#but keefe and fitz are both level six so. they're closest

[bookwyrminspiration]

idk if you've gotten an ask like this before but im (trying to) write a keefitz fic of them in the elite levels and im wondering if you have any theories or ideas about what they'd be studying? tbh, im not even sure if the elite levels work like human colleges and have specific subjects you'd study or if it's like foxfire but. yk. elite

anyways. sorry for this confusing ask lol

Don't worry, not confusing at all! Apologies for the slight delay in my answer, I got sidetracked, but may be able to help. I hope your fic goes/went well, as I don't know if you've finished it or not

There are a few things we can go off of to get a better sense of what they'd be studying: Sophie's experience, and the fact that only those who manifest can take the elite levels, and that Foxfire is a noble school preparing them for the nobility.

A great example from canon of an elite class is Linguistics--Marella mentioned that there was no point learning to speak ogrish if you weren't going to be working with ogres, although linguistics extends beyond that. So I presume there are a variety of languages studied in the elite levels for interspecial assignments. Keefe is now a polyglot and wouldn't need it as much, but Fitz might!

We can also make some guesses about courses teaching diplomacy, other species customs, etc. for those assignments. Those in the nobility encompass a lot, however, so I'm sure there's more. For example, Edaline and Grady are noble, and they run an animal preserve--and apparently did so prior to cutting themselves off from the world and the nobility. So there's a lot of wiggle room. I think you could successfully treat it like human colleges, as that would allow for the wide range of knowledge and talent in the nobility that we see. With such personalized lessons (one on one and with a constantly changing staff) you could probably study about anything there is to know.

Another fact of note is that if you're talentless, you can't take the elite levels. By that, we can assume that there's a heavy focus on ability training in the later levels, enough so to exclude talentless (as unfair as it may be). What this means specifically, I'm unsure, but it makes sense it would be there.

Also, while it may not be a course, all elite students are required to figure out the lessons of each mirror in the hall of mirrors by the time they graduate, so Keefe and Fitz could be working on (or more likely, complaining about) that. There are some descriptions of them in Lodestar if you want a base to start from!

This isn't super detailed, but I hope it helps answer your question. It pretty much boils down to you being able to do what you like, as it's not restrictive--as far as we know. That may change if the series takes enough time for Fitz and Keefe to take the elite levels.