Stepping off the boat, Wade took in a deep breath. Last time aside, she always loved coming home to Lyra. It wasn’t the greatest city in the world. It wasn’t the biggest or wealthiest. It didn’t have the nicest architecture, or the nicest people even.
But damn it if this wasn’t her home. What else really mattered in the face of that?
Wade looked to her right as she felt the noises of the world quiet and become muffled. The crashing waves beneath the gang plank became distant and far away sounds, the wind calmed, and the cries of the dock workers and sailors were faint echoes.
The wind user that had so expertly sped them along walked haggardly past her, like he was struggling just to stay awake on his feet.
He stood a head shorter than Wade herself, which meant he was a tall man indeed. His tanned skin and dark wavy hair contrasted sharply with a single large splash of snow-white skin on his left cheek, and of course, with the pale ivory horns that rose from his forehead and swooped back to follow closely along his skull. She’d only met a handful of the horned folks and could understand why some people found them off putting. Although firmly shorter than herself, he felt much taller simply due to the natural head adornment adding hardly more than a couple inches. But truthfully, Wade didn’t much care about things like that. There were many who followed Sampson with goals of supremacy and all that, but not Wade. Power was power, and this man was obviously a powerhouse of a 1-Star.
Wade didn’t blame the man at all for being exhausted, frankly astonished he was able to so much as lift an arm after what he had done. She knew of channeling abilities of course. Relatively low effort spells that could be used for however long you could maintain their casting conditions. They grew more difficult to maintain as time went on, however. Wade had several friends who also subscribed to the path of war with berserker abilities. These increased their strength and endurance by orders of magnitude for however long the abilities were channeled, but at 1-Star, that usually meant at most half an hour, maybe a little more if they were more skilled with it.
This man had controlled the winds themselves for well over seven hours.
Like how she had grown to respect the spatial user for her tenacity and dauntless attitude towards a much more powerful foe, and grown to admire her for overcoming the foe, she too had a deep and profound respect for this wind user. She cared little about national origins or racial differences. Power was power.
This man was powerful, even if he was still a 1-Star.
Deciding that she couldn’t let this moment pass her by, she walked up to the man and said “I’m Wade, Warrior… and… “but she had to trail off.
Her own voice, too, had begun to sound distorted and wrong. Much deeper than normal and indistinct, like she was trying to speak underwater.
The man looked at her, and made an odd series of hand gestures, then waited for several moments. A slight frown wrinkled his face, and he seemed to let out a sigh, before continuing onwards, down the rest of the gangplank and towards the import office.
As he walked, sound gradually bled back into the world, before snapping back into place all at once when the man had moved far enough away.
“Never met one of them before, have you?”
Disoriented, Wade looked back to see Alder suppressing a laugh.
“No, as a matter of fact I haven’t. I knew wind users didn’t like to talk, and had a thing about sound in general, but that was… wrong. What was he doing with his hands?”
“Asking if you understood what he was saying” Alder laughed.
“I don’t understand.”
“They don’t use their voices to speak, they use their hands. Remember they have a thing about sounds.”
“But he played music literally all night long?”
“Yes, they have a weird thing about sound.”
“Alright, yeah, I can see why people don’t like those horned weirdos much.”
“Come on Wade” Alder said, chuckling all the while “Let's go check in at the guild and see if we can’t get started today.
Refocusing in an instant, all thoughts of the wind user left her mind as Wade excitedly led the way towards the city walls for the second time in a week, returning home.
She could see off in the distance the city lord's manor atop the hill overlooking the entire city. Its white walls like a beacon, gleaming in the morning light.
As soon as they passed through the massive gates and arched tunnel into the city, they noticed the early rush of people beginning their days. Several had already been there for hours, as was obvious from the numerous stalls and store fronts calling out their wares for the passing customers. Stopping for a moment to buy a small container of deep-fried dough balls, Wade paid the man behind the counter, tipping him twice the cost of the food itself. He almost cried as he thanked her profusely, but she just nodded and shook his hand before she walked away.
As they walked, not taking the public transit in unspoken agreement, Alder asked “I remember you saying you’re a local to the area, does that mean you have any family in the area?”
Wade, who’d been smiling happily while eating the nostalgia inducing snacks, looked down at him, eyes thinning slightly.
“Yes.” She took on a contemplative air then, not quite sad, not quite happy.
Clearly picking up on the body language, but just as clearly full of curiosity, Alder pressed on “Will we go and visit home then? We should have some free time between contracts.”
Wade now turned her steely eyes back to the rapidly diminishing tray of golden fried goodness. “It would be best to let sleeping dogs lie, I think.”
