Devourer Of Destiny - Chapter 142

It was a couple of days later when Ebon Dirge finally received a message from the administration. He had been preparing for another day of wandering the various institutes when it arrived, informing him that his presence was required at the administrative satellite office for the tier that very morning.

Was this meeting for a promotion or a reprimand? The message provided no clues, only that Dirge needed to be there. He shrugged and picked out one of the more modest dresses — this one in a brilliant shade of red — deciding that it might be best to feign some modesty for this first display in front of the administration.

The Administrative Office was another white stone complex in boxy shapes, in line with the construction of the rest of the tier. Dirge found himself wondering if the higher tiers of the Academy would reflect a more aesthetic-anchored style, or if he would have to be used to an endless series of white boxes for the duration of his tenure here.

The token in Dirge’s hand heated up a little as he crossed the gateway’s threshold into the complex, and an image was projected of a pathway for him to take. That was one way to ensure the faculty didn’t get lost here, particularly if they were called here as seldom as he suspected. A couple of minutes of following the trail through sidewalks and corridors led him to a large black door that split open down its middle as he approached.

The chamber he entered was a dimly lit room with a chair in the center. Dirge inwardly smirked at the presentation of it all; so this was going to be an inquisition-style meeting, was it? A quick and delicate sweep with his spiritual sense revealed that nobody else was in or near the room, but that there were a series of devices embedded in the wall. A remote conference, then.

Dirge stepped forward and stood in front of the chair. From above, a light ignited, haloing him in the brightness, but there was no other indication that anybody was aware of his arrival. Patiently, he stood there and waited.

“Harmony Sable, Fifth Tier Remedial Tutor,” a booming male voice announced from the facing wall after a few minutes of silent waiting. “The Review Board thanks you for your prompt arrival. You may take a seat and we will begin this session momentarily. Your patience is appreciated.”

Dirge put on a small smile and gave a nod of acknowledgment, but said nothing in response as nothing was necessary. As he was invited to, he sat down in the chair in the center of the chamber, noting that the spotlight shifted to keep him centered.

It was entirely possible that the other parties to this meeting weren’t prepared yet, but it was just as likely that they were already assembled and only wished to watch Dirge squirm. He wouldn’t give them that kind of satisfaction; a few minutes or even hours of silent waiting were entirely laughable to him.

“Our apologies for the wait, Harmony,” the booming voice cut in after ten minutes. “The Review Board is now prepared to begin this session. We would like to welcome you to this discussion as we look into your record so far here at the Celestial Ascendance Academy. Is there anything you would like to say?”

Heh. There was plenty Dirge would have liked to say, but nothing he cared to. Despite the pleasantries, he was already well aware that the proceeding was adversarial even if its intended outcome may not be; meeting this challenge with aplomb would no doubt be a part of his overall evaluation.

“Thank you for having me today,” Dirge replied with a smile. “There is nothing I would like to bring up at this time.”

There was a moment of silence following the reply before the voice returned. “Very well, Harmony. As you have no doubt been apprised of, Celestial Ascendance Academy is a school with millennia of tradition behind it. Our ways of handling our affairs date back to the dawn of history. Because of this, we are very wary of… irregularities in instruction. You recently joined our faculty so you may not be aware of the various nuances of our arrangements. It has come to our attention that you have formally accepted two students, one undeclared in school while the other hails from the Forging Institute. Is this correct?”

Dirge nodded. “That is correct.”

“Good,” the voice acknowledged. “The first student you accepted, a Theo from Clan Nabira, is someone who sought out your assistance at the Remedial Institute and who you were able to rehabilitate, affecting a breakthrough in his physique and facilitating his entry into the ranks of Meridian Circulation Experts. Is this correct?”

“Yes.”

“Good. Is there a reason you did not refer Theo back to his previous teacher and instead took him on as your own student, then?”

Dirge secretly smiled. So that was a trigger for this meeting; he’d have to follow up with little Miss Maple and see if she was causing problems or if this was something the administration had flagged themselves. For now, though, he had to allay the concerns of the administration.

“Young Theo requested that I take him on after I resolved a bottleneck nobody else was able to solve,” Dirge replied blandly. “Is there an issue in accepting such a request?”

“It’s highly irregular,” a second voice, a higher-pitched male one, chimed in immediately. “The purpose of your assignment to the Remedial Institute is in order to prepare you to handle taking on students, not to acquire them straightaway.”

Dirge allowed his eyebrows to rise in mock surprise. “Really? I had received no inkling of such a requirement in the materials I was provided. I mean no disrespect, but if it isn’t intended for a remedial tutor to take on students, why was the process allowed in the first place?”

The source of the second voice made a loud sniffing sound. “So that when you are suitably prepared, you could begin the process of graduation, of course,” it replied with sneering condescension.

