Phew. Livia could only breathe a sigh of relief, it was no thanks to her that things had not escalated. Her [Conflict De-escalation] had done nothing to Thorbjörn. Maybe he was just too high level, or maybe it was just that he was telling the truth about never being truly hostile, in which case her Skill would have nothing to work on. It couldn’t stop someone from acting like an asshole. Not yet.
But Jane stepping in to help, of all people; that was probably the biggest surprise of… Well, just today. Yesterday had had some pretty damn immaculate surprises.
The rest of them had barely kept their cool, but the new girl, Moa, had looked especially worried for some reason. Which was fine. Who liked confrontation? But the ones who had been going to the Arena had mentioned specifically how tough the girl was. Oh well. I guess some people just have a real healthy respect for those who are higher level.
But back to Jane. Livia was studying the enigmatic woman closer now. Oh, right. Not Jane. I guessed that wrong, but I should’ve known that, why am I disappointed…? But who the hell names their kid Finuvia, anyway? Is she an elf? I guess Oliviana was a hint where things were headed. Sigh, guess I gotta accept it.
But just in case, Livia figured she should make sure, since they were all still sitting at the breakfast table, and the woman must have neglected to provide her name for a reason. “Uh, so. Finuvia, huh? Heh. I guess we’ll start calling you by your real name from now on, then?”
Jane didn’t even look up. “No. Stupid name. Always. Jane...is fine.”
Oh. Well then.
With that settled Livia realized she needed to get a damn move on, so she tapped Lena on the shoulder. “Is it ready?”
The [Weaver] woman, who had been preparing all week off on her own, and who expected to get a capstone by tonight, she answered thusly in a whisper: “Everything is. I’ll stay here when you go, and prepare the carts and show ‘em the banner when you return.”
Her whispering made Livia realize she should’ve been more careful; they’d been purposely neglecting to tell everyone about this in order to make the unveiling a surprise, in the vague hope that the extra emotional effect helped Lena level somehow. That was certainly superstitious–but it was a superstition that had survived for hundreds of years–so who was Livia to gainsay it now?
She really didn’t want to be blamed for it, if the capstone did end up failing to materialize.
But for now they just needed their pennants, made up in their new official house colors; a golden yellow and red.
The reason people used silver as a currency was not because gold was that rare; but because it was that valuable. To other species.
Any real, high karat gold that was unearthed quickly found its way into the hands of one of the species who went mad for it. Some ate it, some did simply use it for currency, and happened to be powerful enough to have expensive tastes, and others used it in their magic.
One and all they were willing to trade you much more valuable things for the rare, precious metal; but thankfully gold paint remained abundant due to Skills. If slightly out of style.
Their colourful, new pennants had already been put on poles, and so Livia took two from Lena and then asked Redd if he could keep one in his rather giant hand, to raise up high together with his staff while they were at the recruitment center, for as long as it wasn’t a burden. And then she gave the other to Sten to swing around to attract recruits that were closer.
The [Guild] colors were a hit. Who didn’t enjoy a nice red and gold mix after all? But what they would think of their actual heraldry remained to be seen.
For now the final thing they needed for the trip, besides the auction loot, was some extra hands; so they gathered up as a unit and moseyed on over to the recruitment center, pennants waving in the wind.
Only Lena Stayed behind to help prepare their remaining animals for the journey.
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Kalle was not enjoying being back here, at the recruitment centre. But at least he was enjoying the company.
He’d spent a few weeks here looking for work, back when he’d been homeless and in need of a chance to stay alive.
If you failed to stand out you could well go hungry some days, especially before qualifying as an Aspirant. Kalle had been pretty tall, but skinny. He had failed to get picked three days in a row at one point, but then he’d eaten an only halfway mouldy cheese on the 4th, and used the queesy pick-me up to go trailing a path by his old neighbourhood. Thinking of life back when his mother was still alive.
That’s when they had found him and brought him to Salcret.
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And now he was back. And oh, what a situation to be back here in.
He could sense it from almost everyone, although it was a lot more difficult to pick out individuals in a whirlwind of people like this. In most cases it took them talking to you to be sure of anything, but the vast majority had one major emotion, front and centre: Desperation.
It was not at all pleasant to be around, but it was certainly more pleasant than experiencing it from the other end.
And at least they were here now to provide opportunity to a lucky few… So long as they were willing to earn it through hard work–and provided they stay alive.
The giant hall was packed to the brim with temporary tent-structures that could be rented by employers and approached by employees in turn.
It was cheap, for the employers. What the business who ran the place mostly relied on was traffic, and they had that in abundance. And when people were unwilling to leave, afraid that the opportunity of a lifetime could be waiting to set up just around the corner, just as you went to get food somewhere else; the result was you could jack up prices on everything from food, to drink, to smoking rooms and toilet-access.
Kalle was glad they’d saved this for last, or he would have probably found an excuse to get out of it.
Livia had set up a temporary office inside in one of the tents, where she had three chairs at a table and was awaiting interviewees. She had Oscar and Elin alongside her, and she was tapping her pen on the table, clearly not pleased with the responses she was getting. “Sorry, but this is really not a good fit after all, a [Warrior] is of course useful–but unfortunately we’ve got fighters aplenty–even if you’re indeed handy with an ax,” The man was wearing a spear on his back.
He’d mostly been sent through on account of the lack of viable candidates, but this was only the first hour, so they were still counting on word of mouth–regarding what they were looking for–to begin bringing along the correct type of candidates soon.
They set up with all their spare members in front, interviewing people and informing them of the project they stood to be part of. Out there you only needed to answer a few basic questions.
Are you willing to work all the way through, to the onset of winter?
Are you willing to travel and work outside of Dormata?
Are you willing to follow an expedition heading close to the Cloven borderlands?
Are you at all useful?
As long as they had adequate responses for those four questions, they were through to round 2.
Where only two members awaited them for further questioning: Harold and Hyde.
If they freaked out at the sight of the mosswolf, then yeah. They were a no-go. Likewise, if Roldy was able to find some fault with them during a casual conversation, then Livia trusted that too. He was a very friendly sort, even if he was not above messing with strangers.
The final test was when Roldy waved them through and Hyde started growling and slovering when they got too close: That was also to test their response to fear, in case they had simply held up a good poker face on spotting the wolf. But more than that it was to check if getting startled caused them to grow angry and aggressive, and of course to see if they had no sense of humour.
Once they’d made it through that phase they were ready for the real interview, where Livia and their most analytical companions would be waiting, somewhat willing to be sharing the slightly juicier details of the mission at hand. But they weren’t about to start spreading their intentions all around, not unless it was strictly necessary.
The wilderness was a tough enough place to tackle, even without worrying of opportunists looking to make off with their expensive gear or even just information on the location they scouted for.
At least they had plenty of people interested at the front. The pennants also seemed to be doing their share of attracting attention.
But throughout the first three hours Kalle found just one candidate that he felt confident Livia would actually like; it was a young fellow who said she wanted to be a [Witch].
“You can go on ahead and enter–ignore the smelly dummy in the chair–and his lapdog.”