"Well!" Ewan threw himself into a plush chair and landed bonelessly against the cushions. "That went just as poorly as I thought it would, not a bit better and not a bit worse. Which proves that my astounding predictive abilities remain intact, but sadly means that things aren't going to be easy for the two of you." He told Dryth and Sindri.

  The pair had been exploring the area around where Sindri's "good smell" had been, which ended up being a cafeteria, when Ewan had swept them up out of nowhere and hurried them to the teleportation chamber. Only after they arrived back in Ewan's home had their teacher relaxed and guided them to a sitting room Dryth hadn't seen yet. Dryth sat down on a loveseat while Sindri climbed down from his shoulders and went off to explore the room.

  "I don't like the sound of that."

  "You shouldn't! It's nothing terrible or life-altering, but I haven't managed to solve the issues that I thought might pop up, which means you'll have to deal with them while I bother the Director and some other people about it." Ewan threw his legs over the arm of his chair and leaned back against the other one. "Before we get into that, let's have the two of you tell me whatever it is that happened while you were dealing with less annoying paperwork issues. If I start we'll end up quite sidetracked and I can sense you have a story for me."

  Sindri's head popped up from behind a potted plant. "You can? Is it a card or a pure cast spell?" A mental gasp rang out in the telepathic bond between Sindri and Dryth, which was a weird sensation since it was more feeling than sound, but there was still an element of inhalation. "Wait, is that something humans can do naturally? Can humans detect stories? That's so cool!"

  An amused expression cropped up on Ewan's face accompanied by crinkled eyelids. "No Sindri, humans can't naturally detect when someone has a story to tell, and it isn't a card or a spell either. I just took note of Dryth's body language and expression when I showed up. There was an obvious pause and a hitch in his step when I showed up, which I interpreted as debating on whether to stop and tell me whatever it is you have to share before we left, then he obviously decided to wait until we were in public." He he turned to Dryth and raised an eyebrow in an obvious "So?" look.

  "We had an... altercation? That might be too strong of a word, actually..."

  "I think altercation is fine!"

  "Alright, we had an altercation while we were moving about to take care of the badly named handling license." Dryth pulled said license from his pocket and flashed it at Ewan to show that they'd gotten it. "They sent us to some department or office to have someone identify Sindri as a magical being-"

  Ewan groaned loudly while rolling his eyes. "That's ridiculous, really?

  "Really. Wait, you filled out the form for it, why are you surprised that they did that?"

  "Because there aren't any snakes with wings that aren't magical and I put my personal attestation on that form which normally skips that portion of the nonsense." He waved away the topic with a grumpy hand. "Whatever, I filled out the form correctly just in case, but what happened?"

  "The man that was there to do the identifying flipped out when he saw that the 'species of magical being' line wasn't filled out."

  Ewan's head snapped over, his bored and annoyed immediately overwritten by a serious one. "What? That's not required, there are species out there that don't like being identified properly or shouldn't be for their own protection."

  "Like Sindri being a rarely seen coatl?"

  "Exactly. What happened?"

  "He yelled a lot!" Sindri climbed the leg of another chair that matched Ewan's and curled up on the cushion. "Like, a lot. He was acting like somebody had stabbed him, or killed his dog or something. He kept demanding we tell him what kind of thing I was. Which was rude! I'm not a thing!"

  Dryth frowned as he remembered the man's tirade. "You're right, I was kind of distracted by the shouting and how red he was getting, but he did call you a thing didn't he? Asshole."

  "Yeah, he was an asshole!"

  "So what did you do?" Ewan was sitting upright in his chair when Dryth looked back over, and seemed to be taking the whole thing seriously.

  "I asked him if the paperwork had been filled out incorrectly,"

  "And that made him even more angry!"

  "Then I asked him if there was someone else I could speak to to handle the paperwork,"

  "And he hated that! Then this other guy showed up out of nowhere."

  "Just threw open the door, glaring at the angry guy. Didn't say a word he just-"

  "-walked right up to him and pointed at the door!"

