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Indigo glanced to the nearby slab which had been added in recent weeks to accommodate all the new trainees. There were already half a dozen merpeople sitting there—four from Hemssted, two from Skulssted. Indigo would even the numbers a little between the two wealthy cities. Tilssted, of course, was unrepresented, despite this being the highest number of first years the program had seen in decades. It seemed that, for better or worse, the program had achieved significantly higher visibility in the time Merletta had been studying there. She wondered uncomfortably if Felix was right, and she’d somehow been the cause of the program’s new popularity.
“Oh,” said Indigo, pulling Merletta’s attention back to the present. The younger mermaid deflated visibly at her cousin’s rebuff. “All right. I guess I’ll see you at the ceremony tonight.”
Sage rolled her eyes at Andre. “He’s kidding,” she told Indigo kindly. “There are no assigned seats. Of course you can sit with us.”
“You can take my place,” Emil said, rising from his seat. “Congratulations on passing your entry tests.”
“Thank you,” said Indigo politely, lowering herself into the vacated place. Her eyes followed Emil as he drifted across the room. “Is he a fourth year?” she asked Andre, clearly confused about the merman’s age.
Andre shook his head, already shoving food into his mouth once more. “No, he’s in his second year as a junior record holder. He’ll be fully qualified in another year. He just keeps sitting with us because we’re friends.”
He puffed his chest out slightly as he spoke, and Indigo was visibly impressed.
Sage and Merletta exchanged a glance, then looked quickly away, valiantly swallowing their laughter. Even after all his disillusionments, Andre was still so endearingly eager. He was only just seventeen, after all. It was no surprise that he’d be proud to claim friendship with a twenty-one year old record holder like Emil.
Oliver and Lorraine were also seated at the round table which had once been sufficient for all the trainees. But shortly after Indigo joined them, they rose, making for the exit without congratulating her on successfully joining the program.
“Are they older trainees?” Indigo asked, a touch anxiously. “Do you think they were offended to have a first year sitting here?”
Andre shook his head. “Don’t worry about them,” he said dismissively. “They’re from Hemssted, so they think they’re better than everyone else.”
“Oh, all right.” Indigo accepted this explanation readily, reaching for some food.
Frowning, Merletta laid down the last of her salted cod. Had the trainees from different cities been so scathing about each other when she first started? She didn’t think so. Perhaps they’d just seemed united against a common enemy in the form of the Tilssted interloper. But it really seemed different to her—as though the antagonism between the cities had ramped up in recent times.
“Well done on your test, that’s fantastic,” Sage was telling Indigo, and Merletta hastened to add her congratulations as well.
“What ceremony were you talking about earlier?” Merletta asked, as the dining hall started to empty. “Is something happening tonight?”
“Oh, just my acceptance ceremony,” Indigo explained. “I know my parents will expect Andre to come.” She sent him a mock glare.
“I’ll be there,” he said, raising his hands defensively.
“What do you mean, acceptance ceremony?” Merletta asked, perplexed. “Aren’t you just…in the program now?”
Sage shifted uncomfortably in her seat. “Well, usually there’s a formal event,” she explained. “Where the family of the new trainee sort of…hands them over to the Center for their education.”
“Do you want to come along and see it?” Andre asked.
Indigo shot him an uncertain look, but when she caught Merletta’s eyes on her, she smiled. “Of course, you’re very welcome.”
“Let’s all go,” Sage said firmly. “I’ll see if I can get Emil to join as well.”
Merletta allowed herself to be swept along on the current of Sage’s decision, unsure whether she really wanted to witness the event. But two hours later, as she watched Indigo’s parents swim her across the drop off and present her to Wivell, Ibsen, and Agner along with a satchel full of personal items, she was glad to be present.
Wivell, the chief instructor, shifted forward and spoke formal words of acceptance and welcome. Merletta could see the pride on Indigo’s parents’ faces, and the barely contained excitement that made Indigo’s two younger siblings bounce in the water.
“We are honored by your acceptance of our daughter,” Indigo’s father was saying, in a tone that told Merletta the words were memorized. “And we entrust her to you until she is ready to take her place.”
“We are honored by your trust,” Wivell responded. He presented the family with an intricately carved coral sculpture in the shape of a sea star.
“They get to display that in her house for as long as she’s a trainee,” Sage whispered into Merletta’s ear in explanation.
“To show off to the neighbors that their daughter made it into the program, basically,” Emil added from Sage’s other side.
Merletta had been surprised that he was willing to come. Sage must have found a way to persuade him. Merletta watched, fascinated, as Indigo turned and embraced her parents with what seemed to her an excess of emotion.
“Won’t she be seeing them again on rest day?” she whispered to Sage.
