As Auron and the surviving guild members walked back to the gates, he wished he could cast his healing magic on himself. None of the members were in danger of dying currently, and he had called enough attention to himself, so he opted not to. The physical torment he was going through was also nothing compared to the anguish of losing allies. His squad's survivalist, Sylvia, and her entire team were gone forever.

Gregory had ordered the older fighters to carry the members that had died back. Auron used all of his willpower to not look at them.

Halfway to the gates, a vice-like grip clamped onto his elbow, not so gently turning him around. Standing before him was Marcus. Releasing him and staring him down for a moment, he seemed to be searching for the proper words. "Never leave your protective group again. I do not care what tricks you have up your sleeve, or what reasoning you have." He spoke the words slowly, carefully choosing his words. When Auron nodded in response, the man walked quickly ahead.

Reaching the gates, the group stopped their march. Though many of them were forcing their spirits up, there was enough of the group silently mourning that a haze of depression pressed down on them all.

Gregory turned to address them as the Gates slowly began to open.

"Good fight all of you. Recruits, you have now seen a battle where we have lost our treasured friends and allies. We do not mourn them with sorrow. They died fighting for the people of this Kingdom, and there is no greater honor. For their memory, we will not lose our will to fight or strive towards improvement. For them, we will train harder, laugh harder, and hit the next monster we see harder with our blades. MONSTERBANE!"

The group of guild members screamed the name of their Guild in response. Auron noticed that Gregory turned toward the castle as he yelled.

"We have the festival tomorrow, so all you recruits have the day to yourselves. If you have any wounds, speak to your group survivalist, or seek help with another if yours is no longer with us.

The gates had fully opened with that, and the groups started traveling through the portal back to the city.

Everyone waited for the members bearing the casualties to enter first. It seemed odd to have them on display, but the members carrying them appeared proud.

As Auron waited, he made eye contact with Thatch. The bubbly man ran over.

"Good job out there," he spoke with a brilliant smile.

The battle had done nothing to dampen the man's cheery disposition. Deep in Auron's mind, he knew he used to be just as lively though this world had taken that from him piece by piece.

He noticed the man was missing several knives from his bandoleer, and his blades were drenched in dark blood. "Thanks," Auron croaked out.

"I am sorry that you lost your friend." Thatch said, taking on an uncharacteristically serious tone. In the blink of an eye, the seriousness was gone. Replaced with his overwhelming optimism. "Let's get you out to the tavern tonight! I can tell Gregory you wanted me to teach you how to use throwing knives or something." He said, clearly trying to pull Auron out of the fog of depression currently engulfing him. "Wait, you could have taught me that all of this time?" Auron said, shock and some frustration rippling through his voice. If he had been able to attack from a distance...maybe. No. He knew deep down that would have made little difference. Letting out a large gust of breath in the form of a sigh, he looked at Thatch. The man was practically bouncing with energy even after a full battle.

"How about you actually teach me? I do not feel like having a drink, but I need a distraction," Auron says after thinking about it a moment longer.

A light caught in Thatch's eyes. By now, Auron knew he could associate this look with him having one of his "Brilliant ideas."

The two had become closer as Auron trained this past month.

The ever-darkening rogue liked the cheery disposition of the man. His stories of how he came from nothing and clawed his way up to become one of the guild leaders party members was inspiring.

"How about I train you until you get the skill, and then we just go for one tiny drink?" He says it with a hope-filled voice that left Auron no option but to say yes, lest he let the man down.

Auron acted like he was thinking about it so he could leverage his next idea.

"You have a deal… If you also teach my friend Leon." Auron paused as if he was going to agree then added the condition.

"That will make it harder to slip under Gregory's nose, but sure! He will be meditating after this battle, either way, so we should be all clear." Thatch was happy with the result, so he skipped away whistling. "I will meet you at the guild building in two hours," He sang back to Auron right before he walked through the portal.

Although odd, Auron could not help but like the man. Looking over to Leon, he saw the young man giving him a questioning look as if to ask what he just got them into. The walk back to the Guild seemed to pass by in a haze. Auron and the rest of the guild members cleaned their weapons and armor off in washbasins on the guild building's side. A few of the members gave encouraging words or pats on the back to the recruits they liked. Auron had quite a few members that liked him ever since his first team battle. His quick use of stealth and assassination type battle style painted him as a quickly rising star. The fact that Gregory had personally taken him under his wing also helped.

Thinking of the paired contests only filled Auron's stomach with rocks and mouth with sand. In the corner of his eye, he would see a flash of Sylvia's hair or hear her voice in the crowd. These illusions only served to deepen his sorrow.

After cleansing their gear, every member of the Guild ushered the recruits to the main street. Some ways past the Guild, the road opened up into an expansive courtyard.

At the center of this stood a magnificent pyre made from trees from the jungle.

Six bodies wrapped in white silk rested atop the ceremonial stack of wood.

Looking around, Auron noticed Gregory was flanked by his team and his wife, Laura. A few other high leveled Groups had returned from quests as well. Auron couldn't help but feel a little spite at the teams of high leveled guild members for not arriving sooner. Supposedly fiends are so rare they are only seen a few times every decade, but the Guild still seemed woefully unprepared this time around.

Continuing his scan of the group circled around the pyre, Auron's heart leaped into his throat.

Sylvia was standing diagonally across from his position. The young man's heart plummeted back down. After the moment of hope, he noted the subtle streaks of grey in the woman's hair, and his inspection activated confirming his mistake.

Lia Ironclaw lvl ?? Class Immovable Shred Knight

Her mother was here. The woman looked like a photocopy of her daughter, but with all of the joy ripped away, and twenty years of rigid military-like service added on.

