mgharry
It's a selective process, they tell me. Only one out of every thousand applicants were even called, much less accounting for the number actually selected. Selective... they looked at everything, moving beyond personal history into genetic history. Your family's records. Everything. And even then, if that was all approved, you still had to have the skillset.
The masquerade took place in a room that stretched as far as the eye could see. Though nervous thrills shot up and down my spine, I tried to act naturally - a noble person of my age should be used to these numbers of people, vast though they were. I made my way to the edge of the room where vast tables sat laden with food.