When we were finally told that it was alright for us to raise our heads, I looked around to first make sure that other people had already done it.

  Jeanne who was next to me didn’t hesitate one and had already done so, raising herself as if she was getting ready to do some form of a salute.

  I suddenly feel a hand on my shoulder from the opposite side.

  “Do you not feel like it is about time for you to raise yourself?”, a gentle voice whispers next to me.

  I say nothing and just look up at our beautiful priestess. Her beautiful brown locks flow down her azure robes, further highlighting her natural curves. She was truly a marvelous model of what a grown woman should be. She also never lacked at all in the feminine virtues and attitudes. Her kindness, as well as her harshness were always doled out in equal measure and at the correct times and never did she fail to convince others of what the right attitude to take was.

  She was truly a blessed woman.

  I feel it in my heart that she was.

  “You staring off into space again?”, Jeanne rasps at me and raises me up by the shoulder until I am finally standing.

  “Almost everyone has already left. We have our own tasks to get to”.

  Behind me, I can hear Beatrice starting to get a bit impatient and put her hands on my shoulders as she pushes me forward.

  “Aporia, you really need to be faster on the uptake. Being that slow is unbecoming of you, seriously”.

  As we walk down the corridor between the benches and out of the sanctuary, I glance behind towards our priestess one last time.

  She catches my eye and makes the sign with her hand that in for us children of the temple means “may fortune be with you”, before Beatrice’s push forces me to look forward again.

  This has been the fourth time this week alone where I find myself staring at that woman. I can’t seem to explain it, but it is as if I want to commit something about her to memory. Some form of connection that I can’t place which I wish to keep a record of in my mind for the future, but I can’t exactly place what it is about her that makes me stare that often. Her beauty is enviable, sure, but…

  I cringe in frustration.

  I wish that someone among the children here was an aspiring painter or something similar. Maybe they could pinpoint what I was experiencing.

  As we finally made it to the hall, I see Kenos near at the edge of the room. Poor guy, once again, it seems like someone took his cloak from him. Every time that I see him without that highly concealing cloak on, I can tell that his limbs and body frame are looking increasingly skinnier.

  I want to go to him, but I am stopped by Jeanne.

  “Oh no, you aren’t going to go talk to him again. Remember how he glared at you just a few days ago? Why do you keep interacting with that weirdo freak?”

  That was very harsh.

  “I think I…”, I start saying.

  But then Beatrice cuts me off.

  “This little red-head here can only be a masochist”.

  She pokes my cheek with her finger.

  “Either that or she likes him”.

  “No! I…”, yet I once again have to stop, distracted by the fact that that boy once again left the hall.

  “Anyway, he is gone, get back to work. The Madam is waiting for us at the market, isn’t she?”

  I want to protest and stomp my feet, say that I insist on going after him and go and do it.

  I want to, but I can’t help but to not do it and go along with my duties.

  They are right. They are always correct. Well, most of the times. Definitely way more often than me.

  I probably could have helped him.

  I remembered the people who seemed to have the intent steal it written on their faces.

  Maybe just a hunch, but I could have helped him.

  It was no use. In the end, we ended up going to one of the market areas in town, while biting down on the breads stuffed with meat that they gave us for lunch today as we left the temple after our prayers.

  To be more precise, this town, despite its small size, has more than one market place. There is the main central one, of course, but there are several others of small and medium sizes spread all around.

  Me and Beatrice. The two of us have been asked to work the stalls under the tutelage of Madam Sophia. For the most part, I help with the laying out of the wares on the table, try to talk some customers into buying what we have and keep an eye out for burglars just in case. For the most part, I mostly just learn the trade as best I can and commit everything that I can to memory and do some after-work logistics support.

  As for Jeanne, she actually helps out with carrying the crates and providing security around the marketplace. She is pretty well built for a girl. She is also wearing armor now, having switched her attire in the nearby guard post. Boiled leather, nothing too special, but with her fearless attitude and her golden hair tied up in a ponytail, she is definitely a sight to behold.

  She probably could have been an up and coming hero or errand warrior by now if she had just been born a male.

  As for Beatrice, she was already an expert saleswoman. Finding the right words never seemed to be difficulty for her, nor was it persuasion. She just had a way of getting every customer she met, regardless if they were a wealthy businessman or a regular housewife, to buy whatever she wanted them to. Her chestnut hair and enviable figure probably didn’t do her any disfavors either.

