115

--TheirWorld--

Whether there was any correlation between the strength of her liver cravings and her amount of annoyance, Guin wasn’t sure. It had been a while since she’d had one. The buff she’d gotten from Othren’s liver was now fading, she noticed. Soon, she’d slip into her full Gumiho appearance even in her base form. Her tail twitched. She’d have to get out of this meeting soon, or she’d have a hard time getting out of the Hunter’s Guild without questions. She hated questions.

“It doesn’t matter who or what I am,” Guin said, licking her lips. “I ask nothing of you aside from the fact that I do not wish to be your enemy. I don’t speak for Adrian and Crow; I hardly know them. They speak and act for themselves. I simply wish to work with you. This land is yours, yes, but it is my home too. Please, Grandmasters, I am only looking to help.”

Pale, the Druid Grandmaster swallowed hard and looked to the other two. For the first time, Guin could see a slight bit of panic in the eyes of the Shaman Grandmaster as she looked on Guin.

Her three companions, on the other hand, were looking at her with mild shock.

“What?” asked Guin sourly, wondering if this is what Ibraxis meant by feeling like a circus creature.

“You… have a tail,” Margot pointed out. “Two of them.”

“Yes,” said Guin, crossing her arms. “Yes I do.”

“Does my father know?”

“Of course not!”

“Leave her be,” Crow said, quick to recover. “She has it bad enough with them.”

“Speaking from experience?” mumbled Adrian under his breath. “Saira really didn’t want to back off.”

Chuckling, Crow said, “You know, after all this time, it’s almost nice to see her hostility directed at someone else. She a hypocrite to be sure; she’s terrified and has nothing better to do with that energy than pace and be generally angry. Pity I hate it so much or I’d be enjoying it so much more.”

“This seems worse than it normally is. Has she always been like that to you?” Adrian asked, pointing. “Had I known that —”

“Am I a damsel that needs your help?” the dark haired man huffed. “Nah. Least I get benefits for putting up with it. It helps I know when she actually cares versus when she doesn’t, or I would have flown the coop ages ago.”

Though he didn’t look pleased, Adrian conceded with a long hard stare before he turned back to the grandmasters.

“‘Candidate’,” The Shaman Grandmaster tested the words. The ghost dragon behind her raised it’s great head and peered at them. “I see, now. Half-Che aside, you are one of the world’s chosen; a chosen of the Veil, no less. I’ve heard tell that Gomi follows the Frost Wyrm — or did, for a time. I do not know if he still does, but the Frost Wyrm is beloved here. And Amikavi… well. May her bones rest in peace.”

“They didn’t,” Guin told her, annoyed still. “But thanks for the sentiment, I guess.”

“You insolent —” The Druid Grandmaster started to shriek.

“I do not need you to defend me,” the Shaman Grandmaster’s voice was like a whip. Her black eyes opened to Guin again. “I understand now, the flow of magic around you. It’s not yours, because it is Amikavi’s — and it is her will that you carry on your back. Her vengeance. Vengeance, I must warn you, makes for a terrible motivator.”

“My motivations are my own, I assure you,” Guin said. “I’ve been fighting the corruption since I was a child, and I want nothing — nothing! — more than to go back to White Fox Forest and see what has become of my homeland; my friends and family that were there when I left. But I can’t — won’t; not until I see this mess in Miala De Ri to its end. Forget about what is right and what is wrong, if you must. You could say my motivation is purely selfish. I could save my homeland a hundred times, but it would not matter if the corruption through the Tree of Dreams in your land travels to every other. If Prince Ocatrius and the corruption is not stopped, all lands — not just yours — will die. I won’t let that happen.”

Snorting, the Druid Grandmaster leaned back in her throne. “At least selfish motivations are better than heroic ones. Easier to deal with. No sappy, altruistic ideals getting in the way of practicality.”

“What will you do should you meet Octarius?” asked the Ranger Grandmaster, shifting in her own throne. “As you have said; if he dies, a war will start — but he will not come quietly. And the Rift Dweller. Will you hunt it? How?”

Guin exchanged a look with Adrian before she answered: “First, I’d like to let Adrian try to stop Octarius. And I… I want to try to negotiate with the Rift Dweller. Failing that, then…” Guin trailed off, both for Adrian’s sake and her own. She didn’t want to think of what would happen if negotiations failed. They’d have to stop them somehow — and if that meant killing them? The series of possible outcomes raced through her head. Looking away, she pulled up her quest list. [Amikami’s Revenge].

