They finished the last two pillars uneventfully. Owen was maybe a little suspicious when they came back from the pillar after Maril had absorbed the mana. She only realized after sitting down in the carriage that it was odd that she was laughing and had enough energy to leap up into the carriage.
But no matter, the assignment was done and she was feeling great. Better than great. She wanted to start another assignment right away.
“Hey, do you want to ride to the Council Assignment Office with me to get my next projects?” She peered out the window trying to guess what time it was from the sun. “It is sort of on the way back to the Minor Nobles District and I think we can get there before they close.”
Bert looked at her wide-eyed, “Am I allowed to go with you?”
“There’s no reason you can’t. It’s just an office building.”
He began nodding vigorously, “Yeah, yeah. I’d like to go with you if that’s okay.”
She smiled at him, “Sounds like a plan, let’s do it!” She knocked on the roof of the carriage. Immediately the carriage pulled to the edge of the highway and slowed to a stop.
Maril opened the carriage door and leaned out to talk up to Owen, “What time is it? Do you think we could get to the assignment office before they close today?”
There was a pause while he undoubtedly consulted his wrist clock.
Owen’s detached voice came from outside the carriage, “Probably miss, it’s currently about 3 and it should only take us an hour to get to the Assignment Office. That should give you plenty of time before they close at 5.”
“Then please take us straight there.”
She grinned, knowing that she was unreasonably excited, and closed the door. She bounced back onto the pile of pillows on the carriage bench and tapped on the ceiling again. Maril shuffled around the pillows and grinned across at Bert who was smiling back.
An hour or so later the carriage pulled to a stop in front of the assignment office.
For once Maril had not fallen asleep during the ride. Instead, she and Bert had discussed their experiences in mage school. What they had learned and, more interestingly, what they had not learned.
Maril opened the carriage door and begin climbing out with her bag before Owen got around to help her down. “We might be a little longer than I normally am because I want to show Bert a few things inside. Feel free to move the horse and carriage over to the shade if you want,” Maril said gesturing to a wide shady patch under a tree off to the side.
She waited impatiently while Bert looked around. Glancing around herself she realized that she had become desensitized to the area, it really was quite pretty. Not pretty, maybe elegant. The Assignment Office itself was a tall, stark building completely made of stone with only a few windows. But around the building were gentle flower beds and shrubs, and a few big trees. Centered in front of the building for carriages to drive around was an elegant fountain of swirling stone. The stone was carved to look like runes although she didn’t recognize any specific runes in the twisted stone beneath the water flow.
Her excitement overran her patience and she began absently tapping her foot on the neatly cobbled drive. Bert noticed and stopped gaping at the surroundings. Together they climbed the wide stone stairs that were a little too tall for their gnome legs.
The inside of the assignment office was welcomingly cool after the heat from outside. The room was large. Their footsteps echoed back at them from the stone walls and floor. A thick carpet ran from the front door to the main desk in the middle of the room. The only three people in the room were behind the desk working. Around the edges of the room were many boards of posted projects. They were arranged under paintings of the permit symbol that was required to perform the job.
Bert was again having trouble looking in all directions at once, “So you just go to the board under your permit symbol and choose the jobs you want?” he asked, excited, “It looks like there are so many to choose from.”
Maril scrunched her nose “That’s what you do after you have a freelance permit. Most of the jobs around on the walls are posted by individuals and companies looking for help from mages. I, unfortunately, don’t have a freelance stamp yet,” she pointed at a painting of the freelance stamp. It hung on the walls up above the paintings of the permit stamps. “So I have to work under a certified mage. Getting my assignments from the Assignment Committee qualifies as working under a certified mage because someone occasionally goes and checks my work. You probably don’t have one either since you only work in your dad’s workshop. Many mages don’t ever get one. There is plenty of work without having one. You just work for Tellas one way or another, or you work for someone that does have one. Your father probably has one.”
“So how do you get the freelance stamp?” he asked.
“Essentially you have to prove to the assignment committee that you are ready and capable of performing freelance jobs on your own before you can sit for the exam to get the stamp. But even after you have it, you can still only work on projects that have been categorized under your other permit work stamps.”
“So if you don’t get your assignments from the job postings where do you get them?” Bert asked, still staring around at the many papers hanging on the posting boards.
Maril pointed to the large stone desk in the middle of the room. Three humans were sitting behind the desk busy doing paperwork.
Maril walked around to the side of the tall desk and stepped up on a conveniently placed stool so she could see over the desk to talk to the assignment officer.
“Hello, Miss Leyfinder. Have you come to turn in your remaining project?”
Maril pulled her folder from her bag and handed over the assignment sheet, “Yes, and I’d like to pick up my next assignments please.”
The woman reviewed the paper that Maril had handed over, “Here,” she said handing it back to Maril, “it looks like you forgot to sign and date it.”
“Oh, of course,” Maril said, “I just got back from finishing it and hadn’t had a chance yet,” she took the offered paper and pen from the woman. She signed on the line finishing the sentence “I, Maril Leyfinder, testify that this assignment has been completed in full and per the quality required by the Tellas Mage Council.” She handed the paper and pen back across the desk.
The assignment officer quickly reviewed her name and date and waved the paper a little to ensure the ink was dry. Then she stuck the page in a folder out of Maril’s sight.
“Very good Miss Leyfinder. Would you like to collect your payment in coin or have it directly deposited into your account?”
“Please have it deposited for me.”
“Excellent. Here are your next assignments.” She handed Maril a few pages clipped together, “As always, please review the assignments, fill out the assignment acceptance page, and return it to me before you leave.”
“Thanks,” Maril took the stack of papers from the officer and a pen off the desk before hopping down from the step. “Do you want to go read some of the freelance postings while I review my assignments?” she asked Bert.
Bert nodded, “Let’s go look at the Infrastructure jobs.” He started walking towards the three bulletin boards under the large infrastructure symbol that vaguely looked like an arching bridge.
When they made it to the first bulletin board Bert started reading off the titles of the job postings, “Reinforce Storage Cellar Wall, Enchant Walking Path to be Smooth, Strengthen Roof Trusses, wow here’s one from way outside the city, Waterproof Lake Dam.”
Maril carefully read through the assignments she had been given while Bert perused the posted jobs. The first assignment was more aqueduct pillars but on the North Aqueduct this time. She liked the North Aqueduct better. The highway following it was nicer since it went to another city instead of just farmland like the East Highway. The second assignment was to refill the enchantments on a bridge on the North Highway, it had a note suggesting she do it at the same time as the aqueduct pillars since they were near each other. The last assignment was enchantments on a section of the city wall. She sighed, the city wall assignments were always extra tiering because she had to climb all the stairs to the top of the wall and then walk around in the hot sun between the enchantment locations. No carriage to rest in between stops.
But all the assignments were things she had done before and she understood how to do them. She separated the assignment acceptance page from the rest of the stack and held it against the wall so she could sign and date it. Then she walked along the wall to catch up with Bert who was steadily making his way around the room reading all the fliers.
“So what assignments did you get?” he asked when she caught up.
“More aqueduct pillars, a bridge, and a section of the city wall,” she replied shrugging.
Bert read a few more postings while Maril handed the acceptance form and the borrowed pen back to the assignment officer. Then they headed out the tall doors into the bright afternoon sun.