  She actually wasn’t working directly under Madam Sophia like me. She had been set up to work for a while now with the Madam’s younger sister, who focused more on textiles while our employer dealt more in things that were made of metal.

  To my right was my aforementioned employer. She was in her mid-forties, with her once fully dark brown hair already starting to show some streaks of gray. Her body had also started to get a bit plumper in the recent months. She could succinctly be described as “harsh but fair”, although she wasn’t impatient with her charges either. She was aware of the need for the younger generation to learn before actually becoming proficient in their duties.

  “Hey! Don’t you want to see she sheen on the edge of these fine swords?! Your woman will thank you when the next bear attack comes around!”, she said, trying to entice a man whose immaculate clothes and obvious retinue made him stand out as someone of noticeable wealth.

  Seemingly not being one to ignore the provocation when it was said so near him, the man, no older than forty, with dark golden hair, gave a retort.

  “Why would I even need something like that? A sword peddled by some wench of a merchant in some small town in Limani? Your words can’t deceive me! Those blades aren’t even from these lands. What could you possibly know about them, truly? Besides, my guards are a match for any bear out there already!”.

  “You are well informed…I am sure you know that the people from which lands these blades hail are proud of their workmanship to a fault. There is a reason why no one has defeated their armies in hundreds of years now.”

  She eyed up the two guards that were now standing side by side with the man.

  “Unfit. A bear would make short work of them and you and your woman would soon follow. Your confidence is misplaced.”.

  One of the guards seemed intent on retorting, but the man stopped him by raising his arm in front of him.

  “So you claim my trust is misplaced, yes? Tell me then, what possible advantage could these men attain against a beast merely by changing their weapons? Do you mean to tell me that your swords can make up for what you perceive to be a significant lack of fighting strength? I doubt your claims.”.

  “Would you care to test one out?”, the madam retorted.

  Unfortunately, I could tell that a crowd was starting to form after we had attracted people’s attention.

  I really didn’t like feeling so many people staring.

  Not flinching in the face of the mob, Madam Sophia once more called the man’s attention towards the three blades on display on the stand, locked to the hardened wood and steel framing by a set of chains with locks.

  Yes, the Madam was that careful with her wares. The most valuable ones at least.

  She said that it made some customers stare, but she knew stares couldn’t be converted into coin and Vastitian steel more definitely could.

  The blades themselves were considerably different from what I was used to seeing. The swords you can usually find in this town were just like the ones the man’s two guards had on their hips. They were slightly shorter than a man’s arm and their edge was keen on both sides. Their guard was also rather small as well.

  The Vastitian blades were a completely different story. They were curved, sharpened on only one side, but with a sheen that couldn’t be imagined on the edge of any regular sword. They were also rather light considering how large the flat of the blade was. That of course spoke to the forging process and the materials used in their making. Their guards were larger too.

  The chains made an audible “Cling!” sound as the Madam unlocked the chains with a set of keys that she had produced from a leather bag that she kept on her person.

  The crowd seemed to hold their breath for a moment, waiting in anticipation for what they thought they were about to witness.

  “Pick one”, the Madam said.

  After hesitating for a couple of seconds, out of the three swords, the blonde man chose the one that was in the middle.

  He held it over his head and eyed it with both interest and suspicion, shifting the angle from which he inspected it by rotating his wrist in the direction of his choosing.

  “How exactly do you wish me to “try it out” as you said? Is looking it all I am allowed to do or do you have any object or piece of armor that you want my men to swing at?”

  “I don’t actually.”

  “Really then, how am I supposed to properly…”

  “You are free to swing it at your guard’s sword”

  “Excuse me?”, he asked, perplexed. Surely this merchant isn’t telling me that to swing a brand new sword against another blade, his face seemed to say.

  “If you are worried about it getting chipped, don’t be. The risk is on the house. You have all these witnesses to vouch for you if you think I will try to demand something of you if the blade is damaged. I won’t.”, she said, placing her knuckles on her cheek, in a gesture that showcased as much boredom as it did amusement.

  Getting past his initial surprise, the man straightened his posture and steadied his tone once again.

