The air was cold. The air here was always cold. In her entire life Livia had never seen snow in person. She had only heard about it in stories from those that had lived on the continent. She remembered Simeon telling her about it. How much he would hate it when the snow stuck to his fur.

  Simeon. If only you had joined us.

  But now all around her she would only see snow. On the ground, on the faraway hills, down the path that the furtives carved where they walked, on the heads of the furtives who stood in place waiting for their orders.

  “Riflemen ready!” The furtive at the back of the line, Roi, shouted.

  The row of furtives waiting in place held their rifles.

  “Aim!” Roi shouted.

  The furtives all aimed down the sights at the massive ice sculptures on the other end. Livia looked at the targets in the distance. They were large chunks of ice carved to resemble Giants.

  “Fire!” Roi shouted.

  The row of furtives shot on command. The stand-in Giants had portions of their body blown away with certain regularity. The soldiers were getting better but some still missed shots regularly.

  They are still struggling with the quick pace of fire.

  “Riflemen rotate!” Roi shouted.

  Livia studied as the furtives swapped places. The furtives who had fired stood up and prepared their weapon for the next volley. In between the movements Livia saw some furtives trip and almost fall down. Despite the issues they continued with their practice.

  “Riflemen ready!” “Aim!” “Fire!”

  Roi continued drilling the furtives. Livia, covered head to toe in cloth, observed every movement of the practicing furtives.

  She looked at Roi. It was his first time in this position. He was the newly minted Captain of the Sixth Squadron. Roi had been the Master of the Gun in this squadron, the second in command. The previous Captain, Denis, died in their encounter against Barad.

  Livia remembered the dwarf, Denis, one of the first to join Jokasta’s cause. He went from a furtive who had never wielded a weapon to one of Artesh’s most trusted subordinates. He was deeply committed to those under his command, his care and dedication to them without reproach. He was kind, loyal, but most importantly a good friend.

  Livia’s heart ached as she thought of the dutiful dwarf. One of many that had perished since the raids against the Titans had begun. Artesh and his Legion would always return victorious, but never without cost.

  What will the cost be when the actual war begins?

  Livia looked at the furtives lining up, firing, swapping, preparing for the next volley. In their place Livia could picture those that had never returned. Ghermain, Therois, Naori, Allant, Obbe, Denis.

  One of the riflemen dropped his weapon. Upon hitting the ground the rifle fired. The bullet flew by Livia, missing her by a dangerously close margin.

  That weapon was not supposed to fire unless the trigger had been pulled!

  “Sergeant Huro what happened?” Roi asked the rifleman with genuine concern.

  “Captain Roi my apologies I just-” the rifleman began, but Livia jumped in.

  “You would all be dead right now!” Livia screamed at them. She walked over toward the line of riflemen. As she approached all of them stopped what they were doing and stood at attention.

  “Do you know what that mistake could have cost you in the field of battle?” Livia asked as she stared straight at Huro. The apeman seemed terrified as Livia shouted at him.

  “Because of your mistake Captain Roi and your squad mates could have been killed!” Livia shouted at the sergeant.

  “I'm sorry Lady Livia!” Huro said as he trembled.

  “You nearly shot my head off and all you have to say is that you are sorry?” Livia replied to him.

  “Lady Livia it was a mistake I promise-”

  The apeman reminded Livia of Simeon. All she could think of was the last time she had seen him, laying on the ground. The grief she thought she had overcome began to resurge. She stopped herself.

  “Do you want to die?” She asked him.

  “Lady Livia-” Huro began as he still stood at attention.

  “Look at me!” She told him. The apeman looked at Livia, his eyes big with fear.

  She reached out and grabbed his cartridge pouch.

  She walked over to the rifle that had fallen. She held the rifle ready.

  “All of you look!” she shouted.

  “Captain Roi!” She ordered. “The commands!”

  “What-” Roi began to ask.

  If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

  “The commands!” She told him.

  “Oh yes.” Roi replied. “Riflemen ready! Aim! Fire!”

  Livia went through the motions and fired. Her shot flew straight through the center of the stand in Giant.

  “Riflemen rotate!” Roi continued.

