Chapter 39: The Weight of the Guild

Subject: Mille Location: Maliscade - Blightbane Guild

It was well into the morning, and Mille was just beginning her first shift of the day in the Maliscade Blightbane Guild headquarters.

On a recent business trip to the border she absorbed unexpected information, and it was delaying her usual work in the local headquarters substantially.

On top of that, Mille was already angry. Why? The source of her anger was the complication that had been a nuisance ever since he appeared in her best friend’s life.

Pulse… it hasn’t even been a week. I think…

With all that was happening, it was like time had slowed to a crawl. Not enough time to worry about all there was to worry about, but also not enough time to actually do anything about alleviating these concerns.

Mille spotted that very headache approaching the reception desk through the hallway that connected to the residences.

Caim smiled when he sighted Mille, and she remembered why she bothered with him in the first place. He was entirely too nice to abandon.

The suspicious circumstances surrounding Caim’s story, coupled with the fact that he was clearly still keeping things to himself, had attracted her scrutiny.

But his act was perfect. He was trusting enough to make an ally, withholding enough to keep his true business in Shroud a complete secret.

Mille didn’t want this Seeker Initiate to die, but Caim had yet to reveal whatever magic he was hiding.

Mille would continue to protect Caim’s secret and his life. For now.

“Good morning, Mille,” Caim greeted.

And his mannerisms… Who taught him a gesture like that?

The frail human looked weary, like he was legitimately doing his best to adapt to the seeker life.

Mille felt her conduits tingle, nearly betraying a glimpse of the emotional turmoil within.

Worrying that a seeker was going to get themselves or others killed was normal for someone in her position. Fearing a potential diplomatic incident also came with the territory, especially where government oversight was concerned.

But Mille didn’t even know where this lay on that spectrum.

Not here.

It wasn’t acceptable to be anything but professional here. Especially now, with rumors of at least three visiting Hexaline Knights passing through the city.

If it was easy enough to pick up on rumors like that after being back for less than a day, it couldn’t be brushed off as harmless talk.

Caim yawned, apparently still adjusting to the morning after waking up.

“Blessed morning,” she answered back.

With effort, Mille inflected her voice. She was adopting a more human, more acceptable, vocal registry. Studying Caim’s face, she was satisfied with her own performance based on his relaxed demeanor.

This was what it meant to be faron in a human world. Normally, she would be accustomed to the necessary strain of physiological micromanagement. Carefully shunting emotion into her voice was exhausting.

Mille wasn’t going to go all out here in public, but she wouldn’t be overstepping her duties if she scolded a reckless seeker a little.

She looked down at the Infoboard console on the desk and pulled up Caim’s registry data.

“I see in the records that... Hold on. You completed three contracts? That’s two more than you were supposed to do before reporting back to me. Did you not get my message?”

Or do I have to scold a colleague?

Caim looked like a child who’d been caught in an ill-conceived deception. His gaze swept the aisle of the reception area. Then, too tired to ignore the question, he settled down and confessed.

“Yes. I finished a little more than I meant to. I did get your message, and I did try to sleep. Please understand, I wasn’t trying to go against your judgement. I know more now. I’m still being careful, but I know how to-”

Caim pleaded with his eyes for her forgiveness. It wasn’t going to work.

“Young man. Reckless seekers do not advance past Initiate. Do you know why?” she asked rhetorically. “It was risky enough for you to attempt a second, even if you thought the first was a breeze. But a third? Sun-spun madness.”

Caim still looked apologetic, but Mille could tell he was thinking about something else in the back of his mind. She didn’t know what it was, and she certainly couldn’t pry it out here in such a public place.

It wasn’t that faron were naturally more honest than humans, despite their differing physiology. In entirely faron places of the world, wherever they were, there were supposedly other practices. Other ways to cultivate dishonesty, using a faron natural talent: magic.

“Wait at one of the far tables for me. Alice will be here shortly for our morning meal, and I’m sure she will want to see you.”

Caim nodded, but his eyes looked distant. Whatever was on his mind was obviously consuming him. He slowly did as he was told.

He looked different, at second glance.