  “Well then…Nathaniel, take it and…”

  “Oh no, no, no…”, the Madam chimed in. “I didn’t mean that he could swing it. I want you to test it out yourself. Just give it a big old swing”

  The man was again surprised. Surprised enough that he paused for a couple of seconds with his mouth partially opened staring at the Madam. Then he looked at the sword in his hand. He then looked back at his guard and to the crowd before ultimately saying “Well…Nathaniel? Take out your sword already!”

  The guard did as he was told firmly gripped the handle of his ordinary looking blade, while his employer took a rather amateurish two handed grip.

  You could tell that the blonde man was still hesitating. “What was even the point of swinging a sword against a sword just as a test? Surely there are more logical ways to do this”, he was probably thinking. Normally this would be correct, but the other half of his mind was likely telling him to verify if the stories about these blades were indeed genuine.

  Having finally steeled himself, the man winded back and swung down with gusto.

  The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

  There was barely even a sound.

  The guard’s blade wasn’t just scratched. It wasn’t chipped. It wasn’t broken. It was outright severed.

  The upper half didn’t fly through the air. It simply fell to the ground like a heavy leaf during a cold season.

  The crowd audibly gasped and the blonde wealthy man was dumbfounded. He looked as if he didn’t believe his own eyes.

  “So, is it to your liking?”, the Madam asked?

  “How m…”

  “How much?!”

  The man’s obvious question was interrupted by several people from the crowd stepping in front of him and trying get face to face with Madam.

  In short order, a small fight broke out, with various individuals bartering and trying to step over each other.

  The market’s security had to get involved at one point, since they needed to make sure that nothing was stolen during the confusion and that no one was roughed up.

  Jeanne got in between some merchant and me and even had to punch him in the gut when he wouldn’t relent in his aggressive style of bartering.

  The entire situation was definitely having an impact on my nerves and was causing me a lot of anxiety. A couple of times, I started to feel as if I was going to have difficulty breathing just from standing in the middle of all this.

  Shamefully, even as a Vermillion, I was really scared. Out of nowhere, someone might pull a knife and hurt someone else or even me.

  My eyes kept darting everywhere, from the Madam to the swords and the items on the stall to Jeanne and the people around me.

  Out of the corner of my eye, I spied Axios shadowing the blonde man that was still holding the Vastitian blade. His own already imposing frame was further highlighted by the rank and file armor that he had on him. Despite its lack of outstanding features, it marked him as an authority figure who was free to use force if he felt that the situation demanded it and knowing him, his demeanor had probably told the man and his guards that said force wouldn’t be limited to what was strictly necessary.

  “Everyone shut up or I am swallowing the keys for these damned swords!”, Madam Sophia shouted, at the top of her lungs.

  The shouting and the pushing eventually calmed down after that.

  The blonde man that the Madam had incited to begin with ended up buying the sword that he hadn’t let go of since the whole altercation started.

  It had of course cost him quite a lot.

  The same could be said for the two other men that had managed to show us the coin necessary for buying the other two. The second man seemed to be some sort of sellsword and the third some kind of representative for a noble clan from the capital of Praelia.

  Sufficed to say that we made more than a small fortune this day and as soon as it was done, we decided to pack up and leave early.

  Because this sort of sale would start spreading rumors and this amount of coin needed to be properly safeguarded, the captain of the guard himself and his entourage came down upon the request of the market place’s organizers, in order to safeguard Madam Sofia as she took today’s prizes into the local safehouse.

  And obviously, I was made to walk alongside her as I helped to pull the cart that had the contents of our stall, as well as the stall itself.

  Thought to be fair, “helping to pull” was merely a nice gesture on my part. There was no actual need for me to do it.

  Axios had been asked by his captain to do it and as you would expect, it wasn’t a big effort for someone like him.

  Walking next to me was Jeanne, now with a small cut on her upper lip. Something must have hit her when I wasn’t paying attention.

  In front of me, Madam Sophia kept chatting with the captain and his initial entourage, while the three of us in the back had been left by ourselves to wallow in silence was merely follow them.

  Taking the lead as usual, Jeanne spoke up to break the silence.

  “Well that was thrilling…were you expecting this to happen when we first came down to work, Aporia?”, she said, in a slightly irritated tone.

  Meekly, I reply “No, I swear I didn’t! Madam Sophia didn’t even mention any special products coming in or anything.”

  I pause for a couple of seconds.

  “Sorry that you got hurt.”

