At first light, I came outside and found Nancy walking around. Everyone else still seemed to be sleeping. “Good morning,” I said with a bit of a bow.

  “Oh my, a young lady wanting to work at the guild should do a curtsy, not a bow,” she said.

  “Oh, right.” I paused, grabbed my skirt's hem, and tried to lean down a bit.

  “You’re still bowing. A curtsy is more than just holding your skirt,” she said.

  I gave a worried expression. I was here to learn, but I didn’t realize how much I didn’t know. “Sorry. Could you maybe teach me?”

  She grabbed her skirt and leaned down. I was left in awe as I felt a sense of grace exuding off of her, but I couldn’t pinpoint why. “Certainly. Was a demonstration enough?”

  “Uh, no. I could tell it was so much more graceful, but I was too distracted to see what you did,” I said.

  She covered her mouth as she giggled a bit. “So, only move your skirt enough so it doesn’t touch the ground. Then move your right leg behind your left and bend down as you bow your head.”

  I took a breath.

  “Relax. This is just practice.”

  “Right,” I said. I get that, but it felt a lot more critical with her watching me. I tried to mimic what she said.

  “You bent down before bowing. Again,” she said.

  I ended up trying for the best part of thirty minutes. I never thought something as silly as a bow could be so exhausting, but I finally got a passing grade. I would need to practice more on my own. I didn’t want to disappoint her if she gave me a quiz later.

  “Very good; I suppose that will be today's lesson,” she said as she turned.

  “Wait!” I shouted.

  “Hmm?”

  “If it isn’t rude. I marked down the words I didn’t understand from the slip book. Could we study that a bit more?”

  “So quickly?” she asked.

  I nodded. “You have shown me I am very under-prepared for the path before me. I would rather shore up my abilities sooner than later.”

  She smiled. “Okay, come with me. I’ll make tea.”

  I followed her to her office. She used fire magic to light something she had under a teapot. She then gestured for me to sit down.

  “Shouldn’t I go get my slate and my slip book?” I asked.

  She shook her head. “Excuse me if this is too forward, but would you mind if we just talk for now. If you are this serious about studies, I can give you more study material, but I would like to gauge your background if possible.”

  Well, if that wasn’t a pittrap lurking, I didn’t know what was, but it was one I was willing to navigate. “Would it be fair if we both asked questions? I would love to hear about life in another country!” While I tried to make it sound like a random curiosity, it was true enough that I would like to learn about as much as I could from Drachenlict.

  “I can agree with that. Okay, first question. What was your home life like?”

  “That’s a broad question that would take more than a full day to answer. Could you narrow it?” I asked.

  She nodded. “You’re smarter than the average citizen of Rumora, but you didn’t know how to curtsy. So, your knowledge is clearly lopsided. I am wondering what background prompted that.”

  “Ah. That. Well, my parents were farmers. But not like big plantation farmers. Barely enough to feed our bellies. My brothers were made to do more physical stuff. My one sister escaped through marriage. I didn't really have prospects anyway. So, in my spare time, I studied. Making sure no one conned my father was the best I could manage.”

  She began taking notes on her own slate. “Your turn. What do you wanna ask me?”

  “What is Drachenlict like? You said they teach everyone to read?” I asked. Honestly, I didn’t have enough information to ask a targeted question. So, this would have to do me well enough for now.

  She tapped her chalk pen on the desk. “No, not everyone is taught how to read. But literacy is much more widespread. Drachenlict is very different from Rumora, which is mostly made up of hills, valleys, and cliffs. Drachenlict is almost completely flat from one border to the next. Unlike here, you can see the sun setting against the horizon. I miss that sight most of all.”

  I nodded excitedly. The idea of a beautiful sunset was appealing, but I was concerned with the strategic advantages and disadvantages of the topography. I was raised in Rumora and never left, so the idea of no hills nearby was about as common sense as the idea of a fish in the sky.

  This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  “My turn. Are you in debt?” she asked.

  My face froze. “How could you have guessed that?”

  “Nice clothes, positive outlook while coming to a shelter. You ran away from the debt, didn’t you?”

  I looked down. That’s not fair. If I had tried to enter the town in rags, I would have been less likely to get in. But coming straight to the shelter might have been a mistake. But I didn’t have anywhere else to go.

  “How much?” she asked.

  “I’d rather not talk about that,” I said.

  “Okay. Your turn,” she said as the teapot began whistling. She poured us both a glass of warm water before dunking the tea bags into them.

  “My turn? But I didn’t answer?” I asked.

  “You did. I don’t wanna pressure or force you,” she said.

  I smiled. That was a kindness I was not used to. “So, why did you leave Drachenlict for Rumora?”

  “At first, it was part of my training. I am what you call a woman of the cloth. We are raised to help others. I came here to train under my superior, but when my training was complete, I asked her to return home instead and took this post for her.”

  Woman of the cloth? What does that mean? Hmm. Well. I tried not to think too deeply about it since it was her turn. I took the tea bag out and gestured to her.

  “You don’t like strong tea?” she asked. “Not my turn question, by the way.”

  “No,” I said as I sipped it. Yeah, it's so bitter. I almost winced even at the weak tea, but I was actually quite thirsty, so I was happy all the same.

