It was a short walk from the Wandering Wayfarer to the Sathsholm Wayfarer’s Lodge. Just a few blocks from the high street in Traveler’s Row. Corwin and Jabez moved confidently through the early morning crowd, heading towards the gate. Jabez returned a few hails from other Wayfarers, but didn’t stop to converse. It seemed like Jabez actively avoided other people, a heavy thundercloud of a look on his face. Corwin, however, would occasionally stop to chat for a few moments, then jog to catch up to Vash and Jabez before they turned a corner and left him behind. Vash kept his eyes open. The little rats from the Street of Blades had spotted him the evening before. He had made plenty of enemies in the other gangs in the city, that he was out in the open and not with the other Eth Mitaan made him vulnerable. Walking about in broad daylight felt like he had a target painted on his back. It was like an itch between his shoulder-blades that he couldn’t scratch.

Just because I can’t see them yet, Vash thought, doesn’t mean they’re not there.

Mercifully, the walk was over quickly. The Lodge looked like all the other warehouses in the city, a squat, blocky structure with few windows on a cleared lot. A sign hung above the massive double-doors. A device that was the combination of two Malconian runes: the Wanja rune that often stood for mercenary or sellsword in Old Malconian script and the Vekh rune, that meant stranger or traveler without a home. Vash was very familiar with the Vekh rune. A constable in Durron’s Ford had branded one on his forearm. The Vagabond brand was a ‘merciful’ alternative to death. It was as old as the Malconian Empire, since the Solarians adopted it from them. The mark doomed Vagabonds to spend their lives wandering from place to place. Every country in the Grand Alliance has a law that forbids vagabonds from staying in any town or village longer than two nights. It effectively removed them from society, never allowing the branded to set down roots. The Wayfarers Guild was one of the few groups that took in Vagabonds. Become a Wayfarer and they forgave your mark, but that meant you spent your life as an adventurer. A life that was often hard, painful, and short.

A hulking, seven-foot tall Orc guarded the door, heavy mace within easy reach. He glanced down with beady, black eyes as Jabez, Corwin, and Vash approached. His voice rumbled like thunder. “What’s your business?”

If the brute intimidated Jabez, he didn’t show it. “New apprentice. Need to get a Delver’s evaluation.”

The Orc looked over at Vash and drew back his lips from his tusks. Vash couldn’t tell if he was smiling or snarling. “Master Eddar will need to look at him before Master Royce can run him through the Gauntlet.”

Jabez frowned. “Eddar about?”

The Orc hooked a thumb towards the door. “He’s in the in his office. In a foul mood, though.”

“Why’s that?”

This time, the Orc bared his tusks in an obvious grin. “Oh, you’ll see.”

Jabez let out an annoyed grunt and pushed open one of the great doors. Corwin followed and motioned to Vash to keep up. As he passed beneath the hulking Orc, Vash thought he heard him chuckle, a deep rumbling sound in his chest. It was unnerving.

After Vash passed through the door, it swung closed behind him with a great boom that echoed through the cavernous front room. Heads looked up at the sound. Tables stood throughout the front room for anyone to use. Several adventuring parties gathered with books, maps, and notes strewn about as they researched various quests. After giving the new arrivals a quick once-over, the adventurers went back to what they were doing, some with annoyed looks at the interruption.

Directly in front of them was an impressive-looking desk. An older woman sat at the desk, filling out paperwork. Behind her was a large board with cards tacked to the soft wooden surface. The cards hung in precise columns that were labeled Iron, Bronze, Silver, and Gold. Vash guessed that those were some sort of ranking system to determine which Wayfarer could take which quest.

The wall to Vash’s right had several bronze coins with the Wayfarer device embossed on them, hanging from hooks. Each coin had a name written on a card beneath them. Some names looked familiar, but most were unknown to him. Hallways lead back into the depths of the lodge, one next to the quest board, one in the center of the room and one at the far end.

Jabez approached the clerk at the desk. “I’m looking for Master Eddar. Your Orc at the door said I had to bring my apprentice by before getting an evaluation.”

The clerk looked up from her paperwork, a confused expression on her face. Then she looked past Jabez, spotted Vash, and she looked slightly pained. “Ah yes, you’re the ones. Down the hall behind me, office at the far end.”

“Thanks.” Jabez said, looking irritated. “Come on, let’s get this over with.”

Vash followed Jabez and Corwin back into the halls of the Lodge. The walls were oak-paneled and had a deep, earthy stain, giving the hall the look of a wealthy gentleman’s club. Gilded mage-lamps glowed at regular intervals in the hallway. A few clerks moved with swift efficiency from one room to the next, often clutching stacks of papers.

The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

“This place looks more like a bank than an adventurer’s hall.” Vash said.

“It sort of is a bank.” Corwin explained. “Wayfarers have accounts here and credit, which we can spend with affiliated businesses. It’s also a research library, networking hub, center for professional development. It serves a lot of functions within the Guild.”

Vash nodded, glancing into the open rooms as they passed. He saw one set up like a martial school with training dummies and targets. A few young men and women were being put through a series of sword forms under the stern eye of a gray-haired dwarf. Another room was shelf-upon-shelf of books and scrolls. Finally, they came to the end of the hallway and a heavy door with a brass plate at human eye-level. The plate read simply ‘Lodge Master’.