  "The angry guy took off like the new person had a knife to his throat and when he was gone the new man took his chair-"

  "- and apologized for the first guy. He was speaking calmly and acting like it was just some guy being unprofessional-"

  "- but there was this air around him the whole time. He had this 'I'm the most dangerous person you've ever met-'"

  "'-so don't fuck with me!' kind of energy to him that you could feel. He started talking about how people that work for the Association are all individuals-"

  "-and that some individuals do dumb stuff or commit crimes even if their main job is working for the government and warned us not to tell people Sindri is a coatl-"

  "- twice! Then he stamped the papers and dismissed us! He said-"

  "- 'Until the next time we meet' or something like that, but it was really ominous because-"

  "- it was like he was telling us we would meet again!"

  The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

  "But the craziest part is-"

  "-we can't remember what he looks like!"

  The pair got so caught up in telling their story that they didn't really process Ewan's head bouncing back and forth from one of them to the other like he was watching a tennis match, but when they zoned back in from repeating what had happened, Ewan was looking at Sindri with an interesting expression on his face. It was part amused, part bemused, and a bit put out, like someone had stolen a march on him and told his students a particularly fun thing he'd been waiting to share.

  "Well, I can tell you you don't have to worry about either of those men. The man you can't remember isn't a threat, and he'll take care of the shouting guy." He turned to the side, clicked his tongue, and muttered something under his breath that neither Sindri nor Dryth could hear.

  "Do you know who he is?"

  "I do, but I'm not sharing yet. It was supposed to be a surprise, and I'm not letting them ruin it for me!"

  Dryth and Sindri shared a look and together they chalked that up to "Ewan being eccentric" and decided not to press their luck yet. It hadn't been that long, but they'd already learned that their teacher could get childishly stubborn about the weirdest things, and this felt like one of those subjects."

  "So, what's your story? What could you not deal with that means we have bad news now?" Dryth asked instead of trying to wheedle the information out of him.

  "The foe that I could not yet overcome, that which darkens your path and will force you into situations most dire and foul," Ewan proclaimed as he threw himself back into his lazy position on his chair, "Was the foul fiend, regulations!"

  Dryth stared blankly at him. "What's with you and bureaucracy? I get that it can be annoying sometimes, but you seem to really hate it."

  "Eh." Ewan shrugged, "In general it's fine. It's the lifeblood of civilization, yada yada, we need it for cities and governments to run, blah blah blah. I'm most exaggerating for emphasis, honestly, but too much of anything beneficial can become a poison, and I personally believe the kingdom in general, but mostly the Association, has long reached that level. They're practically drowning mages in red tape anytime anyone tries to get anything done, and they've become too stuck in their ways and hidebound to deal with irregularities." He turned his arm so he could point at Dryth. "Case in point. What's the main requirement a Contractor must meet to complete their licensing tests and become a full Association mage?"

  Dryth had to think about it for a minute. "So, the main requirement boils down to some version of proving basic competency in your Class and that you're able to be responsible with the power being a mage comes with, for Contractors... It's to have a number of contracts, I believe, but I don't remember the exact amount."

  "Close, but sadly, not correct, and that my dear student, is where the issue lies. Wait, no. That sounds like I'm saying your answer is the big issue we have to struggle against. To rephrase, the part you didn't get exactly right is where the issue lies. Contractors must complete a total of three contracts as part of their basic licensing tests."

  "Why is that a problem? Dryth already has me, so that's one contract. It might take a while, but we just need two more."

  "Sadly, my lovely scaled and feathered student, that is not the case, because your contract doesn't count."

  "Why not?" Sindri asked indignantly.

  "Because, well, I didn't care to memorize the exact wording but the Association's definition of a completed contract is one that has ended satisfactorily for both parties." He looked across from himself with just his eyes.

  Dryth felt the blood draining from his face. "... My contracts don't end."

  "Technically they can, but only in one way and at that point it doesn't matter if you can get an Association mage license or not." Ewan sat back up, his face once again serious but with a different tone. "As I'm sure you're already aware..."

