East City.
"Very well, Fiba. If that is your will. However, the training will be relentless. No mercy will be shown."
And so, it began.
The two subsequent years unfolded like a dizzying whirlwind of suffering, effort, and acquired knowledge.
My physique, previously slender, notably strengthened with rigorous physical training. I ran kilometers before dawn, climbed walls with the dexterity of a spider, and my inherent agility transformed into a formidably lethal tool.
I learned to move without being perceived, to merge with the shadows of the night, to become an imperceptible extension of the environment. They instructed me to capture the faintest whispers of the wind and to interpret the most imperceptible traces on the earth's surface, managing to infiltrate the most guarded locations without leaving any trace.
The mastery of combat and self-defense became a second nature. My hands developed the ability to strike with millimeter precision, to disarm any adversary, to employ every segment of my body as an effective weapon.
The trainers, individuals with stern gazes and silent movements, pushed me to the limit of my endurance, and I responded firmly. Not by mere strength, but by an unwavering determination. But not everything was limited to the physical aspect.
I dedicated long hours in the clandestine 'classrooms' of the Shadows, assimilating methods for information gathering. They taught me to listen without being detected, to observe without being seen, to retain every minute detail of a conversation, every gesture, every facial expression.
I learned to analyze complex maps, to decipher unknown languages, to understand the intricate structure of enemy villages and cities. Likewise, I immersed myself deeply in the study of psychology and sociology.
They trained me to interpret people, to discern their hidden motivations, their deepest fears, their most intimate desires. I learned to simulate, to adopt a diversity of personalities, to speak with accents and customs of other cultures, to gain the trust of strangers and to mask my true intentions.
It was like embodying multiple identities simultaneously, a distinct facade for each juncture. They instilled in us the specific knowledge of the Kingdom, its rich history, its intricate laws, its strategic alliances. And, primarily, ethics and unwavering loyalty.
They constantly reminded us that we were the silent protectors of Young Chuta's vision, the guardians of a kingdom that was just beginning to flourish. Our doctrine was unequivocal: the shadow serves the light, knowledge is power, and the safeguarding of Young Chuta and the kingdom constituted our sole reason for being.
At the conclusion of those two years, I was no longer the helpless and frightened child.
I was Fiba. A Shadow.
And I was prepared.
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FUNDAMENTAL SKILLS
Intelligence and Information Gathering: Observation and Memory, Information Analysis, Interrogation and Counter-interrogation, Use of Sources, and Cryptography and Encryption.
Infiltration and Covert Movement: Disguises, Acting, Silent Movement and Stealth, Terrain Knowledge and Parkour and Climbing.
Combat and Self-Defense: Hand-to-Hand Combat, Weapon Handling (Bladed and Ranged), Ambush and Evasion Tactics, and Advanced First Aid.
Communications and Security: Encrypted Communication, Surveillance Countermeasures, Network Management, and Escape and Evasion.
SOFT SKILLS AND KEY KNOWLEDGE
Psychology and Sociology: People Reading, Manipulation and Persuasion, Cultural and Social Knowledge, Resistance to Torture and Interrogation.
Specific Kingdom Knowledge: History and Politics, Economy and Resources, Laws and Customs, and Languages and Dialects.
Ethics and Loyalty: Discipline and Self-control, Absolute Loyalty to Chuta, and Code of Conduct.
TRAINING AND PHILOSOPHY
The training would not only focus on individual skills, but also on team operation. Mutual trust, perfect coordination, and the ability to adapt quickly to unexpected situations would be pillars. Members learned to think strategically and to operate with a high degree of autonomy, understanding that they would often be incommunicado and would have to make critical decisions on their own.
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Two years later, in the Year 6 of the SuaChie calendar.
The corridors of the Explorer Division exhaled the scent of new wood and the fervent ambition of young recruits.
My mission, my cover, was to be part of them. I trained alongside them, memorized their routes, their maps, their chants. However, my eyes and ears scrutinized something else: the faint shadow of irregularity, the subtle murmur of betrayal.
Two years of intense training with the 'Shadows' had forged me to face the worst. I was fully ready to dismantle complex conspiracies, to unmask intricate plots.
But I found absolutely nothing.
There were no fissures in loyalty. Neither here, in the Explorer Division, nor in any of the other institutions where I had stealthily infiltrated.
The profound respect for Young Chuta stood as a truly impenetrable armor.
His perspicacity, his vast wisdom, had configured a kingdom where the mere notion of usurpation or rebellion was as alien as the desert to the ocean.
It was frustrating. My training, so relentless and meticulous, seemed disproportionate to the reality we were living in at that moment.
The territorial expansion of the kingdom, however, had brought with it new presences, and with them, minor challenges.
Market thieves, merchants who defrauded with exact weight, minor delinquents who considered themselves undetectable in the immensity of the recently annexed regions, most of them from the south.
The Shadows neutralized them with an efficiency that bordered on tedious.
The reports accumulated: 'minor theft resolved', 'commercial dispute mediated', 'agitator neutralized'. The spirits of my comrades, forged for imperceptible battles, dwindled with each insignificant assignment. Was this what we had been trained for?
