Arwin turned to look at the man that had approached him. He was a bit younger than Arwin had expected, probably no more than twenty. A thin scar ran down one of his cheeks and his blonde hair was combed back over his head.

There wasn’t an obvious weapon on his person, but he wore leather armor and there were more than a few suspicious anomalies on his clothing that marked hidden blades. A red badge embossed with a golden sword had been pressed into the right breast area of his armor. He was several inches shorter than Arwin, which made it considerably easier to glare down at him.

“I’m a little preoccupied at the moment. We’re up next in line,” Arwin said, nodding toward the desk, which no longer had a group standing before it. “My compatriots and I are on a bit of a time crunch.”

“It won’t take long,” the young man said. He’d positioned himself at a spot that placed him just far enough into Arwin’s path toward the desk that the only way past him was to push him back. It wouldn’t have been difficult, but it definitely would have been rude. “I just wanted to ask — you’re Ifrit, right?”

“Yes,” Arwin said curtly. “If you’ve got a business inquiry, I’d be more than happy to take it at my smithy, the Infernal Armory. I’m normally more than happy to speak business, but I really do have a lot of work to take care of right now and I don’t want to hold up the queue.”

“Of course, of course. I really do only need a second of your time,” the man said, completely ignoring everything Arwin had said and making absolutely no move to vacate the path. “My name is Charles. You moved in on the haunted street, right?”

“Yes,” Arwin said. If Reya hadn’t sounded so stressed, he wouldn’t have minded pausing to speak, but she wouldn’t have been worried for no reason. Anyone that was bad news to Reya was bad news to the rest of them.

It was tempting to just shoulder the man out of the way and keep moving, but there were six other people in his party that were sitting on the chairs. While they didn’t seem too interested in the conversation, there was no way they’d stand aside if things got physical.

If I start a fight in the middle of the Adventurer’s Guild, things are not going to go well for my goals of staying away from too much bad attention.

“I was wondering if you could pass a message along for me,” Charles said. He rubbed the back of his neck and gave Arwin a sheepish grin. “I’ve got someone I used to know that lives in that area, and I was wondering if you might have run into them.”

“I’ve run into a lot of people.” Arwin didn’t bother hiding the annoyance in his voice. Even if he couldn’t quite justify physically moving Charles out of the way, that didn’t mean he had to pretend to be polite.

“You’d remember her. A girl, about my height. A thief.”

Arwin gave a noncommittal shrug. “I don’t keep track of every single person I run into, nor do I ask them their occupation. If you’ve got something you want, I’d kindly request that you get to the point faster. I was not joking about being busy.”

“Get out of the smith’s way,” another one of the members from Charles’ party called to him. “You’re making us wait longer too, Charles.”

“I’m getting there,” Charles snapped, a flicker of anger passing over his features as he glanced back at his team. He shook his head and turned back to Arwin. “Anyway, I think you know this girl. Her name’s Reya, and there were rumors on the streets that she shacked up with you. She might have changed her name - I don’t know. Either way, could you give her something for me?”

“Do I look like an errand boy to you?” Arwin asked.

Charles reached into a pocket and pulled out a small leather pouch. He held it out with an innocent smile. It didn’t seem like a single word that Arwin spoke even managed to reach his brain.

I’m pretty sure the fastest way to get this idiot out of my way is taking the damn bag.

Arwin plucked it from his hands, then immediately pulled the strings apart and peered inside — though he kept the bag a fair distance from his face. He didn’t know what Reya’s relation to Charles was, but given how she’d reacted, he got the feeling it wasn’t a good one.

If this is a bomb, I’m opening it in the middle of the Adventurer’s Guild so he gets all the flack for it.

Inside the pouch was nothing but a piece of paper with a black smudge on it. Arwin closed the pouch, then tilted his head to the side in confusion. “You want me to give her trash?”

“Do you make it a habit of looking at other people’s mail?” Charles’ eyes narrowed and his jaw clenched.

“I do when people ignore everything I say and hand me their belongings expecting me to act as their servant,” Arwin replied curtly. He pulled the drawstrings of the bag back shut and tucked it into a pocket. “You’re lacking in manners.”

“I’ve been told that,” Charles said, his demeanor shifting again as an easygoing grin played across his lips. “Anyway, thanks for the help. I appreciate it.”

The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

With that, he headed back to his group and sat down. Arwin put a hand on Olive and Reya’s shoulders and herded them up to the desk. The faster they got out of here, the better.

The woman sitting behind it peered up at him from behind her glasses. She covered a yawn, then pushed herself upright and rubbed her eyes. “I was kind of hoping you two would keep blathering for a bit longer. I wanted to sleep.”

Arwin stared at her for a second. “Sorry?”

“Apology accepted,” she said. “What can I do you for?”

“I’m looking to set up a guild,” Arwin said. “We’d like to register with you lot.”

“Sure thing. What kind of guild? Adventurer or artisan?”

“Both,” Arwin said. “We’ll be doing a mixture of the two and have both combatants and crafters.”

