“I can’t believe they survived that disaster.”

Grud said while paging through the final guild’s report on the Sunkiss incident.

“It reads like the manual on how not to delve into a dungeon.”

“You’re being a bit harsh on them.”

Melody said, remembering how much she favoured Aryan. In many ways those young kids grew up around them in the guild. Few guildmembers didn’t know the Sunkiss team. At the very least they knew them from their last year of guild apprenticeship training. She got on well with Aryan and held big hopes for her future. It was a big shock when the guards hastily arrived late that afternoon nearly two weeks ago with the news of the incident.

“I know it sounds harsh, but that’s why we sponsor and train them up for an entire year.”

He sighed and leaned back on his chair, casting a casual eye over the guild below.

“I’m just sorry that it had to be Aryan. I’m not sure how her parents are going to take the news.”

Word of her death still needed to reach Northport where her family resided. Grud took Aryan on as a favour for her parents. They once formed part of his adventuring team when he was a lot younger. That seemed like a long while ago.

“What is going to happen to them now?”

“Who knows, it’s still early days to be honest. William will stay in the guild. He’s been given more than a couple of offers on teams, and that was before the exam. People noticed his abilities, and he’s calm under pressure which makes him a good fit for a team.”

“And Macie?”

“Her shoulder will probably not be like it used to. That arrow hit her shoulder joint on her draw arm and they did a lot of damage removing that arrowhead. Depending on her recovery, we could retrain her to draw with her other arm. Keep in touch with her, I don’t want the guild getting a reputation for dumping adventurers when they hit a rough patch.”

“I’ll make sure she gets well treated. Did Keegan decide what he want to do?”

“He’s opted to go with Suryman to the Northport guild. To tell you the truth, I’m conflicted about that.”

“You can’t blame him. He feels he messed up and he wants to start somewhere fresh.”

“There’s a difference between facing up to your mistakes and running from them. I hope he isn’t making another by going to Northport, especially at this time.”

“Are you talking about the recruitment drive?”

“Mm. It’s the sort of story that fills a young man’s mind full of foolish dreams.”

Melody diverted the subject knowing how Grud disliked talking about the Northport issue.

“I heard Josh resigned from the guild?”

Grud knew Melody felt personally about Josh, especially since she nominated him for the Sunkiss team. Again, Grud sighed in resignation, who like being the barer of bad news.

“He came to see me yesterday to give me his notice. He asked me to apologise to you on his behalf. I don’t think he could face you.”

Elves didn’t easily betray their emotions, but Grud plainly noticed she hurt at those words.

“I’m sorry to hear that. I hoped he would stay.”

“I tried to convince him, but you know Josh, hard-headed as ever.”

“Did he say what he wanted to do in future?”

“He decided to help out on his father’s farm.”

“Has he spoken to Josh or any of his team since they returned?”

“Not that I’ve heard.”

Melody and Grud didn’t speak for a while, lost in their thoughts. Finally, Grud seemed to make up his mind about something.

“Renata. Come here please.”

He spoke loud enough that the receptionists below heard him clearly. Renata’s prompt and unflustered arrival to his office pointed to her being used to that sort of treatment.

“Yes, guild master, you called?”

“Can you contact Keegan from Sunkiss and ask him to come and see me as soon as possible?”

“I’ll send out a courier request straight away.”

Finding willing message runners was a breeze when running an adventurer guild. There was always someone available or not running a quest that could deliver letters for guild purposes. For a reward of course. Otherwise, people opted for the Hafeld professional courier services if someone required an urgent delivery. Renata decided to use the third available option - Tommy express.

“Hi Tommy, are you available to deliver a letter to Keegan?”

Tommy’s radar ears never missed the guild master’s words and already waited for Renata at the reception desk, ready to go. She liked pulling Tommy’s leg because she knew that he would make a baby pouting face when she asked him the dumbest question ever, as if she couldn’t see his enthusiasm for herself. She handed the completed letter to the adrenaline fuelled boy.

If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

Tommy, the young adventurer apprentice couldn’t go on any subjugation quests. On the rare occasion he went forest rabbit hunting, or on most occasions, he took on quests for more mundane things like herb collection. And much to his chagrin, they always chaperoned him with an older trainee to keep an eye on him. On multiple occasions, his chaperone held less total experience than Tommy, causing him to smart at the obvious injustice to his bravado.

So, when the opportunity to came to deliver letters unsupervised he eagerly snapped up the chance. Not only did he get to earn a few copper bits and score some initiate points, but he didn’t need a chaperone inside the city. Perhaps the latter meant more to him than any initiate points, although the money still counted for a lot.

“Hey Tommy, I’ll give you a savoury biscuit if you return really quickly.”

Suri offered, knowing exactly that Tommy would choose to come back on the scenic route, lose all sense of time, and become hopelessly side-tracked to the point the guild master would have to punish him with more chores. She also knew he worked on his stomach and always loved her mom’s savoury biscuits.

“I’ll go, I’ll go.”

“Wait, look first…”

Suri warned him as he flew off the guild’s front doorsteps without a second thought to look around for traffic before running out the door.

“I swear that boy drops my age by a day whenever he pulls a stunt like that.”

Suri sighed as she placed her head on the desk in frustration. Tommy seemed to have the habit of doing crazy things at the most unexpected of times, always catching her off guard.

A subdued version of Keegan greeted Suri and Renata as he immediately climbed the stairs near the entrance way, avoiding more than the expected niceties with them. It didn’t escape the two that he preferred not to speak to them, and they both felt saddened at his choice, although they understood the reason he didn’t want to talk, they still wanted to console him and tell him that they cared.

