109

--TheirWorld--

At night, Miala De Ri was filled with life and lantern light.

Wide awake after their movie, the three had cleaned up dinner and started charting out their plans for the weekend; mostly their TheirWorld goals.

With Heed’s words about fire magic in mind, Bahena decided that she would go to Miala De Ri’s mages tower to see if there were some fire spells she could pick up. Though she wanted to focus on those spells that would complement her fighting style, she wasn’t averse to add a few long range abilities to her arsenal. She also told them that she would stop at the training grounds to see if there were any additional martial skills she could learn — though Dassah wondered what the game would possible have to teach her about combat outside of magic after seeing her battle.

Stella, on the other hand, had said she’d wanted to try and catch a few hours sleep before she logged in — but after that she had plans to do some solo training and research of her own. Aside from looking to see if there were any other witch trainers she could go to to improve her spell selection and versatility, she wanted to get a little more practice in on her crowd control abilities.

Which left Dassah in a position where she needn’t feel guilty for taking all the time she needed to finish up the errands she’d started in the morning; namely, finally getting to go back to the Hunter’s Guild and meet the Druids.

Friday nights were the time when Uldarin was filled to the brim with people. Most were at least off school for the week, if not work, so a great majority ended up on market streets across the world. Miala De Ri looked like it was decked out for a festival, with its streets lined with long strings of paper lanterns. Stalls and booths staffed by several people at once had employees in colorful costumes, all shouting out about wares and services at the top of their lungs, trying to let their voices be heard over the crowd and the people from the stalls around them. Smells of food cooking made Guin’s mouth water as it seemed to carry through the crowd stronger than it ever had, and spirits danced on the roofs.

The goods she had to sell had mostly been forgotten after the jackal masked man showed up, she realized. Sparing a glance around to see if Miko and Cynth were on, she found Hammer and TonkatsuMan instead. The told her that it was a bit on the late side for them, but offered to trade the goods she’d had for them anyway. In exchange, she got her non-leather gear repaired — she hadn’t even realized that her spear was nearly unusable after the fight with Othren — and enough rations to pass out to the others for the dungeon. Katsu even threw in a few health potions as Cynth’s representative.

Paper lanterns turned to torches, as she exited the city proper, but the Hunter’s Guild was lit up with glass ones. These were a little less decorative and a little more functional, but were very pretty to watch. Some of the lanterns had little designs on one side that reflected on the walls behind them, giving a ghostlike appearance to the place.

Player-wise, there were a lot fewer people in the area than there were in the city, though she did notice the increased presence of Imperial soldiers. That there were any at all in the Hunter’s Guild gave her pause. This late at night in the real world, and nighttime in the game, it wouldn’t shock her to know that most had stopped hunting for the night and instead either were taking a rest at the inns or by fires somewhere, taking the time to socialize, plan, or work on their trades. But the Imperial Soldiers?

Inside the Trappers house a number of players taking meals in groups around the great fireplace or congregating at the tables on the dining side. Players and NPCs alike were settled at tables set with a variety of whole roasted birds, and vats of meaty brown stew, or what looked to be a cleary, watery soup that smelled vaguely of leeks. Some of the tables had big racks of ribs, or thick haunches on the bone that were ready to sliced into an appropriate serving size for whoever wanted it. Loafs of bread and bowls of roasted, whole, sliced, and mashed vegetables were scattered about on each table, along with various kinds of pies and pitchers of ale.

And again: the presence of the Imperial Soldiers. They’d taken up residence at two tables; one at each end of the room, and it was clear that the hunters did not approve. While the soldiers sat laughing and drinking, the hunters cast sour glances in their direction every now and again, largely kept to themselves. The players seemed to think nothing of it. Several, it seemed, had gone to join the soldiers, laughing and drinking along with them. Guin wondered if there were quests that they offered, and what kinds of quests those would be — but with her current reputation she decided it was best to stay on the side of the line she knew to be friendly.

