Isabel and Lyra returned close to dinner time, and they looked pretty pleased with themselves. Lyra was carrying a package under her arm. They smiled at me as I came to greet them, and Lyra handed me the package, ‘’for you! Congratulations on passing the trial David!’’

I was a little taken aback, as I didn’t remember when someone had given me a present. We went to the lounge and I opened my present. It was a light blue robe with a blue fringe that reminded me of a Japanese group from old times, the Shinsengumi. They were a policing force in old Edo and were both feared and admired. This robe reminded me of the hakama they wore. On the back of it was a large guild symbol, like Lyra’s robe had. It had a deep hood and wide sleeves, and when I put it on, it fit perfectly. It had the same straps as my combat robe, to tie it into my armor.

My friends were observing me happily, and I gave them a big smile, ‘’this means a lot, thanks!’’ Lyra came over and hugged me tightly, ‘’you are welcome!’’ Isabel clapped me on the shoulder, ‘’we wanted you to look the part. You are part of the guild, and we always carry the crest when on guild business. The robe is of high quality, with a self-repair enchantment on it. It will keep off rain and to a more limited extent, fire.’’

I raised my eyebrows, ‘’that is pretty damn useful and sounds really expensive.’’ Isabel shrugged, ‘’we have made pretty good coin since you joined, and now that you are officially part of the team, those resources are yours too.’’

That night, Isabel had David test different environment illusions during their light sparring session in the yard. She wanted to build some strategies around his ability to change the field of battle and had a few ideas. "Can you make them see-through for me?" Isabel asked. "It wouldn't make sense if Lyra and I were as confused as our foes."

David considered this for a moment before summoning a simple boulder in front of them. To him, it was sort of translucent, and he focused on Isabel, willing the illusion to accept her but not Lyra. Isabel gave a surprised little sound. "It worked! This will be really useful, David. I'm not one for sneaky tactics usually, but this has some real potential!" David grinned, and Lyra pouted. He rolled his eyes, and a moment later, she could see through the boulder as well. Lyra gave him a wink, and he just gave her a weary smile.

A few weeks passed by with nothing major happening. They had been looking for decent contracts, but as Malik had said, Creston seemed really peaceful. As David walked home alone from the guild, as he had a few times now, he wondered whether he could convince the others to leave Creston when their contracts ended. He wanted to go out and see the world, find adventure. Things were getting a bit monotonous for his liking.

David had begun taking strolls through the city. It was a nice city in general, but certain areas were very poor, and seeing homeless children tugged at him. It wasn't pleasant to walk through those places in his expensive clothes, and he often ended up handing out coins or food before returning home. Lyra had praised him for his empathy but also warned him not to spend all their coin. Adventuring could be expensive, after all.

As I was leaving a poor area in the trade district, I heard a high pitched scream – a child’s scream. Without hesitation, I leapt into action. Scaling buildings in moments, I ran over the rooftops towards the source of the sound. The screams grew louder and were accompanied by the sound of buildings being ripped apart. As I peered over the edge of a roof into an alley, I saw a towering elemental, standing at least four meters tall. Its massive stone hands smashed into buildings, and its gravely roar echoed through the area.

People were running in terror, but the elemental seemed to ignore them, focused solely on destruction. I gripped my staff tightly and activated my boots, blinking myself behind the golem in a flash. I swung my staff with all my might and landed a blow on the golem's leg, causing it to explode in a shower of stone and collapse. The golem turned its attention to me, its small glowing eyes focused on my every move. It completely rebuild the leg as I watched.

Summoning my mask, I contacted Pirlo, formerly known as Harlequin. "Pirlo, is this what I think it is?" I asked urgently.

"I am still not sure I like that name," Pirlo growled in my mind.

"Can we discuss that later, please?" I responded impatiently. "Is this another one of those abominations?"

"Yes," Pirlo confirmed. "The core is located in a similar spot as that big one."

With a determined nod, I dodged a heavy strike from the golem and prepared deciding on a course of action.. "Alright, let’s do this," I said. "It's smaller, so maybe I can handle it myself."

"It is not properly formed, partner," Pirlo said. "As if it was woken before it was ready."

"Not ready, what does that mean?" I frowned, but didn't let the information slow me down. The Golem swung at me again and I jumped back. "Nope, nevermind, we can discuss that later."

Summoning my images, Pirlo took control of one of them, and they began to harass the golem from all sides, causing confusion and indecision in the golem. I conjured an elemental on the other side of it, and using my title to made it semi real. I had worked on making elemental things real, and while it couldn’t compare to Lyra’s power in the least, it was still enough to at least act as a distraction. The golem had a weakness to water I remembered, this one was made from rock like the last one, so my conjured elemental was seen as a threat, allowing me to move behind the golem and prepare myselfl.

All my images and the water elemental charged in together, grabbing the golem from all sides, and holding it still for just a moment. A moment was all I need though, and I rushed in, striking the core with my ether-enhanced staff. The rock around the core was crushed, and the golem roared and thrashed about wildly. I barely managed to avoid its swings, and lunged forward again. I jumped on its back and held on for dear life, I was almost yanked off but the sheer inertia, but Pirlo again jumped in to try and distract it. The Golem spun on the image Pirlo was controlling, and I had my chance, I reached in and yanked the core out of the golem with a grunt.

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As the core left the golem, it crumbled into stone, leaving behind a mound of crushed rocks. I stood there, catching my breath with the core in my hand. Watching the glowing runes fade away, the inanimate object seemed to lose all of its power. I let out a deep sigh and leaned against a nearby wall, dismissing my illusions and images. As I stood there, I couldn't help but wonder how the core ended up in a random alley in Creston. It was a little unnerving to think that these abominations could appear out of nowhere like that.

