still valued that the position would let him help other people, he was just concerned about his ability to do that at present.

She could work with that.

“Very well, then, we’ll get you set up,” she told him, taking a sip from her own glass. “If you need a place to stay, there are barracks here and we can have a room assigned to you. We’ll pair you with another recruit that’s been here for a while who can help show you around for a few weeks to make sure you know where everything is. I’ll also make sure you’re taken to the tailor so we can get your uniforms made. Take a few days to get ready and settled, and we can start you in basic training next week.”

As long as everything above sounded agreeable, Serilda would patiently wait for Shen to fill out the paperwork she’d given him. If he had any questions about any of it, she would kindly coach him through it and do her best to make sure he understood everything he was signing on for. The last thing she wanted was someone to apply for the Knights without some basic idea of what they were getting into, but she felt that Shen understood. He clearly wasn’t all that great when it came to socializing, as he seemed almost paralyzingly shy, but that didn’t mean he was unintelligent.

Once the application was all said and done, Serilda straightened up the papers and tucked them into a folder, which then was safely placed in a secured drawer for her to have processed later.  “Welcome to the Rune Knights! Let’s get you all set up.”