Chapter 22 : A revealed enemy

Nikolaï didn’t know where he went wrong. His plan wasn’t flawless but he was confident in it. He even had waited for the middle of the night to be sure that all suspects were going to be around before revealing the mark.

Nikolaï tried again. The way he had marked the spy wasn’t meant to hold. Now that it had been activated it was going to consumed itself and dissolved by the target’s ether without him having to do a thing.

Nikolaï’s time was running out and the ether he had poured into his eyes was draining him of his energy. When Nikolaï had almost lost any hope a spec of it appeared at the periphery of his vision. Nikolaï looked up and finally saw the spell shining above him.

He lied back with a strange feeling of relief. Nikolaï had been so obsessed by the Aspirant next to him that he had forgotten that other rooms above him were in the range of the spying device. Nikolaï had above neighbours and if his eye was correct one of them was his dirty little spy.

Nikolaï located the best he could in what area the person was, as the mark was dissolving. Nikolaï sighted, having his privacy violated by someone wasn’t pleasing but the success of his plan had made him a bit better. Nikolaï tapped into the appeased of this small victory to find some sleep.

***

The next day Nikolaï was seated on the stairs in front of the Tower main entrance. He had successfully put a name on the one spying on him and was processing it.

Discovering the name hadn’t been hard, now that he knew where to look. Like usual Nikolaï had left his room for breakfast and this time he had taken a book with him. He displayed a particular interest in it while eating and had kept reading it while walking back to his room.

He had used the distraction of his reading to climb more stairs than he should have done and handed up on the wrong floor by “accident”. The rooms on these floors had originally the same layout that Nikolaï’s floor but they had been remodelled. Their lobby had its own doors and the all-area had been made the quarters of only two peoples and their personal training room and workshop.

The identity of these two peoples was Arcanist Julius and Arcanist Amos, the two Orsana’s assistant.

Even if Nikolaï couldn’t pretend to be completely surprised by the results of his investigation it felt on him like a ton of brick. He was rightfully concerned and scared that Expert Orsana was keeping such a close eye on him. Nikolaï knew that Orsana hadn’t sponsored him for a room for nothing but he had wrongly dismissed such a direct implication.

The reason Nikolaï hadn’t thought about the assistant was because they were also supposed to live on a higher floor, like their master. They were Arcanist so it was making sense but Nikolaï should have checked before making an assumption.

Amos and Julius had those quarters for a long time. A big part of its remodelling had been done before they took it but they had also brought their own. Amos had been the first one to occupy the room when she was only a promising Aspirant of the 2nd Circle. She had set up her Forgerune workshop while sharing the quarters with someone else.

When she became an Aspirant of the 3rd Circle she kept the room while competed to become the assistant of the newest Expert of the Tower : Orsana. She became an Arcanist and Orsana assistant at the same time, a position that she shared with Arcanist Julius, a promising duelist.

Amos quarter had been improved over time so rather than leaving it to a lesser room on higher floors, the two assistants took full control of it and remodelled it one last time for all of their accommodations.

Nikolaï didn’t know the entire story of why the assistant was here but he knew enough about how the Tower worked to have a rough idea of it. He could easily guess also why of all of the empty room on the first floor it was that this one which was was given to him. It explained why Nikolaï had a well-exposed room with two windows rather than a corner one in the Tower shade.

Nikolaï couldn’t stop thinking about the fact that even the assistants were too big an adversary for him. He would have preferred a jealous Aspirant to that. Not willing to fall into despair Nikolaï reassured himself that the “conflict” between them was still in its observation phase. He decided to move and left the stairs to make his blood flow.

He walked past one of the board, the one where Aspirants could offer tutoring for money or favour. Nikolaï knew how broad the definition of favour could take with some but he didn’t think about that. The kind of tutoring was also very broad. Officially only the one concerning arcane or alchemy could be peened off the board but if you knew how to read the ads properly you could found a battle trainer or all kind of side knowledge.

It had given Nikolaï an idea and brought back a bit of his spirit.

The identity of his spies wasn’t good news but at least he could guess the reason they were acting like that. They didn’t just keep an eye on him after the exam, they were looking for an explanation of how he had recovered.

Nikolaï didn’t have a choice to give them an explanation so, before that, he needed to decide which one.

***

During the next few days, Nikolaï continued to behave like an apprentice Forgerune trying to sell some of his items. He couldn’t create as many as his talent really allowed him but he could still create descend talisman without appearing suspicious.

Now that Nikolaï had established who was spying on him, and in a way why, he had started to rent workshop rather than creating talismans under their eyes. He still studied and practised in his room but that way he could keep his true Forgerune abilities under a certain discretion.

