As the tavern air filled with the smell of frying eggs and bacon, the room buzzed with a hubbub not normally heard outside of the waning hours of drunken nights. Freelancers went from table to table with prior friends and allies, or alone, in search of new teammates to take on the special Rank 2 contracts.
Midaan wandered around the room with his long-time friend Ciel. Midaan Tarrol – a handsome, broad-shouldered Fire Knight – was cousin to an old Alacandran family, with the sort of resources that such a name would imply. Ciel, a Water mage, was a close family friend of his, lifted into a spot of prominence by her parents’ loyalty and service to the Tarrol family. They often took Rank 1 contracts alone, even though they were both technically qualified Rank 2. With Glory's announcement, they'd talked it over and decided to try and recruit a team for one of the new contracts.
Midaan pointed at a shorter, rough-looking man hadn’t seen around the guild before, and offered Ciel a questioning look.
Ciel looked over at the man in black and gave her judgment. “I don’t think a rogue is going to be of enough use to our team. You're always surrounded by fire, it's tough for them to get in close. We need some mitigation first, or a Healer, but I doubt there’s any of those around that haven’t been swept up by another team.” She spoke with a lilting accent, the sort that was common in what was now the nation of Emmroh.
Midaan shook his head. “We’re going to need more than three or four people to get a shot at the contracts. Glory won’t let us go with less than six, I bet.”
Ciel rolled her eyes. “That woman...”
Until a couple of years ago, the two of them worked in guilds closer to the central cities, and was used to a more carefree attitude as to who got which contracts. There, if you made Rank, you got the job, unless you had a clear history of screwing contracts up.
She’d never grown accustomed to Glory’s meddling with the job choice and team structure of the mercs in her guild, preferring to take her own risks and choose her own teammates. These new imp jobs were just the latest imposition of Glory’s will. More and more, she wanted to go back to the central guilds, but Midaan resisted. He saw that the opportunities were more plentiful on the frontier, and the jobs paid more, too.
Ciel pointed at a small group over by the corner, a man in the white robe of a Healer was surrounded by a half dozen people vying for his attention. Midaan raised an eyebrow; he hadn’t seen that man come in. Ciel just looked back at him and shrugged. It was worth a shot.
Midaan strode forward into the small crowd, listening to the others make their offer.
“Sir! If you come with us, we could offer you fifteen percent of the reward!”
“How big is your team? And how many of them are Rank 1?”
“Uhh, a we're going with a full team, we'll be...mostly Rank 1, sir.”
“Hmm, I’ll pass. Thank you for the offer.” His eyes wandered over to another, no longer listening to the other man bluster. “Yes, you,” he said, ignoring the pointing at someone else.
“We have a team of eight right now, all Rank 1, but we could do twenty percent!”
He waved them on as well.
Midaan stepped in before another one could speak up. “Six man team, including you. We don't have everyone together yet, but Ciel and I are both qualified Rank 2. You get a share of the payout, plus five percent off the top.”
The Healer looked up to him with a considering face. Midaan thought he saw a spark of recognition in the man’s eyes, but he couldn’t be sure. Then the Healer extended a hand. “I’ll have to meet the whole team, but you have my tentative support until then. My name is Len.”
Midaan took his hand and nodded. “I’m Midaan. We’ll likely be around the tavern all day today, and plan to leave tomorrow. Will you be around?”
Len shook his head. “I’m going home to relax and eat. I’ll come back around dinner service and speak to you and whomever you’ve recruited then.”
The rest of the leaders trying to recruit the Healer threw up their hands and grumbled, walking away from Len in frustration.
The man smiled at the back of their heads, indifferent to their cursing. He held all the cards in a negotiation like this. He looked back at Midaan, pausing, as though a question was hanging on his lips, that look of recognition still in his eyes. But instead he just turned and left the tavern, into the lobby and out the door.
“Hmm,” Ciel said. “That was a lot easier than a Healer auction usually is.” She looked up at Midaan with concern. “Is he up to something, do you think? Or is he scrambling because of the short notice?”
“I think he might have known who I am – who my family is.”
