When the time finally came for them to leave for military service, the sanctuary kids had all woken up early. Essentially, there were two paths that they could take. One, for the spirited, was two years of training, followed by three years of active service. The other option was twelve weeks of basic training and straight to the front lines. This was the so-called Common Corps, one which pushed many into service roles, or cannon fodder, depending on fate.
Waiting for the bus, they had all gathered to see off Lenny and Harry. Even Michael had attended, and though he had said little, he did seem more sombre than usual.
"Write to us," said Eva.
Lenny was surprised that the turn out had been so large but supposed he had been there for a few years.
"I will," said Harry, smiling.
Lenny, realising his mistake, walked over to the one person he would hope to see again. She was carrying a large quarter staff she'd taken to carrying around with her recently. "I'll miss you," said Lenny.
"Actually—"
She was interrupted by Lenny planting a kiss on her lips. She hadn't pulled away, but hadn't committed to it either, so he stopped and pulled back."
"That was…" she started.
"Nice?"
"Unexpected," she finished.
Lenny blushed, wanting to hide his face, or be swallowed up by a crater. He had felt it was the right thing to do in the moment, and that he would regret it if he hadn't taken the chance, but now it felt foolish.
"I wanted to say, I'm coming with you to the assessment centre."
Everyone looked at Rose.
"But your exemption?" said Lenny.
"I had it revoked," she replied.
"Why didn't you tell us?" asked Eva.
"I didn't want to make a big deal out of it. I've left you all a letter. Apart from the two of you. I figured we'd talk on the bus."
Lenny nodded, forgetting about his earlier embarrassment and regarded her for a moment. "Aren't you afraid you'll get hurt?"
"Aren't you?" she replied.
Michael laughed, but it was quickly broken by his response.
"A little," said Lenny. "But I don't have a choice."
"This is the best choice for me," said Rose, without hesitation.
At that moment, the bus pulled up outside of Sanctuary. Mother Mercy had appeared at roughly the same time, ready to see off her pupil.
Rose had expected her to say something, wishing her well, or imparting a few words of wisdom, but instead, she simply watched as she climbed on the bus.
Lenny was the last to climb aboard. Looking back at the rundown church, he regarded it with complex emotions. "Good riddance," he thought.
*
The assessment centre was large, consisting of a massive open room with three booths. At each booth, sat a person behind a desk with a computer screen, several boxes and a large glowing sphere. The queues to each booth were long, travelling the full length of the hall and outside of the building.
The three of them split up, each joining the back of a line. If one moved forward too much, the other two would let someone pass in front, and in this way, they were able to stay together, chatting throughout the process.
They kept the conversation light, speaking about their old lives, the Madonnas, even the trouble they'd got themselves into, but finally, Harry asked: "So, what grade do you think you'll get?"
"Grade?" said Rose.
A few of the others around them began listening to their conversation. Many of them came from families with no abilities, so had little knowledge of what took place if you were to join the spirited.
"Don't they teach you anything?" said Harry. "The assessment is not just to determine if you have spirit essence. It's also to measure how much of it you've got. It should give you a pretty good indicator of your relative power."
There really was a lot of information that was siloed among those with abilities. Lenny hoped he wasn't go blindly into a world he didn't understand.
"Nearly five percent of people have an ability these days," Harry continued. "That's grown a lot, but most of them are really weak, practically useless, but there's always a few who stand out. The ones that'll go on to join big factions. Besides that, there'll be some red sashes who make it through."
"Red sashes?" asked Lenny.
"Those without much spirit essence that do really well in the physical assessment. They're considered a mixed blessing, full of potential and still technically able to learn a powerful ability, but mostly, they're just punching bags."
A few of the others stood around took offence at that. They thought somehow joining the spirited would be a blessing, giving them a reprieve from the spirit beasts, but not if it was just to serve as a sparring partner for the others and their abilities. It wasn't a fair fight. It wasn't in the fortresses off world either, but at least they would have the safety of thick walls.
Lenny realised he might not have another opportunity to ask someone who would giveaway information so freely, so considered for a moment. In the end, a stranger had asked Harry a question he was curious about too.
"What's the highest level anyone's ever got on an assessment?" said the young woman who had been eavesdropping.
"It's based on the light spectrum. So reds the lowest, then orange, yellow, green, etcetera, all the way up to violet. But I don't think we'll see anyone score that high. Most of those will already have been known and gone through the private assessment process."
"What are you hoping for, then?" asked Rose.
"Green," said Harry.
As they got inside, they could finally see what was happening at the front of the queue. The people were lining up to speak with the assessor, who would ask them to touch the red sphere on the table with one hand.
It was a pretty disheartening sight, as most people saw no change in colour, and were asked to move onto the secondary assessment room on the left. Every now and then though, a person would touch the sphere and it would change to a yellow or a green. There was an orange mixed in there every now and then, but mostly, people either had an ability they had been using for a number of years, or they did not. Those with a non-red outcome, would be handed a sash of their respective colour from the boxes on the table and proceed into the other room.
If in the general population nearly one in twenty were ability users, this had clearly not been communicated to this section, who were performing well below average. Private tutors were expensive after all, and the few ability books which were in circulation were expensive and highly regulated.
Just as they were approaching the front, though, they saw something that caught everyone's eye: the first blue sash. With the silence that had followed the result, they were just close enough to hear the conversation taking place.
"Name," said the assessor.
"Nicholas Pyre," the boy replied.
"Ah, of the Salamanders?"
"Yes."
"Ability of fire?" he asked. Others had been asked what their ability was, but to do so with a youth from the Salamanders seemed ridiculous.
"Yes," he replied again.
The assessor pinned a cyan blue sash on the boy's shirt. "Through the doors on the right," he said.
Nicholas simply nodded and headed through, and suddenly the paused movements around him had resumed.
"Next," said the assessor.
*
Harry had been given a yellow sash, and Rose too. Lenny thought he might get the same, but wasn't too surprised when the sphere had turned orange. The only thing which was odd was, when asked for his ability, he stated none. The assessor had paused for a moment. "Are you sure?" he'd said. Lenny had nodded. "Naturally spirited are rare but considered lucky. You'll have the opportunity to find something that suits you and have a small head start." The assessor had not known this was a lie on Lenny's part, as usually those with an ability would not attempt to hide it, or at least, not in a formal assessment. There were sometimes benefits from concealing your ability from others, but usually, the government were considered to be a special part in the makeup of their society, one that it did well to be on good terms with. Part of that was an implicit level of trust. Another part was the privileges granted to more powerful ability users, but Lenny was completely oblivious of this.
"Any faction affiliation?" the man asked.
"No," replied Lenny.
"Okay, take this."
Lenny had taken his orange sash and proceeded to the room on the right, whilst closely observing those around him who went over to the the left.