Catherine.

Catherine is massaging her temples with circular motions of her index and middle finger. Sighing she presses her eyes shut for a moment. Inhale, exhale, Inhale, controlled breaths. Then she opens her eyes again and puts down her hands. “Care to repeat that?” She asks.

The man in front of her is fidgeting with the hat he was wearing when he entered. It is a hat in the style of Ulal’s military, they are getting increasingly popular ever since the army started to patrol the streets in their uniforms. To the men everyone representing Ulal is a hero of some description. With the law forbidding everyone who is not part of the military to wear the uniform everyone who not joined the army settled for the hat.

“Our stocks are running short, Lady Catherine. I know that you act on the Lord-Regents will but…” “BUT?” Catherine interrupts, “There are no buts if it is the will of my master. We need the raw materials to create more of the items he and us other mages are designing that make our lives better.” The man shrinks under her reprimand. “If we don’t have enough stock secure a stable source of new materials. Or find me somebody that can. Dismissed.”

The man nods and runs out of her office. Catherine rises from the wooden desk that she was sitting behind. The desk she had to make herself. Just like the shelves on the side, the chair, the drawing board, the carpet. All in all it took her about an hour. It is still baffling to her that Uklag was able to instantly create whole rooms of stuff, seeing her own progress however she might be able to do so herself within the next ten years.

Her progress in magic at the start of the lesson’s was quick and her power jumped with each new technique she learned. Now her power has reached the point where it is all about honing what abilities you already have. The progress is still there but less noticeable.

Turning from the table and the stacks of paper on them Catherine looks out of the window. She is in the highest floor of a tall building. The building is made from marble, slated ceiling, smooth walls, runes and other ornate forms decorating them. It looks like the other buildings all around in the University block of District Arcana. Her district.

She smiles and looks at the mages below, busily running around to get from one classroom to the other or to enter another laboratory and continue their research. Research that is the main reason for her current problems. She sits back down on her table and goes through the papers.

Many plans for enchantments, most of them useless, more of them too ambitious and only the fewest of them actually what Catherine is searching for. Thankfully Aclysia helped her create a system of submission that makes reviewing the plans pretty easy. “Standardization really is the backbone of society, huh?” She mumbles and goes over a plan for enchanted socks. The plan quickly lands on the discard pile, amongst the other failures.

Most mages seemingly only sent in stuff for the sake of contributing anything, not giving much thought before they do. Catherine grabs the next submission. A pot that connects to the magic circuit and heats up using fire evocation. That one is actually useful, although it does have some slight problems. She takes a bell and shakes it. It makes no sound, but the one on the desk of her secretary does.

Seconds later the woman comes in. Her obviously cultish robe reminds Catherine of the need to introduce an overarching design for the robes of her mages. “Take this to whoever made it and tell him that I will approve of this if he manages to change the enchantment to only heat to bottom of the pot. I don’t want whoever uses this to either wear enchanted gloves or burn of his hands.” The secretary nods and takes the plan from her. “I have to remind you of the upcoming duty of testing the newcomers.”

She nods and stretches. “Yes, I will be on my way after I get this done.” She says, grabbing the next submission. The secretary looks over to the pile of documents. “If you say so, Milady.” She says and leaves the room. As the door clicks behind the secretary Catherine is already immersed in the stupidity of what brilliant minds can come up with.

Hours later she is walking towards the office at the city gate. The former office to be exact, Catherine has gone ahead and declared it a full ministry a day after Ulal’s self-imposed binding to the throne. At first she had been sceptical of the idea but the effect is undeniable. It hasn’t even been a week and already the movement to rebuild Brikstrat is crumbling. Only the most hard-core of loyalists still go there with absolute resolution, the rest in the process of giving in to the luxuries of this place.

Catherine guesses that there are a few other factors contributing here as well. Physical labour in Brikstrat has been predominantly forced upon the males for the past generations and now the females, although much better educated, find themselves unwilling to actually gather all the materials and rebuild the city. Whether or not that is the case, the lack of willing hands slows down the process tremendously. Just like Ulal would want it.

In the distance Catherine sees the twin buildings left and right of the gate that serve as the ministry of controls base. The buildings fall in line with the general design of the city, three stories high, windows, marble walls, covered in runes. Currently it has only the job of making sure every single newcomer is documented but there might come a time where they will also have to look over the guests that arrive, traders and ambassadors for example. However, that is still far off.

Catherine pushes through the waiting crowd of people and into the left building. Once inside she moves up to the second level. There she finds a few of her people already at work. Testing a whole city worth of people for magical abilities on her own was an impossible task so the first thing she tried to do is get help. That help arrived in the form of the cult mages that wished to serve directly her, following Ulal’s proposal of the way they should be handled. What Catherine finds very interesting about this particular incident is that most of the cult mages actually decided to follow the call to come to District Arcana and only the fewest decided to stay with Tarzana alone.

