《Azure Lightning》


 First Steps

    Prologue


    As the sun rose, it slowly burned away the mist that had submerged the valley the night before. Gradually, the smoke from chimneys replaced the fog, and the picture of a tiny country village appeared at the bottom of the valley.


    This village had that timeless feel, yet today, there was a disturbance to this village. The repetitive sounds that gave this village part of its charm stuttered then gradually stopped as the villagers paused to look as a stranger meandered down the only path into their village.


    With all the villagers staring at him, the cloaked stranger walked toward one of the few villagers'', Nick Tomaz. At first, the villagers moved forward to block the stranger, but then the stranger stood up straight and as if on command, the wind blew through the village kicking-up a screen of dust.


    When the dust settled, the villagers were able to catch a glance at the stranger as he placed his hand upon the villager''s head before they both disappeared. The villagers would not see Nick again until he became a very different man.


    <h3 style="text-align: center">First Steps


    I woke up in a room bigger than my old room or at least it seemed to be, but my memory was so fuzzy that I couldn''t tell if they were my memories or just a vivid dream. I was pondering this as I looked around at the brightly colored walls filled tastefully with beautiful paintings of different landscapes.


    My inspection of the room was interrupted when the door flew open, and a man dressed in a black suit entered the room. He made a small bow then pointed his hand toward the hallway as if to indicate that I should head into the hall. Being a little obstinate, I did not jump to his command having still been engrossed in my observations of the room and confusion with my memories.


    After he stood there for five minutes, a small frown appeared on his ordinarily expressionless face and with what seemed like an enormous amount of effort he uttered, "Young Master, please proceed down the hallway to the double doors and wait to be called in by the Master."Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation.


    After conveying this message, he resumed his stance pointing towards the hallway being so still he could have been mistaken for a statue. I continued to lie for a moment before realizing that my patience certainly wasn''t going to last longer than the man who was currently impersonating a statue.


    So taking a deep breath, I began walking down the hallway which had marble archways every ten feet. After what seemed to be a mile long hallway, I arrived at a set of ornate marble doors on which was a depiction of a mountain so realistic that it caused me to stop and verify that it was truly an engraving and not a window to a view of a real mountain.


    While I was inspecting the door, a voice rambled out filling the entire hallway with reverberations of the word, "Enter"! As the vibrations faded, the doors without a sound opened to reveal a massive room with a ceiling that seemed to soar endlessly into the sky. Stationed in the middle of the room, were two rows of colossal steel statues holding large spears with points touching creating a corridor a 100 feet tall.


    As I passed through, the weight from their presence seemed to press down on me in waves making each step I took harder than the last. As I hesitantly made my way through the room, my eyes were drawn to a man lounging on an ornate chair placed at the end of the room.


    His presence exuded a kind of stoic grandeur. He looked down at me with his dark brown eyes with a sort of confidence that everyone would obey any command he demanded. When I approached, he uttered, "Kneel" softly, yet with a weight that caused the work to settle in on my shoulders and tried to force me to my knees. It took all my willpower to stay standing.


    Before I could let out a reply in defiance, he sat up and let out a laugh that rumbled across the room. Now sitting up, he stared straight into my eyes with apparent interest as if he had just found some kind of valuable specimen.


    "Welcome to my home, this is where you will stay while you are my disciple. Here you will discover the facts of the world you never knew existed. In fact, I have already given you a small gift of knowledge while you were sleeping to help speed along this process." I just stared at him not knowing how to reply to this statement.


    Before I could react, he stood up and placed his hand on my chest. As soon as he touched me, a vision flooded with sparks of color overlaid everything visible; the only thing with a solid color was the man shimmering with deep brown as if he was made with constantly shifting rocks.


    Then he dropped his hand, and my vision snapped back to normal. "So, how did you like your new world?" He then indicated for me to sit as a chair appeared out of the ground. I sat down, and he continued with his speech. "Now, I believe it is time for me to explain a few things. First of all, my name is Tera, and from now on you will be known as Azur. Until you master your magic to an acceptable level, you will remain here. So, since it is in your best interest to finish this training quickly, are you ready to start?"


