Tarrus stood, mind racing. It had been months, MONTHS since he’d been welcomed into the adventurers guild, right in a prime position for information gathering. With the relatively high level of the region and the caliber of adventurer that Gran attracted, he’d expected to be drowning in tips and rumors about relics of the previous era, tools crafted and used either by himself or other renowned archmagi. But there had been nothing of the sort, just an endless tide of the ignorant adventurers, looking to tap his vast knowledge on the behavior and weaknesses of Abyssal beasts, local Domains, and on how best to develop skills.

I was beginning to think I had underestimated the ravages of time. Even with how long has passed since my death, it’s hard to imagine every artifact and tool hidden away by now ancient magics has been found. But this… he thought, eyeing the shield, this isn’t the class of relic I’m looking for, but it is powerful nonetheless. And, it tells me there is hope yet.

Tarrus cleared his throat, stood straight and smoothed out his uniform. “Apologies for the outburst. By guild records, it has been some years since a relic of this caliber has been retrieved in this region. Where did you make this discovery, oh great adventurers?”

The young man in front spoke up. “Oh, well, we–”

“Quite a discerning eye, lad, to identify a relic on sight, without the use of identification crystal or reference tome,” The older man in the group spoke up, his eyebrows quirking up. “Where did you receive your training?”

Tarrus’ customer service smile froze, while he cringed internally. Damn! I let my excitement get the better of me. Well… He glanced at the shield, situated comfortably on the warrior's arm. I probably wouldn’t have been able to finagle this particular relic from this party anyway. I’ll just need to be more circumspect next time.

Turning back to the far too insightful old man, he kicked the smile up a notch. “Oh, I wasn’t sure if it was a relic, sir! It just looks like something you’d hear about in tales of legendary heroes, an ancient relic of some lost and terrible power! I just got excited seeing such a grand piece of equipment, hahaha!” He chuckled abashedly, scratching the back of his head. Now! I believe in the you that believes I’m a 13 year old boy!

The man stroked his chin thoughtfully. “Hmm, those kinds of tales are something of a staple for youths… I remember back in my day being entranced by stories of mountain cleaving swords, or sentient tools. I assume you’ve heard some stories from a wandering Archivist?” He asked, now only looking casually interested.

“Archivist?” Tarrus asked.

He waved his hand. “A bunch of mages whose hobby is history, and historical preservation. I know some of them get a kick out of telling stories, things they’ve dug up, prevailing theories about certain events, that kind of thing. Helps get the youths interested in history, they say.”

“Ah, yes, that’s probably right.” And it probably was. Tarrus had seen Archivists before, and had heard stories from them when he was much younger. At the time he’d assumed that’s just what they were, but now? If I can remember any of those stories, they might be clues to other undiscovered relics! This day just keeps getting better…

The old man grunted thoughtfully. “Hmm.” After a second or two, he bumped the younger man with his elbow, interrupting him as his chest was puffed out, posed heroically with his shield. “Can’t be a legendary relic user without registering your relic, Hero Will.”

Will blushed, turning to Tarrus. “Uh, yeah! That’s what we’re here to do. That and uh, report on a previously unmapped section of a Domain.”

Someone scoffed from behind them. Turning around, the party realized that most of the adventurers in the room were listening in with interest, some excited, some decidedly hostile.

A man spoke up, a grizzled, middle-age veteran adventurer by the looks, kitted in fairly standard light Gran equipment; breathable, with a focus on protecting the vitals. “Been here hardly a week and you think you’ve just blitzed past the rest of us, do ya? I’ll admit,” he said, nodding at the shield, “that’s a fancy piece of arms you’ve found in the ruins somewhere, but just because you kids and your grampa,” he emphasized, incredulously, “managed to make it out of some ruin alive, doesn’t mean you were in an Abyss blasted Domain. Now, why don’t you take your daydreams of adventure back to the pastures in the East, and leave the real adventuring to pros, eh?”

