Valkyrie's Shadow

Chapter 10

Three figures stood facing one another in a lonely grove northwest of E-Rantel. Having come straight from Warden’s Vale, Ilyshn’ish’s arrival at the Adventurer Training Area was perhaps a bit too early, and it wasn’t until an hour later that the rest of her party arrived. Resolving herself to face whatever horrors came, she broke the silence between them with an energetic greeting.

“My name is Shiver – a Bard. I, uh, had some trouble with my previous trial, but I hope to qualify for Copper this time around. There are many things about Adventuring that I’m unfamiliar with, but I have some confidence in my body. I’d appreciate more direct methods of instruction – I won’t even mind a bit of abuse!”

Ilyshn’ish folded her hands over her lap and bowed. The other female in the party clicked her tongue. The third member, a young Human male, blushed furiously. His hazel eyes kept roaming over Ilyshn’ish’s figure; his lips worked to offer a reply.

“Alice,” the woman introduced herself. “Fighter. Maybe you would have done better on your last trial if you weren’t so focused on trying to seduce your party, eh?”

How did she come to that conclusion? Ilyshn’ish had never encountered the woman before.

“H-hey,” the man said, “maybe we shouldn’t start out by picking a fight. I’m Richard – Fighter.”

Richard held out his big hands in a placating gesture. Alice’s blue-eyed expression darkened. She unclasped a buckler from her belt and drew her rapier.

“Whatever,” she snorted. “Let’s just get this over with. You – ‘Shiver’ – stand in the back like a good little Bard and let us Fighters do the work. You do have some Spellsongs, right? Or did you spend everything you had on that outrageous outfit?”

Why was she being so hostile? Ilyshn’ish had done nothing to provoke her. Her proposal felt satisfactory, however: letting others do the work while she stood safely in the back was a cosy arrangement.

“I have a healing song,” she offered. “Will that work?”

“Well, at least you’re not entirely dead weight,” Alice replied. “But I’m serious about you staying in the back. My party failed the last trial because our Bard thought he was hot shit and got himself stung through the gut by a Giant Wasp.”

“O-okie…”

Ilyshn’ish considered telling Alice that a Giant Wasp couldn’t even scratch her. In the end, she decided to just keep quiet. Something told her that things would deteriorate no matter what she said.

“Hey!” Alice said from the Training Area entrance, “What are you two dawdling for?”

They followed Alice inside. Ilyshn’ish gave Richard a sidelong glance.

“You don’t use a sword?”

“Kinda strange, huh,” he replied sheepishly. “Sticks were cheaper to practice with, and the levy made us use spears anyway. Guess this is just how things turned out.”

He hefted a two-metre-long quarterstaff, giving it an experimental swing. His choice made sense to Ilyshn'ish: Humans were small and fragile so they needed all the reach they could get in a fight. Why most insisted on using longswords at best was beyond her.

They stopped in front of a corridor on the first floor. A sign marked with the number ‘3’ hung overhead. Alice stormed straight in, her short bob of sandy blonde hair bouncing with every step. Richard picked up his pace.

Their training course appeared to mimic a Dwarven aqueduct…or was it a Human sewer? The sound of flowing water echoed off of the stone walls, and Alice’s loud advance only added to the clamour.

“W-what’s the big rush?” Richard called out after her, “There’s no time limit or anything. You’re gonna get us in trouble, Alice!”

“The last time was easy,” she replied with a pointed glance in Ilyshn’ish’s direction. “We would’ve passed if it wasn’t for that damn Bard screwing us over. Just keep up and help me kill everything.”

“I-is that the goal?” Ilyshn’ish asked, “Kill everything? I thought we were just supposed to make it to the end.”

Ilyshn’ish’s initial plan was to shroud them all with a spellsong of invisibility. No matter what icky things awaited them, they could just walk through without being challenged.

“Less talking,” Alice answered with a growl, “more singing. Let the Fighters do the fighting.”

Ilyshn’ish sighed, deciding upon a Dwarven song of the hearth. The slow, warm medley filled the air – an invitation to rest and relax after a long and satisfying day of toil.

“Woah,” Richard breathed. “I’ve never heard anything like that before.”