  “Don’t sweat it. It will heal soon enough. Someone just sneaked up on me in the commotion is all.”

  “Though, you looked like you were about to collapse where you stood. You really need to get a hold of that anxiety of yours. Aren’t Vermillions supposed to be tough? Shouldn’t you be at least as strong as me at your age?”

  “I…well, I…”

  I try to get some good argument in or at least explaining what went through my head during that scuffle, but nothing seems to come out.

  “In a couple of years, you will probably be strong enough to lift a grown man off his feet with one hand, or at least you should be. Everyone else with that hair is. Freezing up when a fight breaks out isn’t going to do you any favors”.

  “Yes, I know, but…”

  “Even your muscles aren’t made of iron. You can get cut or worse”.

  “Allright, just st…”

  “What are you going to do the next time that something like this happens? Your boss made a commotion asking that rich guy how he would protect his wife, but you deserve that remark just as much. What if your boss had gotten hurt while you were paralyzed?”

  “I seriously worry for you Aporia, this is exactly why I keep saying that you have to…”

  “Just stop whining already.”, says Axios butting in on our conversation.

  “Hu? You got a problem?”, Jeanne replies, seemingly irritated.

  “Your tone is hurting my ears and you are using it for stupid chitchat to boot. Just shut up.”

  “If she is weak, she is weak. Stop complaining about it and train her or move on and stop mouthing off.”, he adds.

  Oh God Axios, why are you always like this?

  Like usual, the two started arguing. I look at the people in front and while they notice it, they don’t seem to care since they aren’t shouting as we make our way through various streets towards our destination near the town center.

  This guy is such a piece of work. Every time I see him or hear about him, there is always some confrontation involved.

  I look at the recent bruises and marks on his face. I heard that he laid out three Vermilions from our temple the other day. That is definitely something I couldn’t imagine anyone else I know being able to pull off. Though, to be fair, I was told that he didn’t start it that time either. One of the girls made a passing remark about him within earshot of her boyfriend and his companion and they started provoking him. By the end of it, even the girl that was the cause ended up being smacked around when she tried to take part in the fight.

  My eyes drop down to the light turquoise scarf on his neck. It seems that he keeps insisting on wearing that everywhere. It definitely looks weird when worn over his city guard armor like that. I noticed that it had some strange blood splatters and other signs of dirt on it. Did he get thrown into the ground during that fight?

  I sigh as they keep bickering.

  Still, I had to admit that he had a level of courage (or recklessness) that I couldn’t hope to match, nor could Jeanne for that matter, despite that arguably being her own greatest strength. Putting himself forward to keep someone with a Vastitian blade and two other armed guards in check was nothing short of heroic. Sure Axios had his own sword, but if we are being realistic considering what we witnessed during the demonstration, no amount of armor would have saved him if things went wrong. If the man with the sword had the mind to run away with the sword, which I could see that he was seriously considering the few times I managed to look at his face, Axios would have been dead. Thankfully, this boy’s sheer ability to intimidate others with his body and demeanor and the man’s common sense stopped a tragedy from unfolding.

  Regardless, this recklessness that they share is probably going to make their arguments escalate like usual. I can already see it getting close to its boiling point after just a few moments of exchanging words.

  “Shouldn’t you care more about her? She won’t get this lucky next time!”, she argues.

  “None of my business, not your business either, or do you want to make it your business, or anyone else’s business?!”, he counters.

  If memory serves, in the next three or four exchanges, they will probably start to get physical at worse or be so loud that their superiors will notice and chew them out later at best.

  Why does this keep happening?

  As I find myself fidgeting with my fingers, I realize that I need to harden myself and step in between the two before they get past the point of no return.

  Summoning the courage to put my foot down on my friends, I take a deep breath to get ready.

  Inhale

  “Hey guys, I hear you. I am fine, really. I will take your advise and work on myself as soon as possible.”

  The trembling in my voice aside, I manage to be loud enough to get their attention for a moment, as they both pause and look at me for a second.

  “You keep talking the talk but you have been closest to her than anyone else. Why haven’t you walked the walk?”, he continues.

  “Oh, you are just trying to pick an actual fight with me aren’t you?”, she retorts

  “You keep evading the question and your role in all of this, so we both already have our answer”, he says, through barely contained contempt.

