It was a horrible night. A storm came over the area just minutes after she had fallen asleep, the heavy rain took out the fire and damped the area around her. She maintained herself dry and heated the area by use of her ability but she started to feel the void; the sensation an annoying reminder she needed to rest.

Adding to that the night went faster than expected. It had been no longer than five hours since the storm began when light started to fill the forest. Astrid heard her old self speaking to her.

“Just take the day off to sleep and get yourself some food” She ignored the voice of her old habits

“I am going to meditate for a bit. To make the void go back, I am not going to sleep” Was her response.

Astrid placed herself in a lotus pose and meditated for an hour before standing and walking towards the mountain. She left burn marks in the tree trunks as she walked to ensure her return to the camp this afternoon.

The worst of the storm had passed but the sky was still grey with clouds, taking advantage of the rain as cover she decided to approach the mountain to look for a way up that involved the least amount of climbing possible. The stone was soaking wet forcing her to walk north for half an hour before she could start climbing.

The first section was not a problem; the difficulty came when she reached snow. Astrid wanted to scout the base without being seen so the white cloths helped her but she needed to hide the number on her back or anyone would see her from a distance. She also noticed her pants and shoes where brown with dirt, she had not been careful in her journey the day before.

Relaxing she stopped her ability from heating the air around her letting the rain soak her. It was freezing but it did help her concentrate. She used the rain and the snow around her to clean as much dirt as she could and dried herself once more.

Astrid took her shirt and when she noticed reversing it would not help, she put it back on, this time facing back to hide the seven with her body if need be. She felt ridiculous with the long V neck on her back.

The fortress was not really a fortress. What Astrid had seen from the distance was a collection of black and grey pieces of fabric sewn between posts. Just a waypoint for the participants to know where to go. Guards were posted along the posts leaving no way for her to sneak past or even look at the real fortress from her position. She would have to go through the cliff side to a vantage point if she wanted to scout the area.

As she moved towards the cliff, she saw moment in the corner of her eye. Looking down she saw another participant climbing a rout similar to the one she took. In his back the number six gave his position against the snow. Placing herself against a rock she was using for cover Astrid weighted her options.

Another reason to have taken the first day to gather wood and rest was to avoid other people. She expected most if not all the others would run towards the mountain in the first two days so she had not watched her back since the competition began.

Three options crossed Astrid’s mind to deal with this situation. The first one to discard was to talk to this man to either work together or just don’t interfere with one another.

Eigil had described the other constantans as ‘much more dangerous’ than her and this was not the way she wanted to discover if this was a true statement. The second was to head south and continue as she planned and hope this guy would not notice her.

She decided to go with option three. Hide.

She had about two minutes until he reached her position so without losing time Astrid began to erase her footprints from the area and heating up the air around her hand, she made a hole in the snow. Deep enough so that she should fit in and cover herself in snow and wait out.

The man arrived less than a minute after she had buried herself. Around one sixty-five meters tall and seventy kilos this man seemed fit for stealth; he was small but his muscles were deeply defined. His short dark hair contrasted with his pale white skin; he was around her age with a patchy beard that gradually disappeared as it got close to the ears. He did a routine similar to hers; looked at the guards then went to the side to see if he could get past them in any way before siting against the rock.

After ten minutes under the snow sleep started to crawl over her; she knew from her books that if she fell asleep death would be the least of her worries. Not wanting to lose her ears or nose or any part of her boy to frostbite she sat up.

“So that’s where you were” The man spoke in a voice with a strong accent she could not recognise. “Come here, have a piece of salad.” He continued as he took some food from his pocket.

“You are not surprised?” She asked while her body heat came back to normal.

“Not at all friend. I have been following you since you started your climb. I spotted you when exiting the forest. And you could not disappear without leaving any tracks so I just waited” He ate part of the plant he was holding as to signal her to come closer. “My name is Zorlo and I could use some help. I will help you in return if you like”

She noticed he was trembling at this point.

“You are not accustomed to cold climates, are you?” She asked the man.

“HELL NO. I am from Porto Sole, that is in the coast of Bamir in the southern continent. Before this thing started, I had never even seen snow. When I saw you climbing, I noticed the snow melted where you placed you hand so I decided to ask for help. My power focuses on metals so I am just a guy freezing at the moment.” His smile was reassuring; not because of charisma but because his jaw trembled with no control.

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

Astrid stood up and walked towards him.

“I cannot heat you directly, I could harm you more than anything so I will heat up the air around us for a bit. Then we deal with the tasks aiding each other, OK?” She extended her hand to seal the deal. He shook it.

They sat there for ten minutes as he regained his energy. She heated the air around them and dried him while he talked. Around seven minutes in the weather gave in and rained stopped.

Astrid stayed silent as she usually did around strangers but he did not and told her a great deal. Zorlo was a chef; he had just opened his own restaurant in Porto Sole when the organization kidnaped him. They also agreed to not do this together. They might take issue in the fact that they teamed up.

