The only thing on Alix’s mind when he stepped foot back in the Adventurer’s Guild several days later was how much he wanted a cold beer, until he spotted the remaining members of the Sixfold Sanctum sitting despondently in a corner of the back bar nursing full tankards. A large collection of empty glasses lay scattered across the table they were sitting around, mostly in front of Weiss, who was slumped over on the worn wooden surface.
How the hell do they move so fast?
Alix felt like he should say something to them but before he could make his way across the otherwise empty room to say he was sorry for their loss, Evory called out to him.
“Ah…Orwin! It is good to see you again. It has been a while. Did you have any luck with your job?” she asked in an odd mechanical cadence, as if overthinking the choosing of every word.
“I found what I expected. Did you hear what happened?” Alix asked under his breath so that the group couldn’t hear him gossiping.
“They’re refusing to speak,” Evory whispered back. “What happened to the annoying one?”
“A terron stabbed him in the heart.”
Evory gave a hint of a smile before she could stop herself. “I would like to have seen-“
“Hey you! You’re the one from the ship,” Celeste said, stumbling over to him. It looked like she had been matching Weiss drink for drink, and yet somehow she was still conscious. “How did you survive the splosion?” she slurred.
“I jumped out one of the gunports just after Weiss,” Alix replied, telling the truth as much as he dared.
“We went back to look but couldn’t see any sign of you or Faisal. What happened to him?”
“I guess I got turned around in the fog. I’m sorry, I had to leave Faisal behind. There was nothing I could do for him, he was already gone. The fire must have…” Alix trailed off, leaving her to believe what she would. He didn’t like lying to them, but he couldn’t reveal the truth. It had taken too much effort to create “Orwin” and he wasn’t ready to give up his new life so soon.
“Those fucking terrons!” Celeste spat, anger sobering her slightly. “I told Faisal not to go into that damned ship. I knew something felt off about the whole thing. After all that and we can’t even claim the bounty on the job.”
“Terrons?!” Weiss suddenly shouted, raising his head from his drunken slumber, before quickly passing out again.
“Why can’t you claim the bounty on the job?” Alix asked, confused.
“Ask this bitch,” Celeste glared at Evory.
“I’ve told you already, without any proof of what happened, I cannot close the job. If you could explain what-”
“What’s the point of being part of this guild if we don’t even get an ounce of sympathy! One of our party is dead and all you can say is prove it? There wasn’t anything left! Not even a single terron bone to pay for the whole damn thing!”
“What sort of proof do they need?” Alix asked Evory, suddenly feeling an awful guilt weighing on him. He had selfishly hoarded every terron bone he could find. He had just assumed that they would have found any evidence they needed before he arrived there.
“The job required them to identify the ship somehow, which they have failed to do, other than to claim it was filled with the bodies of dead members of the Ghost organisation. I’m sorry about your party member, but I did try to warn you. It was mentioned that something was spotted in the surrounding area, which had to have been the terrons. The guild did everything we could to prevent you from taking this job. I’m sorry, but there is nothing I can do.”
“Hold on, I think I might be able to help. Give me a moment.” Alix stepped outside and darted around the side of the guildhall. Making sure no one was watching, he pulled the heavy ships bell from his storage and hauled it back inside.
“I found this on my way out of the marshes, will this be good enough? I assume the Survey Corps didn’t find trace of any other ship out there that it could be confused for?” Alix said, dropping the heavy bell on the counter in front of Evory.
“Where did you…” Celeste breathed. “We looked so hard…”
“They didn’t find any other ship. Dromos…let me check that name quickly.” Evory turned to the wall of ledgers and files behind the counter. As she scanned the titles with an expert eye, she reminded Alix of Astrid in the library, scrutinising the books as if she could force them to reveal their secrets with only her gaze. After a few moments she pulled down a thick leatherbound volume and opened it on the counter. She flipped through the pages, reached the one she was looking for, ran her finger down the scrawled lines. “Here it is. Dromos. Fourth rate. Sixty guns. It says here she was part of the Galdean Imperial Fleet but she was captured by pirates. The captain was accused of being in on it and executed when Neridian slaves were found in a dungeon on his estate.”