Alder wasn’t an idiot, at least Wade hadn’t thought him to be one. It seemed to her she was being rather straightforward in her refutation of his questions. But for some reason, he was acting like an idiot. At least Wade thought so.
“C’mon Wade, I’d love to meet the family! How about we take a contact, and stop home for lunch before heading out?”
Very slowly and deliberately placing the final fried snack into her mouth, and taking her time with each and every bite, she felt him finally begin to grow uneasy next to her. Then leaning against the railing of the bridge they were on, she threw the small tray into stream below and paused to watch it dissolve, she said in a low voice imbued with her aura to give it that blunt force trauma effect she was after.
“Alder… We’ll wait to see my family until I say, yes?”
She watched from the corner of her eye as his eyes grew just a bit wider, before he finally said “Yeah… Yeah alright Wade…” He had a significant pause, before finishing by saying “At some point, we should probably talk about-”
“No. Thank you, but no.” Wade pushed away from the railing and continued walking, Alder lingering for a moment longer before following. “You’ll understand when we do eventually meet them, but not just now. For now, we have a job to do.”
The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.
The people parting around them like a river around stones, the chatter of the crowds, and the calls of vendors were the only sounds that accompanied the rest of their journey to the guild hall. The silence around them wasn’t uncomfortable, at least not to Wade, but rather just contemplative. They were each left to their own thoughts until pushing open the grand double doors, they found themselves in the guild hall, amidst a flurry of hectic activity.
Scribes ran this way and that, papers fluttering like birds shuffled past overhead, and the sand in the enormous hourglass could hardly be heard for all the shouting and yelling echoing around. The guild master himself stood behind one of the windows, talking animatedly with a clerk who looked to be shrinking back with each and every word said by the man. Shrinking, and yet no less determined to give the information he evidently didn’t want to hear.
Side stepping the line altogether, Alder and Wade made their way to the man, having previously met and talked with him, they were at least acquainted. Besides, in a town like this, a 2-Star earth user straight from Loterre afforded some privileges.
Wade had been aware of the guild master for many years now, although always in the back of her mind. He had started his tenure here some four years prior, before she’d even gotten her class.
In that time, he’d heard mostly good things about him, he had a genuine personality, working diligently to ensure tasks were handled well and was doing his best to root out any talk of corruption. He seemed for all the world a diligent and earnest man.
She also knew, both from reputation and simply by looking at him, that he was an immigrant. Loterrens were not only elven, but also had an olive skin tone. This man had skin like milk chocolate, with black hair tied in braids trailing down the nape of his neck. His attire, too, was mostly black, however the crimson accents along both his coat and pants served to accentuate and highlight his matching crimson eyes. She knew life couldn’t have been the easiest thing in the world for a young immigrant, especially some decades past, but clearly he’d done well for himself to make it so far as to head a guild branch. An out of the way one like Lyra, yes, but a guildhall nonetheless.
However, looking at him now, losing his patience with a 1-Star clerk, Wade thought that either his reputation was overstated, or something major must have happened indeed.
Looking over as Alder approached, he silenced the clerk with a sharp gesture of his hands, and then smiled at the pair “Aldrin, and Wade I believe it was, excellent to see you back in our city. Are you here because of all this?” He asked, gesturing to the chaos around him.
“We weren’t given many details before we arrived.” Alder said quickly, “Why don’t you catch us up to speed. What have you done so far?”
Wade gave him a sharp look, just for a moment and just barely noticeable, before turning back to stare into the pair of blazing eyes. She wouldn’t be the one to give Alder away, but in that single response to the man, he’d just done quite a bit.
Taking a deep sigh, the guild master said “Well, as you may know as it was your unit that discovered her, we were the first branch worldwide to induct a new spatial user. There have been several more since then, and as well as several time users too. None in this city, thankfully, but that’s only the start.”
Alder’s mouth worked for several moments, like he was trying to speak but not a breath came out.
Cracking a weary smile, the guild master said “Exactly. It hasn’t been as noticeable, being that they aren’t tracked nearly as heavily, but there have also been spontaneous class rituals happening throughout the world producing new users of every type. Here in the city, even, there have been two water’s, a fire, and a war user that have no records of any kind attached to them. Not to mention the spatial user a few days ago.”
Wade was feeling an absolute torrent of mixed emotions as she listened, but at this, she had to break in “Spontaneous class rituals? What does that even mean?” knowing perfectly well what it meant. She had witnessed one, possibly the first one.
“Well, we don’t really understand it.” Said the guild master “There seems to be a sudden portion of the population that can simply choose a class. No items or rituals required. Again, several of them weren’t noted initially as they chose the more common classes, but that damn spatial user started the ball rolling. And here of all places…” He trailed off, dragging his hands down his face.
