After waking up Luna stared at the wooden roof above her for a few seconds until she remembered where she was. In a soft bed inside the family compound of, right, she never got the actual family name from Martha. Now that was just rude, Luna was sleeping here in this bed and she did not even know who her hosts were.

Grabbing the least stinking clother from the backpack Luna shrugged into them and opened the door to explore the place. The room she had slept in was definitely built for only that purpose. A bed, a small commode and a chair being the only furniture. Of course there were some necessities like a pitcher with water and chamber pot, but luckily Luna had not felt the need to use the stinky contraption.

The room only had a small window high up the wall and while it did not let much light in, it was enough to see during the day. The hallway Luna found herself in had several similar doors on each side and she assumed they would lead to similar rooms. She turned right, deciding to try and retrace her steps from the previous day. It was still quite in the building, which meant it was either still very early in the morning or city people were long sleeper.

If Luna remembered correctly the building would lead to the central courtyard which they had entered on yesterday and if there was a place to find someone to ask about Martha, it was there. As she approached the door to the outside, one of the last doors on the left opened and a girl roughly 13 years of age stumbled out, apparently half asleep still. She locked the door behind her and turned around, only to squeal in surprise and fall on her backside, when she found Luna standing right behind her.

"I am so sorry, I didn't mean to startle you." Luna said to the girl. Luna had to look quite a bit down, as with her rather unusual height of 172cm for her age, she basically towered over the younger girl. remembering her Skill, she quickly checked the girl's tag.

[Marie]

Apprentice, Human

"Marie, right?. Hi, I am Luna. I just arrived yesterday. Do you know where I might find breakfast around here?" She extended a hand to help the girl up.

Marie looked at Luna quizzically. An identify skill, what class did that girl have to gain access to it? That ability must be so useful. She grabbed the hand, only to be pulled up easily and put on her feet.

“Hi Luna. I am Marie! Nice to meet you. Let me show you the way!” Taking the lead Marie showed Luna the way to the breakfast room. There, a cook and his sullenly looking apprentice were already busy preparing some simple breakfast fare.

The cook already had hot water ready and they both got a big cup of tea to start the day. It was still a few minutes before the breakfast was going to be ready. Marie apparently was not a fan of porridge, but at least they would get some scrambled egg and a slice of bacon with it.

"When did you arrive? I have not seen you here before. Are you new here? Are you working for the trading house? How old are you?" Marie started to rapidly fire one question after the other. Luna suddenly knew how Martha must have felt answering her questions. How quickly the tables had turned.

Taking her time Luna sipped her tea and replied. "Yesterday evening. Yes. No. 16."

Grinning at Marie she waited for the girl to process her answer and got ready for the follow up. "Did you come with a caravan? Who were you with? Why are you here if you don't work for us? You are really big for a girl."

Luna nearly choked on her tea at the last piece. Sure, she was aware that she was rather tall for a girl, but nobody had ever called her 'big' before. "Did you just call me fat?" She teased Marie, it sure was fun to not be on the receiving side of it for once. "Never mind that, I am very happy with how I am built, thank you very much. I came in with Martha and she offered me to stay the night, as I had not arranged for lodgings and it was getting late. Now I get to ask some questions too!"

"Do all apprentices live here, not with their parents? I grew up in a village, a few weeks travel away, so I honestly have no idea how you do things here. Where I come from most kids simply follow in their parents footsteps."

Marie grimaced at the first question. "Some of us live here, not all of us want to go home. I am glad I have a nice place to stay, I have 6 siblings and there is not enough space for all of us. My parents had me test out after my 12th birthday and I scored well on the stats the merchant houses want for their apprentices. Now I am here and happy."

"Oh. So did you pick the class you wanted to train for? Martha told me there are schools in the city, is this one of them?"

Marie nodded enthusiastically. "Yes, this is one of the schools. It isn't really public, more like a private school in which they train people to work for the merchant house. There are so many classes that are needed for everything to run smoothly. I am training towards two different classes related to operating boats on the river. One day I will run boats from here all the way to the great sea. It will be awesome!"