"Well.. That was easier than I thought it would be!" Pirlo exclaimed in my mind with a cackle.

I chuckled and replied, "Yeah, you're right. This one was definitely weaker than the large one we faced before."

"I hate to burst your bubble, partner, but this one was weaker by magnitudes," Pirlo retorted.

I nodded in agreement. While having experienced a similar opponent before, had given me a good idea of how to approach the fight, it still surprised me that I had taken it down alone in less than a minute.

"Well, we can't always face giants," I said with a shrug. "Let's go show this core to Isabel, and see what we can learn."

As I prepared to depart, I heard the sound of soft footsteps and turned to see a filthy little boy with lanky hair and piercing blue eyes staring directly at me. "That's mine!" he declared, puffing out his chest. I gestured towards the core in my hand and asked, "This?" The boy flinched at my distorted voice, so I quickly dismissed the mask and revealed my face. He relaxed a little and stood up straighter, "Yes! I found it, it's mine!"

I studied the boy carefully and then crouched down in front of him. "You can't have this, but I can give you something else for it. Where do you live?" The boy pointed to a hole leading into the sewer, and I raised an eyebrow. "You live down there? And your parents?" The boy sniffled, "They're gone." My heart ached for the boy, so I made him an offer, "Alright, what if you come with me? You can have a bath, a clean bed, and as much food as you can eat!" The boy perked up, but then his posture changed to one of wariness, "I was told not to go with strange people!"

I smiled, "That is good advice, but I am not strange. Here, see?" I grabbed my robe and pulled it around to show him the guild crest. The boy studied it for a moment and then seemed to relax, "You're still pretty strange! That mask you wore is scary." I chuckled, "Yes, I suppose it is. Now, can we make a deal? I will keep this, and you get a place to stay with food and everything. I would also like to ask a few questions before we go, would that be alright?" The boy nodded, "It's a deal!"

"Good, now where did you find this?" I asked. The boy pointed to the hole again, "Down there, some man just dropped it in. I find many things that people drop, it is not stealing!" I shrugged, "More like scavenging, I reckon." The boy grinned, "Exactly, scavenging!" I nodded and continued, "So you found this, and then what happened?" The boy thought for a moment and then said, "Well, I picked it up and it started glowing. I got scared and threw it out of the hole. Then the monster came out of nowhere and I hid. It wasn't my fault!"

"I know it's not," I assured him with a grin. "Oh, what is your name, by the way?" The boy puffed out his chest again, "I am Finn Shaleb." I held out a hand, "Good to meet you, Finn. What do you say we go get you that bath, eh?" Finn grinned and took my hand, and we left the area. It would soon be crawling with guards and possibly other adventurers, and I wanted to talk to the others about this as soon as possible. I didn't want to get caught up in explaining this to a bunch of guards.

I returned to an empty house, except for Liza of course, she was busy in the kitchen as always. When she saw Finn, her motherly smile made them instant friends, and Finn let her pull him along to the bath downstairs. He looked back at me before leaving the room, and I smiled in a ‘go ahead’ kind of way.

Finn grinned and clutched Liza’s hand, and they disappeared into the stairwell. They were down there quite a while, and I used that time to study the core. I knew next to nothing about rune magic, but the symbols were getting familiar at this point. It was mostly the same as the large one we had collected, only minor differences were apparent.

I was deeply focused on it when the others came through the door, they were chatting about something relating to enchanted items, but their talk stopped immediately as they saw me.

Isabel took in a sharp breath and rushed over to me, "Is this?" she managed and I nodded, "Yep, another core." Isabel got real close to it without touching and asked, "Where did it come from?" I explained my fight in the trade district, and what Finn had told me, and both listened intently to my explanation.

"This is bad.. If they are in the city.. This could turn into a disaster!" Isabel exclaimed and Lyra looked pretty worried too. "Finn spoke of a man dropping it, we need to find that man!" I said and the others agreed. We all just stood there for a while, then Isabel seemed to remember something and asked, "Did you say you destroyed the golem on your own?" I nodded, "It seemed pretty weak, and my spirit explained that it was incomplete or something to that effect."

Isabel considered my words for a few moments, "That is a ray of hope then. The core is smaller than the one we found, so perhaps the situation is not as dire as I feared." I raised an eyebrow, "It is still pretty damn dire Isabel, if say a hundred of those things appeared across the city.. They could cause some real damage!" Lyra nodded and Isabel was about to say something when she glanced away.

Liza and Finn walked up from the downstairs, interrupting our conversation. Isabel and Lyra both looked at Finn and then at me, and Isabel asked, "You brought the boy back with you?" I nodded, "It was the least I could do. Besides, he has no one else, Isabel. I couldn't just leave him there." Isabel looked like she wanted to argue, but she reluctantly nodded, knowing that I had a point. Lyra, on the other hand, had already taken to fussing over the boy, pinching his cheeks and cooing over him. Finn was clearly annoyed and trying to fend her off, but Lyra was relentless.

It wasn't until Liza stepped in that Lyra stopped, "That's enough, miss Lyra. Let the boy have some peace!" Lyra immediately took a step back, looking a little chagrined. Liza gave her a short nod and led Finn over to the table, where she set out a plate of cookies and a glass of milk for him.

Lyra came over and leaned against me, "Oh, he's just the cutest thing!" I rolled my eyes, "Bloody hell, Lyra, don't get too attached now." Isabel nodded at that, but Lyra pouted, "He's staying, and that's final! He can be our little mascot!"

Finn looked up at me with a questioning expression, and I nodded my approval. "You're welcome to stay with us, Finn. Just don't let Lyra smother you too much," I joked. Finn smiled, clearly grateful for the offer of a place to stay, and took a cookie from the plate. As the rest of us settled back into our discussion about the core and the golem, Finn sat quietly, listening and observing, looking very content.