This advantage trumped the fact that other people could figure out he was a Forgerune by seeing him renting a workshop. The possible bullying by other Aspirants didn’t seem important face to his current situation against two Arcanists and one Expert.

Nikolaï was confident in his decision. He had wondered if he wasn’t going to raise their suspicions by breaking his routine but took the risk. From the outside, it could be seen as the fact that his moving in had encouraged him to use the Tower facilities after he had spent a week planning his future designs.

Nikolaï had also required a meeting with the Alchemist who made him a potion not long ago : Aspirant Soreco. The Tower had a way to send messages internally so Nikolaï had used this and contacted her. She had accepted even if Nikolaï had been really vagued on his message and had offered him to meet at the Bourquet shop during the week.

It was the day of the meeting and Nikolaï was inside the backroom shop where a table with few chairs and some shelves were. He had come early and Aspirant Bourquet, the apothecary one had led him in after they exchange pleasantries. Nikolaï was not stressed but the boredom made him a little anxious, he checked for the tenth time the small package in his coat pocket.

It was a talisman, wrapped in brown paper, that he had down especially for the meeting and for Aspirant Soreco.

Rather than pacing or sitting, Nikolaï distractedly looked at the shelves. He didn’t dare to go through them, he was just letting his eyes wandered. The fact that he had Third Eye made gazing at the material more interesting than if he was a regular Aspirant. Nikolaï had wanted to use his ability to judge the quality of material but since he had the eye he had realised that seeing the flow of elementium didn’t necessarily mean that he could assess the viability of a material. There were other criteria but Nikolaï was still trying to train his eye.

The backroom door finally opened and Aspirant Soreco appeared right on time. They both saluted as the etiquette required and Aspirant Soreco gestured to the table and they both sat in front of each other.

“_ Your message was pretty cryptic.” Said Aspirant Soreco.

“_ I know, I’m grateful for your discretion.” Said Nikolaï back while reaching for his coat pocket.

“_ It is not an issue. Do you need another potion ?”

“_ Not for the moment but seeing the result of the last one you can be sure that I will make sure to address you first.”

“_ My pleasure.” Responded Aspirant Soreco in a polite and professional way. “What’s in the packet ?”

While talking Nikolaï had taken out the talisman and put it between them. He opened one side and retrieved what appeared to be a broken sandglass. The metallic frame was fitting in an adult hand and even if the glass had been broken it was easy to guess what the object used to be. All over the object you could see engrave made by acids.

“_ It’s a gift of sort for accepting to meet me.” Said Nikolaï.

“_ It’s some kind of talisman ?”

“_ Yes, it’s an arcanic candle which used the fire elementium in the atmosphere to create a flame but I made some improvements.”

Nikolaï grabbed the object and activated it.

“_ It had a way to modify the concentration of elementium so the flame can be more or less hot. It’s not made for iron cauldron but could really work on glassware.”

While speaking Nikolaï had made the flame changed to illustrate his says and let the talisman go at medium power.

“_ It seems very useful for an Alchemist.” Observed Aspirant Soreco with calm. “What did you want in exchange ?”

“_ Like I said the candle is a gift. It is already yours but I hope he can allow me to ask for a bit of your time.”

“_ My time ?”

“_ Yes. You see I’m looking for advice from another user of the Mechanical Arcane, so what I offer is to pay you for an hour of tutoring in the matter.”

Aspirant Soreco looked at him with a suspicious look, processing what he had said. Nikolaï on his side was striving to act confident and calm.

“_ Why me ?” Finally asked Aspirant Soreco.

“_ First you are one of the few independent alchemists of the Tower, one that successfully avoids falling under an influential family.” Started Nikolaï. “Which is rather impressive for an Aspirant without a big name. No offence.” Added Nikolaï a bit embarrassed.

“_ None taken.” Said Aspirant Soreco sincerely.

Aspirant Soreco origin wasn’t a secret after all but Nikolaï still felt that he could have phrased it a better way. Being blunt didn’t seem to bother Aspirant Soreco and Nikolaï started to think that going straight to the point wasn’t being perceived as rude with her.

Aspirant Soreco, from her side, had been amused by his choice of words when he said “falling under” rather than “protecting by”.

“_ My own name doesn’t carry a lot of weight but I will like to keep my freedom without putting myself in anyone cross air.”

“_ So you are expecting me to do this tutoring in the name of … solidarity ?” Asked Aspirant Soreco with a hint of defy in the voice.

“_ I expect you to do it for five silver pounds and also because my craft is in no way in competition with yours. As a Forgerune there will be no conflict or rivalry between the two of us and so nothing to lose.”

