electives

Samantha

Hector entered. He sat across from Samantha, laying out several pieces of paper, a stamp, an inkpad, and an inkwell with a pen.

“Samsara Day?”

“Yes.” Oh, maybe she could just exert arbitrary control over everyone and everything here, as is a princess’s right.

“Would you prefer that, or Samantha?”

“…Either is fine.” Dangit, now she looks weak and tolerant, why did she say that.

“Samantha Sarah Day. I’m assuming your father had it explained how things work here?”

Blink. “No, he didn’t.”

“Oh, no problem. At the Academy, we take the elite of all ages, and instill in them the precepts of the octovium. I expect a princess is already familiar?”

“Familiar, yes.” Logic, geometry, uh, rhetoric(?), astronomy…

“You’ll take placement tests to determine your class level for the mandatory subjects, then choose elective subjects. Or, you can skip the tests and be placed in the first grade classes…”

“I’ll take the tests.” She knew what a circle, a square, and 1 + 1 was. “What’s an ‘elective subject’?” Although, she might still run away in an hour…

“Optional classes for more specific subjects. Often shorter. Your father indicated you should be allowed to choose some to take, rather than be restricted to the mandatory only.”

“He really said that?”

Hector held a paper and apparently read it. “Yes.”

She was confident Anisa hadn’t taken any. Anisa generally seemed of the opinion that the most competent people were those in Felkner, and so if any extra education were to be had, it should be had there. Presumably, Reimond had allowed her that choice. Quincy, she wasn’t sure, he hadn’t spoken much of the classes he’d taken…

“Tests are in a week, if you choose to take them. My son Vincent can take any questions on particulars. He’s rather excited to meet a princess.”

She thought she should be flattered, but wasn’t. “We’re not exactly an uncommon breed.”

“Up here, you are.” No, we’re not.

She wandered, and talked to other students (