Chapter 39: The Men of the Banes

Name Amelie Class Mage I, Lvl 1 Marks 1 Guild Seven Banes SD 984

Sometimes Chase reminded her of Thomas how he would be moody one moment and then happy the next. She had noticed his mood swings ever since she had met him, and typically he managed these well enough that few noticed but her. Whereas Thomas could barely contain any emotion he was experiencing, Chase had the adult ability to smother and hide his feelings depending on the situation. There were times she knew he was happy or pleased whenever one of her guild mates performed well, but he would keep his enthusiasm for their actions in check and merely correct them in a constructive way.Others times the way he sighed or even the subtle gestures he made with his face spoke volumes that he was deeply unpleased but these, too, he could hide from the others behind a smile and an off hand remark. But there was one tell which he could hide from no one, and one which every guild member knew but none had spoken about except in meaningful glances and looks of worry.

Chase’s right hand was shaking.

“We are in trouble?” Said Marlon, looking up from his book. He glanced at Amelie and she felt a mild panic fluttering in her stomach. “What do you mean? What trouble?”

“I…I had a dream last night,” said Chase. He clenched his shaking hand with his steady one. He looked paler now and was trying to breathe deeply through his nostrils to calm himself. “I saw the Emissary. I think she was trying to warn me about something.”

“What did she say, Chase?” Said Amelie. She wanted to pat him on the head like she had Thomas after he had been kidnapped and rescued by Chase. He had been as shaken as Chase looked at that moment.

“I think she was trying to tell me to run. Only she couldn’t. Something was stopping her.”

“Something? Like a person?”

“No,” said Chase, shaking his head. He regained some of his composure and when he released his hand the shaking had stopped. “I remember two birds singing in front of me. They distracted me and I nearly forgot about the Emissary. But it was her, I know it. She was trying to run towards me but she was very far away and I could barely hear her.”

“I dream of women quite a bit too, Chase,” said Marlon lightly. “Doesn’t mean it was the Emissary, surely?”

“It was her,” said Chase. “I’m sure of it. For some reason Amelie’s spell jogged my memory and I remembered.”

Amelie caught Marlon’s glance again. Despite his jovial attitude most days she knew that he worried about Chase. Their leader had a lot of responsibility taking command of the guild and Marlon had mentioned privately to her that perhaps the stress was deteriorating his mental state in some ways. As this was the first rest day they had taken after a week of work and training Amelie knew that Marlon was considering this was just a stress dream. Amelie looked at Chase’s face again and saw the rings under his brown eyes, and even his pupils dilate in fear. Though Amelie had known Chase for barely over a month, she was quite sure this was not some delusion on his part.

“Chase,” she said gently. “What was the Emissary trying to say, exactly?”

“Run,” said Chase, looking at her finally. “She was telling us to run. She thinks we aren’t safe. And something was preventing her from telling me.”

“What something?”

“I don’t know…two birds, I guess. Only they weren’t birds.” Chase smoothed his messy hair with one hand and seemed to relax some. He took a deep breath and his eyes cleared as well. “Obviously they weren’t real birds. If she was being blocked from talking to me it must have been something else. Or someone else preventing her communication.”

He was quiet for a moment while this information settled between them. Marlon and Amelie were not ones to jump in with their own conclusions and so simply watched Chase think.

“Leaving Fort Lazerpail,” Chase muttered to himself. “I don’t like that idea. We only just settled in and began making progress. I have no idea where else we would go.”

“Does she even know where we are?” Said Marlon. “Maybe if she knew we were in a fort with an enchanted and invisible entrance she would be telling you to stay put.”

“Perhaps,” shrugged Chase. He sighed again. “In my old life I never heard from her except when I was choosing my name. I have no idea what kind of powers she has regarding the location of players. Maybe she thinks we are just on the road or something.

Chase had a large repertoire of sighs. Amelie was familiar with the sigh through his nose, meaning mild frustration. When he sighed with his mouth it meant he was in some sort of discomfort or upset. This sigh, however, was after a deep breath and declared his mood faster than the incoming tide.

He was scared, and not doing a good job of hiding it at all.

“Here’s what we are going to do,” said Chase. He stood up and look at them both. “

You two are going to stay here and you’re not going to tell the others about this quite yet.”

“And you?” Said Amelie.

“I need to clear my head,” said Chase. “I’m going hunting. About time I got some experience for myself, anyway. Plus some fresh meat for tonight would be better than that preserved venison.”

“Is that a good idea, Chase?” Said Amelie. Even as she was saying it she knew it was useless trying to talk him out of anything once he had his mind made. “The Emissary said we are in danger. What if the danger is outside the fort?”

“I’ll be fine,” said Chase, waving away her concerns. “It’s me, after all. Marlon, you are in charge until I get back.”

“You got it, Chase,” said Marlon with a defeated look. “Be careful out there, okay?”

