It took her two days to decide. In the end she went with the hammer, even though she was better fighting with the sword and felt a little more comfortable. The deciding factor was her power; she felt more secure and powerful using her ability to greater effects and looking cool helped too.

She still was not accustomed to the different centre of mass in both weapons making her lose balance from time to time.

Eigil helped her understand the weapon better and supported the ideas given by the blacksmith.

“The guy can be an ass and doesn’t know to deal with people but he is a genius blacksmith. I would learn from him if I was you. You will be in his good graces and that means the best weapons you can imagine. He doesn’t really care for whom he is making them just that his weapons are used appropriately” Was his response as she finished recounting the events.

And so, she began altering her style one more time. Her battle experience helped her immensely to understand what she needed to alter to maintain the victories with the guards. She lost some battles at the beginning but as the weeks passed her record improved.

“What’s with the notebook? We finished theory months ago” Cadem called as he entered the room.

This made Astrid give a small jump, she had arrived twenty minutes earlier and wasn’t expecting Cadem to arrive for a while.

“Don’t scare like that, you know I startle easily”

He laughed for a couple of seconds before he responded.

“Chica you need to learn; you can’t react like that in the fiend”

“I know, I know” While she responded she closed her notebook and stood up to face Cadem.

“This is a diary. No, not like that” Cadem had made a face that she had come to know because it appears when he smelled gossip. “During my time at the university I was always the one who took notes and kept track of the different builds and experiments. My mentor always told me a good artificer knows what he has done and can replicate it without issues.”

“Hmmm, I don’t know chica, I am not sure how much good that will do, we are humanos, you cannot expect to work the same every day of feel the same either.” He extended an arm towards her. “Can I see?”

Astrid handed the diary without a second thought, there was nothing personal in there and even though she knew what Cadem told her was true keeping track of her different personal records and accomplishments help inspire her to brake past them.

“I don’t get it, there are just numbers in here” Cadem said as he passed pages. “I never understood this” He finished as he returned the diary to her.

“It is simple, I have taken measurements of temperature and time along with mass and material in my different exercises and experiments. With that information I can calculate how much heat I can move around and at what speeds. To do this Eigil helped me get hold of some books from the university that give me some constants to use…” Cadem looked at her with such a look that she knew he did not understand a word she just said. When he was confused or preoccupied, he tended to forget his quirks in the way he usually talked and reverted to something more normal.

She sighted before continuing.

“With this I can know if I will be able to do something or not in the field. For example, I now can heat up a pool as you said, it takes me about ten minutes to get all the water boiling for a five by ten by two-meter pool. I probably would not be able to do it in less time and will take longer for more water”

“I think I get it chica. Is like knowing how much I can carry with my magnets.” He responded earnestly.

“Yes, something like that, you train how far, how fast and how heavy, I however have to take other things into consideration like material and temperature. But Cadem you don’t seem to be able to understand this, right?” She finished while pointing a simple equation. “Don’t you know any arithmetic?”

“La verdad, no chica. Eigil taught me how to read and write years ago because it helps with the job but I never really liked numeros. Truth be told almost no one aqui knows how to read as it is not required for their jobs.”

Astrid had forgotten; living in the university she had grown accustomed to everyone knowing at least the basics, outside the capital and the university however it was different. Most people knew close to nothing academically as it was not required of them.

“If you want, I can teach you some basics, nothing fancy, just enough to be able to manage your money in every country without them taking advantage” She had said it this way to give an example on how it was useful.

“You know even if the gold coin is standard in all kingdoms and the empire, most places use different coins for the rest of their currency. For example, in the kingdom of Brimish from where I am from the coins rise in multiples of nine because the royal family are born without their pinkie in the left hand” She pointed to make emphasis. “So, nine iron is a copper, nine copper is a silver and nine silver is a gold coin. knowing some arithmetic will help you with any deal you make or if you exchange currencies.” Astrid sounded enthusiastic to teach as she did love her numbers.

“Thank you, chica, but no thanks. The dinero is managed by the organization; food, clothes and stay are always a given so I don’t need to use money at all” His smile told her there was nothing to do in this matter.