Alder got a far off look in his eyes, before losing several shades of color on his face. “We aren’t the only ones coming, are we?”
“No, not by a long shot” he replied with a dry humorless laugh. “Nearly every nation is sending an envoy here to investigate and see what’s happening under the assumption that it all started here. The pressure has alleviated somewhat as more of these spontaneous class users have popped up around the world, but still.”
Alder took all of this in, and Wade could have sworn she was watching the gears turning in his mind as he contemplated what to do next and say next.
Finally, as the silence began to stretch longer, Wade turned to study the young clerk who’d been sitting on the side absorbing every aspect of the conversation. She had lighter skin freckles all across her nose. Her brunette hair was layered in bouncy curls that framed her ever observant eyes. Literally, her eyes were glowing so brightly bronze, Wade had no doubt she was using a memory ability to take in every aspect of the moment. That… could be tricky for later on.
“What were you two talking about as we walked up?” Wade asked suddenly, prompting the guild master to pinch the bridge of his nose and once again let out a suffering sigh.
“A couple of things, but neither are really important righ-”
“We were talking about the spatial user that registered here a couple days ago. As well as a theory I came up with last night with…. A friend.” Said the firm voice of the clerk, for some reason choking slightly on the last word.
“Yes, but again neither of those things are really relevant at the moment.” Said the guild master, for some reason trying to steer the conversation away from the topic.
Alder, however, wasn’t picking up on the clear signals. Whether intentionally or not, she once again couldn’t tell, but he went right ahead and remarked “Oh, actually guild master, that’s perfect. We’d like to see the spatial user, talk to her even if we could. We have several things I think she could clear up for us, in fact. Do you know where she is?”
For the third and final time, he let out an irritated sigh, casting a sideways look at the clerk, who at least had the decency to look mildly chagrined. “Well, that’s the heart of it. We don’t fully know. Someone streamlined her admittance into the guild, allowing her to sidestep the normal testing process and become a full member straight away. So, she is currently out on a contract.”
Alder scoffed derisively, also giving the clerk a look, before asking “She’s been a 1-Star for less than a week, what kind of contract did she take? Does she even know how contracts work?”
The guild master spread his hands wide “Excellent question, does she understand how they work? Does she have even the slightest understanding of her abilities or how to use them? Who knows! But we do know she went off to fight a pack of hellhounds on one of the outer farms yesterday.”
Alder winced slightly, “Oof, those could be trouble. Was she with any-”
“Nope. Solo.”
“Have you sent-”
“Sent two 1-Star scouts out to the site of the report early this morning. They should report back in the next few hours.”
Clapping his hands together, Alder seemed to think that he had everything he needed. “Right then, I think we’ll stick around and wait for that report if it’s alright with you, guild master?”
Nodding as well, seeming to reach a similar conclusion about the end of their talk “Perfectly fine. If you miss them when they enter, I’ll send for you to come up to my office when they return.”
Turning to the clerk, he said “We have more to discuss, Magnolia. That was, everything else aside, an egregious breach of protocol. If she ends up dead from this contract, that weight will be on your shoulders.”
Nodding to Wade, and clasping hands with Alder, the guild master placed both hands together in the small of his back and walked purposefully through the ornate doors leading further into the guild hall.
The three of them stood watching him until he was out of sight, then looking at each other, Alder asked “Do either of you know his name? I feel like it's too late to ask without making both of us feel bad about the question, and for the life of me, I can’t remember if I’ve ever heard it.”
Both women looked at each other, and as if an understanding passed between them, started laughing at the same moment.
“Is he always like this?” Asked the clerk, Magnolia.
“Every moment of every day.” Replied Wade.
Wiping a tear from her eye, Magnolia said “Everyone always just calls him guild master. His real name is known by any of us with an identify skill, but we’ve all promised not to say it out loud. Trust me, you wouldn’t believe me even if I told you. While we’re on the subject, I’m Maggie. Please don’t call me Magnolia, or I’ll feel like a grandmother.”
“Pleasure to meet you Maggie, I’m Alder and this is Wade.”
“Alder?” She asked, and Wade noted the glow in her bronze eyes still hadn’t diminished. She was still memorizing everything.
Alder simply waved the question away, “Not important for the moment, I promise to explain fully however if you tell me that theory you came up with.”
Her eyes crinkling like she’d just been given an unexpected and delightful gift, she smiled sweetly and said, “You have yourself a deal!” She led them a bit away from the counter, putting out a sign that read be back soon then produced a few small chairs with the wave of her hand and glow of her ring.
After they all settled themselves, Wade idly undoing her tightly braided hair and redoing it, and listened intently as Maggie began “What do you know about founders?”