Jabez knocked with one heavy fist, then waited. After a few moments, came a call from within. “Come!”

The office had the same oak paneling as the rest of the Lodge, but it shone with recent oiling. Large windows let in the morning sunlight and showed a small private garden just outside. Several portraits hung on the walls, two humans and two elves that Vash didn’t recognize. At one end stood a heavy desk with the device of the Wayfarer’s Guild carved into the front.

At the desk sat a human. He was in his middle-years with wide wings of gray hair sweeping from his temples, overtaking the chestnut brown of his youth. He wore a pair of optics perched on the end of his nose as he read over a report. Glancing up, he fixed the three of them with a frown and then waved them inside. “Come in, don’t dawdle in the doorway.”

Jabez strode to the center of the room, then let his hammer fall from his shoulder and rest, head-down, on the carpet. The head made a heavy thunk as it came to a rest. Eddar winced, but refrained from commenting. Vash and Corwin flanked Jabez, standing sightly behind the dwarf and at each of his shoulders. Vash wasn’t sure what exactly was going on, but there was a palpable tension in the air.

Eddar took off his optics and tossed them onto the desk, rubbing his eyes. “Do you have any idea how much trouble you’re causing me, Jabez?”

“No,” Jabez said, dryly. “But I have a feeling you’re about to tell me.”

“When you came by before, I told you that getting one of the Eth Mitaan out of Graystone using Wayfarer privilege was a bad idea. I distinctly remember telling you to drop it.” Eddar said. “And now you’re standing here, with one of them standing beside you, and asking for a Guild evaluation.”

“I couldn’t just let him die, Master Eddar — “ Corwin began, but Eddar cut him short with a glare.

“I will get to you later.” Eddar said. “You went far beyond the scope of any apprentice in this situation. Going straight to the Duke himself? Are you mad?”

Corwin flushed and looked at his boots.

“Don’t take it out on the boy,” Jabez said. “I shouldn’t have put the fool notion in his head.”

“Oh, I know,” Eddar agreed. “And now I have to deal with a Solarian law being invoked here in Galadon because of the frankly bewildering treaties signed at the formation of the Grand Alliance. A law, I might add, that was never invoked in Galadon until yesterday. That Duke Adolus agreed to honor the law and had a quest ready to go in exchange is troubling on many levels.”

“What do you mean ‘a quest ready to go’?” Vash asked, puzzled.

“It means that the Duke had something prepared when Corwin got there to invoke Wayfarer privilege.” Jabez said, turning to glare at Corwin over one shoulder. “Which means he knew what we were going to do and then used it to his advantage.”

“When I heard you’d taken a Vagabond as an apprentice, I had thought that was odd. Now you’ve taken two.” Eddar said, incredulous. “You should be retired in a Lodge somewhere, Jabez. Instead, you’re running around like it’s the old days and shadowspawn are crawling over the mountains to threaten the realms of men. Not only that, but you’re bringing in folk that have no training, no background in this kind of work, and that actively threatens our position here in the South. This isn’t Solaria or Nosvaral. They haven’t seen the same things down here. So Wayfarers are a curiosity, an interesting bauble to look at for a moment and then ignore. If we cause trouble, then we might be told to pack our bags and leave.”

Jabez looked at Eddar with a stoic gaze. “You finished?”

Eddar sighed. “Yes, I suppose so.”

“Good, I need a Delver evaluation for the boy.”

Eddar sighed and pulled over a heavy, leather-bound ledger. He flipped through pages until he found what he was looking for and grimaced. “Royce has a three-hundred gold fee for evaluation and your debt to the Guild is…substantial.”

“I’m good for it.”

“And if he passes?” Eddar asked, making a notation in the ledger. “I’m not sure we can extend credit for registration.”

“We can talk about that after the evaluation.”

Eddar looked up at Jabez and shook his head. “I suppose we can’t save everyone from themselves. Have you ever been on the Delver side of the house?”

“Never had a need.” Jabez shrugged.

“They’re a bit peculiar, but Royce is a fair judge of talent, so he’ll give you a good evaluation,” Eddar said, closing the book. “I’m sure Royce knows you’re in the building. He’ll meet you in the common room.”

Jabez nodded to Eddar, turning to leave.

“One last thing,” Eddar said, “Duke Adolus rarely offers quests to the Wayfarers. He usually has private adventurers for this sort of thing, people who don’t ask many questions. I’d be careful out there, if I were you.”

Jabez merely grunted in acknowledgment before turning towards the office door. Vash followed, turning over Eddar’s words in his mind. The Duke has private adventurers. The Duke has an obsession with a variety of items and artifacts from the elder days, before the fall of Malconia. I always thought he just bought them, not that he organized quests.

The thought of raiding a dungeon for the Duke was galling. He hated the very idea of doing anything for Adolus’ benefit. He was so preoccupied that he didn’t notice that Jabez and Corwin had come to a halt and he nearly tripped over the dwarf.

“What is it— “ Vash began, then looked up to see a group of men in gray tunics slashed with green. They were wandering around the main hall, attempting to look unobtrusive while pointedly looking for something. At the main desk stood a stocky man with a bald head. “Dammit.”

Inquisitor Glauch looked up, his cold gray eyes settling on Vash. His face settled into a look of satisfaction. “Ah, there you are.”