Hmm, this is a copy of the original trade agreement we entered with the Oeuf Kingdom a century ago. It says we would give them ten tonnes of fruits and vegetables every year in exchange for five thousand gold coins per ton. Seeing as we only can produce thirty tonnes of food every year, this is pretty significant. What a surprise that we seem to be receiving half of this money. Either the Oeuf Kingdom isn’t honouring the agreement or someone is pocketing the money. Maybe it’s both. How surprising though, that Internationale has a copy of this document and we don’t.

Choice was sitting at a table with many scrolls and books surrounding her. She’d been reading books in the library for five hours and was surprised by how much information the school. She was quite certain that there were a lot of secrets in this library that many Kingdoms would not have liked to be known. How do they have all of this information.

It was while pondering this that Choice heard a mocking voice come from behind her.

“Well, well. If that isn’t her royal highness herself. I wonder what you’re doing here, princess. I’d have thought that by now you’d be pushing out babies based on the way you acted at school.” Choice rolled her eyes and sneered. She was well aware of who the speaker was. Rita Claremont was the Prime Minister’s daughter and had been one of her classmates at Perpetual. They had not been good friends. While she was able to pretend to be what the school wanted, Rita had been unwilling to do so and had been very unruly. They often clashed at school because of this.

Although Rita was unable to be the perfect higher class lady, she however was loved more by her father and after she’d complained continuously, he transferred her to Internationale to become a mage.

“Dear Rita, it’s been a long time since we last met. In fact the last time I saw you I remember you taking the coward’s way out of the prestigious finishing that helps to mould us young women into being better members of society.”

“You mean I refused to become a kiss-ass like you. I think you’re the real coward, saying “yes ma’am and yes sir” all the time. You couldn’t stand up for yourself and you let yourself become crushed by that school. Me, I found a better place where I can use my talents.” Rita crossed her hands and stood above Choice. It had always annoyed her that although she was taller than the average woman, Rita was a few inches taller than her. She didn’t know how Rita knew that she didn’t like it but Rita always emphasised her height anytime they got into a quarrel.

“And what talents are those,” Choice said eyeing Rita’s muscles and toned body, “Last I heard, you were here to study magic. Yet those muscles say otherwise. Don’t tell me that you transferred out of the magic section to the martial arts section? You did, didn’t you. How utterly unladylike. I image the Prime Minister is extremely embarrassed with his delinquent daughter.”

Rita fumed in anger and backed Choice up against the wall. Her fingers clenched and unclenched in irritation.

“Are you going to hit me,” Choice said smiling in delight, “Right here in your school library? Why don’t you do.” Then she leaned in and whispered into Rita’s ear, “Why don’t you show me all you’ve learnt at this flashy new school of yours.” She leaned and looked at Rita’s upset face in pleasure when suddenly Rita smiled cruelly.

“Don’t talk about my father, you bitch. What about your’s? You’re the princess but sometimes I’m certain knows you exist or cares. That’s why they sent you away- to your aunt’s and then to Perpetual. No one wants you in the palace. And if they do, it’s because princesses are good for negotiations, useless at everything else.”

Choice’s hands began to tremble and she glared at Rita. “You have a tongue don’t you. Pity that your wit doesn’t extend to anything else. I mean shouldn’t you have graduated a year ago. If you’re genius enough to transfer to another school, you should be able to finish on time. But here you still are. I guess you aren’t as talented as you thought.”

Rita backed away at this statement. It looked like Choice had actually hit nerve.

“For your information I am very good at using a spear. I am among the best. In fact, I’ve been compared a lot to your mother. Have you ever been compared to your mother before. I guess you haven’t. I just need to need with a few useless subjects and I’ll be out of here. Besides even if I don’t leave now, there’s nothing wrong with that. I bet you would prefer to stay here forever than to go back to Legume. I know you Choice, you will never be satisfied with being a trophy wife. And I wouldn't be either.” Rita smiled after saying this and sat on one of the couches. Choice looked at er for a moment and sat next to her.

“I guess soldiers don’t really need to be well versed in economics and politics. Only leaders do.”

“I don’t want to be a common soldier, Choice. I’m good, very good. I could even become better at fighting as your mother and she was almost undefeated during her years at the Ndidi border. I have the potential to be better, I don’t want to go back home and let everything I’ve worked for become nothing.

Choice got up from her seat and went to make herself a cup of tea using the ingredients provided. This library is perfect. She sat down and took a sip before stirring the cup. She looked at Rita looking at her seriously. She noted her clenched fists, her honey blond ponytail that hung limply at her neck and the worry she tried to hide but wasn’t able to.