“And if I am already more than adequately prepared for the task?” Dirge asked, leaving an eyebrow raised archly. “I did not only resolve an issue that nobody else he had approached had resolved, but I received his immediate acknowledgment. Given how his trust in the other faculty has been damaged, would it not be best for me to accept him and guide him until he is ready to look elsewhere?”

“I think that is a fine sentiment, Harmony,” the first voice replied before another could chime in. “We will watch the development of young Theo with interest under your interim tutelage, then. That, however, is not the more pressing of the issues we must raise today.”

“Yes,” a third voice, this one female, chimed in. “There is the matter of Eloise, a prominent rising star in the Forging Institute, being directly poached by you in dereliction of your normal duties as a Remedial Tutor.”

“Poached? Dereliction?” Dirge blinked in more faux surprise. “Eloise had been rejected by every instructor in the Forging Institute and was on the brink of doing something awfully precipitous when I encountered her and helped her through her issues. If she still had a teacher, shouldn’t the token have not allowed the pairing to go through?”

“We appreciate what you did for Eloise,” the first voice returned to respond, “but don’t you think it a little presumptuous to take on two students, and one of a specialist school, when you haven’t even been in the Academy for a month?”

Dirge gave an honest shrug. “Presumptuous? Perhaps, but she’s another student whose issues I resolved when all others had given up on her. She had just been thrown out of the forge and rebuked by the last instructor willing to deal with her in the institute. Again, if I can properly develop her talents, why should she be held back by being forced to return to those with contempt for her, and who she has little trust in? Wouldn’t it be better if I rebuilt things from both sides before forcing it and possibly causing a repeat?”

“You were wandering the Forging Institute halls when this occurred, directly abdicating your responsibilities as a tutor in the Remedial Institute,” the female voice replied harshly. “Who knows if nobody else could have resolved her issue since you scooped her up on the spot while neglecting your assigned duty.”

“My assigned duty,” Dirge retorted with a bit of an edge, “is to assist those in need of my tutelage, not to sit at a desk in an empty room in an empty building waiting for issues to come to me.”

“Your duty is exactly to be at that desk, waiting for students with problems to come to you,” that third voice almost shouted back. “You weren’t at your desk during your office hours, though, so who knows what you might have missed.”

Dirge inwardly smiled. He’d hit a nerve by poaching Eloise, apparently, but he wasn’t about to meekly back down over it. He had no intention of leisurely waiting for years to achieve his aims here in the Academy, meekly accepting the scraps of those higher in the food chain. “Please inform me about my office hours. I don’t seem to recall having any.”

Silence filled the room. He had them there; perhaps the formal teachers had their assigned or stated office hours, but the tutors were left in anarchy, and those sitting on this Review Board knew it.

“You were still poaching a student of another Institute, an unforgivable offense. We have a complaint from the Forging Institute regarding your suitability in teaching forgesmithing that must be addressed,” the female voice finally chimed in querulously.

Dirge resisted the urge to grin outwardly. “Was this complaint made by the institute itself or by a specific instructor or instructors?” he asked.

“The complaint is from an instructor,” the first voice confirmed.

“Excellent,” Dirge replied. “As it appears someone is questioning my suitability as a teacher, I would like this Review Board to stand witness to my issuance of a challenge in the subject area to this instructor.”

Dirge was almost over the moon with the admission from the Review Board that he was impugned by a specific other instructor. This opened an avenue for advertising his expertise that he couldn’t invoke on his own. When a teacher was openly impugned on their knowledge in a subject area, they could issue a formal challenge to the one making the claim.

Silence gripped the chamber for a moment before the first voice replied. “Are you certain this is an action you wish to take, Harmony? Once issued, the challenge must be completed and the results made a matter of public record.”

“I am absolutely certain,” Dirge responded. “In addition, I waive the requirement of conferment on the method; the challenged may select it, so long as it is subject-relevant.”

“Very well, then,” the first voice replied. “In light of your challenge, we are going to temporarily adjourn this Review Board, contingent on the results of your challenge. The details of the challenge will be made available once we have arranged them and should be within the next two days. Until then, you may continue as you are.”

“Thank you,” Dirge replied and made a slight nod, rising from his chair. “I will be looking forward to the chance to prove my suitability to this Board and to the Academy.”

“As are we,” the first voice replied, and Dirge could almost hear the twisting of smiling lips with that reply as the spotlight went out. He seemed to have at least one ally on the board, and it was the man who was apparently chairing it.

Stretching his limbs for a brief moment, Dirge made his way out of the chamber, a small sly grin on his lips. Someone thought they were going to snatch his prize student now that he had shown she still had value. They would be lucky, by the end of this, if they had any students left, and he would receive a significant boost in notoriety that he was looking for as well.

Everything was turning out great.