  …Right before they resume arguing…

  This is getting really bad. Got to change the topic outright and quick.

  I got it!

  “Damn, those blades were impressive, weren’t they? Do you guys know anything about Vastitias? That is the place where the swords came from according to what the Madam told me.”, I said, loud enough to get their attention.

  “No idea, but if they make swords like those, I don’t want to go there. Too easy to get killed.”, said Jeanne.

  “It is pretty hot and dry and the people there take personal grudges and interests to a level beyond what you would see in a capital.”, replied Axios.

  Stunned, both us girls start staring at him as if he had just grown a third eye on his head.

  At the exact same time, we felt the earth shake again. Not too roughly nor for longer than the usual few seconds, but enough to knock the feelings of dumbfounded surprise off of us.

  “Do you come from there Axios? That is some pretty inside knowledge.”, I say.

  After looking downwards for a few moments, he replies, glaring at me through his golden bangs: “Do I look like my skin has been baked under the sun? Of course I never lived there. I just passed by that country a few years before we met.”

  “And you survived? I heard that a lot of people that went there died very quickly. The terrain is supposed to be unforgiving and the heat could practically burn you to ashes where you stood unless you were native born.”, I question.

  He doesn’t seem to take kindly to the question for some reason.

  “Look Aporia, I will say it just once so that you don’t go around being ignorant of the facts. Yes that can happen. In fact, I have seen it happen. But you just got to wear the correct protective clothing that they also happen to make and export and you won’t have much of an issue.”, he spits out.

  After a short pause, he actually surprises me by continuing the conversation.

  “Haven’t you looked around in the market stalls that sell textiles? Beatrice can tell you about those. They are made of Jade String and Alabastar Twine. The Jade String protects from the raw heat and the scorching sun and Alabaster Twine is mined from local refineries and boiled for seven days and nights. In order to perform its role at being able to prevent wearers from Aether poisoning, since that is actually the thing that kills you there for the most part, it needs to be then subjected to…“

  Whistle.

  “Ain’t that surprising? You are far more well informed than I thought.”, Jeanne says.

  She continues.

  “Turns out that there is more to this guy than just some decent looks, shit luck and a bad attitude, huh Aporia?”

  Oh God, why did she shift the attention to me after just saying that?!

  He glared daggers at her for a couple of seconds, but surprisingly enough, after shifting his attention and getting a look at me, he just sighed, seemingly losing all interest in continuing arguing.

  “Whatever, this is a waste of energy. We are both going to get scolded for insubordination already over this fruitless argument. Let’s all shut up already, we are already here anyway.”

  He was right. The guards that were going in front of us had just stopped in front of a building at least three times larger than a normal house, with an iron spiked fence, a large gate and even iron bars on the windows, not to mention a retinue of guards to boot. Heck, even the ceiling looked reinforced somehow, since the tiles had a metallic sheen to them, unlike most tiles that just look made of brown stone.

  Me and the Madam were bidden to walk on in and Axios was asked to hand the cart over to one of the guards from the safehouse.

  Jeanne quickly waved me goodbye before forming up together with the rest of the unit and going somewhere else. Probably returning to the market place that we left a while ago.

  The inside of the house was relatively barren except for a few more guards, some colored rugs on the floor, the banners of both Limani and Praelia hanging on the walls and some eight desks where people were busy counting coin by hand, signing papers or both.

  With a quick glance, I could tell that a few of the contracts being ironed out and signed actually had bigger piles of coins on the line than the haul we managed to bring in today.

  Me and the Madam both walked up to an aging man that was working on a desk at the back of the hall. His desk in particular was inside a type of iron cage.

  “Good day to you Claudius”, said the Madam.

  The man looked up from his papers with a smile on his lips.

  “Well, well Sophia. We haven’t seen you around here for more than a few months now. How have you been? I hope your health remains as good as ever.”

  Then he turned to look at me.

  “Well, if it isn’t little Aporia! You have been growing well I see. How long since I first saw you now? Two years I believe.”

  Then he once again directed his attention at the Madam.

  “Well then Sophia, what will it be today? Do you want help with a contract? A loan? A deposit perhaps?”

  “The last option, you old miser”, she said, with a friendly smile and a chuckle, as she pulled a pouch clearly filled with coins from her bag.

  The man’s eyes lit up at the sight.

