Abigail was not enjoying her trial. It might be the constant dampness of her clothes caused by the endless storm. Maybe it was the lightning and thunder that had prevented her from relaxing at all. It could’ve been the wind that had knocked her on her butt at least a half dozen times now. All of that could be the reason. Yet it was none of those things.

The stupid puzzle pieces were annoying. She wasn’t particularly good with the toy either, so she missed the pieces more than not. Even after hours of collecting them, she wasn’t any better with it. She grumbled as she plucked another piece from her toy. A sharp pain stung her finger as a tiny spark transferred from the puzzle into her hand.

“Ow!”

She yelped at the pain. While it didn’t compare to the lightning, it still stung. This was a stupid trial. In all of her family records, no one mentioned a dumb puzzle that shocked you every single time you touched a piece of it. At least lightning hadn’t struck her down again. She might have wished for it once or twice though. Her family wouldn’t accept someone that gave up, but her parents at least wouldn’t care if she died to lightning. It’s not like she could be expected to avoid lighting.

She sighed and decided it was time for a break. She had collected around 100 pieces and walked over to the nearest tree she could find. The big ones somewhat shielded her from the rain. They weren’t particularly remarkable though. Just some simple oak trees. Her back slid against it, as she sat down. The muddy ground stained her pants, but she had fallen so many times that they couldn’t get much worse. And they were just pants. She was definitely not annoyed or frustrated by the dirty feeling against her skin. It wasn’t piling on her already withered patience from the past couple of hours. Nope, it couldn’t be that.

Her sardonic thoughts made her stare at the pouch full of white pieces. Every piece was white and could easily fit with any of the other pieces. The shapes made it so that she could easily build any puzzle she wanted. If only there was a place for her to work on a puzzle. A place without storm winds that would ruin any attempt.

She picked two pieces from the bag, another set of small shocks causing her to wince. If she died without seeing another puzzle it would be too soon. There was a good chance of it if she begged her father to outlaw them. He could manage that in one world. Probably.

She stared at the two pieces. One in each palm. It was obvious how they would connect if she just used the shape, but that wasn’t how puzzles worked. Puzzles were typically blank though. Well, she was tired, and building a puzzle sounded less annoying than finding more pieces. She slowly brought the pieces together, only for them to fly out of her hands and snap together like magnets.

“Really. That’s how this works?”

Stupid magical puzzles. She had been hesitating to build the puzzle this whole time because she thought that she would need to figure out the solution first. Of course, the puzzle would just solve itself. She grumbled as she pulled another piece out of the bag. This was some kind of sick joke. The shock from the piece time got her to scream. It was more a yell, and she began shouting at the trial and its maker. She didn’t actually believe there was anyone behind the type of trial, but she still felt a little better. The piece snapped to the other two connecting in a way that made little sense to her. She wondered if she could speed this up and grabbed a handful of the pieces. The shock was worse that way, but it worked. All the pieces she had scooped up sipped out of her hands and found places to belong.

As she continued to add more pieces to the puzzle it grew and started to form into something. It seemed fine, so she kept going, and before long her bag was empty, and she was left with a perfect disk. The lines that had been there before were gone. Instead, a new series of marks spread across the disk. It was a very literal symbol of a lightning bolt. A bolt as stereotypical as you might find in a kid's movie. She sighed but reached for the disk. The electrified metal actually seemed to push away the grass somehow. In the end, she had just been dropping pieces near the puzzle.

As his fingers touched the puzzle, she wondered if she should have checked and used something in case it zapped her. This moment would haunt her dreams.

Electricity coursed from the disk into her. The pain that lanced through her hand burned as if she had dunked her hand into an open flame. She screamed, tears immediately falling from her eyes as the pain continued to grow. Unlike the lightning before, this was a continuous stream of pain. Her body seized up and she fell onto the ground. She twitched and spasmed, but her hand-maintained contact with the disk. The current passed through her, and her screams turned to wails as she thrashed around in the mud. Screams and tears vanished as the world went blank. The last thing she saw was the little blue message of the trial changing.

“Ugh!”

She groaned in a very unladylike manner. As she rolled and felt something hit her arm. Something that wasn’t tree-shaped. Her eyes snapped open. A grey brick wall covered her vision. The floor was no longer mud, but a road paved by stones.

“Uuuuggghhh!”

She groaned more loudly this time, as she rolled onto her back. A clear blue sky was a small relief. This wasn’t the room she had used to enter the trial. That meant that she hadn’t failed. In this case, that was more a disappointment than a victory. She shut her eyes but was still bothered by the blue text at the corners of the darkness.

