With my hood on and Mezu in my arms, we stepped out into a town center. It looked like Azmar but a bit older and somehow cleaner. The space was crowded with people shouting and trying to get the attention of newly arrived adventurers. With the door now closed, I heard the sound of rushing water. I turned to see a large fountain spewing a goldish powder instead of what it had initially sounded like.

That’s just a weird decoration choice, why have a water feature without water? And in such a loud space already, it made little sense to add a fake noise to it.

Alcoroth hit me on the head.

“Stop getting distracted, we need to head to the inn Chase mentioned, the Sparrow’s Glory.”

The people who had just arrived like me were either walking off into the crowd alone or were being grabbed by people. The shouting and general amount of sound was too much so I filtered as much of the talking as I could out.

I could still hear the conversations that were happening closest to me, and I heard most people expressing their confusion about being invited to a guild. No one walked up to me, but I saw a few people glance in my direction.

I stepped off the side of the fountain ignoring them and headed into the crowd. I looked down when I felt Mezu shift a lot more, with all the noise it wasn’t a shock that Mezu was waking up more.

“Where?”

I had almost forgotten that Alcoroth had already said something at all.

“The Sparrow’s Glory, it’s the inn your old party member told us to go to, remember?”

I knew he mentioned Chase earlier, but did I really not remember the specifics? The whole meeting with Chase felt so long ago and yet other, even older memories were much fresher in my head than that one.

“The monarchs told us to move on remember? Finding someone else to talk to doesn’t really feel like a difference to what we were just doing.”

“That was probably due to us spending too much time in the in-between space. Heading to the inn is a different matter. Even if you don’t want to get involved in the politics of the tower, the guilds are involved here we don’t want to attract attention and be disrupted because we don’t seem to fit in. Going to that inn and gaining information is advantageous.”

I shrugged I guess it wouldn’t hurt. Unless he was tired, or asleep he didn’t like being held for so long, and he was now poking my face to show it. I loosened my grip slightly to see what he wanted to do, and he started to climb up. I helped him along by simply lifting him up and placing him on my shoulders. He shifted a bit till he was more comfortable and rested his hands on my head.

“Either way, any guild seems like an annoying thing to deal with. Hopefully, this stupid inn isn’t hard to find.”

What felt like hours later, we found the inn at the edge of the town. The sign hung off a wooden rod on only one chain matching the overall shabby appearance of the inn. It stuck out in the row of stores slightly because it was so scrubby and dirty, but no one seemed to be paying attention to it. Most of the people walking in the area were talking with someone or were moving quickly through.

The other places on this street were much cleaner and a few were adorned with familiar guild names and emblems on their signs that were properly attached to posts. The basic design of each of the buildings seemed to be the same, stone walls with wooden roofs, doors, window frames, and shudders.

Why was it the inn I was heading to that looked noticeably different? The name ‘Sparrow’s Glory’ didn’t even fit the outward appearance. What was there about this place to consider it to be something’s glory? Well, that was if I even was remembering the meaning of the word correctly.

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Mezu was bouncing on my shoulders excited, and I didn’t know what to expect from this place. Either way, I needed to head in.

Alcoroth was a bit ahead of me holding out the token for me to take. I sighed and walked up to him grabbed it and stepped through the doors.

The main floor of the building was a restaurant and though each of the tables had a few people and there were two groups sitting at the bar, I could feel some sort of pressure in the room. However, they all acted as if they were in deep conversations. Some drank as if they’d been drinking for a while despite it only being about mid-afternoon.

I didn’t see any mana being moved, or any aura users in the room. Despite that, I still couldn’t shake the instinct to be wary of them. Even if my hunch was right, it didn’t seem to be something Mezu noticed. Of course, though, he could easily kill them all, so it wouldn’t change anything if he knew beforehand if something might happen.

As we walked up to the bar, I could feel their eyes following me.

“What can I do for you?” the dwarven girl at the bar asked.

“I uhh was given this.”

I placed the token down and she snatched it up. She held it up closer to her, giving it a good look then slid it into a slot in the wall behind her. As we waited, I glanced around the room and saw them all actually looking at me. I tensed up and saw some mana moving towards a few of them slowly, and a few of them with their hands on or near their weapons. No one had cast any spells yet, but they were considering it.

I felt Mezu’s hands grip my hair as he rocked back and forth slightly. His rocking was generally better than his bouncing, but neither of them was overly comfortable in this position. It was either his "I’m excited" or his "I’m bored" rocking. I couldn’t tell the difference. If he had been bouncing, it’d be clear he was excited.

There was a clink, a thud, and then it was as if the density of the air in the room completely evaporated, no more activated mana and their hands were off their weapons.

They went back to what they were doing as if they hadn’t just threatened me. Mezu stopped rocking and slouched, so he had been excited,, his full weight now leaning against my head. Now he was just disappointed.

“Alright then, you can head upstairs to room one twelve.”

“Thanks, I guess.”

I went up the stairs.

“This place is quite interesting.”

Alcoroth was looking at the walls closely, but I couldn’t see anything. My mana sight wasn’t cut off so there wasn’t any magic being used.

“What do you mean?”

“Its much like your former guild building. There are several secret passages within it. And the architecture really doesn’t feel right. It’s like we’re walking around a hidden room, but all these doors appear to open up to their own rooms.”

I didn’t quite get what he said, but it didn’t take long for me to figure it out. It reminded me of the labyrinth, I think. I can’t be completely sure though since I think I’m more aware of my own place within a space now than I had been at the time.

Now though, I knew I was walking straight, never made a turn and the room numbers on the doors continuously counted upwards, and yet something was wrong. So, I stopped walking.

I thought I’d seen the mana in the walls in the arena, so if it was a spell why wouldn’t I be able to see it now? Awareness of the space aside, I was sure of at least one thing.

“We walked further than the depth of the actual building, right?”

I turned to look back down the hallway to make sure I just hadn’t turned a corner and just missed it. But at the end of the hallway, I saw the staircase. I turned my sight on and looked back at the door numbers they were covered in a haze of mana. I kept looking around until I saw one door with solid numbers, room one twelve. I was surrounded by mostly activated mana but I didn’t feel instinctually defensive, how annoying.

I opened it to see not only Valera but also a guy I didn’t immediately recognize. He had shoulder length hair and a very short beard. But the small earrings and the scar across his eye were familiar. It was the swordsman from that day.

“Quartz?!”

Valera yelled and tackled me through the doorway.

“You’re really here! How the hell are you alive?!”

She got off of me, lifting me from the ground easily, and started touching all of my body squeezing a bit too hard.

“And your leg?! Your arm?! What the hell?”

“Valera, I think we should talk in the room first.”

It was the swordman’s voice, it was deep and calm. Valera let me go.

“Oh right.”

She stepped back slightly. I turned to get to Mezu who I felt wasn’t on me anymore. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Alcoroth fuming slightly. I picked him up and brushed some dust and dirt from the ground off of him.

“Sorry about that Fluffy, I wasn’t expecting that, are you alright?”

Mezu pouted glaring at Valera.

“I’ll give you a snack to make up for it okay?”

Mezu nodded.

“I’m sorry little guy I didn’t mean to hurt you.”

She tilted her head slightly smiling softly, the way she always did with anyone younger than her.

Wait…She always did that? Did we ever meet kids together?

“Coming?”

She was inside now, with a hand on the door holding it open.