“It’s a Dwarf song,” Ilyshn’ish replied, “but it should suit our needs, yes?”

She resumed her song before its effects lapsed. After learning how to render Dancer forms, she marvelled over how inconvenient singing could be when you were doing other things.

Around the opening corner, they encountered their first opponent. Ilyshn’ish breathed a sigh of relief – it wasn’t one of those horrible bugs that made the rustling noises. Alice rushed forward with a shout, skewering the Giant Rat before it could react. The vanquished rodent dissipated into motes of mana.

“See,” Alice flicked her blade, “easy, right?”

Beside her, Richard frowned, but Alice was too preoccupied with her advance to notice.

“She killed it,” Ilyshn'ish said after Alice vanished down the path and around another corner. “What’s there to frown over?”

“…nothing I guess. Old training, maybe. Maybe she’s like that ‘cuz she’s a girl.”

“What does that mean?” Ilyshn’ish asked.

Richard froze, looking like he had just tasted something unappetizing. Ilyshn’ish leaned closer with a curious expression.

“T-that’s, uh, we’re raised different is all,” he stammered. “Women never got sent off to war. The village men that survived the yearly skirmish with the Empire would always drill the same stuff into us. Stay in formation – shoulder to shoulder, weapons straight out. Hold the line. Jumping out like some hero will just get you skewered by an Imperial Knight. Running’ll get everyone killed, and no one wants to die.”

“You fought at Katze Plains?”

“No,” he shook his head. “I was thirteen last winter. I’m a third son, so I’d have gone this year for sure…‘cept that all this happened, of course. Since I had this training I figured I’d give Adventuring a shot. Girls like Alice, though – she probably has her head filled with stories of Blue Rose and other powerful women that became Adventurers. Headstrong and out to prove herself: the exact thing they beat out of you in levy training.”

“Hey!” Alice’s shout echoed up the corridor, “Where the hell are you two? Stop flirting and help me out!”

Richard gave Ilyshn’ish a helpless look before jogging off. The second fight left Alice with a number of scratches. Though Ilyshn’ish’s Spellsong restored her to nominal condition in short order, the female Fighter still glared daggers at her before heading off again.

It was a process that repeated itself over and again. Alice would run off, start a fight without the rest of the party, then glare at Ilyshn’ish while she slowly healed. By the time they made it to the goal, Ilyshn’ish felt glad to be rid of her.

“We need to report to the main office now, I think,” Richard said.

“Why?” Ilyshn’ish asked.

“I think that’s what the receptionist ladies said,” Richard said. “The proctor in charge of our trial will review things with us.”

Ilyshn’ish looked around to see if Alice knew anything about that, but the woman was already headed out of the Training Area. They made their way to the central district, where their proctor awaited them on the third floor of the Adventurer Guild head office. Ilyshn’ish stopped at the door when she realized who it was.

“Please come in,” Lady Zahradnik said. “This shouldn’t take long.”

They lined up solemnly in front of her desk. Alice gave the Baroness an appraising look, Ilyshn’ish pointedly avoided looking at her, and Richard was divided between doing one or the other.

“First of all,” Lady Zahradnik said, “I’d like to congratulate you on qualifying for your Copper tags. You’ll have to forgive the haphazard nature of our groupings, but new Adventurer candidates don’t grow on trees and it wouldn’t be appropriate to have you wait for too long.”

Ilyshn’ish and Richard breathed sighs of relief. Lady Zahradnik’s gaze crossed over the three of them.

“There isn’t much to say considering the simplicity of the trial, but there is at least one point of concern that I must address.”

Her gaze settled on Alice, who returned it with a hard look.

“According to your file,” Lady Zahradnik said, “you have a Talent, yes?”

“I do,” Alice replied. “I can move twenty metres without any physical exertion every five minutes.”

A hint of pride entered the woman’s voice. Lady Zahradnik nodded.

“It’s a useful Talent for many situations. Is this also the reason why you kept running ahead?”

“When else would I get to use it?”

“Have you considered that you are not required to use it at all?” Lady Zahradnik asked, “Your behaviour during the trial was both reckless and unwarranted. Richard recommended a more reasonable pace from the beginning, and there was no indication that you would be pressed for time.”

