Kiava arrived safely at the capital two days after her brief adventure. She had stopped reading the tabloids because she was finally able to get her hands on several real estate and jobs. magazines for the capital and was now involved in the important task of planning how she was going to survive.
She was an exceptionally talented Artificer, a type of magic user that creates items with magical properties, but in order to get a job she would have to go to the mages and have her skills appraised. She had never had to do that and was not confident her skills would assure her a living. Kiava was one of many bordertown orphans. She had worked hard to get her apprenticeship, and worked harder to earn enough to move to the capital.
Despite her travel fatigue she decided to go straight to the Obelisk, - the portal to Ogelai, the floating city of mages and the bureaucratic center of all magic related dealings. She asked a station guard for directions and set out, deciding to walk the three blocks rather than board the trolley. The city was beautiful and more lively than she had ever seen a place.
On several occasions she felt the magical items she wore ward off various threats, specifically those geared to stop theft, but decided that because she was protected she wouldn't let it ruin the overall experience. She stopped twice en route, once to grab a skewer that had smelt so heavenly it felt it would be a sin to pass it by, and another time to grab a chilled juice-tea.
Kiava did not notice people staring at her, because it did not occur to her that it could be a possibility, but the fact of the matter was that Kiava is a very pretty young woman with unique coloring: her hair at a glance was gray and upon inspection a myriad of shades ranging from white to almost black, her eyes were less unusual being a green hazel, but still they were not common. She was unaware of this, as her main concerns in life so far have been ensuring she can take care of herself and getting away from the border.
Her first step into her new life had not been getting aboard that first carriage away from the border, it had been the day she saw handsome men and decided she would let herself fancy them. Granted, she had felt a lot more confident about fancying them when they were pictures. She remembered briefly touching the back of the very handsome Archeus' neck and blushed slightly.
Several men she passed wondered what had gotten her worked up and enjoyed the sight of it. Women take multiple husbands in order to reproduce, and it would not have occurred to any of the people she passed that she was flustered over the barest touch on the back of someone's neck, even if that man was the universally sought after Mage Volen.
The young woman was still feeling foolish and flushed when she arrived at the Obelisk and joined the queue for access. One needed a purpose to enter the floating city and if they strayed from that purpose they would be expelled. For her part she studied the Obelisk, - it was an ancient and refined magical item that stood over one hundred feet tall and was about sixty square feet at its base, and she studied the spells that made up its parts with fascination.
She moved with the queue until it was her turn, determining by then that no less than eight people had worked the spells that created the transportation gate to a moving target. She smiled at the apprentice mage who was manning the line. He smiled back.
"Why do you wish for access to Ogelia?" he asked pleasantly.
"I need to be assessed as an Artificer,." Kiava explained, feeling nervous, what if she was turned away?
"Wonderful! We rarely get Artificers that have been trained for assessment. They have been in higher demand lately," the apprentice enthused. Writing out her reason and handing her a ticket. "The Obelisk will take you to where you need to go, good luck Miss…?"
"Oh, I'm Kiava Orbus."
"Good luck Miss Kiava." The apprentice smiled at her as she approached the gate.
Kiava had never teleported before, she knew the spell and had sold teleportation crystals, but the crystals one needed to hold the spell were expensive, besides being one time use, it had taken her a month to arrive at the capital of the empire from the border and it had still cost her half of what she could make off selling a teleportation crystal for the same distance. In other words, it was a waste of money for her. So, she was not shocked when she arrived at her destination so disoriented that she ended up falling down for a moment.
After the world stopped spinning she stood up and found herself in front of the Artificers Head Office. A few people gave her sympathetic looks as she collected herself before heading through the doors. Everyone had to have a first time, at least she hadn't thrown up. The Office was orderly and sparsely decorated, instead the focal points of the entry room were the welcome desks at the far end and the series of Magical Items displayed for viewing. Kiava did study them, finding it was a display of both old and new inventions crediting the creators.
The woman at the desk was the first Kiava had directly interacted with since she had arrived in the city.. She smiled at the slightly older woman and received a warm look in return. "Welcome to the Artificers Office, what can we do for you?"
