Yesterday had been a stunning success for her, Vivian thought. Besides the fact that she had sold products worth 400 million dollars, she had made successful contact with Marcus Freimann. Everything had worked like a charm thanks to the knowledge she had gained from Ye-jun. The boy was as straightforward and honest as they come, and gaining his trust had been easier than she had predicted. Mind you, she actually liked him, so spending a few hours having fun wasn't even a cost in her book. With just the effort of one day and a half broken enchanted item she had gained something far more important. An introduction to the ginghi.

The moment she had learned Marcus would come to her exhibition she had jumped into action and her efforts had been rewarded. The only thing that irked her right now was... this. She looked down on the paper with the symbols and furrowed her brows. Since this morning she had tried to solve this riddle, and she wasn't one step further. Five rows of symbols, lines, circles and squiggly lines filled the page. The first row had only a few symbols but the amount grew the further down you went. It wasn't a hidden message, she was certain about that. But what was it, and why had Marcus given it to her?

She pushed the paper around and tried for the nth time to see if it was some sort of mathematical formula expressed as symbols. She wasn't a math geek, but with her amount of intelligence crests she could easily match top professionals in the field after some light studying. Problem was, she couldn't see any formula or other mathematical principle hidden inside the riddle. Vivian sighed and put the paper away.

It was silly to care about it so much, but… there was something very wrong with Marcus Freimann. The moment she had stepped in a room with him, she could tell that he was different. She had called it 'heavy', but it was more than that. He was bending the world around him. Yes, that was how it felt. Not in a physical sense… more… she moaned and massaged her shoulders. She was stuck.

Vivian got up from her fancy chair and moved to the top to get some fresh air. Her personal guard shadowed her without a word and soon they were on deck and she breathed in the salty sea air. The weather was shit and the sea was agitated, but Vivian had gotten used to the swaying. For decades now, her HQ had been a ship drifting through international waters. The ship was a floating fortress and hidden behind all matters of stealth technology. Which of course didn't stop certain parties from attacking her here. A lot of dead elite class holders and destroyed ships later she was only rarely bothered these days.

After a few minutes she decided to go to her workshop and try to unfuck her brain with some enchanting. Behind several extra layers of protection was her sacred domain. The large room with the extra storage rooms on the side was nothing fancy. Some tables with items, a large comfy sofa, a music system and specially constructed mounts to fix items she was working on. The rest was happening inside her head.

She picked up the black-bladed dagger she had been working on, and moved it through her fingers. She could feel the foundational construction she had already put into the object. In her mind she could visualize the form and size of the imaginary forms she had created inside the weapon. It was already too large, she thought and put the weapon down.

Artificers were liars, nobody knew that better than her. They sold people enchantments with specific capabilities, but that was a hoax. 10% boost? Protection against X? No, that wasn't how it worked. It was easy to sell, but the truth was more complicated. Artificers created imaginary structures inside items which influenced their properties. But it was all much more individual, full of character and variations. Depending on her skill and how good she felt that day the same construct might turn out differently, changing the power of the item. No two items were the same, even from the same Artificer. They got away with this deception because nobody could verify their work in detail, besides other Artificers.

The core of the problem was that they had no community, she thought. Every Artificer was isolated, hidden away by greedy nations. The only way they could learn from each other was through their items, but that was a very limited source of information. Vivian walked over to an impressive sword. It looked like silver from point to end and was of the best quality human class holders could produce. The material was an alien alloy made from artificial elements humanity had no clue how to create. They dubbed it 'Mythril' for obvious reasons. This raw piece was worth 500 million dollars and she had great plans with it. Not today.

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She wasn't on her A game today, she could feel it. She let her fingers run over the material and sighed, again. She aimed to put four enchantments into the weapon, which would be a world record. Ambitious plans, but the truth was she wasn't sure she would be able to do it. That was the reason why this magnificent piece was lying here for over seven months. Untouched, because she was afraid. Not to ruin the weapon, no, to confirm that she had hit her limits. For some time now, no Artificer had been able to show any meaningful advancements and she was no different.

