Before returning to Valyria's Sigh, I stopped by the same place where Jhon picked up the letters with Salim and sent them to the senders. I remembered to add my new address to my father's letter and also paid in advance for his reply. This type of correspondence using ravens was very expensive. And we were very far from each other. After that, I returned to the ship. I was lucky because Zhang and Omar were there. I took the opportunity to send Ted on several missions, such as informing everyone at the inn about a meeting today at 7:00 p.m., accompanying the delivery of all the necessary items that are missing from the Tower, the delivery of the ship's goods, and doing several other tasks accompanied by Salim, which included gathering information about smaller groups and organizations in the city, clues about the ship that looted Aisha's village, research involving other food and supply stores, collecting some animals and insects in the Ash River as well as samples of its waters. Salim assured me that he could help Ted with all of them, so I left it to him. Before leaving, I also told him about the magic test in the tower and he got excited right away. I hope he can pass it along with his brother and stay in the city, otherwise they will both probably choose a life at sea.
When I was about to go to the cabin to talk to Aisha, I stopped at a certain point on the ship. It was daytime, but even so, some alchemical lights were on to facilitate the illumination of the deck. Even during the day, the city of Asshai was always dark, but what caught my attention was how this shadow was outside the sense of lighting. It would easily go unnoticed by the inattentive people of this world, but for me, who had some notion of this subject that was a basic art lesson in elementary school, I knew that such a shadow should not exist in that space and in that way. It all happened in a matter of seconds, as I took a few steps I remembered the art classes, the details of the shadow spells that I read earlier today and while I looked at the corner I didn't think twice and took out two pistols from the inventory and fired one of them in the direction of the shadow.
"BANG"
The noise startled all the crew members on both ships, and was heard in a large circular area of the port as the sound traveled. After the shot, the strange shadow disappeared, revealing a man with a black mask and black robe. He knelt on the ground with both hands holding a bloody hole in his chest, while looking at me without understanding how he had been seen. Seeing that he fell to the ground holding his chest, I turned around and less than 3 seconds later I shot again, this time near the VIP cabins. Another masked man fell to the ground clutching his chest, this time I didn't waste time looking at him before turning around and saw 3 more shadows leaving their positions and fleeing out of the ship, all the crew members had already left their positions upon hearing the familiar sound and drew their swords, before I could exchange the empty pistols for 2 loaded ones, Zhang came out of one of the cabins wearing his familiar white full body armor and blocked one of the 3 men who were fleeing, the man was not intimidated by him wearing armor, and thought he would be slow, when he tried to use the cabin wall to dodge his way using a parkour move, he was surprised by Zhang's speed, his hands were like metal claws immobilizing the man by the waist and then throwing him to the ground like a sack of potatoes.
The man groaned in pain as he hit the ground hard and then turned into a mass of liquid shadows passing through the gap between Zhang's legs, this time managing to reach the port, until a third "BANG" was heard, the shot hit the fleeing man in the leg, with no choice and not yet having reached the exit of the ship he jumped over the low wall of the deck diving into the black waters of the port and disappearing. I turned to the last two and they had already left the ship and reached the port, one of them was running very fast, it was almost abnormal for a human. He was using another spell I saw earlier today at the store called "Haste", the spell used the wind to make someone faster for a short period of time. I aimed at the second man who was slower, at this point they were both already far from where I was. I calmly aimed at him and another loud bang was heard before blood sprayed from the man's head and he fell motionless to the ground. This shot was fired from more than 100 meters away and managed to hit the spy in the head, even I was surprised by the accuracy.
Undeterred, I tried to aim at the second man. His head turned back as he ran, seeing the other spy fall dead a great distance from the ship. He was wearing a red mask that I recognized from the natives of Asshai. At that moment, not wanting to risk his life, the man sank into his own shadow and disappeared before everyone's eyes. At that moment when he looked back, I could have hit him, but besides the distance being greater than the other one, when I saw his mask I decided to let him go since he was one of the natives. He used two abilities from two different elements and maybe that was a clue to find out who he was. The one who fell into the water, I thought he could die with an open wound in the terrible black waters, but remembering what Salim said about the changes involving adaptations to the Ash River, I wasn't so confident that this was the cause of his death. Besides, he had a small bullet inside his leg. Would he discover it? Or would he die with it lodged inside? I came out of my thoughts with Omar shouting for the men on the ship to check every corner without leaving anything unchecked.
I checked to see if Zhang was okay and he nodded, then my eyes scanned the other ship while Will's men searched as well. They knew this was the main ship and hadn't put anyone there. My eyes scanned the dark streets and I saw several people pointing their fingers at me or gesturing to the dead body. The loud noise of gunfire may have carried further than I anticipated. Ted's brother went to the street and began bringing the dead man back, piling his body next to the other 2. I looked up at the rooftops of the buildings and saw two more men in black watching from above, as soon as I noticed them, they both quickly disappeared from my sight. There were more eyes in the windows of the houses and black buildings as well. Well I don't care, let this be a lesson to anyone who decides to spy on me.
