Shiki waited outside the door as the Senior City Guards spoke to his Father, his palms itched, they had turned purple. His father had forbid him from scratching it. Now he stood straight near the door, hands behind his back, rubbing the rough wall for comfort. He stopped when the door opened and Senior Guard Bamadis stepped out followed by his partner Cognal in their guard fatigues. Shiki kept his head down as they glanced at him.
They turned back to the open door and spoke to his mother who was with his father at the office ”We will be going now Madam Namika” . They bowed and closed the door behind them and turned towards him “Think of the consequences before you act Kashiki , Good thing your father is a physician. Goshi’s father is a strong figure in the district, he might take this to the heart ”
They walked through the garden to the gates, and were out through them to the street. Shiki felt dread as Bamadis left. Bamadis did have a calming presence but the thought of meeting his father was probably why he was despairing, Bamadis leaving had nothing to do with it. In fact his dread was all as a result of Bamadis tattling to his father. And also Goshi’s loud mouth. It was just itching moss after all. The other option was an overzealous Goshi giving him a black eye. Shiki wondered how to plead his case.
The door opened and his mother stepped out into the garden, watching the Guardsmen walk away. She turned around to him with raised eye brow. With a swift motion she clutched his ears. Giving it a pull she spoke. “ You are impossible Shiki, Inside now. Father wants to talk”. Shiki winced in pain. His mother is a sweet woman, she cared for him as her own even when he was adopted. But when it came to father, she went insane. Things that made father angry made her mad. She was really protective of his adoptive father.
She let his ears go with a final pinch that hurt much worse than all the pull, making momentarily forget the itch.
“In you go”, she said and stepped away from the door. She turned around and began walking towards the side of the house. Are you not coming, he asked hopping for a support to face his father who will be disappointed in him and will be looking to punish him.
“Nope he is really mad, I don’t want to be near him”, she spoke while walking away to the corner of the house
“Where are you going?” he asked
“Into the house. I will enter from backdoor”
Shiki felt like cold water had been tossed at him as he opened the door and walked inside thinking up plausible excuses.
His father was sitting in his office room looking up some notes from his books. He knocked at the side of the door cautiously. The room had been a strange place to him. The room was filled on two sides with shelves, walls without shelves were covered with paintings, a desk table where he sat as a helper. A table was placed at the center of the room with books and curios like the ones filling the shelves. Shiki still remembered coming to gawk at the monster skulls in the room when he was a kid. A long bed was kept to the side where sometimes patients where asked to lie down to do check ups.
The walls were polished and room kept clean, Shiki’s father Kamiki Kilooan had been strict about that. The house was made from a mix of stone, cementing clay and wood like many other houses in the district. The outer walls of the first floor of the house was made of stones, the inner walls were exclusively made of wood, wooden walls, wooden beams in the ceiling, wooden staircase leading up to the top floor above which was also made out of wood.
Shiki looked at his father who had not looked up nor acknowledged him as he stood at the doorway. He decided to count to ten no a hundred before he will knock again.
He counted fourty seven, when his father finished with his notes let a sigh and looked up. How long have you are going to count Shiki
Shiki accidentally let a grin plaster his face caught himself and drowned the grin with pensive look.
His father snorted. “ I know you are not to blame Kashiki “ Shiki felt hope gloom in his heart, but the pessimistic brain tried to hint at something worse “ You have been getting a lot of free time leading you to end up in fights in gangs. Gangs . I am disappointed. I was not even aware that you were part of one. Anyway I have decided something for you and the captain had recommended that you stay away from the district for a while. People like Goshi’s father ahs a twisted sense of honour and … it can be impossible to deal with them. You have been learning a lot but not much to practice. I have a friend in one of the divers guild who could use a medic. Also Goshi’s father has little presence in the region”
Shiki tried to protest. “ I want you at this address morning tomorrow”, his father spoke over his protest.” Be there I am not in a mood to listen to your excuse of actions”. He said slamming a letter at the table. “I have written a letter to him as to what to expect from you. Do not disappoint again. Also clean the attic with books and scrolls before you leave for tomorrow. I want you to also go through the compendiums in the left section 12D. It will help you in your line of work until you are ready for the next ones”
You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.
Shiki felt haunting emptiness in his heart as he walked away from his father’s office. Dungeon diving was not an easy profession it had dangers and was mostly filled by wash overs who had not been able to be keep a stable job mostly. He sighed as he thought about entreating his mother, he looked at the envelope and saw the name Amoz Pappenheim.
Stopped. He decided to clean the Attic and refresh his learnings. He had heard his friends talk about him. They had talked about his Guild and described them in one word.
Monstrous.