Aspirant Soreco thought silently. Nikolaï hadn’t told about the fact that creating a relationship with a Forgerune could be beneficial for her but he was confident that she was smart enough to have understood it herself. They both knew it but by not saying it out loud they were avoided any misconception promise or engagement.

The silence wasn’t long but he felt that way to Nikolaï.

“_ Four silver pounds and six months of free maintenance for the candle.” Offered Aspirant Soreco.

“_ What about three silver pounds and eight months of free maintenance.”

Aspirant Soreco put some thought into it and finally offer her hand to shake. Just like that the lesson started and Nikolaï started to explain how he was trying to expand his Forgerune activity on a more regular basis without being target by other installed Forgerune.

Surprisingly, Aspirant Soreco understood easily his situation and started to share her own experience and beginning. Contrary to what Nikolaï had thought, Aspirant Soreco hadn’t been always “independent”. At the beginning of her “career”, she had a mentor, an Arcanist of the 4th Circle with whom she had a temporary contract of assistant for a year and a half.

She explained to Nikolaï that those short contracts were specific to Alchemist and the Tower didn’t issue them for other activity but he could probably find something similar with a Forgerune without the title of “assistant”.

Being an assistant was a peculiar position for Arcanist, it was the path to become a disciple so it wasn’t treated lightly.

When Nikolaï explained that he couldn’t be his path, Aspirant Soreco had rolled her eyes. She had believed that it was a matter of pride for him but it wasn’t the case. Nikolaï had no issue with being mentored but working with a Forgerune would expose his secret for sure and he couldn’t afford it.

Aspirant Soreco talked about how to protect his room from intrusion and such by hiring a specialist. It was what Nikolaï had hope and Aspirant Soreco gave him the name of someone who could do it for a high price.

On handling competition, she gave him surprising advice too. One of them was to strike back at his competitors. Nikolaï had believed that Tower was serious about this kind of behaviour but Aspirant Soreco taught him that the Tower ignored a lot of the sabotages between Aspirant. They believed it was part of the job in some way.

The most surprising advice Aspirant Soreco gave was to have more than one competitor.

“_ Don’t you know the story of the two stuck archer ?” Asked Aspirant Soreco.

“_ I don’t think I do.”

“_ It’s a tale from the northern island. Basically, it’s a story of two rival archers wanting to be the best one and to do so they challenge each other in a hunt. Eventually, they found themselves facing the king of the forest, I don’t remember what creature it’s supposed to be, I think not everyone has the same version. Anyway, they arrived at the same time to face the beast but none of the two wants to be the first to shoot and they end up stuck in this situation where nobody attack.”

“_ I don’t understand.”

“_ You see their rivalry is so big that they each believe that if they shoot the beast the other one is going to use this opportunity to shoot him.”

“_ Hum … So in the story am I the beast ?”

“_ You need to be the beast and the archer, creating situations where attacking you will lead your competitors to expose themselves to each other.”

“_ It doesn’t seem easy.”

“_ It isn’t as hard as you may think. The standoff situation already exists in the Tower but you need to appear in more than one cross air if you want to benefit from the status quo.”

Nikolaï hadn’t thought of that and in her way, Aspirant Soreco was making a lot of sense. Any act of sabotage or spying required time and planning that could weaken your situation if it doesn’t work well enough.

“_ How does the story finish ?” Asked Nikolaï curiously.

“_ They find a way to go beyond their rivalry and shot the beast in both eyes.”

“_ Aouch !”

“_ Yeah it’s a story about human unifying against a common enemy, I just use it to demonstrate a point, not for its actual moral.” Explained Aspirant Soreco.

“_ Right.” Said Nikolaï before realising how much time had passed. “Thank you, you gave me a lot to think about. Let me show you how the talisman works exactly.”

When leaving the shop Nikolaï was pretty satisfied with the lesson. Aspirant Soreco had given him a lot of practical advice and examples of “attacks” he could wait for. She had also talked about how to fix his prices to avoid unfair competition by practising low prices. It was the best way to unify the rest of the Forgerune against him.

She also explained that when taking order it was better to negotiate for a high advance rather than a high price, that way Nikolaï could avoid having too many people cancelling their orders. Some people paid others to do so to their rival. The idea was to force a competitor to create a specific and expensive item that they couldn’t unload anywhere and wait for the last moment to cancel it.

Wasting others time and resources seemed to be the sinews of war rather than directly sabotaged their workshops and stuff like Nikolaï had originally thought.

The last piece of advice given by Aspirant Soreco, her story about the standoff was a bit confusing but inspiring. Nikolaï had an idea against Orsana assistants and with a bit of planning he could become a real solution.