These spell-woven truths, like “subhuman” anatomy, were unacceptable in Shroud. The only life Mille had ever known was one in which she was encouraged to be better than her species.

And that is what Mille did. She did as she had been taught to purify her soul tethers. Prayer, studies, and accepting her place in society as a “subhuman”.

Do I resent it? Is that why I stoop to entertain Alice’s choice of a comrade crush?

No, it was not that. Mille looked at Caim’s physique and realized that his posture was exuding recently-acquired confidence.

Mille had been taken from her birth parents and assigned to a family who had done one too many things to fall out of favor with local leadership.

She didn’t know the precise details, nor did it matter now. Mille had been one of the many fruitful exercises in population purification. Dispersal and integration of subhumans into human-dominated society. Shroud society.

Too young to remember the time before, when scattered populations of cartemi and faron lived largely isolated from humans, Mille could only guess what it was like.

She received a loving family and… No, it wasn’t time to reminisce. She did right by them by keeping her distance.

Mille returned to her duties.

Subject: Mille Location: Maliscade - Blightbane Guild

Periodically, she would glance at Caim’s table off in the distance to make sure he was still there.

So, he really is a powerful mage. Initiate contracts might not be enough of a challenge for him, and that sturdy armor will only make the work all the more insufferably boring.

Being too competent could also be dangerous to a seeker. They would get overconfident and believe nothing the Blight threw at them could harm them. But the Guild set a minimum period of service as a requirement for advancement.

Each seeker should be given the time to learn just how much they had to fear.

What if he gets fed up with the waiting. Faced with contracts far beneath his talents, he might decide to wander into the core layer of a festerfont after finishing a cull too soon. What if… what if he decides to journey into an Umbra class festerfont?! Thank the Channeler we don’t have any Nihil class around Maliscade.

Initiates also needed to complete a minimum number of contracts before they could apply for advancement. This was linked to the time requirement, the rule that mattered.

I can’t request an exception be made for him on the simultaneous contract limit for Initiates. Not only is he not important enough to warrant such treatment, but it would also draw attention.

It took time before a seeker could gain an implicit understanding of the Blight. The phenomenon was described using words related to “infection”, “disease”, and “spoiling” for a reason. Blight itself was a malignant, growing illness, but new seekers only saw the hollow blightbeasts they faced.

Mille remembered hearing a teacher once say that “evil without substance wasn’t evil at all.” A nonsense statement, in her opinion, but somehow relevant.

Mille looked back at Caim and caught him, rubbing his head in what seemed like frustration. Was he annoyed by her request to wait? No, that couldn’t be it. He’d have said something. The foolish Initiate was too blunt for his own good.

The first batch of completed contracts came in, but Mille only briefly scanned the rough Guild-manufactured paper for clerical errors. Normally, she might have done some preliminary sorting and assessed the progress of certain “problem seekers”.

Off by his lonesome, Caim was slumped over in his seat, taking a lot longer to fully wake up than expected.

Catching up on sleep, no doubt. He doesn’t know the needs of his own body.

“Please bring me a copy of any contracts completed by the seekers on my short list,” Mille asked a colleague.

A clerk who’d been silently waiting to catch her notice nervously shuffled closer. He placed a paper down in front of Mille.

“I’m sorry. I didn’t want to disturb you, but I thought you’d want to stay informed,” he said softly, in a deep voice.

It was Karl, the junior clerk she put in charge of keeping tabs on Caim. What was this about?

“This…” Mille began to respond, but she soon found it difficult to form the words.

This was unexpected information, yet entirely believable.

“I told him what you told me to say, and I was respectful,” Karl explained. “I wrote down everything I observed, but my handwriting is probably difficult to read. I can summarize for you if you’d like.”

“No need. You’ve done well. I wouldn’t have found out about this for a day at the least. You write well for a new hire. I’m referring to your sentence structure. What was your former profession again?”

The tall well-muscled man’s brown eyes gleamed in the light of her mild praise. His gentle face somewhat clashed with his build, but only at first glance.

Karl nervously straightened his uniform and adjusted his posture.

