Waking up the next morning, Gilliam felt surprisingly good. He didn’t have any neat dreams that he could remember but he felt well rested. It wasn’t surprising that a good bed worked better than his travel bed, or the thing that passed for a bed in the Fractured Lands. A quick thought had him wonder if he should get one of these in the ring instead. It would take up more storage space but it might be worth it.
Looking to his side he saw that Cera had again ended up lying against him. She had balled up into a ball of fur, holding her fluffy tail almost as if hugging it, but also having moved so her back was against Gilliam. He didn’t mind this time either and saw it as trust and at least a subconscious wish for contact.
Not wanting to wake her up, he decided to wait for her to wake up, which became a problem the longer it went. Not only did this stop him from turning or moving in bed, but now that he was aware of it he felt warmer and warmer where all her fur was heating him. Though he knew it was probably mostly in his head, it wasn’t the same as he was used to as the Fracturians were surprisingly hairless except for the hair on their heads.
He missed Petal, even though it was only about a week since they last saw each other. Having been together most of the time for the last four years made this feel kind of weird.
Eventually, he couldn’t handle it anymore, so he tried to get out of bed without waking her but as soon as he moved a little, she woke up. For a brief moment before her brain seemed to activate, she looked at him with large barely awake eyes. She was nothing short of adorable in that brief moment. This changed as soon as she realised what was going on and almost jumped to the other side of the bed and apologised over and over again.
“Don’t worry about it.” Gilliam calmed her down, letting her come out of her apology stream on her own. “I don’t mind at all.” He got out of bed and proceeded with cleaning up and getting dressed, doing his best to not draw too much attention to Cera or her situation, in his mind this felt like the way to make it feel as normal as possible.
Eventually, Cera also got herself ready, though most of her morning routine was just to brush her fur, especially her tail. Gilliam just needed to clean up and get dressed so he had to wait a little for her to be ready.
Once they were both done, and Savia was put back in his hair, they left the room. As they hadn’t decided when or where to meet up with Rhyan, the logical guess was to go to the lobby and meet up with him there.
The way back was easy enough to follow, though stairs were involved it was just to follow the hallways, finding themselves exiting into the lobby soon enough.
Walking into the main area of the lobby, it only took a glance to find Rhyan sitting at a table, working on what looked like maintenance on a gadget. He was the most metal-clad man in the room, so he stood out a bit.
They walked over to him, he lifted his head as he noticed them before Gilliam grabbed a chair and sat down, pulling out another and motioning for Cera to sit down when she ended up just standing next to him.
“So, what’s the plan today?” Gilliam asked his more worldly companion.
“Well, first we get our reward, divide that up, and normally I’d check the boards for another job but Ettine said that the Guildmaster has a job he’d like to send you on specifically. So he’d like to talk to us... or rather; you.” Rhyan looked back down at the thing he was working on, it looked like a fist-sized metal cylinder with what looked like a groove on one side, perhaps it could open on that side.
“Oh, well that sounds fun.” Gilliam was intrigued, he had only done one job but if he was being considered specifically, perhaps it was something more powerful and fun to fight.
“Pack your stuff and let’s get going, then.” In his mind they could just eat on the way, he was somewhat eager for the unknown!
Rhyan chuckled and put the cylinder, a few tools that looked like fine screwdrivers and some micro-sized crowbars into his leather bag. As Gilliam got up, Cera followed with Rhyan using a moment to get his shield fastened to his back before taking the lead to the information desk.
Since they weren’t going to Cera specifically this time, they had to queue up and wait for a few minutes, people in front of them were getting information about jobs, or completing them like Gilliam and Co. were going to. Eventually, it was their turn and the clerk handling them was a middle-aged man, he had hints of grey in his hair but it was still very brown, he had glasses and wore the same attire as the rest of the staff.
“Good morning, how might I be of assistance today?” The man asked in his auto-pilot tone.
