A wise man chooses his friends with care, for they will either drag you down to, or buoy you up from the depths of calamity.

Pick carefully then, you seldom get anything other than regret if you fail to do so.

-Sage Orion of the Eastern Hills

4993 A.D. Third day of the Second week of Autumn, Somewhere under Nolusberg…

Guppy scuttled back until her back hit the bars of her, no their cell.

It was not that she was particularly afraid of orcs, but this one’s sudden appearance from the shadows, coupled with his sheer enormity and Guppy’s current state of mind led to an instinctive response.

The large figure approached slowly, hunched over to avoid hitting his head. There was no direct light, but a torch set into the wall around the corner gave enough ambient light to make out some details as Guppy stared wide eyed.

The orc was large, even for his kind, with a broad frame and what must have once been incredible muscles, but their current state was far from glorious, instead the orc’s muscles clung to his bones.

Shriveled and lean they spoke of a long period of neglect and malnourishment.

Half healed scars criss crossed his chest and arms, evoking a sinister appearance in the dim light, an appearance his jutting fangs did nothing to dispel.

But Guppy was not thrown by his looks, no, it was his eyes that called to her, the pain held within them far greater than any he showed physically.

The orc reached over and gently tapped her iron necklace.

“Do not fight it girl, it will only bring you agony.” the orc softly stated.

Guppy blinked, this was probably the most she had ever heard an orc speak before, usually all you heard were grunts of effort and pain, with the occasional ‘yes master’, or ‘no master’ thrown in.

It was enough to invoke her curiosity.

“Who are you?” she inquired

“A fool.” He replyed.

It was all the answer she got as the orc retreated into his shadowy corner once more.

She was about to press him further when her ears caught the creak of a door and the slap of footsteps on stone, someone was coming.

Guppy turned and grasped the bars of her cell, only to realize that her hearing was deceivingly good, it took the visitors another four minutes to walk down several flights of stairs and unlock another couple doors before they rounded the corner and came into sight.

The flare of their torches blinded her for a second but as her eyes adjusted she made out her jailors, three scruffy looking men who emanated a sour smell and wore unshaven beards, their half visible tattoos all pointed towards her captor’s identities, the Grakoan mafia.

“Stand back.” one commanded.

Guppy felt a flick of pain surge, it arrived and left quickly, but it let her know who was in charge, not her.

She retreated from the cell door and one of the men came forward and unlocked the door, and then her chains before he and another each grabbed one of her arms and proceeded to hoist Guppy out.

Guppy hastily found her feet and matched their pace, she had no wish to be dragged along the filthy floor.

They took her up the stairs a couple turns, before leaving the stairwell and entering a relatively large room full of alchemedial tools and chemicals, before which stood a slender man in grubby whitish coat.

“Here she is Eumber.” said her keyed master as Guppy was shoved forward. “Put her to use, We’ll be back at the end of the day to collect her.”

Guppy rubbed her arms, pretending to be sore and weaker than she truly was, it never hurt to be underestimated until you were ready to act.

‘At least I now have a time frame.’ she thought as the three Grakoan’s retreated.

Guppy peered at her new acquaintance, who stood looking rather nervously at her through some cracked and tilted glasses, he was dressed untidy, and slouched over as he stood nervously watching her back. He stunk too, although it was mostly covered by various chemical smells that clung to him.

All in all this man called Eumber looked quite unreliable as a person.

‘To be fair I probably smell even worse than he does.’ thought Guppy.

Last night’s events had left her rather scruffy and smelly, unfortunate then that underground cells did not come with bath’s and fresh clothes.

“Guuhhmmm.” Eumber cleared his throat, interrupting Guppy’s thoughts.

“Well then, you know my name, what is yours?” he asked

Guppy silently stared at him, she felt an anger starting to rise up within her, and it must have reflected in her eyes because Eumber took a couple steps back and retrieved something hastily from his desk.

“Now none of that, I mean you no harm but I was told to show you these if you failed to co-operate.” He warned.

He held out two small cloth packets in his hand, Guppy did not even need to see them to tell that they smelled of her siblings, she dashed forward and snatched them from his hand, opening them to find a single lock of hair in each.

It was a clear warning to her, do what we tell you, we have your siblings.

Guppy’s shoulders slumped as the fight went out of her.

“What do you want?” she asked, her voice now weary.

“The alchemedial formulae to turn lead into gold.” informed Eumber. “That was what I was informed you would supply, I have been..employed, to make use of it.”

“Huh, I don’t ha..” Guppy stopped her sentence.

