"The best seafood?" The customs officer was aghast. "You're pulling into port and you want to eat more seafood?"

  "We want your take on it," Stuart said. "I got this. Let me know if you can make contact with whoever we need to speak with from the academy or whatever it is."

  I put my arm through Martins. "On it."

  It was always fun getting that first step off the boat in a while. The ground was solid. Especially here in the lands where they had to work with, I appreciated a bit of grounding.

  Cobblestones lined the well worn path into the city. This far from the center there were only a few stalls selling things that sailors would want immediately after arrival. It was mostly meat, cheese and cold alcohol.

  Bless the mage that had the idea for chilling beverages with ice.

  I flagged down one of the vendors. A green skinned humanoid with tusks jutting out of his lower lips held down a tiny cart with bit wheels.

  Martin pulled me towards them. "You want something special?"

  "Wine. I don't see a cheese menu but I'll trust the judgement of someone who clearly knows his clientele."

  The orcish vendor grunted. "One for my fine fae friend. I've got the mountains best. Thick cheese with crackers made by the finest human hands."

  I brought out my traveling mug. He chuckled. "A lady of culture."

  Martin counted out some local currency. "I suppose that I should get something for later as well?"

  "Thinking ahead? I appreciate that."

  "If you're doing that, then allow me to hand you two types of cheese. This sharp cheddar pairs well with the red wine I'm giving your partner, and the white bubbled cheese will be great later as well."

  He gave us two lovely packages of cheese as well as two smaller packages of crackers.

  "I've got a knife," Martin said. "Worry not."

  I didn't need to tell him about the twelve knives I kept hidden on my body. He knew. If he played his cards right, I might even share where I kept them.

  "I was not worried." I fully intended to bite directly into the cheese.

  ---

  The administrator, one Mister Rich that Martin led us to was in what had to be the smallest large office I'd ever been to. Piles of paperwork, scrolls and even a mug of water accented the utter contempt this man had for the process of cleaning up after himself.

  "We've got the parapet next month. So yes we would have a use for you then. The graduation ritual is prior to that though. There should be something for you between then and now." The administrator looked down his nose at me. "This isn't some fae plot to steal souls, correct?"

  "We don't steal souls. They might join us willingly but that's on them."

  "Ollie!" Martin whispered.

  "Excellent. Well, this is rather unfortunate. I'm not certified to bargain with the fae, but I'll pass on this to that person. We should have an agreement within two weeks. I understand that might seem fast to you, but I assure you that it is completely slow for us so we'll be meeting you in the middle."

  I didn't expect a lot of deference just for being Fae, but it was nice to get someone who understood what I was dealing with.

  I took a sizable bite out of my cheese. "Would you like to have some of this sharp bubble cheese? Apparently you can have these pleasant little holes inside of the cheese."

  Mister Rich waved us out. I guess he didn't want some fine orcish cheese. Not everyone could be a connoisseur. I was going to have to make sure Martin knew his stuff.

  "So I live,,, well I've got a little apartment off the side of the campus," he said. "You're welcome to stop by now that we're done here."

  "I'm not done with you yet. I was told that we were going to have something delicious that we couldn't get on a boat. And wouldn't you know it? I'm out of wine already."

  Wouldn't you know it? There was a reasonably priced place nearby that he just decided to take me to. We decided to celebrate our Good Fortune of getting a deal tentatively signed. The restaurant itself was a two-story building made out of freaking stone small next to the large walls that dominated the skyline.

  The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

  Dragons frequently flew by overhead and I was a bit Disturbed to figure out that I had to stop paying attention a few hours ago to how many it passed by.

  "You explain what this parapet thing is because you make it sound like it's going to be a big deal, but I know that maybe that's not true."

  "It's the first of the trials for the Dragon riders. If they can't pass it and they either quit there or they die," he said.

  "Why can't they just be used for other purposes? There's a military academy right? Isn't that where you work?

  He held out a full glass of wine. "Yes, and we would love to have them come by. Technically the Dragon riders are a part of the military, but they are their own group. If the main military tries to control them too close to see, they don't really like that. And for years I've been telling telling anyone who would listen to that. It's a waste to have people die just because they couldn't make it to the first challenge. So many people don't even make it to where they would bond with a dragon."

  Mine went on to explain the intricacies of how people formed bonds with dragons and eventually made after a year.

  "The military academy they're only there for a year, correct? This should be easy to solve. Just send the people that wash out from Dragon Ball to trending to the military economy. Save the humans, a body of somebody who's willing to fight. Who cares if they can or cannot ride a dragon? They can lead men and women in battle."

  It was cute honestly. I didn't know I liked this specific rant. It was just really cute how they got really fired up about this. I could listen to it all day. He was animated but he really hadn't gotten too heated yet. I was tempted to see what was pushing past the edge but that just wasn't worth it.

  " So they're going to fall down what three stories, four stories and then they're going to die and we're going to clean up their bodies. Is that what I'm hearing? And then for the other one...?"

  "Ah the war sword trials. I have always hated those. It's like they demanded to cut down half of the applicants. Why can we not keep the ones that don't make the cut. But no they have to die. And that's a part of it. And it isn't even the whole class. It's just a select few that are given the option of doing it."

  He went on to explain how that worked and and I was fascinated at how many things that he could absolutely hate and describe in detail. All his human customs felt like they were just stolen pieces of fae blood rites. At least when we did the blood rights and made sense. There was a reason for it and it gave so many power afterwards. Or at least the ones that survived and got power. This? This seemed like census violence just to satisfy someone's bloodlust.

  Which honestly was fine for me because I needed some sort of blood every so often to keep up my reserves. I hadn't really did to do them recently because I hadn't had the need. And it will be hard to get any aether moving out here without any of that so I didn't think it would be appropriate.

  When the waiter finally came by with our steaks that was ravenous. There's also full of cheese from earlier so it was a pleasant change from the salty Miss of the soft and delicious cheese that I'd been given. I really hope that we'd be able to visit that guy again. Otherwise I'd have to rely upon Martin to find the good cheese.

  Which to be fairly obvious, he did not know anything about cheese. And thankfully he was willing because those steaks well delicious. We're not going to make up four for me not being able to put together a cheese platter. I knew that was my objective as soon as we were done eating.

  "All right now that we got our bellies full. Let's get on the road. Let's get some cheese and we'll talk to Stuart. I think he's going to want to know what we negotiated on his behalf."