The inside of the room was not what she had expected for a test. It looked more like a lounge for a king or

someone as rich as one.

The room was illuminated by several dyed crystal skylights so golden light filled the area. Golden decorations of great detail covered the different tapestries, curtains and paintings.

In the centre of the room a long dining table with only one accompanying chair. The table had seven different expensive and highly detailed lockboxes.

Finally, she looked down. The tapestry that covered the floor represented the ‘holy war’ were the first emperor Momon unified most of the areas with such artistic prowess that Astrid lost herself admiring it.

A cough sounded; distant and unreal, then another. With the third one she came back to her senses and looked to her right.

“I apologise sir, I lost myself in the details of the tapestry.” She spoke low to the man waiting in a chair at the back wall.

He was clearly a noble, he used an impeccable white attire decorated with gold and black like a vine. He was well groomed with a prominent moustache, a goatee and short white hair.

“I see you have good taste in art young lady” He responded with a smile. “None of the others before have made any commentary of the delightful decorations and furniture.”

“I understand how you feel, sir. Most people don’t appreciate the craftmanship involved.” Astrid herself understood the talent and dedication required to craft something detailed but also wanted to gain the patronage of this man in the upcoming test.

He gave her a trusting smile and signalled her to sit in the chair in front of the table.

“We will begin the test now” He rose from the chair and walked towards the table with his hands at his back. “It is actually pretty straight forward. You just have to open the correct box.”

He used his hands to signal the boxes one by one. It was a magnificent sight, from left to right there was a wooden box with the intricate carvings and glinting metal. Silver and gold. The second was metallic with precious stones adorning its sides, glistening in the light. The third box was simple in comparison with no decoration it looked like a plain iron and wood lockbox; that was until she noticed the material, imperial blackwood, it could be more expensive than the ones before.

Each box was a wonder of its own, all extremely intricate and expensive. Just with the costs of these boxed she could rise an army and have enough left to live her entire life.

“However, you must be careful; you have to open a correct one, you can only open the correct one to pass the test.” He said as way of warning.

She sat there for a moment waiting for some kind or riddle or clue but he said nothing more and went back to his seat.

“So, do I ask you questions and make my decision with the information given?” She asked politely.

There was no answer. The man didn’t even look in her direction; he sat back down and started to read a book.

She knew he had heard her so she tried once again being as polite as possible. No reaction at all.

She looked around, four guards at each door. None moved, they all stood ready and she saw some smiles but they mostly ignored her.

She needed to think, the other candidates had not returned to the previous room so she had no real indication if they had passed the test or if they had been taken away.

Thinking of Brosh was not helpful at all. He might have just opened one at random and got lucky or just went to be a gladiator without a fight. During their training he had told her that he did not really care where he was or who he worked for as long as he could fight strong opponents. He could feel at home in a gladiator’s arena.

The other two women gave her no clues either, she knew nothing, never even heard them speak a word, but they took some time so there has to be a clue or some other way to discover which is the correct box.

Everything in the room was extremely expensive and elaborate; Astrid however could not decide which of the boxes represented this the most. Some were more detailed and other more extravagant but all could be said to feel at home in a room like this.

Then she thought of the opposite, the one of them that could be said was NOT meant to be in a room like this. She extended her hand towards the imperial blackwood box and stopped as she saw in the corner of her eye, the noble man turned his head toward her.

She was not sure if that movement was. It could be she was selecting the correct box; on the other hand, it could be a reaction to her making a poor decision. It could even be just him getting ready to speak when it seemed she had made her decision.

This box was the less extravagant looking box by a wide margin, it looked ordinary at best. However, the material was extravagant. It could rival the price and was surely the most secure box in the room.

That could be a trap.

She needed SOME information to make a decision.

While thinking she looked down, once again the tapestry caught her eye. She hadn’t seen anything patriotic of any kind since she came here, the statues were beautiful but generic, no religious or political meaning behind them.

The same could be said from the other tapestries and paintings, Astrid could not recognise any of the men and women on them. Why was there a patriotic tapestry with this level of detail depicting the legendary foundation of the empire? Why was it on the floor of this room?

It was too massive to place in any of the walls and placing it in the roof would probably damage the piece. But was it the clue for the riddle?

She began to think on the story, trying to recall any detail that could help her. There were two chests in the legend; the great dark stone chest that no one but Momon could open and the one made from the dragon scales to seal his power away.

Neither of those could be associated directly with any of the chest in front of her. Astrid was getting more and more stress by the second, she needed an answer.

