Finally Legal

"Name?" I was seated at a desk in a large room full of desks and over worked beaurocrats like the one across from me, he was chewing on an unlit cigar and looking bored to be there, in front of him was my paperwork, in a basket next to my paperwork were hundreds like it. You'd be surprised how suddenly immigration spikes after a war, almost like criminals from another country feel its best to move to a new one shortly after no one can verify who they are any more.

"Trezlan Lorentino." I'd been waiting two days to establish my citizenship, I also needed a plot of land to build a store and the corresponding permits for that.  Despite my disdain for government I always follow their rules initially, its only after you become a real citizen do you start ignoring that.  He didn't raise an eyebrow at my name just wrote it down.

"Age?"

"Thirty two." Total lie of course, to be honest I have no idea how old I am anymore.

"Do you possess magical aptitude? And if so how would you rate your ability on a 1 to 5 scale, 1 being little aptitude, 5 being major."

"5."

"You realize by stating you are a 5 this means you are subject to monitoring from the Guard? This is not something to brag about." Again always honest early on, because its better than getting caught in a lie.

"I'm not bragging sir, just disclosing." To be honest though five was entirely too low for my ability. He scribbled down something and then stamped something else next to it, probably a follow up marker.

"I see here you look to start a business, what type of business?"

"Apparel, antinques and fire arms, I'm a licensed Hanlon dealer." There actually wasn't a license for dealing Hanlon weaponry, but if there was I'd totally have one.  At the mention of Hanlon he perked up a little bit, in the Guard territories they knew where their bread was buttered.

"Always can use more gun stores." He stamped something else on the form and then turned the page. There were other questions, some discussion about location (my store would have to be located outside the city proper in a new immigrant section that was currently being constructed, more wood less stone, but it was fine to me I knew how cities worked, and what at one time was land no one wanted would soon be the middle of a new economic hub. 

He finished my paperwork and stood up, "Welcome to the Guard lands Citizen Lorentino, in a few weeks someone will be buy with your citizenship papers." And just like that I was legal all over again.  It occured to me despite living in Ronerawth for centuries I never actually took on citizenship, just kind of assumed I was one. And so did Ronerawth up until my exile.  But here in the new country I was a full citizen with papers on the way.  It felt weird, of course what I'd really done was agree to being put into a ledger somewhere so that years later someone can track me down, but you know at the time I was rather happy to do something actually fully legal. Not that I'd stay that way, but it was nice.