“I had my power since I was a boy, I don’t remember how or why it manifested but it was awesome. People called me a miracle boy; I was able to bend spoons and shape certain metals with my mind. With time I learned how to use it to sharpen my knives; that helps you save a lot of money in restaurant business you know” He was charismatic and gentle, not what she expected from an assassin candidate.

Not many people had powers so they grabbed the ones that did and forced them into what they needed. Maybe the others wouldn’t be so bad.

Zorlo had given her sea weed to eat, also told her the rivers around here were filled with it and she could use it to cook. It would not give her al the calories she required but hunger could be managed with it.

“So, what about you, how did you get your powers?” He asked before eating some sea weed.

Astrid recoiled to the memories that flashed to the question. Placing her knees against her chest she responded.

“I… those are not pleasant memories” She hoped she could forget the events and stop feeling so scared and weak each time she remembered.

“I’m so, so sorry I didn’t mean to offend or anything. Are you all, right?” Zorlo’s concern sounded genuine; it was something she was not accustomed to hearing.

“Don’t worry. For now, I will look for a way up” She added while she stood and pointing towards the fortress. “Do you know anything that could help?”

“I would avoid the northern face. There are armed guards at the main entrance. I looked there yesterday” By his tone she understood he was telling the truth but not all he knew. “Oh, and take this”

Astrid though he was going to give her more sea weed and was caught off guard when he passed her a knife. It was a solid one-piece steel knife; the blade was twenty-five centimetres and around four hundred grams of weight.

“Where did you get this?” She asked trying not to show the fear she was feeling.

Even if he had only one, he could have killed her and she didn’t even notice he had it with him.

“After I escaped from that cell, I used some of the metal from the door to make five of those. Knifes and daggers are my weapon of choice” He smile as he made two more appear out of nowhere.

“Thank you, I owe you one.” She said before starting to walk towards the cliff. He just smiled at her and went the opposite direction.

The walk towards the cliff was not pleasant. Each step she took she regrated her preparation more and more. She could have made a variety of weapons from the door by melting it. Other materials like the bed or even the box in the room would have been useful. She only thought of food and would have been unarmed entering the base if not for Zorlo.

With the rain gone it was easier to climb the cliff. The stone was still wet but she could dry sections to get secure grip. She managed to get to higher ground within an hour. The view was simple but gorgeous, the fortress looked like a classic military base. It was made by four elongated buildings, its entrances placed on the corners of a square; the entire base was encircled by a wooden wall two and a half meters tall. It seemed considerably easy to infiltrate; only two watch towers and twelve guards protecting it at any given time.

Following her plan, she stayed put for around six hours looking for any and all weaknesses in the defences. The guards were well equipped to resist the weather but their weapons were mostly non-existent. Only six of them had visible weapons; two of which did not move from the towers used muskets. The others seemed like unarmed or only used a sword.

In the time she scouted there were two occasions in which guards changed shifts helping her identify what she expected to be a dining hall and the barracks. That left two of the buildings to look for her price.

After a day of work in the cold she took the way down as fast as she could be returning to her camp to spend a night in a deep dreamless sleep. The weather helped her with a dry and not as freezing night like the one before. She woke to a ray of light passing through a small hole in the roof of her shelter.

By now she knew that days in the northern continent around summer could take nineteen hours under sunlight so the sun’s position would not give her as much information as she expected. Deciding to take the day calmly because of all the information and the knife she acquired the day before she meditated for thirty minutes before eating the rest of the salmon and walking back to the mountain.

To avoid any other contestants, even Zorlo, Astrid took to the cliff. It took her two hours from the camp to where she scouted the day before.

She could have done it in half the time, but she was slowed by her precaution so no one could see her.

Before she planted herself to scout the base once more, she decided to change her perspective and being careful not to let any marks on the snow she walked north.

After three hours in her new vantage point, she noticed something. There was an area between one of the buildings and the outer wall that was un-attended for around ten minutes every hour. An easy way in and one she had missed the day before due to the angle from which she studied the base.

To get to that area she would need to return the way she came and go around the base. If she attempted a more direct route that would place her in front of one of the towers, too exposed for her liking. Following her training with Cadem and Eigil, the best course of action was to scout for the rest of the day, try to find out which building holds the item she was supposed to steal and look for other openings to enter or exit.

Her patience paid off about two hours later. She was about to call it a day when she saw movement inside one of the two buildings the guards avoided. Her scouting was excellent, she had amazing eyes, so how did someone enter the base without her noticing? There were no tunnels, at least none in the three sides she had used to move.

The guards did not notice the movement or at least didn’t act on it. It took him less than ten minutes to find what he was looking for and disappear without a trace. Astrid maintained her position for half an hour, looking for the one that had entered before she began her decent. There was a way in and out from those buildings that she was not able to discover on her own.

The way down gave her time to think; the best course of action given the information she had acquired was to enter though the opening she saw.

Once inside get her price and use the remaining fifty minutes until the next opening to look for the other way out, if she found no other way, she would go back though the same route.