*Woooooo*

The cold night wind howls outside the window, causing it to vibrate loudly. Diane has been having some difficulty going to sleep, her mind alight with questions and all kinds of thoughts. She had been thinking about her day incessantly, and telling the tale twice now just filled her mind with more questions.

Just how did everything work out so well? She rolls over in the bed, and opens one eye to look at Thistleman, sprawled out on the floor again. She squints a little, but she can’t tell in the dark of the night.

“Hey, Thistle, you awake?”

She whispered as quietly as she could, and honestly didn’t expect a response. Which is why she was a little surprised when Thistleman whispered right back “Always. Whatsup?”

He rolled over a little, so his torso and face were facing the bed, before curling up in to a ball. He didn’t even bother to open his eyes.

“Well, I…. uh… about today, did any of it… seem weird to you?”

“Hmmm, well that Haraldr guy sure seemed pretty happy getting all torn up. And the counter guy thought the moon was made of cheese. Why do you ask?”

Thistleman mumbled through his response.

“Well… I just… I thought you shouldn’t think anything was weird and just get back to sleep. You’re keeping me up!”

Diane turns back over in a huff. She realized she didn’t have the confidence to ask what she really wanted to know.

Meanwhile, Thistleman opened his eyes and looked at her in confusion. What the hell is she on about? I’m keeping her up?!? I mean, if anything was weird, it’s definitely her right now! Well, she told me to sleep, so I guess I’ll just do that then. Thus, the night passed, with Diane finally catching a few hours of sleep after getting over her embarrassment.

………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

Diane jumps up with a start. The dim light of the day is peeking through her window, as the cloud cover is back in full force today.

“Eh? Ehh?? How late is it? Thistle, Thistle! Get up! I think we missed breakfast!”

Diane is going on an irate tirade. “This is all your fault for keeping me up! What will I do if we don’t get breakfast? What will I eat? Can I go on another quest while hungry? You better have a good answer for me!”

“Well, how do you know we missed breakfast?”

“Because I can’t smell it! Plus, look how late it is! Ryme said that breakfast is at sunrise and it is well past sunrise!”

“You know, they kept a plate of dinner for us last night. Maybe they kept a plate of breakfast this morning too…”

“But… but… we don’t know they did that! What if they didn’t?”

Thistleman was getting a little flustered. He had no idea how to handle this situation. Hunger was rarely a problem for Daemons, and even then, only the weakest suffered from it as the strong always found a way of eating. Not to mention their ability to consume nearly anything organic with impunity. Even more insidious, the really strong could just thrive off of absorbing the mana in the environment or sponging off the life force of others, skipping eating altogether.

So… how is he supposed to calm down an irate hungry girl who is terrified of missing breakfast? He… has absolutely no clue, and is about to suffer the terrible consequences.

“Well, the only way to find out is to go down and check!”

“Then what do I do if they have nothing?”

“Well… I don’t know, eat some moss or something! There is a lot of the growing around here!”

…

…

…

“YOU IDIOT!”

*DIANE CHOP*

Unfortunately for Thistleman, being a high class noble meant Diane had never had to deal with problems like figuring out breakfast or keeping to a schedule. Others had always done that for her, and when a role was missing, she would “adopt” someone to fill it. Her family, despite hating her for existing, had an image to keep and so they at the very least made sure to grudgingly cover these expenses. Now, a lot of these other responsibilities are starting to fall on him, who had also never once worried about these problems in his life before. Now, as she unleashed a slew of new orders in her self-righteous fury, Thistleman was almost regretting stopping her from getting eaten. Almost.

………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

The morning had been a particularly busy one. Word was getting around from the other patrons about Diane’s story, and the Jotuun had a niece and nephew who were in town. A lot of the locals were curious and wanted to meet them, and so Ryme found herself cooking nonstop almost all morning, and Jotuun had a lot of cleanup to do around the tables. Thank-heavens he hates talking too much, any other person would get overwhelmed by the amount of guests here today!

Before she ran out of food, she managed to stash a plate for the kids. Other than all the questions she was getting about Diane, there was a lot of tension that still seeped its way into the conversations.

“I hear things are getting really heated amongst the nobles. Did you know Duke Vermillion and Count Horatio are preparing for war with each other?!”

“What? How did that happen??”

“I heard he assassinated the counts son.”