“Look Rita, I’m going to be honest with you. We don’t like each other, in fact we dislike each other very much. So why would you come to me with this worry, especially when you know I have no power.”

Rita scoffed at this, “ Really, you made tea and didn’t make some for me.” Choice raised an eyebrow. “Fine, I’ll just make one for myself. But seriously, come on. I know you. I fought with you for two years and even though I haven’t seen you in seven years, you made an impact in my life. I know you will never want to be used by someone else. And I know those eyes. You can try to hide yourself as much as you want but those eyes give you away. You are like a sheathed blade, just waiting and waiting until one day you’ll strike. And I want to make sure that when you strike, I’ll be able to break free too.”

Choice took another sip. One should never rush in negotiations because that’s what was happening now. She hadn’t like Rita in school but it had been seven years since then and she seemed to have become someone who knew what she wanted. Choice had no time for people who weren’t aware of what they wanted in life.

“You’re almost about to graduate, aren’t you? You were able to postpone your graduation for a few years but your parents want you home soon.”

“If I drop out of Internationale without graduating, I won’t be considered a student or alumni. I’ll never be able to use the resources of the school ever again. I’m not as smart as you but I can memorise stuff you know. I mean, how do you think I learnt all the spear movement and techniques. Lots and lots of drills. So I can pass my class but I’m not ready to go back yet, I don’t think I’ll ever be ready.”

“Well thank you for the compliment but if you know me so well and if I was planning to do anything, you would know that I like the people that work with me to be able to add something.”

“Are you asking me if I’m useless. Look I don’t know exactly you want to be, but I know that you need allies. I can be a good one. I do have a lot of friends here. This is the birthplace of the leaders of tomorrow. Mages, rulers, fighters they’re all here and I am very popular in this school.”

“If all I needed was someone in this school, I have my brothers here.”

“Pshaw, your brothers are useless in this situation. They may love you as their sister but I bet you that they are traditional men. They will ask what you need their influence for and then they will forbid you from continuing with whatever plan you have.”

“Fine, you make a good point. Let’s work together,” Choice said and held out her hand. Rita looked at it and smiling, shook it. Wasn’t it quaint that this was the beginning of one of the revolutions that shook the world. A casual meeting between two women in a library.

“By the way Rita,” Choice asked when Rita got up to make a cup of tea for herself, “I know you don’t want to be a common soldier but what do you want to become.”

Rita paused and looked back at Choice with fervour in her gray eyes, “I want to be a general. I want to be the one in command of an army. I want to be the person that decides the way a battle goes and not just be cannon fodder.”

“You don’t want to be Prime Minister? You would leave that for your brothers?”

“I don’t want to work in government. Too much politics.” Choice shook her head. There was politics in the army as well.

“You know that if you want to be a general, you have to join the army. Your family probably didn’t complain much when you transferred from magic to martial arts because they knew that you could nothing with it. If women still aren’t allowed in the army when you return, what will you do?”

“I’ll think about that when I come back but wouldn’t it be a sign if good faith if I didn’t have to worry about that when I returned?” Rita turned around again to walk away before Choice called her name.

“One more thing, you didn’t ask what I wanted to become or what exactly I planned to do. Why?”

Rita walked back and put her hand on Choice’s cheek and looked into her eyes. “To be frank Choice, I don’t want to know what you’re planning. You can be a bit of monster. I may be allying with you but don’t think I’ve forgotten some of what you did to me at Perpetual. For all I know, you may be planning a rebellion. All I know is, I believe it will work out for you and I want it to work out for me too.”

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Choice smiled and hugged her. “You’ll never know how much what you just said meant to me. And no, I won’t forget what you did to me either.” They drew apart and Rita nodded at Choice. This time Choice did not call her back. She continued drinking her tea and looking at the scrolls.

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Around an hour later, Choice left the Internationale library. All in all, it had been a fruitful day for her. She’d learned some information about her country, gained an ally and made plans to start regaining her magic. Only time would tell if all this was fruitful but for now, she was content with what she had. For now.

At the moment, Choice was in front of a house in the city. She had been informed by another librarian that this was where Cero was staying with a couple of his schoolmates. All this free information made Choice wonder if librarians were all gossips just looking for someone to talk to. Choice shook away such thoughts and knocked on the door. There wasn’t any response so Choice knocked once more. Still nothing.

She tried to turn the handle and to her surprised the door opened. She’d guessed that her brother would have warded the door seeing as he was a mage but it seemed that he was as careless as ever. Choice stepped into the dark house and immediately her neck started to twinge.