“So this is enough to claim the bounty?” Celeste said, eyes brightening.
“Well yes, but Orwin here is the one that found the bell.”
Celeste looked like she was about to jump over the counter and strangle Evory, but suddenly Bjorn and Guillem were there to hold her back.
“Calm down, Cel,” Guillem said. “You know the rules as well as I.”
“Look guys, I’m not interested in claiming the bounty on this job. You can have the bell.”
“Really?” Celeste asked. “Why would you do that for us?”
“I don’t need the money. You deserve it more.”
“It’s not just the money. We will all rank up after this, which means we can chose new, and better, jobs. If you let us take the bell, you will remain as a Rank F.”
“I’m fine with where I am. Please, take it.” Alix pushed the bell over towards the party, and they pushed it back towards Evory.
“We would like to claim the bounty on this job,” Guillem said, pulling a tattered and bloodstained slip of paper from his pocket.
Evory gave Alix a pointed look, but then she took the offered stained scrap of paper and stamped it with a bright red guild stamp.
Completed.
“Congratulations. You have successfully completed this quest. With this experience the members of the Sixfold Sanctum are all promoted to Rank D. Here is your reward. One hundred and twenty gold coins.” Evory handed over a large bag of gold, retrieved from a hidden safe beneath the counter, while the party members handed over their identification cards to be upgraded. Bjorn quickly retrieved Weiss’ card from his prone body.
The atmosphere in the hall quickly changed, celebration replacing the doom and gloom, although they were all pretty far gone already. After one or two more drinks, Alix expected them all to join Weiss in sleep. Alix had hoped to hear from the party exactly what had happened before he arrived, but he felt like there was nothing left for them to say that he didn’t already know. Instead, he slipped out of the guild, after putting a few coins down towards their bar tab, not wanting them to spend their newfound riches on something as fleeting as drink, and headed down the rings to Javin’s shop.
Javin looked like he was about to pass out when he looked up and saw Alix entering his shop again. “I expected you to be gone for-“ he began to say, but when Alix removed a handful of Terron Ossia from his inventory and dumped them on the counter, Javin quickly lost his words. “Wha…ho…no…these can’t be what I think they are.”
“Well you did put up a job for Terron Ossia. I didn’t want to disappoint.”
“Do you know how valuable these are? The bones of terrons can be used to purify liquids, not to mention their incredible blade making properties.”
“Just as well I’ve got plenty then,” Alix said, dumping his entire store of them on the shop floor, which quickly filled the space a foot deep. Javin’s eyes widened until they looked like they were about to pop out of his head.
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“But how? Terrons are incredibly hard to kill. They always travel in large packs and hold a grudge against anyone that attacks them. They can scent a bloodline. If you piss off one, the pack will remember your scent for generations. They will risk their own lives to make a kill, spearing their prey with their metal beaks until one or the other stops moving. If that wasn’t enough, if the bones aren’t harvested quickly enough, the toxins they store in their bodies dissolve the bones and everything of value is lost. These all look pristine. What happened to you out there?”
“Those stupid kids from the adventurers guild managed to get out there before I could and found the ship I was looking for. It turned out to be infested with terrons and one of them was already dead by the time I arrived. I managed to deal with the terrons and they left behind all these bones.”
“Well, what do you want to do with them? You could live comfortably for the rest of your life with what these are worth, but unfortunately I don’t have enough money to purchase them all. It would probably bring me more attention than I would like if I was found with this many anyway.”
“How about you let me hand in enough to the guild to complete the job in exchange for that encrusted ingot? I know the job was for a lot more than this, but you can agree to change the terms can’t you?”
“I guess I could do that. I never thought you would actually succeed in finding any of that stuff though. I really wasn’t planning on letting that ingot go but for a handful of terron ossia…”
“You said they are good for making weapons as well? Do you think you could point me in the direction of someone that might be able to make me something? Someone with discretion.”
“That will still leave you with hundreds of ossia., but if you want to remain anonymous, I suggest you don’t reveal to anyone just how many you have in case someone puts a price on your head for them. I can’t overstate just how valuable they are.”
“I will keep them in my storage, I am the only one that can get to them there.”
