I wipe the sweat off my face and sit down next to Nix in the training hall. I’ve only been training a few days now and I’m already regretting letting him talk me into it.

  Okay. Not really. I was the one who talked him into letting me tag along but I need to blame someone. Whine. Whine. I am out of shape and feeling it right now. I need a distraction.

  “So Keldon,” I begin, “you’re an Adventurer?”

  “That’s right.”

  “What’s that mean exactly?” asks Nix.

  “Oh, that’s right. You guys probably don’t know about the Guild system. There’s three main Guilds in this part of Emulgren: Adventurers, Crafters, and Merchants. Each one of those is split into specialty Guilds. The Adventurers Guild is split into Harvesters, Divers and Generalists. Then there’s professional associations like for Mages, Healers, and Guards.”

  “So which of those are you?” I ask.

  “I was a Harvester for most of my career. Although I’ve worked as a Diver, too. Right now I’m technically a Generalist, since I’m in training and administration. With the Adventurers Guild, you can take on any type of work you want, so the distinction between one and the other gets a little blurred. The other Guilds are different, though.”

  “How’s that?” asks Nix.

  “Hmmm. Crafters, for example, are split up into specialties like Smith, Glassblower, Carpenter, etc. They have an apprentice system and there’s not a lot of movement between specialties. Merchants have three main divisions: Traders for wholesale and transport, Shopkeepers for retail, and Bankers handle credit, deposits, accounting, taxes, and such-like.”

  “Taxes?” Nix’s voice comes out in a squeak. “We have to pay taxes? I wanna go home!”

  “Hahahahaha!” Keldon laughs. “Taxes are actually pretty simple for the average guy. There’s a tax on all goods sold by Shopkeepers. That tax is collected by Guild accountants. Some cities and countries have tried to place tariffs on goods moving in and out in the past, but it’s just too hard to make it work in practice.”

  I think about it for a bit, “So as a Harvester, for example, I would sell the things I harvest to Crafters or Merchants?”

  “You could sell directly or through the Harvesters Guild. A lot of Harvesters do that because it’s less of a hassle. The Guild takes a cut but you don’t have to find buyers or worry about transport and delivery. Just take things straight to the Guild Hall and then go have a beer.”

  “Because beer is important!” shouts Nix.

  “You’ve never had a beer in your life,” I state.

  “Yeah, but I’d like to. I hear barmaids are cute!”

  “You must go to different bars than I do,” grumbles Keldon.

  They used to call them trick shots where I come from. Curving arrows around obstacles, hitting moving targets, shooting multiple arrows at the same time, and even shooting down other arrows in mid-flight. But those aren't trick shots here.

  Here they call that advanced archery and any archer who wields a bow in the army here can do them. So now I'm learning how to do them too.

  It's early morning and I’m training by myself once again. The trick shots don't work the same here as they did back home. There is magic involved, of course, a simpler sort of magic than what comes with our Sigils. It involves Mana energy in some way, but without spells or incantations. I guess you could call it a Skill. Intent, visualization, and actualization. That's what it takes. Yes, I know. It sounds like a bunch of malarkey to me as well. But it works! What can I say?

  I have the practice field set up for multiple targets. Right now I’m working on the simplest form: just two arrows with a straight shot to both targets. Unlike the trick shots that I saw in the past, these targets aren't lined up in a pretty row right next to each other. They are yards apart at different distances and different heights.

  Calming my mind, I nock two arrows and draw the string back to my ear. I clarify the intent in my mind, visualize the release, the two arrows in flight as they travel toward their separate targets. Visualize the strike; first one arrow then the other as they reach their targets. Visualize each of the feathered shafts centered in the bullseyes. Then I release. Perfect!

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  Yeah right! One of the arrows is a hit on target - if you can call an inch from the edge of the hay bale that the target is pinned to a hit. The other arrow, to give it due credit, did travel vaguely in the right direction.

  I'd say this is harder than it looks but it looks pretty damn hard to me! Maybe that's my problem? I just have to believe! Yeah, let's go with that.

  I pull two arrows from my quiver. It's not the destination, it's the journey. Or something like that. Calming my mind, I begin again.

