The sky was pitch black when Javok stirred. If he woke up at the time he usually did, then the sunrise should be in half an hour. He had the feeling that wasn’t the case, seeing no one else was awake. Javok stoked up the campfire he found dying and began his usual morning warm up to get his blood flowing.

A sigh escaped Javok. Shania was predictably cold after he woke up from his nap. Hopefully he could ease their interaction at least back to neutral, or the next few weeks would be painful. Whatever spell Lady Ethneri or Lady Dunni cast, probably to find potential magickers like Shania, really messed him up. Hopefully someone would coach him on stopping from being disturbed by such things.

“Boy, who taught you the kileck forms?”

Javok turned to who posed the question after the deep breath ending the cool down portion. The asker was Lady Ethneri’s weapons adept.

“A wandering sword adept named Francessa taught me,” Javok smiled. “What is your name?”

“Saften,” the weapons adept grunted as he tossed him a wooden… sword?

Javok shot Saften a questioning look until Saften pulled out another wooden sword. Saften wanted to test him? Javok was rushed before he could spare another stray thought.

Under a flurry of attacks, Javok could only block and dodge, struggling to ward off Saften. All attempts to parry and counter attack failed. Saften would force his way through Javok’s deflections or even flip them around into deflections of Javok’s tries at countering. Eventually, Javok would have to resort to a series of desperate hard blocks, taking chunks out of his stamina reserves.

In a gamble to win, Javok dug his right foot in the dirt after seeing several sturdy looking roots in hills they fought. He ‘slipped’ kicking dirt up into Saften’s face, dodging a blow. Javok’s strike at Saften’s right side was knocked back but expectedly so. Saften’s counter would have caught Javok in the side… if Javok hadn’t pulled himself down with a root he grasped with his left hand. He seized his chance and swung his legs at Saften’s feet only to be stopped cold.

What? Why? Oh, of course a weapon’s adepts armor would be warded against being toppled.

“I give up,” Javok gasped as he let his head touch the ground.

He had been hoping to grapple Saften after all but throwing his sword at the other man’s and tackling him.

Saften clapped in response, “I would say go to the Combat academy.”

Javok laughed, “we both know you could have taken me apart at the fourth exchange, why jest?”

Saften’s expression narrowed, “I am not jesting.”

Javok’s expression also turned serious, “I do not seek power through the sword.”

Saften looked bewildered but the others began stirring awake. Javok became bewildered for a different reason.

“Why weren’t watches taken?” Javok asked.

Saften smirked, “not necessary due to a tool we have, and I'm a light sleeper.”

Javok nodded at that then grimaced at having to endure Lady Ethneri’s pace for a whole day after recovering.

After a quick breakfast of reheated stew from last night, they were off again. A quarter of a day later, they broke out of the woods and a city was visible in the distance, the city of Daflen. Javok smiled nostalgically but then winced. Lady Ethneri probably meant to arrive at Dalfen the day before.

Having even someone who could only work with magiformula must fill some sort of quota.

Saften and Benak kept their eyes on him expectantly the entire time as they entered the city from the south gates. Javok scoffed inwardly, knowing they probably expected him to be wide eyed.

They frowned at his lack of response, “you’re not new to the city?”

Saften sighed even louder than Benak as Javok smirked, “how else would my grasp of money and deals be at least competent?”

Shania mumbled something he couldn’t make out, and he grimaced at her glare. Clearing the air between them was a high priority.

Javok checked the current currency exchange rates, and they resupplied what little supplies they used quickly. He thought they would leave then, but they ended up deciding to stay in the city for a night. They weren’t having luck finding acceptable occupations though, since the noblewomen were trying to remain anonymous.

Javok spoke up recognizing the area they were in, “if you found my inn acceptable, then there should be an inn around here with the same level of accommodation. I supplied them with liquor and the money they paid me kept me in business when my flow of customers dried up sometimes.”

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Saften glanced at Lady Ethneri before nodding to him, “lead the way.”

Javok led them all to a large inn filled halfway with cheery customers being attended to by several . All of them intoxicated on some level but rather docile.

The man behind the bar gave a wide grin when he saw Javok, “what brings you here Jav?”

He walked up from behind the bar and pulled Javok into a solid hug.

Javok smiled broadly himself, “I managed to speed up my plan to get to the merchant academy, Safek.”

“That’s incredible!” Safek congratulated, before his expression turned serious. “You have the recipes you promised, though, right?”

Javok took out a roll of papers from his pouch with a smirk, “do you have the money for them?”

Safek hurried behind his bar and retrieved a bag of clinking coins. Javok followed him to the bar and placed his roll of recipes on the bar to his left as Safek placed the bag of money to his own left. Untying the bag open revealed ten gold coins.

Safek appeared satisfied looking at the recipes in his hands muttering things like, “why didn’t I think of that?”

Javok called out, “our deal is complete, but I and the group I am with need rooms to stay in for the night.” He poured nine of the gold coins into his pouch and tossed the last one back to Safek, “give me back eighty silver gelns, forty eight silver gelns will cover for six rooms right?”

Safek tossed him another bag of coins which were the fifty silver he requested and six room keys.

Javok gave a smug smile to the others, “if we went anywhere else we would have been pumped for at least eighty eight silver or I guess in our case eleven silver filergonas… probably.”

The others gave no response, however, leaving him a little disappointed as they left for their respective rooms.

