Academy of Outcasts by Larry Correia

Author:Larry Correia [Correia, Larry]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Aethon Books
Published: 2025-10-07T00:00:00+00:00

Twenty-Three

Airday had turned out to be another frustrating failure. I’d finally been able to talk to some real instructors, but they’d snubbed me too. Some were more polite than others, but the message was always the same. They had no openings, and a long list of superior applicants waiting for when they did.

Inspector Borg had been right. It was an exclusive bunch, and I wasn’t welcome. It was either be so brilliant they couldn’t live without you, or rich enough they couldn’t afford to ignore you. I’d wasted one of my last coins buying a drink for a senior student in a tavern, only to be told his master was turning away everyone whose parents couldn’t afford to gift the academy hundreds of pounds of magical elements, or the equivalent amount of money.

I was no thief, but hearing that made me wish I really had stolen all that Red like I was accused of. If I’d had those casks, I could buy my way into an academy. Instead, the proceeds were surely lining Bart and Jemmy’s pockets now.

Long after sundown, Trax and I took the low road back to our humble drainage ditch campsite on the edge of the Slump. My squalo companion was eager to record his thoughts, and I looked forward to curling up around my warming bowl to try not to freeze through another night. Hopefully, I’d dream up some ideas about how to make a whole lot of money, fast.

There were gladiatorial arenas in some parts of the city, and I’d seen advertisements for mage fights in the Collegium. One was coming up soon between two of the academies, and I’d overheard a lot of conversations about how people were placing their bets, and some had been wagering significant coin. Those fights were trained wizards though, a few ranks above me. Which made me wonder, surely there had to be some kind of organized event for us lowly rank ones? Though there were probably rules in place so I couldn’t just huck a snail grenade at my opponent and shoot them, because from the way people talked, mage fights usually weren’t lethal.

If there were lower matches which might be settled by fists, I’d seen hardly anyone in the Collegium who looked like they were tough enough to go bare knuckle against a Red miner. There wasn’t much else to do in Fogo but drink and scrap, so even the weakest of us knew how to fight, and there was no such thing as a weak Carnavon.

“You would inflict violence on other members of your species for this money thing?”

“It’s not ideal. I’m just pondering on the possibilities is all. It wouldn’t be enough to bribe my way into an academy, but it might be enough to improve my station here so I’ve got a better chance.”

“And this potential conflict troubles you? If you are victorious, obviously you should eat the defeated.”

My companion had a rather direct sense of morality. “I’ll have to check what their rules are on that.

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