The Ring of Luck (Book 2)

Chapter III - The Elements of Mastery

Constance woke up a few minutes after the crack of dawn, once a single ray of sunlight had entered the room. Her training sessions would start an hour later, though, so she decided so lay around for a bit before getting up and preparing herself.

She turned over to check on the other bed where Eden lay fast asleep, and then went back into the position of how she slept. She felt her eyelids droop again but tried to keep them open, just so she could collect all the energy she had for training later that day.

Then her mind drifted into unarranged thoughts, thoughts related to her life, her work, experiences, and the like. Then she suddenly went into thinking about journeying out again, of which she didn't know if she should, especially since she has to train the novice knights.

She kept thinking about it though, her mind wouldn't leave it alone. She started deciding if she should actually go out and search for another element, if she should spend weeks or months looking for one enchanted object, an enchanted object that most people would kill someone for.

Plus, there is someone that is way too greedy and power-hungry out there that she knows, and would do anything to get a hold on that enchanted object.

Well, if they're going to start finding it, then Constance and her friends should start finding it as soon as possible in case they get there first.

And by soon, she meant they should depart around that week. But then she needed to start finding information on the Elements of Mastery.

So, she got up, walked over to Eden's bed, and started shaking her awake.

"Eden," she whispered, "Eden get up."

She didn't wake up.

"Eden," she spoke with her groggy morning voice, shaking her a little harder. "Get up."

Then she opened her eyes and grunted. She rubbed them straight afterwards and hoarsely asked "What?"

"I've got something important to do." replied Constance.

"The emperor hasn't ordered you to do something, did he?" she asked right before yawning.

"Well — no, but there's just something I got to do," she replied, "so... mind if you fill in for me today?"

Eden's eyes widened a bit. "I work in a different area of the military. Is that even fine?"

Constance thought about it for a bit. "Well... protection of the palace isn't as different as from protecting the entire empire, isn't it?"

"But protecting the empire is a much bigger responsibility!" Eden protested. "What are you guys going to be doing today, anyways?"

"Proper weapon-handling and some fighting practices." Constance stated.

"Oh, that's easy. I'll do it." replied Eden swiftly. "Alright, should I start preparing myself now?"

"Yeah, you got fifteen minutes." replied Constance dully.

"WHAT?!" shouted Eden, getting up at once. "WHY DIDN'T YOU WAKE ME UP SOONER?!"

"I was thinking in bed if I should do that certain something." replied Constance still dully.

Eden started rushing all around the room, getting her armor, undressing, then putting on all the parts of the armor, preparing her hair, and getting her sword as Constance simply put on a floor-length kirtle over her smock and styled her hair a bit.

Eden then dashed to the door and ran down into the courtyard as fast as she possibly could. Constance left right after her (but more slowly) and decided to head on over to the palace library.

As she walked through the hallways, she passed by some of the castle staff, and greeted them a good morning, when, after walking in hallways for quite a while, she finally found the library and headed in.

"Good morning, Commander Rosenburg." said the librarian as soon as he noticed her walking in.

"Morning, Doran." she replied back cordially.

Doran was a middle-aged man with graying brown hair and a small amount of wrinkles. He was always very patient with people and is very understanding.

"I'm looking for something about the Elements of Mastery." said Constance.

"Ah, a very famous myth, that one." he replied, searching the wooden shelves. "I remember when you found the Sword of Glory around a year ago, wasn't it? Turned out it wasn't a myth and it was indeed true! I couldn't believe my ears nor my eyes when I heard about it and saw it for the first time!"

Constance smiled. "Well, I don't think people will be seeing it anytime soon as well."

"I agree. It's dangerous, that Sword."

Doran made a small "ah" sound and delicately pulled out the Tale of the Elements of Mastery book. Its cover was made of leather and had the engraving of a sword rested on a chest, with a ring on its blade, a book beside it, and a potion bottle on the ground beside the sword's handle. The Sword looked quite different on the cover than it did in real life.

"Wow," said Constance softly, receiving the book from Doran's hands. "So this is what people thought the Elements looked like?"

"Probably," replied Doran, "but most likely, people have had their own ideas in their heads on what they looked like."

Constance flipped through the pages for a bit and said "I'll return this to you next week, if that's fine with you."

"Oh, no need to return that, it'll be all yours from now on!" Doran replied back with a kind smile. "Since this has been your main duty, I figured you should keep it. I wouldn't want to leave you the hassle of showing up here every now and then just for this one book."

Constance wore a look of immense gratitude. "Really?! Oh, thank you! Seriously, thank you, I can start skimming through these pages without worrying over a deadline. Thank you!"

Doran nodded back as a you're welcome and saw Constance heading for the door, but decided to quickly remind her something.

"Oh, by the way," called Doran. Constance whipped her head around with her eyebrows slightly raised.

"Good luck."

Constance smiled with more gratitude and exited out of the library, rushing back to her and Eden's sleeping chambers and placed the book on her desk.

~~~

Later that night, after Constance was done doing her duties, she went back to her desk and scoured through the pages, hoping to find the exact page of the crumpled piece of paper she had last year, in the pocket of her old kirtle.

Where is it, where is it, where is it? She thought desperately. I didn't get a different copy, did I?

And finally, after flipping and skimming through most of the pages, she found the exact page of the old piece of paper that got torn off. Page 104.

A sword, a ring, a chest, a book, and an elixir... She read in her head, So I already got the Sword, maybe now it's time to find the Ring.