Two months had gone by since the events at the mining station. Both Keira and Finlay had passed the guild’s application stage and were now sitting in a cafe waiting to go to the recruitment day. It would involve one-to-one interviews and then if they were successful, would continue further but they had no details of what further meant. He was feeling more confident than he’d expected and to his surprise, Keira felt the same.

“I bet they make us do some kind of physical test,” she said while tapping at the table.

She seemed unable to contain her excitement though he wasn’t sure if that was due to the interviews or the cream cake she had ordered.

“You think they’ll throw us all in a ring to fight it out?”

“Maybe, or some captured manifested spirit.”

“I’d rather not go into battle today, especially not against another spirit.”

“Whatever it is, can’t be any worse than giant hell birds.”

No argument there, but he wasn't convinced they’d be doing any fighting today. There were lots of rumours about the recruitment days but the guild swore everyone to secrecy so even the few who did leak information tended to keep it minimal.

They had spent a lot of time trying to figure out what the day would entail and how to prepare for it. This proved to be a fruitless endeavour so they decided to go with a generalist approach. Keira’s mother had argued she should wear a nice outfit to impress the recruiters, which made sense for a normal job or educational institute. It did not make sense for the guild and as Keira was already sure she was trying to sabotage her, took this as a sign to do the opposite.

He managed to convince her not to go to the extreme opposite out of spite and instead, they both settled on very practical clothing. Comfortable trainers, cargo trousers and fitted T-shirts with the only real difference being Keira wore a cap and tied her hair in a high ponytail through the back of it. Otherwise, they hadn’t brought much with them, there were no instructions and nothing indicated they should prepare anything else. He suspected this was part of their tests, to see how flexible or adaptable to unexpected situations they might be.

The streets outside were busy, neither of them had a lot of experience in the city so weren't used to the numbers that appeared. Even the busiest periods in the villages didn’t come close to this and they assumed when they were here before, it was quieter because it was late in the evening. The cafe was also full and they could feel resentful glares from customers who came in looking for a place to sit.

“Isn’t it strange that the more people there are in a place, the less friendly it feels,” Keira was smiling at two older women who had been staring at them from the counter.

“More people means more assholes, not sure if there’s actually a higher ratio or not.”

“You don’t think the environment breeds rudeness?”

“Might do, seems like everyone is rushing around, guess city life is just busy.”

“Can’t say I’m a fan.”

“Going to have to get used to it, we’ll be here at least another year.”

New recruits stayed within guild facilities for their first year to train and learn more than what was available to the general public. For their second year, they’d go out on low-level missions to gain more experience without the greater threats. After that, it all became a lot more flexible, though the internal dynamics of the guild weren’t known so this was largely speculation as well.

“I miss my bike.”

Keira said it often but they both felt the same way. The main reason they were here at this time was because they were relying on the public transport system. Losing their bikes was painful and neither of them was sure if they’d be able to get new ones any time soon.

“Maybe the guild will give us some awesome new gear. Faye’s bike was incredible.”

“I have a feeling it might take a while before we’re in a position to get awesome gear.”

A disappointingly true statement. Their food had arrived, a light breakfast more because they were there than either of them being particularly hungry. But he did get to try a new flavour of tea that he hadn’t seen before and decided to add that to his growing mental list of things to buy when he moved there. They took their time and enjoyed the space they had found. The rush of people started to calm as the crowds made their way to work for the day and it was reaching the time they needed to leave for the guild.

“Shall we?” He said, standing up from their table.

“I’m ready.”

They paid and left; the guild wasn’t far and they had already scouted out the building they needed to go to before finding the cafe.

“I’m glad you’re feeling more confident, I was worried for a while when we were doing the applications.”

“I have my own trauma to leverage now.”

“I guess there was an upside to that madness after all.”

“Every cloud and all that.”

“I’m sure you’d have gotten in regardless.”

“Doesn’t matter now, all I can say is that I feel good, I feel ready,” she smiled at him.

He couldn’t help but feel reassured and encouraged; they had been preparing for this moment for a long time and now, walking to the guild, they both felt like they'd be successful.

