WARNING: Other players should not read this until Chapter 1 is complete.
Weeks before, Kebrin had been so shocked by the news that Ista Weyr – his home – was gradually shutting down that he had completely forgotten about the mysterious letter that Harper Garoway had asked Captain Brychan to deliver. Now he remembered and knew what it must have been: a letter of recommendation to Harper Hall.
Completely overcome by emotion, Kebrin jumped up from the books and notes he had been poring over and rushed over to hug his surrogate father. He wanted to see, to hold, the letter to apply for apprenticeship at Harper Hall for himself. It was much more than just a piece of paper to him. To Kebrin, it represented almost endless possibilities – the beginning of a lifelong dream made real. It brought him one very real step closer to the life of travel, exploration, and adventure that he had longed for his entire short life.
Once he had a chance to calm down, either later that night or maybe the next day, Kebrin began asking Garoway about all of the details that inevitably surrounded such a great change:
Would Ista Weyr really allow him to leave to try to apprentice at Harper Hall?
What should he bring?
What should he study up on in the short amount of time he still had before he needed to report to Fort Hold?
What is Fort Hold and the Harper Hall like?
What was it like when you were there?
What advice do you have for someone just starting out as a hopeful apprentice?
If he had the time, Kebrin also asked around to see if anyone at Ista Weyr was from Fort Hold, or had spent much time there – and ask them for advice, too.
He spent the rest of his time studying and practicing harder than he ever had in his life, motivated both by a surprisingly mature resolve to grab his dreams and makes them real, and to do the best he could to bring honor to his Weyr – his family.