Chase mumbled a reply and left the room, leaving Amelie and Marlon alone once more. Amelie heard the rest of the guild as Chase went into the courtyard, but their voices immediately dampened and then there was the sound of the front gate opening and then shutting. It wasn’t long before Brent, trailed by Thomas, were standing in the door way.

“Something up with Chase?” said Brent, pointing a thumb behind him. He looked as confused as Amelie felt. “He didn’t say a word after I said something to him and just stormed out.”

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“I told you not to wake him up,” said Thomas, crossing his arms. “I did that once on the training island when he was having a bad dream and I thought he was gonna knife me.”

“Um,” Marlon glanced at Amelie and she shrugged her shoulders. “Well…you see…He told us—.”

“Chase had a dream about the emissary,” said Amelie abruptly. “She was warning him that we are in danger. Asked us not to tell you all until he had come back and had some space to think.”

Marlon looked like he wanted to slap his forehead with the palm of his hand.

“He asked us not to—.”

“So?” Interrupted Amelie again. “His decision to exclude us all until he returns isn’t very logical, is it? It’s not just he who is in danger but all of us. Everyone deserves to know.”

“What!” Brent looked like a rock had just fallen on his head. “Danger? And you just let him leave?!”

“Can’t really stop him now can we?” Said Amelie. These types of conversations where the answers to a question were so obvious were incredibly tedious to her. All she wanted to do was return to her book.

“Said he needed to clear his head,” said Marlon. The old man put his hands out as if to say ‘what can you do?’.

“But…but,” spluttered Brent. “What if…he should have brought me!”

“Just give him some time, Brent,” said Marlon. He began to pour some of his potion into a cup for Brent and then thought better of it. “Actually the last thing you need is some of this.”

“Just leave it alone, Brent,” said Thomas. The little boy seemed almost bored by the news but Amelie could tell by the way he fidgeted that he was more than slightly worried. “Chase will be back when he is back then he will tell us the plan. What else can you expect from ‘Spade the Thief’?”

“Fine,” said Brent bluntly. Just as he was beginning to get angry he smothered his emotions. He was good at doing that, just like Chase. Amelie saw the rage peeking in the corner of his eyes and then a blink and a ragged breath later and it was gone, a look of resignation on his face. “Guess I’ll get some practice in since we may be under attack at any minute.”

“I rather doubt we will be—.” Began Marlon, but Brent had already stormed out of the room. Soon Amelie heard the clanging of a sword against the practice dummy.

“He’ll be fine,” said Thomas to Marlon and Amelie. Then he grinned. “It’s Alex who you two need to worry about. He thinks he’s second in command most of the time.”

Thomas left, whistling an out of tune song, leaving Amelie and Marlon alone again.

“What’s wrong?” Said Amelie. Marlon was reading his book and trying his best not to look at her. He liked to avoid confrontation of any kind she had noticed.

“Nothing, Amelie,” sighed Marlon, shutting his book. “But maybe Chase had a reason for not telling them.”

“A good one?”

“No,” said Marlon, flatly. “I agree with you in theory, but in practice, Chase is the leader. You can’t just willfully disregard a direct order like that.”

“Even if the order is silly?”

“It doesn’t matter,” said Marlon, crossing his arms. “I know we aren’t an army with officers or a general but Chase is the closest thing we have to that. If we ignore his orders then so will everyone else, and he won’t be able to lead effectively. Perhaps its a small thing now, but in the future it could have dire consequences.”

“I think you are exaggerating a bit,” said Amelie, but what he said was slowly making sense to her. Perhaps she had spoken out of turn, and not trusted Chase like she should have. Marlon was right that it wasn’t her decision to make in regards to telling them. Not for the first time since meeting Chase and joining the guild did she feel totally out of place, and like she should be able to pick up on what they considered obvious. The sarcasm and the jokes were one thing not to understand, but if disobeying an order, no matter how small, could have consequences like Marlon said, then this was something that she now resolved to keep in check.

“Actually,” said Amelie, as Marlon was looking ready to throw his hands up in exasperation. “You’re right. I shouldn’t have told them. Sorry about that Marlon.”

Marlon blinked in surprise.

“I am? Oh. Okay, Thanks.” He drummed a tattoo on the wooden table with his fingers. “How so?”

“What you are saying makes sense, Marlon,” said Amelie with a shrug. “I shouldn’t have said a word. You are right that it could undermine his leadership, and I should have thought ahead instead of assuming that his decision wasn’t based on logic.”

“Well,” said Marlon with a small smile. “It wasn’t terribly logical, was it? Tell you what, if he gets upset just tell him that I said it was okay to tell them. He put me in command, correct?”

Another confusing thing she found about Marlon, and, well, most of her guild members besides Claire, was the ability they had to change their attitudes so quickly. Marlon was one moment deeply perturbed with her and the next willing to lie for her. Understanding these sudden changes she had seen from the men in the guild was next to impossible for her. It would be far easier to train Moonshine to walk on his hind legs than figuring out the daily permutations of their moods and what could change them.