  “Are the people you owe people I should be concerned about? I have a lot of women to look after. So I need to know these things,” she said.

  “They won’t be a problem. I am quite certain. So, why does Drachenlict send their skilled scholars to other countries?” I asked.

  She finally took out her tea bag and blew on her cup a bit. “Drachenlict itself doesn’t. We, of the cloth, take it upon ourselves to find where we are needed. And I think I am needed here.”

  “That is very kind of you,” I said.

  “You're fairly kind yourself. Skipping dinner. Why?” she asked.

  “Well, I am arriving with nothing and don’t want to be a parasite. I am not against help or getting what I need, but I didn’t need the meal last night. I imagine there was someone here that did. So that just felt like the right thing to do.”

  She sipped her tea. “A beautiful answer. Okay, ask your last question. I feel I have your measure.”

  I paused for a moment. I got it. “Do you keep in contact with Drachenlict?”

  Her eyes went wide. “I didn’t expect that. I suppose I occasionally send a letter. Maybe one every few years, but courier’s are expensive. Unless Drachenlict asks me something, I tend to use what little funds I have on the shelter.”

  Hmm. Okay, so Drachenlict was a threat to worry about but not an immediate threat. Got it. For all the previous time I had spent in this city, I had no clue that the shelter would be so plentiful with foreign knowledge.

  “Okay, so here is what I can recommend to you. In the morning, I have about an hour of free time. You are welcome to come by whenever you feel. When the hour ends, I prepare to teach a class to all the ladies who want to learn reading and writing. You are certainly encouraged to attend.”

  “Absolutely! I will be here every day without a doubt,” I said.

  “How strong are you?” she asked as she pointed to a box. “Can you carry that?”

  I nodded and lifted the box. It wasn’t that difficult but she smiled all the same.

  We arrived in a large room with several benches. It looked more like a dining room, but the girls seemed to retreat to their rooms for dinner last night. I wasn’t sure if some used this area, but it was not even that practical for what we were using it for. The benches being on both sides of the table meant that half of the students wouldn’t see the teacher. At least if they wanted to have a table to write with.

  After I sent the box down, she opened it and began pulling out these weird wooden things.

  “I take it you aren’t familiar?” she asked.

  I nodded.

  “It’s called an abacus. It is used to help you with math. You being able to use it quickly will be in some ways more important than your reading and math skills at the guild.”

  I think I am pretty decent with math. So I wasn’t too concerned. “Do I really need one of these?”

  She smiled, but I didn’t feel warmth from it. I felt bloodlust from it as if I had said something terrible.

  “Well, let us test it,” she said. She walked to her slate, the size of a small table, and began writing. “A hunter brings in four wolf skins, each valued at four hundred Geld. Yet one is damaged and only worth half the normal rate. He also brings in fifty pounds of wolf meat that is already processed, worth seventy-two Geld a pound. But he only plans to sell forty-two pounds.”

  Wait, what? Hold on a second, I was thinking, but she handed me the chalk before I could speak. “In case you think I am trying to trick you. You can write out a problem too. Then we will both solve them. Me with my abacus. You without it.”

  Okay, so my problem. “Does the Geld value need to be accurate?” I asked.

  She shook her head.

  Okay, good. No way I knew the value of Geld of that many sold items at the guild. So let’s say the same hunter, but he decides to sell only 30 pounds of meat for seventy-two gold pieces. Also, ten dragonhide for sixteen hundred Geld. And fifteen direwolf cores for five hundred each.

  “Okay,” she said, taking out a bottle with sand in it. “When the sand hits the bottom, we run out of time, and if we don’t have an answer by then, our answer is considered wrong. Ready?”

  “Yeah!” I said.

  She instantly began clanking the abacus. Which was distracting. I looked at the board and started trying to do the math in my head. But even more distracting was the sudden absence of noise as I turned to see her writing something on her slate before going back to clicking. What was she doing!

  I was way too distracted. I hadn’t managed either by the time the sand ran out.

  “So?” she asked.

  “I… that wasn’t enough time!” I said. “And your clicking was distracting.”

  She giggled a bit. “You think it will be less stressful when you're at the guild with real adventures staring at you, waiting to get paid?”

  “I… well, I guess you're not wrong,” I said. “But did that thing actually help you?”

  She showed me her slate. “Four thousand five hundred and fifty Geld for the first one. And twenty-five thousand six hundred and sixty Geld for your problem.”

  Hmm. I stared at her answers and the problems. “How do I know your answer is right?”

  She covered her mouth as she let out a light giggle. “You are more than welcome to check. Write the problems down if you wish, and you can try them later on in your own time with both your own methods and the abacus.”

  I nodded and began writing the problem and her answers on a spare slate she handed me. As I was writing my notes, I noticed other girls coming in. They were all in rough shape. About fifteen in total. A few with children in tow. Dirty rags and wild hair were common themes. Also, sunken faces and poor complexion. It made me queasy to think I almost took food from one of them.

  But it also served as a lesson for me. To remind me why I was here. I took a breath and steeled my nerves. I needed to get the job for these women and several other reasons. I grabbed my slate, ready to learn. If I had to master this abacus thing. Then, that was my mission, and I was ready to do a good job.