Rhyan placed the paperwork on the desk and added details where needed in a practised string of explanations and processes he had seemingly done many times before. And in record time there was a stack of coins on the desk for him to pick up. There was some gold and what looked like silver coins, but they didn’t look like the silver coins Gilliam was used to, perhaps this was the platinum kind? It would make sense as they would need several hundred gold coins to pay this out, but much less of the platinum ones.
“And we’re to meet with the Guild master? It’s about a requested job?” Rhyan stated at the end as he was picking up the coins.
The man checked some papers for a moment before replying. “Ah yes, I see it here. Just go in that door and up to his office, he should be expecting you.” Pointing at yet another door along the walls it had Gilliam wonder about the design of this place, as the walls behind the counters had quite the collection of doors.
“Thank you.” Rhyan said to the man with a nod before leaving the desk, bringing Gilliam and Cera with him over to the door. Before entering he stopped and started counting out the coins.
“I suppose you should have most of... if not all of the money from that job, I didn’t really do an-” he was stopped mid-sentence by Gilliam.
“Keep it.” Gilliam smiled. “I don’t really care about the money, at least not yet.” He felt good about being able to do that and chose to enter the door before Rhyan had a chance to reject his offer.
As the door opened they came into a very ornate hallway, it was only a few steps long but it had what looked like gold-painted patterns and engravings along the walls. At the end of the mini-hallway was a large set of stairs leading up to a fancy door mimicking the golden patterns on the walls.
Rhyan stepped in, trying to request that they at least split up the money, but Gilliam ignored him and just walked towards, and up, the stairs.
Hearing a sigh of defeat behind himself from Rhyan, Gilliam took that as the end of that discussion as he knocked on the door. The sound of his knocks echoed on both sides of the door before he heard Tanen’s voice calling for him to enter.
Gilliam pushed open the double doors and entered a large office, with bookshelves almost acting as walls, filled with books of various sizes and styles, the room had several desks and tables, all seeming to have their specialized task, one had a map, one had some crystals and one seemed to be just a stack of books, used as storage.
In the middle, with his back towards a large window, sat Tanen behind a very ornate desk with piles of papers, a large stamp and writing utensils.
“Ah, good.” His voice was tired, he had bags under his eyes and looked like he had run an all-nighter. He got up and stepped away from his desk, needing a few steps to get properly steady in his gate. Walking around his desk he met Gilliam and his group by the time they had properly entered the room.
“You wanted us... or me, specifically?” Gilliam asked before Tanen had come into arms reach of them.
Tanen extended his hand in a handshake, which Gilliam returned before Tanen started explaining. “Yes, now... This starts with a question. Since you have all the elements, I assume you have some knowledge about Darkness magic, right?”
He seemed almost hesitant to ask. Gilliam guessed it was because of the stigma Darkness magic had. Light magic was healing, life, good. Darkness was not the opposite as in anti-life, but it was considered a ‘bastardizing’ of life. So it had the same stigma as necromancy would have in many cases.
“I’m not a professional at it, but I was trained in it and have used it, yes.” Gilliam honestly replied. However, he didn’t know if Nolis’ name carried any weight, so he chose to not mention anything like his name or the tattoo.
“Good.” Tanen’s uncertain expression changed to a more glad and professional one. “We have gotten reports of undeath being spotted around Fairviig. Now that alone wouldn’t warrant you specifically, it would be assumed to just be some rogue darkness mage, but there are also reports of people going missing, people found torn apart and so on. The major issue is that this is happening in Albion so... there’s a few levels to this problem.”
Speaking as he was walking back to his desk, he opened a drawer and pulled out a map, placing his finger on it at the text reading Fairviig.
It was located in the rough Northwest of the Albion landmass, surprisingly close to Aloth, and based on proximity to things it felt like a very important dock city.
“We don’t have anyone else that knows anything about darkness magic, and given that this is about undeath in Albion... the other mages don’t want to touch it.” Tanen added.