Their breakfast arrived and they both focused on the food. Luna quickly finished, while Marie still had half the food left. "Sorry, I am still used to eating quickly. Daylight is precious on the road. But I have a question, why is nobody else here yet?"

"Oh, that is easy. What day of the week is it?" Marie asked mischievously, raising an eyebrow at Luna.

Luna started to count backwards. Twelve days since Thunder Falls, they had stopped there for another day and 10 days before that she had left Creek Springs. Realization hit Luna. "It is Sunday. Not that I have any time to laze around. But why are you the only one here already?"

"I have extra training today. I signed up for it and the only day we could make it work was Sunday. So here I am. I'd say roughly half the other apprentices are already up and doing minor jobs. Animals need to be looked after and fed on a Sunday too, they will come in later. Which is why I am here early, to avoid the breakfast rush."

Deep in talk, the two girls did not realize that someone had approached them. Only when the voice interrupted them did Luna realize Martha had snuck up on them. "Good morning. When we could not find you in your room, I guessed this was the next best place. Mind if I join you for breakfast?"

Marie's eyes had gone wide as soon as Martha had started talking. "Elder Martha, I..." But before she could rise, she was waved off. "Stay put girl, I am just here for breakfast."

Looking Luna she explained. "Normally I'd be eating somewhere private. But this works just fine. I should have expected you to be up early. I can see from your face you would like to know what is up with that 'Elder' title, correct? Simple, I am part of the family council, which is currently running Fairshield Merchants. But I like to still run a caravan around the kingdom every once in a while, to stay in touch with people you might say." She turned to Marie and asked her, "And who might you be? I think you were not around yet when I left."

Marie stumbled over her first words, but finally managed to introduce herself and explain that she had been here for the last 6 month. After that she quickly excused herself, claiming she had to get to her training.

"So, you are not just some random woman traveling around the kingdom. I thought it weird that Jurgen was supposed to be the leader of the caravan, but you just kept overruling him. Now I know why."

Martha just rolled her eyes. "That boy of mine is as spoiled as witless princeling. As if him being born my son would automatically mean he would get into a position of authority. That last trip basically sunk any chance he ever had for that. But enough about that. You know, I think you have promise and your skills really helped us this trip. If you ever need a job, you can always come to us. I'd gladly hire you for escort duty.”

Luna shook her head. “Right now I have other plans, but I thank you for the offer. I will be grabbing my backpack and head over to the Pathfinder Guild. I need to see if I can find someone to talk to. Would you give my best to Franz and Rich? While we did not talk much, I think they are really nice people, but I do not know if I will see them again.”

“I certainly will. You have no idea how refreshing it is to talk to someone who is not tiptoeing around me all the time.” She confessed to Luna. “I know it would be different had you grown up here, but I will really miss that part of traveling around. I am sorry that I have to leave you so soon again, but I have to take care of business, transcribe the details of our trip into the ledgers. Since I basically ran the caravan, it is also up to me to do that part of the job. I will send someone to meet you at your room, they will know the way to the Pathfinder Guild and make sure that you arrive safely.”

With that Martha finished the last drop of her tea and made for the exit. Nothing left to do Luna quickly followed and made it to her room just in time to see her escort arrive.

[Gerald]

Apprentice, Human

Seeing Luna come his way he asked her. “Are you Luna? I was told to guide a guest to the Pathfinder Guild.”

“Yes, I am Luna.” he told him, unlocking her room, only grabbing the already packed backpack. Outside Gerald was waiting and his demeanor changed once he saw the weapons attached to the backpack with loops and straps. He guided her out of the compound and swiftly led her down several roads, stopping after only a 10 minute walk in front of a metal gate. “This is the Pathfinder Guild. Good luck, if you don’t need me further, I will be going back.”

Luna waved him on, thanking him for the help. She approached the gate to check if it was open. Which it of course wasn’t, that would have been way too easy. Looking through the metal bars of the gate was not helping much either, as there was nobody waiting behind the gate and the view was blocked by rows of hedges, which had not been trimmed for quite a while.