  Livia fell back and nimbly loaded her rifle for the next shot.

  “Riflemen ready! Aim! Fire! Riflemen rotate! Riflemen ready! Aim! Fire!”

  Livia completed the sequence of events, once again shooting the target in the center.

  “When you shoot you need to control your breathing” Livia spoke loudly as she addressed the riflemen. “Exhale and take a shallow breath. Hold it and shoot. Do not hold your breath too long, it will make you miss. When you pull on the trigger, squeeze it, do not jerk it. Doing so can throw off your aim. And follow through the pull of the trigger, do not jerk the rifle after shooting.”

  She handed the rifle back to Huro with the pouch.

  “Captain Roi, continue your training.” Livia said.

  The riflemen, including Captain Roi, still stared at Livia without moving. But Roi was the first to react.

  “You all heard Lady Livia! Riflemen prepare!” Roi started.

  Livia walked away from the riflemen. She knew that soon they would be leaving for the campaign. Soon their targets would not be large blocks of ice, but colossal Titans that would do everything they could to destroy the furtives in front of them.

  I need to do more. There must be something.

  Livia’s mind had been swirling with this question for a while now. But what more could she do.

  Perhaps he has found something. I must go look for him.

  ***

  Livia walked down a stone hallway. The walls in this building had various symbols etched on the walls. These ranged from simple geometric patterns, to complex shapes that came from Jokasta's mind. Many of these Livia had come to understand.

  She understood the opposite facing semicircles, representing substances that cannot combine, the eye radiating light enmeshed in a black sphere, the pursuit of knowledge, the disappearing square, signifying the passage of time. Then there was the ever present symbol. The sphere enclosed within the hollow square, enclosed in a pyramid.

  That was the first symbol that Livia had come to learn of. It had been early on in their time at the fortress.

  “The three domains in unison. The skies, the land, and the sea. Do you know what they provide?” Jokasta had asked Livia.

  Livia did not know at the time.

  “Life.” She whispered.

  Livia had been captivated by the symbol since she had first seen it. She could not understand why, but she felt an innate connection to it. She felt she had to understand more about it, to understand why such a random assortment of lines would conjure in her such a response. She thought she understood its origins.

  “Does that symbol represent you?” She asked Jokasta.

  Jokasta looked at Livia with curiosity. Most of the responses that Jokasta provided to Livia only came after moments of silent thought. This one was no exception.

  “No.” Jokasta replied. “This represents another.”

  Before she was able to ask any further Jokasta had left. To this day Livia still did not know who the symbol meant to represent. One of many things Jokasta kept to herself.

  There were many more symbols on the wall that Livia recognized and many more that she could not. At first she was determined to learn what they had all meant. But it did not take long for her to find other things to occupy her mind with. How to source for the materials required to make dragon powder. The establishment of a production line of rifles. Standing up those production lines and handing that responsibility to Habres.

  Later I must speak with Habres. That rifle should not have fired from falling.

  Livia's thoughts of late were rarely occupied by anything but the upcoming war. How would the rifles and the cannons perform in combat? Are the soldiers trained well enough to maintain their equipment? Has their training been rigorous enough? She could not help but think about Sergeant Huro from earlier.

  He'll surely get himself killed. Just like the others.

  The thought made her stop in her tracks.

  The others that had perished. Denis, Allant, Obbe. The thought began to open a wound she wrongfully thought had healed. Her breath became hard, her eyes welled up.

  No! I won't let that happen! I must find something else! They are all depending on me! Weather the storm Livia!

  She steeled herself and followed the long hallway.

  Please have some good news for me today.

  Livia arrived at the end of the hallway to find a stone door. She opened it to find a large space in front of her. At the opposing end the large space was lined with many rows of shelves, all filled with unique artifacts. Pieces of cloth, plates of armor, weapons, torn pieces of paper, stone slabs, and various other relics. At the front of the room there were tables with various artifacts laying on them. Various furtives would weave in and out of the shelves, mostly putting away items left by the person Livia had been looking for. She scanned the room until she found him, amid a pile of stone slabs.

  “There you are.” She said as she walked up to him.

  Like she often did she startled the furtive.