Javok had a restful sleep and the others seemed to be the same as no one even yawned as they left just after dawn. He was in top shape, able to go through his routine without a single trace of fatigue, and they kept a rapid pace until dusk.

Setting up camp was a quick matter with enchanted tools before a meal of stew. The tool Saften had mentioned turned out to be a wardstone Lady Ethneri had that would alert them against intruders.

Javok tapped Shania’s shoulder when she got up from eating, “can we talk?”

She almost shook her head before nodding. They didn’t have to wait long for the others to retire to their tents.

Javok took out a small box out of his pouch before bowing his head, “my words and attitude from before was rude and uncalled for even under the influence of a spell. Here is a token of my apology.”

Shania took the box Javok offered and smiled at the contents being jelly biscuits. Her smile became a little pained after a few seconds, and she turned back to him.

“I am sorry for suggesting you were a fool. I like to think I had some control over myself, but I still lashed out at you. I don’t even know why I remained so irritated actually,” Shania replied with a grimace.

Javok tilted his head and rested a cheek on a fist, “maybe irritation was a side effect of the spell Lady Ethneri or Lady Dunni used to discover your potential to magick?”

“Maybe. We should ask Lady Ethneri tomorrow.” Shania tapped herself on the cheek, “you wanted to ask me about what to expect from the merchant course, right?”

Javok gave a confused smile, “yes, but what do you mean merchant course?”

“I thought aspiring merchants went to merchant academy like you did, but there actually isn’t a single school for merchants. A single academy serves as a hub for learning to be an adept in every possible way,” Shania answered.

“So does that mean you will be a returning student, just for a different course now?” Javok asked.

Shania frowned, “I suppose, but I am certainly not looking forward to. I wasn’t only upset about having to leave home. The academy has a lot of… unpleasant people.”

Javok knew how bad people could become, but things were probably less obvious in ‘high society.’ He also frowned at the possibilities.

“The first thing the merchant course does is give you an entrance test. If you fail, you won’t be able to take the merchant course or your money back but you probably already knew that. What you don’t know is that you need to ask for anonymity in the announcement board of results. Give them some sort of alias to use for you,” Shania spoke with regained cheer.

“So like maybe Havok? No, that is probably too close to my name. How about Francis?” Javok suggested.

Shania nodded, “and you can add a bunch of numbers if you want to keep the alias even if someone is also using the same one.”

Javok found that, other than the initial bit of extremely helpful information, he had not much to worry about for the merchant course. After another several exchanges, he and Shania retired to their own tents.

At the end of each day, Shania described her experiences in the merchant course, which ended up amusing and informing. Javok almost felt like he was cheating with how much more prepared he was becoming, since he already read through Slajer’s collection of books. And so a week passed before they reached the next major city.

They arrived early in the day, so there was time to wander. Javok walked along a series of stalls looking for interesting things to eat. Unfortunately, due to the rumbling unrest no one appeared to be offering anything daring, preferring to offer foods most likely to sell.

Javok wandered into a street with weapon stalls where he found one stall being harassed. They seemed to be demanding ‘protection’ money. Hoping for a good show of the hooligans taking a beating, he waited for the city guard to show, but even after a minute no guards came. Was it the spectator effect mentioned in one of Slajer’s books? The nearest guard post should have been only a minutes walk if in the right flow of traffic.

Javok cut into the flow of people he figured led by the post with a sigh. The ruffians were foolishly having ‘fun,’ so alerting the guards in time was probably still possible. The shield emblem on the guard outpost became visible quickly, bringing a surge of nostalgia.

In a rush, he shouted to the guard at the door, “I saw a bunch of thugs roughing up a weapons stall merchant that way,” pointing back the way he came from.

The guard seemed to smirk strangely for a split second before nodding, “I will go take a look. Go inside and give a description of these criminals just in case I don’t catch them.”

“I will do that,” Javok replied.

Javok wondered briefly at the strangeness of a group having found a gap in the guards routes of patrol risking being caught wasting time but shook his head before pushing his way into the guard post. He stopped in bewildered disbelief at what he saw. The men inside were wearing the same clothing… as the thugs, a raised fist in a circle as their emblem. Oh… so it wasn’t the spectator effect. Javok tried leaving but found the doors locked, cementing his conclusion.

“I am a prospective magiformulist, so you can’t harm me in some attempt to make an example out of me,” Javok yelled fearfully.

There were far too many to fight off without even considering they probably still had authority. Someone must have reported the ridiculousness by now, right? Especially with how accustomed the city residents seemed in retrospect.

A man sitting at a desk at the end of the hall looked up with a sneer, “then you can wait for someone from your group to come pick you up.”

A couple hours later of an unnerving standoff, a rat faced fellow ran up to the man who spoke and whispered into his ear.

The man at the desk scowled, “so you were telling the truth,” and shooed away at Javok.

Javok found the doors unlocked when he tried them again and hurried outside. Benak was waiting with a raised eyebrow.

“I thought you were a cynic?” Benak asked.

Javok gave a weak smile, “I view myself as a cynical idealist and hate complacency. How was I supposed to know the city guard had become rotten? How did that happen anyhow?”

Benak sighed, “King Jorem removed the restriction of city guards needing to be adepts, only giving a higher pay to the adepts. Curiously adepts in the city guards started having short careers.”

Javok shot Benak a baffled look, “seriously?”