Choice had a feeling that something was wrong and heard a whooshing sound. She instinctively ducked and fingered her knives. Something odd was happening. Choice kept her breathing even and tried to keep quiet. She had a lot of experience with that. Aunt Bas had thought that the best children were quiet children.

When whoever threw the projectile heard or saw nothing amiss, they muttered to themself, “It’s probably the wind.”

“Did you leave the bloody door open, Jon. Why can’t you do anything right.” Another voice shouted.

“Alright Ian, I’ll go close the bloody door. Don’t get any hang ups.” Choice backed up towards the door. She wasn’t going to get involved with whatever was happening here, she wasn’t a fighter. She was about to open the door when she heard the sound of her younger brother screaming in pain.

Now Choice knew she wasn’t a good person but Cero was her blood related brother. He was her only true sibling and although she valued her life, she still cared about him. Choice was still wondering whether to leave and get someone else when she noticed that the so named Jon was walking towards the door. The thing was, Jon didn’t carry any lanterns with him as he came to the door so he couldn’t see her. But she could see him!

Choice kept quiet and waited as he came to the door. She couldn’t fight, not really but all humans were equal in their fragility and a knife through the heart or a slash through the throat would kill almost every time. Choice bet that her brother’s attacker were students just like him and wouldn’t have reached the level of using mana, if they were mages or aura, if they were warriors to cover their vitals.

Maybe Jon had some sort of super sensory perception because he unsheathed his sword and asked if anyone was around. When he got no response he sheathed his sword laughing at himself.

Choice waited till he reached the door before she struck. As his hand touched the handle, she quickly reached around him and slashed at his neck. It was a perfect hit and she struck with such force and speed that she was able to pierce his voice box. He made choking sounds but wasn’t able to make any other sounds.

Choice looked at his face for a second. He was young, the same age as her brother just a decade and seven years. It wasn’t her first kill but it was the first one she made when in a normal state of mind. She had planned this kill from the moment she had seen him coming down the hallway. Choice wondered for a second if she was a monster for planning to kill a child. As she was thinking this, she heard another shout of pain from Cero and entered quietly into the room.

Choice saw her brother suspended in the air in a bubble of water. He was crying out in pain from the water spike, Ian was using to pierce his skin.

“It hurts doesn’t it. If you don’t tell me what I want, I’ll no longer stop at piercing you. I’ll start cutting things off. So you better start talking, Prince and don’t think I care about your status. Anywhere else, it would matter but this is Internationale. Princes are everywhere and no one minds a little killing.”

“I really don’t know anything about the conch. It’s just a myth. There’s nothing that enhances your ability to use and manipulate the elements.”

“See, I thought so too. But then I caught you using it. I saw the fire element gather around you. Now I know you’re good at magic but you’ve improved too much even since you went into protracted study in the Valley. You must have found it then, didn’t you. Where did you hide it. I know it’s not in your subspace because I spent five hundred gold to buy a device that reads subspaces. Where did you hid it? Tell me where.” As he said this, the needles dug deeper into Cero’s skin.

Choice crept closer to them and when she came closer to Jon, she raised her knife. It wasn’t to be though, because as she tried to stab him she felt herself get hit by something with immense force behind it. Jon turned to look at her.

“Ah, are you just joining us? I was wondering when you’d get tired of sneaking like a thief.” Choice looked down at herself and saw water pinning her to the wall. She tried to struggle free of it but it just tightened and her knife fell down to the ground. At the clink of the knife, Jon had an ugly look on his face.

“Where you planning on using this. This metal toothpick. I’m a mage, these human tools can never hurt me.” Jon chuckled, his handsome face twisting into a disgusting expression. He used the water and twisted the knife then chucked it aside. Choice took a deep breath in and tried to put herself in calm mood. She was going to try and see if she could control the water.

“Don’t hurt my sister,” Cero cried when he saw her being held up in the air.

“Your sister? I see,” Jon said and looked at her curiously. He used his water to squeeze her, “If you don’t want her to squelch like a melon you’ll give me what I want. The conch.”

“I really don’t have it. Please just let her go. She has nothing to do with this.”

“She’s here so I say she has something to do with this situation. I’ll give you thirty seconds to give me what I want or else sis here gets squeezed like an orange.” Cero denied that he had the conch while Jon laughed and kept counting down.

Choice ignored their conversation, she ignored her brother in a bubble, she even ignored her body being slowly squeezed. She stayed calm and transient like a still body of water. She felt for a minute that perhaps this feeling of apathy was what the moon felt towards the world. It was there but didn’t care whether people lived or died or ate or loved. It was the moon, it would shine very night without fail.