This did not tell her what he was doing with his salary or how he expected to live when he retired but he would not budge. Knowing a lost battle when she saw one Astrid continued her day as if that conversation never occurred.

Time passed too fast for comfort and before she knew it the competition was upon her. The days before the start she started to feel nervous. She had prepared as much as she could in the given time but this was not an artificer test. She knew nothing about how they will test her and the result depended on the other contestants as much as her.

Five days before, Eigil arrived to get her on her room; waking her up in the process.

“Today we travel. Get your things into this bag and get to the top floor in twenty minutes” He told her as he threw a bag on her bed.

“What? Where?” She asked as she sat up and rub her eyes.

“My grandfather’s letter arrived about half an hour ago; the first part of this competition will be done on the coast of the northern continent, in the border between the empire and the Artic desert so we need to go” He sounded uncomfortable. Before she could say anything else, he was gone.

This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.

Astrid turned around and looked at the clock she had constructed at the side of her bed. Two thirty am, way too early but she stood up not trusting herself to rest her eyes a few seconds. It took her less than five minutes to exit her room ready to go, she had almost no possessions and still she somehow felt like she was forgetting something. Astrid wanted to take a bath but she had not enough time to enjoy it, so with a sigh she walked towards the stairs to reach the surface floor.

Eigil was waiting for her besides a black military wagon, his arms crossed. The wagon was simple but armoured to waistband musket and arrow fire. He was wearing nicer cloths than she had seen him use since she met him as an art student; the navy-blue blazer and charcoal trousers made him look somehow older and more mentally balanced than the image she had of him.

“I am finally going to know where this installation is located” she said with a smile on her face.

“How? Do you know to navigate using the stars?” He asked as he pointed upwards.

“Well. No, I never took that class because I never thought of travel” She had not noticed that this was the first time seeing the night sky since they brought her here. “I was thinking on the ride. During the journey I will be able to determi…. You’ve got to be kidding” Before she could finish, he stood straight and showed her that he was holding a black bag in one hand and leather restrains in the other a black bag.

“You are not one of us, at least not yet, so we have to follow protocol” He came closer as she resigned herself and lifted her arms.

“You know I have explosives in BOTH my arms, the handcuffs are not really necessary” She responded a bit annoyed.

“I know. I will remove them when we enter the ship and as an extra, I will let you remove the bag during the journey. We will be alone on the ship aside from the crew so no one will notice. BUT if you tell anyone I will fry your ass.” Warning sparks raced through his fingers before he guided her to the back of the wagon and placed the bag.

The journey took much longer than she expected. It took them close to a day nonstop in the wagon before they entered a private port to take a ship. Already in the open ocean Eigil waited almost thirty minutes to unlock her chains and take the bag of her head.

“Why did you wait so long before removing those things? And what is with the long road trip? By the salt in the air back in the dungeon I expected to be somewhere close to the sea” She was exhausted.

Astrid had never been able to sleep while traveling. When he did not respond she continued.

“I mean it; the sun is already rising; we could have used some time to sleep or to eat or something”

She gave a look around. The room on the ship was not small, around ten meters from the cabin door to the back and at least twelve from side to side; everything looked expensive from all the wood decorations to the gold-coloured railing.

One enormous bed was placed near the back right side and four beautiful leather seats were arranged in a square facing a table on the centre; in the back, left side, there was a full bar up to the roof filled with what looked like bottles of liquor she could never afford.

“If we paused, we would not have made it. There is no way to know where the test is being performed. Each time is different, in fact my grandfather has a guy to design the tests every time. Normally there are between five and ten different tests and no one knows of more than one with the exception of my grandfather.”

“And the guy who made it” She responded.

“Nope, that guy is executed after he gives the plans” He corrected her, he continued when her face told him what she thought of the executions. “I suppose it is time for more exposition from my part” He sounded bored but she noticed his mouth curved a little into a smile.

