An hour passed to two and everyone was immersed in reading and answering the questions that were asked in the parchment that was provided to them. Penny made sure to double read them as she wrote what she had read and as she turned the pages, the difficulty in the questions only rose higher.
Before coming here, Damien had told her how the questions were never repeated and they were always newly invented in a way so that the examinees who had attended the exams previously would not face the same questions.
She leaned back when she had finished writing three-fourth of the paper. Her fingers played with the quill as she stared at the question.
‘What comes before a mule that has turned black and the white horse after it ate the green grass? The sun goes up and the moon falls down, why do the butterflies come out during the day and some at night?’
Penny bit her lips reading the question which made no sense to her. The question after this was a headache which made her head go round. There was barely an hour left before the exam bell would ring again and she still had more than forty questions to answer.
While Penny was struggling with questions, Sister Jera who sat on the other side pushed the glasses up that had slid down from the bridge of her nose. She scribbled and scribbled like there was no other day. As if the answers were not enough, she turned the parchment to write on the empty sides while making arrows.
Most of the candidates who arrived for the exam were in a similar state, some who were writing and some who were staring at the questions.
After wasting a good five minutes, Penny pulled the parchment close to her and started to write the answers to the questions. When the bell rang, resonating across the large dome of the room, there were some who were still filling out the answers while some were done writing as they didn’t know how to write an answer for the questions asked.
“Please stop writing and drop your quills. Your papers will be evaluated and we will be letting you know who is qualified for the next exam.”
Everyone was sent out of the building and were made to wait there. An hour passed before the result was put out. There were close to fifty people who had been selected for the second round. And the names included Sister Jera, Penelope’s, and Helen with the rest of the selected examinees.
“The names that have been called out, you are required to come here tomorrow and we will be commencing the next exam,” said the man in monocle before leaving the front gate as he had appeared out with the results.
There were curses around here by people who didn’t make it through the exam, some of them were attempting it for the second time. Sister Jera was going back to the church and Penny gave her a nod when she indicated she was leaving.
When Penny turned around, she caught sight of the Quinn’s carriage that was waiting for her. Walking away from the building and towards the carriage, the door opened,
“Congratulations on passing the exam.”
Penny was surprised to find Damien who was sitting in the carriage, “Thanks. You didn’t go back to work?” she asked him and once she got on the carriage, Damien kissed her lips.
“I did but I came back after it. Just had a few jobs to complete around, you know. Beating answers out of a man and torching a witch I found in the forest,” Damien replied to her. The coachman closed the door of the carriage and started to move the horses after he took the front seat.
On their way back Penny said, “Did you know Helen is taking part in the council exam?”
Damien raised his brow at this information, “Helen from Valeria?” Penny gave him a nod, “How surprising. I don’t think I saw her name when I was going through the list of examinees. It must have come in the later entries. What was she doing there?”
“Attending the exam?”
Penny would like to know the same as Helen didn’t appear to be the type who was interested in working for the council but someone who enjoyed making others work. She came off to be this delicate girl who needed to be pampered who was ardently following Damien.
“It would start raining frogs if that were true,” Damien commented.
“She even cleared the first exams,” Penny let him know to hear him hum.
“They have been lenient on the first exam. The maximum number of people that used to take part in the second exam usually consisted of five to ten number of people and not more than that,” was that why they have picked so many people for the second exam? “I never pegged her to be someone who took an interest in the law or anywhere remotely close to the council. Maybe she took a sudden interest to chase after me?”
Penny would have laughed if she hadn’t met Helen personally but after having a catfight in front of everyone where the girl was still trying to get Damien’s attention when it was told out loud that he was taken, it was possible that Helen was trying to gain his attention through the council but wasn’t that a very long route? asked Penny to herself.
“Do you think she would go that far?” she asked looking at Damien.
Damien shrugged his shoulders in response, “I am the amazing Damien Quinn. What do you expect? Of course, every woman wants me,” Penny rolled her eyes, “So when is the next exam?” he asked her.
“Tomorrow. They said to come here,” she informed to have him nod thoughtfully.
“I won’t be able to drop you tomorrow as I need to travel to Wovile but I will have Durik come to drop you.”
“Okay.”
