Emily walked into the Guild infirmary putting enough force into the door to show, at least to herself, that she was angry. The lobby was empty.

"Korah?" She hissed, trying to be loud enough to be heard, but not so loud as to disturb anyone resting.

"Oh?" Came a voice from a back room. Korah poked his head out. "Emily?"

Emily started toward him brandishing his report like an accusation, which it kind of was. "What is this shit? If I file this it's going to look like my lower charge was nearly killed by rats."

The half-elf blinked her. "Uh, she was."

"Big difference between a rat and a Dire Rat." Emily hissed, now practically on top of him.

"Yes." He said plainly, as if she had just stated the sky was blue today.

That gave her pause. Korah was quick to fix his mistakes, but didn't seem to be registering any. "Where is she?"

Korah pointed down the hall. "Room one."

Emily walked into room one like she owned the place, paused when she realized all the people in the room except herself had horns, then went over to the bed that didn't have a tail poking out. She stopped herself from ripping away the covers, choosing to slowly lift the sheet. The girl, Jak, was covered in small bandages adhered via some medicinal salve. Only her torso and legs were uninjured. The bangs of her black hair were singed and her face was dry and reddish. The girl turned, opening an eye to glare at Emily.

"Ah, sorry. What the hells happened?"

"A huge ass swarm of rats." Answered the boy in the bed behind her. "Came out of nowhere like a moving carpet. Really freaky, I'm going to have nightmares."

"Regular rats? Not Dire Rats?"

"Yeah, the one Dire Rat, well, I'm assuming the big fucker was a Dire Rat, took off as soon as she threw the lamp oil."

"Lamp oil?"

"Yeah." Said the boy, Jak having rolled back over and closed her eyes. "She bought some lamp oil this morning. Good thing I guess."

Emily carefully shook Jak until the girl looked at her again. "Tomorrow. My office. After breakfast. Understood."

Jak nodded.

Emily frowned. "Do you understand?"

"Office that is you. Sun up." The girl replied, managing to sound annoyed.

"After breakfast." With that Emily left.

***

"What did the Order of the Silverwood offer you?"

Jak actually grimaced. "Cler-ic."

"Cleric? Seriously?"

"Yes, but no. They can't teach Cleric, but can guide in the general direction. I don't think I can do Cleric. I don't believe in gods."

"And your thoughts on what we offer? Still want Rogue?"

Jak's face contorted in a pained expression. "Not really sure yet, maybe."

That was good. It was going to make Emily's next suggestion easier. "I'd like you to take warrior, it's the basic class predecessor to Fighter. Normally two commoners shouldn't have any problems dealing with Dire Rats, but that's not what you've been encountering. Warrior would make you more effective in combat and more resilient in general."

Emily waited for Hadar to translate and watched as the two started arguing about something. She was aware that they weren't exactly speaking the same language. Like Trade Common versus Port Common, Hadar sounded more refined despite Jak being the native speaker, but that again brought up comparisons to Trade Common. Sawis itself was a derivative of Trade Common and Jak knew a few words at least. Actually, Emily hadn't thought to ask if the foreign sailor knew any trade languages. Hells, she already spoke one.

"She says she'd be willing to go with the Warrior class." Hadar said.

"Do you speak Trade Common?" Emily asked in the specific language.

Jak's eyes met hers and she answered by lifting a closed fist, extending the thumb and pinky finger, and rocking them in the Trade Common version of 'so-so'. "No lot."

"Talk'a port?" Emily then asked, devolving into Port Common.

"Aye, I talk'a port. No me bestie dough."

"Not me bestie eye-der. Whut ya bestie?"

"Please don't speak that, you both sound like buffoons." Hadar complained.

"Talk'a Tsuzou, dat me bestie. Talk'a from me home." Jak replied.

Emily nodded her head, but decided to return to using Hadar. She'd already paid for his services and Port Common was jarring.

This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.

“You’re willing to take the Warrior class then? Any idea how you’ll pay for it?”

Jak tilted her head. “Don’t you loan the money and take half the rewards to pay it back?”

Emily cocked an eyebrow. Jak was completely right, but it was policy to let the wood level newbies sweat a little before letting them know. But how had Jak known? She barely spoke to anyone. “Yes, how did you know?”

“Lioran asked around for me.”

“The Tel’ani? You and him understand each other?”

Again she held her hand up in the Trade Common version of a ‘so-so’ gesture.

“I see.”

“What about him? Lioran? He gets training too?”

“He hasn’t…” Emiliy stopped, she had been about to say that he hadn't gotten his five Dire Rats kills yet, but he had survived twice and only seen a single Dire Rat that he claimed ran away. “I’ll talk to him about it today.”

Jak nodded.

“In fact I think we’re done here. I think I’ll talk to him now.”

***

Emily waited patiently for Lioran to finish his magical aptitude test. The first crystal glowed dully, indicating that he was doing it correctly. The boy had been at it for a while, brow furrowed in concentration with the tip of his tongue sticking out from the corner of his mouth. She had given him more time than usual due to his feverish state, despite the fact that he didn't know it yet, he was done. He just didn't have any magical talent. He'd never more than a light spell and even that would be difficult.

"Did you want to be a mage?"