"I would like to be assessed," Kiava explained again. The woman's warm look glowed at the news.
"Wonderful! So few new girls with ability are coming into Artificery, being a Mage or Alchemist is much more popular nowadays," the woman enthused. She busied herself with a typeboard on the other side of the desk and explained that she would get someone who could assess her down immediately. "Do you plan to get a job at a worksop?"
"It depends on my assessment," Kiava said with a grin, "when I was looking into it it seems the higher your grade the more success you are likely to have starting your own shop."
The woman laughed. "I have a feeling you'll get a good assessment, it's nice to meet someone that wants their own shop."
They chatted idly, Kiava learned that the woman was named Fallon, she had three husbands but there was a fourth man who was wooing her and befriending her partners. She talked about the four cheerfully until a tall elderly man arrived and introduced himself as Assessor Trak. He took Kiava to a separate room through a side door. Kiava felt the wards on the room designed to prevent a magic burst and to mitigate explosions.
In the center of the room was a table arranged with various tools of the trade. Kiava stood in front of it and looked at the Assessor expectantly. "What would you like me to make for you today Assessor Trak?"
"We need an item with a functional full ward. It will be tested to make it as strong as you can," he explained.
Kiava nodded and began to work. Wards are the first thing you learn as an Artificer, spells that can stop attacks and are impossible for mages to keep active. Full wards are complex and tend to damage the item it's being imbued into if one wasn't careful when choosing the vessel and engraving. Making it more powerful lends itself further to damaging the vessel, and an Artificer needs to to know the upper limit of their items magical threshold.
She did not take note of how long it took her, even forgetting how tired she was from her journey, instead focusing on her work. After what felt like an eternity but was really two hours, the item gleamed faintly with an inner light before settling into a normal crystal. Usually she would also set it, but there were no supplies for that so it was not part of the test.
She handed the product to Trak who took it before taking her to a small room set aside for testers to rest while their item is being tested. She fell asleep on the small couch almost as soon as she sat down.
Trak was studying the Full Ward the young woman had handed him with something akin to amazement. He had been doing this job for a long time and he had never held such a well made ward from an assessment. In fact if he had to compare it more resembled something he or his peers would make.
Fallon saw him and rushed whistling when she saw the ward, "I thought she may be a talent but will you look at that?"
"It has yet to be tested, Artificer Fallon," he intoned even though he agreed. He walked through the doors before the woman could argue with him and went to the transport door that would take him to the combat training grounds.
He arrived and made his way to the man in charge of today's exercises. Duke Perrin looked at the man as he approached with some surprise. He could not remember the last time the Artificers had needed a test.
The royal family was trying to think of a way to raise the popularity of magical items, but after the recent war people were still enamored with the more obvious and flamboyant magics of Mages and Healers. The Assessor looked very excited too, which was a good sign.
"Your Grace, I am surprised to see you here., I was under the impression you would be at the Princess' welcome banquet," he said as he handed the ward over.
"I was scheduled for duty today long before she decided to come home, and it was a very valid excuse," Perrin said as he turned the crystal over. He had absolutely no mana sensitivity, so although he knew the stone was bespelled, he could not see it. "Is this good?"
"Very."
Perrin nodded and called a halt to all exercises. It was only then that Trak saw that this training day included the duke's three closest friends as well. He brought out the dummy and put the full ward on it.
"Everyone knows the drill, attack this dummy with everything you've got! We'll start with physical attacks and then move to magic! If there is any friendly fire see a healer and everyone expects to run fifty laps!" The men all shouted agreement and the duke moved back to the Assessor. "I feel bad for you testee, they got a tough day to be tested against.
"Hmm, or the perfect day," the Assessor argued cheerfully, his hopes still high.
"Attack!"
Arrows volleyed onto the dummy only to bounce harmlessly away. Then knights attacked, swinging as hard as they could at the dummy. Perrin watched Silas move to attack, fully expecting the ward to break only to watch the country's top knight bounce away. After all the knights tried their hand the mages came in.
No one expected the ward to survive the full onslaught from the mages, this was more a test to see how much magical force it could withstand. It was impressive that it had been made to counter all physical attacks, most testers forgot at least one damage type, usually hand to hand. Attack spells rained from all sides, one after the other, testing all its defenses.