“T-that’s not my fault,” Alice answered defensively. “It’s theirs for not keeping up!”

“I wonder if enemies will accommodate your reasoning if you find yourself alone and surrounded out there,” Lady Zahradnik’s hand waved out over her head. “I have a little place bordering the wildlands: shall we find out?”

Alice fell silent, but her smouldering resentment was tangible.

“An Adventurer party is a team,” Lady Zahradnik told her. “I have no qualms with your personal combat ability, and you have the sort of aggression that’s suitable for a vanguard. However, antagonizing your party members and treating them like tagalongs will not help you advance in the future. You will run into problems by Silver if you can’t learn to properly communicate and work together.”

Alice was left to stew, and the Baroness’ gaze shifted over to Richard.

“You appear to have a good head on your shoulders, so far,” she told him. “If you’re to lead, however, you must firmly establish your role in the eyes of your party. Adventurers are quite prideful, after all. Also, I look forward to having another polearm user in the guild.”

“You use the same weapon?”

“I was trained in the spear,” Lady Zahradnik replied. “I use something else now, but many of the fundamentals are the same. I’m sure you’ll find yourself training under me sooner or later.”

Richard drew himself up.

“I look forward to it, miss.”

Lady Zahradnik reached into her desk drawer and placed three Copper tags before them.

“Once again, congratulations,” she told them. “You may take your tags and sign up for further training at the guild reception. You’ll be working with full parties from this point forward, so ready yourselves for what that entails.”

Alice snatched her tag from the desk. Richard reached out to take his, wordlessly bobbing his head before heading out the door. As Ilyshn’ish stretched out a hand for hers, Lady Zahradnik spoke.

“I’d like to speak with you in private, Shiver.”

Ilyshn’ish swallowed. What did she want?

“That damn snobby Noble!” Alice’s fuming sounded from down the hall, “Mithril, my ass! I bet she’s never fought a thing in her life.”

Silence hung between them until the sound of the main door slamming shut reverberated up the stairwell.

“You did well, Shiver,” Lady Zahradnik smiled.

“I-I did? But I just followed them around and got yelled at.”

“Well, you did make quite the salacious introduction. I understood what you meant, but most Humans would not. Don’t be introducing yourself in the Empire like that, or you’ll be igniting conflicts wherever you go."

“…will that really happen?”

“It’s not a given,” the Baroness admitted, “but you do have an aura of supernatural charisma. Even if you’re not actively weaving Spellsongs or purposely wielding your abilities, you need to be aware of how it can still passively affect those around you. You’ll be leaving a trail of amorous suitors and jealous wives in your wake, otherwise. It’s not a reputation befitting one of my Knights.”

Ilyshn’ish knew that she could turn interactions in her favour with little effort, but it had always been a transient thing. Getting bits of information out of people or gaining an edge while haggling was one thing; what Lady Zahradnik suggested she could do was another.

“Now,” Lady Zahradnik said, “on to the main topic. Are you free this afternoon?”

“I have Lady Wagner’s training in the evening, but before that, yes.”

“Good. We’re short a member to start an Iron-rank trial early this afternoon. After that, we can have you fill out a different party for a Silver rank trial.”

“Do you think I can pass?”

Lady Zahradnik smirked.

“Failure would require a catastrophe of your own making,” she said. “All you have to do is the same thing as before. The effects of a healing song lighten the burden on party resources considerably. In fact, I’d rather you do that – if you start punching your way through everything, it will be difficult to gauge the progress of the other examinees.”

“What if something bad happens to the party?”

“Then I suppose you’re punching your way through. I highly doubt it will happen, however. The Guild’s regimen has become far more robust over the past few months. It’s to the point that Lord Mare is once again considering an increase in difficulty to match our rank standards.”

“Let’s give it a try,” Ilyshn’ish decided. “The sooner my pay goes up, the better.”

The Baroness raised an eyebrow.

“Is that the entire reason why you wanted to do this?”

“L-Lady Shalltear ordered me to join!” Ilyshn’ish replied, “I may as well make the best of it.”

“I hope one day you’ll understand that there are more important things than treasure.”