“Well, don’t blow through the encrusted ingot all at once. I’ve had that for a long time. At least spend it on something good. Give me a day to update the requirements of the job with the guild and it will be yours. What will you do now?”
“I think I’ll look for a job that takes me a bit further afield. After I’ve had a talk with your weaponsmith, of course. Can you give me the address? I might as well go see him now. The sooner I do, the sooner I can sit down and relax with a drink.”
“It’s not quite as easy as that. The kind of work you need isn’t the sort of thing that can be done on this ring. You will need to go to the Artisans Ring.”
“I’ve managed to find some pretty good stuff here before. Here, take a look at this.” Alix drew Primal Ruin from his inventory and equipped the black scaled armour.
“Dragonhide? You didn’t happen to buy this from Argyle did you?”
“I did, why?” Something in the way Javin said the name made Alix’s stomach sink. Had he been scammed? “Is there something wrong with it?” Alix said, looking down at himself for any hidden flaw the ring hadn’t noticed.
“No, there’s nothing wrong with it. It’s flashy, but it pales in comparison to what the true artisans can create. Getting a hold of dragon materials for crafting is usually more effort than it’s worth. The metallic bones of terrons are the exception in that regard, but you will need a true master to work them, and for that you will need to go to the Artisans Ring. Look for Sylvin Gyle. You will need an invitation letter first,” Javin said, producing a sheet of parchment and a pen from one of his many pockets. He quickly wrote down a few lines before stamping it with his merchants seal, folded it, and then wrote a few more lines on the front. “Here’s the address,” Javin said, handing over the letter. On the front it read Sylvin Gyle, 28 8th Radial, 2nd Ring.
“Thanks,” Alix said, storing Primal Ruin back in his inventory, then starting on the mess of ossia. A despondent look came over Javin as he watched the terron ossia disappear into Alix’s inventory one by one. “How much is one of these worth anyway?” Alix asked, hefting the final bone in his hand. It was heavier than he had expected, but also unusually balanced, as if it was straight instead of curved and of varying thickness. He had no idea how it could be used to purify things, but the lustrous metallic surface looked ripe for forging. He was excited to see what it could be turned into.
“I think the last one I saw sold for eight hundred and seventy eight pieces of gold, but that was for a fairly small specimen. There has been a drought in the market recently so I think if you are careful you could get around a thousand gold pieces each for them. Or turn them all into weapons and outfit your own private army.”
Well at least I won’t have to worry about money for a while. It was comforting knowing that he had that security.
“I don’t think I’ll go that far. I can’t draw too much attention to myself. I’m worried enough about having to travel through the Military District again. I feel like everyone can see all the stuff I’m carrying.”
“Oh you don’t have to travel through the 3rd Ring, there is a passageway that tunnels direct from the 4th Ring to the 2nd. The Imperials only travel through the Military District because they always have a military escort. The Aristocrats barely leave their own Ring, and the Artisans need quicker access to the city than walking through the Military District affords. The gate is about two radials beyond the Adventurers Guild. Since I’ve got to make a stop there anyway, I’ll walk you there.”
Alix wasn’t sure he would have noticed the shortcut from the 4th to 2nd Ring if Javin hadn’t pointed it out to him. It was a passage recessed into the back wall of the ring, guards barely visible along the inside walls. Alix had expected something a lot more reinforced. Javin pointed him inside and unceremoniously turned back towards the Adventurers Guild.
Alix made his way inside, expecting a sword to be drawn on him at any moment, but his passage wasn’t barred until he reached a cage at the base of another vertical tunnel that he recognised as an elevator. In front of the cage, a pair of guards finally stopped him.
“Papers?” one of them asked lazily.
Alix handed over Javin’s letter and the guard took it over to a lantern hanging from the wall to read in the light. After a few moments the guard stuck the letter into the lantern and the flame greedily ate up the dry paper.
“Hey!” Alix cried out. Had there been a problem with the letter? Had Javin sold him out? A thousand thoughts sped through his mind.
“This letter was good for one trip only. You can use your letter of enrolment next time,” the guard said, leading him into the cage.
“My what?”
“You’re a student, aren’t you? That’s why you are going to see Professor Sylvin.”
“Oh. Yes, of course.” Professor? Javin hadn’t mentioned anything about that.