Some of the adventurers by the man shifted uncomfortably, taking a few steps away, while others, emboldened by his speech, called out in agreement.

Tarrus sighed. Some adventurers just shouldn’t come back from quests. “There is a process in place to validate any such claims, as you should know, Ragnar. In the event that their claims prove to be truthful, we will, of course, announce as such. We will also, given the interest in these claims,” he gestured broadly to everyone in the room, all keyed into the conversation at this point, “make sure to dispel any rumors should their claims be false or inconclusive.”

Ragnar scoffed. Again. “Aye? And who’s going to ‘validate their claims’?” He asked mockingly, making air quotes. He stepped forward, his attention shifting from the party to Tarrus. “The guilds been making some real questionable decisions lately,” he turned to the crowd behind him, “hasn’t it?” More adventurers called out agreement, but they were fewer, Tarrus noted, and far less enthusiastic than before.

Ragnar frowned in frustration, turning back to the receptionist. “It’s one thing to have a kid handle basic tasks; filing and organizing and all that shit. That’s beneath us, but just right for brats who don’t know their place in life. But then, the guild expects us to take information on our quests from that same kid? From someone young enough that their voice hasn’t dropped, some kid who runs back home to mommy every night?” He leaned across the desk now, dropping his voice low, but still pitched to be heard. “They expect us to put our lives in your hands? They can barely even hold a blade.”

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With a flash, Ragnar reached across the desk, jerking Tarrus’ arm from under the desk, along with the dagger he had been quietly grabbing. With a contemptuous flick, Ragnar sent the dagger scattering off across the floor.

Some of the crowd gasped at Ragnar’s actions, and Will stepped forward, a hand on the hilt of his sword. “Hey! You’ve gone too far!”

Ragnar sneered back. “Yeah? Well–”

A voice spoke from behind him. “Yeah, you’ve gone too far, Ragnar.” The man in question turned in shock, “And you’re not even drunk tonight! I didn’t think you had it in you.”

Paling and sputtering, the belligerent adventurer stumbled back a bit. “G- Guild Master! This isn’t what it looks like!”

The woman, the Guild Master, raised an eyebrow at him. “It isn’t? It looked like you were bullying our cute little receptionist,” she said, pointing at Tarrus who, at 13, was barely any shorter than the woman. “Was it something else? An impromptu lesson in preparedness, perhaps?”

He nodded his head desperately. “Yes! Yes, I– I was simply showing him how easily a skilled opponent could disarm him, that’s all!”

The diminutive woman nodded, hands on her hips. “Mmm, okay! We’ll go with that for today. But Ragnar,” She speared him with a sharp look from slitted, reptilian eyes. “This is your final chance. You’re strong, so you have some use, but one of these days our guild might just make another ‘questionable decision’,” she said, acid dripping from her words, “and suddenly lose a strong adventurer to some poorly labeled quest. Understood?”

He nodded, sweating, and limited himself to throwing a single venomous look back at Tarrus as he retreated.

Tarrus let out a relieved sigh, which quickly turned into an aggrieved sigh as he found himself at the mercy of the guild master.

“Aww, Tarry, are you okay~?” she asked, holding his head to her shoulder and stroking his hair.

Eye twitching, he answered. “I was doing quite well, Guild Master, but then some miscreant saw fit to grab me. It was… traumatizing.”

She kept patting him. “I know, I know, that must have been scary. But! I’m here. Anytime you feel like someone is putting you in danger, just call out ‘Big Sis! I’m in danger!’ and I’ll be over in a flash!”

He groaned, closing his eyes. “...Big Sis, I’m in danger.”

She gasped, letting him go. Putting her fists up in a boxing stance, she looked around. “Where? Who’s threatening you?!”

While adventurers in the lobby quailed under her death stare, he skipped out from her iron grip and around behind Will’s party. He cleared his throat, getting the Guild Masters attention. “I’m okay now–”

“Yay!”

