"You wanted to see me?" Nurcan, a female first-year student, asks Mehmet, her history of magic professor, feeling that something has gone wrong in History of Magic, wearing a white hijab to protect herself from sandstorms.

  "Yes. I plan to nominate you for the Nizam-I Cedid Exchange program!" Mehmet announces to her. "If you're among the selected, you're going on exchange for next year, all expenses paid by the Bab-I Humayun!"

  "Why would you want the Bab-i Humayun to send me away on exchange? What would they have to gain to send a second-year student away?" Nurcan protests, unsure of why Mehmet would even want the Bab-I Humayun, that is, what Ottoman wizards call its Ministry of Magic in common parlance, to consider her.

  "In my class, you already function at a much higher level than other students in your class. But rest assured that the Bab-I Humayun has good reason to at least consider you!"

  "Wouldn't it make more sense for the Bab-I Humayun to pay for a more advanced student to go, in hopes of getting expertise that might actually benefit the Empire? Second-year material wouldn't provide any benefit that can't be gained here, at Karakalem!"

  "You think magical expertise is what the Sublime Porte or the Bab-I Humayun is after..." Mehmet pauses. "Most of the other professors nominated students who feel like they could gain the expertise you mention..."

  "The Sublime Porte? Come again? Am I such a thorn on the Muggle administration's side that they would want to send me away? I didn't do anything that the Sultan would deem worth sending me away for!" Nurcan's face turns red. "Alternatively, what use would I be to the Sultan in the future that would make it worthwhile to send me away this early in my education?"

  "But maybe one day you'll serve the Bab-I Humayun far away from Ottoman territory!" the history professor retorts.

  "Then again, what are the criteria for the Nizam-I Cedid program? Beyond academic excellence of course, and possibly the potential long-term impact..."

  On that count, I'm not that well-rounded. Transfiguration is my obvious weakness. But Mehmet seems to be implying that being weak in one area won't necessarily be held against me, Nurcan is painfully reminded of what she's good at. But other than that, I'm still relatively strong academically.

  "You appear concerned about the fairness of the process, and rightfully so. If you're afraid that some pure-blood, or perhaps some child of a Sublime Porte or Bab-I Humayun official if not, might get it over you because of that..."

  "I'm afraid the opposite might be true. That you might nominate me, some Muggle-born with no connection to the imperial authorities in Constantinople, to show the Bab-I Humayun that one's circumstances shouldn't preclude one from opportunity!"

  "It's not that. I know what you're capable of. You're no different from my colleagues' nominees, and I wouldn't envy the job of the Nizam-I Cedid selection committee..."

  "You implied the Nizam-I Cedid exchange program was a life-changing opportunity, but the imperial authorities wouldn't launch such a program without clear Empire-wide goals!"

  "Enough of why I'm nominating you, or why these folks in Constantinople are doing this. In your situation, there are two destinations that are off-limits: Koldovstoretz and Durmstrang..."

  "Durmstrang I would understand, since I'm Muggle-born. But Koldovstoretz? Do you think Russian wizards, while less hostile to Muggle-borns, would lynch me at its gates if and once they discover my Ottoman origins? The Statute of Secrecy is there, among other things, to prevent such things from happening based on Muggle conflicts!"

  "Sometimes, Nurcan, I feel like discussions like these can degenerate with you. Back to the discussion at hand. Your parents will be notified if you're awarded a place in the Nizam-I Cedid and then given an opportunity to decline. However, the ultimate decision is yours!"

  "I guess, I'll take your nomination, but I don't expect much this year. I have one last question. If I don't get it this year, will the program still be around next year?" Nurcan sighs.

  Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

  "There are no guarantees the program will remain in future years. For now, however, know that, if you get it this year, you won't get it again, but you get to decide where to go, subject to the restrictions outlined earlier. And don't forget: if you get it, remember that you'd then represent the Sultan at the host school!"

  "Any other conditions I should be aware of?"

  "If you get it, you must agree to work in Ottoman territory, or in Imperial service, for one year after graduation!"

  "What about language?"

  "And, of course, take correspondence courses in your destination's language of instruction!"

  Nurcan then leaves Mehmet's office to go to the seray housing students, so she can work on the latest History of Magic assignment. Which is about the Thirty Years War as a prelude to the Statute of Secrecy. 30 years of wizard-hunting, and of Muggles fighting each other over religious matters.

