“Lyzian! Come on out here you gray-eyed bastard!” A man in what barely qualifies as armor, stands in front of the massive door of White Tempest. The entire structure could be mistaken for one of the peaks in the Malili Range; frosted over in a whiteness reserved only for the clouds. A golden arch adorns the entrance, surrounding a giant gray cloud with blue lightning arcing in every direction from it. “I know you’re in here! You think you can disrespect the Scarlet Reavers like that?” A loud explosion rings out from behind the door, followed by the sounds of multiple people shouting. The irate man jumps back in fear but looks back to his company of 50 men. He regains his composure and attempts to slink back to the door.
The massive door slowly grinds open, allowing for the muffled voices to come through more clearly. “Aw, are you leaving us already?” a clearly drunk voice says.
“I have too, otherwise Jiya will try to duel me and you know how she gets.”
“How do I get?! Come back and say that to my face…” Jiya yells.
“You’ve already been beating up over the last 5 years, no way I’m gonna duel you on my going away Reverie.”
“You’ll come back right?” A different voice says.
“Of course, but when I do it’ll be to challenge Lyzian as a guildmaster!” Laughter erupts as Adelie exits the door. “Bye everyone! You’re gonna hear my name all over Grezia soon!” Adelie turns around to step forward, and sees a befuddled group of men standing in front of him. “Uh, who are you guys?”
The man takes a moment to gather his senses. “ We’re the Scarlet Reavers! And we demand that Lyzian comes out here for redress.”
“Redress?” Adelie folds his arms across his chest, “I don’t think he violated any guild rules.”
“He didn’t invite us to the Reverie! All the guilds that were involved in the Naka Hunt got invited!”
“Naka Hunt? Oh, you’re the Scarlet Blades,” Adelie says, proud of himself for making the connection. “When did you guys change your name? Oh wait I remember you…yeah you almost got us killed before we made it to the colony. Nesh right?”
“Nish,” he corrects, “ Nish Yanna of the Scarlet Reavers. Look, I'm not going to talk to some nobody, either get Lyzian or get lost.”
“Uh boss,” one of the Scarlet Reavers says, “I think that’s the page.”
“All the better. Page! Do your job and summon the guildmaster, now!”
Adelie turns his head towards the door and looks back at Nish, “Oh me? I’m not with White Tempest. Didn’t you hear? That Reverie was for me since it’s my last day.”
“Meaning?” Nish asks.
“Meaning, go do it yourself.” Adelie walks through the company of men, though they give him a wide berth. “Although, even if he would listen to you, Lyzian had nothing to do with the guest list so that’d be a waste of everyone’s time,” Adelie says as he strides away from the Scarlet Reavers.
Nish snaps back, “What does that mean? Who was in charge of the list?”
“I thought that was obvious, since it was my Reverie and all.” Adelie continues walking down the white sandstone road. Each guild, depending on its size and renown, owns an area of the fourth ring called Guildhaven. White Tempest has enough renown to have an entire district under its control; from the materials used to pave the streets to the color of sky itself; White Tempest has a say in everything. Adelie stops and takes a final look back at the guild, its permanent blue sky contrasting with the overcast. “The next time I see that symbol, it’ll be as a guildmaster.”
“Hey! Did you hear a word I said?” Nish marches over to Adelie, “If you were in charge, that means you disrespected us. What was the reasoning for leaving us off?”
Adelie slowly shifts his gaze down to Nish, who is a few inches shorter than himself. “Oh, you’re still here. What do you mean why? You guys broke away from the other guilds and charged in all by yourselves.”
“It’s our mantra, ‘We take first blood and-”
“Give no blood, I know,” Adelie says, “I don’t have a problem with that. What I do have a problem with is what you did.” An intensity begins to stir inside Adelie. “ Your guild has more Stalls than Awakened and you let the Stalls go in first. A good guildmaster would have prioritized the safety of their members, even if it was just nakas. ”
“Just because they can’t use ather, that don’t mean they can’t participate in hunts,” Nish says to the approval of his men. “ Not everyone is as fortunate as the topguilders.”