    He then glanced at me with his weighted gaze rooting me to the chair and driving any thought of argument from me. With some reluctance and for reasons unknown to me, I uttered two words that would change my life, my name and my fundamental view of life, "Let''s start!"

 Learning my Path

    "Well, since you''re ready, then come let me show you where you''ll be training." After Tera finished talking, a corridor opened up in the wall behind him, and I followed him through into a circular room with walls as high as a mile in height.


    Wrapping across the wall like a giant snake was some kind of metal apparatus. When it got to the center of the room, it formed nine circles, one on top of the other. Periodically, electricity would snake down the middle causing a faint rumble to continually fill the room. When Tera reached the center, he turned and proceeded to give me the first lecture that would immerse me in a new world. "As you may have noticed, this room is built in a particular pattern to aid in your training.


    To understand why I will need to first explain how magic works. What people know of magic is merely the manipulation of elements. Each person has either one of two elements natural to themselves. These elements are the only elements a person will be able to manipulate and assimilate. If you haven''t guessed by now, my main element is earth, and yours is lightning.


    The first step to learning magic for you are assimilating lightning. This will allow you to see those specks you saw before. These are pieces of the elements that you will use to create your magic for your incredible feats."


    Barely able to process all the information he was shoving into my head, I slowly comprehended everything and my excitement started to build in anticipation of all the powers I would potentially gain. He must have noticed the change in my expression because a smile slowly rose on his face. He then gestured for me to sit underneath the coils in the middle of the room.Unauthorized usage: this tale is on Amazon without the author''s consent. Report any sightings.


    As I sat wondering what I was supposed to do next, he once again placed his hand on my chest, and the room once again lit up with specks. Only this time instead of a myriad of different colors, there were mainly violet specks. Seeing me look around at all the specs, he let out another smile before saying,


    "As you can see, the purpose of this chamber is to concentrate the lightning elements into the room. These elements should appear as purple specks. All I want you to do is to try drawing one of the violet specks into your eye."


    I paused, wondering if he was going to explain how I could possibly move these specks which I couldn''t touch much less move into my eye. I decided to try to just move them utilizing my mind; I mean I was supposed to be learning magic, right? No reason for standard physics to apply. I tried concentrating on one speck and mentally nudging it into my eye. I focused my concentration, but it did not move.


    I tried a few more times but was unsuccessful and felt with each failed attempt, I was getting less focused. Finally claiming defeat, I gave Tera a questioning look. He stared at me for quite a while as if hoping I would keep trying before sighing and saying,


    "Don''t and just control it, you have to direct it. Present your eye as if it was the natural way to fall (flow) instead of through the air."


    Feeling stupid if his method worked after my failed attempts, I decided to try again. Imagining myself as some kind of lightning minutes nothing seemed to work. All of a sudden, I noticed that some of the speck''s path had started to bend just slightly toward my eye. Eventually, I was able to get all the speck rod starting at my eyes and ending at the ground, I focused my concentration once again.


    First, nothing happened, and I was getting more annoyed every minute as nothing seemed to work. All of a sudden, I noticed that some of the speck''s path had started to bend just slightly toward my eye.


    Eventually, I was able to get all the spec paths to turn until finally one of the specks landed in my eye. As soon as it did, pain lanced through my whole body centering in my right eye. Feeling like my right eye was being burned to cinders before healing and being burned again. The pain was so great; I could no longer bear it and passed out.

 Forming a Core

    I once again woke up in what apparently was my room. I got up and checked to make sure my eye was fine and to my relief, nothing about it had seemed to change. Until I started looking around and noticed that occasionally out of the corner of my eye, I could see violet sparks flicker in and out of my vision.


