No one knew precisely when the first monster appeared or which one it was exactly. At some point, a history long lost, the inhabitants of Erde found themselves fighting. Not fighting to protect their fields and livestock from the wild animals and bandits - but fighting to survive. Just when humans settled their disputes with the elves and dwarves in a three-way dispute, another war began.
No one was ready for what was to come. The dwarves were the first to recognize their faults and relocate from the surface, abandoning their territories and homes. They moved into the mountains and the mines, where they knew there were resources, underground caves, and water that would support them.
The elves, on the other hand, adopted their cities and towns to be defensible positions that lasted for generations cultivating their young to fight for the survival of their race. A race fit for living in the woods, which made forests their hunting grounds and homes.
For humans, life became unbearable. Thousands died on the plains, even more alone, not knowing what happened. Only the brave ex-warriors from the wars mustered their strength. They adopted using the weapons from the war to this new threat and moved to fight the horrors preying on their loved ones.
That was how the first guilders came to be across the human nations. The place that later became known as the kingdom of Hersis was the first where such individuals gathered. Since the first guilder team was established, the now-kingdom strengthened its position on Erde as a power to be reckoned with. Its power solidified when the first guilders found strange magic seeds from the slain horrors.
These later became known as the aspect seeds. Simple stones containing the magic power found among the fallen monsters. No one knew what they were nor what to do with them. It took the humans a while to understand how to use them, but their ingenuity and old legends laid the groundwork for the first to awaken what later was called the aspect powers.
As mysterious energy became more saturated across Erde, the nations and the races fought for a common goal to control the monsters and protect the weak. Amassing power through aspects, conflicts, and training became the norm.
Now, hundreds of years later, the people of Erde grew up knowing that only personal power guaranteed freedom for self and safety for the closest. All one had to do was to be willing to brace against the dangers and fight for what they believed in. All against the horrors in the wilds that came to form from the mysterious mana.
That was what Elsa learned ever since she was little and started studying under her mentors, teaching her various topics. She knew how the guilders came to be and what their purpose was. And she always knew that she wanted to become one. One that would help and protect the people. Just like her father.
She also knew that aspects were something amassed and coveted by other nobles for the sole sake of the power they provided. The longevity of magic flowing in their veins was significantly extended using monster essences obtained from merchants by those who braced against actual dangers. Nobles just wanted to benefit without actually doing the work.
The world that was unfair before became even more unfair. That was why she was interested in which type of nobles her team of mentors were. Were they the ones after the power or who strived to protect? Especially Finlay, as he was the most pompous of the three, reminding her of the peacocks in the capital.
Elsa had observed the man over the weeks since she arrived in Veer and could not understand him. What drove him, motivated him, and even more so, why did such a capable guilder as Lilly kept herself around such an incapable man as him?
Elsa knew that Finlay wielded rare aspect abilities granting him the power to create pure mana constructs, him favoring the swords. She also knew that he was an adequate sword master. However, he was reckless and boisterous, always jumping into the fight head-on, trusting that his team would rescue him when the fight got tough.
As Finlay and Lilly walked in front of her and their healer Aya, Elsa decided to use alone time with the woman and inquire more about their team and how they came to be. Especially as the sun was beginning to rise above the tree line, casting beautiful golden rays through the thick canopy they were traveling through.
“Aya?” she began.
“Yes?” the healer responded and parted a pair of branches in their way.
“I am curious about how you formed your team,” Elsa said unsurely.
“Oh? Why so?”
“I mean, from what I know about guilders and how their teams are usually built, yours is highly unusual. It is the main reason I sought you out after arriving at Veer,” Elsa said.
Aya chuckled lightly, “Really? Not because you knew you could trust us not to be some drunks and turn you in?
“What do you mean?” Elsa asked, oblivious.
“Oh dear, it is obvious, Elsa. Of course, you can change your appearance slightly by wearing a cheap robe, but those of us who have been to Arganea have seen you with your father.”
“What…?” Elsa asked in disbelief.
Aya chuckled again, “Fin will not rat you out if that is what you worry about. He knows how hard family can be on you. We understand you have reasons to abandon your comfort and seek out adventuring. Same as we did.”
“And what does motivate such a man as him?” Elsa asked, looking at Fin’s back, the man waving his hands around explaining something to Lilly.
Aya paused and answered, her smile gone, “Revenge.”
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Surprised, Elsa stumbled on a root and asked, “What do you mean?”
“Finlay’s past is his own, but I see you might find some value in what his past holds. He was not always like this, you know.”
“A boisterous playboy?”
“Yes, that too. No, I mean alone and miserable. He hides it well behind the facade of carelessness and a carefree attitude. But deep down, Finlay cannot let go of what happened when he was little. Why become a guilder in the first place.”
“Was it not to amass power and fame?” Elsa asked, not seeing why a man like him fought monsters at the chance of dying.
“No,” Aya said sadly. “His mother was killed when he was young. His father, while not the harshest man, took the loss heavily. So he focused on what mattered the most. Invested all his time into Fin, making him worthy to carry the Webster name and continue their house once he was ready.”