Ciel just closed her eyes and nodded. “So maybe a social climber?”
“Perhaps. Or just someone who sees the pedigree as a sign that we can keep him alive. I'm not sure if he cared more about the pay or the experience of the team making the offer.”
Ciel bobbed her head to the side. “I’ll keep an eye out in case he's trying for leverage on the Tarrols.”
Midaan started looking over the rest of the crowd, trying to find interesting people that were wandering around alone. His eyes passed over the rogue again, before moving on to another person that caught his eye.
The woman glowed with runes all over her body as she cycled her mana; there must have been a dozen differently colored powers across her whole body. There was hardly a limb or mana node on her that was unmarked by a glowing symbol. Then they all dimmed as she continued her mana cycle, the runes glowing in a flowing pattern as her mana was pushed down to her feet; then pulled up through her torso, and spreading to her neck and head, shoulders and arms; before moving back to the core in her chest.
Ciel saw that Midaan’s eyes were drawn to something, and she followed them over to the woman sitting alone, nobody looking to party up with that mess of a mage. Ciel's eyes flickered in surprise: she was a Lantern.
“No way,” she said sternly, and Midaan glanced down at her.
“And why not? We’ve had Lanterns join us on missions before; they can be very useful, not to mention the mana benefits.”
“Both of those had experimental runes we couldn’t have found anywhere else. And one of those two died on the mission, remember?”
Midaan shrugged. “I was just thinking it might be a nice idea. We don’t even know what kind of runes she has; don’t you want to find out before saying no?”
“Nope,” Ciel said. “I’d rather not. In particular because you told that Healer that we were only going to be a party of six. Including him, we’re three, so we can only take three more. Both other times we’ve brought a Lantern, we had a full party of ten. We won't have enough people to afford filling a slot with a utility mage.”
Midaan shook his head – she was probably right. He just remembered how deep his reserves of mana had felt as their last Lantern stood back and cycled, drawing in the mana of the world to help fill all of their cores. Or when they would use some small power that altered the course of the rest of the fight, like using Lightning magic after one of Ciel‘s water attacks.
But Ciel was probably right. They wouldn’t be able to make good use of her with only six members in the team.
Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
They mingled, tried meeting a few other mages, before taking a break a couple hours later once the tavern thinned out after the departure of both morning carts. The new jobs weren't being posted until tomorrow, so once the mercs picked their Rank 1 jobs, or successfully found a team, they left for the rest of the morning. Those that were left weren't the sort of mages they were looking for.
Midaan was a knight, a tank. His job was to enrage the enemy, force them to attack him instead of the other members of the party. Ciel used her Water magic to attack from longer range with high pressure blasts. With the tentative addition of the Healer that could patch them up, it left a few slots open for one of the more common types of mage: Damage dealers. These were mages that didn’t mess around with complicated plans or rune interaction or even fancy equipment – their job was to do as much damage as possible to the monster they fought.
Most Damage mages are Fire mages, but Midaan was already Fire, and they were trying not to stack more of that rune if they could help it.
Having two mages with the same rune focus wasn’t always a problem, but it lowered the flexibility of the team. Plus, Fire in particular could be an issue, especially if they were fighting something in tight quarters. Or near friendly infrastructure. Or in a barn filled with dry hay. Ciel’s eyes skipped over several mages wearing light armor lined with red trim, as she looked for any other potential teammates.
They spoke with an Ice rogue, who intrigued them with tales of sliding around the battlefield on trails of ice, but who confessed they were already part of a large group that they weren’t going to abandon, and who were too big themselves to absorb three more people.
They met with a Strength and Dexterity fighter in heavy armor that was capable of playing the Damage dealer role, but who didn’t want to fight in such close proximity to a Fire tank, which was understandable.
As they walked away from the fighter, Ciel saw Midaan looking over at the rogue in black again. He was still alone, and now he was looking back at Midaan with a curious gaze. Ciel sighed. “Alright. I guess we can ask him.”
Midaan looked at her an shook his head. “What is it about that rogue that sets you off so much. We talked to that other Ice rogue not that long ago.”
