As a fresh layer of powdery snow slowly fell on top of the already inconveniently high snowbank, a single carriage with the guild’s emblem made its way along the barely traversable Vassundian roads. Its driver was wrapped in several layers of guild-issued clothing but still shivered whenever the breeze grew particularly strong. Though there was still a long way to go, this brave but unfortunate guard pressed on, fueled by nothing more than the thought of the paid vacation promised to him after the assignment was over.

Meanwhile, inside the carriage, in the considerably less awful weather conditions, Anastacia did her best to kill time by napping. Rolled tightly inside a cocoon of blankets, some of which were found in the carriage and others shamelessly stolen from the lodge, she was barely comfortable enough to fall asleep for a few minutes before the carriage ran over a lump of ice or a rock and she would hit her head on the bench.

Next to her feet was the lifeless simulacrum she had pried off the hag’s dried corpse. Despite the guild official’s halfhearted warnings, Anastacia had remained firm about her stance of keeping it. She wanted to hear how a simulacrum could end up pretending to be an ancient spirit of discord and to some degree, she felt bad for it.

Strawberry had spent the entire first day of travel going through the statements he had gathered from everyone involved in the quest – everyone aside from the adventurer at least. Already dreading the task of having to interview her, he spent quite a bit of extra time pointlessly arranging the note taking equipment before mustering the courage to wake up Anastacia.

“Anastacia, I would like to go over the quest with you.” He said and cleared his throat.

The necromancer rolled over in her wrap and stared annoyedly at the official. “The meeting is over and some people aren’t dead, me included, end of story.” She mumbled.

“Well, what the guild is more interested in is what happened before that. We need to evaluate your performance after all.” Strawberry explained. “For example: according to our murderer, Lumira, you took quite a bit of money from the late Farcie the Younger. We would like to know why and what happened to that money.”

Anastacia stared blankly into the distance for a while, she had completely forgotten the entire thing. “Oh yeah… About that, he was being a shit about his money, so I confiscated it. I was probably going to think about return it, but he got himself killed.” She admitted.

“Hmm, the guild takes matters of bribery extremely seriously, but we regard you as one of the less likely adventurers to stoop so low.” He nodded and scribbled his assessment down. “Your crimes tend to be far more… nonsensical in nature. We won’t pursue the matter further and will regard any confiscated goods that remain in your possession as ‘loot’ and have them be ignored in taxational issues.”

“You know, you’ll live longer if you keep remarks like that to yourself.” The adventurer pointed out.

“Next matter on the list would be your little ‘show’ once everyone had arrived.” Strawberry said and flipped through a few of his notes. “The guild would like to acknowledge that it appeared to have the desired effect and that we applaud your efficient methods.”

“About time you give me some recognition!” The necromancer cheered.

“About time you did something in a way that did not result in immediate, catastrophic negative consequences.” The official sighed and moved on by flipping through what seemed like a dozen full sheets of text. “In the statement by ‘The Archfurion of The Holy Legions of Light, Reborn Sword of Judgement and The Word Bearer of The Scorching Light, Lady Helia Pain the Pure’, there are mentions of a crustacean. She seemed somewhat upset about your true identity and spent quite a lot of time commenting on that, but before that she said that you gave her a crab. Could you maybe enlighten me on why?”

“Oh, that?” Anastacia remembered and laughed smugly. “Lady Helia was way too worried that Teal would try to kill her, I had to give her a bit of a nudge – and for the record, since there apparently is going to be one, I take full credit for whatever happens between those two.”

Strawberry reread through the statement one more time before drawing a line over the crustacean matter. “Yes, I have several references to your manipulative actions despite your supposedly neutral position.”

“Look, I hate Teal with all my being, I really do. I hate his dumb hair, his stupid swords and above all else, the shit stain of a country he works for. However, as far as necromancers go – an EXTREMELY low bar by the way – Teal is… bearable. There is something resembling a conscience in that brainwashed little noggin of his.” The adventurer shrugged and slowly unraveled her cocoon. “So, by the pulsating pink dong on your glistening forehead, I will get that man some bug-lady action! Leaves him less time to kill people too.”