Gilliam nodded as he explained, understanding some of the issues. It was about darkness magic, which in itself was a weird topic. But it was also placed in Albion, a place that could become... problematic for arcane mages such as Gilliam. The information he got during his short academy time, or from Kintas, hinted that just identifying himself as a mage could be a problem.
Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
Tanen gave Gilliam a few seconds to process before he continued. “The Order has a little leeway with Albion as long as you’re there on Guild business, but they are strict and... I expect that you will be tailed by Inquisitors for just existing. We have had mages in Albion before doing work, but know that your social power doesn’t exist there, now you’re a second-class citizen from another country.”
Tanen didn’t sugarcoat anything, which Gilliam appreciated, it put proper weight on things.
“You’re going there as a Darkness expert and as a representative of the Guild, that should let you do the job but you’re expected to leave, or convert, after the job is done.”
Gilliam chuckled at the idea, forcing him to convert would be an interesting problem, though if what Kintas said was even half-true, he’d be killed if he refused.
“Well, as long as I’m good as I work on it, I can just leave the country as soon as I’m done, shouldn’t be a problem.” This was true, as long as Savia was present he could leave instantly, if not he could just take the first ship out of the place. Since he was going there legally it should all be good.
“Hopefully it’ll just be some darkness mage who started some bandit group or something. It’s happened before. Kill them, report it to the Fairviig Guild branch and you’re done.”
As he was done explaining he took out a wax-sealed envelope as well as an ID badge on a string.
“I have force-advanced you to a Mithril-ranked member, to give some more validity when you go there. And write a letter that you can give to the Guildmaster in the Fairviig branch, you should get the information you need from them.”
“Excuse me, Sir... but... What’s the reward for this job? And what if he says no?” Rhyan broke in with some important questions.
“Well, first of all, the reward is 1500 gold, though it’s a bit finicky to confirm if the job is complete. And you’re of course welcome to say no, nothing bad will happen besides perhaps a bit of loss of face, turning down a specific request by the Guildmaster. But you can say no, I won’t hold it against you.”
Gilliam had no plans to say no, this sounded interesting and fun. It could also be one of the few ways he could go into Albion without being instantly targeted by the highly trained anti-mage battalion, or whatever the Inquisitors called themselves.
“No. I’ll absolutely take this job. It sounds interesting, and worst case scenario; Savia can take us out of there right away.”
Hearing her name, though still in a sleeping daze, Savia muttered to herself “Savia can teleport” through half-sleeping words.
Gilliam chuckled but continued talking. “Though we haven’t been over there before so we’ll have to go there the slow way, but back should be fast.”
Tanen opened a drawer and fumbled about for a few seconds before he took out a small token, looking almost like a metal poker chip of sorts. “Use the teleporting service and go to Fairviig, this should be good for the four of you.” He placed the chip on the envelope with the ID badge, looking incredibly relieved.
“Though I recommend that you take the collar off your friend there, and if she’s branded you need to do something about that. I have heard that you don’t consider her a slave and all that but... Slavery is... violently illegal in Albion.” He sat down in his chair again as he vaguely gestured at Cera.
This did ping a point of interest with Gilliam. He knew that there were several levels of branding, all from nothing and just being collared, to being branded like they did cattle with a hot symbol, all the way to the soul-brand thing that Petal has.
Looking at her he asked her a bit surprised. “Are you branded?”
She looked incredibly uncomfortable being asked that question. Gilliam couldn’t remember having seen any brands when he did the health check after taking ownership of her. But he only looked at any wounds or damages, if this was a healed thing then he wouldn’t have seen it. If nothing else he didn’t sense any magic from her, so there shouldn’t be any compulsion brands on her.
“I... I don’t... I don’t know.” She answered looking down at the floor.
“Well, she shouldn’t have any magical brands that I can detect, at least.” Gilliam clarified as he looked back at Tanen, giving Cera a short head pat, which seemed to be positively received.