    Before I could test my new vision, my self-styled master entered the room and after observing that I was awake remarked,


    "So, you''re awake. It seems as if the assimilation was successful. From now on, it might be less painful. Now go back to your training room. There''s some food left, so, eat it before we start your training again."


    Before I could reply, he walked out of the room. I sat there for a while not wanting to move and possibly experience the pain again. Eventually, my stomach betrayed me, and I started walking down the hallway wondering what kind of food I might be receiving. I was quite looking forward to tasting it considering the grandness of everything in this place. I was assuming the food would also be to the same grand level.


    I arrived at the training room. The man who had awoken me the first day was there, he was standing next to the coils with one hand extended holding a silver plate. I went up to him to grab the platter, but as soon as I got within ten feet, he removed the lid in one smooth motion revealing a hunk of old bread and some kind of salted meat. I couldn''t help but ask,


    "Why in a place so grand, do I get such shitty food?"


    To which his reply was,


    "The master has told me to let you know that if you wish to experience pleasures in life, you should quickly finish your training and leave this place because this is all you will get while you are here."


    I bit back my retort knowing there was no point in arguing with him. I would just have to bear with until I got strong enough to resist his crazy demands. I began my training, trying to control the lightning. As the park entered my eye again, I passed out from the pain as I had done on my previous attempt.


    This training would continue every day. Eventually, the pain subsided, and I managed to fully assimilate the lightning elements into my eyes. This not only allowed me to see the sparks everywhere but also increased my vision dramatically so that I could see a speck of dust a mile away.


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    He then had me continue this training with all my other bodyparts increasing my physical abilities in every way. When I finally finished the last part of the training, my master seemingly appeared out of nowhere and for the first time had a smile that lasted for more than two seconds.


    "I see you have finished the first phase of the training. You are just one step away from starting the second phase. Once you have entered into the second phase, you can leave at least for a time. I will give you a mission, and you will need to complete it for your own good. This mission is to find the ruins of a sect that practiced lightning magic. There you will learn ways to fine-tune your magic instead of the brute force ways you are currently using."


    He then handed me a map and started pointing out different places on it. Showing me the general path I should take for my journey. Of course, for me, the only place I cared to know about was the first city. I was in no hurry to finish his mission and come back to this place where all I was allowed to do was train, sleep and eat incredibly unappetizing meals.


    After he finished talking about the route I should follow, he marked it on the map. Then he started talking about the next phase of my training. This definitely drew my interest, not because I cared about getting stronger, but it was my only ticket out of this place.


    "The second phase of your training is to create a lightning core. This is a compressed bunch of lightning elements that should sit in the middle of the chest. This will allow you to actually wield the lightning instead of just increasing your physical abilities as you accomplished in the first phase. It will also allow you to use lightning skills that will give you the ability to do all variety of things such as teleportation and other higher magic. Unfortunately for you, to gain these capabilities, you will need to finish the mission I gave you. Now, start your next phase. Sit in your training spot and begin. The process of creating the lightning core should only take a few hours."


    I practically sprinted to the practice spot. I had not realized that this next phase would only take a few hours. I had been preparing myself for months of training before I could be free of this place. It took thirty extra minutes for me to be calm enough to follow his instructions. I started gathering the lightning elements towards my chest using the methods I had mastered over the months of training.


    As the lightning elements gathered in my chest, it took all my willpower to keep them contained. Slowly the elements became more and more concentrated until finally the core stabilized with the individual sparks no longer trying to shoot off in every direction but forming a complicated dance where each one restrained another. My master seemingly sensing that I was done appeared next to me.


    "Now that you have stabilized your core try making them elements in your core go to your left hand."


    After a few attempts, I finally managed to urge some of the elements in my core to travel my left hand. As soon as they reached my hand, mini lightning bolts sprouted from my fingers before the elements quickly disappeared and were slowly reabsorbed back into my core. My master nodded his head before saying the words I would here for a long time.


