11 Pathetic (1/2)

It was all these people who had been making all the noise. There seemed to be no end to them as Darius tried to make his way to the receptionist's desk. The people in the lines eyed him suspiciously as he walked by, Darius didn't care much. He had more important business to attend to.

Every few meters or so in between the larger gaps between the scrolls were marble statues adorned in armor and brandishing large swords, these didn't move but stood perfectly still.

”What's with these people and all the statues?” he wondered to himself as he walked through the sea of people closer to the receptionists desk.

Ding!

A loud noise echoed throughout the crowded hall. Everyone became suddenly quiet as the hum and chatter of people droning on and conversing with each other subsided. This happened so suddenly that Darius could suddenly hear his own footsteps as he walked through the hall, drawing everyone's attention to him.

He stopped immediately and became as still as one of the statues. The people crowding the hall immediately lost interest and looked straight forward, where the sound was coming from.

Although Darius hadn't noticed this, it had taken him almost two hours of walking just to get this far into the crowd and he could now see a large brown wooden desk with eight small specks sitting behind it.

It seemed to be from there that a loud, crisp and clear voice rang out and said, ”Attention all applicants, we will begin processing your requests now.”

”Finally.” Darius muttered under his breath as he ran up to the front desk. All eyes were on him as looks of disgust and were thrown his way and several scoffs could be heard from somewhere deep inside the lines.

The clerks at the front desk watched Darius run up to them with cold, uncaring and expressionless faces. Subconsciously Darius could feel their scorn from looking at his clothing, but he brushed it aside and decided to bite the bullet. He had waited too long for this. Consciously Darius wasn't quite sure what they were thinking or feeling, although it wouldn't be a surprise to anyone if it turned out they were void of all emotion, with the way their cold, calculating eyes never revealed a thing.

”I'm here to apply, my name is Darius O-”

”Save it, whoever you are. If you want to apply you'll have to wait in line like everyone else.” said one of the older clerks, for the first time his calm face betrayed him and Darius could properly see hints of disgust and annoyance.

It was also then that it dawned on Darius that everyone there had come for one thing, they were all vying for one of the few Spiritsmith spots available.

”This must have been why prince Lionel thought i would change my mind once i came here.” Darius thought to himself as he looked up and down the long lines that seemed to stretch on forever into the white horizon, the hall was just that large.