“Good day, Lady Catherine.” One of the mages greets her enthusiastically. The other mages in the room soon follow suite. They mumble their greetings while bowing before getting back to work. Catherine smirks and gets to her own desk. The reason for their submissive behaviour is quite simple: Apparently Ulal has become something like a saint of prophet to them. An unholy man so to say. As his apprentice part of that glory falls on Catherine as well.

Suffice to say that Catherine might not like the way she got that power but it is power nonetheless so she will live with it. At her desk she quickly goes over the data of the day. Fife hundred more people have been tested while she was gone. One more mage was found and sent to District Arcana for lessons regarding magic and other things.

“Well then.” Catherine says after making sure that everything is in order. “Time to work my share as well.” She moves to another part of the second floor. A hallway with numerous small rooms, each containing a trained mage and a newcomer as more of them wait in a line outside. Catherine takes an empty one. Inside are only two chairs, a small round table and a metal cube. She sits down on one side and waits for the first person to enter.

A brunette girl with disheveled long hair and brown eyes enters. Catherine would guess her to be thirteen. “Sit down.” Catherine says and nods towards the empty chair across the table. The girl does and nervously fidgets in the chair as she waits for Catherine to continue. The witch takes the cube and hands it to the girl. “Hold this for a bit.” She instructs. A bit confused the girl does.

It takes a bit but eventually the cube begins to glow blue. The girl looks at Catherine with hopeful eyes. “Sorry, that doesn’t mean anything.” Catherine is quick to push these hopes back down. A bit to harshly it seems as the girl gets a very disappointed expression. “This is the Cartonre test, one of three popular ways to test magical abilities. This cube.” She explains to the disappointed girl, “is enchanted with different stages. First is a parasitic source, meaning that if somebody holds it, it will start glowing blue. Now, I need you to close your eyes.”

The girl does, “Concentrate on the hand that is holding the cube. Do you feel anything?” Moments of silence as the girl furrows her brows and concentrates harder than is actually necessary. ‘The energy of youth.’ Catherine guesses in her mind and waits. “There is a…I don’t know….a pull?” That could be her sensing the flow of magical energy or her trying desperately to feel anything.

“Try to strengthen it.” Catherine continues her instructions. “To make it wider, deeper, give it more of your energy.” The girl opens her mouth to ask how but then she feels something. Something that is so natural like moving her arm, but at the same time completely impossible to her. Yes, it is like moving an arm, an arm she hasn’t used since birth and had been numbed and crippled by it. It feels like a small shockwave runs through her veins as she increases the pull of the cube.

“Open your eyes.” Catherine says. The girl does and sees the cube has changed colour, now glowing in a sulphuric yellow. “Congratulations. You are magically talented. A yellow glow means that you are gifted in Conjuration.” The girl is thrilled and Catherine smirks happily. Already found a mage today, a good start after going through all of these dumb submissions.

“Is it true that you will let me live in the north-eastern district?” The girl asks the hope in her eyes reignited. “Yes, you and your family can come to Arcana.” Catherine responds and gets up. “We should test them next, the chances for them to be mages as well are slightly higher than average.” The girl looks down on the table. “I have no family.”

Catherine stares down on the girl, her smirk vanishing. “Did they die during the revolt?” She asks. The girl shakes her head, “They have been gone longer.” “You are part of an orphanage then?” Again the girl shakes her head. “Ah, a fellow street rat.” Catherine sits back down. “So, from whom did you steal your food?”

The girl looks up to see Catherine’s head resting on her right hand. The raven-haired woman’s braid falls over her shoulder, her black lips curved into a smile again. “I always stole from the bakeries.” She says. The girl is surprised to hear that. “You used to be a thief too?” “Well, I was orphaned at a young age too. Although I was already caught and put into an orphanage at your age. They are a bit quicker on the regulation in the capital.”

Catherine makes a nonchalant gesture. “Calling me a thief would be an overstatement. I am not particularly stealthy and just got lucky for about three years. Enough about me, though, so who did you steal from?” The girl looks a bit embarrassed, “The guards.” “THE GUARDS?” Catherine laughs, “Not bad, child. What is your name?” “Amelia.” “Well then Amelia.” Catherine gets up again and gestures for Amelia to do so as well. “As it so happens I am in need of somebody who can assist me constantly. If you don’t want to live alone you can come live with me.”

Amelia is speechless as Catherine walks out, “Come on. Even if you don’t decide to do it I still need to show you everything.” The witch says over her shoulder. Amelia runs after her. “I would love to become your apprentice.” “I never said anything about that.” Catherine says and ruffles her hair, “Maybe if you prove worthy. If you do you might even get to meet the Lord-Regent in person.”

“You have that kind of authority?” Amelia asks and Catherine raises an eyebrow. “You really don’t know who I am?” She asks. Amelia shakes her head. “I am Catherine, Leader of District Arcana and disciple to Lord Ulal himself.” Amelia is left completely shocked again and Catherine has to drag her along to the outside. “You just got the deal of your life, little girl.” Catherine muses as she does so. “A warning though, Ulal is not quite how you imagine him.”