“Frejr, we should probably go collect the strike team’s members from Mercer Inn.” I said. “Cale is awake, and it seems we are going to have a lot of trouble on our hands…” I continued.

“Cale is here?” Mulia asked, ears perking up. “Did something happen to him?” She continued. Looking worriedly between me and Frejr. At the other’s quizzical looks she explained. “He was the one of the soldiers that found my people. He had a hard time convincing the elders to help out though.”

I hesitated, thinking for a bit. It doesn’t matter, the Republic will know soon enough that he survived. “He was attacked on the way back from another assignment. Poisoned, but we managed to save him, he will be telling us who attacked him and why, once the rest of his team is assembled.” I said. “In summary he is fine now, but I predict that we will have significant work ahead of us.”

Mulia nodded. “I think it’s about time we left right?” She asked Maria and Qen. Qen nodded, and Maria followed his example. “We took up a slime hunting mission out there, and also a mission for ettins.” She said by way of explanation, turning to me specifically. “Any advice?”

I raised an eyebrow, but shrugged. “Don’t let the dire wolves fight the slimes, biting is… not a good idea, bring poison, douse your torches unless you prefer the entire forest to combust. The dire wolves will probably use hit and run tactics on the ettin, follow their lead, they have better instincts than you.” I said. “Don’t get careless. The mother slime will not go down easily, though at least you won’t have to worry about it having swarms, they seem to disperse during the fights.”

“Thanks.” Mulia said, her lips seeming to curl into a smile. “Come on, we should get going.” The others followed her lead, with Maria sparing one glance back to us.

“I’ll go find the others.” I said, spying Cale coming down the stairs as well. “There’s Cale.” I said, pointing over to the stairs. “Maybe you can help him get breakfast or something, I won’t be long anyway.” I said with a small smile.

Snow began to fall partway as I left the guild, a reminder that soon the weather would plunge. Mercer Inn wasn’t that far away, and I took the time to take in the city as it slowly hummed to life. Several people nodded to me, a few waved, smiling at me, which I didn’t know how to react to. I was reminded of Jeff’s words, about how we had become something of hope bringers to the people.

“I’m looking for the group of people that checked in last night, two men and two women, they should be expecting me.” I said to the innkeeper. She thought for a moment, before a spark of realization struck her, and she nodded, leading the way. “Thank you.” I said.

She rapped on one of the doors down a hallway to the left of her station. “Someone here to see you.” She said loudly. The door swung open partway, revealing Saindal’s face. “You could’ve just told me who it was you know? It’s not like I wouldn’t recognize the most famous Irregular around these parts.” She said with a chuckle. “Here you go milord. I’ll be taking my leave.”

“It’s not like I knew it’d be him Lizzy!” Saindal shouted after the innkeeper. I couldn’t help but smirk at that. She turned to me, eyeing me suspiciously. “You’re laughing aren’t you?”

“No.” I said, as she moved to speak I continued. “Cale is awake, we’re waiting on the rest of you before he explains our current predicament.” I explained. “It seems like we are both going to be very busy.” I said. “Where are the others?” I asked, stepping back and casting my gaze across the doors.

“Palim is in here with me.” Saindall said. “Though she’s not nearly awake yet…” She said wryly, casting her gaze back into the room. “The others are in that room across there.” She said, opening the door a little more to reach out an uncovered arm, pointing towards one of the doors.

“I see, I’ll go wake them up then.” I said with a smirk. “Have a good morning, and we’ll be waiting for you back at the guild.” She closed the door behind her, and I moved towards the door she’d indicated.

I knocked on the door. “Open up, Cale’s awake.” I said. No response, so I knocked harder. “Is anyone in there?” I asked. Shuffling, the door opened.

“Come on in.” Ram said. “What is it? I just got up, yesterday was quite tiring.” He said, stretching himself out.

“Cale’s woken up, we’re waiting for the rest of you to arrive before he starts to explain what he’s become involved in.” I said. “I see Taryn isn’t awake yet.” I observed dryly, looking over to the lump in another bed.

“I am awake.” Taryn said groggily. “But I would like to rest a little bit more.” He turned, facing towards where we now stood. “There was a drake during our job, went unnoticed by Toras due to the trees, but while we were making our way to a Sianac city it ambushed us.” He said, I cocked my head. “A group of beast people like the Kithar, in this case more like fox people. It was tough…” He groaned.

I snorted. “Hardly expected complaints from a team five strong.” I said with a smirk. “We’ll be waiting for you at the guild, try not to take too long.” I called out as I turned around, closing the door behind me.

I nodded to the innkeeper as I passed, and started on the path back to the guild. There was a heavy buzz of discussion when I entered the hall, most people focused on the stairs leading to the second floor. Whispers trailed across the tables.

“Did you hear… back room… poison?”

