After they arrived, it took everyone, well, everyone but Storm, a moment to recover. It had somehow succeeded but there had probably been hundreds of close calls they probably weren’t even aware of. After he had a moment to think, Soral remembered the reason they had gone to rescue Janon in the first place. He needed to tell him.

“Janon, how do you feel about your mother?” Soral asked.

He was a bit surprised by the question. “My mother? I’m not sure. I haven’t seen her for a long time.”

At least he didn’t seem to hate her. “Actually, I came to rescue you by your mother’s request.” Hopefully he wouldn’t figure out the part where Soral had forgotten about him until then.

“You did?” he asked. Now he looked more confused than surprised, then shook his head, “I guess I should have known that was just another one of father’s lies.”

Luckily the situation had completely distracted him from that line of though. “What lies?” Soral asked.

“He told me that the reason my mom never came to visit was because she didn’t care and had all but abandoned me. He probably stopped her from seeing me in the first place.”

That would make sense, but Lady Bracelets, or rather Kiera, hadn’t mentioned the specifics. “Would you like to meet her?” Soral asked.

Janon seemed torn, and a bit nervous. “Will she really want to see me?”

“Most definitely,” Soral agreed.

“Then I will.”

Their meeting did not take long to arrange. Kiera was more than eager to meet her son, and she had prepared in advance to move to Evergreen and fulfill her promise. The meeting itself was more awkward than heartmoving as neither of them were able to express their emotions well, but anything was better than living as a prisoner churning out collars.

After they had been given some room to talk, Janon returned and expressed his interest in joining the warriors as a technician. Ruena accepted, and he was immediately dragged into their current projects. His improvements to the magic battery were able to make it smaller while also carrying more potent magic stores within.

With Kiera secured as an enchantress, the tailor shop was up and running too. He had been able to find a tailor from a smaller town nearby with sufficient skill. It was unfortunate that their previous location had nearly left them bankrupt due to lack of customer base.

Soral had also dipped his toes into baking. The tailor’s wife was a baker, and she had jumped at the chance to run a bakery, even more so after Soral had revealed his secret ingredient and how to use it. There was enough faerutil in his orchard now that he could spare a few for some special premium cupcakes. As for what else the bakery sold, he left it up to her discretion.

He would have to check that list of requirements again, but Soral was pretty sure that covered the funding.

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Then he did a quick head count of everyone they had. There was himself, Ruena, Rosalie, Howler, Storm, Liza, Dillon, Jazz, and Janon. How many of those counted toward the active combatant requirement? Howler and Storm weren’t really active, and he doubted they would accept Jazz as a combatant. Janon wanted a background role, and Dillon was hard set that Liza was not ready for combat. So that left… four?

Suddenly he remembered he hadn’t gone to the Oasis yet to ask the twins what they thought. Only one of them was suited for combat, but that was perfect. Oasis had already agreed to let them go if they wished to. The moment he arrived to check, he found they had been waiting for him, eager to leave the confines of the Oasis. It seemed they had decided to trust him and thought joining his mercenaries was a good way to provide for themselves.

Soral did correct them that it was Ruena’s mercenaries, but they didn’t seem to take him seriously.

That covered the combatants. Now he needed to check to make sure there weren’t any other requirements they were missing. There was one important step missing. Paperwork. There was a specific form each aspiring mercenary group needed to fill out in order to apply to take the mercenary test. This form included information such as where and when the tests could be taken and the basic rules all locations followed.

Luckily Ruena was one step ahead and had already secured the paperwork and begun to fill out what she could. Not that she could fill out too much with unknown members and funds. That is why she dragged Soral in to help her finish.

The paperwork asked for the group’s name, member list upon testing, roles of each member for a group under twenty members, and which location they intended to take their test at. The last part went over the various locations, stating that each should hold the test bimonthly but it could only be taken once a year. There were procedures in place to prevent prospective mercenaries from location hopping to try and force their pass.

There was another part that described how and why mercenaries were allowed by law, and acting without a license could blacklist you forever. Hopefully raiding a slave trade to rescue the owner’s son did not count.

Ruena had filled out the title first, and the member list as each member came in. What she needed help with was deciding everyone’s role. She had a few pinned down. Ruena was the Commander, and Soral was her Vice Commander. Janon was the Lead Technician and Jazz was the Head of Espionage. Rosalie had been listed as Team Captain. That was where she had gotten stuck. A team captain couldn’t exist without a team.

There was a separate section for members who were less active or temporary. None of these were allowed to participate in the test. Storm and Howler were listed there. Storm’s position was Quality Control, and Howler was Head of Research.

That left Flame, Ember, Liza, and Dillon. All of them could be in the team, but they each still needed a role. Soral remembered their mission together to take out Doc. “Flame should be in charge of communication. Him and Ember have a telepathic link.”

“And Ember?” Ruena questioned.

“She has stronger attacks so she is more suited for field work.”

Flame was listed as Head of Communication, and Ember as Team Communicator. It was something, for now. That left Liza and Dillon. Given their pursuits of combat they just put down Swordsman and Mage. Soral wasn’t confident that mage was the correct term, but he figured it was better than thinking too hard about it for nothing.

Once all of their roles had been penned in, Ruena showed them to the group. This little corner of Densooth’s castle had begun to feel a little crowded, but Soral didn’t mind. It did make it hard for everyone to fit in the kitchen, so they had to move outside. The only person who had a problem with their role was Ember, who felt that it might leave her out of combat in favor of sending messages.

Ruena pointed out that they had marked her down as one of their five combatants to meet the requirement for the test. Jazz seemed all too pleased with his role. Storm dropped by for a bit and caught sight of his. For some reason he burst out laughing, but he didn’t complain.

Now all that was left was to choose a location. Hopefully one that had a test soon, but not so soon they wouldn’t have time to train first. Training together as a group would be important if they wanted to pass. At least, that was what Ruena insisted on.

After their last incident in Sycamore, they decided against the test there even though it was the closest. Gero was no doubt seeking revenge after what they had done to him, and they didn’t want to return to a location he had found them before, even if they weren’t hiding. Altea was much farther away, and as the human capital of Althaedor it was bound to be incredibly busy. It also ran the risk of Ruena running into her mother.

They eventually settled on a location nearby Liza and Dillon’s hometown called Farfalle. The test took place in the capital of the small kingdom, Orzo. It was right in the middle of their bimonthly preparation period, so they still had a month to train. It was the best out of all of the options.

Just as they were about to discuss how to begin training, Storm took charge as the Head of Quality Control. Although he had embraced his title, he couldn’t seem to say it without a smirk. Thus began their nightmarish month of training under the retired assassin.