The official stared at the mostly empty paper in front of him and searched the words he needed to spin the report into anything even halfway acceptable. “I will just put that up as you achieving some generally beneficial tasks along with your quest’s main objective, and then we will promptly move on from the subject.” He said stiffly and scribbled some more. “The way you initially took control of the situation after the host’s death was much appreciated and recruiting the help of people you could safely rule out shows some resourcefulness on your part – something we are happy to see you pick up from your mentor.”

“Are you people stalking my relationships with people now?” Anastacia interrupted the guild official. It wasn’t exactly surprising that the guild had deduced that Gilbert was spending a lot of his time teaching her, but it still irked her to hear it out loud.

“Keeping track of you is something you’ve forced us to do yourself, but regardless, we are delighted to see that you are not wasting Gilbert’s time. As things are, he is still worth a dozen of you to us.” Strawberry pointed out, either unaware or uninterested in how rude he sounded. “By the looks of it, the third member of your party will eventually have her request for a chapel granted, you will likely be the only adventurer to carry on his teachings before he reaches the effective end of his career.”

The necromancer had no witty answer to give, she knew that what the uptight official was saying was true and it was not something she looked forward to. Emilia would eventually return to her profession as a priestess and Gilbert would hopefully retire in peace, which would only leave her and King as active adventurers among the party. The simulacrums ability to learn likely wasn’t something to rely on either, so she really was all the guild had to look forward to from her party.

“I do not bring this up to depress you, the guild just hopes that you take that into consideration when on the road. It takes years to properly train an adventurer, and despite our countless lifetimes worth of knowledge, we can not reproduce the results attained by senior adventurers teaching their pupils.” Strawberry explained and put down his quill. “For the sake of bettering our understanding of each other, I will begrudgingly move to the end of my report on this quest. Rest assured, we will be going through the rest of my questions, but time is something we have more than enough to spare right now.”

He cleared his throat and picked up the topmost paper on the tallest pile of papers by his side. “Due to unforeseen circumstances, the original, agreed upon guidelines and requirements for the quest have been discarded and revised; all judgements and analyses will be done in relation to the new set of guidelines. Several undesired complications caused by oversights and lapses in judgement resulted in avoidable fatalities of individuals relevant to the quest.

“The adventurer chosen for the quest, Anastacia, acted at times shortsightedly and needlessly aggressively towards certain individuals. Anastacia showed a tendency to place her personal goals above those mentioned in the quest guidelines. These personal goals included: a peaceful result for the negotiations, meddling with the personal lives of people relevant to the quest and acquiring a potentially dangerous simulacrum.” He continued listing the adventurer’s inadequacies in a monotone manner. “Anastacia also sought to frequently impede the work of the guild official assigned to fieldwork with her, designation: 2229 Avarice. How-“

Anastacia wasn’t in the mood for being criticized in such an official way, she would have at least liked to have a chance to lick her wounds for a while over her failed solo-quest. “If you’re just going to shit talk me, don’t bother, you can just send me a copy when we’re at Valor. I know I kind of fucked this one up.” She interrupted the report.

Strawberry cleared his throat and pressed on regardless. “However, the majority of the non-personality related shortcomings should be blamed on the guild itself. The revised guidelines for the quest are no longer within the expected limits for a single adventurer, and the guild failed to take that into account. We also withheld information regarding one of the people integral to the quest. When taking into account what the guild has learned regarding the challenges faced by the adventurer, and the failings on our side, the results of Anastacia’s actions are far above any predictions made.” He said, clearly getting no pleasure from having to actually praise the necromancer. “Anastacia showed both resourcefulness as well as willingness to go exceedingly far above and beyond what was requested or expected from her to save lives. This allowed her to somewhat singlehandedly achieve a satisfactory result in a quest that would usually be recommended for no less than five adventurers. For these reasons, I, guild official, designation: 2229 Avarice, recommend granting Anastacia the information regarding the case 2229-10069, and further requesting her aid in future quests that require special attention from the guild.”

After months of being essentially treated as a necessary evil by the guild, hearing them actually praise her was almost enough to reduce Anastacia to tears. “I… I did a good job?” She asked, still skeptical about the compliments.

