The sun was just begining to rise again as Stan approached the wooden walls of the rangers guild, unlike many of their outposts which were temporary stopping places this was the one permanent structure the typically roaming rangers maintained. It served as a training ground for new recruits, as well as an archive of the guilds history and any past, present, or potential future missions to look out for. Once trained the rangers would typically roam around keeping an eye on their local area, clearing out bandits, monsters, or other such threats to local civilians, each of them were trained to be self sufficient, and while a few did roam in small groups the majority of them moved solo, yet if a call for back up was made everyone nearby would respond, some traveling several days for the most important missions before traveling several days back to their area once complete. All told it held around 500 members, 50 of whom acted as permanent staff at the keep either maintaing guard, training new recruits or sorting through the archives, managing jobs/ contracts along with a few other jobs dotted here and there. Most of those within the keep were semi-retired, either because age finally caught up to them or through injuries while on the job, a good example of this would be the master archivist Aiden who took an arrow to the knee while clearing out a Kobalds den, this was also the man that Stan was hoping to speak with.

He approached the front gate when a hooded guard stood on the over the top of it with a loaded crossbow pointed directly at him.

"Thats far enough now traveler."

Stan simply smiled and looked up at the guard.

"A ranger can never roam far enough to complete his mission, I seek an audience with Master Archivist Aiden."

The guard pulled back his hood and lowered his crossbow.

"Stan, heard you was on leave, wasn't expecting you back for another week at least. Master Aiden is in the lecture hall, giving a talk about recent goblin developments, if you head there now you might be able to catch the talk without having to come back for it later.......OPEN THE GATES!."

He looked down and waved at someone before shouting the last few words, the gates opened up and stan was ushered in by a small boy, probably no older than his 12th year, his grubby face bore a shy smile as he looked at Stan.

"Hi Oren, can you ask Master Aiden to meet me in his study once he has finished his lecture please."

The boy shifted uncomfortably, his mouth opening and closing as if intending to speak but nothing came out, as he was starting to look frustrated Stan placed a hand on his shoulder.

"Its alright Oren, do you have a quil and paper so I can write you a note?"

The boy fumbled around in his pockets before pulling out an old ink bottle, then from behind his ear he offered Stan an old well used quill, after checking his other pockets and not finding any paper he offered his free hand to Stan instead. Stan took hold of it and wrote out a quick message to Master Aiden requesting that he meet him in his office once the lecture was done. After finishing the note the boy took his ink pot and quill back before turning to jog towards the lecture hall, before he got too far thou Stan called his name, he turned round and looked at him.

"Don't worry Oren, you will find your voice again someday, I promise."

The kid smiled back at him.

"Thththththhh."

He looked down at his feet a look of frustration on his face.

"Time, patience and strength Oren"

The kid looked up and nodded, then after sniffing and wiping his nose on his sleeve he took a deep shakey breath before turning and jogging away while Stan made his way towards Master Aidens office.

Aiden's office wasn't so much a room as it was a sectioned off corner in the library's archive room, a thick wooden ink stained desk littered with scrolls, papers and books filled with slips of paper with numbers and letters on them. While at first glance it would be a disorganised mess, but in reality even the jumble on his desk had been arranged within a complex code system that only Aiden knew. Because of that he somehow always knew what was in which pile, and where in the pile it was, his archive room was essentially at the peak of efficient inefficiency which made it workable for him, but completely unworkable for any one else. Stan had always assumed it was done on purpose as one of Master Aiden's favourite phrases is "the key to a successful career lies in rendering yourself completely irreplaceable", he had clearly taken that idea to an extreme level.

Stan moved towards a chair in front of the desk that had a small pile of books on it, but instead of removing the books he laid his cloak on top of them before sitting on them. Not having anything else to do he started to meditate, mana circulated throughout his body from top to bottom, his finger tips and toes tingled and his mind wandered between visions of past, present and future, memories of the mast and imagined future encounters such as the upcomming conversation with Master Aiden. Minutes passed by in seconds as he lost himself in his thoughts, until a voice came out of nowhere pulling him from his trance.

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"So, did you come to my office to meditate all day or talk?"

His eyes snapped open and he abruptly stood up, in front of him sat at his desk was a wizened old man with a short well maintained beard and long silvery hair that covered his shoulders, despite the tone of his earlier commet he looked somewhat amused by the situation.

"Sorry sir, I didn't notice you, how long have you been waiting?"