“You think I care about that?! Lots of Stalls are in guilds.” Adelie glares at Nish, “but your guild has no Engravers, your Stalls have no chance against a queen. You sent them in first because you’re too much of a coward to go in yourself.”
“What did you say?”
“I said, you’re a coward. You wanted to know why I didn’t invite your guild? It’s because I don’t acknowledge any guild that is so hungry for renown that they’d sacrifice their own members!” Adelie walks away from Nish as the leader of the Scarlet Reavers screams profanities at him and swears to get his revenge.
“Stupid Reavers, getting me so worked up I almost forgot to register,” Adelie thinks to himself as he makes his way towards the center of Guildhaven. When he first came here, he was amazed at the construction of the city. It has a central area where guildless individuals and brand new guilds can get equipment and even accept requests. The shops aren’t allowed to have any colors associated with the guilds, so they’ve all agreed to only use the color black, but still find ways to add a bit of flair.
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“Hey, watch where you’re going!” A woman says, drawing a cart full of supplies. Adelie apologizes and the woman hurries away. In fact, all of Guildhaven seems to be in a rush, and there’s a lot more people here than usual.
“Oh that’s right, Lyzian synced my training to the same schedule as the schools...so the class from 5 years ago must be done today too.” Adelie finally makes his way to the registry hall, and finds himself at the end of a line extending so far from the hall that he’s closer to White Tempest. “Yep, definitely a graduation day. Wait a minute, is that…” A woman with deep brown skin and stark white hair walks into the alleyway between two shops. Adelie takes notice of his place at the end of the line and proceeds to follow. The alleyway isn’t all that dark, but he loses her.
“You better have a good reason for following me,” the woman says as she places a dagger to the small of Adelie’s back.
“I thought you weren’t gonna show up since you didn’t come to my Reverie, Marn.” She removes the blade and Adelie turns to her. “You look different without your armor, but I’d recognize that hair and markings anywhere.” On the right side of Marn’s face is a jagged, red tattoo that extends from her eye to her chin.
“You’re acting pretty casual for someone who was just at knife point.” Marn spins her dagger between her fingers and puts it back onto her hip. “I shouldn’t be surprised though, you acted like that during the Naka Hunt.” Marn’s white eyes look Adelie up and down, “you’ve gotten taller since then, almost at my height now.”
“Yeah,pretty soon I’ll be looking down at you,” Adelie replies. “Hey, why didn’t you come to my celebration? I thought we had a deal?”
“Something came up,” Marn says while looking down at the ground, “but I’m here now aren’t I? Where’s the guildhouse?”
Adelie narrows his eyes as he looks up at Marn, “Were you gambling again?”
“I-I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Now that I think about it, you almost never had your armor off in the 3 months we were on the hunt. But, you did lose almost all of your lim to Jiya….”
“That’s not true,” Marn says, “ I only lost 90% of it, on purpose, so I could get her to go all in and-that’s besides the point.”
“You bet your armor, that’s why you’re wearing this.” Adelie points to her less than intimidating attire. “Did you steal a robe from a merchant? Nevermind, don’t answer that.” Adelie walks to the edge of the alleyway and waves her on. “Come on, we’ll go to the registry and then buy you something that fits.”
Marn stands next to the Guild Registry Building like a sentry, quickly assessing everyone within sight. Her training as a Gladius has given her a bounty of abilities, one of them being the power to assess threats to an almost supernatural level. By Pulsing she can send her ather through her blade and get a scan of her surroundings. “ Lots of Gladius here, but none of them are-”
“It’s done.” Adelie slovenly walks down the steps of the Registry Hall. “ I never want to make another guild ever again.”
“That bad?”
“I’d rather fight a nest of Naka Queens.”
“Well, you’re the one who wanted to be a guildmaster,” Marn teases, “ by the way, what’s the name? I remember you saying you wanted to call it Blue Devil.”