  About which her fellow students have questions, including but not limited to, purebloods who had no luck because they knew people tended to forget more about history as years go by than other subjects. Those who wouldn't ask Muggle-borns for help until they have no choice.

  When Hamza, one of these purebloods, comes to Nurcan, she feels cold shivering down her spine. Not that guy again... he looks down on me at every opportunity, and their type ask Muggle-borns for help as a last resort, sometimes not even that!

  "You're my only hope!" Hamza whines at her, in a haughty tone, wearing his white turban a little too tight.

  "Let me guess: you need help in History of Magic!"

  "I don't understand how Liechtenstein could somehow fill the vacuum left behind by the Thirty Years War in both the Holy Roman Empire and the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. That, by 1692, Liechtenstein was seemingly strong enough to defy Austria on the issue of mountain trolls!"

  "It was also affected by witch hunting, but for wizarding purposes, Liechtenstein became much bigger than in the Muggle world because the local Muggle authorities outlawed witch hunting in 1682, drawing refugees from all over the Holy Roman Empire and the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. However, by then, Austria was nigh powerless on the wizarding stage and couldn't prevent the losses of wizards!"

  "So its rise to wizarding power happened in the final ten years prior to the Statute, because of Austrian collapse..."

  "Signs of collapse were already clear by 1648. Let's not forget that, by that point, neither the Holy Roman Empire nor the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth's wizarding communities had any ability to keep a wizarding school in operation, especially because the Thirty Years' War was in the late stages of the European witch hunts, not to mention the collateral damages of war!"

  "That went way over my head! You made it sound like Muggles were responsible for wizarding deaths because they killed and destroyed indiscriminately!"

  "Back then, wizards lived among Muggles much more readily than today. So famines, disease and siege warfare killed wizards, and often unknowingly, or as an acceptable price to pay for the pursuit of Muggle war aims!"

  "The difference is that Ottomans were much more piecemeal in wizard hunting..."

  The course began with the Statute of Secrecy, first from the Ottoman POV, and now we cover what led up to it. But the Sultan of the time reluctantly agreed to ratify the Statute, basically selling out the Empire's wizarding community due to its Muggle preoccupations against Austria, Nurcan dives deep into her mind, triggered by how Ottoman attitudes towards wizard hunting differed from Western ones back then. Court intrigues or actual crimes did Ottoman wizards in, not mass hysteria.

  "Really, while wizard hunting did kill a lot of wizards, the Polish Deluge is perhaps the best example of how indiscriminate wizarding casualties can be at war..."

  "Enough of this historical mumbo-jumbo!" Hamza yells at Nurcan before he returns to his room inside the seray.

  At the same time, Nurcan returns to hers, completing other assignments in subjects such as Potions and Arithmancy.

  However, she starts questioning herself once again in the middle of one such assignment. And sobbing. I'm afraid the Bab-I Humayun doesn't have the students' best interests in the Nizam-I Cedid, only the Empire's. But at the same time, Mehmet made me feel like I wouldn't be rejected without due consideration. That said, where could I go, assuming that Uagadou is a no-go because of its Ottoman students from the African eyalets, and hence I wouldn't provide any benefit to the Empire that couldn't be obtained from a resident of an African eyalet, which I'm not? I can kind of feel it leaves me with 2 preferred choices, given the Sublime Porte's fixation with the West: Beauxbatons, Hogwarts, with Ilvermorny a distant third. And even if I wasn't Muggle-born, Durmstrang wouldn't be acceptable either, since non-Muggle-borns from European eyalets also go there. Now, I don't think the Bab-i Humayun would have good reason to favor a continent over another as to who to send away. What am I thinking? I mustn't count the eggs before they hatch! Just relax, and stop thinking about this.

  Once this inner tirade ends, by the arrival of her roommate in her room, she resumes working on the set of assignments, in hopes that she will keep her grades up. But quickly, her roommate, Taalia, realizes something is amiss.

  "You seem a little... down. Struggling with assignments?" Taalia asks Nurcan.

  "If it was transfiguration, maybe, but other than that, no..." Nurcan sighs.

  "What is it then?"

  Nurcan is about to cry. "I can't help but feel like the Bab-I Humayun is about to give me a poisoned gift..."

  Nurcan starts venting about the implications of her Nizam-I Cedid nomination. At the end of the venting:

  "You just think too much. Might serve you well in some contexts, but not always..." Taalia shrugs after she heard it all.