  “Very good, very good. It makes things so much easier for us if it is. Good for you too of course.”, he said, as he accepted the bag from her through the iron bars.

  He put his previous papers aside and pulled out a devise that was essentially a cylindrical metal cage attached to base with a vertical bar with several markings on it. He carefully emptied the bag’s content into the cage until the weight of it made it hit the base and the bottom before the bag’s full contents had been fully emptied. He then dutifully pulled out a bag of his own from somewhere behind his desk and put all the coins in the contraption inside this new bag. After sealing it, he repeated the process and the cage this time only fell until it stopped short of the midpoint.

  As the aging man was making some calculations on a sheet of paper, I must have been making some sort of a face, because I could feel my muscles contract a bit and the Madam even had to point it out to me.

  “Hey Aporia, is anything the matter?”

  “I…I don’t think so, necessarily, but unless I haven’t properly understood how the measuring done by the Scales of Trust works or I am making the calculations wrong, then there should be some coins missing from that pile.”

  I continued my train of thought.

  “We sold the first sword for forty gold coins. The second one as well, but the last one we sold to that nobleman went for fifty five gold coins, since you felt that the demand got higher since it was the last one and the man was connected to royalty to boot, so he could pay the price. That makes one hundred and thirty five gold coins. A gold coin weights three times as much of an iron coin, so the Scales shouldn’t have recorded a combined value of three hundred and sixty weight units, but rather something closer to four hundred and five weight units.”

  “I am sorry Madam, it is probably just my imagination or I made a mistake somewhere, my apologies.”

  At that, Madam Sophia chuckled a little bit.

  “See Claudius? And you had been worried that I hadn’t been teaching her properly, I bet.”

  Then she reached out and put twelve extra coins on the man’s table.

  “I was planning on keeping a few just for personal expenses, but this little imp here caught me. Bah! Just take the whole pot already.”, she complained, as she pinched my cheek a bit.

  “I think there are still three coins missing though. Ouch!”

  “Yes, yes, you sassy little goblin. Those are for the personal expenses that I just mentioned.”

  Claudius finally spoke up, organizing his fingers in a triangular fashion as they rested on the table and a pleased smile on his face.

  “I can certainly see now why she seems to have taken a liking to you. I am most impressed and yes, I was worried that you weren’t being taught anything besides the basics of bartering and street commerce, but my fears have been shown to be misplaced. If you ever feel like the market life is getting too hectic, you have my blessing to apply to work here if you wish.”

  “Yes, yes, your kindness warms both of our hearts but don’t go trying to steal my apprentice right in front of my face, you bold faced scrooge!”

  “As you wish. I trust that now everything you wish to deposit is in order? Allow me just to finish the paperwork and then we may proceed to the vaults.”

  Having put the coins back in the original bags that we brought, he also finished writing down the values for the correct deposit and stashed the paper into an envelope.

  He opened the door to the cage inside of which he worked and came out of it to our right and called for two guards to accompany us.

  He produced a large sturdy bronze colored key and opened a heavy a thick door made of some form of polished metal and we found ourselves going down stone steps that lead down into a tunnel.

  I wonder if this was recent or if it used to be some abandoned mine. I could tell from the support columns that this wasn’t the remains of some old building. The walls would probably have been solid polished stone otherwise.

  We walked for a few minutes, first in front, then taking two lefts and a right until we came upon a door that was built into the stone itself. I could tell that it had the Madam’s name engraved on the side.

  Sophia Calimeris.

  Claudius proceeded to use his own torch to light up the ones surrounding the Madam’s vault.

  “Here you go. You know how this goes you are the only ones allowed to go in there and put your coin in. Me and the guards will remain outside.”

  Having paused for a moment, the Madam then turned to him.

  “Would you mind if I put something else in there for safe keeping?”, she said, as she produced a black box with a lock from her bag.

  “I wish you had told me sooner, but I don’t see an issue. I will just add a note in the papers saying that you left a personal package as well.”

  “Thank you Claudius.”

  After that she entered her vault and gestured me to come inside as well.

  Inside, there were some creates that I could tell from the cracks in them that they were filled with coins. In addition, there was stone table in the middle of the room with some boxes on it and a candle in the middle.

  We still had light from the torches outside, but the Madam picked up a sort of iron stick that I didn’t recognize and it produced a small flame. She then used it to light up the candle on the table.