‘Wait, they thought she turned lead into gold through alchemy? Everyone knew the alchemists in the mages tower had been trying for hundreds of years to do so but had never succeeded. But that at least explains why they kidnapped me, at least they don’t know about Arkanissius.’

Guppy’s thought’s tossed and turned but she came to one conclusion, ‘They don’t know that I can just do it with magic, I can use this to my advantage.’

“Turning lead into gold with alchemy is impossible.” she calmly stated.

This utterance flustered Eumber greatly, clearly not what he wished to hear from her.

“Come now girl don’t be a fool, in truth the alchemists figured out a way to transmute lead into gold centuries ago, the problem is that their method wasn’t economically viable, to transform one kilogram took an archmagi two days and consumed a small fortune in mana crystals and other materials. Quite simply put it costs several times more to produce the gold alchemically than it does through more mundane methods such as mining.”

Eumber paused his rant, taking a breath before giving Guppy a smile he no doubt thought was a reassuring one. It wasn’t.

“But I am told you produced several kilograms of pure gold by yourself with obviously lacking resources, don’t you see, this changes everything if you have found a way to perform the conversion with far greater efficiency.”

Guppy let the man finished his rant, she gained some good information through it.

She and her skills were valuable, and she had to preserve that value to maintain the health of herself and her siblings.

Thankfully the transmutation process was not something they could extract from her, it was unique.

It did not bode well for Eumber though, Guppy knew through plentiful gossip how the Grakoan mafia operated, they did not tolerate useless things.

Guppy walked over to a stack of small lead ingots that were about the length and width of a man’s finger and picked one up, hefting it in one palm before pulling on her magic and feeling it flow into the bar.

“Sorry Eumber, but I don’t use a speck of alchemy, just magic.” she said as the ingot turned from grey to gold.

Guppy watched the blood drain from Eumber’s face as he realized the implications of her words, backed by the solid proof in her hands.

A cracked grin broke upon his face.

“You’re lying, you have to be, that’s just an illusion to fool me isn’t it, give it to me, Give IT Here GIRL!”

Guppy shrugged and tossed the ingot over, not caring if the man believed her.

Eumber hurriedly walked to his beakers and used a small knife to gouge out several slivers of the gold bar, which he then dropped in a test tube, taking two beakers from his table in his other hand he began to carefully pour the liquids into the test tube as he angrily explained to Guppy.

“Look here girl, this will shatter your lies soon enough, this liquid I am diluting and adding is called is called nitric acid, when added to real gold there will be no apparent change, whereas lead will slowly dissolve and turn the liquid into a cloudy affair.”

They waited a minute.

“Any second now!” said Eumber, his voice rising a few octaves.

Guppy merely watched as over the next few minutes the man’s face turned paler and paler until he slumped to the floor and stayed there for what must have been a half bell.

“You’ve killed me girl.” he finally spoke in a soft and all too calm voice.

He rose and headed to his alchemy station.

“No I have not.” Retorted Guppy, “Don’t blame me for the vagaries of luck and your own situation.”

Eumber was silent as he mixed several compounds together and heated, then distilled them, eventually concocting an amber liquid that smelled faintly of winterberries.

He stood there staring at the liquid for awhile before quickly downing it.

Two minutes later he slid to the floor, and lay still.

Guppy almost envied him, almost.

So instead she sat on the pile of lead ingots and waited, thinking and thinking about what she was to do next…

…………………………………..

Same day, Sixth bell of the afternoon, A market square in Slareer, Capital of Tabolt.

Han` Nah sighed, she had just finished a dance and her partner lay still, but that was not what upset her. It had been a good dance, yes, what she was truly upset about was that the dance had broken her favourite rapier, the impacts received proving too much for its slender blade to endure after weeks of successive challenges.

She stroked its cracked length in fondness and sorrow, uttering a prayer to the sword spirit, wishing it safe passage to a new vessel and a good master to wield it, then Nah gripped the hilt and blade in both hands and swiftly snapped the already cracked blade over her left knee.

A quick clean end to a loyal and longtime companion.

She rose from her crouch and approached her dancing partner. Nah had an empty scabbard to fill, so she raised his rapier to the dying light and examined it carefully. Good Taboltian steel, superb balance, the patterning of the steel also told the story of it’s forging by a master smith.

This man must have been quite wealthy to afford such a blade, yet Nah did not strip him of coin purse and jewels, that would be dishonorable for a blade dancer, however poor they might currently be.

His blade however was hers now, the victor’s prize of any dance should they choose to claim it.