“That’s outrageous! Why would he do something like that??”

“I dunno, noble minds are just different, I guess?”

“Woof, is that so? I heard he was aiming to kill his daughter and missed!”

“Nyah, his daughter? I heard it was her lover!”

“Hah! Neither of you are right! It is certainly the Duke Projecting a man’s strength! Killing his son is a truly bold and time-honored way to declare war!”

“Time-honored for who?? We aren’t Orcs, that’s not how things work here!”

“Kyahahahaha! Then wrestle me, the winner will be who is right!”

“That doesn’t matter, from what I heard it is even worse than that! My cousin is a squire to a knight back in the capital. Apparently, the King’s brothers are using this fight to push their children’s claim on the inheritance.”

“What? How could the king allow this! What about his children?”

“Do you live under a rock? This is only a problem in the first place because he has no kids.”

“Well, I for one have no interest in feuds. Njord has always followed the rightful king of Luthas. If there is no heir, when the King dies we will have no liege.”

“Shhhh, you shouldn’t say things like that!”

“Why not speak his mind? We are among brothers here!”

“WOOOOAH! The Canian and Orc are going at it! Who will win the arm wrestling contest?!”

The bustling activity kept Ryme from hearing Diane’s tirade to Thistleman. However, when she saw Diane appear at the top of stairs, walking down apprehensively, she waved energetically and called out

“Dearie, I saved you a plate! It’s the last one for the morning!”

She wasn’t sure if she said something wrong… but Diane stopped in her tracks, her face turning bright red. Then she saw a really despondent boy walk down next to her. When he looked her in the eye, she just got even redder.

What is wrong with kids these days?!? I just saved some breakfast for them…

………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

Elsie was having a very odd day so far. First, when she came in the morning, Mr. Franz was behaving stranger than usual, and seemed mostly out of sorts? She couldn’t quite pin what was wrong, and he didn’t elaborate much other than shoving a small pile of papers into her furry mitts before wandering out the door, whistling to himself!

Then, as she sorted through the stack of papers, not only did she see that most of Randall’s crew died yesterday, which was an absolute disaster, but that Diane had managed to save their last member, completed the gathering request, and kill some nasty monsters? What the heck was up with this report? Was Mr. Franz finally losing all his marbles?

Then… one of the guilds office assistants came in and delivered her the weirdest note yet.

“Here you go Elsie, an internal announcement straight from the top. For guild staff only.”

“Nyah? What kyind of thing would…”

The soulless office drone had already turned around and started making his way back to his cubicle. There are some things that never change, and the nature of running a guild that handles a myriad of complex issues naturally generates an incredible amount of paperwork. For some reason, it always attracts crazy people claiming to be ‘reborn’, mainly due to the ‘familiarity’ of the job. Especially in Njord. The Branch and Assistant manager had the strangest of hiring practices. Worst of all, the Branch Manager loved to claim that they were qualified due to their ‘past experience.’ If the rest of the Kingdom was as accepting as Njord, and kept Demihumans as anything other than slaves, she would have already requested a transfer.

With a sigh, she closed an eye and glanced down at the bulletin. What kind of crazy announceme… both her eyes opened wide.

Diane Culaine has been promoted, with the official rank of Copper (S)! She is hereby allowed to take quests, ignoring the usual rank restrictions, effective immediately. Elsie is hereby instructed to provide the guilds sincerest congratulations to Miss Diane at her soonest convenience, and to ensure all appropriate protocols are followed to prevent the excessive spread of this information, for Diane’s privacy and convenience. Naturally.

Our sincerest congratulations on your new role, Elsie!

Asst. Manager: Eric von Straught

Branch Manager: Baal

Before she even has time to finish processing this information, the guild door is flung open. Huffing in the entrance is a small girl wearing a purple and gold hemmed dress, starting to fill with patch and sew marks, and most impatient at the late start to her day.

“ELSIE! I’m here for a new quest!”

Behind her, that peasant porter of hers smiles and waves.

“Nyah?!?!”

………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

The cloud of Miasma that was hanging around Brownrock Mountain was slowly condensing. In the thickest part of the cloud, a hand began to form, before reaching out and grabbing on to a nearby boulder. A shadowy body was slowly starting to materialize.

*Who… am I? What… is my purpose? Why do I feel so… lost? Aimless?*