Glory left the back room of the quest booth, with a couple loose plans in place. She could put one of them in motion now.
“Hey, everyone listen up!” she alerted the lobby, turning heads her way. “I'm doubling up the guard contracts for a bit, temporary assignments. That's a day shift up on the tower, and a night shift on the perimeter of Vane Gloria, each day for a couple weeks. Come on up to the booth if you're interested in taking a shift.”
A small rush of people migrated to her, and she set up schedules for the people most qualified for the duties. Tower watch was fairly easy, but those with sight runes, often Scouts, were preferred for the task; having long-distance sight or thermal vision was a huge boon in those areas, and having a second person there with a different sight rune or modification can reveal extra threats. Night watch on the perimeter was a bit more prone to danger, though most nights were quiet, as any imp wandering into a mercenary town on the frontier was begging for a quick death.
It was as she was sorting the last few conflicts out, that she saw Vai walk in. If she thought that Geon and Astria looked ragged, it was nothing compared to how bad the Scout looked. He didn't charge through in a state near panic, the way that the other two had, but instead shuffled up to the line by the booth, haggard like a dead man. Glory quickly turned and opened the door to her back room, motioning him inside.
“I'll be there in a sec, let me finish this up.”
Vai nodded and walked by her to the room, choosing the most comfortable-looking chair in the room to throw himself on: a large stuffed sofa chair sitting in the back corner of the room that he sank into like a cloud. He waited for only a minute before he lost consciousness in the enveloping cushions.
Vai came to around an hour later. There was a pitcher of clear ice water set on it, as well as a bottle of wine, with glasses upturned on the table. He poured himself a glass of the water, the ice in the pitcher already half-melted in the time he'd been asleep. He took a sip, and carried the cup over to the lobby door, opening it and finding Glory sitting quietly at the booth, alone.
“Hey.” he greeted her, and tipped the cup toward her. “Thanks, for letting me rest a bit there.”
Glory smiled back at him from her chair. “Anytime, Vai. Food's on me tonight, what do you want?”
He chuckled. “A big steak. Heaping pile of potatoes and whatever greens he has for tonight.”
“I'll get it for you. Hang there, I'll be along in a minute while he makes it.”
Vai went back in, drained the cup of water, and refilled it with some of the wine. He settled down on the sofa chair again and rested until Glory came back with the pile of food. He relocated over to the meeting table where she placed his food and silverware, before closing the door and sitting across from him.
“Did the others get back ok?” Vai asked her as he started slicing up the steak.
“Yeah, they did. Geon's in the other room still. He's been regaling his friends with the story of their escape. I wanted to talk to you before he did.”
Vai swallowed and looked up at her. “Yeah. Thought you might.” He took another bite and mulled over how to get started.
“Everything was pretty normal until the watch. Those two took first watch, then an hour after they wake me up to take over, I hear this thing stomping towards us. I get them both awake and ready, they're over the lip of the entrance to the valley before it reached the hill on the other side. It comes up and yells at us a bit, making a real show of himself, then sends the imps to kill us. Like, twenty of them. So I led as many as I could away. I didn't see the conflict the kids had with the imps that chased them instead of me, but I saw the Healing field that Healer cast. I'm fast enough that I was able to lead the imps away, but also keep an eye on which way the kids went.
“That tall demon: it came after me. It tried to direct its imps to chase after the others, but I was able to keep their attention by firing arrows into the group. Didn't kill too many, though. Anyway, eventually the tall guy gives up on making the imps chase them, focuses everything on me.”
Vai took another sip of the wine. “Thing chased me around the forest for hours. I was lucky that Astria gave me one of her potions, because I went through my whole supply. We left the imps way behind: there's probably a group of six or seven still around the forest in that area. The tall one didn't stop chasing me until about an...well, about two hours ago now, when I got in range of the nearby sentry towers. Then, it stopped and turned back.”
Glory looked at him, face serious. “Which towers: the ones along the treeline, or the Vane Gloria perimeter?”
This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.
“The perimeter. We didn't get close enough to the plains for the others.”
“Shit,” Glory cursed. It was silly, but she'd had some vague idea that the demons might have forgotten about her guild in the decades since her grandmother's conflict that established Vane/Gloria's.
“Listen, Glory. You should know: that thing had a wild amount of mana. I'm not sure exactly how, but it kept up with me all morning, and I didn't see it using potions to top itself up.”
Glory bit her lip. That was consistent with the stories her Mom had told her about the spectres.
Vai nodded when he saw the look in her eyes. He'd been a Scout working in the area for nearly ten years now. He didn't always report to Vane/Gloria's, but he'd overseen enough contracts to have met Miribeth, Glory's mother, several times before she passed the torch.
Being a guild leader hadn't suited Miribeth well. She loved solving logistical problems –heading the day to day operations of the building's amenities was the work that carried her through the day. However, she wasn't a soldier-made-captain like her own mother, the titular Gloria, had been, and the fear of losing friends to missions she'd assigned pushed her to keep the mercenaries she was meant to serve at arm's length.
