Studentship took longer than Ren expected. The sun had already gone down on the west side of the hall when the registrars at the counter began calling names, while assistants moved back and forth with tablets and stacks of thin plastic cards. When students were called out, they were given those small tablets and the plastic cards.
The female registrar finally called Ren's name. An assistant gave him the small device and the card before he stood before the woman at the edge of the counter.
She scanned his wrist tag, tapped a few things into her device.
"Give that to me," she gestured at his card. She scanned his identification card.
"Ace Renora," she said. " You're officially a Purist University student. Don't lose that," she slid it back to him.
Ren picked it up carefully, as though it might burn him. The card felt heavier than it looked.
How did I feel that?'
On the card, his name stared back at him in clean lettering.