Lioran looked up, his eyes slightly glazed over from the Fever and whatever medicines Korah had given him. "A mage? No."

Emily reached out for the device. "That's good. You managed the worst aptitude for magic possible. That rules out all the magic wielding classes. Do you have an idea of what you want?"

Lioran gave her an almost goofy, yet tired grin. "I want to be a knight." He said with all the sincerity in the world. It caught Emily off guard.

"A knight?"

"Yeah, like in the old stories."

"Okay. You can’t technically be a knight. It's not a class or an archetype, well that's not exactly accurate. However, Knight is usually a position given by a king and while we do have a high king, there have been no knights in our history. I'm also certain you aren't looking for a political position so I guess we should start with, what is your mental image of a Knight? Or, what does a Knight look like?"

The boy's eye had slid away from her face as she talked and back down to her chest. It was an unfortunate issue with all males of his age, but his gaze grew distant as he considered the question.

"Well armored I guess. Usually with a shield. And a sword or mace, I think. Does that make sense?"

"Yes, so what does a Knight do?"

The boy gave his goofy, youthful grin. "Be the hero. Save a village from goblins or a princess from an evil mage."

"Well, you are in the right guild, but that all seems a bit basic, don't you think? How does any of that separate a basic Fighter from a Knight?"

"I. I don't know."

Emily gave him a smile and pulled the Fighter book from the top of the pile. It was always at the top. It might have been the most basic of the Advanced Classes, but it was also the most versatile. "Of course Fighter is top of the list for you. I certainly suggest starting there, especially as retraining into any of the others I'm going to suggest should be considerably cheaper and easier than any other class. Let's see…" She placed the book on the desk in front of Lioran and stood up. She could practically feel the kid's eyes on her ass as she moved to the bookshelf. His age was always the worst. An adult might enter the room, give her a clear and obvious look over, and grin before inevitably getting to business. Teens had no subtlety gained from experience and they were far too shy. She tried to wipe it from her mind as she pulled one of the books she was after. Emily set Cavalier on top of the Fighter, followed closely by Samurai.

“Cavalier is very much the common Class of a Knight. Some of the Archetypes even claim Knight. This one, Samurai, is essentially the Anorian version of the Cavalier. They’re not exactly the same, but close enough that some of the features are interchangeable. And…”

Emily thought for a moment, her eyes going to the dust encrusted top shelf. She sighed. This was going to give the boy a show. She pushed the stool to the shelf, stepped up and while decidedly not checking if Lioran was watching, reached for a few unused leather bound books. Pulling the topmost down she reflexively blew the upper layer of dust away. An action she immediately regretted. She dropped off the stool coughing, grabbed a rag and scraped off the more stuck on dust until a shield and half sun symbol embossed in the leather could be seen.

“This one you don’t qualify for, but it is another one that heavily inspires all those old stories.” She laid Paladin on the stack. “The Archetypes might give you some inspiration, but as a mostly godless society, you'd be unlikely to unlock it even if you qualified.”

Lioran sat forward, hesitant to touch the tomes. “I can read these?”

“In the next room, yes.” Emily motioned to a door. “You are not to take them out of there. Understood?”

“Yes, ma’am.” He gave that goofy grin again.

***

Nojak sat down in a chair next to Lioran. He lifted the wet rag on his head up just a bit so he could see her.

“You visit me?” He asked with as much of a smile as he could muster despite everything hurting.

Nojak stared down at him. A smirk let him know she understood, or at least close enough.

“I just need to ramble. You don’t need to understand or answer… Ah, I talk. You sit. Ignore. Okay?”

Nojak’s brow furrowed slightly and she didn’t say anything.

“Okay, so Shielded Fighter is going to be my default for a Class. Cavalier has a lot of things going for it, but seems to focus a bit too much on leading other people to me. Samurai is very similar and less focused on leadership though…”

“Samurai?”

“Yeah, you know Samurai. It’s Anorian, but I admit to not knowing what the hell Anorian is. I know our coins are Anorian standard. So a trade agreement or something. Anyway the Samurai seem a little too focused on serving a lord. I don’t really serve anyone though.”

“No.”

Lioran lifted his head a bit to get a better look at her. “No, what?”

“No Samurai.”

“No Samurai?”

“Samurai…” She made an ‘O’ with her fingers and shifted so she could point at her butt.

Lioran laughed. “Asshole?” The laughing made his head throb harder, but it was worth it.

“Yes. Asss-hoe.”

Lioran chuckled harder despite the pain in his everything. “Got it… No Samurai…” He caught his breath and continued. “Paladin is interesting. Kind of a holy knight. I don’t believe in gods though, and the pretty advisor lady says I wouldn’t qualify anyway. So that’s Fighter or Cavalier. Any thoughts?”

Nojak nodded, but didn’t say anything. Apparently she understood he just needed to talk it out. Just needed someone to listen. He smiled to himself. If only she wasn’t so ugly.

***

"He. Okay?"

Korah looked at the Anorian known as Jak and frowned. "No, are you okay?"

"I fine."

Korah put his wrist to her forehead just between her short, stubby little horns and frowned deeper. "Get in the bed." He said pointing to the cot adjacent to the currently dying Tel’ani she had originally came in with. She seemed to want to protest, but didn't have the energy.