  "I can't get a job without a mage license," Dryth hissed out. "Why the..." He pressed his hands to his face. "Is that what you were talking about when you said that they're so stuck in their ways that they can't change for irregularities?"

  "You can't get employed as a mage without an Association license in the kingdom, but that amounts to the same thing. And yes, that is what I meant. I went to the proper heads of the various Association divisions with all the correct paperwork to apply for an exemption, not even of the testing itself just of that requirement, and they shot me down while quoting their precious regulations and claiming it would set a terrible precedent." He looked like he wanted to spit.

  "What am I going to do!?" It took everything Dryth had to not wail that question. "I can't get a job without a license! The Association mandates that everyone working a mage's job has to have one, and they're the government! And no one's going to hire a mage for anything other than a mage job, especially not with how everyone who isn't a mage treats mages! I'm barely and adult and I've already gotten hundreds of weird stares from random people just because I was going to be able to do magic someday! Where am I going to live? How am I going to buy food? Let alone for me," He swung his arm to gesture at Sindri, "How am I going to feed him? He already eats a ton, and he's just going to get bigger and eat more!"

  Sindri threw himself out of the chair he'd been occupying with a beat of his wings and curled around Dryth protectively.

  "While I know those were likely meant to be rhetorical questions, I do have answers to two of them," Ewan said gently. "First, you can obviously live here. You're my student, and I take such relationships seriously, as I've said before. I'm not going to be kicking you out into the cold, even if you can't get licensed for some time. As for food, well that's included with being my student as well, if you live with me I'll feed you." He cast a speculative glance at Sindri, "Although I might ask you to help defray some food costs as time goes on, you're not going to starve."

  Dryth took several deep breaths as Sindri sent waves of calming feelings and encouraging thoughts at him. All he could think about was being forced to go back to his home village in shame, but he knew that there was nothing for him there. His family tolerated him because he was blood, but they'd been fed up with Dryth's "strangeness" since he was a small child and him now being a mage by Class didn't help a lick. The thought of having somewhere to be was a relaxing balm against the thought of that future but...

  "I can't just freeload off of you." He protested to his teacher.

  Ewan raised one eyebrow at him. "You did just hear me say that I'd likely ask you to help pay for food, yes? I don't expect you to freeload, I expect you to be a good student. And if you're really against it I'm sure I can think of some way for you to repay me, certainly by the time you get licensed I'll be able to."

  "What?" Dryth scrunched his face up in confusion. "Weren't we just talking about how I can't get licensed?"

  "Can't get licensed now. I've told you before, I know the Chairman and I'll be starting my browbeating campaign to get her working on this first thing tomorrow morning. It will take some time to get her to agree, officially agree that is, and even more time beyond that to force it though all the idiot committees and meetings I'm sure will pop up, but this is fundamentally and issue caused by the Association, not by you. They will fix it and you will be licensed." He sighed. "Just not quickly."

  Dryth took several more deep breaths. "Okay. Okay, that's workable."

  "It is!" Ewan stood up and gripped Dryth's shoulder comfortingly. "This is a setback, not an ending by any means. You are not without resources or assistance, and even if it takes significantly longer than I expect for this issue to be resolved in your favor, I have other connections I can call upon."

  Dryth looked up to see Ewan grinning wickedly.

  "If we're being technical, only most jobs require Association licensing for mages. There are a handful that are the purview of specific organizations that don't want the Association butting into their territory and don't require it."

  "I've never heard of any jobs like that."

  "Of course you haven't, you grew up in the region Treegold controlled the curriculum in and he's been pushing for a heavier focus on why all mages should join the Association while also peddling that stupidly cut down curriculum that limits future mages. He would never want you to know that there's a future that doesn't involve his precious control." He stuck his tongue out the corner of his mouth and scrunched up his nose. "In fact, while I send out a nice complaint to the Director of the Association I think I'll contact some of my acquaintances in those areas and see if we can't take a look around a few places. It'll make a good learning experience."