Ciel shrugged. “Ice is a good power; rogues will use it to make new weapons on the fly, so they never run out of throwing knives, and disarming them is a temporary measure at best. And I guess we're just a little more desperate now; we need people.”
They walked up to the man sitting alone. He noticed them approach and a thin smile spread across his face as he hopped off the end of the table and met them halfway.
“About time you two came over. I thought I was going to have to give in and walk over to you.” His accent had a similar rhythm to Ciel's, and she perked up a little hearing another with it so far from home.
Midaan smiled and stuck his hand out to shake. “I’m Midaan, Fire knight, and this is Ciel, Water mage.”
The rogue took his hand. “And I'm Vex. Rogue with Speed, Wind and Light as my main powers.”
“Light for Invisibility?” Ciel asked.
Vex shook his head and held up his left hand. A Light rune lit up the back of it. “I use illusions.” The rune flashed, and suddenly, two clones of Vex appeared on either side of him. One of them waved and winked at Ciel. She grimaced and poked the illusion. Her scepter went right through it, like sticking it into a sunbeam streaming through a window. It was still clearly visible inside the image of the man, and Ciel pulled it back out, lips pursed in thought. That was a power set that might work. He could make distractions, and having Wind as his other weapon rune meant that he could be a ranged fighter as well. Perfect for joining a team with a Fire tank.
Ciel looked up at Midaan, only to find him already looking down his nose at her, a smug grin on his face. She thwacked him with the scepter – her face stoic where Midaan really thought he ought to have seen some humility – and then she bowed to Vex. “I think you’ll make a wonderful addition to the team. We still need a couple more people, but we should have a Healer on the team already. He’s supposed to join around dinner tonight to meet the rest of the team we cobble together.”
Vex dismissed his illusions, and they vanished. “That’s fine. Great, even, if you say you still need more members.” He pointed a finger across the tavern, to a familiar figure sitting alone.
Ciel looked over, then sighed. “Of course,” she muttered.
The Lantern woman had, apparently, been watching Vex’s interaction with the group, because as soon as she was pointed out, the Lantern hopped out of the seat with runes flashing excited patterns and she pranced across the room towards them. Her long hair bounced as she made her way over to them.
“Hey, Vex. You found someone?”
“Hopefully,” the rogue replied in a grave tone, seeing the skepticism on Ciel's face.
Midaan spoke up to explain Ciel's hesitation. “We had concerns about the utility that a Lantern might bring to a smaller party. We've had them in larger parties in the past, but we only plan on a six-person group for this run, based on our negotiations for the Healer we found.”
Vex raised an eyebrow. “Was he that pompous looking guy selling himself a bit ago?”
Midaan nodded. “Yeah.”
Ciel clicked her teeth and nudged him. “You don't have to be like that.”
Midaan raised his arms defensively. “You know it's true, too. I feel like he's here because he lost a bet or something, he's was way too up himself back there. Anyway, we've drifted.” He gestured to the Lantern woman, prompting Vex to introduce her.
“Ah, right. Midaan, Ciel, this is Piera. I've worked with her for a couple years now. Piera, this is Midaan the Fire knight, and Ciel the Water mage.
Piera bowed slightly to them both, and they waved in return.
Midaan couldn't help but ask: “So why did you go Lantern?”
Ciel cringed a bit. It really wasn't considered polite to ask Lanterns that question. There were still some who did not choose to become Lanterns, but were made to.
Piera didn't seem to mind the question at all. “There was a college in the big city that was offering a bunch of money to take some experimental hand runes. I thought it sounded like a nice idea, it would set me up for several years, even if I chose to be lazy. Afterward, though, I liked the powers enough that I decided to go full Lantern; really spread the power set out, you know?”
“Yeah, I can see that. So, what's your toolkit?” Midaan said. “That will be make-or-break for you, I'm afraid.”
She stood back and lit herself up with a smirk, letting all her runes glow. “Take a look.”