DIVIDER tailed [https://aegisofmadness.files.wordpress.com/2018/01/divider-tailed-e1519207911578.png?w=433]
The name struck Shiki as he stood outside the building, it looked as if the name was decided as a joke. He looked at the building, it was a three storey building and had the distinct unremarkable look the other buildings in the street shared. Some one had drawn a goat at the side of the name board. That reminded him. Wasn’t the group called Goats. He racked his memory. Was this not the same persons. He frowned some more checked the address on the letter, back tracked the streets twice and ended up at the same building. The building itself was named Sagerest. Shiki had assumed that the guild master whom he was visiting was living in the inn.
The building’s emptiness, kind of stood out to him as he looked around at the street. It was not a busy one but still was filled with people who were going along with whatever they daily had to do. The inn opposite to the building was also filled with people giving him not much of a good impression of the building that was his destination.
The emptiness from yesterday struck him harder. He looked at the address in the letter again and thought of going back home, decided against it. His father had kept silent through out the dinner, so had his mother , his sister and the twins. The twins and sister had cried when he left. It was only an hours walk from his home but the guild was located on the opposite side of the city in a town district nearer to the dungeon mines.
As far as first impressions with the name went, he decided the guild could use another one. He sighed and walked in through the guild door, the guild building was designed like an inn. Was probably once an inn, he decided. The door lead into a foyer with a receptionist table, across her was a door that lead into a common hall with bar at the end and what looked like a kitchen counter for the guild members. The foyer ended with stairs at the end that went up. Guild rooms Shiki figured.
It was empty, dusty too. Their was no one at the receptionist table and at the common room and looked as if it was in a similar state in the kitchen as well. He looked around, the common room felt large and spacious due to lack of the tables and chairs in it. There was one round table at the center surrounded by chairs . Someone needed to clean the dump, he decided. Won’t the owner of the building be pissed if he found the state of disrepair.
He slapped himself lightly on the head with the letter and dropped it on the round table, dragged a chair from under the table and sat on it waiting for someone to show up. As soon as he settled himself into the creaking chair, he heard the stairs creek behind him.
Footsteps sounded as someone came down the stairs, Shiki turned to look back at the foyer to see who had come down as he raised himself from the chair.
Shiki had been told enough to know when he was looking at Amoz Pappenheim, he had been asked by his dad to look for a man with cropped hair and a mustache that flowed out to form a beard, that was mostly clothed in a black army trench fatigue, with red layer inside.
He realized the man was wearing the trench coat inside out. The trench coat would have been red, but the man was wearing its inside out making the coat black with grey patches that looked worn out with the rumpled white shirt under the coat. The hard leathered trousers that he wore reached his feet tied to his boots that creaked with the wooden board as he strode them. He looked at Shiki standing near the table, expecting him to be there. His bearded face spread to a grin on seeing him ” Kilooan’s Kid right, I was told you be arriving. “
“Yes Guild Master” he said doing something between a nod and a bow. He produced the letter from the table and furnished it to the man looked at the letter dubiously.
“You got it wrong kid. I am not Amoz, ” Snorted and dropped it back on the table. “ Though I will take it as a complement. I am the captain of the first and only divers team of the guild. Name is Minyon Bravereign.”
He dragged one of the other chairs from under table sat himself while gesturing Shiki to do the same ” Now tell me about yourself . Have you worked before…? What is your name?”
Shiki gave his name to the Captain introducing himself and gave a brief about his experience and knowledge when asked about.
Minyon nodded to Shiki, “ Good. We were lacking a healer in our team. We do have other healers in our guild but they are mostly free lancers like most of our members or part of other teams that have contracts with our guild. You know what…. we will give you a better understanding of our guild’s working after you had settled in and I need to be somewhere else “ the captain spoke laughing good naturedly at his own words while Shiki kept nodding.
The Captain stood up while continuing to speak as he walked towards the front door. ” You can have the room at the end of the second floor.” He stopped for a moment remembering something and turned around” It probably doesn’t have a lock, you will have to buy one if you don’t want your things being shared by the others in the guild. Will send someone to teach you the ropes after you are settled in.”
Shiki nodded and thanked him as the captain left through the front door, hefted the bag he had dropped on the floor earlier, regretting that he head done it from the dust that now sticked to his bag. He reached the room at the end of the second floor after walking upa flight of rickety stairs, it was a narrow room with a window to front street. With a bed and a cupboard. The bed was so dusty, Shiki was sure he will choke to death from the dust.
The guild didn’t have much in the way that would provide confidence, Shiki wondered weather it was the case in all of the guilds. He dropped the bag on the bed and looked at the dust rise. Hope it doesn’t have bed bugs. He prayed and started cleaning hoping to get some rest after.