A curious interview

You are led through a few hallways, passing archival rooms of some sort. By your passing eyes, it's an impressive amount of documents, though not what you had access to in the academy. The woman opens a door and motions for you to enter before leaving, without a word spoken.

"Come in!" You hear a loud, female voice from inside, and slowly enter in. The voice belongs to a busybody elf, similarly dressed to the human who led you here.

"Ahhh" she said with a warm smile "Herida, yes? The Orc Wizard, recently graduated. You seemed to have been the one everyone was talking about"

"Oh, I hope not" you respond sheepishly, holding the book in front of you with both hands.

"Not all gossip need be feared." She replied as she sunk herself into a chair behind a cluttered desk "I've heard from your teachers, and had quite the tale to tell. But we'll come back to that. Do you know why you're here?"

It seemed like a simple question, but also seemed to have a condescending sting. Something you're familiar with.

"Of course" Your response is curteous and professional "All those who succeed in graduating to become wizards in D'arcan must work for their province, so that they may pay back the time and energy given to them."

"Yes, but do you know why you're here?" She asked.

"Because you requested me?"

"Yes. That's the simple answer. Why do you think I chose you?"

"I don't know, miss." You shake your head "I had wondered that since I was told to come here"

"Miss Fracila. I picked you because of what I overheard about you, and I'd like to talk more about that." The vagueness caused you to worry, and you're sure you wore it on your face.

"In order to complete your training, you had to complete two thesis when your classmates all had to complete one. What's your side of that story?"

"I only completed one. I had shown a draft of a paper to a mentor for input and was told to abandon the paper entirely, so I had to start from scratch."

She smiled "I'm impressed that you had accomplished so much. Your first choice was the better topic, in my opinion." Your mouth starts to open, in curious anxiety "An exploration of time being immune to all effects of magic, why magic has proven impossible to control time, and the need for magical applications in order to understand the past. In its place, you made an argument peace to abandon specialists in the magical fields in favor of deeper general knowledge."

"Yes," you begin succinctly "with increasing specialization, people become stovepiped into one trajectory, and we lose flexibility."

"a dreadfully boring paper that would be doomed, but I understand you at least scored well enough to leave." Her directness is unusual for you, and you begin to become worried about how dreadful your future will be if this coarse elf if your boss. "Tell me more about that first paper. From what I've been told, you were quite the bookworm in school."

"I guess you could say that." You shrugged "I mean, it's for wizards. Everyone did a lot of reading."

"You're being modest, but continue"

"Well, I noticed that for all of the focus that the Mage Lords have in being the foremost center of magical knowledge in all of T'sara, that knowledge wasn't being applied well to me. Most wizards are positioned into militaries until their time is up, when a large number become freelance adventurers. We know so little about the past, especially the Lost Age, and I noticed we haven't really applied Magic in that way."

Fracila smiled, picking up a pen and pointing it at you "and that is the largest reason I picked you for my office. I too want to see how magic can help uncover our history, but I'm not smart enough and not an actual citizen of D'arcan, so fuck me, I guess. You on the other hand, want to get deeply involved in work involving magic that fascinates you but that nobody else will pay attention to and that will grant you absolutely no fame, and possibly premature arthritis from being hunched over so much."

"Yes" you smile, nervously "that sounds wonderful."

"Exactly. Also, you're an orc, and my team will be looking in the border areas near Stoneheart. Your familiarity with language and culture will help. You're perfect."

You blushed uncontrollably "Well thank you Miss Fracila."

"Oh, don't thank me until you see what you'll be doing." She tossed her pen down and stood again, having done nothing at her desk "It'll be fun work for the likes of you and me, but it is still work. Also, sad to admit, there's another reason you're here. Nobody else wanted to take a chance on you."

The joy in you dissipated quickly, hearing her speak plainly of the animosity against you for your species. She tried to buoy your spirits.

"It's not your skin or your lovely eyes that did it in, dear. Well, not exactly that. It's the rumors that floated around you, a lot of it being that you were, what's the phrase?" she hoisted her fingers up in the air to quote "worryingly unprofessional. One that caught my ear was that you succeeded so well because you slept with the professors."

There was a slight snicker "That wouldn't be your kind of behavior, would it?"