The men on the ships handed me 2 magic bags, and I felt satisfied with the unexpected loot, it had been a long time since I got one of those hehe. Zhang then reveals another bag, I am surprised that he would take something from the man in such a short period of time, I wave my hand and the previous owner's bond is removed leaving Zhang anxious for his own loot. It is only after a while when the men reunite and tell Omar that the ships are safe that I am reunited with Aisha again.
In my cabin, Aisha reveals part of the cargo that Henry will transport. All the money we obtained was converted into many gems, dragon glass, and amber. Mainly dragon glass, which now had many uses in Essos and Westeros after the end of Valyria and its alchemical lights. I agreed to these adjustments, and the profit we would have this time when divided would be barely 100 coins for the three of us, not counting the initial investment we made in Valyria. It was better to let the ship follow a new route, it would then return in a maximum of 2 years and would have a very considerable profit. Until then, I would try to find a possible source to continue supplying it at a lower cost.
I then gave my new address to Aisha, instructing her to deliver my personal belongings that were in my cabin, the ship's special cargo, all the items in the Order's room, the last human test subjects, and also half of the fertile land that was still left in the cargo, seeds, coal, 1/5 of the protein. The rest of the protein and luxury goods that were on the ship were to go to the store.
After the final adjustments involving my belongings and cargo on the ship, I asked Aisha to gather the men because I had an announcement, but before that I went to meet with Omar and Zhang. I gave them all the details about the store, its value, and our new house. They were both satisfied with the adjustments and didn't complain about anything. The advantage of being men was that we didn't care about things like appearance, comfort, and other minor details. As long as the house served its purpose and was in a favorable location, they wouldn't even mind if it was a small wooden hut.
In addition, since I created the Order of the Sages, Omar and Zhang have treated me differently, leaving most of the decisions to me. For them, as long as I kept the profits from the business divided 3 ways, they didn't care about the leadership position. This made it easier for me to make quick decisions without having to inform them everything, in addition to always leaving important tasks to the two of them, since I considered them my brothers. Then Zhang was the first to report his mission:
"I went to the tower of the Master who is suspected of being a recruiter for the temples, I didn't find out his name and I couldn't talk to him. I spoke to two people there, one was a newbie who had recently entered the tower and he confirmed that the people who entered with him left the tower because of the difficulty in learning spells. But he said he had another reason that he couldn't talk about, so I had no choice but to go to one of the veterans, the students just called him Elder Brother Shah. I told him our situation, but that we would only accept entering if we knew all the pros and cons. I also used a little monetary incentive... The pros are that there is not much work to be done, you can study freely and gain a lot of knowledge every year you stay in the tower, but he said that the Master of the tower will select some volunteer students for experiments, if there are no volunteers, those who have the lowest level of talent or lower hierarchy levels will be forcibly selected. After that I said goodbye and said I would make a decision with you."
"He is a Master Bloodmage, whoever is unlucky enough to be chosen may end up dying or becoming a monster, and that is if they are lucky." The two nod, we don't know if our talents will save us from trouble while we are in this tower. I look at Omar and then he begins.
"I also didn't find out the real name of the tower's owner, people just call him by his title Beast Master, he is a Shadowmancer and the best tamer in Asshai. Everyone who joins his tower must sign a 5-year contract, during which time you are required to complete 1 mission per month that involves taking care of the Garden and all the creatures that are inside the tower. This means cleaning their cages, feeding them, slaughtering them and taking care of their young. The garden and its plants are no different, they are magical, delicate and dangerous plants and require a lot of care too. It is worth mentioning that there is a high risk in some of these tasks. After these 5 years you are free to leave or stay and continue studying freely without many obligations to the tower. You are free to choose your monthly task, but you will not always be able to choose the easiest and least dangerous ones, as soon as you enter the tower you receive a magic book or another item of your choice, as soon as you sign the contract with them, this item will be yours to sell, give or share, the second item you receive when signing The contract belongs to the tower and you need to hand it in if you decide to leave after 5 years. The tower's tasks give you points that can be exchanged for more items or magical materials, both temporary and permanent. Knowledge can also be acquired this way, and it also has two forms, free knowledge and those under a secrecy contract."
"This seems like the best choice, although I don't like the 5-year contract, we can get a lot of free knowledge if we work together. And 5 years isn't that long when it comes to learning magic, it's not even enough time to learn a single spell." They both agree with me. I ask Omar more questions about the test, and he says it only costs 10 silver to try. And that he doesn't know any more details since he couldn't take it. We need to arrive at dawn if we want to take the test. After we finish, I go with them towards the crew that awaits my announcement.
***
Special thanks to the Patreons:
Magic Apprentice: Parsa, Pato Senalima, Axel Bour, Gabriele Sulpizio, Vinnie, Jan, frimorigo, Scott Robertson and Takatchi!