You know, one day I’ll stop being surprised by this sorta stuff.

The room beyond the guild hall’s staff-only door wasn’t just a room - it ended up being a short hallway that connected to several other closed doors, one of which was a special sliding door leading to the area behind the front counter. It looked normal enough, but it felt weird, as though the hallway were miles long instead of meters.

There was also a hazy sheen to the air but I could only see it out of the corner of my eye. Every time I tried to look at it head-on, it would disappear. Reminded me of certain ghosts in an old platformer game I’d enjoyed as a kid, but it still made me feel uneasy.

“Hey, why are th-”

“Save your questions for now, or you’ll be blue in the face before you know it.”

“I…er…okay.” Getting cut off mid-sentence like that startled me, as did the brusqueness of her tone, but I decided to chalk it up to having put herself in business mode for my “onboarding.”

Taking her advice, I started to make a mental list of questions I would want to ask later, but stopped after thinking through the first ten or so. A hailstorm of exhaustion pelted me, each stinging bead of ice a different question that I had no answer to. I know damned well that most of the answers I seek will lead to yet more questions once I discover them, and the never-ending cycle feels like a cold weight on my chest that makes it hard to breathe. Something else I ought to get used to, I guess.

I’d always been one to try and answer my own questions so I strained to find signs, plaques, or anything else indicating what these doorways led to, but no luck. Not a single one of them was different or marked in any way; they were all made from the same plain light-colored wood with no discerning features, so the only way I could tell them apart was by their location in the hallway. There were a few paintings on the wall hung between the door frames, but they were all blank. Just frames with stretched white canvas, without so much as a spec of color. None of this made any sense to me but I was just baggage being dragged along for the ride, anyway.

She pushed open the farthest door on the right at the end of the hallway, without magic this time, revealing an ordinary stairwell. I won’t lie, it was a bit of a let down.

“Our office is on the second floor, through here,” she explained and I found myself being tugged along up the stairs. “You’ll have a desk and place to keep your things up here while you work.”

The stairwell was wide enough that we could have climbed side by side, but I was still being strung around like a kite so we took it single-file. I could hear the annoyed scrabbling of Teak’s claws on the wooden stairs behind us, with an interjected curse word here and there, but Laerell either didn’t hear any of it or simply didn’t care so I followed her example by ignoring it, as well.

At the top of the stairs was a spacious, rectangular room with polished hardwood floors and woven red and gold throw rugs strewn about semi-randomly. There were bookcases lining the walls on one side of the room and shelves covered in strange knickknacks and artifacts taking up the other. Towards the back of the room in front of a large plate glass window was a long, darkly-stained desk piled high with all manner of papers, books, and heaven-only-knows what else. I spotted a smaller desk set off to the side, close to the stairwell door, that matched the larger one in every way except that it’s clean and half the size.

I assumed that was the desk she’d mentioned for me, but rather than show me around, she pushed me toward yet another door - though this one had at least had a damn sign on it. It read ‘Supplies’ in simple lettering. Laerell opened this door with magic as well, though it was a much different pattern than before and glowed a purple-ish color. When the door swung open, I had to stifle a surprised gasp.

Beyond the apparent closet door was a massive warehouse with rows upon rows of metal shelves, each containing square metal drawers stacked on top of each other. Each drawer had a slip of paper attached to the front, which I assumed was for noting what’s inside, but I could see from a glance that the vast majority of them were blank still. It’s easily the size of a football field in here! But there’s no way the building footprint matches the inclusion of this room. The doorway must be a portal or something…

My mouth must have been hanging open slightly because Laerell grinned at me knowingly and Teak chuckled at me as he waddled by my feet. “Hey kid, you better snap out of it before you catch a fly,” he squawked, “or worse, get yourself lost.”

“Oh, right.” Shaking my head to clear it, I realized that Laerell had continued deeper into the storage room without me, so I broke into a jog to catch up.

When I’d gotten within earshot of her, she looked back over her shoulder at me and explained, “This is the guild’s shared research and warehouse facility. Each guild hall will be connected to this place, just as ours is, so that we may easily share information and resources amongst ourselves.” She continued on even as she drew up in front of a metal cabinet hung with two tall doors and several small drawers at its base. “We will be the third branch to open when we do, and the first to open within a border town.”

There was a small riser with the silhouette of a pair of feet pressed onto the top to indicate it’s purpose, and she waved me up onto it without stopping for even the tiniest of breaths. “We’re going to have our work cut out for us, that’s for certain. Turn this way, please. Arms up, and hold still.” Without waiting for me to follow her instructions, she reached out and moved my arms to exactly where she wanted them. “There’s going to be a lot of pressure from Headquarters - that’s the main branch in the Royal Capital, you see - to meet quotas, and they’re going to want to see good results from us early.”