Checking the gate itself again, she found a small brass bell attached to a gate post, with a cord attached to it. Luna dubiously pulled on the cord, making the little bell ring. What exactly that was supposed to do was beyond Luna, the small bell was not loud enough to be heard for more than a few feet.

Pulling on the cord a second time, she started looking around again, checking for another way in. She was about to use her Double Jump to get over the wall next to the gate, when someone approached from the opposing side. “If you are thinking about going over the wall, I would advise against it. You see,you can get in rather easily, but we have guard dogs around and they really do not like people who were not invited in. My name is Peter Rusko, how may I help you?”

Hearing the voice Luna approached the gate again and mustered the strange man. He was wearing a strange outfit in all black and white, from the looks it must have been tailored expertly, from quality materials.

[Peter]

Level 53, Human

“I can see from the way you are looking at me that you have an Identify skill and you are quite new to having it I’d guess, since you are just staring at me openly. Some people would consider that to be rude and I would suggest you train yourself to be more circumspect about it. Now please, what is your business here?”

Luna had never thought about her identifying people as rude, but she was new around here and it might just be a local custom. “I apologize for the rudeness. I was advised by a friend to seek out the Pathfinder Guild. I was told that you were the primary force behind the exploration of this continent and that you, despite the decline in popularity, would be able to help me with a small problem. Might I come in and talk to someone in charge?”

Peter simply waved away her apology. “Do not fret, I do not take offense this lightly. I was only warning you about it. Can you tell me who you need to speak to and what this problem is?”

Luna shrugged and shook her head. “I do not know who exactly I need to talk to. Maybe someone in charge who knows a bit about history? I can’t discuss the details right here, but I can assure you that I have no ill intentions.”

Peter laughed lightly at that, but waved her forward. “Then do come in. I am sure I can find someone to talk with you. Even if you had ill intentions you would find that this place is well prepared to deal with anything a level 4 human could throw at it.” He smirked at the last bit, basically telling Luna that he had identified her as well, only that she had not noticed.

Luna strode through the gate, declining his offer to carry the backpack for her. He led her down a gravel pathway, through the thicket of hedges. Behind it waited a rustic Manor with a perfectly trimmed lawn in front of it. They entered the house and Luna dropped off her backpack on a small bench next to the entrance.

“I apologize for the lack of official welcome. There are only a few members left these days. Time has eroded the reputation of this guild and many people, at least who do not read much about history, do not remember what it did for the humans in the kingdom. Do you know?”

Luna shrugged again. “I was told very little. If it was not obvious already, I grew up in a remote village and my education is lacking in many areas. Or so I have found out during my trip here. It is rather hard to measure one’s ignorance, wouldn’t you agree?”

The foyer led deeper into the mansion, doors leading off to other rooms on the left and right, directly behind the entrance. A gigantic double stairway led up to the next level, one stairway each on the left and the right wall. Luna was, once more, astonished by the wealth displayed here. The whole building was made of neatly fitted dark grey stone, which were covered in paintings and wall hangers of all kinds. The floor was covered in a thick carpet and Luna felt it was sacrilege to walk across it with her dirty boots.

She followed Peter up the stairs, where they turned left and kept walking until they reached a double wing door. After knocking they were called in and Luna found herself in a giant study. Half the walls were covered in shelves filled with books, in one corner of the room a fire was merrily burning in a fireplace, but the massive desk sitting near the wall on the far side of the room dominated it all. Behind it sat a portly man of advanced age, who appeared to have been reading in a thick manuscript that was now sitting on the desk. He was now looking at them inquisitively.”

“Sir, this is Luna. She was the one who rang the bell. Not more nobles or newly rich trying to buy the property. She requested to talk to someone in charge, with some knowledge in history. Apparently someone sent her here, saying that we would be able to help with some type of problem. With you being the only one who is currently in the capital, that did not leave many options. Do you require me to stay?”

“Thank you Peter. I do not think this one will be any trouble and I also do not expect her to aggravate me as much as those respectless people trying to buy this manor for a pittance. Please have a seat, young lady.”