Maron, Ciel, Vex, and Piera relaxed after they confirmed their alliance. Glory came in a little bit after noon to make the same announcement she’d made that morning. Rumors had already spread to most of the new people that had come in since her first talk, but giving the whole spiel in plain English helped control the hyperbole of the drunk yarn-spinners sprinkled among the tavern’s patrons.
The afternoon brought in a few more prospects from which to choose their last member. Every one that they approached, however, had prior teams, or weren’t going to take the new contracts, preferring to do some of the last few local monster contracts still on the Rank 1 section of the board. The hours grew long as they ticked towards the dinner service and the slot remained unfilled. There was usually one last rush near the end of the day, when the evening cart rolled back in, but after that most of the new people coming in would be regular non-mercenary folk here to visit the tavern for a while.
As Aron at the bar started throwing slabs of meat onto the grill and the alcohol started flowing more freely, more people started to enter the tavern from Vane Gloria. Len was among them, still in his full Healer getup. Vex stifled a groan when he walked in.
Len moved up to the group of them sitting around a table, digging into the night’s veal, swapping stories about contracts they’d taken. As he got near, Midaan looked up to see the man’s face souring as he took in the group of them settled there.
“So, Mister Midaan. Is…this the party you’ve collected?” Len sounded like he was grinding his teeth. He was staring.
Piera bristled as she realized his eyes were boring into her, and she sat up straighter under his gaze.
Midaan saw the man’s face as well, and he felt his guts drop. “It is,” he confirmed, unwavering. “I know we’re still one member short, but I-“
“I see,” Len interrupted, reaching some tipping point of anger. “I think I will have to reconsider our arrangement, Midaan. I don’t think much of someone that tries to put me in close company with whores and theives. I expected more class from someone of your stature, Tarrol.” He turned and swept away, without giving them another chance to object.
Midaan sprang up and called out to him, reaching for him to stop, but Len just waved dismissal over his shoulder.
Midaan raised an eyebrow, then shook his head in disappointment with the Healer. Lanterns did have something of a stigma about them, largely stemming from the various ways that Lanterns came to be. In the past, this was largely through experimentation on human subjects by horrid rulers. Often these were treated as sacrificial vessels for researchers to find new runes, or study odd rune combinations. Those that survived the process were often left disfigured, as a failed rune can result in the loss of the associated limb, if not the life of the inscribed person. They would often be left homeless, the ruination of their mana nodes and channels leaving them without prospects for work.
Then, centuries ago, when the carnal mana node was rediscovered, even more Lanterns were created. This time, when the experiments were over, the people that survived were given over to prostitution.
Ever since those olden times, the stigma against Lanterns persisted in some fashion: either considering them useless dabblers in too many powers; or seeing them as akin to sex workers, using the wiles of their carnal runes to lure away their spouses and live lives of orgiastic pleasure.
Of course, the reality of Lanterns was that they just liked having a lot of powers. Sometimes that included the sexual ones. But the old associations and stereotypes – and the fetishism – were still held by those who considered themselves of ‘high birth.’
So, as Midaan sat and watched Len walk away with his nose held high and his back stiff, his own gut relaxed. “Ah, well.”
Piera hung her head. “Sorry, you all.”
“Well, that’s it then!” Ciel threw her hands up. “I told you we shouldn’t have-”
“Nah!” Midaan waved her off. “That guy did us a favor. He’d have been the type not to carry his own luggage, and as the strongest one standing here, I don’t feel like putting up with that crap.”
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Ciel rested her arm on the table and dropped her face onto her fist. “Now we’re only four, though. And we still need some kind of Healer.”
Piera raised her hand. “Remember, I can help a little with that.”
Midaan nodded. “Yes, and I really do appreciate it. Even with that rune, though, we’ll want someone that can act as mitigation. You rune doesn’t heal by itself, you need to combine it with another power to heal someone up. And your mana pool is probably too small to heal a large wound.”
Piera shrugged and bobbed her head. “At least, not quickly.”
“Still, that regeneration is nice. Having a little bit of Healing power – every, what, two minutes? – would be a boon to a longer fight.” Midaan thought it over. “Still means bringing in Healing potions, though. Just need to remember to try and stretch them out.”