As Jon reached on in his count, Cero said, “Okay, okay. I’ll give you the conch. Just let us go.”

“Sure darling,” he said smiling in a careless manner, “I get the conch, I have nothing else to do with you again.”

Cero slowly tugged one of the trinkets on his braided head and tossed it at Jon. As it flew through the air, it enlarged into a conch. However, it was clearly not ordinary as it was softly glowing. Jon caught it and held it in wonder.

“Just holding it makes me feel the water elements gathering faster around me. Thanks for the gift, darling” he said and looked darkly at him. Cero got an inkling of what Jon was about to do.

“No, you promised to let us go.”

“I did no such thing. I said I’ll have nothing to do with you anymore. If you are dead, I will have nothing else to do with you.” Jon smirked and started suffocating Cero with the water when he felt a strong presence behind him. He had a sense of danger and he tossed Cero away. He used the water he had been using to hold Cero to block what eventually revealed itself as a knife.

Jon looked across the room and looked shocked. “My my,” he said to the Choice floating in the air, “No one told me you were a mage. Or are you? The mana feels different around you.” He laughed and calmed down. “It’s just an ability. I bet you’ll fall unconscious soon dear. I guess no one told you that people who don’t get proofed can handle mana well. You scare me for nothing.”

“You shouldn’t have done that,” Choice said, her eyes closed.

“I shouldn’t have done what elder sis. Hurt your younger brother. Pah, don’t try and threaten me. You are not going to be a hero today. You are going to die. I’m going to wait for you to collapse from handling such a huge amount of mana and I’m going to kill you. Then I’ll kill your brother and if you haven’t, I’ll kill Ian too. Then no one will know that I have this. So tell me, what shouldn’t I have done.”

“You really shouldn’t have threatened me with water. I can’t stand anyone using it against me.” Choice opened her eyes and immediately, without any resistance, Jon lost his control of the water. Choice looking calmly at him, raised a finger and the water he had been using floated over to her and joined the mass she had been controlling.

Jon blinked at this and immediately turned to run away from what he just witnessed. From the monster he had just seen. Jon was certain that even when two people who used the same element fought, one of them could not take control away from the other person. At the most they would overwhelm the other person’s element with theirs but they would be able to take control of it. Even if it was possible to take control of the other’s element it wouldn’t be as effortlessly as she had done.

Choice took in a breath of air as she watched him run and just like a typhoon released all the water she had been controlling. She released her emotions as well, her anger at being in death’s grip twice in one day, her frustration with not being able to control her element, her fear that her she would have to watch her brother die, her guilt at planning to kill someone. All of that, she sent his way and pinned him down.

Choice walked towards him, ignoring his pleas for life and mercy. She picked up the knife he had crumpled and she had straightened before tossing at him. She knelt in front of him and smiled coldly at him. She caressed the knife and raised it in the air.

“Don’t kill me,” he pleaded, “My name is Jon Strucker. The Strucker family is one of the ten Borein families. I can give you money or anything you want but please don’t kill me. If you kill me, my family will never let you go.”

“Second son?” Choice asked incredulously then gave a short laugh, “You’re not even the firstborn. Who cares about spare children. And didn’t you say it yourself, this is Internationale, no one minds a little killing.” Jon tried to struggle but Choice stabbed him quickly in the throat.

“Mages can get hurt by toothpicks too,” she whispered as he made choking sounds then yanked her knife out. She cleaned the blood on his clothing and put in her pocket. As she was crouching, Choice noticed the conch on the floor, picked it up then smiled at the dying Jon, “Thanks for the gift. Darling.”

Choice could feel her control of the water slowly slipping and looked for where she could keep the bodies. She’d have waited for Cero to wake up and tell her what happened to dead bodies but she didn’t want him to know what she was capable of yet. Choice noticed a well at the back and dragged the two dead bodies as well as all the blood to the backyard. She thought tossing them down the well but cringed at polluting the drinking water so she took control of the water in the well. Using the water she had, she made the sand around the well to become so muddy it resembled a marsh. Tossing the bodies in, she used the water that she had left to push them down the earth then withdrew the water so that the land became hard.

With a mental push, she returned the water back to well after removing impurities. She felt the last of her control slip away and looked mournfully at the water in the well. When would she be able to control it without having to prepare herself first? She felt that tranquility wasn’t the only way to exercise control over water. Water was a flexible element. It could be as calm as a stream or as ferocious as a storm. There will come a day when she would be able to use it regardless of her mood.

Choice walked back into her brother’s house and thought about what lies she would tell him this time.