Year 782 Octavus, 6th day of the sixth-month Dailainus

Sidastir examined his royal consort, who was staying alongside him in the wagon. They had now traveled for days. First with the sleigh and then the wagon when they had reached a warmer landscape.

Akana had been quiet during the trip and had only started a conversation if he was hungry or to ask a question. Now he glared at his wedding gift laying in his lap. A small icedragon. It was a tradition that those of the royal family would own an Icedragon and Akana’s dragon had been selected before they had embarked. Sidastir had himself a fully grown dragon that was far too big to ride with them in the wagon.

Akana had named the dragon Naga which apparently means dragon in the Auonian language. Very creative. Sidastir assumed that it was because of the Auonian culture. He himself named his dragon to Dornill. He who fights against evil. Maybe a little over-dramatically. Sidastir could only hope that Akana would not have their future children named after numbers.

Akana seemed to decide to ignore the sleeping dragon after a while and took out some documents instead. Sidastir was bored and leaned over the documents. "What are you reading?" he asked and tried not to burst out in laughter when he saw Akanas irked expression. Akana a lot more bother with staying days in a wagon, without work, than he wanted to illustrate.

"I trying to choose my direction and courses at Virtus Scolaris," replied Akana briskly and Sidastir wrinkled on the forehead.

"Shouldn't you choose Scientia?" asked Sidastir, who had to admit that he assumed that Akana would choose the scientific line. After all, he was a Mechanist.

"I am a royal consort. What benefit do you have of a consort who is a Mechanist? "asked Akana casually without releasing the documents with his gaze.

"You are my consort and I want you to choose the direction that you want to study," Sidastir said casually and Akana looked at him with a frown.

"I want to study a curriculum that gives me an advantage when I’m a royal consort,"

Akana's response was forthright. Sidastir ended the discussion as it will not lead anywhere.

"What specialization are you considering?”

"I have no use of art so Artifex is removed. That leaves war specialization, Marsis, and the political direction, Consilium," said Akana with a voice that was in deep thought.

"You can choose my direction, Magicum," said Sidastir, who found delight from the idea of having his consort in Magicum along with himself. It would be easier to spend time together.

"Auons have no magic so focusing on Magicum would be foolish,” said Akana briskly and Sidastir frowned.

"How do you think you managed to touch me? By the grace of the gods?"

"There are no gods. This is merely a superstition of people who try to explain what they cannot understand," snorted Akana in an almost offended voice. Sidastir had noticed that Auons generally felt detest towards anything that was not scientific. Religion and, to some extent, magic belonged to this category.

"In any case, I would not like you to choose Marsis. I see no reason why you should learn martial arts as you will never follow me to war," said Sidastir effortlessly and Akana seems to ponder the matter.

"You have been successful in the war you waged. I guess you do not need a warrior as a royal consort. That leaves just Consilium. Politics it is then."

Akana seemed pleased with his choice and began filling out the form.

*****

Akana audited the courses that were on the Consilium. A student would choose at least two courses to read in two years before electing two new subjects to study in the next two years. Some courses require a student to study them for more than two years. Akana was pleased that the Economy was on the list, as this is something he knew he could handle. There were besides Economy also Decorum, Diplomacy, Political Science, Law and several different languages.

In addition to this, there were two mandatory subjects. History and Arithmetic. In addition, you must choose a topic from two other curriculums. In Akana’s case, it became Marsis and Artifex.

He reached for the list of courses with a discouraged sigh. Sidastir turned towards him to inspect his sullen mood.

"Difficult to choose?"

"I'm not sure how to choose courses. They suggest two from my curriculum, one from Marsis and one from Artifex," mumbled Akana absently.

"If that's the curriculum you're considering then I'd suggest you look up titles," said Sidastir and Akana looked up from the documents.

"What titles?"

"It's straightforward. Titles are the end result of your studies. If you have studied Economy then you will get the title Mercator. I myself am a Magus. A Master of Magic. That means I've finished five courses in magic. The majority of the titles have different specific topics that you must have read and some of the titles require that you have read certain topics from different curriculum. Another example is a Ritualist that requires you to read sanguinism, history, and religion. Choose a title as your goal and choose courses with it in mind," Sidastir explained and Akana tried to absorb the new information while he was perusing a paper with titles.

"I apparently get the title Delectus as this is the name of a student of Consilium. There are smaller titles that are easy to get as Mercator but I should focus on the more advanced titles." Akana quickly read through the list.

"Hierophant is uninteresting to me," announced Akana briskly and Sidastir laughed.

"Hierophant is uninteresting to me," announced Akana simply and Sidastir laughed.

"A High Priest sounds like a safe choice to remove."

“Aristocrat? Is not aristocrat another word for nobility? "asked Akana confusedly and frowned. How was this a title?

"Not at the moment but you are not completely fallaciously. The title suggests that one has trained to become a nobleman," said Sidastir and Akana announced that this title was useless.

Then only Senator, Magister and Consulor remained.

Whatever these titles are supposed to be. Sidastir must have realized that Akana were confused because he answered the question which had not been asked.

"Senator is a diplomat. Magister is a judge and Consulor is... "

He pondered the meaning of the last title.