*****

When they arrived, they struggled to find where to go but latched onto a couple of girls who were talking about their interviews. There were already people waiting in the room and more arrived every few minutes. They would filter in throughout the day to suit their scheduled interview time. Most sat alone, focusing on themselves or messaging via phone but there were a few groups that knew each other.

Some of these people would be his future guildmates, a group that would learn and train together over the course of the next year and some may even work with him longer than that. He couldn’t help but study them as they found some seats away from anyone else.

“What do you think?” Keira asked.

“Hard to say, but I don’t think we stand out too much so that’s a reassuring sign.”

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

“I wonder if most of them live in the city.”

“Probably, I don’t know about the other villages, but there weren’t many applicants from the southern side.”

“No one else from the south got through the application stage.”

“You checked?”

“Yeah, I asked around after I found out I got in. I told you, personal trauma counts for a lot.”

He still wasn’t convinced but it was surprising to hear so few from the outer ring had gotten past even the application stage. He hoped he’d at least meet some from the other villages. There was a small group on the other side of the room that were being louder than seemed reasonable. A lot of the other applicants near them were staring in poor attempts at discretion and he was trying to decide if they were just bothered by the noise or knew the group.

“I can’t tell if they’re disliked or envied,” Keira said, looking at them.

“You noticed as well?”

“Hard to miss, I can feel the glares, let alone see them.”

People came and went—some met with others when they arrived but most kept to themselves. The group they had watched broke up as they left for their interviews and each strode through the room with an air of confidence that told him they knew they were getting in. There was a surprisingly diverse group of people in the room, it felt as though the guild focused on the individual above anything else which in its own way reassured him.

When it was time for his interview, they wished one another good luck and he followed the woman that called him. She took him down several flights of stairs that he was certain they had to be underground and then into a small room that was brightly lit. There were no windows, also affirming his belief that he was underground and it was plain, with off-white walls, no decorations and a dark grey tiled floor.

At the opposite side of the door was a large desk that extended for most of the width of the room. A single chair sat in front of the desk for him and three people sat at the other side waiting in silence. The woman who led him to the room hadn’t said anything but closed the door behind him as he entered. It was far from a welcoming experience but he reminded himself that this entire day was about testing him, so he walked forward and sat in the chair.

“Hello, my name is Finlay Dunaid.”

The man on his left was large, with broad shoulders and next to no hair. He wasn’t looking at Finlay and made no attempt to acknowledge his existence when he spoke. The man on the far right was slender, though taller than the other and had a warm smile almost in perfect opposition.

But it was the woman who sat between them who spoke first. “Hello Finlay, thank you for coming today.”

She had an unusual presence to her, while much smaller than the two men at either side, she commanded the room and seemed to hold more space than both of them. He hesitated, unsure whether he should respond or wait—he was expecting them to introduce themselves in some manner but this normalcy didn’t appear to be coming.

“You’ve been through quite the experience recently,” she continued after a few moments. “Tell me, what was it like talking with the spirit?”

He knew they’d be talking about the events at the mine, he was sure they’d talk about the escape when he was younger, but he wasn’t expecting to talk about it like this and not as their first question. He wanted to give them a straight answer as he knew they'd have already read everything from his meeting with Ronan.

“It was strange, it felt uncomfortable but at the time I was more focused on surviving and getting everyone out that I guess, I got used to it quickly.”

“In what way was it uncomfortable?”

“It’s hard to explain, It spoke to me using my body—out loud. I could feel when a thought was coming, I could feel the intention, the desire that it had. But then my body would respond and I’d say the words it wanted without knowing exactly what I was going to say before they left my lips.”

“And it was the loss of control you found uncomfortable?” The slender man on his right said.

“Yes, the feeling of my body being used, it wasn’t like I had no control, I always felt like I did but it was still able to use me to do what it wanted. No one likes to be manipulated and you don’t get much more manipulated than that.”

The man on the right looked to the woman but her gaze remained fixed on Finlay. She had thick black hair that curled and tied in an elaborate design held together with gold metal clasps, but one lock fell to the side of her face and she twirled it around her finger. He could feel she was in deep thought over what he had said but he wasn’t sure if that was good or bad.