“Well, that’s enough reading for me, I think,” said Amelie. She stood up and brushed her pants off. The edges of her pants were getting slightly frayed yet were a far cry from Thomas’ already ripped pair. Amelie made a mental note to practice with the needle and thread she had found in the cupboard the day before and practice fixing her clothes.

“It’s hot out there today,” said Marlon, going back to his book. “I’ll stay right here.”

“Suit yourself,” said Amelie. She gently deposited her book of magic on an empty shelf by the door and stepped outside.

Brent was still venting his frustrations upon the practice dummy, and not far away Claire was watching him as she sharpened her sword. Thomas was no where in sight which meant he was likely up to no good, but Alex was sitting alone under the shade just staring at the squat rack. Amelie was unsure how much each of the plates weighed but it looked as though someone had been squatting at least double her body weight.

“Hello, Alex,” said Amelie as she came by him. She squinted at the weights to see whether there were numbers on them, but they were just simple cast iron plates and smooth to the touch with nothing marking the weight.

“It’s about 300 pounds,” said Alex, noticing her curiosity. “Those big ones are 45 pounds Chase told me, and the smaller ones are 30.”

Alex was breathing hard and Amelie assumed he was in between sets. She always knew that he was strong for his age but was still surprised that he was able to lift so much.

“That’s incredible, Alex,” she said earnestly. “Mind if I sit with you a while?”

Alex shrugged so she took that as an invitation. The shade of Moonshine’s awning was stretching across the courtyard far enough that she was spared the suns gaze, but Alex was stewing in the sun, and didn’t seem to want to move. His beady eyes, looking even smaller than they actually were in his heavy set face, and they seemed to be boring through the door which Chase had left through.

“How is everything?” Asked Amelie. If there was one member of the guild who she had trouble reading, it was Alex. He usually seemed to like brooding alone, but then would have bursts of energy when he thought he could help out in some minor way. It was tiresome for the other guild members but Amelie thought it endearing that he liked to smooth their tasks whenever something came up that no one else wanted to do. Overall, she thought he was a hard working player, but she wished that he saw that himself.

“I guess you heard,” said Alex, glancing at her. “Brent and Claire opened their journals this morning and saw they are level two. 5% defense bonus and everything—whatever that means.”

“Ah, I see. And you’re still level 1.”

“I just don’t understand. I’ve been putting in the work alongside both of them.”

“Did they kill more goblins?”

“I dunno,” said Alex but looked away from her. “Yeah, maybe they did. It’s just frustrating, you know? I do so much for this guild and then when it comes to levels they are just blowing past me.”

“I would hardly say that one level ahead is ‘blowing past’ you,” said Amelie.

Alex ignored her response, and she could tell there was something else troubling him. She waited for him to tell her, as she didn’t feel he was one who liked to be prodded.

“Remember when we had that class on the training island, with the Advisor with the long blonde hair?”

Amelie nodded her head.

“The class on starting jobs. Of course, that was right before the Triple Fives competition.”

“Yeah, anyway, I remember when I told the class I wanted to be a fighter and Chase was shocked. He said I would be better suited to being a mage, like you are.”

“And you are thinking he was right?”

“Maybe,” said Alex heavily. “Brent and Claire are so much lighter than me, and I gas out much faster. On top of that they are obsessed with training in a way that I am not at all. I am always the first one leaving the courtyard in the evening yet there they are, still going at it like its the break of day.”

Amelie studied her friend. His was idly plucking shoots of grass from the ground and twisting them in his large hands. Despite his size he was still able to cross his legs and he was leaning his head against the wall of the fort as he gazed up at the sky in thought. Alex had a penchant for self pity, she realized. She then remembered something Chase had told her weeks ago, before signing her contract, about how other members might approach her with their problems.

“Well, there’s no use in dwelling on it now, Alex.”

He looked sharply at her.

“Why?”

“Because you are locked in for at least a year, right? Ghelion can change your contract but only if you haven’t made sufficient progress in the first year. So you might as well make the best of it and try your hardest.”

“I suppose,” he sighed. “Worst case scenario I am locked in for three contracts though, before I can choose something that isn’t so labor intensive.”

“You’ll have level 2 soon, Alex. Just trust what Chase is showing you. I know that you can get there.”

“Thanks,” said Alex, and though he didn’t smile, he seemed to relax and that told her more than a fleeting expression ever could.

The sound of the entrance opening rang around the courtyard. Brent stopped swinging his sword, and all eyes turned to the front entrance. Even Thomas and Marlon peeked from around the door to the courtyard.

Chase had returned. And as he emerged from the dark passageway the light illuminated his dour features, and he shielded his eyes as he saw the guild staring at him in silence.

“Alright, you lot. Let’s have a little chat.”