"Do you know what a Consul is?" he asked at last. Akana heard the similarities of the words but he had never heard the titles before.

"A Consul is the highest noble title you can have in Patricalum and Relevium. They stand above Praetors and Prefects. The Consul govern over regions, Praetors governs cities and Prefects serves under Praetors. In the past, only one Consul could have the title Consulor. This was the title given to the highest in the political direction. They often became advisors to the ancient emperors and only a few bore the title. Presently, one can educate themselves to a Consul."

"Then it's determined. I will become a Consulor," clarified Akana contentedly. He did not regard Sidastir expression but Sidastir seemed amused even if Akana could not comprehend why. Is it not merely natural to try to become the highest in one’s curriculum?

"As a Consulor, I must have read a language, Decorum, Political Science, Economics, Diplomacy, and Leadership. Leadership is an optional subject. Since only two substances can be selected from their own direction, this means that the education takes at least six years. "

Akana decided to start with Diplomacy and a language. He already had knowledge of finance even if he has not been trained in it and he was unsure about Decorum. The label sounds like an abstract topic at best.

"Then I have only two subjects left to choose. One from Marsis and one from Artifex, "Akana sighed out the last word.

Art was not really his forte.

*****

"Why not take horsemanship?" asked Sidastir and could imagine Akana trying to handle a horse.

He had read that Auons do not own animals which would explain Akana’s inability to handle Naga.

“Horsemanship? What benefits do I gain from that? There are no horses in the Eitir, "said Akana, who clearly could detect Sidastir’s entertained expression.

"How about Combat Art? A royal consort should be able to deal with a weapon," Akana remarked.

Sidastir was not entirely satisfied with the idea of Akana handling weapons. He could only assume that Akana would hurt himself.

"Maybe Archery?"

Akana didn’t seem to be against the idea.

"In any case, remove hunting, warfare, and dueling. They are advanced courses and requires one to have mastered Combat art and understand how to wage a war," Sidastir replied casually and looked out from the wagon.

They had left the obscure forest that covered a larger part of the Domor and some parts of the Dailain. They were now out on open fields, which meant were they approaching Virtus Scolaris.

"I want to avoid military strategy as this is not a physical activity. It will be Archery then. Onto Artifex. Dance, Art, Art History, Poetry, Music, Singing, Music Appreciation ... "

Akana seemed to lose his enthusiasm while Sidastir tried to appear serious.

"Poetry sounds like your topic. Though I must admit, I would like to hear you sing."

Akana caught Sidastirs gaze. "No. You do not."

"Seriously speaking, these courses, for lack of other terms, are very simple. It is almost impossible to fail at them as long as you show up. I myself have taken Music Appreciation. This means that we go to concerts, and as long as we show up, we pass!”

Sidastir shrugged and looked contentedly upon Akana who chose Music Appreciation. He avoided uttering that they would be allowed to attend the concerts together as there were no age restrictions between the students on this course.

Akana reviewed contentedly the content of his form and Sidastir could not help but marvel as it had taken all of the journey to decide what courses to choose. Sidastir himself simply chose what he wanted to study. What was the point of reading topics you find no joy in?

The journey continued for a few hours before they arrived at the gates of Virtus Scolaris. The large castle appeared at a distance with a city surrounding the school itself. The wagon continued through the gates and went past several large buildings.

Virtus Scolaris architecture was unique throughout Noterra as it was a mixture of Dailains and Releviums architecture. The city's architecture had Dailains gray stone from the mountains of Callis Nostram, but also had columns from Relevium.

There were several temple buildings, where the roof was only borne by pillars without walls, which had been converted to markets. Gardens existed between the buildings and brought in nature to the otherwise dense city.

The journey continued for a few hours before they arrived at the gates of Virtus Scolaris. The huge castle appeared only at a distance. The wagon went through the gates and went past several grand buildings.

It took a while before Sidastir noticed Akana's absent gaze.

"What is it?"

"Why are there so many mansions?" said Akana and it dawned on Sidastir that there was one affair in which the school did not give out information.

"They belong to different factions also called familias," he said and could see the incoming query. He decided to answer it before the question was uttered.

"Factions are different groups created by the students. They more or less control the school. They represent different things as a particular religion or nobility and govern the various curriculums. You and I for that matter belong to the Furies. "

"Furies?" asked Akana and seemed to savor the word.

"The Furies is the dominant faction in the school. We control Marsis and Magicum. We are not one of the largest factions, but we are the strongest. Most of us are successful in our curriculum and this allows our faction to gain more power. The only path to becoming a Fury is to be invited by another Fury or to be the ward of a fury. You can change the faction but then you will also be another's ward and aren’t allowed reside in my bedchambers according to the rules."

"Then I do not change faction," Akana said with frankness but Sidastir was gladsome that Akana did not want to depart from his company. There were too many advantages when sharing chambers with their spouse after all.

The wagon stopped at last in front of an enormous building with at least three floors, two wings and a front gleamed from the white stone. The mansion was adorned with gray marble columns, traditional for the Relevium buildings, but with the dark wooden frames around the windows, costumary for the Dailainian architecture.

"Welcome to Cathurn. Our pride!" Sidastir whispered.