60th of Season of Air, 57th year of the 32nd imperial era

Following Lady Alabaster, Newt navigated a rather small fortified settlement full of people wearing nearly identical green and yellow uniforms. Awakened bustled all over the administrative district which housed a scant few buildings — a central administration building Newt and Lady Alabaster were walking towards, three buildings labeled as mission halls for members of various tiers, half a dozen identical mess halls, a dozen unique restaurants, and finally a large building Lady Alabaster told him was for entertainment purposes.

All the buildings were made of finely hewn stone with large openings for doors and windows. Newt saw runic formations, some reinforcement for the structures, some to repel heat and insects on the windows and doorways. He also noticed people give way, but unlike people on Star's Fall's docks, order members bowed and made way intentionally for Newt's master.

Newt caught several jealous glances before following Lady Alabaster into the administration building. Three turns and two doors later, they entered the office of a bored clerk with gray hair and droopy eyes.

The man glanced at Lady Alabaster, not sparing Newt a hint of attention.

"What may I do for you, Lady Alabaster?"

"My ward needs to join officially and get settled."

The man nodded and opened a ledger.

"Name?" he asked, his gaze firmly locked on the tome.

"Newstar Salamandra." Newt focused on the clerk, revealing him as a fourth realm awakened. Considering his looks, the man must have been over four hundred years old, close to the end of his lifespan.

The man glanced at Newt and nodded without saying a word before entering the details in his ledger. Then he pointed at the crystalline realmer.

"You should know how a realmer works."

Newt placed his hand on the device and released a wisp of mana. As expected, the device displayed three thick lines and two dots.

The clerk noted the result with languid scribbles. "Special skills?"

"Independent seal scribe."

The man looked up again, this time his eyebrow slightly raised. "Badge?"

Newt showed him his guild membership token, and the clerk eyed it for a long moment before entering the new piece of information.

"Anything else?"

Newt looked at the man, then glanced at his new master.

Why the hell not?

"I can charm snakes," he said, joking with a straight face.

Newt could sense Lady Alabaster roll her eyes behind him, but the clerk looked at him seriously. Newt tried to keep a serious face when the man sighed and got up. He zoomed out in a flash of air mana.

"Where is he going?" Newt asked.

"He's an airhead. Probably gone to find a snake for you to charm." Lady Alabaster was not amused. "Good job making us waste more time than necessary."

"I thought I would just laugh in his face when he asked, 'What?'"

"Well, he's laughing now," Lady Alabaster grumbled, and they waited ten minutes before the clerk returned with a small green python. He dropped the snake on his desk. The poor confused thing looked around before once more facing the old clerk.

"You eatsss me?" the spooked python hissed.

"Go ahead, charm it." The clerk grinned, oblivious of the snake's question.

"Um, hello little fellow," Newt said after grabbing the snake's attention by clearing his throat. The hatchling snake stared at him while Lady Alabaster smirked in amusement.

"You ssspeak?" it hissed, staring at Newt, who nodded.

"We won't eat you. You just have to lift your head up and climb up my arm, and I will put you back wherever he took you from."

Lady Alabaster's smirk cracked as Newt stretched out his hand above the python, who straightened and climbed up his hand, coiling around his arm.

"I have to talk some more with these two people, then I will take you back to your home. Sorry about all of this." Newt subtly forgot to mention the whole affair was a joke of his that got out of hand.

"Yesss," the snake hissed, enjoying the warmth and growing drowsy.

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"How did you do that?" Lady Alabaster asked.

"Well, I told it to climb aboard, and it did. You heard what I said."

"You hissed at it, and the snake went from anxious to calm, then climbed up your arm. Are you a beast tamer as well?"

Newt looked away from his master, towards the clerk, looking for some backup, but the man just nodded.

Huh?

"What grade beast tamer are you?"

"I'm not. I never did any tests." Newt stuttered, but the clerk nodded like everything was fine.

"I will write 'novice', since that's just a mere first realm green python, and I'll add a note stating Chaplain Woodhopper should test you when she gets the chance."

The clerk jotted down everything he said before looking back at Newt. "Anything else you've mastered in these apparently extremely long seventeen years?"

Newt shook his head, afraid his next joke about mining might also prove true.

The clerk seemed equal parts relieved and disappointed as he produced a yellow-green uniform, identical to the one everyone else wore in the order.

"These are temporary. You are awfully skinny, and the regular robes aren't a match. A servant will come take your measurements around sundown, and a proper set will be ready by morning."

The clerk fished for something in his drawer and Lady Alabaster spoke just as he grabbed it. "The better one."

