For better or for worse, I'd gotten in.
'Alasdair Talon,' it said, 'Congratulations; you have been accepted into Redhall University.'.
Any chance to make something of myself began with this acceptance letter.
My fingers soon created wrinkles and blemishes on the parchment, but I was oblivious.
I'd waited months to get their reply to the application I'd sent the past winter, and so had many of my friends here in Arrowmaw - one of the lower class towns near the east harbor.
My family lived in the midst of all the busy activity. Arrowmaw was a hard working community; crop and livestock farmers, merchants, smiths of all trades, fishermen, couriers; there seemed to not be an idle hand in the district area during the waking hours on most days.
The children helped wherever they were needed, either by their family, or friends' families. There was no real rush to learn a trade however, because by the time they reached the end of their fourteenth year, they would send in their much prepared for application to Redhall University.
If accepted, you would travel to the University, which was the center piece, the heart really, of Garland Kingdom. After graduating, you were placed in one of three higher divisions - above that which we lived in, which was the lowest; those who did not get accepted into the university - to begin your life's work.
What class you were stationed in depended entirely on the points you earned throughout the four years of school, ninth through twelfth grade, by your classes in every subject common and foreign; things like athletics, life skills, natural strengths, talents, and dominant attitudes. You were evaluated based off of physical, emotional, mental, and social abilities, such as intelligence, combat skills, ability to lead, become popular and well-liked among others, and how you responded to real-life situations.
The goal of this system was to put the most qualified and balanced people in charge of leading our kingdom, and allow the people who were more centered around other things, like intelligence or combat, to be given opportunities in our military, and teaching or research occupations.
No matter if you were born to a servant, or to an Archduke, you had to send in your application and go through all of the auditions to get into Redhall - favoritism due to family name or previous occupation was not only unimportant, it was nonexistent once you reached fourteen.
Marble Wick, Silver Oak, and The Crystal Court were the the higher classes.
Marble Wick was the worst you could do after you made it through graduation. From this class came the higher ranked in the military, teachers, musicians, scientists, doctors, and such like.
Silver Oak was the middle high class. From here you could become a foreign tradesman, a powerful merchant, explorer, district overseer, governor over a town or city, priest, and those sorts of occupations.
And The Crystal Court was the highest you could go; it consisted of the leadership of the kingdom, the nobility, knights and ladies, archdukes and archduchesses, and finally, the King or Queen. However, the King or Queen had to place in the top few places of the Crystal Court division, and there was a whole other process to complete as well after this.
But to make it into any of these classes, you must first claw yourself into Redhall University - you had to be, at fourteen, in the top half of our kingdom's citizens, whom the University board saw the most possibilities, opportunities, and promise in.
Getting in was the single focus of most children; no matter where their parents had ranked.
So you can see why breaking the red, symbol-engraved seal and opening the letter was one of the hardest things I'd ever done.
When the postman had knocked on the door that morning, my mother took it and brought it into the dining area, looking almost as nervous as I was.
I remember my favorite breakfast of coffee and buttered toast becoming quite tasteless in my suddenly still mouth, and taking the folded parchment from my mothers outstretched hand, not really hearing what she said.
Would I be rejected, and stay here for the rest of my life? Spend the rest of my childhood in a sealed contract under the person I would learn a lower class trade from?
I loved Arrowmaw; how could I not? But my constant day dreams of what lie beyond our endless fields and forests, thatched roofs and the singing of the people who'd convinced themselves to be content at the bottom of our society pounded on my head as the moment of truth came.
I stood up from my wooden, homemade chair, and walked around the table to the door, and with my back turned to my anxiously anticipating mother and father, and twin toddler sisters - my older brother was in the midst of his third year at Redhall - I placed my forefinger and thumb on the seal, and lifted up.
'Alasdair Talon,' A name I was not used to being called. I went by Alas with the adults I knew, and Dair by all of my friends. But having split names as such was common in Arrowmaw.
I don't know how long my eyes stayed themselves on that those two words. Maybe out of fear. Or maybe just because I was thinking so many thoughts in such short, defining moments.
I knew it was something that would quite literally determine who I would be, and how I would spend my life.
'Congratulations; you have been accepted into Redhall University.'.