The intricate patterns on the first box looked more like vines and grapes than scales of any kind she had heard off.

The rubies in two of the boxes could represent the eye or flame or something of the dragon. Couldn’t they?

The last box had decorations made in obsidian that could be the dark stone from the other chest. Even the imperial blackwood could be associated with the stone chest.

The more she tough about it the more options appear in her mind. After a few minutes she could associate any of the seven boxes to a different part of the story. She felt paralysed, her mind running at full speed trying to select one box to open.

Finally, there was movement. The noble man stood up and walked towards the table.

If you come across this story on Amazon, it's taken without permission from the author. Report it.

“Do I get a clue now?” Astrid was so stressed that she forgot how to speak to a noble, there was no honorific and the tone was aggressive at the very least.

The noble took out a pocket watch and nodded rhythmically three times before he spoke.

“Time is up dear, you have failed” He spoke calmly but with some regret in his voice.

“Wait, is this a joke? ... What? What are you talking about?” She could not believe what he said, she had not selected any box yet.

“It is no joke. You ran out of time just then” This time he was more serious.

“Time? There was no time limit, no one said anything about a time limit.” She was outraged and started to rise her tone.

Without showing any emotion he placed his hands behind his back and explained.

“The real test was to see if you dared to make a decision without any information at all. If you find yourself in a situation where is flee or die; what path of the maze that is a city will you take? What is behind each of the doors in a hall, would you choose to just wait to be caught?” He said this in a monotone that made her angrier still.

“That is idiotic, I would have a map of the city or study the guards’ patrols, investigate the hall and rooms in disguise beforehand. That is what should be done you phony noble.” Now she was beginning to shout.

The guards prepared for trouble but the man signalled them to stop.

“You will not always have the luxury of time to investigate or the information at hand. You should be able to trust your gut and make a decision even if it is illogical at first.” He saw Astrid getting angrier so he continued in an attempt to calm her. “The first contestant, the big man opened the box in the middle before I could finish explaining. I didn’t much like that but he passed. The other two ladies selected the wooden box because it felt out of place. I think you were doing the same but noticed the material. You are a smart woman but sadly you are not cut for this. Take her away.” He gave the order without hesitation.

Before he could finish waving his hands the guards were upon her. The first to arrive kicked her behind the knees trying to take her down. She was not prepared and lost her balance, falling to her knees. When she looked around at the guard it was the insolent one from the previous test.

Not able to hold her rage any longer she heated up her chains. She felt a chill though her body and knew that even if it had been just a few seconds it was ready.

With a rapid spin she stood up. Her shackles had melted and the molten metal had sprayed all over the room.

At least five of the eight guards fell to the ground in pain or dying. Almost all of the surfaces of the room had been highly flammable and so the fire started to spread. The noble man was not injured but was stunned, paralysed.

To her right the insolent guard stood unharmed with his mouth opened. Astrid smiled at him and caught him by the wrist when he tried to run.

“Hello, sweetheart. I heard you were going to break my arm and take me away. Am I correct there?” She almost spat the words in anger.

“PLEASE, DON’T KILL ME” He sobbed while trying to pull away.

CRACK

With a sharp turn his arm had shattered in more than two places and he started to scream.

“Don’t worry; I won’t.” She answered softly.

Not wanting to lose any time Astrid began took the man’s sword and ran. The screams should have alerted someone in the building, she needed to go, fast.

Due to her training in the courtyard, she knew there was a place where archers and crossbowmen were lacking; the eastern border against the mountain.

Taking a quick right, she sprinted down the hall; another right and she was looking at the eastern entrance of the state.

“FIRE” she shouted to the two guards stationed at the entrance. “There is a fire near the central hall; Cadem sent me to get as much help as possible.” She called with anguish in her voice; when neither moved she continued with a commanding voice. “What are you waiting for? RUN.”

One of them hesitated a second; not sure if he should head her order, but both men started to run inside.

Without losing time Astrid began her escape. She went directly to the mountain’s edge; there were stairs in the opposite direction but that meant going through a guard post.

She started to climb the cliff’s edge; when they constructed this fortress, they had carved the cliff to make it as smooth as possible so that no invader could get in. It was slow moving but she could make it, the crevices were small but so were her hands and feet.

When she was about to reach the inner wall a sharp, familiar pain crossed her back and made her let go.

Astrid fell the full eight meters, her body screamed in pain as she rolled to avoid any serious injury.

“That was quite the scene you caused back there, chica” Cadem spoke with a colder tone than she had ever heard him.

He stood ready, his hand opened and several of his iron projectiles floating over his palm.