The man nodded, then handed Newt a stone triangle with rounded edges and a spiral engraved at the center. "This is your inner student token; don't lose it. If you lose it, don't steal it from your fellows, come here, and we will find it and fine you for losing it."

"Does it do anything, aside from getting me fined?"

"It signifies you're an inner student, allows you access to facilities outer students aren't privy to, such as inner student sections of the library, special training grounds, and special chambers for mana gathering and training." The clerk shrugged. "You are free not to take it if you're scared of losing it, but my advice is to keep it where you won't lose it. Moving on."

The clerk placed two small wooden cases before Newt. "This is your allowance, two recovery potions and two manarium crystals of adequate realm. And this is the key to your shared housing. Outer students sleep in groups of twelve, inner students in groups of four, while elites have their own, separate residences, which they may share with whomever they wish."

The man placed a brass key on the counter. "Losing or damaging the key comes with a fine. Any questions?"

"Why the fines? They are obviously a mundane rock and a mundane key?"

"We are the Explorer's Gate, not the Loser's Gate. Our job is to explore and find treasures."

And which treasures are you finding by sitting here? Lost keys?

Newt stopped himself before the words left his mouth and nodded. There was no reason to be mean to the grumpy old man who spent his days doing his job and hoping youngsters would misplace their belongings.

"If there are no more questions, get acquainted with the rules. The Chamber of Punishment does not take kindly to those disregarding them. In some orders, personal power and connections allow you to disregard the rules. Explorer's Gate is not one of those organizations."

Newt felt a chill. "What's the Chamber of Punishment?"

"A disciplinary division, a suborganization," Lady Alabaster said. "The founders thought it would sound better than Disciplinary Hall, which is what most orders go with. We also have the Chamber of Commerce, the Chamber of Tomes, the Chamber of Pots, which is the alchemy division, and not the first thing that comes to mind."

The woman smiled at Newt's aghast expression.

"The alchemists got the short end of the stick, pardon my pun, but the rest do sound at least somewhat imposing. Based on your skills, you may work closely with the Chamber of Runes, with which I dabble, and the Chamber of Beasts."

"They joked with the names of the order's institutions?" Newt asked, not quite believing what he was hearing, and hoping his master was pulling his leg.

"The order started as a loose and informal organization," Lady Alabaster explained. "Then, after five generations, an extraordinary group of wards rose, three of them reached the seventh realm, and one of them reached the eighth, becoming the new lord protector. Their power drew more talented students, and over the millennia we got where we are. Explorer's Gate has few members for its level of power and the area we control."

Lady Alabaster waved at the clerk and left the room, talking all the while. Newt followed her into the hallway, holding the folded clothes in his hands, while the token, the keys, and the two boxes were safely tucked away in his pouch.

"We have around fifteen thousand outer students and they live in a separate settlement outside the inner walls, next to the shore. Next's there's the twelve hundred inner students, you included, and they live in a large dormitory. As Jade had mentioned, they live in four-bedroom apartments with all the necessary amenities. And finally, there's the one hundred-odd elites."

Newt did a bit of math, and concluded the order had around sixteen thousand and three hundred students or willing slaves, but Lady Alabaster kept talking.

"You come with a recommendation, otherwise you would have started the first six moons as an outer disciple to see whether we are a good fit. Your power, talent, background, and the fact that I am your master mean nothing here. While other orders fight amongst themselves, do the imperial family's bidding for resources, and engage in crafting and commerce, our organization is built on the foundation of exploring dangerous areas for maximum gain."

They left the administration building and entered a spacious plaza with a large white fountain at the center. Lady Alabaster headed left, towards a path lined with tree ferns over a hundred feet tall.

"While some organizations focus on individual power when facing danger, we are different. Our founders believed unity, teamwork, and mutual aid keep people alive in extreme conditions. Naturally, if someone is too weak to stay alive, they have no place on the team, but after a certain point, we prefer a specific temperament over raw power."

Why did they accept someone like you, then?

Despite her demure physical appearance, Lady Alabaster emanated the aura of a wild-woman, tough and unyielding. Definitely not what Newt would call a team player.

"Most inner students are students of one senior mageknight or another, or at least aspiring to become their wards. Play nice, befriend your roommates if possible, don't make enemies of them. They are the likeliest people to go out on missions with, and you will often work together."

For some reason, Newt recalled Dandelion with all his talk about amicability, but he had more important things to consider than his roommates.

"Excuse me, Master," Newt started humbly, so as not to give a wrong impression. "How will you teach me? Is there a class? A designated time of day when you will instruct me? What about the seal scribe and the beast tamer?"

"You have to deal with the others. As for our schedule…"

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