“They say… Republic… has a hand…”

As I crossed the centre of the hall it seemed to die down, glances placed on me and whispers hushed further. I walked up to Tina. “Word sure travels fast.” I said to her. “So where are Cale and the others?” I asked.

“In the meeting room on the second floor.” She said, pointing. “Sorry about that, can’t really stop them from running their mouths about everything after last night.” She grimaced.

“It’s fine, the people who tried to kill him would have found out regardless.” I said with a shrug. “Thanks again for calling in Gen, is he still working with the alchemist down the way?” I asked, pointing over to the right.

“Yes. He and Kayio sometimes come over to help maintain a stock of healing potions and simpler antidotes.” Tina said.

I nodded. “I see, if you see the rest of the group from yesterday arrive would you kindly direct them to us?” I asked, and she nodded to me. “Thank you.”

I pushed the door open, walking into the room where the others had settled in. Numen, Rince and Cale sat to one side, Numen flashing me a smile as she tipped her chair, leaning backwards. I took a seat next to her, looking over to Azarint on the other side. Qent and Frejr sat next to him as well.

“They’ll be here once they’re able.” I said, leaning back against the chair. “Huh, guess we’ve got some mead.” I said, grabbing one of the mugs and slowly sipping at it. Really shouldn’t be getting into this habit. I thought to myself, taking a long draught and setting it down.

We sat there in silence for a while. “What has your group been up to lately Cale?” Rince asked, attempting to break the silence.

Cale thought for a moment. “Ostensibly we’ve been improving relations with the other races and enlisting their aid to help us fight off the Edratchi, aiming to ensure that after the war we will still be able to maintain proper relations and be ready for another attack if it happens.”

“Ostensibly? I assume this has to do with why you were attacked?” Azarint asked, glancing over to Cale. He grimaced, nodding. “I see.” Azarint said, his voice tinged ever so faintly with distaste.

“What has your group been up to during the interim between our meetings?” Cale asked, looking over to Frejr. “Besides the formation of the guild itself. It is certainly a strategic move.”

“This wasn’t meant as one.” Frejr noted with a sour frown. “Though I’m beginning to understand the forces that made it one. We were recently contracted by the Alliance, more the Republic to deal with the golems that had apparently prevented the Edratchi from assailing a particular town.” She continued dryly.

Cale grimaced at that. “I see, I’d heard of those plans…” He shook his head. “I’ll properly explain it once the others have arrived. I will most likely require your aid to shred this web.”

At that point the doors swung open, Taryn and Ram moving into the room. “Just sit anywhere.” Rince told them. “We don’t have any formal seating arrangements or anything. Are the others on their way?” He asked, looking between them.

“I heard shuffling and hurried words from their room as I passed.” Taryn replied. “I do not know how long it will be before they are ready, but I would assume they will be arriving soon.”

“That’s good. I’ll just go get some drinks for everyone.” Rince said, slipping out of the chair and making his way out of the room. “Any requests?” Taryn asked for mead, while it seemed Ram wanted a beer instead. He nodded, closing the door behind him.

The chair creaked slightly as Taryn sat onto it, he looked down worriedly. “Worry not. It was made for people far heavier than either of us.” Frejr said, still clad in her own heavy armour. Taryn looked uncertain, but attempted to relax himself anyway.

Rince returned with Saindal and Palim. Each with a drink in hand. “All your drinks are on us today.” Rince said with a smile, passing Ram and Taryn their drinks. “Now that everyone’s here we can start right?” He asked, taking his head and turning to Cale.

“Right…” Cale answered, taking a deep, unhappy breath. “As the team will know, we were tasked with finding the other races and forging an alliance with them and the Alliance itself, to combat the Edratchi and prevent them from destroying all we hold dear.” He grimaced. “I’ll confirm what almost everyone here will probably have suspected, we had an ulterior motive…”

“Doesn’t take a genius to realize that.” Ram said. “If it were that simple it would not have made sense for it to have been so secretive.”

“I was tasked by the Republic to ensure that in our negotiations we managed to make them in some way or another reliant on the Republic itself. Either through provision of weaponry, trade agreements and the like.” Cale continued. “Obviously, few of the races would care where the aid was coming from, be it the Republic or any other of the Alliance’s members. However, by doing this I would ensure a strong power base for the Republic once the war had ended, indebting most of them to us.”

“You’re kidding me!” Palim exclaimed. “You’re telling me that we’ve been putting them in the Republic’s pocket this entire time?!” She started up, and I reached over, grabbing her by the arm and jerking it. I shook my head, gesturing for her to sit down. We had hardly heard the whole story. She shrugged my hand off, but made no move towards Cale.

“No, we haven’t. I did that for the lamias, since they were closest to the Republic, it made sense for them to be receiving aid from them, even then I omitted the clause for them to be exclusive to us. I didn’t realize it until we reached the second group of centaurs. That’s when I first said no.”