“That test was bullshit; you know I am more than qualified and ready.” She said this as calm as she could while taking out her sword.

“That is not up to us to decide.” He said before he fired the first three rounds at her.

She knew him, she understood what he intended to do. He could have fired the three at the same time but he sends them with a small delay. He wanted her to dodge left so that he could take her down.

She instead moved to the right blocking one of the iron balls with her blade. He was a sharpshooter, if she kept him close, she would have the advantage.

As she closed the distance she felt a pull from her sword, like her blade wanted to go towards Cadem. Astrid looked up in time so see him smile before she took the hit in the back of her left shoulder; she lost balance and fell to her knees. She stood up as fast as she could, it was a nasty hit but there was no fracture.

“Why are you running?” Cadem asked with what sounded like worry in his voice. “Even if you manage to escape from us today you will never be free”

“Better to live running than as a gladiator. I had made my mind and killing as an assassin was fine but killing to entertain. I’m not up for that Cadem.” Her voice cracked a little, she felt fear of the arena and felt betrayed by her friend.

“And what about that, eh?” He pointed at the

explosive in her wrist. “What are you going to…”

Boom

The small explosion cut him off. She had had time to study the bracelet and found out how to break it with almost no damage to herself.

Before he could regain his composure, she attacked. With a single movement using all her strength she used the ridge of the sword to strike his left ear. She wated to avoid cutting or hurting her friend.

Cadem went down, he went to his knees but did not fall back.

He was still conscious but disorientated.

“I am sorry; I truly am” Astrid was crying now.

The sound of footsteps filled the courtyard, at least twenty guards came running filling the space before her.

There was no place to go now.

“STOOOOOP” Brosh’s voice came from the back.

The guards opened up a path to let him though. Astrid didn’t know if they obeyed due to fear or their lady had told them to listen.

“Hello again Astrid-girl” He spoke with enthusiasm. “I am ready for another serios round with you. If I win you go quietly and if you do, then these guys will let you go” There was a stir of murmur that he silenced with a growl.

Cadem was also getting back to his feet, dizzy and unbalanced but he could still take her down while she claimed.

“Fine, it’s just you and me big guy. Don’t you dare go easy on me” She responded with more confidence than she really had.

Brosh stood ready in the same position as he took at the mountain base. It felt like Déjà-vu.

Once more she saw double; this time however, she was prepared for it and dodged to the left. If Brosh did exactly as the double then she could use it to dodge and attack even if she would normally not be able to.

She tried to counter attack with a slash but the double moved to grab her arm. She knew there was no avoiding it so when the real Brosh was about to grab her she let go of the sword with her left hand and continued the attack one handed.

Her blade connected with his neck muscles but didn’t go far in; he had managed to pull her away last second.

With a hand on his neck, he stood straight and gave a laugh. “That was really good, your Oule was stronger. I told you it would flow naturally in a real fight” Brosh was thrilled with the fight and once again assumed a battle stance.

His next attacks were faster, without the double Astrid would have fallen to the first attack. She felt cornered, he was much more aggressive than during any training and she had no time to counter attack or get some distance.

The battle was intense; there was no time at all to concentrate or think. She was not able to muster any amount of heat to attack or Oule to defend herself.

What’s more, he was not exaggerating when he said Oule could make you as strong as steel. Astrid had continually blocked his attacks using her blade and his hands had nothing larger than a papercut.

What she couldn’t really understand was that her anger was going away. She could see the giant in front of her with a smile on her face: enjoying the battle and she couldn’t contain her own smile.

It was absurd, she was in the middle a battle for her life, her freedom; but somehow, she was enjoying herself more than she had done in months. She wanted this to go forever.

After a couple more attacks there was an opening Astrid could not ignore. The opening she had been waiting for. The double made a frantic wide punch that left Brosh vulnerable; knowing she could not win in a battle of endurance she struck.

She used all her might and tried using all her Oule she aimed for his armpit in a thrust. Brosh however was ready and used his other hand to grab and stop the blade before it found its target.

A large amount of blood fell to the ground. For the first time since she met him Brosh was bleeding in earnest. Astrid marvelled at the fact that she could be able to make him bleed but this cost her.

Brosh took advantage of the second she got distracted and delivered a single punch to her gut. Astrid felt as the world vanished, there was no air in her body, no strength to pull some in either.

She fell to her knees and managed to look up one last time to see Brosh give her a wide smiled followed by a laugh before she lost consciousness.

This was the last thing she remembered before she was taken away. Before her life changed once more