Chapter 14 - Woodland Étude

In shadow's embrace and moonlit glade,

Young hearts learn the assassin's trade.

Through whispered lessons, swift and deep,

They forge the bonds that death shall keep.

The next four years passed in a blur. Elanor’s training at first fell into a predictable routine.

Wake long before the first light pierced the darkness. Run the paths. Listen to the spirits as they whisper training advice.

When she returned to the compound, it was sparring for hours, followed by a sort of classroom instruction with the other youths at the camp.

Elanor was one of twenty children, roughly the same age, who were training at the camp. Some were orphans. Some were scions of families even Elanor had heard of, but most were children of poverty.

The Shroud would purchase the children from their families, and continued paying a sort of rental during the years of training in order to help the families who’d given them up.

In the classroom, they learned how to brew potions for everything from refilling health, stamina and mana, to salving burns and purging poison from the bloodstream.

They learned about politics of the realms and about geography. They learned how to plan a mission utilizing weather patterns. Not just working around a storm, but using it to their advantage.

They studied botany and poisons. They were instructed in how to coat daggers and arrows in toxins that did everything from putting a target to sleep, to instantly killing them. How to store the daggers and arrows in separate sheaths and quivers from the normal ones to avoid cross-contamination.

Then there was the weapons training. The young trainees learned how to use small melee weapons first: daggers, knives and short swords. As they grew in strength and size, they learned to use long swords, greatswords, and axes of all sizes.

And later they even trained in halberds, spears and other long weapons.

The idea was that, while you might carry bow and daggers, you never know what a situation will force you into. Being able to grab anything at hand and fight well with it made you a formidable foe.

One of the other children at The Widow’s Shroud was Aranach Millwright.

Aranach was a human from the land of Kragmere, populated by humans and dwarves. His family were farmers with a small plot of land near the coast, where they harvested kelp and seaweed, farmed barley and olives, and bred mussels, oysters and goats.

The family was relatively stable financially, but Aranach’s parents were deeply in love, and had seven children.

From a young age, Aranach displayed tremendous athletic ability. So when a scout from the Shroud came by to recruit him, his parents reluctantly agreed to his training.

As time went by, they still sent care packages every month to the camp, not just for their son, but for all of the children. The packages were full of dried seaweed, barley and olives.

As Elanor and Aranach trained together day after day, he would tell her stories of his family life on the seashore. They became quick friends, and were paired together for training often.

In the evenings after dinner, Elanor would often entertain the trainers and her fellow students by playing her lute, harp or flute. It was important that she not lose her abilities during this time, after all.

But the trainers noticed that Elanor’s music seemed to carry with it an extra benefit. As they listened, they felt their stamina grow and their hearts relax. By the time they laid down to sleep, everyone was able to sleep peacefully.

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That’s how the first year went. At a certain point, the predictable nature of the training regimen was replaced by planned chaos.

While running the paths, a large hawk swooped down, its talons extended, only to dissolve into smoky mist when Elanor dove out of its path.

During one-on-one sparring, a halberd from a trainer swept sideways in an attempt to slice both combatants in two. They both had to dodge and continue fighting.

During classroom instruction, Sapphire might call a few of the students to take care of an urgent task.

From year two forward, adaptation to changing circumstances was paramount.

In their fourth year at The Widow’s Shroud, all the children were eighteen years old, and with a basic foundation laid firmly, the trainers began helping each student to specialize.

With Elanor’s Nocturne of Silence class, her specialization was on stealth, invisibility, and deadly action. Her stat build was an interesting balance with Dexterity and Charisma standing out as her highest attributes.

But all of the students were told to keep Endurance and Vitality as high as they could. Because all the luck and skill in the world is only enhanced by being harder to catch and kill.

So, as Elanor was preparing for her final tests after four grueling years of training, her stat sheet looked like this:

---

Character Status

Name: Elanor Veralyn

Race: Half-Elf

Class: Dual classes assigned

Discordant Virtuoso: Level 12

Nocturne of Silence: Level 18

Health: 1,350

Stamina: 1,000

Mana: 804

Core Attributes (Stats):

Strength: 85

Dexterity: 196

Endurance: 100

Vitality: 90

Intelligence: 82

Wisdom: 67

Charisma: 188

Perception: 150

---

She smiled as she read through it. Through just the evening performances for her trainers and fellow students, she’d been able to keep advancing her bardic class.

But with her assassin class reaching Level 18, she knew she was on the cusp of true advancement. With Level 20 came all new skills to choose from, and a great leap in power.

She had six months left to prepare. Six months to reach Level 20 and face her trials in her strongest form.

Aranach was right there with her. He was also Level 18, and was on track to complete his trials around the same time as her.

Sapphire called them into her cabin one night.

“Aranach and Elanor, I am so proud of you both,” Sapphire said. “Tomorrow is another day of training, but tonight we will share wine and talk about the future.”

Elanor and Aranach were sitting in two chairs with a low wooden table separating them from the leader of The Shroud.

Sapphire stood from her chair, leaned elegantly forward, and gracefully poured a generous serving of beautiful sparkling white wine into Elanor’s, then Aranach’s, and finally her own glass.

“To your success and strength,” she said, raising her glass.

The two students clinked glasses with her and they all drank. The wine was exquisite.

“Do you like it?” Sapphire asked.

Both Aranach and Elanor nodded.

“It’s from an ancient orchard,” Sapphire said. “High on the mountains above us, there is a vineyard that withstands storms, winters, beasts and all manner of obstacles. The grapes that survive all of that calamity are made into this wine. It’s said that only those of truly exceptional character can enjoy it.”

Elanor smiled.

Sapphire leaned forward, meeting the gaze of her students.

“You two have been exceptional. I have no question that you will pass your trials. It won’t be easy, of course, but you have both shown that difficulty is never an obstacle for you.”

“Thank you, Sapphire,” Elanor said, taking another sip of the wine.

“Therefore,” Sapphire continued, “I have a proposal for you both. Aranach, you and Elanor would make excellent operational partners moving forward. With your Silverhand class, negotiating everything from assassin contracts to bard gigs would be easy. And with both of you having such high Charisma, intelligence gathering is basically second nature. You two will be highly valued assets for The Umbral Thread. What do you say? Would you consider it?”

Elanor and Aranach looked at each other.

They slowly nodded.

Elanor spoke first.

“I would be honored,” she said, “but I have so many questions.”

“I do as well,” Aranach said, “but I would also be honored to work with Elanor moving forward. She has displayed not only incredible prowess in all our lessons, but high moral character. If I’m going to tie my fate to someone, I couldn’t wish for one better.”

Sapphire stood from her chair. The golden threads woven into her white robe shimmered in the firelight.

“Thank you,” she said, visibly relieved. “You two will form one of the most promising teams I can remember.”

She looked into the distance for a minute. A dark expression crossed her face for a moment, but she brushed it away just as quickly as it came.

“Now,” Sapphire said, “you have questions. I’ll answer everything I can tonight. Then tomorrow, it’s back to your training. I want you to put everything you’ve got into your last months here. The road forward will not be easy. Enjoy it while you can.”

“My first question,” Elanor said, “is this: What is The Umbral Thread?”