Willow, Horizon Guild Expedition

“No, we can’t go in there. Look! You can see the time dilation!” Willow shouted. “It’ll be a month inside, even if we just do a quick survey.”

“That’s great! It means it’ll only be a day or two out here! Maybe minutes in real!” Paxton said, smiling. “How can you resist the call to adventure?”

All 11 members of Horizon crowded around the pulsing gate. It was a hole carved out in the world by the unknown assailant of the labs.

“An opportunity like this doesn’t come very often.” Bart — the green-haired, vine wielding mage from Seattle jumped in — again. He was practically repeating himself. Which only pissed off Willow more. “Why be Awakened if you don’t strive to conquer new worlds? To answer the call of adventure?”

“I’m not an Awakened to — to play games, and go on, what are they to you, adventures?” Willow spat the last word. “I do it to protect people — like you should!”

“Willow…” Rose said. Willow was shouting now. The issue divided the guild 50/50.

Willow sucked in a breath, stepping back.

“We should make more thorough preparations if we’re going to dive this. We have no idea what’s on the other side, other than the fact it cut through all the lab’s security like butter.”

“An Awakened from beyond the gates.” Paxton said, smiling. “We might finally have a good fight ahead of us after all.”

“I don’t think he was Awakened.” Another person replied. “We checked the security footage from the lab we cleared. You know what killed everyone inside? A fucking sword. Free floating. Just hunted and bisected every scientist in it.”

“Or he was a sword summoner! Even more reason for us to go inside and investigate it!” Bart said.

“There’s no such thing as a sword summoner!” Willow yelled. “We’re fucking with things we don’t even understand. No plan, no scouts, 11 people! You’re asking for someone — for one of us to die.”

“No summoner that we know of!” Bart yelled back.

“Okay, can we not have a raging debate over a dead body?” Rose asked. The room calmed for a second, several people looking at the corpse on the floor. “The contract for this place was simple, in and out. We don’t even have rights to a second gate.”

“Let’s take a vote.” Xavier replied. “Everyone’s made their points. Everyone who wants us to blindly dive this gate, unprepared and with no intel, raise your hands.”

Five hands went up.

“And everyone with a brain, raise your hands.” Willow said, raising her own.

6 votes. She had won, for now.

So her guild packed up and left, heading back to the base above ground. If they had decided to go in, she would have followed. Just the same, they all respected the decision, even if Bart rolled his eyes and glared her way now and then. The call of unknown worlds was an allure to everyone — it wasn’t a reason to commit suicide. Each one of them represented assets on the scale of cities, and the upper members of the guild represented the fighting force of a small nation in their own right — something far too important to risk on a stupid adventure.

Willow rolled her eyes, kicking off her shoes to walk through the metal detector.

She was still wearing a full metal breastplate. They were on their way out of the military base where the helicopter had picked them up. She stepped through the metal detector. The alarm still went off, but this time the guard waved her through with a smile.

“You okay?” Rose asked, now that they were finally alone and walking into a parking lot. They drove around to the gate before Willow replied. Rose popped the trunk, and a man walked along, scanning in the windows. A second checked under the car, shining a flashlight.

“It’s just stupid.” Willow said, still upset that her guild members would leap to jump through an unknown gate. “They’re definitely going to try to win the contract, too. The best thing would be to just close the gate.”

The guard waved them forward, and they shot out onto the road, heading back towards Denver.

“It’s not like you have to go.” Rose replied, turning for a second to offer a concerned smile, then looking back at the road.

“But I do. I can’t let the guild go without me.” Willow groaned.

“Sometimes you have to act for your own good.” And hey, if that’s staying home from this dive, then that’s all it is, Wil.”

Willow still grumbled. They pulled around to a facility at the edge of the town — also owned by Willow, though they received a sizable amount of government subsidies — as well as payments from other companies.

Willow’s mood improved the second she stepped out. A huge, domed building dominated the landscape in front of them. The name and logo of the little company she founded stood out above the entrance.

Athena’s Arboretum was a bit of a misnomer; while it had a huge amount of woody plants, there were also living monsters kept inside, bred in captivity. But the regular guests would never get to see those.

She stepped inside, Rose falling behind, humming a tune as she followed along the hallway. The staff she passed inside gave her respectful nods and smiles, but little else in the way of recognition. Passing down the halls, she entered a room full of administrators, halfway through a conversation. The presenter looked up nervously at her.

“Go on.” Willow waved.

“Ah, uh, as I was saying, the plant doesn’t fruit domestically — that is to way, within the gate environment we extracted them from. But, as I was saying, when we increased the water level available to the plant, it started to bear these — “The presenter hit a button, the slide changing to show a bright pink fruit. He droned on about its properties, including a flavor palette — Willow was fond of those. She was the one who taste tested. Being the only high level Awakened on staff, she was pretty much immune if it contained any mundane poisons.

Willow’s armor shifted, changing from the black pig-iron look to a golden sheen. She reached through an opening on her side created from the changing armor, pulling free a cutting of the vine. There was a layer of dark mana clinging to it that popped when Willow freed it. She had gotten pretty good at smuggling illegal plants. Curiously, the plant had already grown a little.

The presentation had stopped, and all eyes were on her.

She raised her eyebrows. “You guys can go on. This can wait.”

“Ah… no. We’re done for the day.” The presenter said, shutting down the screen and turning the room’s lights back on. “So…”

The face of most of the people in the room lit up. Not only were they well paid, they loved their field. This was a room full of nerds.

“I found this plant in my latest expedition. I haven’t seen anything like it.” She said. “Looks a bit like Pothos?”

One employee typed into a conference phone style mic in the center of the room, asking someone to bring in a hydroponic pot. Willow passed the plant off.

“A cutting, then?” The people at the table asked. “Its variegated, but the second coloring is inconsistent. Pollution, maybe? The plant pulled something out of the ground? Off-hand I see blue, red, yellow, purple hues… maybe more, but they’re subtle.”

The plant was handed off, the admin team taking turns inspecting it.

“It was growing in a dark basement on a wall with no light.” Willow shrugged.

“Interesting. Part of the vine is woody and knotted. These bits here… these look almost like mycelium, but it’s clearly not a fungus!” The administrator laughed. The door to the room swung open, someone bringing in a cart that sloshed with water, a rack on the top for planting.

“Okay, you guys have fun.” Willow said. “I only got the one cutting. Don’t kill it. I’m gonna go visit the Owl-bears.”

Willow and rose got in the elevator, heading to the sublevels. Modern lighting systems could make it feel like day inside, and beyond the blast doors, they perfectly emulated an environment for Owl-bears. Hooty’s parents lived down here, among the expansive levels of forest. They disguised huge pillars as massive trees, barked giants holding up the ceiling above.

Willow walked into the forest, picking one of her favorite spots to sit. Rose landed beside her.

“I wish I could stay here forever.” Willow said, wrapping an arm around Rose and leaning against her.

“You could.” Rose said.

Willow snapped back in shock.

“You don’t need the job with Horizon. There’s nothing stopping you anymore — they suspended all the city contracts, which means someone else agreed to take them over. You don’t have to keep forcing yourself anymore — it’s not like the early days. I mean, that was the first time they brought the whole guild together in — years?” Rose asked.

“I can’t.” Willow sighed. “Things are only going to get worse from here.”

“Things will always be bad somewhere.” Rose replied. “You’ve done more good here, just by expanding human knowledge. More than any of the guild members have done on their own in years. You can help without pushing yourself, Willow.”

Rose leaned in this time, wrapping her arms around Willow. She sighed on her shoulder.

Willow frowned.