“Why did you go back?” she finally asked.

“I thought it was the only way, I felt like we had to do something and the sanctuary, the spirit, we had already formed a connection. I guess I thought I could trust it.”

“Dangerous game, trusting a spirit,” said the large man on his left, though he still hadn’t looked at Finlay.

“Though not an unreasonable belief, given the circumstances,” the woman replied.

“Don’t you trust the spirits you work with?” He was a little surprised by their responses, the guild worked with spirits, and to outright claim they couldn’t be trusted seemed counter to that fact. He had come to the conclusion the spirit in the sanctuary was different than the ones they relied upon but this still seemed unusual.

“Only within the constraints of their nature,” replied the woman.

“Spirits aren’t human,” the man on the right continued from her. “You can’t expect the same moral viewpoint as we have. They exist in their own world, with their own rules and understandings. So we can trust them within the limits which that allows.”

“In other words,” the woman said. “There’s a careful balance we have to consider when dealing with the spirits. Being reckless with that leads to being devoured.”

“I’m unfortunately familiar with that now.”

“Yes, I suppose you have had direct experience with that, you came very close to losing yourself from what I've heard. I’ll be straight with you Finlay,” she leaned forward, leaving the coil of hair to bounce back as she placed her hands on the desk in front of her. “We have our concerns about you.”

“There are many good points working in your favour,” the man on the right continued. “You’ve been through dangerous situations twice now and survived both. And the latest, you had a direct experience with a hostile spirit, these are convincing reasons to bring you in, even with a weaker application than you had.”

“But,” the other man interrupted. “Your willingness to let that same spirit control you, to go back to it and let it try again like you did shows not only bad decision making but a recklessness that we’re not sure we can justify.”

He didn’t know what to say, or how to respond, he had thought his experience was only going to strengthen his application but now it was holding him back. He hadn’t felt like there was much choice in the matter, though the guild knew he woke outside the sanctuary, once inside he was trapped. Even then, it wasn’t as if they had a lot of options at the time, it all felt very out of his control and to suggest he was being reckless throughout felt unfair.

But before he could think of a response, the door behind him opened. A man walked in and placed his hand on Finlay’s shoulder; he was smiling but didn’t look down at Finlay as his eyes, glistening behind their golden frames, held firm on the woman behind the desk.

“I heard you were interviewing, Finlay, I decided to come and check how things were going.”

“Ronan, this is entirely inappropriate, what do you think you’re doing?” The woman was significantly more animated in her protest.

“I believe I’ve already answered that, I wanted to make sure you made the right decision.”

No one broke the silence and the air felt so heavy and thick that he almost struggled to breathe. He knew speaking would be a disaster so against the discomfort of the silence, he sat there, as still as possible, almost wishing he could disappear.

“Our concerns,” it was the broad, quietest man on the left that finally spoke. “As we’ve just told the boy. Is that at the first chance he gets, we think he’s going to charge in with a spirit and end up devoured.”

“Nonsense.”

Ronan’s short response was not only dismissive but apparently infuriating to the man who had spoken as he turned a bright shade of red and clenched his fists as though he might strike something.

Ronan smiled at the sight but the woman wasn’t prepared to let it end there, “elaborate, Ronan.”

“The spirit was the keeper of a gateway between worlds. It must have been very powerful, not only that but Finlay had agreed to let it in, to anchor with him, to be a part of his body. Yet, even against all of those odds, which are significant as we all know, he won.”

“Most of that is speculation and doesn’t reassure our concerns, he survived by chance, next time he might not be so lucky.”

“Chance? What exactly do you think happened to the spirit?”

He hadn’t really thought about it before and going by the looks the other three exchanged one another, they hadn’t either. What had happened to it; was it forced out of him, he never saw it in the sanctuary afterwards—was it destroyed, he knew it was getting weaker in the same way he had felt himself but he didn't think that was possible.

“What are you getting at, Ronan?”

“I don't believe Finlay merely survived the spirit's attack—he devoured it.”