“Yeah, that was taken,” Adelie replies, “ and so were all my other back ups.”
“Then what’s the name?” Adelie weakly pulls out his registration card and hands it to Marn. “Guildmaster Adelie Mwinda Kalu. Guild name...Devil’s Wish?”
Adelie drops his head, “it was the only combination available.”
“It sounds like an assassin’s guild.”
“I know,” Adelie moans, “ but they told me I can change the name if I can find the guildmaster of Blue Devil.”
Marn moves from the wall and lifts Adelie’s head up. “Well, at the very least we have a place to put our heads down. Show me where the guildhouse is.”
“I can’t. The guildhouse cost 2,000 lim a month. I only have 800 lim.”
“800? White Tempest has thousands of lim and you only got 800?”
“Pages get a stipend and still have to pay for their own stuff since they aren’t a full member. Lyzian told me he wouldn’t give me any more breaks since he already decided to train me for 5 years.” Adelie reaches his arms into the air as he stretches, “I didn’t know the prices went up.”
Marn sighs and shoulder leans onto the wall. “Well we can still take on assignments right? Can’t hurt to see what’s available.”
“I’ve never seen this place so busy,” Adelie remarks as he and Marn push their way past a massive crowd. The Shouthouse typical only holds a few hundred people in it’s massive halls, but the crowd today is easily hundred times the norm. Freshly minted guilds eagerly seek work, a few guilds are actively recruiting, most of them focusing on Marn. She’d earn a bit of a reputation following the Naka Hunt. Adelie swims past another group, overhearing how Kuza Aldri was recruited to join Golden Sanctuary. “Kuza? Why does that name sound familiar?”
“He was also at the hunt,” Marn says after scaring off her would-be suitors, “and he’s also royalty.” She looks up at the massive request board; solid bluewood oak wrapped around a white screen. “ I thought it would be more impressive than this.”
Adelie had tried to forget about Kuza and had succeeded; the little prince was a pest who did nothing but try to act regal all of the time. What surprises him though is the fact that Marn had remembered. After the Naka Hunt, whenever he’d see her in the Vedan Plains she’d struggle with her memory. It wasn’t too bad, she never forgot his face or anything, but there were obvious gaps; especially about the time after the Naka Hunt.
“It’s a request board, what do you expect?” Adelie examines the white screen, looking for a mission he’s allowed to take. Probationary Guilds can only accept requests marked as polele, marked above clear is forbidden. “Damn, there isn't anything we can do.”
“I’ve been meaning to ask,” Marn says as she peers over his shoulder, “why do you guys use that weird language? It feels sort of out of place.”
“It’s guild custom. When the Nyl were around, the Atherials enlisted the help of humans,” Adelie replies, still looking at the board. “ After the war, the surviving humans decided to adopt the language of the Atherials as a sign of respect. Most of the language was lost, but we try to use the ones we can.”
“But what if the words you’re using don’t make any sense?”
Adelie shrugs, “then it just sounds cool.” A new request shows up at the bottom of the board, catching his eye. “ Need up to 10 for an expedition to the Caisin islands. Mixed party ok. 10,000 lim plus a stipend.” He turns to Marn, “this sounds promising.”
“An expedition to the Caisin Islands? There’s nothing there but ruins.”
“Yeah, so we’ll have to babysit in case some beasts go out of control. We can’t afford to be picky here, if we don’t turn in a completed job in a month I’ll lose my license for a year.”
Marn sighs, “ I’ll never understand these guild rules, but if that’s the case let’s go meet the poster. What’s the location?”
Adelie pauses for a moment. “It’s in Mwinda Village.”
“Your hometown? That’s strange, I thought you guys would have something like an official guild poster meeting location or something.”
“We do, but the poster can also designate a location so long as it’s approved by the Shouthouse,” Adelie says. His mind is elsewhere, thinking back to 5 years ago when he left the village. “It’s been a really long time, I wonder how things are going?” “Alright! Let’s get the telespire, I don’t want to get there and they’re already full.”