“You see; we are much bigger than you would imagine. We as an independent organization are relatively small, around six hundred people are direct members of our community. But the power we hold depends on our …” Eigil stopped for a few seconds as if looking for the correct word. “Let’s say allies. Including them we have under our command between fifty to seventy percent of all organised crime. There are places off course like the eastern alliance where our presence is not well liked because we are foreigner so there is opposition but we are there. It took almost four hundred years to reach this point so we are extremely protective of our inner circle. You know my grandfather is the big boss but you will never meet him. Only the ten leaders are allowed to see him and he dictates the arrangements for said meeting. Even between the ten there are restrictions. I have done jobs for the other nine but I only know the names of five and only seen two face to face”

Eigil stood from his seat at this point, walked towards the back and looked into the bar.

“Want anything?” He asked her.

Astrid never really understood all the fuzz people made with alcohol. She did not like it one bit but she was weak to group pressure so she responded with.

“A glass of whatever you are drinking”

Eigil stayed silent as he served two glasses of a really old looking whiskey and returned to his seat.

“Here, I hope you enjoy this. It is a Salut Royal Fifty-year-Old directly from our homeland” He smiled and sipped his whiskey. She did the same. “How is it?” He asked after she made a strange face.

“It is really good” She said forcing her voice while her body beg her to cough. “It has a sweet and fruity flavour, a hit of nut if I am not mistaken but it is really strong.”

“Not bad, I suppose your tong is well trained after all those years of eating and cooking” He smiled and signalled her to have another sip.

“That bottle costs around Four hundred fifty gold coins”

Her choking filled the cabin, her first instinct has to spray the contents of her mouth towards Eigil but the thought alone of throwing away something that expensive stopped her and she swallowed.

“You did that on purpose you ass” She spoke on a rough voice and coughed.

“Messing with you never gets old” Se responded as he finished his drink. “Anyway, what I was trying to say earlier is that secrecy is our strongest weapon and shield. People treat us like a myth on the streets; like a boogieman or other kinds of myth. So, no one dares mess with us or any other of our allies. That is how we have control.” When Eigil spoke of the organization, he always put a serious face, like there was nothing but the job.

“So, wait a minute. I understand the control and money thing but why don’t you just take control of this countries and make a nice dictatorship dystopia as a normal evil organization” She expected at least a smile from the comment but none came.

“You don’t get it; not really. If we go public and control countries directly there are a vast number of consequences we will be forced to deal with. People would know who to rebel against or on whom they will get revenge for their love ones. At the moment we control every illegal highway line in the globe; drugs, weapons, prostitution, you name it. People affected negatively by this would immediately oppose our rule; BUT if they just blame criminals in general and expect a government that doesn’t know we exist to deal with us then we are untouchable.” Eigil finished with a smile that looked a bit forced but was not completely fake. He stood once more and brought two bottles of whiskey, less expensive ones this time.

“Are we the bad guys?” She asked, a tad nervous and not comfortable with what she was going to become if she won this thing.

“Generally speaking. Yes. Sometimes we do some heroic things like free an area that is being control by a warlord or guerrilla. But most our jobs include killing people that are bad for business” He gulped an entire glass before he continued. “But on the bright side we live a life of luxury and not much work. You can dedicate yourself to whatever you like; Cadem for example has a workshop dedicated to fashion design. I can speak or read at least ten languages and that takes time. In any other situation I would have forsaken that to work a bureaucratic job or something like that. And you don’t really have much of a choice.”

He made a fair point. She did this for herself. It was the life of an assassin in luxury or as a slave. The conversation from here on out became friendlier; they spoke of food and hobbies. Astrid was extremely surprised Eigil liked the classics and he had read them all on their original formats. The true war, the Alinied and Beamoth were among the massive collection of books, myths and legends he had studied; She knew a lot too by social osmosis and references all around fiction but he was an expert. She felt calm and relaxed to talk freely about fiction with someone she might consider a friend.

Her happiness, however, lasted but two days. She slept on the couch and never left the cabin. As they approached the port in the middle of the night, he shifted again to his serious face; placing the bag and restrains once again she prepared to travel blindly towards the mysterious location.