    "You now realize why the core can be so useful. While you''re on your mission, I have given you three things you need to do at least an hour each day. Practice controlling the elements when you release them from your core, so they don''t all dispense before you get close to your enemy. You can form it to do different things besides creating lightning bolts from your fingers.


    You need to absorb more elements into your core so you can create and control larger groups of elements. The last thing you need to learn is the ability to circulate the elements from your core to the rest of your body to help strengthen your body even more."


    I gave him my acknowledgment that I both understood and would follow his instructions. And I actually would because I didn''t mind being stronger even if it isn''t wasn''t my biggest priority. He then turned, made a wave and suddenly a staircase appeared in the wall circling upwards in an immeasurable height through the rock.

 Entering the Wider World

    I started walking up the stairs at a regular cadence at first, but I slowly started realizing that these stairs were much longer than I initially anticipated. I started speeding up, and eventually, my speed got so fast that my feet would leave inch deep footprints in the solid stone and sometimes even cracked the stairs. Even at this pace, it took me a considerable amount of time before I turned yet another twist on the stairs and saw rays of sunlight lying upon the last flight of stairs.


    Upon exiting the archway, I was surrounded by gigantic trees whose trunks seemed broad enough to build a whole house into and tall enough to brush against the clouds. Shocked at the size of these trees, I couldn''t resist climbing one of them to see just how far this abnormal forest spread. When I reached the top of the tree, all I could see for tens of miles, even with my enhanced vision, were waves of green undulating with the wind. Making it seem like I was trying to look across a vast green ocean in all directions.


    It was at this moment that I realized that maybe I should have asked to get a scale for the map! If I could just make it out of the forest, I should be right at my destination. The only problem was I had absolutely no survival skills, and it seemed like it would take a few days to make it out of this forest. Well, I suppose I can just hope there are some kinds of animals I can hunt since it would be pretty easy with all my new abilities.


    Suddenly, I heard a noise from behind. I flipped around so fast that it kicked up a wall of dust and leaves. A barely visible shape burst through the wall of debris causing me to instinctively kick up at it. My foot connected to brain and blood matter scattering it everywhere. I froze in shock for a second as the new headless body toppled to the ground.


    Reminding me once again, that now the capabilities of my body after all my training were well beyond an average human. I went gingerly over to the animal corpse to determine what I had harmed. It was some kind of large cat, and when I say massive, I mean massive. This thing was probably twice as tall as me when standing on all fours. When I looked at the path it took as it pounced on me, I noticed it had hit a tree while making its'' way through the middle of the debris I had kicked up. It had torn a man-sized chunk out of the tree without slowing down.


    It seems like this forest might have more dangers than just thirst and hunger. Although hunger seemed to be solved at the moment since I now had this giant pile of meat lying next to me.


    I was once again at an impasse. I had no idea what my next step should be. For a while, I tried rubbing together rocks to get a fire going like I thought I remembered how it was done. Considering my memories were not reliable, I wasn''t very successful. It took me an hour of banging the rocks together like an idiot before I realized maybe the lightning I could shoot from my hand might help a little.


    So, I tried urging the elements to jump from my hand to the pile of sticks I had gathered in my previous attempts. When the lightning hit the sticks, it did light them on fire successfully, but it also scattered them in every direction. I ran around only being somewhat successful in stopping all of the sticks from burning down half the forest but after I recovered everything I had a nice mostly controlled fire going.


    I started cooking whatever animal it was I just killed. When I took the first bite, it melted in my mouth and sent a surge of liquid happiness shooting through my body just by how good it was compared to what I had been eating. I sat there for a while just washed in the sensations. Finally being thoroughly stuffed, I started following the map towards where the city was located.


    I traveled this direction for two more days and got attacked twice more by the same strangely over-sized animals both of which I disposed of in a similar manner as the first one. In fact, I even got good enough at controlling the lightning, there was only a small chance of setting the whole forest on fire.


