Lissa brushed the wrinkles out of her dress as she walked up the merchant guild’s steps. Through the open door she could see groups of merchants in the plush chairs talking or reading papers. A couple were in line waiting to talk to the guild clerks.

The bright color of her dress must have caught the senior clerk’s attention, because Aerric looked up from his work. He gave her a questioning look, as he took in the dress. She smiled and did a quick twirl before pointing at the back of the guild. The old clerked returned the smile and gestured with his head toward the end of the counter, before returning his attention to the merchant in front of him.

With practiced ease, Lissa lifted the hinged part of the counter and slipped into the staff portion of the guild. She paused at the guild master's door and listened for a moment to make sure he did not have a guest. Aerric would have told me if there was one, but it is best to be sure.

Not hearing any voices from the other side of the door, she stepped in and gently closed the door behind herself. The guild master’s cheek was resting on his hand as he stared at a paper through half closed eyes. Lissa wondered how long he had been at work to be falling asleep at his desk. She cleared her throat and he looked up quickly, clearly startled out of a doze.

He mumbled something before shaking his head and focusing on her. “Lissa!” he beamed at her. Standing he walked around the end of his desk. “You look beautiful.”

She grabbed the sides of her dress and did a slow twirl, before walking into his open arms. “I thought you would like to see my dress before I changed Grandpa.”

“Change? This is the first time I have seen you in a dress in what must be years,” he released her and gave her an appraising look. “You should wear them more often, they look good on you. Especially compared to that beat up old pair of overalls you usually wear.”

“I have to help papa around the shop, and a frilly dress would not last two minutes around the crates in back,” she shook her head feeling the old argument start again. She smiled as she heard him say the words she new he would counter with.

“You should not be moving crates, they are your father’s problem. I guess I can stop there as we both know what I was going to say and what you would respond,” he winked at her. “I am glad you decided to wear it here though. Where did you come from?”

“I was at the solstice party,” she replied taking the offered seat and. “You wanted Orn offered that job.”

“That did not mean you had to do it. In fact I wanted this handled by someone else. Really what was your father thinking?” he said with a loud sigh. “His doting on you is his one redeeming feature.”

“Be nice to papa,” she replied narrowing her eyes.

“No,” he replied flatly, before smiling. “I love you Lissa, but no, not even for you. Someone should be mad at him, and before you ask I am still not going to tell you. That is a matter between me and your father.”

He walked back around the desk and gestured to the empty chair in front of her. “However, we now need to talk about the job you just completed.”

Lissa pursed her lips in irritation, but took the chair. “You are not even pretending that you are not changing the subject.

“You are old enough to know that I am changing the subject, and it is faster to tell you that you will not get the answer than to dance around the issue,” he moved papers around on his desk while he spoke. “I have to ask what happened with the boy, and hope to move the conversation along to happier topics afterward. Now tell me what happened. I wanted the boy dealt with through intermediaries, but you did no. That boy is an unknown quantity and he should have been kept at arms length. Why not start with why you did not have a friend talk to him like I asked.”

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

“Simply put, it was a bad plan,” she crossed her arms and stared at her grandfather. “It included several assumptions and based on the information I received would have failed spectacularly.”

“Lissa this is a guild matter and you did not follow the instructions of the local guild master. I expect a better answer than that,” he leaned back in his chair and she could tell her response crossed a line. He is taking this rather seriously, that is good to know.

“There were many issues, but the largest is that I have no friends,” she said the words with a level voice carefully watching his reactions. That actually hurt to say aloud. I will have to deal with it later though. “At least no one who are the right combination of trustworthy, the right age, and able to go to the party. This immediately ended the possibility of making this sound like it was coming from anyone but the guild or me. The only options then were how to present the job. Also after making some inquiries, I made my decision. I believe I gained a better grasp of who he is, from my research than you had at the time you made the request.”

“What makes you think that you know more than I do?” he gestured at the papers on his desk. “I receive reports and information form across the kingdom.”

“My sources, are in the barracks with him. Before you ask they have agreed to only work with me moving forward,” she struggled to keep her expression flat as she saw his clear interest. I knew that would pay off. “With this information I changed the approach, and ruled out the possibility of even attempting to have someone seduce him.”

She could see relief and concern struggle in his eyes. “That is a bold statement considering his age. What made you so convinced of that?”

“The descriptions of his time in the academy spoke volumes, but it was his actions at the Solstice that confirmed it for me,” she smiled as she saw him lean in.

“And?” he asked as she did not go on.

“And even if this is a job for the guild, I can not reveal information I paid for. At least not for free,” she smiled at him, knowing he was interested. “Three gold, for a copy of the reports I have now and two more for each report I give you after.”

“Two gold for everything you have now, and your observations at the party. Then I will give you one gold a month for every report you get from you agents, for as long as they provide quality monthly reports.” They both knew it was more than she was paying, and more than fair.

…

{in the guild master's office}

I really should not let her get away with things like this. She thinks she is getting away with more than she is, he thought staring at the door, Lissa had left through. She just looks so much like he mother when she is haggling.

Promising himself again to dive a harder bargain next time he looked down at the notes he had taken while listening to her. He would get the full reports later but this would do for a start. Lissa’s sources said Orn did not seem terribly interested in girls. She agreed after watching him interact with Kalay Redstone. While Kalay may be too old to be attending such an event, she was not ugly by any means.

Also if I take Lissa’s word for it, Kalay’s dress was cut a far closer to the limit of modesty than it should have been. He thought back to Lissa’s description of the boy’s reaction. If he was a normal nobleman, wanting to keep a young woman from a lower path at arm’s length made sense. Some were even put off by them being so forward, but she said he did not even look. He did his best to keep her at a distance, completely unphased by her efforts to draw his attention away from her face. That alone does not mean it is a bad approach, it just may not be the right time yet.

Lissa also noted that Orn asked her to join him in intervening on behalf of another noble student. She said that that young man had no interest in women at all, but kept looking longingly at another boy there. She would not comment on why Orn interceded on his behalf. He looked at the line he copied verbatim. I think he went to help because he truly wanted to help, rather than to get something out of it. He seems to just be a good person.

He leaned back in his chair and considered her opinion. For someone of his rank that would certainly be a first...