It was within the Explorer Division, while practicing hand-to-hand combat, that I met him.
Upqua. Young Chuta's brother.
He did not possess the same aura of ancestral wisdom, but his gaze was kind, and his laughter spontaneous. He was robust, resolute, and although he lacked his brother's prodigious intelligence, his devotion to the kingdom and his family was undeniable.
We shared exercises, training sessions, and sometimes, during brief interludes, exchanged words that evolved into something deeper.
He perceived me, not merely as a disciplined recruit, but as Fiba. And I… I discovered in him a tenderness that my existence as a Shadow had fervently yearned for. It was a peculiar sensation, a warmth in my chest that I hadn't felt since Young Chuta had saved me.
Now, my assignment in the Explorer Division has come to an end. My steps led me through the corridors of the Academy towards a new office, larger, more significant.
The office of Chuquy, Young Chuta's sister. I would be her personal assistant, her closest shadow.
During the coming year, she would assist Young Chuta in the administration of the kingdom, assimilating knowledge and collaborating simultaneously. Young Chuta wishes her to promptly assume the role of the first governor of the Kingdom, and it will be at that moment that I will begin to fulfill my promise.
I knew this was just one more step. Soon, very soon, I will become Young Chuta's personal assistant. The Shadow closest to the light.
And although the fear of the imminent great threat had not yet manifested clearly, I felt that my true purpose, the fundamental reason for my training, was about to begin.
Two years later, Year 8 of the SuaChie Calendar.
The rhythm of daily life in the Government House was incessant, but my intellect, trained for maximum efficiency, managed it with a fluidity that pleasantly surprised me. I had been serving for over a year as Young Chuta's personal assistant, a discreet presence that organized his schedule, his meetings, his innumerable initiatives.
My aptitudes, forged in the rigor of the 'Shadows', constituted the ideal complement to his whirlwind of conceptions. Each day was an intricate framework that I, Fiba, unraveled and put in order with precision.
Stationed at my modest desk, adjacent to Chuta's vast map room, I observed how the intricate networks of the kingdom expanded. It was not comparable to learning about the kingdom in the archives of the Shadows with witnessing its growth and transformation before my own eyes.
Young Chuta, barely eight years old, strategically moved pieces on an invisible board; each determination, each alliance, each new tool, fit into a design so vast that I could barely comprehend it in its entirety.
I contemplated the reports from the new academies, ministries, from the vessels that sailed the East Ocean, from the paths that connected previously unexplored regions.
It was a vibrant kingdom, breathing, constantly expanding.
My day usually concluded at 'Za's Home', the main inn.
The aroma of freshly prepared dishes was a true balm for the spirit, and the bustling atmosphere of travelers and merchants, contagious. A similar situation was present at Young Chuta's residence.
Frequently, we ended up working in his study or his office, avoiding going to the Government House. In Young Chuta's house, it was common to find Lady Za, Chuta's mother, who always prepared new dishes following her son's instructions.
She invariably greeted me with an affectionate embrace, as if I were another daughter.
"Fiba, my dear, have you spoken with my Upqua today?", she inquired, with a mischievous smile, as she offered me a steaming dish. "That boy keeps asking about you. When will you finally decide?"
My cheeks flushed, and I, a 'Shadow' trained for imperturbability, could only stammer something about work.
Za laughed, her gaze brimming with affection. She knew.
She was aware of my feelings for Upqua, and his for me. It was a tenderness that instilled both fear and attraction in me, in equal measure, a refuge of normalcy in my existence fraught with secrets.
But that warmth mingled with a growing unease. Young Chuta. His eyes, previously filled with serene curiosity, now revealed a haste he could not conceal. His plans accelerated vertiginously.
Meetings with the Navy Generals were increasingly frequent, fortification designs were reviewed with haste, exploration voyages to the East Ocean became bolder. It was as if time was slipping through his fingers.
"Fiba, the merchants' reports about the ships sailing the Inner Sea?", he inquired, his voice sharper than usual. "And the reports from the southern explorers? I need everything, now."
The Shadows had not detected significant internal threats, nor large-scale conspiracies. However, Young Chuta's haste, his distant gaze, indicated to me that the danger he sometimes inadvertently mentioned was approaching closer than anyone could estimate.
I did not know the exact nature of the danger, but what I did know is that the Shadows have been waiting for the opportunity to safeguard the kingdom, to protect Young Chuta.
And like them, I would be ready.
.
----
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[A/N: CHAPTER COMPLETED
Hello everyone.
Fiba shows us how the shadows train, but also indirectly shows a stability achieved with great sacrifice and effort, which begins to show its first signs of instability. Although the shadows can deal with all of that. Will they be able to do so in the future?
Unnecessary Fact of the Day: The Kingdom of Castile (Spain) and the Kingdom of Portugal divide the "New World" by signing the Treaty of Tordesillas. Will something similar happen this time?
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Read my other novels.
#The Walking Dead: Vision of the Future.
#The Walking Dead: Emily's Metamorphosis from Visions of Future Saga.
You can find them on my profile.]