“I was a travelling merchant’s assistant, ma’am.”

You’d need a hardy body to travel for a living. It checked out.

“That explains why you were promoted so quickly. I imagine literacy among merchants is a notch higher overall. With a job like that, I’m surprised you applied to the Guild rather than joining a mercenary company. They need scribes too. Isn’t that the usual path?” she asked, mostly making conversation while she worked through how to discuss his report.

Karl’s expression hardened, and he acknowledged her logic respectfully. His reaction piqued Mille’s curiosity.

“My longtime friend and employer died on the job. As you can probably tell, I’m just old enough to find it difficult to find work as an assistant. I’m not skilled or wealthy enough to work for myself.” Karl swallowed and lowered his voice. “Lacking in bravery, too…”

Mille tapped the paper in front of her with the back of her hand, deep in thought.

“Your observational reasoning is… Hmm, let me just reread… Yeah, it’s exceptional. Our seekers could aspire to have half your situational awareness. But why go into this much detail? I didn’t ask you for this. Do you expect something in return? Unless it is a favor that benefits the Guild, I don’t even have time to consider it right now.”

She was polite, but direct.

This was Mille’s standard process for determining how much she could trust information. First, you assessed the source.

“I want to help the bright beacon of the Administration Division,” Karl replied meekly. “But I only wanted to lessen your burden, not interfere. I’ll take my leave,”

He straightened both arms and pressed them tightly by his side, nodding in an informal gesture of respect. Then he turned and took the first step.

Mille watched Karl’s inconsistent pace, as if he wanted to keep talking but knew he should be wasting time. She disagreed. It wasn’t a waste of time. A distraction right now was actually helpful, and he’d already enlightened her a great deal.

She stood up and passed off her chair to another clerk, signaling the start of a brief break. Just a short conversation. Socializing was important for many reasons.

“I’m not the icon you think I am,” Mille addressed Karl, reeling him back. “You’ve heard one to many rumors. But, because you respect me so much, could I take advantage of that and ask an insensitive question?” she inquired.

“By all means,” he quickly answered.

She signaled for him to follow her over to the back wall of the public section. He followed until they were leaning against the section of wall beside the hallway to the restricted section.

The conversation wasn’t going to take too long, so they didn’t need to go far.

Karl’s expectant gaze was a tad confusing, but it wasn’t important.

Mille leaned closer and lowered her voice. She wanted to keep this conversation between the two of them. Her colleague’s face reddened so she respectfully leaned back to give him space.

That’s right, we don’t really know each other very well. I need to change that.

“Thank you for agreeing to talk. When you shared your past with me, you didn’t say why you chose the Guild. Was your friend killed by a blightbeast?”

Seeker’s were peculiar individuals, risking their lives against the Blight. However, the employees of the Guild were arguably more invested, taking difficult jobs for low pay and little individual recognition. That passion had to come from somewhere.

While Karl was initially timid about continuing the conversation, his face grew solemn and his anxiety very visibly dissipated.

“No. We’d cut through the outskirts layers of festerfonts before, but any decent merchant knows not to mess with the Blight if it can be avoided. And it wasn’t a new, unmapped festerfont or anything. We made it out of blightbeast territory on that particular journey and into another kind of nest.”

Oh. So it was like that.

The wilderness beyond the borders of the festerfonts had their own dangers. Sometimes the Guild would neglect the severity of these concerns, as they did not directly pertain to the Blight.

“Mercenaries hunt wilderness beasts, and they are always hiring if you are willing to sweat. You didn’t want revenge? Were you afraid? Please only answer if you are comfortable.”

Mille didn’t notice just how much she was prying into Karl’s past until the words were already out of her mouth. She prepared an apology in her head.

But Karl just hastily shook his head side-to-side.

“I’d answer anything you asked of me. Any-” he paused, a hand to his mouth before going on. “I was horrified. I won’t forget what those creatures did to our mercenary guards. They sacrificed themselves so we could get away, and we fled until we were picked up by a patrol.”

“A domain patrol?”

“Not knights, ma’am. Mercenaries.”

He paused at this part of the story, probably staring more deeply into the past that he intended to when giving Mille his report.