    It was on the third night of traveling that I noticed a flickering light in the distance. I headed towards it hoping that I would be able to find some people that knew how to get to the city that was my destination. I got closer to the light, and it was a campfire. I approached it quickly and was about to yell something to them when something must have alerted them to my presence because they jumped up and drew their weapons.


    One of them was a female who was clad in a full plate of armor with lion head pauldrons and a two-handed weapon etched with a unique pattern that might have meant something to her but just looked cool to me. She gave me a kind of up and down assessment before a little bit of shock appeared on her face as she questioned me saying,


    "What the hell are you doing in the Giant''s forest by yourself and unarmed?"


    I tried to quickly think of a proper response because it was true if I had only the strength of a normal human being in this forest alone, it would have been a death sentence. Before I could finish deciding whether to tell the truth or to make up some fictitious story, another person in the group stepped up. He was dressed in a drab brown robe and had a sort of weasel-like appearance. His eyes constantly darted around like he was suspicious of everything. He gave a small yank on the female''s elbow and whispered to her,


    "Careful, I think he might be a core master, I could sense some fluctuations."This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.


    Upon hearing this, the woman stiffened up and looked at me with added wariness. Deciding to introduce myself might ease the tension, I gave a small wave before saying,


    "Hello, I am currently trying to find my way here,"


    I said while pointing to the city on my map.


    "My name is Azur. Why are you guys staying in this forest?"


    I asked. I looked up after giving this introduction to see them all give me looks of either shock or amazement. The woman seemingly the spokesperson for the group addressed me again with a bit of nervousness entering her voice,


    "What is an honored core master doing so far out of the mainland?"


    I looked at her confused before voicing my questions,


    "What do you mean by mainland and why are you calling me a core master and how do you know that I am one?"


    She seemed kind of thrown off by my response but quickly recovered replying,


    "You don''t know where the mainland is and didn''t you come from there? As for how we knew you were a core master, the map you showed us is incredibly rare and only someone at the level of core master should have the ability to acquire one."


    She thinks I''m from what they call the mainland. I wonder why that is. Either way, it seems the map the Master gave me is extremely rare making them think I''m a core master. Though now that I think about it. Core master could refer to me having a lightening core. So with my newly somewhat mastered control of my lightning, I was able to clad my hand in lightening without it all dissipating. Doing this, I held my hand with lightning sparking off of it and asked,


    "Is this what you mean by a core master?"


    No one answered for a while just staring at my hand in amazement when one in the group who had not yet spoken and was wearing light leather armor and carrying a longbow walked over towards me. He looked at me with a kind of reverence you''d expect to see on someone''s face when they met their hero. He barely managed to stutter out,


    "Are you an elemental core master?"


    Getting a little annoyed that these people kept asking me questions instead of answering mine, I answered him with some annoyance creeping into my voice,


    "If having a condensed core of lightening elements is being an elemental core master, then, yes I am. But maybe you should explain what your definition of a core master and this mainland is me."


    They seemed to finally realize that they haven''t answered any of my questions. The woman stepped up again, gave a small bow and said in a somewhat apologetic tone,


    "What you described would definitely make you a core master. Core masters are anyone who has a condensed core of elements though most of the time the core isn''t made of one specific element which makes them weaker. That is why we were so surprised when you had an elemental core. As for the mainland, it''s a continent right next to this one, and almost all core masters come from there. In fact, there is only one sect that isn''t based in the mainland, and that sect is isolated on an island as a protest against the constant warfare on the mainland."


    All this information seemingly answered my questions, but it also raised more. It this land wasn''t even considered the mainland and yet it was already this huge, how big was this whole world? This gave me a little bit of desire to someday explore this vast world, but for now, I had to complete my mission and try to find the city on my map. On that note, I turned around and asked them,


    "Can any of you guys tell me how to get to the city right outside the forest? Also, who are you guys and what are you doing in this forest. I mean it doesn''t exactly seem like the most habitable of places."