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First Mission: Solve the Puzzle of Storms (Completed)

  Bonus: Collect more than one thousand pieces (Failed)

Reward: Shield of Conduction

Second Mission (Final): Kill A Person

  Bonus: Hidden

The messages stopped. That was apparently it, and she stared it in disbelief. The shortest recorded trial had been five missions. Hers was two? It seemed like she was lucky. Yup, truly lucky. Very lucky. A perfectly easy mission. All she needed to do was kill someone. The one thing she had failed to do in all of her preparation. She couldn’t even kill people in VR games. The newest ones felt too real, and this was even beyond that.

In her misery, she almost didn’t think about what the mission implied. Her training kicked in, and she sprang to her feet. A dagger slipped from her belt as she drew it in a smooth motion. Her eyes darted around, only to find a group of children pointing at her. They wore plain clothes that didn’t quite fit the modern era. A shirt and pants that each looked like a sack for potatoes from a cartoon. They scattered when they noticed the dagger, and she had to hold back a laugh. She knew it shouldn’t be funny, but they really did run like a cartoon. When two of them bumped into one another, she couldn’t contain it anymore.

She laughed so deeply that her sides began to hurt. Unconsciously, she used the building as a support. The coarse brick of the building wasn’t comfortable against her palm. Seeing that she wasn’t in imminent danger, she put her dagger back and more carefully took in her surroundings. She was in a small clearing that was obviously hidden behind several buildings. It was like an alleyway but a wide one. There were several places she could squeeze through, and she turned to glance down at the nearest opening. It was narrow, and she saw some of the children from earlier hiding behind what had to be a trash can. She walked through quickly.

She had to kill someone, but she wouldn’t kill a child. That would just be cruel. There would be a prison somewhere. That would be a good place to find someone. The dark thought stopped her feet. Was she really rationalizing who she planned to kill? That was colder than she was comfortable with. Should she just give up? Her parents would understand even if the rest of the family wouldn’t. While debating the thought she walked out of the alley.

The open street was wider than expected, and it was busy. People of all ages and races wandered through the street. Some openly wore jewels while others held skewers of an unknown meet. After the third such person with a skewer walked by, she decided to find one for herself. It wasn’t hard to find a cart where a burly man was offering skewers of meat to those who walked by. They had some brown sauce on them and were charred in some places. It smelled good, and she looked at the man with pleading eyes.

He took notice of her then and smiled widely. His teeth were hidden by a mustache so thick it could’ve been mistaken for a rat. She stared at it for a moment as he spoke.

“Why, hello there! Care for a snack? Each skewer is only a copper pence.”

She had to bite her cheek to refrain from giggling. Despite the man’s ridiculous size, his voice was high and youthful. It could’ve belonged to a boy half his size. She talked to stop from laughing.

“I would love one! Oh, but I don’t have any money. I can trade though!”

She pulled out one of her four daggers, somewhat surprised to see she still had all of her stuff. And now that she was actually looking, she felt something strapped to her back that she had missed before. She checked it now to realize it was the puzzle she had made before. With the straps, it seemed more like a shield. That was probably something she should’ve looked for earlier. Well, there was something even more important now. She slapped one of her daggers down on the cart, more than a little eager at the prospect of fresh and hot food.

“How many will this get me?”

The mustachioed man just stared at the extremely sharp and modern dagger in genuine awe.

“This is a finer blade than I have ever seen. A knife like this is too valuable. You could buy ten carts with it.”

He looked a little wary. She smiled as wetly as she could manage. The same smile that always managed to break her father.

“Just give me ten skewers then. I doubt I can eat that much. Actually, can you offer some to the kids in that alley? I kind of scared them by accident. “

The man hesitated briefly but accepted when he saw the smile. She was being as genuine as she could, and it must have come across somehow.

“Fine. I know those brats too and will make sure to let them eat their fill.”

He handed her ten skewers on a piece of wood shaped loosely into a plate. She eagerly snatched the plate from his hands and grabbed the first skewer. The man didn’t have the time to warn her about the heat. She took a bite, and nearly burned her lounge. Her mouth opened slightly, and she sucked in air rapidly to try and cool the meat. The man started to laugh at her.

She ignored him and began to chew when she felt comfortable. It was good. Whatever sauce was on it was a little sweet and complimented the meat well. Whatever animal it belonged to; the meat was tender. Better even than some of the expensive steaks her chefs would serve. A smile crept across her face as she took another bite, and before long she was finished with the first skewer. It was impossibly good. The trial must have intentionally made the food this amazing. Finally, the trial gave her something not terrible.

“Well, isn’t that a smile worth a thousand compliments.”

“Itsso good.”

Her words got jumbled together as she spoke while chewing. She stayed and finished the rest of her skewers. Only having a small conversation with the man. He told of the town and the people in it. Gave her an idea of what to expect, and even told her where she could find work if she wanted to. He even gave her some change so that she wouldn’t need to throw away any more daggers for measly pieces of meat. Thus began her exploration of the town. Her search for someone who she could kill.