She'd like to hear about Liscor's history! The more modern the better, but she'll take what she can get.

She can hear ALL ABOUT the ancient era where Drakes ruled the whole region and Liscor was the gateway city against invasion. Then there was the Ant Wars, and the 31st (recorded) Demon Lord, and the discovery of three ancient dungeons underneath Liscor, and the exodus of the Gnolls, and the growing acceptance of humans in Liscor, even if they're still uncommon in drakelands to the south.

Wonderful! She'll listen along and thank her interlocutor afterwards. And then she'll amble out. 

Is she up to the political debate club right now? She doesn't think so. To sleep.

The next week of classes goes smoothly for her. With the delay on learning her last spell and slower pace, she doesn't learn a new one this week. Though she continues to learn more about the theory of the Winds of Magic, including the more metaphorical associations for each and general descriptions of some of each Wind's common spells.

She has a letter pushed through her dorm room's mail slot on Friday.

To Miss Liath (Bright)-

This notice has been sent to you due to a combination of high-percentile scoring in Liscor Academy and recommendations from one or more teachers. You are invited to an interview with a view towards possible recruitment at the Wall Club Adventurer's Association. Our goal at the Wall Club is to gather the most talented and skilled young people and form highly effective dungeon-diving and mercenary teams. If you are interested, simply present this letter at the door.

Signed, Quern the Unbroken, Leader

There is an address at the bottom.

Oh excellent.

She asks after the Wall Club at the clubs department after class that day.

They're not really a university thing. They're a semifamous mercenary organization with some kind of arrangement with the Adventurer's Guild. They have a really old building built right up next to the wall on the south side.

She goes over there and presents her letter.

The Drake doorman is happy to escort her to a nice waiting room, coincidentally past a bunch of portraits and trophies of famous mercenaries who he casually talks about.

Tessamine Calendar, Amethyst Mage and wielder of shyish, will see her now! She has a slightly unsettling air about her, she speaks slowly, and seems a bit too pale.

"Bright young spark. You seem headed for great heights. If your ambitions are compatible with ours... Both you and our organization can go further. So what are they?"

"I want to be looked up to and respected." Liath says, her voice firm and hard. "I want to have a voice that commands attention. Instead, I have student loans and no-one else to rely on." She lets a little bitterness leak into her voice. 

"Everything anyone does for you in this world incurs a debt. The kindness of strangers is remarkably limited. If you joined the Wall, we would support you and see you grow in strength safely, but there are dues to be paid."

"I understand that. I would hardly be your ally if I was never there for you, would I? Bonds of comradeship are strongest, I've found."

She nods. "There is a beginning, progression, and end to all things. The bonds forged in strife are the most chaotic, but dearest to our hearts. Have you questions for me?"

"I think you've been quite clear," says Liath. "I have no questions."

"Come back... Tomorrow. At noon. For a test. We want a read on your personality and style, not just your Skills. After that, we'll have something for you to sign, with a stipend, and once that's done we'll equip you and do a supervised dungeon run once you're ready, to blood you. And then, you'll be part of the Wall." She smiles.

She smiles back. "I can't wait."

Tessamine nods expressionlessly and picks up a book from her desk, apparently dismissing her.

She goes back the way she came, and goes directly to her advisor and cancels everything but her morning sparring practice for the next day.

She doesn't get a refund if she cancels midway through a class with no notice, she could just miss a class and let her teachers know, but if she insists?

Oh, she'll just miss a class. Sorry. Got carried away there.

Student Services is here to help!

She goes and informs her teachers, then goes to the library and looks up the Wall Club.

They're a fully accredited mercenary group with an only slightly spotty reputation. They have about 300 members who generally get honed up to at least C-rank levels of threat, and three suspected A-rank fighters, one who might manage to edge into S-rank, making them fairly legendary. They'll abandon the job to save their own skins, but wouldn't everyone do that, really? Liscor hires them sometimes, farming out mercenary contracts. The human polities to the north hire them sometimes, usually to either to stand around looking menacing to a rival, or go clear out a specific problematic monster. Drake nations even hire them sometimes.

She reads up on more of the details, but relatively little of it is relevant to the immediate question of how to pass her test tomorrow. Still, it's something.

She goes to bed and sleeps. In the morning she'll do her sword class, then head over to her test.

When she arrives the same doorman as before tells her the first part of the test takes place outside of city limits, and shows her to a carriage. She is supposed to stay inside until they reach the testing area, please.

... Alright then. She gets in the carriage.