The cage doors closed and it juddered into life. Smooth stone paved walls surrounded him as the elevator rose upwards. Alix felt like he was being dragged into the mouth of a beast that dwelled in the heart of the mountain, but suddenly the darkness fled as the elevator was raised above the ground and came to a stop in the light of the 2nd Ring.
“Better not be late for class,” the guard said, opening the elevator door, and then a second pair of protective gates, ushering Alix through onto the paved street. “Professor Sylvin hates tardiness,” the guard called as the elevator quickly descended back into the darkness.
Turning away from the dark tunnel, Alix was hit with the incredible view. The last time he had been this high up had been his first day in Babyl and he had been too overwhelmed to appreciate the view. Then he caught sight of the infantry performing their exercises on the ring below and he was dragged back to reality. It was dangerous for him to be here. He had to get in and out as quick as he could. He studied his map, located his current location and saw that he was only a short walk from the 8th Radial.
The architecture was markedly different from the rings below, making them seem ramshackle in comparison. There was an air of clean perfection around everything. At first Alix thought he was in the wrong place when he reached the 8th Radial. He had expected a home or a small workshop but when he reached 28, he found himself in front of place that looked closer to a palatial manor house. Alix climbed the wide stone steps to a set of double doors and awkwardly knocked.
The sound echoed deep into the bowls of the mansion and was quickly answered by the door swinging open. A well-dressed man looked Alix up and down with disdain.
“Are you lost, sir?” the man replied. Alix couldn’t tell if he was a servant, steward, housekeeper or otherwise, but he was sure the man wasn’t who he was looking for.
“I’m looking for Sylvin Gyle. I had an invitation letter from Javin.”
“Is that so? Well, despite your uncouth appearance, you wouldn’t have been able to get this far if it were not. Quickly now, down the hall and to the right. I suggest next time you come properly dressed, if you are even afforded the opportunity. Class has already begun.”
An anxiety the likes of which he hadn’t felt since his high school days hit him as he walked down the corridor, his shoes falling heavily on the stone floor, announcing his arrival to the authoritative voice he could hear coming from the room at the end. He suddenly wished he had just tried to make something with the Terron Ossia himself, sure the powers of the ring could handle it, but he didn’t know what he was supposed to make with it in the first place. Alix reminded himself that he was an adult, with power far beyond those around him, and opened the door to the classroom.
The room fell silent at his entrance. Almost like a mirror of Galdea, the room descended in half rings around a podium below, where a man glared up at him. On all the rings, students sat at desks with open notebooks. Every pair of eyes turned towards him.
Alix cleared his throat and walked down the steps to the floor.
“I’m looking for Sylvin Gyle,” he said once he reached the speaker.
“You have found him. Take a seat and don’t interrupt me again.”
“Oh I’m not a student.” Alix was taken aback at the man’s attitude. Was this really the master that Javin had meant for him to see?
“I did think you looked a bit too penurious to be here. Get out then, this class is for those that can afford it.”
Alix’s anger built with every word. He had to restrain himself from drawing Xilian and charging the man. Damnit Javin, who is this asshole? Wait , what does penurious mean, he asked the ring.
It means he thinks you look like a peasant, that you are too poor.
"How much does your class cost?” Alix said through clenched teeth.
The question brought snickers from the students.
“If you have to ask then you cant afford it,” Sylvin replied.
In a moment of stupidity, Alix stuck his hand in his coat, quickly withdrew a Terron Ossia from his inventory, and placed it down on the table between him and Sylvin.
“Is this enough?”
Sylvin’s expression barely changed as he studied the Terron Ossia, but a hum of whispers grew around the room behind him. It sounded like none of them knew what they were looking at, but from the look in Sylvin’s eyes, Alix could tell he knew exactly what it was.
“Take a seat, Mr?” Sylvin said after a few moments, brushing the bone off the table into a drawer
“Orwin ‘Penurious’ Marshall.”
“Professor Gyle.”
Alix turned and found an empty seat far at the back of the room. Everyone else seemed to be trying to sit as close to Sylvin as possible.
“Hey, what’s this class about?” Alix whispered to the student closest to him. The student rolled his eyes and went back to his notes.