Emery, catching the perplexed looks they shared, smiled and gestured for them to follow her. She led them to an unoccupied balcony, letting the cool night air wash over them before turning around to speak. Her voice was gentle yet firm.
"Xavier, Merideth, I'm glad both of you passed your first field training last year for the year finals. Lord knows that the fail rate was high enough for the dean to lose his last chunks of hair over it. At the rate his hairline is thinning we might just be able to ditch the disco ball and just shine a flashlight on his head by the next spring ball ,"
Emery quipped, even dramatically wiping away an imaginary tear for the poor disco ball who was on the verge of losing its job.The students could only suppress a smile at their mentor's way of humor.
Neither of them noticed the quiet twitch of her lips as a voice whose body was still at the snack bar scoffed over the voice call
" Drama queen." Nor did they catch her whispering something under her breath before closing the channel.
Despite her playful demeanor, Merideth and Xavier were well aware that this was just her way of making them relaxed. So with lighter hearts they waited patiently for her to reveal the true purpose of their meeting. Emery didn't keep them waiting either. Clapping her hands, her expression turned serious, prompting both students to straighten their posture.
" First of all, let me congratulate you both on achieving a tie for first place in the training program. Both the school and I are very proud of your achievement. Not only the program both of you have been doing very excellently in both academies and extra and co curriculum over the last few years. So after much deliberation and discussions the board has finally decided that it is a good year to have an inter school exchange program. And for the first time there would be two Black Knights. "
The moment the phrase " Black Knight " dropped the two of them couldn't help but feel their heart beat faster.
A Black Knight.
As in the one of the most prestigious and at the same time most rigorous training programs offered by the academy. It was an achievement given to only selected students deemed over- qualified for the current curriculum.
The whole essence of it was that the person selected as a Black Knight, black to symbolize dark horse and knight to symbolize character, was to form a team of their own and train themselves and their team in order to participate in an interschool training program which gartered attention from people all over the Alliance in order to display the upcoming future generations and it's talents.
It was a program arranged by all the Military academies and was held only during special years where the quality of the students were comparatively high. To be able to go was the same as representing the whole school and as such the school left so much effort in giving them the best of everything.
It was the easiest and at the same time most demanding ticket to an instant rise for anyone joining the Army in the future. Anyone worthy of getting the title was worth the extra resources that the academy was willing to put in in order to make them the best of the best.
When Emery had them called over it was the last thing on their list of reasons as to why Emery could have called them for. Even now hearing the unofficial official acknowledgement it was still somewhat hard for them to believe.
Emery on the other hand had already expected their reactions. With the same smile she continued on with her announcement giving them the bare minimum time to comprehend their situation.
" Since you both have such high competitive spirits the board decided that it would be better to give you both a more productive source as an outlet. As such for the first time the school went against traditions and allowed the establishment of two teams. One of which will be captained by one of you. A pre-competition round will be held within the school and only the winning team will be allowed to move on to the actual competition. "
It was only when it was spelled out for them did their brain finally comprehend the before skipped words. Black Knights. Knight with an 's'. As in Plural.
With breakneck speed they both looked at each other out of their own volition for the first time this year. The disbelief on their faces was clear as day. As if having to compete all day everyday wasn't enough that now they even had to compete for something like this. The universe sure had a way of doing things.
The tension in the air couldn't be any higher.