A sudden chill woke her up, she had fallen asleep on her desk again. Noticing she was in the middle of an exercise; she sighted and went back to work. She had to finish these problems on fluid mechanics by Saset morning but no matter what she did, she was not able to concentrate.

She had dreamed of the caped man again. 

This was a recurring dream; it had started about two months ago, its frequency increasing in what seemed like random intervals. Now she dreamed of it almost every night. 

Most of it was forgotten, as it often happens when waking of a dream, but the same section remained clear enough to make her lose focus on the task at hand. 

There was a man, she didn’t know who it was but she felt threatened, his features were indistinguishable beneath the thick black robe that covered his entire body. Suddenly, without warning, he attacked her speaking of some sort of ideals or a cult, she was not sure on the details.

Shoving him away; she landed on a clear surface in front of a pond where she looked at herself, but it could not be her; the woman in the reflection was strong her well-built compact body made her look like a fierce warrior of a legendary tale. She had scars and even her right breast was missing, the image felt familiar and bizarre all at once. 

The hooded figure took a blade out of his robe, shorter than a normal sword and with a slight curvature; it looked Persean of origin. The dream became a blur after this but she suspected she died or something nasty happened shortly after, as she always waked up somewhere close to this point.

She took a deep breath to calm herself.

Joan was not extraordinary in any way; standing at one meter fifty-five centimetres she was the average high for a girl in her age but she was more on the heavy side with almost ninety kilograms and low to no muscle. Her skin should be light brown just as her pants but normally she was pale looking giving her a grey tone, especially on the face. Her hair was black and long; not very well kept or organized. 

At the age of twenty she felt she had accomplished nothing with her life besides throwing time away reading novels and watching plays. She enjoyed those things more than anything.

Turning her head towards the wall mounted clock she noticed it was six forty in the morning, meaning she still could make it to class if she hurried. After four years in the university, she was approaching the end of her studies; most of the theoretical courses were behind her except fluid mechanics that she had already failed once. 

It takes a normal student six years to finish a basic artificing courses. She had skipped the first-year course thanks to a deep and somewhat barbaric teaching schedule made for her before she came of age. At that point she was sent to the university with only sixteen years and close to no knowledge or experience of the real world aside from some cooking she had learned from the maids that worked for her family. 

Depending on their development any student could specialize in different areas; from construction and architecture to elixir and medicine. This was expensive but the cost could be managed by getting a job in the city or being hired as a teacher.

Joan had not selected a path to follow after she became an artificer but her speciality came in the form of materials and mechanisms. She had constructed several clocks, pulley systems and some locks including those in her home. These were better quality than those originally installed although not by much as she had to buy the resources herself. 

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

She had never really struggled with money but she preferred to used what she could spare in novels, games and food instead of materials or anything else. What she wanted the most of graduating was finding a well-paying job so that she could spend it as she pleased.  

With a slap on her thighs, she encouraged herself to stand up from her desk. She had to grab something to eat and rush a bit to make it in time.

It was going to be a long day but somehow, he knew it also was a good day.

Today was her favourite day of the week, on Viezil she had design class on the workshops throughout the morning and she finished her day around six in the afternoon after a five-hour shift in the archives. 

She took some sandwiches she had made the night before and rushed down the stairs, almost falling in the process. Even with that she was around twelve minutes late to class. However, she was lucky as her teacher arrived five minutes after she did.

Joan spent her time this morning working diligently with Sven, one of the masters in charge of the workshop. The constructions of special orders such as the mechanism of the new seal door for the gates of the outer walls was never done by a student even with supervision but she had somehow selected to work under his tutelage this time only and she felt honoured to be able to work with Sven.

His huge hands moved in a way that Joan found mesmerising, she sometimes lost focus on her own work to see him do his magic. This man could create a hundred pieces of any mechanism in the time she made five and his would still be of a much better quality. 

He was an older artificer, around fifty years of age, but he was unmatched when it came to precision as a craftsman. Not even Somer Currington master artificer of the university could compare. Whenever they needed the best, they called Sven. Although she had never seen the master design his own machines, perhaps he preferred the peace that came with the construction.

Thanks to Sven and other teachers, she felt most at home at the workshop and she was considering looking for a place here but teacher spots at the workshop were always sought after and only the most skilled could attained them.

She could gain a spot as a designer but even if she loved it, nothing was better than creating something with your own two hands.

There were other workshops and stores around the city, there she could get a job easier, albeit with a lower pay. However, only the university’s central workshop actually made the great works of artificing. If she wanted to make a name for herself or even live a quiet and simple life in the university she needed to earn her place.

She finished up, changed to her normal attire and walked towards the central plaza of the city. It was not far from the workshop, all the most important building were close to the plaza, but she decided to take a break anyway and eat something in her favourite inn. It was a good meal and they knew her well as she ate there at least four times a week.

With a belly full of pork and beans she found her way to the central library also known as the archives.  

The archives were another good place; it was comfortable but not as natural to her as the workshop was. The hierarchical structure imposed by the master librarian meant no woman could go past the position of scribe. She understood he came from the empire and they had a very different culture there, but that was no excuse to impose his believes on the people of the university.

Joan had taken to work here because it was the best pay for the least effort. The archives were also quiet and she could sometimes take some minutes to read whatever she wanted. 

On the other hand, as an assistance scribe, she would have to transcribe close to a hundred pages a week many of this were in languages she did not know requiring a lot of concentration from her part. Helping people find books in whatever theme they were researching was also one of her responsibilities; this was easier but could take some time as there were hundreds of corridors full of books. 

It could be overwhelming at times and her five-hour shift sometimes felt like a week. She ended up exhausted but felt fulfilled somehow.   

After a grand dinner with a chocolate cake as dessert Joan went back to her apartment, she wanted nothing more than to sleep and maybe read some fantasy. She had found a new book she was enthusiastic about; it told the tale of a young woman who began a journey to the north in search of her lost friend that had been taken away by a mysterious woman during a blizzard.  

However, she had to be a responsible adult and finish her work for tomorrow. It was not her favourite subject by far but she needed it to graduate and so, with a sigh she took out her paper and ink to begin another night of study.