Though she’d hoped she would get the chance to speak with Master Hunter Lithe, she spotted Gorseth in the corner and accepted him a close second in desirability. He gave her a tense smile as he noticed her.

“Oh, aye — and here she be,” Gorseth went as Guin reached his table. “Take a seat, lass. Back from your adventures then? Fare well? Cloak looks like it’s well cared for — Hoth treat ya well?”

Guin nodded and gave her fox cloak a little pat. “He did; thank you for the recommendation,” she said, sitting next to him. The other hunters at the table nodded at her after Gorseth acknowledge her, but one of the soldiers at the tables caught her eye and glared.

Filling a bowl with the brown stew, he placed it in front of her and said, “Have a bit of a bite before you waste away.”

“Why are the soldiers here?” Guin asked, annoyed as she watched the one alert the others to her presence. She should have looked up the reputation sensitivity, and dearly hoped that the soldiers wouldn’t attack her here and now.

“Why else?” the old hunter grunted, taking a sip of his ale. “The little lordling has called up arms against the rising corruption. Blood needs blood, as they say. I see they don’t have much more love for you than they do us, do they. Yer right where you belong, girlie; we’ll keep you safe.”

Tsking, Guin said, “Is this the answer to the request for more troops? Or are more coming?”

“More? Yer guess is as good as ours,” he told her, shaking his head. “Lady Lithe would rather hang them all now, if you ask me. That spoiled little princling has the whole city up and ready to make celebration for every footprint he leaves in the dirt. He’s got all those holy people at the cathedral trying to pray it all away since the appearance of that damned cursed tree. Says we’re all worshipers of some darkness. All this pomp doesn’t suit us folks, mind ye, but if you ask me, the only darkness there is to look out for here is the one in the hearts of mortal men. All this — it’s just to make sure those soldiers are fat and happy so they don’t cause no problems, but it’s just hiding what’s really wrong in all this; no one can tell that so-called ‘hero’ he’s just a little shit.”

“Anger the spirits of the forest and die. Anger the Imperial Troops and die. What choices,” she noted.

“Aye — but what else can we do? We can’t do nothin’ about it, else we’ll just start a war. That won’t do no one no good.”

“What does the Master Hunter think?”

“Same as the rest of us,” Gorseth said. “Most of us are just tryin’ to keep our heads firmly attached to our shoulders. At the end of the day, we’re all just hunters; the corruption, that’s not us. That’s The Circle’s work, that is.”

“How does one get an audience with The Circle? If that’s true, then my information is best given to them,” Guin went, then, as the soldiers started whispering and sending glares in her direction, she asked, “Do they leave in the morning? The soldiers, I mean.”

“Mostly,” he said. “A few stick around; I have a feeling that our general dissatisfaction with the whole situation hasn’t gone unnoticed, ye might say. I see that your hasn’t either.”

“They’re watching you?”

“Lady Lithe, I suspect — but we are her men. This ‘for the safety of the people’ routine rubs the wrong way for the lot of us. They just be layin’ in wait for the tension to break, if ya ask me. Then, it’ll all just be one side against the other,” he told her. “I just hope it don’t come to that. We’re hunters, not soldiers. Even if we win, the cost’ll be far too great…” The haggered old hunter looked deep into his ale before he finished it off.

Patting his hand, Guin said, “We won’t let it come to that. I’ll do all that I can to help. I have a few leads and a few good friends who all intend to set things right.”

“Yer a good lass,” Gorseth told her fondly. “But don’t get in too deep now, or you’ll be stuck in this mess like the rest of us.”

“Something tells me that I already am.”

“So it seems,” he said, eyeing the soldiers as they eyed her. “I’d ask what you did to earn their attention, but I don’t really think I want to know.”

“You don’t,” Guin smirked. “But I can handle it.”

“Yer more a man than I am,” he chuckled.

“Tell me,” Guin then went. “How do I meet with The Circle?”