    The woman looked almost relieved now that I was asking more normal questions. She once again stepped up to answer my questions,


    "We are part of the mercenary group, the Flaming Lance. I am one of the squad leaders, Claudia. The other members of my squad are Russel, as she says this she points towards the man in the drab robe before continuing, he is our group''s elemental manipulator. The last member with the bow who doesn''t talk much is Thomas. We are out for the same reason everyone goes to this forest, hunting. As for getting to the city, why not come with us? We''re heading back right now."


    When she finished, I was a little surprised that she had answered everything so easily. I was going to let her know I agreed to her proposal when I noticed a movement in the background. Next thing I knew, a creature jumped into the clearing with the campfire kicking up an enormous dust cloud. For a second, all was silent.


    Then the dust started to clear, and I got my first good view of the creature. It was huge as was typical of this forest, but from there it differed substantially from the other animals. Its base form most closely resembled a dog, but instead of fur, it had scales that hugged its body like well-made plate amour of ours. With every breath, a small amount of drool would come out of its mouth burning small pits in the ground with every drop. It also had four teeth that extended from its mouth and shined with venom.


    For a second while I was taking in the strange looking creature, it gave all us a look like it was daring us to run from it. Then it jumped at our group. I dodged to the side and used my typical kick to the head that had worked so far. It attempted to evade but was not quick enough. My foot hit it with a solid thud that threw it backward into a tree cracking the tree in half with a thunderous boom. It quickly got back to its'' feet, surprising me that didn''t appear to be hurt. Both of now looked at the other with added wariness realizing we were underestimating each other. We stared each other down for a bit until finally, it lunged at me.


    I dodged to the side again but mid-lunge it had spit out a glob of something that intercepted my dodge spattering onto my shoulder, instantly burning off my clothing and starting to burn my shoulder. So, I activated my core to clad my whole body in lightening just barely being able to maintain control of the elements. I jumped forward and hammered the strongest blow I could manage into its'' front leg sending it backward nearly fifty feet and shattering the scales on its'' leg.


    Blood started to seep out of its'' leg. It looked back at me as if realizing that it might need to run. But before it could run away, I pushed myself and concentrated all of the elements in my core onto my hand forming a sort of lightening blade on my hand. Before it could disperse, I struck the creature in the forehead frying its'' brain. It collapsed with a soft thump as I actually gasped a breath since the last technique I used caused a considerable strain on me.


    As I stood there recovering, my brand new companions walked up to me with an equal measure of shock and awe written upon their faces. Claudia stepped up stammering,


    "You, you actually killed a Demon Hound! Just how strong of a core master are you?"


    I kind of gave her a questioning look,


    "Do you really think that thing was that strong? It was too slow to be much of a threat and even then just barely managed to injure me."


    As I said this, I pointed to my shoulder which even now was rapidly healing. Upon seeing my shoulder so quickly healing, it seemed that something suddenly dawned on her. She looked back at me saying,


    "Well, it doesn''t matter now that it''s dead. But if you still want to go to the city, we can lead you there. In fact, we can also help you carry the scales and teeth of the Demon Hound. They are worth a fortune at auction."


    I agreed wholeheartedly for this was precisely what I wanted, and with a chance to get some extra money, that was just an added bonus. With my agreement, they started dismantling the Demon Hound. They did this with precision and efficiency that only someone with tons of experience could manage. This made me wonder just how many beasts must they have killed to have gotten so good at this process. Slowly, a small hill of scales was formed with four large fangs sitting on top. We all grabbed as much as our packs could hold and when we were finished, there was still half of the pile left. We then started heading towards the city.

 Auction(1)

    As we walked, I got to know a little more about them, the city and their mercenary group. The town was named Twin Lions after the coat of arms from the two families that ruled the city. In fact, Claudia was a distant relative of the Silver Lion family which is why her pauldrons were in the shape of lions. It also seemed like their mercenary group was just one of many that flourished next to the Giant''s Forest which offered all sorts of opportunities for someone willing to bet their life for money and adventure.