Tanen also seemed relieved. “That’s good, then. I’m told that though it would be weak when not active, it’s still magic and should be detectable. They are also expensive so wouldn’t be used on normal slaves. The more common ways are just a flesh brand and a collar.”
Gilliam made a mental note to have Cera feel around for a brand later. If it was a scar-type brand it could be removed... though he didn’t know if he could heal a scar or if he would have to remove it and heal the new wound... Putting that aside for now, it was for a later time. Removing the collar was not a problem, at least.
“We’ll take the collar off, and we can see if we find a brand later, but I think we’re good, then?” Gilliam looked to Rhyan more than anyone else. Cera, Gilliam and Savia didn’t have anything specific they had to do, or people they had to inform.
Rhyan nodded and patted his leather bag. “Yeah, I’m good to go whenever.”
Gilliam turned back to Tanen. “It seems we’re good to go.”
“Great, take this, and you’ll get all the information when you get there.” Tanen pushed the sealed letter with the token and guild ID badge on top. “Oh, and I’ll need your current Iron badge, you can only have one.” He smiled as he held out his hand.
Gilliam took off his current badge, taking care not to drag it across Savia, as he walked over to the desk. Handing Tanen the current badge he took the new one, as well as the letter and token. Fake putting the two latter in his pocket, which was just camouflaged for putting it in the ring, it disappeared into storage at least. The Mithril badge he put on right away.
It looked the same as the Iron one, save that it had a brighter colouration to the metallic grey, not exactly white but much paler. It also had four black bars on it rather than three.
“I’m looking forward to hearing updates from this.” Tanen added before he made a shooing motion at them towards the door.
Not loitering around, Gilliam nodded at the Guildmaster before leaving through the fancy doors, closing them as they left.
“Soo..” Gilliam turned to Rhyan. “You know where the teleporting platforms are, right?”
“Ah, yes. I have used them before. There’s a building near the Town Hall, so only a few minutes from here.” Pointing somewhat towards the door out of this hallway he started moving.
Rhyan led them out of the guild building, as soon as they got outside, navigating the crowd became a thing to consider before they got to the plaza where the density increased dramatically.
“Let’s take that collar off you.” Gilliam stated to Cera as they walked.
She looked hesitant but nodded. Gilliam did it in the simplest way he could consider and just touched it, putting it into the ring. Though she was wearing it, it was a free-hanging object so there wasn’t a problem with anything happening to her.
Though it was an instant action she seemed to react to it more than he expected. It almost looked like a large piece of clothing was removed, letting air hit the exposed area for the first time in a while. Suddenly touching her exposed neck repeatedly it was as if weighty chains were removed.
Looking at Gilliam with a strange surprise he only smiled back at her. He noticed a tiny smile on her lips as she turned back to stare at the ground as she walked. Gilliam turned his own eyes back to Rhyan, making sure they didn’t lose him in the crowd, but he liked her reaction.
Eventually, after navigating the ocean of people, they got to a line in front of a building. “Here it is, we just have to wait our turn.” Rhyan stated as he joined the queue, Gilliam and Cera did the same.
Gilliam quickly realised that the gates felt similar to the same as the Static gates in the Fractured lands, which raised a lot of questions. As it became their turn he produced the token which gave them a pass to go to Fairviig without paying for it. Stepping into the perfectly cubical room he noticed that this was exactly the same. A perfectly cubical room with engraved runes and circles all around, he hadn’t investigated the runes too much in the Fractured Lands, but this felt similar if not the same.
“Please step into the centre of the circle, there will be a bright flash and you’ll be blinded for a moment, this is normal and it’ll pass after a few seconds.” A man dressed in a robe standing in a specific part of the magic circle in the corner explained as he motioned towards the centre.
They entered the centre and waited another minute, more people piled into the room until there were 10 entities, Savia included, in the circle. Then the man channeled some energy into a specific part of the circle which triggered the familiar white light.