“Mister Killian Ubel?”

Hearing my name I attempted to push away the veil of sleep and glance around the waiting room I am in only to be met with empty chairs. Hours earlier, it had been full of people waiting around; worried, nervous, excited, hungry and above all else impatient.

Raising my gaze to meet the receptionist I give her a grin.

“Guess that must be me, huh”

“I don’t know… that annoying fly over there looks a lot like it could be a Killian” she retorts looking towards one flying perilously close to the brazier keeping the room bri-

Oh. Maybe not. I guess it didn’t feel close enough.

“What’s the deal with the wait though Nadine?” looking out the window next to me, I notice the last rays of the sun’s light, turning the clouds orange in the distance. “I must have been here for a couple of hours. Where is everyone else?”

“Well technically, you should have been in to see Hank earlier but you were already asleep so we let others in first. All of them. We all know how little you sleep Killian, you need the rest” She said looking at me with concern. “And it was really busy as well” was quietly added under her breath.

“I guess it was the most sleep I’ve had all week” I grumbled in agreement. Honestly speaking the 6 hours I must have slept since I came in at lunch, might very well challenge for longest actual sleep this year.

“I swear; if you’re not in here looking for a job, you’re out there doing one. I swear you are going to work yourself to the grave one of these days” she said, chuckling. How nice it must be to find amusement in others pain I thought to myself.

“How do you plan to repay me if I can’t find a job?”

“Don’t worry there’s not many holy men other than you down here looking for work. They’re all in the temples saying prayers, slaying demons and singing hymns whilst you’re out here having to find work through the Guild. Can’t your deity give you a job or something? Surely it’s not that difficult for such a powerful being to do. Maybe you can finally be like the other Priests and sit in a temple on your ass all day.”

“I’ve told you once and I’ll tell you again. Romni has no temples and more importantly, unless my sermon to that fishmonger worked, I am his only follower! And on second thoughts, I probably shouldn’t be so proud of that… But my point is if I sat in a temple all day, who would little miss Nadine and the oh so great Hank talk to?”

“Shut up and get your ass in there already” she chuckled “We are closing up soon”

As she made her way back behind her desk, I glanced at her butt tail. I guess that was kind of rude but the short cat girl was mesmerising from behind. Because of the tail of course, what sort of Priest do you take me for?

 Opening a door labelled ‘Hank Pendril – Job Support Worker’ I walked up to a desk piled high with papers with a man in his 20s with thick rimmed glasses and messy brown hair scribbling on a paper with ferocious rage, his eyes screaming fury as a dark aura started to surround him. Ignoring the aura of wrath surrounding him, I took a seat in the leather chair in front of the desk which appeared to wake him from his frenzy. Pushing his glasses up his nose he placed his quill and ink to the side along with the document that he’d been bullying.

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

Offering his hand to me a rather amiable voice came out “Hello there Killian! Sorry for the wait, I had heard you were having a rather nice rest and felt wrong to wake a fellow worker from their well deserved slumber”

Shaking his hand I replied “You look like you could do with some rest yourself old friend, the bags under your eyes would make a merchant jealous!”

For a moment he just stared at me processing my words. Then we both started to laugh.

“Oh Killian, you always make my day!”

“And I’m hoping like usual, you’ll make mine” I said the laughter dying off.

“Indeed I shall!” He announced moving from his chair to one of the many filing cabinets strewn about his office and started looking through one of the drawers. “Now where did I put it..? Aha!” Pulling out a red folder with my name on it he brought it to the desk and after a bit of searching pulled out a sheet of paper handing it to me.

As I began reading Hank explained to me. “So earlier this morning a farmer came in to make a request of you specifically, said he’d heard about you and decided you were the only one who could do this job for him.”

“Really? I’m sure there would be someone from one of the temples willing to help him out”

“That’s what I thought, and they’d be better too, no offence. But he was adamant it had to be you. Anyway, that’s the job request form. He lives in a ranch north of Banth, wants you to meet him tomorrow. He’s willing to pay quite a bit so I’d say the jobs probably worth it but he’s not defined what the job is so the Job Agency can’t insure you for your health but we can ensure you’ll get the money if you complete his task. Just sign at the bottom with your stamp and we can confirm that you have agreed to do the job”

As soon as I see the payment on the request form I reach into my shirt and pull out the ring attached to my necklace. It was perhaps the only thing I owned of value but looking again at that paycheque to be, not for long. I place the sigil, an image of a hand ablaze, upon the contract and push my will onto the ring. For a moment runic circles appeared in an ethereal white glow, one after the other. Floating in the air above the ring and from nowhere a hand formed from embers came into being slamming downwards into the runes. As the embers made contact with each ring of runes they lit up then turned to a pale smoke until the flaming hand touched the last runes vanishing along with it.

Lifting up the ring I just sighed, Hank was sighing too. “They add a lot of unnecessary things to the soul stamp don’t they” I lamented. The magic ring of parlour tricks had cost me quite a bit but it was a price worth paying. It meant that I could work as many jobs as I liked without the need to buy a stamp ever again. The normal ones required a special concoction, each one unique to an individual, made of it’s owners blood and was only available to acquire form a Job Agency. The trick was that with the countless documents you had to sign to get work through the agency, you would have to keep coming back for more. Fortunately, there were soul stamps like mine which they offered solely to those who came often to the agency for freelance work and there was something similar for organisations which often try recruit workers through the agency as well. The soul stamp didn’t need to be refilled and so it was a worthy investment for all the freelancers offered one.

And naturally for such an important and useful item, it was flashy for no reason.

After seeing the performance with the runes and the hand, I had begun to think that the reason they only offered it to members who use the service often is because they enjoyed making little personalised pieces for each of them. For example, the sigil on my ring is actually that I had designed to be used by followers of Romni when I finally find my blessed deity some. At first I was impressed, but overtime it dwelled on me just how much I had spent on this. It would save me money in the long run and meant I could get personal requests but, although I was nearing the time where it will mean I’ve saved money, I can’t help but feel like I was tricked into working for longer than I needed to. Oh well there’s nothing I can do now and I’ve already slept so I might as well make the most of tonight.

“Any jobs going for tonight Hank?”