Midaan let himself enjoy the spectacle of someone having that many runes lit at once, but only for a few seconds. He started at the top, reading a Sight rune by her eye and a Sound rune on her cheek. He could see a Speed rune modified for Stone on the back of her neck. She had Strength on each bicep, and Stone on each forearm.
Then, Midaan was filled with questions when he got to her hands – her weapons. Her right hand was a Piercing rune. It took him a second to recognize it because he was so used to seeing it as a tiny blue mark above another power, a modification to some other rune. He'd heard that the modification runes could be used in this way, it just usually wasn't, because the magical effect was much greater if you applied it to another power, that would have more range. Piercing alone – that should allow her to, what, punch through objects? Through people? Interesting utility, perhaps.
Her left hand had a rune that Midaan did not recognize. There was a green mark above the rune, showing that it was modified for Healing, but the main rune was a complete mystery to him. It was shaped like an empty square, each stroke that made up its sides extending a little past the corners, and it glowed a light gray.
Midaan pointed at the hand. “What even is that rune?”
Piera held the hand up and smiled. “It's Empty. Or, that's what the professors called it. I think of it as Variable, now. Basically, I can use it to lock on to someone else's rune. If it doesn't have any modifications, then it won't do anything else. You wouldn't even feel it if you used your power. Once you add a modification, though, the rune can add that mod to the rune you've locked on to.”
Midaan rocked back on his seat.
“Wow, that's really useful,” he said.
“Wow, that's really dangerous,” Ciel said, simultaneously.
Piera nodded at both of them, her face filled with glee. “Isn't it?”
Ciel chewed on her lip, thinking about all the combinations that would open up.
Midaan was excited. “Wait, so that rune adds Healing...to anything?”
“Or it tries to,” Piera said, nodding.
Vex raised a hand. “I know my Wind power is compatible with the Blank rune, we can do a Healing Wind type of thing. It’s not very strong, though.”
Ciel looked over at Piera. “Hey, have you tried it with Water yet?”
Piera thought for a moment, but shook her head.
Ciel shrugged, then grabbed her drink and drank the last of it. Then she put her hand over the top of the cup and her blue Water rune glowed above it. Realizing what she was doing, Piera raised her own Blank hand and it glowed with a soft gray light with a tiny green mark above it. Piera felt the attention of the Blank rune snap onto the Water rune, and Ciel flinched, feeling the connection on her end. She felt a resistance, like there was a narrow nozzle attached to her power.
Then, Ciel made Water. The mana gathered in the palm of her hand, then it dribbled out as the rune forced it to change and it began to flow in a thin, controlled stream into the cup. Ciel’s face pinched as the Blank rune restricted the outward flow of mana, and she had to push harder to make it manifest. Once the cup was half full, Ciel cut the power off.
Piera leaned back, her core nearly drained from less than ten seconds of use. Her runes started flashing in a haphazard cycle that slowly regulated to a wave of lights up and down her body.
Ciel held the glass of water up and looked through It. It was still clear, though the light that refracted through the water was tinted slightly green.
Piera recovered and looked up at the glass of water. She studied it for just a moment, then nodded to Ciel. “That should be about right.”
Ciel chewed her lip for a moment, then she grabbed one of the knives off the table and rubbed her thumb against the blade. She let the blood run down her hand before her picked up the glass of water and drank a sip. Slowly, the cut started healing back up. She had to down the rest of the cup to heal the entire thing, but when Ciel licked the blood off her thumb and inspected the skin beneath, it was intact.
Ciel nodded at Piera. “That could be useful.” Then she probed further. “How low did that bring your core?”
Piera gave her a self-deprecating smirk. “Nearly empty. I’m back up to a bit less than a quarter now.”
Midaan’s eyes bulged. “Gods, that’s quick.”
Piera laughed again. “It is, but it’s also not as impressive as you imagine. I have a smaller mana pool than most.”
Vex nodded. “It’s pretty normal for Lanterns.”
Ciel sighed and sat back in her chair. “Well, with all that, I think you're welcome to join us, Piera.”
Midaan grinned wide, staring down his nose at Ciel, again.
Ciel shoved him, but she was laughing. “Shut up!”