A few hours after Velle had gotten a text from Will. He was asking if she had seen the video from the research crew about the bear. She responded honestly that she had. He followed up by asking her what she guessed was that powerful. She was grateful, asking her to guess meant she could be wrong. She guessed that it was some kind of mana discharge in the atmosphere. Those were extremely rare but theoretically could happen anywhere and had strange effects on their surroundings. It was just enough to avoid Will’s suspicion as well. She was glad for it, and prepared to wait and find something to do until Alicia was discharged.

--

                The Tuesday after the hike Velle’s phone buzzed from an unknown contact. The text introduced itself as being from Alicia. Velle replied positively and congratulated her on her discharge. Alicia explained that the following afternoon she was supposed to report to the job site. Velle had no idea what would happen to Alicia there, or herself, if they were given an aptitude test. Since part of the test was also checking a person’s conductivity to mana. She sighed and asked Alicia if she wanted to meet up before or at the building itself. She offered to meet before and travel to the job site together. Will had taken the liberty of previously letting Velle know where it was, and she had set up an appointment to line up with Alicia’s. They were going to be in the same orientation group.

                Velle sighed. She’d find out what would happen then. The intervening night of sleep and day following passed quickly enough. And soon she was standing face to face with Alicia again who gave her a hug. Alicia was dressed somewhat professionally, much to Velle’s chagrin. Her outfit complimenting her strawberry blonde hair and brown eyes wonderfully. Velle was appreciative for this, she had realized the first time that she had a newfound desire for human contact that she couldn’t ever fully quench. It was starting to become like an addiction for her to be around people and be affectionate towards them. She wondered if it was the influence of her dual part soul where the goddess aspect of herself was desirous of helping and caring for humans. In her combined memories it was clear that a form of that behavior had always existed. The goddess of magic had always loved humans and had blessed them with the ability to use her power in the beginning to let them advance further and faster.

                They teleported to the nearest circle to the work building and walked in. The woman at the reception desk told them where in the building to go. They arrived with a few minutes to spare and were shown to a conference room where the orientation would take place. Apparently, they were the only two being oriented today, so the woman in charge let them be a little more casual. At the end she led to a small testing room with an series of aptitude orbs. She sat them down next to each other and gave them instructions to put both hands on the orb and wait for the orb to project their aptitudes onto the matte white screen before them. The orbs were a joint invention of the Mana-Factorum and holy church to best place people into jobs, though they were heavily flawed. Velle and Alicia put their hands on their orbs at roughly the same time and waited.

                The soft white glow of the orbs became a swirl of colors before settling back into a soft white. The orbs projected onto the screens, but nothing was shown. “That’s strange.” The worker said. “I don’t know what that means. I’ll have to go ask, you two can wait here.”

                Alicia and Velle both nodded. After she left Velle turned to Alicia. “I’ve got a bad feeling about this.” She spoke quietly.

                Alicia nodded in agreement. “I wonder what the blank screen means. Did it not work? Is it because we both recovered similarly? It makes me anxious not knowing.” She looked tense.

                Velle guessed it would be several minutes before anyone came back into the room. She was surprised when the door opened much faster. She turned her head around and immediately stood up when she saw a group of church cavaliers entering the room, weapons drawn. “What’s going on?” She demanded.

                The leader of the Cavaliers spoke without removing his helmet’s mask. “You two are under arrest by the authority of the church for heresy and heretical abilities. Come with us peacefully, and we will tell you what your options are from here.” He spoke quickly and self-righteously.

                Velle wanted to fight but Alicia beat her to the move. “Fine, let’s go Velle. I don’t want to hurt this place, and I don’t think they intend to kill us.” She spoke quietly.

                Velle lowered her guard and nodded. The group of guards made way as the two walked out. They passed by a small army of men outside in the hall. They were escorted down to a magic vehicle capable of flight for a larger group. There were three in the plaza at the bottom of the building.  They were guided into the central vehicle and the leader of the cavaliers along with six others also boarded before take-off. Once the door had closed and the vehicle started to move the leader removed his helmet and again spoke to the duo. “The aptitude orbs notified us for immediate deployment as soon as you touched them. You were deemed heretics by the church, and normally that would mark you for death. However, there is a particular series of events taking place that is fortuitous for you two.” He spoke calmly and in a plain voice.

                Velle answered for both. “Fortuitous how?” She said in a sharp tone.

                The man seemed unimpressed. “There has been an increase in Daego activity globally, and in addition the number and strength of magical beasts is increasing. Since you two can use magic without circles and can train to strengthen your magic overall- unlike the rest of us, you two make powerful fighters against this threat. If you agree to train, and then fight on behalf of the church to protect towns and cities around the world, we will let you live. Until you either die in battle or this current resurgence is ended. If you survive to the end, we will grant you the ability to live out your days in peace in a special location away from other people.”

                It was a terrible offer, but it beat becoming enemies of the church and execution by a wide margin. They had both accepted before the vehicle stopped at the nearest Cathedral.