Gerard entered his house with a huge smile on his face. His two friends, Damian and Terralis were already inside waiting for them. "I finally got my applications back," he told them, holding up the four letters he'd brought inside with him.
Terralis looked up from the card game she'd started with Damian, "You applied with all four families?"
"Yeah, I really wanted to make sure I got into the academy, and I figure I'll just take the best one to accept me."
Damian chuckled. "Well then, you'd better see who accepted you. Open them up."
Gerard opened the one from Verantis first. He wasn't surprised that they'd rejected him, although he had really hoped to get in. Verantis was the most powerful family in Safeholme. The current king as well as a good majority of the council where all either actual members or honorary members of Verantis. The letter was fairly simple. "We're sorry, but your past academic performance and displays of leadership where not impressive enough to warrant vouching for you at the Safeholme Academy for Freedom and Excellence."
Damian laughed at that too. "Don't you think it's funny that they call the academy S.A.F.E too? The royalty certainly doesn't want you to forget that things are much better inside the wall than out."
"Well it's true. Other than a few other havens, everybody out there is a bunch of barbarians."
"Just open your other letters."
***
Gerard had been accepted by the other three families. Verantis had the strictest policies in regards to who it would vouch for. Von Reichter was also fairly strict, but they'd been impressed by Gerard's community service and a couple essays he'd done on the importance of maintaining civility. Saldania and Devaro where much less strict. They'd let anybody in, and he'd only applied for them as back up. He was really glad that Von Reichter had agreed to vouch for him though. They where the only other family with any political influence. Any council members or nobility that weren't with Verantis where with V.R. Saldania was much more interested in public services and asked that anybody it vouched for choose a major that could be used to help people. They especially loved it if you became a doctor. Devaro was more specific. If you joined the academy in their name, you had to take training to become an officer. The Safeholme military existed almost soley under Devaro's control, although they where fiercely loyal too the royalty. No Devaro officers had ever tried to seize political power.
Gerard told his friends that he would be attending the academy with Von Reichter. They weren't surprised since he had always been interested in the royalty. He still wanted to know what they where planning on doing though.
Terralis responded first. "I applied with Saldania, but that was just as backup too. I already told you that I want to join the Priests of the Golden Dove at Northgate Abbey, but they haven't gotten back to me yet. I've been talking to Father Antonio though and he said that he'd recommend me to the council, so I should be ok. I hope."
Damian leaned back against the cushions behind them and told them he hadn't bothered to apply for the academy at all. "There's no way I'm doing that shit. Even if I had the time, the families are all way too uptight for me. Besides, they don't let you practice magic there, even though it's not illegal yet. I'm just going to help my dad at the bar. You two better stop by from time to time though, understand? I'd hate to have to hunt you both down and embarrass you."
Gerard laughed at him. "Well alright, if it won't bother you to have an academy student at your bar, then I'll be glad to come by when I'm not too busy, although I imagine I will be most of the time. Now if you don't mind, I'd like to get down to playing cards like we'd planned instead of talking about this boring stuff."
* * * * *
I've decided to do a little work on the city I sort of mentioned earlier. These are going to be the three main characters, although I figure that any stories I write that take place here aren't going to involve all three at the same time. Instead, specific stories will probably focus on what's going on with one of them, although there's nothing to keep me from having them interact. The way it is in my head, they're all childhood friends who are going their separate ways now, and since I'm not sure if the city has cell-phones, I don't know if they'll keep in touch that often.
Speaking of the city, I haven't decided much on it. Obviously there's magic, but it's being phased out and most people can't do much, partially because there's nowhere to learn. There's also guns, cars, and electricity. Radio too I think, but probably not TV, phones, or computers. Mostly because I don't want communication to be too easy. Safeholme is a lot like the city in Jak 2. It's split into districts, and actually has a large farming area inside the wall. Northgate, which I mentioned before, is a more open district. The academy, a rather large church(Like, Notre Dame large), several high end shops, some nice apartments that the richer students stay at, and several parks are all located there. It also has some warehouses since it's where the northern city gate is and while most of the areas outside the city are essentially wastelands, there are havens(smaller walled cities) and villages that try to exist out there and occasionally trade with Safeholme when the caravans can make it. Mostly because the people out there don't have a choice. It's not like they can actually move into the city. This is all stuff that I'd like to mention eventually anyway, but I wanted to help build up the setting now.