Strawberry sighed. “Yes, begrudgingly, I consider what you did here the best-case scenario, likely unattainable by nearly any other adventurer put into the same position.”

Anastacia jumped up from her seat and forcibly hugged the guild official despite his frankly pathetic attempts to resist it. While the adventurer was physically feeble on her own right, she had at least spent much of the past few months running around instead of burying herself in paperwork like the guild official, and there was no avoiding her embrace.

Suddenly the crystalline horn on Strawberry’s forehead flashed bright before slowly dimming down.

While the guild official frantically picked up his writing implements once more, Anastacia stepped back to see what was going on.

“The guild has reached a conclusion over my report.” Strawberry explained and swiftly scribed several paragraphs of notes. “You are hereby granted the information relating the case 2229-10069.”

“What?” The necromancer asked and sat back down.

“The guild has inspected and translated the message given to you within the pearl.” The guild official said while still furiously writing down something. “The message was made using a precursor technology to ours. I won’t bother you with the implications this has, but it asked for your attendance in the ‘nearby settlement of the second children’ during the next full moon – which would be four days from now. There were no signatures attached to the message.”

The adventurer scratched her head. “A settlement of the second children? Is that something I should know about?” She asked.

“Hopefully, not.” Strawberry said frankly and handed over the freshly scribbled form and his quill to Anastacia. “Before I explain, the guild asks that you sign this. The information you might come across regarding this matter is something we would very much like to keep to ourselves, but that would prevent us from relaying the message to you after signing a contract requiring us to do so. It’s a matter of pride that we do so regardless, but to continue the cohabitation between you and the guild, it would go far if you signed a contract prohibiting you from spreading what you will undoubtedly learn.”

The concern in the official’s voice and demeanor was clear, and for a brief moment Anastacia felt bad for the secretive assholes she frequently crossed blades with. For just a second, she could see a blink of an emotion in the official’s usually flawless, dull and monotone appearance, and that emotion was pure desperation. Combined with the compliment from earlier, she felt it was only right to sign the form and hand it back over.

Strawberry sighed in relief. “Under the threat of exile, you, Anastacia, are now prohibited from intentionally conveying any information relating to the case 2229-10069 to anyone not present at this signing. In return, the guild vows to assist you in any way it can, and the official designated 2229 Avarice is to act as an intermediary in the meeting suggested in the message.” He said and returned to his usual tone. “Proceeding with the guild-sanctioned telling of the creation: Within the factories, laboratories and workshops of the Aureun, three children were created. The first ones, grafted from metal and stone. Cold, hard and unyielding, yet lacked the will to act as successors. Found their purpose as the eternal guardians of the long vacant holds of their masters.” He recited and lifted up one of his fingers.

“The second ones, accidental, unwanted, meaningless. Flesh formed from a splinter of a single soul. Forever fracturing and multiplying, doomed to never see value in themselves, yet see it in all else. Cast into the wild to seek purpose for their existence.” He continued and lifted up a second finger. Before raising a third finger and carrying on, he sighed and closed his eyes for a second to gather determination. “The third ones, perfected, life from where there was none, successors for their creators. However, stricken with sins as old as time. The youngest of the Aureun’s children looked upon their masters and saw nothing of value. As these masters fell, the third artificial children sought exile on their own. Still plagued by the sins in their essence, they became recluse, shunning the world for its flaws; and from the top of their hoard, they slowly worked to fix the imperfections.”

Anastacia frowned. “What? How is any of that supposed to help me in any way? I don’t even know what ‘an Aureun’ is.”

“You’d be better off not knowing, but sadly it falls on me to explain this to you.” Strawberry lamented and fixed up his uniform. “The Aureun were the civilization that first rose during the primordial night. With their mastery over the arcane, physics, mathematics and almost every other source of power, they expanded their imperium to cover the entire world. When the sun finally rose and gave strength to the other mortal races, the Aureun sent no emissaries or diplomat to greet the forming kingdoms, instead they set themselves against all there was; younger mortal races, gods, beasts of legend, even the first necromancers. The outcome of this was inevitable and the Aureun fell, down to the last member of their overconfident race. Structures they left behind are called ‘machine fortresses’ these days, and of course with them come the first of the artificial children: the simulacra.” He explained and pointed at the lifeless husk of an automaton next to Anastacia.