———————-

[Current Quest: Amikavi’s Revenge]

This quest is optional. It can be skipped. (Difficulty: C)>>

———————-

It felt like ages since she’d received the quest, but the quest said nothing about killing him. In fact, Guin distinctly remembered trying to talk her out of requesting his head. But if he didn’t listen to reason? Guin met Adrian’s eyes again, and he nodded.

She wasn’t sure what he understood from her silence, but he took a deep breath and said, “I don’t know anything about the Rift Dweller; Halecor may be more useful for that than a lousy Shaman like me — but if things go wrong then… well. I guess the kingdom will have one less prince. Or two, I suppose, if I fail.”

“Don’t even joke,” The Druid Grandmaster bit as Crow whacked him upside the head.

“What do you think, Isis?” The Shaman Grandmaster asked the Ranger Grandmaster.

The dark skinned women looked them over, but gave a sharp not of approval. “It is their death,” she said. “But it is their right to choose it.”

The white woman’s eyes flickered over to The Druid Grandmaster. “Saira?”

The Druid Grandmaster flinched, her knuckles white as her hands gripped the arms of her throne. First she looked to Adrian, then to Crow.

Meeting the scarred woman’s eyes, Crow told her in a low voice, “I’m going. Else, who is going to bring this idiot back.”

“Poko can’t go with you into that,” she told him. “You’ll be alone.”

“I’ll feel better if he’s with you anyway,” he said. “You’ll be far more alone without us.”

“You’ll go no matter what we say, won’t you? Both of you,” her gaze shifted to Adrian.

“We will,” said Adrian in a warm voice. “You have no grounds to stop us anymore than you have to stop Guin. For what it’s worth, though, I’d prefer knowing we had your blessings.”

“And Cora and the children?” The Druid Grandmaster asked.

For the first time, it was Adrian that faltered. “I’ll… talk to them.”

“You should have done that before coming here,” she said, annoyed.

“She knows my intent.”

“That’s not the point and you know it,” growled the Druid Grandmaster.

“Please, Saira.”

With a sigh, the scarred woman closed her eyes. “When we were children, we often spoke of taking up great quests to save this forest,” she said. “We would go out galavanting into the deep woods, and fight all the evil of the world. Why is it that all of the that we’ve met has come from within us?” Tears in her eyes, she smiled fondly, then nodded. “... I just wish… I wish I could go with you as well. Protect you two idiots as I’ve always done.”

“You’ll always have me, Saira. I’m next to useless, afterall,” Margot told her with a grin, causing the severe woman to laugh pleasantly.

“Very well,” The Druid Grandmaster said. “I will give my blessings.”

The Shaman Grandmaster raised her hand, and from somewhere, the sound of a gong caused the whole room to vibrate. The three grandmasters stood in unison, and the white woman proclaimed: “A verdict by our Circle has been reached. We shall bestow upon you our blessings. They shall last for eight days, or forty eight hours. Complete your missions in that time, or those blessings and our good will shall be forever lost to you. Depending on you success, you shall receive a reward for your services upon return. Tell us, Guin Grey, Adrian Impriori, Crow — Shall you do this?”

All three answered: “I shall.”

Guin’s screen then dinged with several messages. Several quests, including Margot’s and Amikavi’s, updated with the new information she’d received during the meeting, and a new quest appeared on her screen:

———————-

[Quest Offered: The Two Princes]

This quest is optional. It can be skipped. (Difficulty: S)>>

———————-

She scrunched her nose up at the ‘S’ attached to it. She knew it would be difficult — and she was, mostly, okay with that. What she hadn’t considered was her timing. This quest would make the dungeon so much more difficult for her group. Furrowing her brow, she looked at Adrian and Crow. Was she supposed to have done this dungeon on her own for this quest? With a group of NPCs? If she adds others to the party, then what? Sucking in air through her teeth, she closed the windows, deep in thought.

Did that mean she should be looking for other NPCs to finish this quest to its fullest, or should she just run it with the ones she had? It wasn’t an easy dungeon, according to other players, and all the negotiating with the bosses made things more difficult for her. And if one of them died…

The chain reaction in her quest lines could be damaged irreparably.

“Shit,” Guin muttered. The grandmasters were now taking leave of their thrones, and went out their own separate entrances.

“Guin?” Margot went, pulling on her arm. “Let’s go.”

Soon after, they parted. It was nearly 2 AM in the real world; no one would be awake for at least the next several hours. She’d been too caught up in the meeting with the Circle to notice that BronzePaw had also logged out to take a nap. Though she could have easily filled that time with side quests, she could feel the weight the weight of sleepiness starting to hit her, too. In the interest of being more awake and able to focus on the dungeon, Guin logged off to try and get a few hours of rest.