The woman wore a black suit of armor with the same Beargon family crest Sylvia had on the right side of her chest. She seemed to hold no weapons, but the undersides of her forearms had broader armor, likely used as shields. Extending out of her fists were several wicked claw-like protrusions.

Wordlessly Gregory lit the fire with a torch. No members of the nobles or royalty came to the ceremony other than Sylvia's mother, but Auron could see some unarmored commoners morning silently in the crowd.

The flames scattered their light around onto the many metal-wrapped observers. The light playing off the armor was more hospitable for Auron to look at than the heat slowly overcoming the bodies.

Auron let his gaze flow over to Silvia's mother once again. She looked like a woman who had just experienced her soul being forcefully ripped out. The level of agony was too much for Auron. He cast his eyes to the ground and watched the yellow and orange light dance on the white cobblestone path.

After some time, individuals started to disperse. Left now were mainly family members. Gregory turned to go with his group and motioned for Auron to follow with a slow nod toward the Guild. Leon took the hint and left to see his dad. In his fragile condition, the man likely had no idea if his son was alright or not, and could not make a trip out of their bookstore to see.

Auron hoped he would make it in an hour to come for the training with Thatch.

Speaking some words to his team and wife, they left ahead of the two, but Auron was too far away to make out what he said. When he reached the man, Gregory turned to walk, expecting the young rogue to follow. He was correct in this assumption because Auron quickly made his way alongside him.

Not in the mood for some fatherly chastise from the man, Auron remained silent.

The two walked together back to the guild building. As they entered, Auron noticed that everything was as usual. Men and Women of the Guild looked at quests on the board or turned in items for payment at the counter. Some finely clad nobles sitting in a waiting area by a gentle fire even though it was warm enough without it. Several of them stood and rudely clamored toward the guild leader, ignorant of the current mood. Gregory did not pause. He led the two upstairs into his shared office, pushing through them as if they were children. "Sit boy," Gregory spoke the words softly as he sat down in his own chair at his desk.

Auron had only been in this room when he first came to the Kingdom, and just like that time, he was a bundle of nerves. The dead eyes of the behemoth head mounted on the wall stared down at him. The eyes reminded him of the other corpses he witnessed that day. Shuddering, he cast his eyes on the ground and held them there.

After a few moments of silence under the Guild leaders appraising gaze, he lost his patience. Launching his eyes upward and standing, he began to shout. "If you are going to reprimand me for hiding my magic go ahead. I am not in the mood right now for an argument. Just get it over with." Auron sputtered toward the end, his anger evaporated like morning mist. There for such a short time, he forgot it even existed.

If Gregory was upset by the rude tone he heard for the first time out of the Young rogue, he did not show it.

"Look at me." He said. Auron raised his eyes again to meet those of the large man. "It is not your fault that your friend died." He said with a sigh. The events of that day's battle had clearly worn on the leader. "I have lost many people over the years after forming this Guild. With my brand of magic, my emotions come in great surges. I generally have to meditate directly after, but I have pushed that to later so I could address this with you."

The man's voice took on kindness that betrayed his massive battle scarred appearance. "No matter how strong you become... No matter how hard you train or master your abilities, you can not save everyone. You can not be in each moment, block every attack, or kill monsters outside your range."

"I refuse to believe that." Auron looked in his eyes, defiance sparked to life, burning away the harsh realities. Auron knew he was possibly childish, but he never wanted to accept there was a limit to what he could do.

"You are strong, boy, more potent than I was at your age. I will not sit here and tell you what you can or can not become. I just do not want you to take on burdens that are not your own." Gregory let the full weight of his current emotional turmoil out as he said those last three words.

Auron held his gaze as he continued to speak. "I may have not known you for long, but I want to take you in as my own. I can recognize the pain someone is feeling when they are blaming themselves for something heavy." He paused and grabbed something out of his desk.

Flipping over his hand and opening it, Auron peered down to see a simple flat stone the size of his palm. The stone had grooves in it as if it had been slowly ground down by something. "My two closest friends gave me this before they.." Gregory seemed to space out as blood magic attempted to overwhelm and interrupt his story. "Damn it all." The large man growled as he summoned his familiar. Gregory must have communicated something to the squirrel creature with a look because it began to release what looked like snow.

White particles emanated from it, and Auron felt a pressure lift from the room. "There, now I can speak freely. I needed to use this anyways so I could ask you a question, but let me finish my tale." He shuffled in his seat, eliciting a groan from the sturdy wooden chair.

"My two closest friends gave me this before one of them passed away, and the other disappeared," He spoke easily, the magic from his familiar blocking the blood magic preventing him from doing so earlier.

"I am going to give this to you. When you are feeling overwhelmed, rub this rock between your fingers. I used to need this to get through my Berserker fits. You seemed to have turned away from that path, but you can not take on the pain of every life you fail to save. Remember these words and take this out when you are overwhelmed."

At some point during the speech, A few tears had worked their way from Auron's eyes.

Walking around the desk, Gregory grabbed him and lifted him up into a bear hug. Auron's ribs protested, but he could get used to having a father figure in his life. The warmth and security lent by the hug filled a space in his heart. A void had been festering within ever since he fell into that swamp.

When Gregory released him, Auron could tell he felt slightly awkward from the situation because he cleared his throat and began speaking again while fiddling with the straps on his armor.

"Now tell me... How are you in breach of the agreement? You should not have the ability to have a familiar before you are level twenty. There are those that can bend the rules, but they are a select few." Auron looked up at him and contemplated telling him everything for the first time. Before he could speak, there were a few sharp raps at the door.