“OHHHH!” The necromancer gasped. “And you shut-in assholes are the third ones?!”

Though he didn’t approve of the wording, the guild official nodded.

“But the message talked about the second ones… Any idea where your siblings are?” Anastacia asked and tried to think of anything that matched the description.

Strawberry picked up Anastacia’s crown from the floor and pierced one of the scrapped forms he had on the right antler attached to it. “You of all people should know.” He hinted smugly.

The adventurer’s jaw dropped open and her eyes widened in shock. “Go… goblins?” She muttered in disbelief.

“While their years without purpose have done a number to them, the green little ones under your wing are unmistakably the second children.” Revealed the guild official and handed Anastacia her crown.

Anastacia stared at the headwear crafted to her by the supposedly ancient creatures that had adopted her as their queen. She then took out a small pouch containing some of the unroasted poisoned coffee beans she had picked up at the lodge and strapped it on one of the antlers with a piece of string torn from the guild uniform.

“So, are you like a bigger goblin or something?” The necromancer asked while working.

Strawberry sighed. “No, that is not how that works at all.” He said and opened a new bottle of ink. “But we should get back to business. We will arrive at Valor in two to three more days, depending on the weather, the proposed meeting is in four. If you are planning on attending it, I would rather we travel there together. We have every reason to believe that the message originates from the simulacra, though them having the insight to do so would suggest that there is something larger afoot.”

Though she was most definitely interested in what these simulacrums wanted from her, there was something that occupied her mind far more firmly. She had finally found someone who had some actual knowledge on simulacra, rather than theories and guesses she was usually given when seeking answers.

“Do simulacra have feelings?” She asked and shyly fiddled with the other items on her crown.

“It is a shame, but our knowledge on our dear siblings is hardly exhaustive and only covers the ones made before the fall of Aureun, but what we can tell based on their architecture, is that though the body is artificial, the soul is not.” Strawberry said hastily and was clearly anxious to get on with the plan. He was about to show a draft of some kind to the necromancer, but suddenly stopped as his horn flashed once more.

Seconds later, Anastacia could hear a muffled hum from one of the pouches on her belt. Digging through its contents, she discovered that the source of the sound was her adventurer’s pear. Eerily, the normally transparent bauble had turned completely black. She showed it to the guild official with an inquisitive look on her face.

Strawberry stared blankly at her for a few extremely long-feeling seconds and held his finger up. “A black order has been issued. Someone called ‘Duke Filippos Beppo the Third’ has besieged the northern gate of Valor and is calling for you to answer for your crimes. A black order would mean that negotiations have failed.” He explained, strangely not terribly worried over something that sounded rather dire to the necromancer. “Care to explain why some duke is trying to get your head on the block?”

“Nope.” Anastacia said and stared out of the window, hoping that was the end of the exchange.

“Well, no matter, these things typically last around ten minutes while the adventurers decimate anything outside of the walls.” The guild official said and gave up on his inquiry, as whatever had happened, happened outside of any of the reports they had received and was thus not guild business.

Suddenly Anastacia realized something terrible. “How far outside the walls?!” She demanded to know and stood up.

“A kilometer or two, depends on the force trying to foolishly siege the city. Typically, there are stragglers that cause all kinds of trouble in the nearby settlements though, so some adventurers chase them out for ten to twenty kilometers.” Strawberry said and was about to return to his work when Anastacia grabbed his horn.

“MY GOBLINS ARE OUT THERE! WHOEVER HEARS THIS, GO PROTECT THEM!” She yelled at the crystalline spike that most certainly did not work like she thought it did. The mix of rage and worry in her voice would have been enough to scare anyone who knew of the adventurer’s capabilities, but that was not what caused the guild official to turn pale and begin shaking as he frantically tried to kick Anastacia away.

Though the kicks didn’t really bother her, Anastacia was slightly alarmed by the sudden change in behavior and quickly let go, raising up her hands and backing away as Strawberry keeled on his side in fetal position and appeared to have an intense nightmare triggered by the necromancer grabbing onto his horn.