Chapter 179
Jay and his friends were still gathered out in front of the polished rock and crystal shop and were discussing where they should go next.
Jay yawned and M'redith looked at him strangely. “Tired already?” she asked.
Jay was feeling tired after a long day. Or was it more than that? He estimated that it was probably roughly midnight. Usually Jay would have been good for another couple of hours at least. He yawned again.
“Guys I think I'm going to head back and head to bed. I'm exhausted apparently.” Jay said as he tried to hide another yawn.
The others all made disappointed noises and attempted to convince him to stay out but Jay shook his head. He'd 'hit the wall' so to speak and wouldn't be good for anything until he'd gotten some sleep.
“You guys stay out though and have fun. Here, take some coin for a cart ride home just in case,” Jay said and handed M'redith a silver. As usual he had handed her far more than a mere cart ride would require.
“Hey! Why does she get to hold the money!” Aiden complained with a grin.
M'redith shook her head in mock frustration. Would Jay ever get the hang of Eden currency?
Jay laughed and pointed at Aiden, “Because you would spend it all on food!”
Jay turned back to M'redith and smiled at her, “Use what's left over to buy a midnight snack for you guys. I'm sure Aiden will be hungry soon,”
Aiden perked up, “I am hungry! How did you know?”
Norri laughed and gave Jay a hug goodnight. “See you tomorrow Jay!”
The others gave him a hug and he waved down a cart. He paid the driver and gave them the destination before he hopped in back and waved to his friends. They were sad to see him go but excited to get a look at more of the city.
Jay watched them until the cart turned a corner and his friends passed out of sight.
Jay must have dozed off because when he next opened his eyes a Guild Guard was slapping at his boots which were hanging over the back of the cart to wake him up.
“Up and at 'em! You a Guild man or a visitor?” the Guard asked Jay before he could make a move to exit the cart.
The rich and well-off did not, as a rule, travel in carts. Only those that couldn't afford to travel in a carriage rode in the back of a cart. Unless you were Jay, and just didn't care what you rode in. Jay could have bought a carriage as well as a driver to move him about the city. Instead he rode in the back of fruit and vegetable carts.
That might have something to do with how he was treated upon arrival.
Jay wiped at his eyes blearily and tried to wake up. “I'm a Guild man. Glimmerhide Group,” he mumbled as he opened his eyes and looked about.
The Guard raised an eyebrow before Jay pointed at the square tab and sigil that Jay wore on his collar. The square had a stylized Glimmerhide head centered on the square, and the square itself was made out of 100% genuine Glimmerhide hide. That hide had the innate property of glimmering a mesmerizing rainbow of colors and could not be mimicked through other means.
If it looked like a glimmerhide hide then it was.
The story of Kagan's Dome had by that time spread throughout K'tharkle. The story had fragmented with each retelling but some details had remained consistent. It had been a Guild group by the name of Glimmerhide Group that had brought about the recent changes to the dungeon. And it had been a Guild trainee, or perhaps a member, that had been elevated by the King Himself to Patron of Kagan's Dome.
Other details were hazy and rarely matched up between the various versions of the story. If you found someone wearing the Glimmerhide Group sigil however you had a one in five chance of finding the Patron.
The Guild Guards were only slightly better informed than the general populace. They had been informed that the Patron was indeed still a student and to exercise caution when interacting with him. They had all by that time been made aware of Jay and what he looked like.
The Guild Guard quickly recognized Jay once he had pointed out his collar device. His treatment of Jay transformed instantly, much to Jay's confusion. Jay was unaware of anyone disseminating any information about him at all to the Guards.
“Sorry Sir, I didn't recognize you. Here, let me help,” the Guard said and offered Jay a hand out of the cart. Jay thanked him in a bit of confusion – a Guard had never offered to help him out of a cart before. His own friends rarely offered to do so.
“Thanks? I think?” Jay said with a smile.
Jay didn't know why the Guard was being so nice to him. The Guard wasn't sure why he was being so nice either other than the fact that he had been told by his boss to do so. Even his own boss was a bit hazy as to why it was important to keep Jay happy with the Guild. All he had been told was to treat him with the same respect he would give to a visiting ruler.
Now his boss' boss, that was a different story. They had a very good idea what kind of power Jay would wield over Kagan's Dome. They knew more about being a Patron than even Jay did – and he was a Patron!
After the Guard had helped Jay to his feet Jay tipped the driver two copper and stepped back so the cart could leave the crowded courtyard. Even at midnight the area was still packed with traffic. Thankfully it was well lit with magical lighting or it would have been an even bigger mess than it already was.
“Is it just me or does it seem even busier than earlier? I thought it would clear out a bit after dark,” Jay asked curiously. He didn't expect an answer, the courtyard was very busy and the Guard had other things to do. Surprisingly enough however the Guard actually answered Jay – and politely too for that matter.
“Oh that? Heh, seems like a bunch of guildies all had the same bright idea. They probably figured that things would be less busy at night. Unfortunately for them a lot of their fellow guildies had the same idea. If anything it's worse tonight than it was earlier today,” the Guard explained patiently.
Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
The Guard did have other things to do – but he also had a good excuse to not do any of them. He'd been told to handle Jay with kid gloves and here Jay was asking a question. He had no choice but to answer him, right? So the Guard stood with Jay and relaxed for a time as they spoke with each other.
Jay was tired and yawned again before something tugged at him in the back of his mind. He relaxed and let it come to him. It took a moment but he finally managed to figure out what it was.
