Morning everyone. I hope you had a fantastic weekend. I very much enjoyed myself and had a great weekend celebration. I’m a bit tired now but looking forward to having an actually normal week. And now I am regretting saying that as that usually calls down the gods of chaos on my head. Hopefully they were occupied elsewhere. For now, let’s jump into the morning prompt. Timers set for fifteen minutes and lets get this week started.
I like the set up. No idea where it is going but it is something I suspect my brain will turn over and over until I get a story line out of it. Not a bad start to a mid month week.
Monday, September 14th: He was the last one remaining.
He was the last one remaining. The room seemed to grow larger around him as he stood waiting for his turn. He knew, theoretically, he should have been called earlier. The names were called in alphabetical order and being a Garnet he should have come well before Mike Vaseron. Mike was called well before the end of the line.
‘Maybe they started alphabetically and then mixed up the letters for some reason in the middle.’ He thought. He tried to think back to see if there was a point where the alphabet was dismissed as the rule of order and if anyone else might have noticed. He knew Mike went in before Ellen Thomas which was wrong, but couldn’t remember if there was an issue. He couldn’t remember any gasps of surprise or even frowns of confusion. However almost all of them were solely focused internally so he doubted that was any sort of a gauge.
‘Still G at the end.’
He couldn’t help wonder what that said about him. Did it mean they needed to discuss him a bit longer? Did they forget him all together? He knew it wasn’t because they didn’t plan to speak with him. Everyone on the list would be called up at some point regardless of the outcome. The decision made would be told to you directly. If there was one thing the council did not like it was people operating off or rumor or assumption. When decisions were made they were made directly.
‘Which means they will call me unless they accidentally skipped me,’ he told himself as he waited.
Still he knew that even if they forgot in the moment, he would be called before the session ended. There would be a left over packet at the end and they would want to know who it went to.
‘Besides old Falson is watching.’ He darted a glace up at the railing and saw the steward staring down at him as though he was suspected of evil. Keric wasn’t entirely certain what sort of evil he could be expected to commit while standing still in the middle of an empty room.
He tried not to fidget as he stood waiting. He heard the door creak open and dropped his gaze. Lord Kelsic’s secretary appeared a piece of paper in his hands and a tired look on his face. “Keric Garnet,” he called.
He looked up and momentarily seemed surprised that Keric was the only one in the room. He looked down as though checking the name and then back up.
Keric felt himself relax a fraction as it seemed he wasn’t the only one surprised by he alphabetical mix up. Keric moved forward and the secretary favored him with a quick half smile. It was more that one of the corners of his mouth twitched up for a fraction of a moment but as it was the warmest gesture Keric had seen in the past week he was willing to take it.
The testing had been brutal. Every skill every ability every ,,,well anything he had in him was tested to the point of exhaustion. When each of them was physically and mentally drained they were sent to the barracks to sleep, to rest while their results were reviewed and decisions were made.
All of them collapsed.
There had been some bravado before hand about how some believed they would sail through the tests and trials. There was bragging about their skills or intelligence. While it mattered for rating, it didn’t matter for the end of the trials. Each was tried and tested until they had nothing more to give no matter how much that was.
Most slept until it was time to dress for the final placement. Even if they couldn’t sleep their minds had been drained of every scrap of an intelligent thought so they lay supine, resting and staring at the ceiling above as they waited.
Keric followed the secretary through the hall and back to the waiting lords assembled in the gallery. With each step he felt the bands of tension growing tighter across his chest as though wanting to squeeze him to death before he reached the door.
Ten til Midnight 