  She put down the black box on an empty part of the solid stone table and then turned to me with a disappointed and annoyed expression.

  “You really aren’t even going show any interest in what this is?”, she sighed.

  “You really need to be more lively or all the other girls will steal all the nice boys right from under your nose.”

  I couldn’t muster a reply. In fact, I felt the heat go to my ears a bit despite the cold atmosphere inside these stone walls.

  She kept teasing me. “That Jeanne will probably keep getting under the Axios boy’s skin until he gets on top of her and ooooohhhhheeeee! Then the sparks will really fly! Even annoyance is a better relationship starter for boys than indifference. You seem to care about him, but you definitely can’t get any emotion out of him like she can.”

  I could only feel more heat rushing not just to my ears, but now also my face.

  She once again sighed.

  “You are completely hopeless sometimes, you know that Aporia? You need to actually learn to how to emote and show interest in anything that aren’t logical problems. Even some displays of curiosity would do you good.”

  “Ok, ok, fine, fine!”, I snapped at her.

  “If you want to tell me about it that much, then I will ask. What is in that box?”

  Her expression actually lit up with joy.

  After that she told me what it was and that someone was supposed to come pick it up soon.

  “People are so futile, seriously. They have something like this right in front of them in a box and of course they choose to go for a set of shiny swords that can cut really well. Talk about a lack of perspective.”

  I could only agree. Assuming she wasn’t just spouting fairy tales and rumors from delusional men, something like this, if the circumstances were just right, could be enough to change the current balance of power between warring factions or even warring countries in extreme cases.

  I once more look at the stone table where the box is. Seeing it now after having heard that, the curiosity that she had asked me to showcase more is definitely starting to rear its head. I can’t help but want to see what is inside and commit it to memory. However, the more I focus on it, the more I have the feeling that it is actually something that I shouldn’t touch or get involved with.

  It is a feeling that actually kind of scares me. A compulsion to both open it and use it and but also to get as far away from it as I could.

  It made the hair on the back of my head stand and my heart beat faster.

  “Well, now you know. I am really hoping that this deal goes through without any issues so that I can get enough to hopefully retire for good, when put together with the rest of the savings you see here.”

  “Anyway lets talk about that Axios boy.”, she said.

  “Wait, weren’t you just saying to Claudius just a while ago that you were going to keep on training me? What happened to that?”

  “Oh, that? Of course I am going to finish teaching you everything you need to know. I will also slowly start introducing you to more and more regulars and you will be talking with my regular suppliers in person soon enough. You are supposed to take over after I retire, after all.”

  “Really? You would go through all that trouble just for me? Even though you just said you could stop and drop everything overnight?”

  “Of course! I made a promise to you when I took you under my tutelage. I also can’t just leave my regulars up to dry! I promised them a worthy successor and I owe this to them especially when I finally found someone good! Reputations are important even after retiring!”

  I couldn’t help but to blush a little at that.

  Then something unexpected happened.

  Madam Sophia closed the gap between the two of us and embraced me in a warm and gentle hug.

  “Besides, you are important to me Aporia. I love you no less than I did my own daughters. I swear I will never let you to fend for yourself if it is in my power to do anything about it.”

  After that, she hugged me even tighter and kissed me gently on the forehead.

  For a while I couldn’t say anything, too overwhelmed by her display of emotion and commitment.

  But then I managed to utter something, because I kept noticing something out of the ordinary about all of this.

  “Are you feeling alright Madam? You are really surprising me with all this forthcomingness. Not that I don’t enjoy it, but I think this is a first for the both of us.”

  She pulled backwards a bit and blinked a couple of times, looking perplexed.

  “Ah, yes, of course. Sorry if that was too much too quickly.”, she kissed me on the forehead again. “I did mean everything I said though, honest.”

  “Now how about that Axios boy we were just about to discuss?”

  “Madam, I think we should leave. Mr. Claudius must be getting sick of waiting for us down the hall. He needs to get back to his desk.”

  She made a face as if she had just eaten something sour and soon after shot her eyelids up in surprise.

  “Oh gosh! You are right! Claudius is going to charge me extra on the next withdrawal fee if we don’t go now!”

  With that matter settled, we put out the candle and mustered the strength to close the heavy metal door.

  I took one last look at the box on the table in the center of the room.