"Long enough to see that your mana cycling is more chaotic than normal, something is bothering you, but we will get to that in a short while, there is something I wish to speak to you about first."

"Of course Master Aiden."

"Please, sit."

He gestured to the chair Stan had been sat on before leaning back on his own chair and clasping his hands in front of him. Doing as he was told Stan sat down and waited for him to continue.

"Young Oren will be comming of age soon and has consistently expressed interest in joining the guild, I think its time we assigned him a trainer."

Stan listened nodding along as Aiden spoke, when he finished and just sat there looking at him however he started to understand what was being suggested.

"You want me to train him sir?"

"Yes."

"But sir, I am barely past recruitment myself, I thought I would be given at least 4 years experience before I was asked to apprentice anyone."

Aiden nodded.

"Yes, that is how we normally do things, this situation is different however, the only other available to train him is Varrik, who has already refused to train a mute, that leaves only you open, and as you know if he isn't apprenticed before his 14th year then he will need to be either passed onto another guild, or released to find his own path. Plus he seems to respond well to you, more so than anyone else, do you think he greets everyone at the gate? He stays near it while you are gone and the second he hears your voice or name, he's ther waiting at the entrance. I'd even go so far as to say that you are the reason he wishes to join, he trusts you, more so than anyone else. For those reasons I am willing to make an acception, but of course it is your decision as to wether or not you accept."

Stans hands moved towards his knees rubbing and squeezing them.

"I am not sure if I am ready for this sir, but I will give it some consideration, there is something I would need to take care of first however, before I could commit."

Aiden nodded at that, sitting forward in his chair again and leaning on the pages of the open book sat in front of him.

"I am guessing that is related to what you wished to talk with me about?"

Stan nodded before telling him about the situation with his grandma, the Drypeak curse and his desire for more information about what happened so he might find a cure, Aiden nodded as he spoke, once he was finished Aiden took a short while to consider his response.

" We had been there previously looking into suspected cult activity but we couldn't find anything so left, the explosion happened 2 days after our investigation stopped. As for a potential cure, I am afraid we can't help you, this is the first I am hearing of this curse, which is.........troubling, it warrents further investigation, we are going to need you to stay with your gran in the meantime thou, keep an eye on her, let us know if anything changes."

Stan nodded at that, then hesitated.

"Something else on your mind?"

"Its probably nothing, but on the way here I ran into a priest who claimed to be running a facility to care for those infected by the curse, he offered me a chance to take a look at the place, see what they were doing. I was planning on dropping in and doing exactly that on my way back to her."

"Yes do that, take Siona with you, pretend she's your wife or something, that way she will be able to report back to us and you can return to keep an eye on your gran. Secondly, can you point out where this facility is on the map."

He pointed towards an old map on the wall, it had the guild at the centre with a detailed map of the surrounding territory, Stan moved towards and looked at it, trying to pinpoint the rough location he was told it would be, turned out it was an old church, thought to have been abandoned. Aiden simply nodded while stroking his chin.

"I will send a small team to scout the surrounding area while you and Siona take a look inside, might be nothing, but I think its worth checking anyway, give your gran my best wishes, and consider what we spoke about before this.....you are dismissed."

Stan nodded his head before walking out of the archive room and into the main library where he was greeted by Oren, the boy smiled at him as he always did and a pang of uncertainty nipped at the back of his mind as he spoke.

"Oren, do you know where Siona is?"

The boy nodded before turning and gesturing for him to follow, they went to the training yard where they found a young woman with a short sword practicing her blade forms on a series of invisible targets. When they approached she stopped and smiled at them, at just over 5'11 she was just a couple of inches shy of Stans height, she had a pretty face with a scar on her cheek just below the eye and a long mess of black hair that was currently tied back in a knot and despite being fairly well muscled she hadn't lost any of her feminin grace. After greeting each other Siona listened to Stan as he explained the situation and what Master Aiden had told him to do. When he was done talking she simply stepped forward and grabbed his arm.

"Well then dear husband, we had best get moving haven't we."

"I was going to suggest we went as brother and sister."

She hummed as if considering his suggestion.

"hmmm, nah, this will be more fun, and believable seeing as we look nothing like each other."

She started to pull him towards the exit still holding onto his arm, Stan looked behind him at Oren who stood there with his thumbs up and a massive grin on his face. Stan responded by shaking his free fist at him before accepting his fate and moving on towards the facility with Siona.