  “Oh, Li-, Li-, Livia!” Jaco said as he looked at her.

  Around Jaco there were several stacks of paper, all annotated with musings that only made sense to him. His disorganized documentation was a source of frustration to all who worked with him. Many times Jaco would rant about a new discovery only to make his assistants scramble for a long time to look for the corresponding documents.

  Livia looked at the stone slabs Jaco was immersed in. She had a very good clue of what he was looking through.

  “Still going through Giant script?” Livia asked.

  “Co-, co-, correct!” Jaco replied. “I have ide-, identified most of the cu-, cu-, current Giants who roam the continent! Bu-, bu, but Lady Jo-, Jokasta wants me to keep wo-, working to see if there are still Giants that we haven't he-, heard of before.”

  “Of course.” Livia replied.

  She knew what Jaco was referring to. It was a continuation of the first task given to him by Jokasta. To identify all existing Titans alive. Jaco had made tremendous progress on that front but there were still a small number of Titans unaccounted for. Livia knew that Jaco would not be able to accomplish what Jokasta wanted him to do before the start of the war.

  “Have you been able to spend more time into what I asked?” Livia asked Jaco.

  “Oh, that.” Jaco began. “I believe I found something si-, si-, similar to what you asked.” Jaco said.

  “You did?” Livia sounded surprised.

  “Well you as-, as-, asked me to see if I co-, co-, could find something that I thought was strange or ra-, ra-, rare?” Jaco replied.

  “That's right!” Livia replied.

  “Well I ha-, ha-, have something that might interest you! I came across it re-, recently and as soon as I saw it, I knew it wo-, wo-, would interest you!” He said and led Livia to another table.

  On this table lay a variety of metal artifacts. Round disks, cubes, plates of armor, and an etched metal slab.

  “Re-, re-, read it!” Jaco said as he pointed to the slab.

  The slab was written in Leviathan script. Jaco had taught Livia to read it shortly after he decoded it. A large number of the Leviathan's writings that had been found focused on mysteries found near or on the ocean floor. Even for creatures as mighty as the Leviathans the sea was a place filled with mystery.

  Livia read it.

  ‘On the occasion of the destruction of the underwater peak in the Meitner region a probable source has been found. Spreading from the base of the collapsed mountain a mysterious metal was discovered. This metal was hot to the touch, as if heated internally by some mechanism unknown to us. No presence of magic was detected on the metal. When this metal is placed near like metals the heat emitted by the metals increases. The property exhibited by this metal is one that has never been observed before. Perhaps a large collection of these metals led to the resulting cataclysm that destroyed the mountain?’

  Livia read through the document several times. She focused on every single word, exploring the possibilities that this presented.

  A metal that is hot and gets hotter when put near like metals? An event of such force to destroy an underwater mountain?

  “Li-, Li-, Livia?” Jaco asked. She had been silent for a while as she continually reread the words.

  She was still immersed in her own thoughts.

  “Is, is, is everything fine?” Jaco asked.

  This finally got her attention.

  “Did Leander find this?” She asked Jaco ignoring his previous question.

  “Yes, he, he did.” Jaco replied.

  “Where is the record of the location that this artifact was found?” Livia asked him.

  “Oh I think Go-, Go-”

  “Goto!” Livia shouted.

  A stocky dwarf ran out from a shelf.

  “Oh the-, the-, there he is!” Jaco said.

  The dwarf was pale and completely bald. As always he wore his favorite white robe. Whenever Goto walked in the snow he would blend in so well that it was near impossible to see him. Spotting him in the snow was a test that Kadus had any of his scouts take if he were to trust them in the field.

  “Lady Livia, you called for me?” Goto said as he bowed to Livia.

  “Goto! I need you to get me the records for this artifact! I need to know where it was discovered!” Livia asked the small dwarf.

  “I shall get on it Lady Livia.” the small dwarf bowed as he left their presence.

  “Li-, Li-, Livia is some-, something like this what you we-, we-, were looking for?” Jaco asked.

  She turned to look at Jaco.

  “Jaco this is beyond what I could have imagined.” She said as her mind raced with thoughts of what she had read.

  This, this is what I was looking for.