Young Writers Society

Chapter Four

When Dangerous Quests Have to Also be Auditions

(Anna)

Anna began her report like she would any other, trusting that the new recruits would now enough about the lingo from the academy that they could follow along. She never really did training drills, so she wasn’t exactly going to go out of her way to try and decode anything without the proper experience. She had Sally with her after all. If there was something the trainees wouldn’t understand, Sally would know to step in and explain. That woman was whip smart when it came to that sort of thing.

It didn’t take her long to finish the report. It really was a simple case, just that when it came to the level of people that had to be sent out for it, this was going to make things a touch more complicated than that. She couldn’t wait to break that particular bit of news to Sally. She always looked cute when she was flustered.

“Alright, so did everyone follow all that.” There were three identical nods all around, followed by Safi saying a very sweet. “Yes Anna.”

Anna couldn’t help but smile at that. “Wonderful. So. Murder. Mysterious Magic. Mall. Pretty straightforward stuff. I don’t think anyone needs to sign any release form for potential exposures or anything, so we’re all good to just visit the site and get underway. Once a few clarifications have been made of course.”

“Wait what?” asked Sally, frowning in that. Anna decided to block that particular thought from finishing. They were at work, and this matter really was urgent despite all the evidence to the contrary that had just taken place in here.

“You heard me right. There must be a few clarifications made for this particular mission I’m afraid because it just so happens to need some,” said Anna.

Sally didn’t look particularly convinced. “You didn’t say any of that earlier.”

“It wasn’t exactly important earlier,” said Anna with a frown. Okay maybe that wasn’t completely the truth but then it also sort of was true that Sally wasn’t meant to know anything until this point in time, so it technically wasn’t important after all.

Sally crossed her arms. “Well go ahead then. What are these clarifications of yours.”

Anna rolled her eyes, trying not to look at that particular face for too long. She really shouldn’t be in danger of losing her train of thought when she was about to say something this important.

“Well. I will.” Anna cleared her throat. “Alright so first things first, this should be kind of obvious already, but starting with a purple means the two of you.” Anna paused to point at Serafina and Safi who both nodded, Safi of course much more enthusiastic than Serafina’s bare minimum of acknowledgement.

“The two of you have a chance that’s rather rarely presented to brand new recruits which is the chance to enter proper active field duty after just the one mission because of course if you’ve read the rulebooks which I’m sure you both have, you’ll know that completing a purple successfully does make you eligible to get properly on a team.”

The barely their expression of shock on Serafina’s face suggested that she had not in fact read the rulebook to know that although Safi seemed to be acting much the same. Either she knew or she was playing four-dimensional chess with her facial expressions. Sally, of course hadn’t blinked. She’d definitely never read the book, Anna could vouch for that, but she’d put enough trainees through this process that there was no chance she couldn’t know that loophole.

“Will that be allowed?” asked Serafina after Anna had led the silence grow for a few seconds.

Anna nodded. “Yes. This is all counted just as well as if you’d been suggested for a purple after completing multiple of the basic ones because of course this wasn’t volunteer based or anything, a training specialist…” Anna paused to point specifically at Sally, “…has in fact chosen you out of a larger pool to get this chance which is how it would normally go. Whether or not you’ve not logged earlier missions will not matter.”

“That’s awesome,” gasped Safi, who then promptly clamped a hand over her mouth before uttering a barely audible. “Sorry. Didn’t may to say that out loud.”

Anna chuckled. “Don’t worry Safi. Happens to the best of us.” If Anna looked pointedly at Sally during just to get a look at that adorably flustered look again, well that was Anna’s business.

While Sally was rising to defend herself and ended up further incriminating herself Anna glanced towards Serafina who nodded to confirm that she was in fact happy with that explanation. Anna gave her a nod in return before turning towards Sally.

“Now that’s the most obvious clarification. Finally, we’ve actually got another member on this little team who’ll be getting evaluated on their performance.”