“Though they were a pain to rely on, you can expect the knights to act in predictable ways. If they hassle you, you give in and they usually let you be after gifting you with a fine.”

“But that isn’t how it happened…”

“No… it wasn’t.”

Mille felt pangs of guilt. She had used Karl to distract herself from her own problems and forced him to relive his problematic past.

“I’m sorry for asking these things. There was a reason, if you’d be willing to hear it.”

Karl nodded, leaning back against the wall and staring up at the lanterns affixed to the pillar in the center of the public section.

“I wanted to get to know you, and hear your reason for joining the Guild after what you went through,” she explained. “I hadn’t had a casual conversation with you before now. We should talk about something a little more cheerful next time.”

Mille didn’t risk attempting to put on a gentle smile, the kind a human might be able to do with ease.

Karl looked surprised. Rather than being frustrated with her prying, he looked grateful. Humans were easy to read.

On the surface, at least.

“Next time?”

“Yes, next time. Maybe over lunch or something when we share a shift?”

“I never told you why I joined the Guild, though.”

“You’ve shared more than enough. You don’t need to.”

“I want to,” he stated, determined to give MIlle the information she wanted. “The Guild fights for everyone, not one single group, city, or nation. At least not the Guild in Maliscade that I know. Also, people have enough to deal with without throwing the Blight into the mix. I wanted to help remove one problem in people’s lives. In this way, I feel like I’m indirectly making life easier for any other merchants travelling out there,” Karl explained with a sheepish grin. “Maybe not… it’s a stupid thought. All I know is that we should be working together, not tearing each other apart.”

Karl didn’t let Mille respond yet. It looked like he hadn’t quite gotten out what he wanted to say.

“I’m not an idiot, I know there are selfish reasons for many of the things we do. I don’t really think that’s a bad thing, if it means being the one force in this world people can believe in. We aren’t there yet, but we can get there. I was a merchant, and it’s plain to see there is more coin to make in a prosperous world than a ruined one. That means other people can be made into supporters too. Even if they don’t think this is their fight, even if they are so far removed from the Blight to care right now.”

Mille was speechless. Part of his explanation was dangerously close to her own reason for devoting her life to the Guild. It wasn’t only his words that resonated, but the emphasis he put in them.

“You are like me,” she mumbled. “Something about cities close to the Barrier teaches us a thing or two about perspective, maybe.”

Karl was still a little too naive, but maybe it only seemed that way on the surface.

There was another story buried somewhere, but she was done prying. This talk had really helped her move forward with her own problems. Socializing had its advantages, though he was no substitute for Alice.

“I’m… what?”

“Don’t worry about it. Just keep up with your duties and hone your observation skills. Duties first, personal growth second,” she lectured. “Force yourself to do the first well enough and the second comes with time anyway.”

She dismissed Karl, who performed an emphatic salute before walking away. As Mille was walking back to her desk to retrieve Karl’s report, she saw Alice enter through the Guild’s front door.

Normally, Mille would have been waiting for Alice to arrive, at which point she would go on break. As she walked to meet Alice, Alice happened to see Caim sitting off by the window first, and she immediately ran to greet him.

Caim was looking at his hands. He clenched them and then adopted a normal sitting position, hands down by his side. The strange boy’s back was straighter, and he looked more confident now.

Just what is going on inside that head of his? Mille thought, folding up Karl’s report into the vest pocket of her uniform.

This paper contained everything Karl had witnessed Caim doing while Mille had been away, from the diligent clerk’s first hand accounts to scattered reports from other on-duty Guild personnel.

It was all here, carefully categorized by time and information source. Karl saw, perhaps after learning of Mille’s initial interest, had obviously seen something strange in Caim.

He put emphasis on the fact that he spoke to no one about his unofficial assignment and made an effort to remain inconspicuous. Karl was a sly one, but Mille believed that her would-be confidant was trustworthy and harmless.

This was her initial assessment. Hopefully, it would not turn out to be wrong.

Nothing in the report was particularly damning, but Caim was going to need to explain himself in a moment. The only question was how to pry the information out of him.