Next day I woke up with a pressure on my lips. I opened my eyes and saw Cassie. She was smiling at me. I smiled back and kissed her on the cheek. She chuckled and went out of room. I changed my clothes and followed along. When I was at the kitchen, I saw all the girls talking and eating around a table. I climbed on a chair and stood up. Seeing me, girls stopped what they were doing and looked at me. I started talking. "Tonight I went to the abandoned warehouse. There were people, discussing what they are going to do with the weapons. I managed to saw the face of two people close to the boss but not the face of him"

Mary leaned forward. "Then what will they going to do with the weapons?"

I looked at her and sighed. "They intent to first kill us. Then take over the Kingdom." I took out the paper Katelin left at night. I continued "This is an invitation to their ambush. They have a woman as hostage. They want us to go there and die to their rifles."

Merideth asked. "Who is this woman?" I shook my head. Then we heard a knock on the door. Sophie got up and went towards the door. After a few seconds she returned with someone. It was Reena.

She ran towards the table and saw me on the chair. Her anxiousness was apparent. I nodded at her. She took a deep breath. “Where is my daughter?”

I was surprised. “You have a daughter. I don't know who your daughter is. Why do you ask me?”

She paused momentarily and looked down. “She followed you last night. We were coming here when we saw you leaving the house wearing all black. She was curious, so she followed you. Do you know what happened to her?”

sigh “They have her.”

“They..them?” I nodded. “Where is she?”

“She is in an abandoned warehouse. They are keeping her hostage there.”

She looked at me shaking. “How is she?”

“She is well, don't worry. Their boss ordered his men not to touch her.” She gave out a breath and relaxed. “We will save her tonight.”

She nodded and sat on one of the chairs. “Is there anything I can do?”

I smiled at her. “Yes. That warehouse is full of weapons and ammunition. We need you to find able man and carriages to take them away.”

“Weapons? What type?” She looked surprised. I made a gun with my hand and her eyes popped out. “A full warehouse of guns.. and rifles.” I nodded. “Kingdom needs to take them before they are used.”

I nodded. “That's true but, since we found them I think we need to be compensated accordingly.” She motioned me to continue. “We want all of the gunpowder in there.”

“What is gunpowder?” I quickly explained what it was. “That's too dangerous to give. I can't promise you that.”

“But, do you know where they are? If we don't give you the directions, will you be able to find it before tonight?” She shook her head. “I am not asking much. We could take the weapons too, without you knowing but we didn't. We will be giving them to you instead. In exchange of an information this important, we want only gunpowder. I believe we deserve that.”

She sighed. “What will you do with it? I can't let you keep it here.”

I shrugged “We don't have to keep it here. You can put it wherever you want and I can take them from there. I can even sell you the amount I won't be needing.”

She slowly nodded “Okay. You will own the gunpowder but it will be kept on Kingdom's military warehouses.” I nodded. “Do you need anything else for tonight?”

I shook my head. “I just need you to wait for our signal before sending your men.”

She nodded again then stood up. “I will prepare the men. Quietly. There is a lot of trustworthy people here, don't worry.” I nodded at her. She nodded back and went out.

Stolen story; please report.

Sophie came closer to me. “Will you need me in the fight?”

I shook my head. “No. You will stay here to guard this place.” She nodded, seemingly relaxed. Then I sat down and started eating.

After the breakfast everyone went about their business. I followed Emerald to the forge. “Did you managed to figure out how to make the ammunition?”

She nodded and pointed to a bucket. Inside was parts of bullets. I took a few in my hand and tried assembling. They fitted. 'I hope they works.' “They seem good enough. I just hope they won't blow up on our face when we try them.” She came to my back and kissed me on my cheek.

“Don't worry. We will make it work.” I nodded and left her to do her job.

I went back to table and found Cassie cleaning the table. I went beside her and started helping with it. After the table is clean and everything is in place, I gestured her to follow and went outside. We followed the street and after a few minutes, arrived to the weapon shop Clarisa owned. We went inside and I heard a bell ring. I looked up and saw the bell above. Then I heard footsteps. It was Clarisa. She froze for a moment when she saw me but it didn't take long and she was back to normal in seconds. She leaned on the counter her hands shaking slightly. “Hello Ash. What do you need?”

I smiled at her, that made her froze again. 'Next time I shouldn't make myself too beautiful. Its a hassle to deal with.' When she is back to normal I talked. “Hello Clarisa, I wanted to ask you something.” She gestured me to continue, so I did. “Do you know any jewelry crafter?”

She put her hand on her chin and nodded once. “There is the old woman. Why do you ask?”

I pointed at Cassie who was silent “I intend to give Cassie as an apprentice.”

“Well, that's good. Last I saw her, she was looking for an apprentice. Though I am guessing her requirements a bit high because she was lamenting that she can't find an able apprentice.”