    Their particular mercenary group was set-up so that every squad did a specific type of job. They had an escort, fighting, hunting and specialist squad. Claudia''s team was the hunting squad which explained why they were so good at taking apart the Demon Hound.


    As we continued to walk, we finally reached the end of the forest. We crossed the final row of trees and a seemingly endless series of plains opened up in front of us and most prominent in these plains was a city. Its'' walls rose hundreds of meters in the air towering over the plains every inch of them gleaming like they were made out of polished marble.


    With my enhanced vision, I could see hundreds of soldiers patrolling around these walls each unit led by someone wearing either red or silver lion pauldrons. The walls circle around an area of tens of miles wide. There were only two breaks in the uniform grandeur of this wall.


    One was a magnificent gateway. Its'' doors were made of some sort of black metal that gleamed as if someone polished it every day. Carved into the door was a series of intricate patterns that resembled those found on Claudia''s sword giving further credence to my hunch that there was some sort of deeper significance to the patterns than just being aesthetically pleasing.


    The other gap in the wall was a giant archway where a river ran through the city. On the river, I could see a constant stream of boats entering and leaving. As we got closer to the city, we merged with the stream of people heading to the gates which opened into a giant square crowded on three sides by giant buildings that were all draped in tons of different colored banners with all different sigils.


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    Down at the ground level of the square, were tons of small stands each selling different products. Among these stands, at the end of the square, was a building with the letters AUCTION carved into the top of the building. Claudia nudged me to get my attention,


    "That''s where we are heading first after the auctions are finished, you should have enough money to go anywhere in the city that you want."


    Daydreaming with the anticipation all the food I was going to buy and how excellent a weapon I was going to get, I finally realized how lost I was going to be when I separated from them, so I turned and asked,


    " What are you guys going to do now that we made it to the city?"


    Claudia looked at me and said,


    "Well, we first have to get all these scales sold off. I''ve never been able to see such an expensive item auctioned. Then afterward, we can give you a city tour if you agree to visit our mercenary group."


    She looked at the other two as if asking for confirmation; they both nodded back making her current smile grow a little bit wider. Relieved that my problem of being lost was solved, I promised to visit their group, and we proceeded towards the auction house.


    When we got close to the entrance, we had to start shoving our way through the densely packed crowd. We finally managed to get in when people started noticing the lion head pauldrons on Claudia. As soon as they spotted them, they would step out of the way. When we got to the entrance, the clerk at the door said,


    "10 coppers for a stand seat or 10 silvers for a box seat."


    He held out his hand waiting for payment, barely paying attention to us. I tried to get his attention to tell him I had something to sell but either the crowd was too loud, or he just didn''t care because he didn''t react. Finally, noticing we had not placed anything in his hand, he turned to our group and said,


    "Was there anything in my directions that was unclear?"


    I replied saying once again,


    "I''m not here to buy anything, I have something to sell."


    He gave a sigh before saying,


    "An auction is just starting now, and if you want to sell something come back..."


    Before he could finish his statement, he seemed to notice something. He immediately stood as straight as I have ever seen anyone stand, gave a small bow and then said,


    "I did not realize that you were with a member of the silver lion family. I''ll have a representative meet with you right away."


    He then directed our group to a small room that had a few luxurious couches facing an intricately wooden desk. He closed the door allowing all of us to relax on the sofas. We were just starting to really relax when the door opened with a great boom. A man rushed into the room with a disordered appearance as if he had just gotten out of bed.


    "Sorry for the wait, we just finished organizing this last auction, and things are a little chaotic at the moment."


    He said all of this at such a pace that I''m not sure he took a single breath. He then rocked back and forth as if impatient for someone to respond. Not wanting to disappoint him, I took out one of the scales and one of the fangs before saying,


    "I would like to sell a bunch of these."


    Indicating what I had in my hand.