Near the end of Miribeth's time as leader, once Glory starting training in earnest to take the place over, she got somewhat paranoid. Fearful that a demon invasion was just around the corner, and taking some of the stories going around the bar a bit too close to heart.
At the time, a rash of stories about 'spectres' started floating around: not named as such yet, though that was the word that the community eventually agreed on to label the demons that fit a certain description. They were tall, somewhat closer to an elf in features, but still having that full body of jet black skin and a grab-bag of other infernal traits; they commanded groups of imps and other, usually smaller, demons; and they were capable of great feats of magic without having to pause to recover mana. Other details varied and were usually embellishment.
In the end, it looked like Miribeth's fears might not have been unfounded.
Gloria sighed. “I need to make this call to the Office. Your food and drinks are on me tonight.”
Vai poured himself a glass from the bottle on the table, and Glory pushed the rest of the bottle towards him before he turned to walk away. Vai grabbed it and raised the bottle in thanks.
“Hey, by the way, keep the spectre to yourself. Told Geon the same thing. I don't mind people knowing about the imp group, but I don't want the stories starting back up unless they make it inevitable.”
“You got it,” Vai said, and left her alone to her business.
Glory dragged herself up and made her way to a locked drawer in the corner of the room. She pulled the key out of her pocket and popped the lock so the drawer could glide out. Inside were a selection of flat stones, each inscribed with two runes. One face of each stone had the same rune inscribed on it. This was the home rune. It wasn't a real rune of power, just a unique identifier that could be used by the machine, a telecomm, next to the drawers. The Vane/Gloria's rune was a rough depiction of the building atop a hill, with a small eye inscribed on the top of her tower; two large swords were shown plunged into the hill – representing the fights to take the location and erect the guild building and the fights to defend it once it was completed.
The rune on the other side of the stone was different for each stone. They told the telecomm the destination of the spell, at which point the machine at the destination would light up with her home rune. When someone at the destination placed their rune on the device, they could see a projection of whoever activated the stone on the other side. She selected a stone marked with an intricate golden crown, infused it with mana through her Telekinesis rune, and placed it on the device.
It hummed to life, and a ray of light extended up from the floor next to the telecomm. It gently glowed brighter, then slowly dimmed , repeating as the machine waited for someone on the other side to pick up. It usually took a few minutes for aides to notice the call and get the machine set up. Glory eyed the pitcher on the table, feeling silly that she hadn't brought her own cup, then hefted the whole thing to take a careful sip from the spout.
“That is a mighty thirst.”
Glory nearly spat, then she choked on the effort of not-spitting. She managed not to dribble everything down her face as she coughed water from her lungs, then swallowed and faced the image next to the telecomm, her face flushing.
An older man stood there, wearing the uniform of an Official, pressed and stately coat sporting thin tasseled shoulder pads, and the chest gleaming with a small collection of badges and honors. He grinned at her, finding some small humor in her surprise.
“Did- Were you just standing there holding my stone, Durna?” Glory asked, trying not too let too much incredulity bleed into her voice, and failing.
The man chuckled, then shook his head. “No, no, Glory. We moved things around. With the military changing focus, we reorganized the War Wing's communication center so that the guild stones are closer to hand. I imagine we'll be in touch more often in the coming months and years. I was already here making a few calls.” He shook his head and waved the small talk away. “Anyway, what have you got for me?”
Glory cleared her throat. “I have a mission report. A small camp a day away from here had a large influx of imps, way out of the range of normal growth. With them was a tall, more sentient demon that matches descriptions of the 'spectres' from years ago.”
Durna was quiet for a moment. “So soon.” Then, glaring at Glory with keen interest, he said: “Give me a full report.”
Nearly an hour later, once the telecomm was disconnected and Glory was alone, she sat on the sofa chair, thinking.
Inspectors in two days, spectre nearby, imps getting bolder. I already want even more guard shifts, and more patrols, too. But with that much extra payout, the Office might look sideways at how we're conducting ourselves.
No, I can justify it. And if they object, I'll show Mom my receipts and sic her on the Office.
Visualizing the scene to distract herself, she headed out to the lobby, finding it empty with most of the lights out. Villara must have taken over and shut things down when they usually would. She smiled at the empty lobby, listening to the faint hum of conversation happening on the other side of the wall by her shadowed booth. The tavern stayed open a bit later than the lobby, and it had a side entrance that they used after hours to keep the night crowd away from the unattended shops.
Glory did her own rounds, making sure all her cabinets and files were locked up, then headed to the front door to head home down the street from here.
But she stopped before opening the door. Maybe...maybe I could use a little more distraction.
She entered the tavern to rollicking cheer, and spent an hour saying goodnight to Aron and the remaining patrons before heading home.