“While you’re here, these adventurers have some claims that need to be investigated, about an unmapped section of a Domain.”

“Oh.” She drooped, and looked at the party consideringly. “Well, that is pretty important. Okay! Follow me to the back and we can get the details on that.” she said, motioning the party to follow her. “If you’ve got any items that need identifying, leave them with Tarry; he’s really good at identifying magic! It’ll also help your case if any of the items are previously undocumented, and he can give me the details on that later.”

Annette placed a small, featureless idol on the desk, and turned to Will, waiting. And waiting. He looked at her with a pained expression. “...Do I have to?”

She shot him a disbelieving stare.

“...Okay…” Reluctantly, he removed the shield and placed it on the desk, hand lingering on it. “We’ll get these back, right?”

Tarrus nodded. “When they’ve been identified, the guild will offer what we deem to be an appropriate sum, and you can choose either to sell the items to us or keep them for yourselves.”

Satisfied, Will removed his hand from the shield. He cast glances back as he left, trailing behind his party with the guild master.

Tarrus turned back to the desk, sighing. Great. Overtime.

-=-<^>-=-

Some time later, Tarrus found himself in the guilds buildings for storing and identifying magic items. He found himself here often enough to have become familiar with the layout already, but a typical trip here would see one headed to the stacks, a small library of records kept on magic items and devices. Most frequently referenced were the records of items that could be found within the local region, but occasionally an adventurer would request identification of some item they had purchased. If it were originally from a Domain, usually a trip to the stacks would suffice, but for a handcrafted or unknown item? That required one to go into the small lab built into the place.

The world was a very different place from when he had last been alive. Magic was at once more common, and less well understood. It was normal to have been infused with mana, and to know instinctively how to use that mana, but there weren’t many who devoted their lives to researching the uses of magic. Those who could reach such heights were simply too valuable fighting against the Abyss. For this reason, the former Demon Lord had been shocked to find how far the art of enchanting had come since his time. In the years since his demise, the understanding of how to create common enchantments had progressed so far that it could now be considered a science. Such enchantments were everywhere now, though it took a skilled enchanter to make something truly powerful, and there were no true artificers of note in this age.

The basic tools he had access to, combined with his knowledge and experiences from his past life granted Tarrus an unparalleled ability to identify the purpose of magic items. While he had yet to delve into modern enchanting, identifying items had quickly become one of his favorite parts of working at the guild.

Choosing to start with the only item that was obviously not a relic, Tarrus set the small hand sized-idol on his workstation. Then, he reached up and grabbed the arm of his primary identification tool, a series of enchanted lenses that made different types of mana visible. These lenses were affixed to the ceiling by a jointed arm, which allowed even a child like himself to manipulate and focus the device, though he did need a stool to reach.

Cycling through the lenses, he observed the magic in the idol. Ater putting together the information he could read, he considered the formations in the item. Hmm. This looks similar to something I’ve seen before… He reached over, grabbing his reference on modern magic styles and archetypes. “Mmm, yes… Voodoo or, at least, an element of that magic style.” He quickly wrote down a label for the item.

Analysis confirms that the idol creates a magical link to a body, or bodies using mana stored in blood. This link can, at the least, be used to locate linked targets, and can likely be used to transfer some level of effect on the idol to the target. Further testing required.

He grabbed the idol, turning it about in his hand. Featureless stone stared back. Curious, he pricked his finger on his knife and held it over the idol. As a drop of blood landed, it changed. In a wave, spreading out from where the drop landed, the blank stone changed, turning into a near perfect stone copy of himself.

Pleased with the effect, he turned it to admire the statue– and froze.

As he turned it in his hand to view it from a different angle… The entire thing changed in his hand. No longer showing the face of a youth, it showed a new, older face. A familiar face.

Tarrus gasped out, feeling like he’d been punched in the gut.

“It’s… Me…”