  So I got this wildly radical spell I call Lucky Find. Don't know where it came from and don't know how it works. It started out as a spell to help me search for things. But I think it's interacting with my dragon instincts, which I got because I'm a badass honorary dragon! So the spell started acting weird: not every time, just some of the time. Then it sorta morphed into two spells. Don't know how that works either! But one of the spells, the actual Search spell, seems to use Mana energy. The other spell, the Lucky Find spell, seems to use Primal energy. Maybe it's tied to Fate? But I'm not s’posed to have Fate magic so I dunno.

  So what was I talking about? Oh yeah! Maps! I found a map with Lucky Find. It was ‘ttached to a wall in a dusty old room that nobody goes into anymore.

  So I grab it and bring it home. More specifically, I bring it to the library. Which I'm allowed to do, coz clearly nobody is using it and they’ve forgotten about it and pro’bly don't need it anymore and therefore it needs an owner who will care for it and love it and appreciate everything it does for her. And her Hoard. Just sayin’.

  So now it's all spread out on a library table and Penny is updating it. Actually- and this is really cool - she laid her hands on it, blinked her eyes three times, and made a magical copy of it. Then she put the original in her map drawer and is making corrections to the copy.

  Wait a minute! Did she just do what I think she did? Did she just steal MY map from MY Hoard and put it in HER Hoard? Rrrrrrrrr!! You gotta watch people every single second or they'll steal you blind!

  And I should know. So anyway, Penny is making corrections and updates and I'll be able to complete one of Addie's quests! Booyah! EXP, gold, and maybe special items for me! Well, maybe not. This doesn't seem to be that sort of fantasy RPG world. But at least Addie won't be yelling at me for being lazy and stuff like that. Which is unfair when she does because I've never been lazy a day in my life.

  Pffft! Just kidding! Coz Ima honorary dragon now and the first dragon tip - can I call them rules now? tip is just too dangerous a word on a number of levels - the first dragon rule is that dragons are lazy. I didn't wanna be but because I’ma dragon now I hafta be! I'm sure Addie understands.

  And just because I know you're getting all judgy about it, It's not being lazy just because Penny's doing all the work. She's a librarian, it's her thing, and she's a big girl who can make her own choices in life. Didn't have anything to do with me making so many mistakes she grabbed the pen out of my hand and told me to go sit down in the corner. Why is everybody so mean to me?!?

  I sit in the guards' break room watching a trio of men play a game called Marle Pahn. The game has clear strategic elements related to controlling space on a board, combined with dice to add a random element to play. Like a mix of chess, go, and backgammon.

  I’m here because I complained to Kari that I don’t have a way to train my Clairvoyant abilities outside of my sparring training with Nix and Keldon. We’d run into her near the training rooms after working out. Sweaty and tired, I really just wanted a bath but Kari dragged me to the guards' break room instead.

  How did she get to be buddies with all of these big hulking brutes, anyway? Okay. That's unfair. As I watch them play and listen to them explain the rules, I come to understand that these veteran swordsmen are also deep tactical thinkers.

  After watching them play a demonstration match, Nix and Kari wander off. I stay and watch as the men begin playing in earnest. i.e. money is now on the table and each of them is serious about moving it into their own pocket.

  Focusing on my Clairvoyant skills, I see possibilities opening up before me. It’s like I can see a decision tree overlaying my eyesight. I’m calling it a Time Graph. It starts out very confusing, so many possibilities leading to so very many more possibilities. But then I start to get the feel for the ebb and flow of chance. Or should I say Fate?

  Before each player rolls the game's three dice, there are 216 first-order branches displayed. After the dice roll, however, there are a lot less first-order options to choose from, although the second and third tiers of the decision graph are still mind-bogglingly complicated. As each move is made in a player's turn, less options are displayed for the remaining moves. Then it starts all over again.

  It’s fascinating to me. This ability is a direct follow-on from my actuarial skills, but takes it to much deeper depths.

  I am also finding ways to manipulate my view of the Time Graph. Zooming in or zooming out, isolating decision trees, highlighting certain branches in different colors, etc. Fun to play with. I’m sure I’m only able to do this because of my life-long training in visualization.

  After watching three or four matches, my Time Graph starts to add in additional details. Certain decisions and their outcomes appear more prominently than others. Players frequently choose those options. As I come to understand the game more, my mind is processing the possibilities and classifying the moves from most to least likely. I guess. I make a mental bet with myself that after watching a hundred or so games, probabilities will start appearing next to the most likely options.

  After about two hours, pain starts affecting my ability to focus, so I leave in search of Tara. But I’ll be back.