“Then what happened to him?” Elsa asked, curious.
“He broke,” Aya stated simply. “The duties, the training, and expectations proved too much for the kind boy he was. Especially after his father discovered his sword talent and sought a suitable aspect seed for him, costing half the family’s fortune.”
“Oh. I did not realize,” Elsa said.
“Nor should you have. I know that your father’s court is a big one. Larger than the village I am from. No one would have expected you to learn of the goings in the house of Webster.”
“How did Lilly come into forming a team with you all? Do not mind me saying - she seems too competent to be with a duo of simple guilders.”
“Easy,” Aya said, smiling again. “She was the one who took up the mantle of taking care of Fin. Fin’s father understood it would not be enough to train the young man and put him in the world. He needed a team. And what better teammate than one of your closest friend’s daughter.”
“So what? They were like promised to each other or something?” Elsa asked, skeptical.
Aya chuckled and said, “No, that would have been awful. Much worse. They have been training together ever since they were little. Just as their parents were, being fairly famous guilders in Hersis. You must know this part, right?”
“Yes,” Elsa agreed, remembering that Fin’s and Lilly’s fathers were capable ex-guilders who turned to their noble duties when they were around sixty.
“Then it will not be surprising that they were expected to take the mantle off their parent’s shoulders. Lilly took it a lot more seriously than Fin did. She understood who she wanted to be and what she had to do to be that person. So she trained, got her aspects, and now is who she is.”
Elsa nodded to that, deep in thought. They walked for a while, quiet, enjoying the bubbling of the river next to them. Elsa briefly wondered where Clay was, but given how the night had gone and their target had vanished before they could get to him, she knew he was sulking somewhere.
“Then what about you?” Elsa asked, turning back to the healer.
“Me?” Aya asked in turn, blinking in surprise.
“How did you come to join them? Do not get me wrong; I know and have seen that you are a solid healer. But you are just too well-educated for the pair of them to take you out and fight monsters like that. Almost like a scholar, given how well you taught me. You have my thanks for that, by the way,” Elsa said and nodded to the woman.
Aya sighed and said, “Well, no thanks needed. Always willing to help a fellow healer out. As for why I joined? Lilly and Fin found me back in my little village. I was a librarian, if you can imagine.”
“Oh? What happened?”
“Life on Erde happened, as usual. A happenstance, when I think about it. As I was walking back home near the docks, a school of paw-sharks attacked. They rarely go out of the water, given how unruly their bodies are, but it was me and my luck, I guess.”
“You fought them off?”
Aya laughed and answered, “No, gods, no. I screamed like a little girl for someone to save me. And someone did.”
“Let me guess, Lilly came to the rescue, crashing down on them as flame incarnate?”
Aya laughed again, “No, it was Fin. Yes, I know what you think, that is typical of him, isn’t it? But, no. That was the only time I saw him fight seriously, as if he was reliving a memory. It was a massacre. The sharks were adept rank, but he cut through them like a hot knife through butter. Even at an apprentice rank.”
“What?” Elsa asked, disbelieving.
“Yes. I did not even see Lilly until he was finished. She just came up to me and asked if I was all right. She did not care that he was surrounded by ten monsters and bleeding. She looked me in the eye and told me it would be all right. And I believed her, seeing how the sharks were being chopped up.”
“And you decided to become a guilder then?” Elsa asked after a minute's pause.
“No,” Aya chuckled. “I decided never to walk near the docks again. Fin convinced me to dare to dream and leave my little village, showing me at the docks that living a life is not the same as reading about it. No matter how good the author of the story is.”
Elsa nodded to that and said, “I understand. I am glad that you accepted. I see that you are a good fit. As a team, I mean. Balancing each other out. It helps me to hope I can find something like that someday.”
Aya patted her shoulder and said, “I know you will, princess.”
Then, Clay appeared again, asking, “Sulking again, Elsa?” She elbowed the rogue and continued walking, saying, “No, just consulting on how to form a good team so I can kick you out.”
Clay shrugged and walked ahead, saying, “C'mon, do not be like that. You know it's not my fault we must trek through these bushes. Right, Fin?”
“Huh, what is that?” Fin asked, turning around and regarding the trio at the back, almost stumbling on a root.
Lilly caught and straightened him up, saying, “Watch where you're going, Fin.”
“Right, right,” Fin said, straightening up. “I am unsure whose fault it is, but I certainly do not mind. It is a welcomed change of pace, at least for me. Allows to see the countryside. Besides, when we find this man you have been chasing, I will be delighted to talk with him about how I came to spend my nights in the wilderness when I could have enjoyed the company of the pretty ladies from Veer and their exquisite knowledge of wine.”
Lilly elbowed him in the ribs, Fin almost tripping on another root, “Ouch, c'mon on Lil, do not say you do not like the finest things in life as well?”
“Head in the game, Fin. You can think about your finest things, as you call them, when we get out of this mess and back behind the city walls. Now, look up ahead there. It looks like we have arrived at one of the border villages,” Lilly said as the group walked out of the forest next to a plowed field.