Nah brought the flat of the blade to her forehead and whispered a pledge to the new sword spirit that joined her this day. Formalities observed, Nah gently caressed the blade that had drawn her blood thrice and cleaned it on a scrap of cloth, sliding it into the empty sheath that hung on her waist once it was pristine.

It joined the three other companions she had strapped to her back in her journey to greatness, and a worthy addition she was sure it was.

Nah paid no heed to the onlookers who cried in woe at their lost bets, the man must have been well known for his skill, for none had bet on her. But then, she was a relatively new face in town. Few would gamble their coin on one such, even without a well-known dancing companion.

They would get to know her though. Her lack of fame from long training with her master in the woodlands would not remain after the three dances she had today. Especially not with the tinkling bell she had shown each dance.

It signified her rank, the tiny mithril bell one of only a hundred scattered across the continent, each held by a master blade dancer. They could only pass the bell to a direct disciple upon retirement, or lose it in a duel to a better dancer.

Nah had received it five moons past; and set out to seek her fortune in the world.

She tucked the small bell away under her shirt. Nah wished for no more challenges today, she still needed to treat the three cuts received in her last dance, shallow though they be. She shoved and ducked her way through the crowd until she found a quiet alcove overlooking the city.

The city founders built Slareer into the side of a steep cliff that cut the twin rivers in two coming from the coast. It formed a natural transport and trading hub for Yckbarrow, Darish, and Galaga with the ease and prevalence of maritime and inland barge transport on the many connecting waterways.

Nah reflected on her latest dance, seeking where she could improve upon. Her opponent had forced her bell to ring seven times as they danced. She still had a long way to go to become a true master.

Nah relished the challenge, and a small smile graced her face as she leant on a railing and gazed down at busy streets below, revealing for a moment a beauty that the sweat and blood on her failed to obscure. After some quiet contemplation, her face reclaimed its stoic neutralness once more.

Nah yawned widely. She was tired from the day’s exercise, not to mention sweaty. A good hot bath would do wonders for her right now.

Nah’s course of action decided she headed straight to one of the many bath houses of Slareer, a feature the capital of Tabolt was famous for. It was one of the few luxuries she had discovered and allowed herself in the couple of weeks since her arrival, despite her dwindling coin.

She entered one of the many bath houses and dropped three coppers into the hands of an attendant, who upon receipt of the coins gave her a towel to use. The towel could be returned later for a copper’s refund. A system Nah found both novel and amusing.

Nah would not think to pilfer a wet, smelly towel, but she supposed not all were like her and moved on, dismissing the passing thought as she walked down the steam-filled corridor.

Nah found an empty room and pulled the hanging chain to fill a wooden barrel tub with hot water from the bathhouse reservoirs. She then unclothed her slender muscled body and entered the steaming bath slowly, enjoying the feeling of soaking her sore muscles in blissful, tension releasing heat.

As Nah sat submerged in the wooden tub she planned out her next couple weeks and set goals. First the private street fights until she built up enough reputation to be scouted for the arena, it shouldn’t be long now, especially after that last dance.

In the Arena she would earn all the coin needed for her future travels, and meet worthy opponents to hone her craft on.

She also needed to continue her daily sword training, ‘Practice builds Perfection.’ her master always used to say. Tomorrow morning the forms would be painful, but she still wouldn’t slack.

A knock on the door interrupted her musings.

“Who is it?” Nah called.

“A letter for you madame dancer.” came the soft voice of a female from outside.

Nah perked up, “Deliver it then.”

She sat in the tub as a demure woman in a simple but well-tailored maid dress entered. The woman proffered a letter after a graceful curtsey.

Nah dried her hands on the towel and received the sealed letter, breaking it open to reveal a card embossed with a shield and crossed axes.

“I can relay the message verbally madame dancer, should you wish for it.” spoke the servant respectfully.

“No need, I can read it myself,” replied Nah as her eyes skimmed over the looping handwriting.

It was exactly what she had been waiting for, an offer for sponsorship to the Arena by a local noble. Nah grinned to herself as she flicked the card and envelope on top of her clothes where they rested.

“Tell the Baron I accept his offer, I will fight for him in the Arena tomorrow.”

The maid curtseyed again with practised proficiency and left, closing the door behind her.

Nah allowed herself a delighted laugh before fully submerging in the steaming water. She watched her air bubbles float upwards in giddy bliss and lost herself to the heat, all concerns of tomorrow were settled and would wait for the dawn, for now, there was only beautiful cleanliness.