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"Oh, it has been nothing out of the usual, I suppose The last few days have been a bit frantic We’ve heard there is to be a culling, not by student but by patrol, based on our upco exams It has all of us a bit worried, for there is not a cadet here who does not have a weakness of so all of us down"

"A what? A culling? Explain this to me, please"

And so I did, as best I could, adding several times that it was only a rumor, but one spread by Caulder hirew darker as I explained it to him At last he spoke "I myself think this is a useless and destructive way to ‘cull’ weak cadets froood and solid should perish with the lazy and the weak sined seems but random cruelty to me! I knoo members of the Academy board I will use what authority I have to persuade them to look into this As I have no soldier son in attendance, they may wonder why I take such an interest Worse, I fear theyto advance the cause of the battle lords’ sons over their own soldier sons At the best of times, the board does not move swiftly Any action they take may be too late to save you this tie your fellows to do the same At least you’ve a holiday to look forward to when exams are done You’ll have a few days of leisure over the Dark Evening observances Shall I come and fetch you to my house for theforward to an opportunity to see Old Thares in holiday guise with my fellows After a enially and said, "Of course! How could I be so forgetful of what it is like to be a young man? Enjoy your time, then, but be cautious as well Pickpockets and worse will be out and about on Dark Evening"

I hesitated, dared myself, and then blurted out, "Is it true, what the lads have been telling ?"

That h that turned the head of the night watchman on his early round A blush warmed my wind-chilled face I was certain my schoolmates had played a prank on me When my uncle could speak, he replied heartily, "It’s true and it’s untrue, as o, the Long Night had several pagan rituals attached to it, and woods as priestesses were said to seek out the favor of any end…as it? That on that night of the year, they were the goddesses incarnate and thus not bound by the rules that bind od now, and a day does not pass that I do not thank him that we are freed fros Those were bad days, and if you go far enough back in our fas, you will see that even then, the coe Soood old days,’ and speak of freedoods I think they are fools Licentiousness and drunkenness and whoring and public floggings were the order of the day But I’ you, when all you want is a simple answer"

I nodded, mute

He smiled at me "It’s mostly a joke now, lad Sometimes a ribald jest between , to try to prick her husband with jealousy Or sometimes a man’s ill coht, as a way to bring back a bit of the roht for masks and pretense and his and queens of old, or as heroes froods But do respectable women actually wander about and offer themselves like coht tempt themselves with that fantasy, but I aht will be professional, and I very hed again, and then, growing suddenly sober, asked me hastily, "You have been warned, have you not, that whores may carry vermin and disease?"

I quickly assured him that I had, and had received many lurid and stern lectures on that topic On that note, he bid ht He had turned away and started off down the path before I gave into an impulse and ran after him I called to him and he halted to wait for me "Uncle About Spink Will you…do you feel he deserves to be on probation for receiving letters from Epiny? After all, there was little he could do to prevent that fro"