Midaan looked around the tavern, trying to see if any new people showed up in the last hour or so, but there was no such luck. He stood up and stretched. “I’m going to the lobby for a sec, I want to see if we’ve already missed the evening cart stopping by.”
Ciel nodded to him, and he headed out the tavern door.
Back in the lobby, the lights brighter than in the tavern, he checked out the mercs that filled the place. They were looking over the contracts, and complaining loudly about the nearly bare Rank 1 board. He saw nobody new, so he went right over to Glory, her desk piled with mountains of newly bundled contracts.
“Hi, Glory. Has the evening cart come by yet?”
“Not yet. You waiting for someone?”
“More like waiting for anyone.” Midaan sucked on his teeth for a second while he tried to form a question. “Let’s say Ciel and I wanted to get a team together for one of these new contracts. How many more people do you think we’d need before you let us go?” Best to just assume she was going to have some restriction for you.
Glory looked up at him, thinking. “You probably could take five and be ok, if one of them is a Healer.”
Midaan puffed out a breath of air. “And without a Healer?”
Glory winced. “Eh, I don’t like that. Six people; tentatively seven if the group is too weird.”
That was about what he’d figured. He thought they might be able to make it work, but that depended on somebody willing to take a job showing up on the cart, or they had to get lucky with someone wandering in so late. And Piera definitely put them in 'weird' territory.
“Alright, Glory. I’ll get back to you.”
He knocked on the booth as he turned to walk back to the tavern.
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The cart pulled up half an hour later, and three people piled out, stretching arms and legs after being cramped in the cart for hours. Once they’d had a moment, the small woman among them reached in and pulled her fancy crossbow out of the cart and slung it over her shoulder. It hung down nearly to her knees. She patted herself down, making sure she had her smaller pack and anything else she’d brought with her, and her hand lingered on the small sack tied to her belt. It was a shame that the cart got back so late. She wanted to run over to the wand maker and get started on her new wand immediately, but they would be closed by this hour.
Deya heard a chuckle, and Geon ribbed her. “Patience, Deya. The wand maker isn’t going anywhere, and neither are your plans.”
“Yeah, I know. I’m still antsy to get started on it. I’m not even positive it’ll work, the wand maker only told me that they think it should do what I think it does. She hasn’t seen an enchantment like mine before.”
Oren was bent over, stretching his back out, and he stood back up with a groan and hobbled past them towards the guild without a word.
“Yeah, I’m on board with that. I want to eat something that isn’t dry and salty.” Deya caught up to him, leaving Geon to pull up the rear as they piled inside.
Glory looked up as Oren entered first. He met her eyes and they shared a quick glance. She was worried about his party. He smiled slightly at her, eyes confident, as Deya and then Geon pushed past him.
Damn right I kept them alive, Oren thought.
Glory melted in relief as the others came into view.
Deya split from the other two and headed straight into the tavern in hopes of grabbing the last bit of Aron’s dinner service. Oren and Geon walked up to the bench, but Geon slowed to a stunned stop once he saw the devastation that Glory had wrought upon the Rank 1 board.
Oren didn’t see him stop, and he walked the rest of the way up to the booth.
Glory smiled up at him, her eyes holding something back, waiting for him to talk.
Oren felt her eyes tugging at him. Pulling the words out. “Ok, ok. You were right.” Glory’s features lit up in full smug face as Oren went on. “I can’t let the loss of my last team stop of from saving these kids.”
She put a hand over his wrist. “It’s wonderful to have you back.”
“Thank you.” He swallowed, then cleared his throat as Geon pushed into view.
“Glory! What happened to the board!” His eyes were wide, panicking. He’d never seen the job postings so bare. It felt almost like being fired. Would he have to move; could he pay rent?
Glory raised a hand to calm him down. “Geon. Relax. Head into the tavern, I’m going to explain shortly. There’s a few other people wondering what’s going on, though the word has mostly spread through the day. Now that the evening cart’s rolled through, I’ll go give the talk one more time. Just give me a moment to wrap up here.”
Geon shrugged, and the two of them entered the tavern to join Deya.