Finally the Duke waved for Archeus and the mages to do a full attack to test its limits. Everyone watched as an inferno enveloped the warded dummy, growing brighter and brighter but still so the dummy was visible, it was a full minute before the dummy evaporated in the flame.
"Very impressive," Perrin said softly before turning to Trak, who looked nothing short of elated. The man practically had stars in his eyes. He had been recording the test of a floating orb device and now he smiled beatifically at the Duke Levast.
"I will take this to my peers now, thank you for your aid Duke," he bowed to the lord and practically floated away. Perrin looked up to find his friends around him, Silas and Archeus looked curious while Theon seemed amused.
"I've never seen Count Trak so happy in my life," Theon explained in amusement. "I mean, that was impressive but he looks like someone just gave him a special gift."
Silas shrugged, "Artificers have been on a pretty hard decline for the last few years in the capital. I'm surprised that one so skilled showed up."
"That was truly stunning, whoever made it is going to make a name for themselves for sure,." Archeus added., "I've only ever seen one stand up for about ten seconds under a full onslaught before today." His hand went to the back of his neck and he frowned slightly but didn't say anything.
"I'll ask Trak about the testee later, let's finish up our exercises for today and take the men for a meal." The other three nodded and they dispersed.
...
Kiava woke with a start as the door opened and Assessor Trak and a couple of other men of a similar age entered the room. "Ah, Assessor Trak, is my test over?"
"Yes, yes, we are very happy to certify you as a high Journeyman, you can attain mastery after proving the quality of your journeyman work from henceforth," Assessor Trak said warmly. "These are my peers, they just wanted to be with me to welcome you. We look forward to your work. Have you found a place to live yet? As part of your registry as an Artificer we will need your address for both home and business."
"I just arrived today, so I haven't settled either matter,." Kiava explained. "I came straight here after disembarking from my train."
Trak blinked at her a moment and had a strange dazed look on his face before he shook himself out of his thoughts. It must be true that genius flourished under strife."I can recommend a nice inn near the obelisk if you need a place to stay temporarily."
"I would appreciate that Assessor Trak, thank you, and thank you for my generous assessment," she smiled at the men as she took the Artificers registration badge that they had made for her after reviewing the video.
A glance at the clock on the wall said she had been dozing in the room for about an hour. Start to finish her assessment had taken less than four hours.
"It was a warranted assessment, you performed spectacularly. Truly," Trak argued back, bemused by the young woman's blush at such justified praise.
He led her to the exit, telling her the inn name, The Sorcerer's Respite, and how to get there. The young woman thanked him again and weaved goodbye to Fallon at the desk before she left. When the doors were safely closed behind her the small group of adults celebrated their new prodigy.
One left the floating city by ripping the ticket they gave you before you took the obelisk portal, she did so and managed to not fall and shake off the dizziness much more quickly. Trak had given her very good directions and she found the inn easily, though she was surprised to find a high end hotel and not a homely inn like she expected.
She thought they would know that the last name Orben meant she was an orphan, but it seemed Trak may have overestimated her backing. Although she could afford it, she wasn't sure it was wise. She was about to exit before talking to the handsome man at the counter when he approached her.
"Are you Miss Orben? Count Trak called ahead and reserved a room for you for the week as a gift for the new Artificer," Kiava blinked, she had never met nobility before and was surprised to learn the friendly if stern Assessor was a count.
"Oh, umm I will have to send him my thanks," Kiava said hesitantly as the man bowed slightly and waved for her to follow him to the desk.
He checked her in and a young teen boy came and collected her bags and brought her to a small room with an attached bathroom. She thanked the bellboy and tipped him from her pouch. He tipped his cap to her and bounced out of the room exuberantly.
Kiava stared into the bathroom and its inviting tub, then looked at the bed. She decided that though she had kept clean using magic, a bath would help her feel more relaxed after her journey. After locking her door and placing a magical item to prevent intrusion from outside the room she took a long and very hot bath as she daydreamed about handsome men, glad she could finally see them in the flesh, even if they were also terribly intimidating.