I nodded to that. “Where is she?” She then gave me directions. It was close. We reached the building in a few minutes and knocked the door. Who opened the door was an old woman. First thing that I saw was her hands. They were shaking. I smiled at her. “Hello.” She nodded slowly. “I heard you needed an apprentice. If you didn't find one I would like you to try my friend here. “ I said pointing at Cassie.

She looked at Cassie. She then leaned forward slowly and took Cassie's hand in her own and started pressuring it. She nodded once. “Come in. “ She said and went inside.

We followed her. There was nothing inside to tell her craft. If not for Clarisa I would thought her as a standard grandma. We walked the corridor and got inside a room. There she sat on a chair and gestured us to do the same. We did and waited for grandma to say something. She sat there looking at us but not inspecting, just looking. After a while she stopped staring. “Tell me little girl. Why do you want to be a jewelry crafter? “

Cassie looked at me. I nodded to her. She turned to grandma and said “I want to do something. I am always at home either reading or sitting. I am bored.”

Grandma chuckled. “Jewelry crafting isn't exactly a exciting profession. Who told you, you could do this job.” Cassie pointed me. Then grandma turned to me. “What do you know about jewelry crafting?”

“Well, only the obvious things I guess. It needs precision and artistry. Other than that.. it should require patience.”

“Yet you took here a girl that doesn't want to be bored. Did you think that I will teach someone unworthy? What did you expect?”

“I expected Cassie would be worthy.”

She chuckled. “How do you know that? What if she doesn't have the talent? What will you do then?”

“If she doesn't have talent and she doesn't want to do this, I will find some other profession for her.”

She glared at me. “You mean to say you will waste my time, do you?”

I shook my head. “I don't want to waste your time.” 'It looks like you don't have much of it anyway.' “I only want to find her something she can used to improve herself. If you are afraid of your time will be wasted if she doesn't have talent, then you can give her a challenge to prove herself.”

She clapped then. “Well you said it, not me.” She smiled. “Then I will give her a challenge.”

She stood up and gestured us to follow and we did. After a little walking we got downstairs and found a workshop. She gestured to a contraption and looked at Cassie. “I will show you how to make a glass accessory. If you can give a satisfactory result I will take you as my apprentice. If you can't then I won't. What do you say?” Cassie nodded without waiting. “Good, then watch carefully.” Just when she was about to start she looked at me for a while, then shrugged once and started working. I started watching and felt Focus activate.

“Well. Do you think you can do this?” She looked at me. She looked confused. Suddenly she beamed at Cassie and said “You can get help from your friend if you want.”

Cassie nodded at the grandma and looked at me. Understanding her, I went closer to her and watched her start the contraption. It seemed she watched intently too, since she managed to do it without any help on my part, other then, maybe, my presence. When she finished, she turned to me and hugged me tightly. “I did it!”

I patted her back smiling. ”Well done Cassie. You did great.” Then grandma got in the picture and we looked at her expectantly.

She looked at us both. “You passed. Both of you.” She turned to me. “I know you didn't intended to take this craft, but if you don't have something to do, with your ability to focus I am sure you can do well. What do you say?”

I shook my head. “I am apprenticed to a blacksmith and I am on my way to being one too. I don't want to change occupation.”

She looked surprised. She came closer and took my hand in hers. She inspected for a few seconds and looked at me. “You don't have anything on your hand to pass as a blacksmith. You don't lie, do you?” I shook my head. “Then you should be new.” I nodded. “Your focus. You learn much faster than normal right?” I nodded again smiling. “Well, too bad I missed you but you gave me a good apprentice. She has talent for it.” She turned to Cassie. “If she can overcome the repetition she will be a good jewelry crafter.”

I turned to Cassie who seemed to lose nothing from her happiness. When grandma left my side she came and held my cheeks then kissed me on the lips. I didn't say anything just smiled and she turned to look at grandma who was secretly smiling.

I turned to grandma. “We should go.” She nodded. “I will bring Cassie here tomorrow.” Then I held Cassie's hand and went towards the door. Grandma followed us all the way and with a wave, we were out. I looked at the sky. There was some time until dusk but I wanted to make plans for our attack on the warehouse. 'I hope their boss won't change the time of their attack.' We quickly made our way towards home. After a few minutes we were at the door. There Cassie stopped me from opening the door.

“Ash. Thank you for taking me there. It was fun to see the glass take shape. I feel like it will be even more fun in the future. I can't wait to make golden accessories.”

I smiled at her. “That's great. You see, I didn't know if you would like it. Since you liked doing that craft.. That makes me happy too.” She tried to kiss me again but I stopped her this time. “You kissed me too much today. If you continue like that I will forget what I said before.”

She pouted. “Why don't you forget it then? I have a job, I am all grown up now.” I just smiled at her. She then said “When will I grow?” to no one and got in before me. I just chuckled and followed her. My followers weren't here yet and Emerald was working on a weapon blade at the forge. I sat on a corner, cross legged, and started meditating.