“So you recognized my sigil? Glimmerhide Group?” Jay asked the Guard as they watched carts enter and exit.
Another Guard with a rank device on his chest and shoulders started to walk over to the Guard Jay was standing with. As the Guard came closer they gave Jay a once over and then another before they stopped in their tracks with a frustrated look before turning around. They instead grabbed a Guard not doing anything and sent them in to the center of the courtyard to help out.
It seemed that Jay's Guard wasn't doing what he had been assigned to. He was talking with Jay instead which seemed to be a protected activity as far as the Guard's boss was concerned.
The Guard nodded, “I did recognize it. We have to be able to recognize sigils or we'd never know how to correctly handle people.”
“If I described a sigil would you be able to tell me what group it belonged to?” Jay asked.
The Guard turned to face Jay and gave him a considering look, “Sure, I know tons of them.”
Jay thought back to Norri's pin and tried to describe it. “A dagger. Silver blade. Single notch on the blade towards the handle. Dual edged.”
The Guard chuckled. “What color is the handle?”
Jay tried to picture it exactly the way it had looked when Norri had shown it to them. “Gray? It was gray. Gray handle, silver blade, single notch.”
The Guard's face went dark, almost angry. “Man-hunters Guild. Nasty business.”
“I've never heard of them,” Jay offered in hopes that the Guard would be more forthcoming.
The Guard chuckled, “Good for you. You usually only hear of them if you've done wrong – and I mean really wrong, crimes against humanity wrong – or if you were around to see justice done when it happened.”
“What's wrong with them?” Jay asked carefully. The Guard didn't seem to think very much of them judging by his attitude.
“With them? Nothing. It's who they hunt that turns my stomach. Any time you give humans power you're bound to end up with a few that should never have had power in the first place. When people like that grow too strong, well, that's when the Man-hunters get involved.” the Guard said as if he had tasted something offensive.
“What about Redguard? Wouldn't they be the ones to do that?” Jay said with a frown.
The Guard laughed, loudly. “Redguard? Redguard are rescuers, saviors. The people I'm talking about are too far gone for that. For them you need hunters, trappers, killers - people who can be just as vicious as the people they hunt. That's the Man-hunters.”
Jay filed that away for future thought. He wondered how he was going to break the news to Norri.
“Where'd you see the sigil anyway? They aren't exactly common knowledge and they don't advertise as far as I know,” the Guard inquired without looking at Jay.
“Here, actually,” Jay explained. “There was a job fair for us trainees. One of my group mates found their pin in her bag.”
The Guard nodded with a grin, “Well, as I said, they don't advertise. They have to recruit somehow, right?”
“I don't see how – they haven't even spoken to her yet.” Jay pointed out.
The Guard laughed, “Oh I highly doubt that. I can almost guarantee you that they've spoken with her by now. Like I said though, again, – they don't advertise. They probably didn't introduce themselves as a Man-hunter.”
Jay thought about that. They had talked with a lot of people at the job fair. Any of them could have been a Man-hunter. He decided to drop the matter as he felt that he'd learned about as much as the Guild Guard was willing to tell him about Man-hunters.
Jay yawned again and the Guard grinned, “Bed time?”
Jay nodded, “Thanks for the talk, hope your shift goes fast.”
The Guard smiled happily at the encouragement, “Thanks Jay, sleep well.”
They traded a handshake before Jay headed off down a path towards the men's living area.
The Guard watched him go and once he was out of sight immediately headed for his boss. The ranking Guard was less than thrilled at having one of his Guards stand about and chat for ten minutes but listened patiently to the report. He thanked the Guard and sent him back out to the courtyard to help out while the ranking Guard wrote up a quick note to be sent up the chain of command.
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CONFIDENTIAL – HUMINT
FM: Guild Guard Post #1
TO: Walter, Intel Bureau
RE: Glimmerhide Group Interaction
Guard 1047 reports interaction just after midnight this evening. Conversation with Glimmerhide Member Jay who made inquiries on a sigil belonging to the Man-hunters Guild. Subject reports group member Norri received pin bearing sigil at job fair anonymously.
Recommend full workup for Norri.
ENDOFMESSAGE
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Jay closed the door behind it and locked it. He'd arrived at his rooms ready to go to sleep as usual and he turned on his Tropical Island Aura and let it cycle for thirty seconds until his armor, clothing, and even his own body, was entirely clean.
He carefully removed his armor and set it aside for the coming morning. His underclothes came next and he folded them in to a neat pile. He left his clothes and armor and boots and bag in the front room and turned out the light as he walked in to his bedroom and crawled in to bed.
Goddess he was tired. Even going to bed a little after midnight was still technically an early night for Jay. Hopefully he'd get some sleep. Tomorrow was a big day. Instead of the usual classes he'd get to attend one of the ones he had picked out himself. He'd have breakfast and then he'd head over to the training room to check for notices and the day's schedule.
That was tomorrow though. For tonight all he wanted was to sleep.
He closed his eyes and felt himself fading. He let the process proceed uninterrupted and soon everything went dark. Jay sighed as he drifted off to sleep.
Suddenly he felt like he wasn't asleep at all and Jay groaned. “I just wanted to sleep!”
The Goddess in front of him in his dream smiled widely, “Not the welcome I had been hoping for but I'll take what I can get when you're this tired. Hello again Jay!” Gaia said with a wide grin. “We need to talk.”