Keegan wasn’t just another adventurer to them; he became close friends with Renata over the years and even though Suri only started recently with the guild, he came to befriend Suri as well. Keegan’s age almost matched the two receptionists, and likely sharing similar interests on things of their age group.

Like Tommy, Keegan also grew up doing an apprenticeship in the guild. Many people knew him well and likewise, shared his grief at the tragedy that befell Sunkiss. They sighed in unison, confusing an adventurer standing nearby.

“You wanted to see me guild master?”

“Ah, Keegan. Thanks for coming, I appreciate it. Please close the door.”

Technically, Keegan didn’t have to respond to Grud’s invitation because he wasn’t a member of the Hafeld guild since he quit. So Grud genuinely appreciated Keegan coming to see him.

Keegan on the other hand, in all the years he worked in the guild he couldn’t once recall Grud ever closing his office door, which gave him sufficient reason for concern. Grud indicated to Keegan to sit in a chair and unusually Grud sat in the chair next to him, only increasing his reason for concern. That and the uncomfortable moment of silence.

“Part of being a guild master,”

Grud started explaining,

“is doing things I don’t want to do.”

Again, the moment of silence.

“I’m going to be straight with you Keegan. Do you mind if I be frank with you?”

Keegan shook his head in acquiescence, probably more due to morbid fascination in seeing where the guild master planned to go with his talk.

“No, I don’t mind.”

“Good, because I believe that you are one of the best young leaders we have in this guild. Good enough to become a guild master like me.”

Keegan’s amazement surprised even himself. It wasn’t like the guild master to throw compliments around like confetti, so Keegan took it at face value.

“I’m sorry to see you leave, and had you opted to stay, I would have slowly helped you understand what I’m about to tell you in a few minutes.”

“What’s that?”

“You shouldn’t have gone with Suryman.”

“Why’s that?”

“Because after Aryan’s death, you’re obviously running from your responsibilities, and you are about to make another big mistake.”

“Mistake?”

“Yes, mistake. I’m not going to tell you what that is, you must live with your future decisions because I’m not responsible for instructing you on your actions anymore. But if you’re willing, I will offer you free advice on what past mistakes you made because as a leader, you need to understand where you went wrong so that you don’t make the same mistake twice.”

The guild master spoke seriously, in a way Keegan never heard him speak before. Grud took Keegan’s silence as reluctant acceptance. Heck, he wouldn’t want to hear it either if he stood in Keegan’s boots.

“Your report on your exam was thorough. That and our interview with the others created a clear enough picture of what happened there. As your former guild master and as a friend I’m going to tell you where you went wrong and why. My hope is that you learn from your mistakes.”

Keegan felt dazed, as if he were watching himself in some sort of other reality. But Grud wasn’t waiting for Keegan senses to catch up because he continued explaining.

“Firstly, you had an opportunity to call the whole thing off before entering the dungeon. The moment you knew the number of beasts you encountered were abnormally high, you should have withdrawn and informed the guild, and the same goes for when you entered. Yes, we would have failed your team and they probably would have kicked your ass for it, but everyone would still be alive. Secondly on multiple occasions your team showed that they were not up to the task and yet you still pushed forward, especially after Aryan told you she felt tired and needed to rest more. There are times you need to push forward as a leader, but not when you are ignoring your team’s problems.”

“But how would I know that she wasn’t just complaining for the sake of it? She wasn’t the easiest person to get on with.”

“You worked with Aryan for an entire year. Was she in the habit of complaining about being tired?”

“No. She wasn’t.”

Grud’s point struck home. He never listened to her. It was him that was being selfish. He wanted to finish the quest and get out of there.

“Then the last and probably most crucial point. You underestimated the dungeon and ignored your gut feeling. After Josh lost the function of his arm, your team was in trouble. You didn’t have a decent healing potion to heal it and the loss of his fighting arm led inextricably to your team’s disaster. I’m going to tell you something that you don’t want to hear. Your decisions as team leader were lacklustre at best, and I place Aryan’s death squarely in your hands.”

Keegan’s feeling of dread overwhelmed him. Somewhere inside him he blamed the others for not listening to him and always fighting his command. He understood that it was his poor decisions that led to Aryan’s death. He couldn’t blame Josh, William or Macie because out of all of them, as team leader, he had the authority to stop the quest.

Following the incident, he never cried. Not at Aryan’s funeral and not when he briefly greeted the others. He never spoke to them because in his heart he blamed them. Tears started falling onto the floor as the emotions washed through him. For a long time Grud allowed the man to bawl his eyes out, he needed to cry. If anything convinced Grud that Keegan had it in him to be a leader, the evidence lay before him in that snotty nosed kid who grew up over a few days. That Keegan felt remorse at his incompetence meant there was redemption for him.

“Now get yourself cleaned up before you leave this office, I don’t want the others to see you like that and especially those two down at reception, they’ll never forgive me.”

Keegan misunderstand Grud’s words.

“What have Suri and Renata got to do with this?”

“You’re really dumb sometimes so I’ll put in plain words for you. Those two probably care for you more than any other adventurer here. They are going to miss you and I expect we’ll be drying their tears soon enough. As for you, speak to them before you leave and then I advise you to speak to the other members of Sunkiss before you go to Northport.”

Grud walked Keegan from the door and along the mezzanine passageway, but a flustered Renata intercepted them midway.

“What’s the matter?”

Grud asked with concern. He finally noticed that the guild seemed noisier somehow. He didn’t need Renata to tell him something happened.

“Its bandits.”