The girl dug through a shelf in her desk for a few seconds, then pulled out a sheet of paper. She grabbed a quill and dipped it in an ink well before setting about writing. “Okay. And you’re aware that the fee to set a guild up is 500 gold?”

“Yes,” Arwin said. He pulled the gold out and set it down on the counter. “Here.”

“Huh. You actually had the money. Most people just leave when I tell them that.” The girl looked back up at Arwin, then adjusted her glasses. She slid the coins down to the desk and then started writing on the paper again. “What’s the guild name?”

“Menagerie.”

“Guild leader?”

“Ifrit.”

“Co-leader?”

Arwin hesitated for a moment. It felt like that position should belong to Lillia, but he wasn’t so keen on giving them her name. “Do we have to decide that now?”

“No, it’s just for our records. I’ll skip over that for the time being. What’s the location of your guildhall — if you’ve got one?”

“Unestablished. Working on it.”

“Like most,” the guild representative said with a knowing nod. She wrote a few more things down on the paper, then dipped her quill back into the ink. “Okay. That’s just about all I need. Where can I send the papers once everything has been registered?”

“The Devil’s Den. On the haunted street,” Arwin said. “It’s one of the only two buildings that isn’t an inch from falling down.”

“Understood. I’ll do my best to have everything ready within two or three days. It might take a bit longer since we’ve had a lot of new guild registrations after the fall of the Iron Hounds,” she said, scratching at her neck with the end of the quill. “But you did pay upfront. Most of the other guilds have gone with the payment plans. That’ll push you up in the queue a bit.”

“It would be greatly appreciated. Is there anything else you need?”

The girl set the paper down on the counter in front of Arwin, then held the quill out to him. “Yes. Sign the bottom please. Oh — you are Ifrit, right?”

“Yes.”

“Good. The guild leader has to be the one to sign. Just for your information, this is a magical contract. We’ll deliver a copy of it to you, and that’ll be the official proof your guild is recognized. It’ll be resistant to most elements, but resistant doesn’t mean immune. Also, if you try to modify it, the contract will burn itself up. Any questions?”

Arwin scanned over everything on the paper. It was just a list of a bunch of guild-related questions, many of which the girl had skipped over. Nothing on it seemed suspicious or dangerous, so he took the offered quill and signed it before handing both back to the girl.

“Anything else?”

“Nope,” she replied with a grin. “Thanks for your cooperation and for using the Adventurer’s Guild. We may be the only option in town, but we’re the best one.”

There’s no way that’s the normal slogan for the Adventurer’s Guild. Things are a lot looser out here than I was worried about. Good.

Arwin nodded his appreciation, then turned and headed out of the room with Olive and Reya at his sides. Olive positioned herself along with him to make sure that Reya wasn’t in Charles’ direct line of sight.

It didn’t matter. Charles’ gaze was firmly fixed on Arwin as they left. It seemed he was so focused on him that he didn’t have the slightest idea that the person he was trying to seek out was right beside him.

They left the building and accelerated as soon as they were outside. Reya took the lead and led them down an alleyway, not stopping until they’d put several minutes between them and Charles.

“Who was that?” Arwin asked once they slowed to a stop.

“Someone who I used to be friends with.” Reya pulled her hood back to reveal features tight with anger. “We lived on the streets together with some other kids.”

“I get the feeling things didn’t end well with him?” Olive asked, glancing over her shoulder in the direction that they’d come.

“No,” Reya said. “They did not. Charles fucked us all over while we were… uh, doing a little bit of monetary liberation on a really rich house. He got caught because he was a greedy idiot and tried to take more than he could carry. Then, to save his own hide, he ratted out the location of our hiding spots. A lot of people got killed because of him. I don’t know why he’d be trying to find me, though.”

Arwin pulled out the pouch that Charles had given him and opened it to remove the slip of paper.

“Can I see that?” Reya asked.

He handed it to her. Reya flipped the paper open and scanned over it. Arwin looked over her shoulder at it, but there was just an indecipherable mass of squiggles on its surface. It looked like someone had handed a toddler a quill and let them go to town on the paper.

It seemed to mean something to Reya, though. Her lips pressed thin and she folded the paper back up.

“What did it say?” Arwin asked. “Was that some form of cypher?”

“It was in Thieves Tongue,” Reya said as she slipped the paper into her pocket. “And it was a warning.”

“A warning? For what?” Olive put her hand on the hilt of the sword at her side.

“He said that Ifrit is stepping on toes. Apparently we’ve had dealings with someone that they’ve blacklisted from their network.”

“What?” Arwin’s brow furrowed. “I have no idea what he’s talking about.”

“Me neither,” Reya said. “Charles is slimy and only looks out for his own hide. He’s asking for a shit ton of gold to cover up our mistake if I don’t want to get added to their blacklist. He’s probably making the whole thing up in hopes that I’m dumb enough to pay.”

“Did he at least say who he thinks it is we’re working with?” Arwin asked. “Getting blacklisted by a guild isn’t easy. You really have to piss them off. I don’t think we’ve had any meaningful dealings with anyone that—”

Wait.

“Some guy called Madiv,” Reya said. “Have you ever heard of him?”