After hours of training, Salvador was hunched over, panting and gasping for breath. Sweat caused his training leathers to go damp and parts of his clothes stuck to his body. He held a glaive in his hand.

"Ready for another round?" Gerard asked. Sweat clung to his forehead and glared off his head.

"Give me a break," Salvador moaned.

"Get up."

With reluctance clinging to his very bones, Salvador stood straight up. "I swear this sweat is seeping into my bones."

Gerard ignored him and lifted his longsword to strike.

"Oh bother," Salvador said with a sigh. He lifted his glaive to meet the blow. They spent the good part of ten minutes poking and hacking at each other before the two called it a standstill.

Salvador grabbed a jug of water and headed over to one of the arenas, where he saw Inejgo Florjes sparring with Carlos Florjes. Carlos had six years of experience on Inejgo, and it clearly showed in the sparring ring. Inejgo was on his heels, defending against the quick blows of Carlos. It was a combination of luck and skill that saved him from being quickly knocked out. Salvador caught sight of Angelica watching the match as well. She was also sweaty, like most people in the training hall.

"How long have these two been going at it?" he asked her.

"Fifteen minutes at this point. Only because Inejgo dances away each time Carlos is about to land the finishing blow," she replied.

"How'd you do?" he asked her.

She gave him a smile. "Beat everyone I went up against. Now all I need to do is beat you."

He gave her a small tsk, tsk, tsk. "Getting ambitious now, Angelica."

She grinned at him. "That's one thing you and I have in common."

Up in the ring, it was clear that Carlos had won. Inejgo was on the ground, groaning and soothing his bruises, and Carlos stood above him, victorious. He faced the crowd and boomed, "Who else? Who else wishes to face me?"

No one stepped up to his challenge.

Salvador assessed Carlos; his posture was lined with arrogance and his voice seethed of cockiness. He stood about, waving his sword at the crowd and calling out for an opponent.

"Will no one step up?" he exclaimed. "No one?" He shook his head in disappointment and moved to sheath his sword.

"I'll do it," Salvador blurted, surprising himself and those around him.

Angelica looked at him in surprise. Gerard, who had just come to watch the spectacle, also looked at Salvador with surprise.

Carlos whirled to face Salvador. "You?"

Salvador nodded. "Yes."

Carlos' lip slowly curled up into a smile. "Well then. Why not? Live steel?"

Salvador shrugged. "Sure. I just need a longsword."

"Here," Inejgo called and tossed Salvador his blade.

Salvador caught the sword in the air by the hilt and flipped in his hand once. "This will do," he said and climbed into the ring.

He held the longsword in two hands and stood in a defensive position. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw that the Duchess Lilliana Florjes and Lady Myreia had entered the training hall.

Great, he thought sarcastically. Seems like I have an important audience as well.

Carlos gripped his longsword and swiped at Salvador; a probing attack. Salvador easily sidestepped and the blade only met air. He felt his fatigue fade away as adrenaline rushed through his veins. He stabbed at Carlos, who sidestepped but was soon barraged with a flurry of attacks. The ringing sound of steel on steel filled the silent training hall as all eyes were on Carlos and Salvador.

Carlos had almost twice the number of years of training than Salvador had, but he lacked the passion that Salvador had an abundance of. However, Salvador soon found himself on the defensive. Carlos hammered away at his defenses, Salvador dodged all that he could but was forced to meet some of his attacks head-on. In an attempt to counterattack, he stepped in close and jammed up Carlos' attacks, but effectively, in turn, made his longsword useless. He let one hand off of the hilt of the blade and punched Carlos in the stomach. The force of his blow was not enough to bruise but made him lose his breath and caused Carlos to double over. Salvador then used the opportunity to sweep Carlos' legs out from underneath him with the flat of his blade. Carlos fell to the floor with a thud. Salvador knocked the sword from his hand and held his longsword at Carlos' head, victorious.

"You have to remember," he said, "that I've sparred with possibly the greatest sword in all of the Caraíbes Isles. I've had to come up with a few tricks of my own to beat him."

The crowd was silent, stunned at Salvador's utter victory. Salvador had sparred with Carlos in the past, but most every time Carlos had beat him and they had seldom been as public as this one.

"A dishonorable victory!" screeched Myreia.

Salvador whirled to face her and Duchess Florjes. Many people in the crowd were surprised, for they had not seen the Duchess Florjes and Lady Myeria enter.

Salvador looked at Lilliana and saw nothing in her expression. However, in her eyes, there was a spark of amusement. She gave Salvador a nod so slight that you wouldn't be able to see it lest you were looking for it.

He turned back to Myreia and said, "Dishonorable, you say? Why I don't see that. All I see is that in a true fight, he would be dead and I alive."

Myreia sputtered and tried to find the right words to come up with a rebuttal.

"So you say you have no honor, peasant?" Carlos snarled. He had slowly gotten off the floor and stood up.

Salvador gave a harsh laugh. "No, I'm afraid not. I've been sent to do some very dirty work, Lord Carlos. I've assassinated people in the dark, a task that requires one to have very little honor at all. Sir Gerard Elwyn has enough honor for the two of us though, so it isn't too big of a problem."

Salvador hated doing assassinations, although only a few people knew that. Gerard and Angelica among them. He would only assassinate those he thought were a plague on Arkenheim. Corrupt highborns and merchants who made life more difficult for the commoners. Never poison though. Never. If he was to be paid to kill a specific person, it would be while looking into their eyes as they died with a blade in their gut.

Never women either.

Perhaps he was just a touch chivalrous.

The thought brought a smile to his face despite himself.

"Anyway," he said, shaking away his thoughts, "instead of complaining about how dishonorable I was, you should be thinking of ways to beat me next time. And do it with style." With that, he stepped out of the ring, returned the longsword to Inejgo and strode off to his rooms.

***

As Salvador continued to read his book, he could hear the sounds of Sersalvonian music floating up into his room. He loved the sound of Carabaí; the language was so smooth and slippery, like cold running water in the early hours of dawn. The sounds of a guiterra soothed Salvador.

A guiterra was a stringed instrument with six strings that can be played with the fingers or a pick. It could play an assortment of both low and high sounds.

He was still reading the book on the history of Evrúopa, for it had truly ensnared his interest. Salvador knew that if you went far enough north in the Caraíbes, there were islands under Evrúopean occupation. There were kingdoms in the Caraíbes that had royal families who had married Evrúopean royals.

He had forgotten how long he had been reading. He looked outside his window and saw it was past noon. He'd been reading for quite a few hours.

He had always wanted to go to Evrúopa some day. To witness firsthand the land full of everlasting plans, with mountains that scratched the top of the sky. To visit the frigid north where only the harshest of men could survive. To visit the Middle Sea and its many, many islands. To visit the lands of the mystical lands of the Sidhe.

Yes. Evrúopa was a place he wished to go to very much.

He'd been all across the Caraíbes. He'd been to Nyove Royna. He'd been visited by the swordmasters of Nihjon Ken! But he had yet to be offered a job that required him to visit Evrúopa. Of course, if he really wanted he could buy a ship and go there himself. . . but perhaps he didn't want it that much yet.

Now he was just lying in his bed, thinking. He needed to do something worthwhile today.

There is something I could do. I should've done it the first day I could, he remembered. So Salvador decided to grab a bag to go to the room where he kept the money he earned. He opened one of the trunks and grabbed some corounem and stuffed it into the bag. He grabbed about a hundred corounem and set off to leave the castle grounds.