She returned to the dagger and picked it up again, as she sat down on her couch. With her eyes closed she reached into the Artificer imaginary space and looked at her creation. The rigid cross in front of her was what people called 'increased durability', one of the most important enchantments. It was large and took up most of the small item, she would barely be able to fit in something useful in addition. Size mattered, larger objects could hold more, in theory at least. Structures had also to scale… maybe she could squeeze in the double circles of electrical conductivity….

After half an hour of doing nothing, she moved back into her office. That blasted riddle was still there, not that it had ever really left her. Vivian made herself some coffee and sat down again. She stared at the page and the page stared back at her. Marcus had drawn the riddle on the paper of the hotel, it looked cheap and meaningless. But her instinct was roaring like a hungry lion. This wasn't some funny joke or meaningless drivel. Marcus had given this to her with a purpose. What were his words? She remembered, "It is a riddle of sorts, but I am confident you will be able to figure it out." She analyzed his words. It is a riddle, but more than that. He thinks I have the capability to understand it. I… because… why me, she thought. Because I am an Artificer?

Suddenly she looked at the riddle with different eyes. No, not a riddle. Something that is sort of a riddle but more than that. A mystery? A secret? A SECRET! She could feel she was on the right track, her brain was buzzing. A secret that was meant for me because I am an Artificer! Bloody hell!

There was no code, no stupid mathematical formula. The symbols had meaning, but only to an Artificer!

Following this revelation Vivian started on the first row again. Several simple lines and next to them full circles? Maybe spheres? The next row had curved lines and also balls but they looked different…. Spheres did nothing in the imaginary space, they were like space eating waste. And once you have created a structure you couldn't reshape it or move it again, that was something fundamental every Artificer knew. And how would Marcus even know about these things… he was weird, she remembered.

Vivian jumped up from her chair and rushed to her sanctuary, her guards right behind her. She went for a large bin with test items. Each worth easily 100k dollars, but for her it was stuff she used for experiments. She grabbed another dagger and put it into the mount. Without too much care she created a solid beam inside the item over the next ten minutes. By itself it did nothing. Then she did something stupid and wasted the rest of the potential of the item by creating a large sphere next to the beam.

It was all rushed, fuzzy and unaligned, an embarrassment really. And now? She looked at her creation of the last half hour and all her unfounded excitement turned into air. What was she doing! Marcus knew nothing about her craft! She looked at the waste of time and energy and her breath stopped. Closer, more carefully she looked at the beam she had made, it had a slight bend.

Vivian's pulse went through the roof and she gasped for air. Again and again she turned the piece and looked at it, the beam had a slight bent. Impossible! You can't change structures once you have formed them! The sphere… it must be the reason! Vivian repeated the test twice more and the result was the same, a slight bent in the beam. That alone was world shattering, but it wasn't what the drawing had shown her. No, the line had to bent much more, but the sphere was also smaller. Heavier?

Piece number four, and this time she placed the sphere closer and made it heavier. She concentrated on the sphere and imagined it to be dense, as dense as she could possibly make it with her current power. Normally you only want to use light structures because heavy ones have detrimental effects on the base item, but right now… she could see the beam bend in front of her eyes and after a few seconds it touched the sphere.

Breathless she repeated the task on the other side of the beam with a second sphere, in a way that the beam would form an S like in the drawing. The beam connected again. As she started to celebrate the whole structure suddenly contracted, squeezing the S smaller, compressing the whole structure. Vivian jumped up and ran screaming through her ship, unsettling most of her crew and bodyguards. She rushed to her table, grabbed the page and stared at the five rows of instructions. "Are you alright, Vivian?" Rufus, her head bodyguard, stood next to her, looking very worried right now. "Do you know what this is?" Vivian asked, with tears in her eyes. The man shook his head and she whispered, "The single most valuable item in the world." And then she laughed while her hands were shaking.

How was this possible? How could Marcus know this? Her eyes devoured the next lines on, what she now understood was a manual, and started to walk back to her sanctuary. "Rufus, cancel all my appointments," she said with a strained voice. "For today?" The man said, and took out an organizer. "No, all of them," Vivian said, and marched into her sanctuary.

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