Of course there was something more important than treasure: herself. Her treasures came second, and anything else was a distant third by comparison.

Ilyshn’ish left the head office, heading back out to register with Ishpen in the plaza branch. The receptionist had a smug look: as if everything was going according to her plans.

“We’ll have our first new Adamantite by the end of the week,” she said, “but I still haven’t figured out how to use you for advertising.”

“You planned on using me this entire time?”

“Of course!” Ishpen swept out her arms in what she probably thought was a graceful gesture, “You’ll draw people like ants to honey. The beautiful Adamantite Dancer…hm, we need to figure out a good name for ya.”

What was wrong with ‘Shiver’? She thought it was well suited to her.

“You’re getting ahead of yourself,” Wina said from the side. “I can’t help but think something will go wrong now.”

“Psh, nonsense,” Ishpen waved a hand dismissively, “She’s already in the Realm of Heroes. Any trials until Adamantite will be instantly crushed.”

“Unless they fill it with bugs.”

Ilyshn’ish shuddered, and Ishpen shot Wina a look.

“Anyway,” she said, “the party members in the queue are all training or studying in the city. You should be able to get started soon, so head on over.”

The Iron-rank trial went off without a hitch, as did the one for Silver. As evening approached, she found herself alone with Lady Zahradnik again.

“Is Adventuring really this easy?” Ilyshn’ish asked, “I just followed people around weaving the same Spellsong. They didn’t even seem to mind that I was doing next to nothing – actually, they were more interested in what other pieces I could perform, but that had nothing to do with the trial.”

“Your expectations are a bit skewed,” Lady Zahradnik said. “I would venture to guess that it’s rare for the party’s Bard to also be a Dragon. In addition, the value of a Bard to an Adventuring party extends beyond matters of combat. They are more often than not the member most suited for negotiations, background research, procurement and public relations. Traditionally, Adventurers spend the vast majority of their time outside of combat, so you could say that a Bard does far more work than the rest of their party.”

“But the Sorcerous Kingdom’s Adventurer Guild doesn’t work that way anymore,” Ilyshn’ish pointed out. “It just sounds like a whole lot of training if the chatter from the parties I’ve been in is to be believed.”

“Entrenched expectations do not easily change,” Lady Zahradnik said. "Also, what you’ve been hearing is due to how our training regimen works early on. Adventurer parties begin to stabilize at Silver, so we try to get our members there as quickly as possible. After that, more time is put towards the study and development of spells, Martial Arts and Skills. You’ll have a broader taste of a Bard’s responsibilities when you start preparing for expeditions.”

“Does that mean I have to stop and ‘study’ as well?” Ilyshn’ish asked.

“Only if you’d like to,” Lady Zahradnik answered. “The Guild is just as keen on having you reach Adamantite for the publicity.”

“T-then, I’d rather do that instead. I can always study later, but I’d be missing out on earnings if I loiter around at lower ranks.”

Lady Zahradnik snorted, shaking her head with a rueful smile. She reached into a desk drawer to pull out a clipboard.

“Diplomat slots are almost always what holds up training sessions,” Lady Zahradnik said as she flipped through the pages. “You can probably continue advancing as long as exams are being run. Hm...what sort of schedule did Countess Wagner come up with for you?”

She showed the Baroness her new, yet nearly identical schedule.

“You’re at the dojo tomorrow, so we can set up a Gold-rank examination in two days. I’m not sure if there are enough for Platinum after that...maybe something can be arranged.”

“There aren’t enough people?”

“The majority of our Gold-ranks are on the Feoh Teiwaz expedition right now,” Lady Zahradnik told her. “Those sitting out are mostly Rangers that were on the Azerlisia survey expedition. While I have a fair idea of how they would be able to pass, that sort of group won’t meet examination standards.”

“I see…well, anything is better than nothing. I’ll go as far as I can.”

“Because the pay is better.”

“Exactly!” Ilyshn’ish said, “By the way, how did you know that I went to see Countess Wagner?”

“You’re here, aren’t you?” The Baroness replied, “I left instructions for you to follow as soon as you returned from the north.”

“But what if I didn’t?”

“Then I suppose I would be disappointed.”

For some reason, Ilyshn’ish didn’t want that.

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