Laerell took one step back, still chattering away, and began to draw on the right-most cabinet door the way she had the doors. “But of course, we’ll get them results they want. And we’ll be strengthening both the economy and our unofficial militia force at the same time, so please do not take our jobs lightly. We’re doing Her Majesty a great service. Hold still, I said.”

I’d turned my head to better watch the symbols she was drawing, but snapped back to facing forward immediately, “Err, yes, sorry.”

“That…should do it.” With a little flair at the end, Laerell finished drawing the runic circles on the metal surface of the door. The last of her work faded into the metal and then the entire design popped back up for an instant, glowing a brilliant white. Simultaneously, the riser I was standing on began to glow as well, which was a surprise. “W..what the…”

“I said: Hold. Still. And do not move.” Her command came out as more of a hiss this time and I froze instantly, but she paused and smiled, and when she spoke again, her next words were much gentler. “Just watch, you’ll find it interesting.”

She was very right.

I looked down at myself as best as I could without moving my head and saw the white light envelope my clothing completely. If I had to describe it, I’d have to say it was similar to being snow-blinded. You know, like when you’re outside after a fresh snow when the sun is very bright . You can’t see anything at all because the light is so overwhelmingly bright when it reflects off the ice crystals that it just wipes out everything else from your vision. It faded away after a few seconds though, and when it did, I could see that my plain outfit had been replaced with a simplified version of Laerell’s uniform. I hadn’t felt anything during the switch, though, which was weird - I would have thought it would feel warm or even tickle a little, but there had been no sensation at all. It just happened.

“Isn’t it amazing?” Laerell practically gushed, “This wardrobe and stand were engraved with customized glyphs just for this purpose, so that we wouldn’t need to waste time with tailors and hemming and adjustments, or any of that rubbish. The glyphs were invented by Rosalin Goodrain, herself!”

Rosalin Goodrain, eh? I feel like that’s a name most people have heard of but I don’t recognize it. I’ll ask Maude later.

I took a step down off the riser, admiring my new uniform. It fit perfectly and the fabric was both light and sturdy. Even my original boots had been replaced with a new pair, which were a warm, polished brown, and were easily the most comfortable shoes I’d ever owned. “Wow, you weren’t kidding,” I said, touching the blue fabric held in place with white pearl cuff links at my wrist.

“I never jest about Madame Goodrain,” Laerell sniffed, though I could tell she was pleased with both the outcome and my reaction to it. “Here, you can use this to see the whole thing,” she said and opened one of the doors of the wardrobe. On the inside of the door was a tall mirror, and folded on the adjacent shelf was my original clothing, boots and all. Thank goodness; I was worried about where my old clothes had gone. I can’t afford to buy new ones, just yet…

I took a good look at myself in the mirror provided, turning from side to side to glimpse as many different angles as I could. “Huh. Not bad.”

My new uniform was a masculine version of Laerell’s, with fewer details embroidered on the hems and no lace accents. While her coat was open at the top to show a ruffled white blouse beneath and then buttoned snuggly around her trim waist, mine was fully buttoned from top to bottom which gave it a military-feel. I had a pair of blue trousers where she had a skirt and leggings, and while her boots had a slight heel on them, mine were flat.

“Not bad at all,” agreed Laerell, who regarded me with an appraising eye. “It suits you.”

The unexpected compliment caught me off-guard and I stuttered, blushing a little while I tried to play it off as cool. “U…uh, yeah. I think so, too. Thank you.”

“Eh, it’ll do, I guess.” Teak’s bored tone came from behind us where he’d perched on one of the empty metal shelving-and-drawer units. “I still think we should have an attractive young lady as our receptionist. One with a nice, round…”

“Teak. My dear partner,” Laerell interrupted him, her voice the epitome of calm and composed, barely above a whisper. “If you finish that sentence, then you can expect to find yourself attached to the business end of a feather duster, in a most unpleasant fashion.”

I glanced at Laerell’s face out of the corner of my eye and cringed. She’d gone stock still with a blank expression…blank, except for the burning flame of anger in her eyes behind fogged glasses. The air was frigid around her, like her gaze at Teak was made of icicles. Teak, being wise for once, shut up and pretended not to have said anything in the first place. Those cold-yet-angry eyes reminded me that while she might be young, she was also a whole lot more powerful than me.

Note to self: Do not, under any circumstances, piss off Boss Lady.

…

Also note to self: Never, ever call her Boss Lady to her face.