Inside the chairwoman's office, holographic images of Dr. Carol Reed spending the morning with Sam out in Tillmor are projected over the coffee table. She has a look of enjoyment detailing the events in each photo to her friend whom she is sharing lunch with, Juliana Kraus, the chairwoman of the academy.

"You went to Minks?" Julie asks in a rigid tone.

The chairwoman is struggling to share the same enthusiasm as her friend, but is wary of asserting school regulations to reprimand her either. After all, it was her carelessness that led to Carol's institution getting involved in the first place.

"You know how much I love that place, they always have the best styles, and let me tell you Jules, I had him try everything there was. God, that was fun." Carol replies excitedly. "You should've joined us too, maybe picked out a few dresses for yourself?"

"I still had work," Julie responds in a neutral tone.

"Of course," Carol chuckles.

The images continue to shuffle through and Carol jumps at another picture of her and Sam.

"This is us walking central plaza," she says with a gleeful smile. "He was so fascinated by the place even though he had that grumpy look on his face."

"Maybe it's all the bags you had him carry for you."

"Hey, you have to take advantage of the extra pair of hands when you have them. He's a strong young boy, and besides, it's almost entirely his stuff."

"You don't think this is overly generous?" Julie asks with a sharp gaze toward her friend.

"Why?" Carol locks eyes with Julie, "Can't I have some affection for the kid?"

The room goes silent as the two friends momentarily exchange looks. Even Emelia, who has been confused while observing these two ladies, can sense something brewing in the room. It is strange for her to see the chairwoman, who is normally quite resolute when dealing with the affairs of her students, appear so reserved. It is also bizarre for a highly acclaimed physician to behave in this manner with a patient. And Emilia cannot help but feel awkward witnessing this.

Julie finally breaks contact and turns to Emilia. "Find Sam," she orders her assistant, who is quick in her response, heading for her desk to make some calls. Julie returns her attention to Carol and the images over her table. She scrolls through a few more before letting out a light chuckle.

"You didn't have me clear my schedule so you can show me selfies of you and my student."

"Well, I wasn't planning on doing this either, but the kid said to do a 'fun montage' of us in town, so, here we are," Carol chuckles.

"You certainly have a lot of affection for him, Carol ... it's a bit frightening."

"It sheered a lot of years off my own life to bring him back from the brink of death, Jules. So, I don't know ... I have this weird sense of attachment all of a sudden. A need to preserve that life. That sort of thing."

Seeing the sudden serious look her friend has, Julie sighs, and turns off the holographic images on display.

"You're putting me in a very awkward situation here," she whispers.

From the moment Julie received Carol's message, she knew that this will not be a simple lunch meeting between friends, but a meeting between the heads of two prominent institutions of Tillmor. The Health and Research Agency under the leadership of the renown Dr. Carol Reed, and the revered Roan Academy lead by the highly influential Kraus family. What she did not anticipate, however, is the sudden and unexpected development of her friend's maternal instincts for one of her students.

"Don't worry, I won't ask you to share with me privileged information, you are entitled to your secrets. As head of education, you have that right," Carol assures her. "But if your intention to go to war with other agencies means dragging my institution into the mix, then I have a duty to protect my own."

"The boy is in good health thanks to you, and is now safely on campus grounds. I cannot express enough how grateful I am for what you and your agency have done, Carol, but Sam is still a student of mine, and so makes him Roan's concern. He should only be Roan's concern."

"You know as well as I do that I can delegate care of my patients to other healers, anywhere in Tillmor, at my discretion. In other words, I don't have to release a patient to someone else if I don't want to. That means Sam is tied to me as his primary care ... indefinitely," Carol responds.

"So, what does HARA want with Roan?" Julie asks with a sharp gaze.

"To recognize my organization as Sam's unofficial primary benefactor, and grant me ... guardianship," Carol declares.

* * * * * * * * * * * *

"-And welcome to Roan Academy of the Divine Arts!" the clerk finally ends her lengthy explanation about the school.

She went through the academy's history, its goals, and some expectations set for everyone. I can't remember half the things she said because I kept dozing off during the entire presentation. It's barely in the afternoon, but with all the things that have happened to me so far: 'Being arrested by Reach. Getting threatened by the general. The long shopping spree with the doc,' I mean, can you blame me for being tired? It's been a long and exhausting day.

"Your admission has been completed. Your device has both your log in and student record up to day. Refer to the User Guide for more instructions, and if you have any questions, our Administration Office's help line is always open. You can reach us easily from your device!"

I pull up my profile on the tablet device I was given. It has all the information you would expect. There's also an updated picture of me wearing the academy's uniform now. A combination of black and a rich mustard yellow, so rich that it almost teases orange. Thankfully, the patterns have slight variations for every student. So, we all look a little different in our uniforms.

'And thank god for that, otherwise it would look like the evening sun took a shit in the courtyard if we all stood together.'

As for me, I went with solid colors: black pants, white shirt, black tie, a yellow vest, and yellow blouse. It's clean. No patterns.

"...Do you have any questions, Sam?"

"Uh, no. None."

"Great! Your friends will be outside waiting for you. Good Luck!"

I stand up and exit the administration office, waving goodbye to the friendly clerk whose name I can't remember. Once outside, I'm greeted by Logan and Carrie who are guiding me around the campus. 

"You look nice," Carrie says with a nod and a smile, staring at me from top to bottom.

"Thanks," I respond, dusting off my blouse.

"So, next we are on to the assessor, right?" Logan turns to Carrie.

'Assessor?'

"Why do we need an assessor?" I toss the question out there.

Carrie replies, "it's someone who measures your magic: The capacity of energy you can use, how to refine it, and what gemstone is best for you to amplify casting spells-"

"Say what?" I blurt out with an eyebrow raised.

"But that can wait," she says, waving her hands in a dismissive manner, "there's somewhere else we need to be right now."

Logan scoffs as he realizes what Carrie has in mind.

"Jeezus Carrie, let's just finish what we have to do and then go watch the events," he objects.

"By then she will already be done," Carrie grumbles, "and he doesn't mind. You don't mind, right Sam?"

Carrie quickly turns her attention to me, and I don't know what they are talking about. I'm still stuck on the assessor thing she said earlier, but she looks determined to take this detour, demanding a satisfactory response from me.

"I'll ... I'll follow you guys wherever you're going," I reply.

"Then it's decided," she declares.

With Logan shaking his head and Carrie pumping her fist with excitement, we take off toward ... not the assessor ... apparently.