It had only been a couple of hours since the woodworking began and in that time Drelt had managed to make forty checker pieces. Victor couldn’t help but imagine that it was the fact that he decided to make them squares instead of circles. Even though he did plan to say they are normally circles to Elioce, this was just for a demonstration, not a sale, he could afford to cut a few corners. The board, however, wasn’t even close to being finished.

While Victor knew about checkers, he hadn’t realized that wood carving wasn’t quite like other cutting he had done until he tried it. If he was honest, he knew it would be harder than slicing a steak or cutting some cloth, but he struggled with it more than he thought he would.

At one point he decided to try his card and draw in the piece of wood, willing it to leave behind the wood that he didn’t want to be connected to it. Nothing about the wood was changed from its trip in and out of Victor's card, except the scraps that were sitting on it were left behind, falling to the ground with the main piece’s disappearance.

By the time the sun began to fully set, Victor had managed to get the outline of the eight by eight board but none of the internal lines carved.

Drelt meanwhile had gotten all of the square checker pieces done and many of the pawns for a chessboard. He had been smiling as he created the small figurines, taking into account the size of the squares they would have to rest on.

Since he didn’t have a ruler, Victor had taken to using a notebook to measure the length, using the blue lines on the paper as units of measurement, and the plastic cover as a straight edge. Each square was made measuring four lines by four lines, but he felt sure it was a bit smaller compared to what he remembered the game boards were like.

He didn’t care enough to go hunting for the right size of wood and to make the board the proper size, but it did bug him enough to linger in his mind. Somehow the fact it was only slightly wrong felt worse compared to the things that were blatantly wrong like the shape of the checkers.

The next day, through a series of gestures and facial expressions, Drelt got the point across to Victor that he didn’t need to help anymore with the project, leading him to go to the guild with Alena and Dorun.

So far, Victor had done nothing that made him draw anyone's attention beyond the normal eyes that would look towards any door as it opened. The same could not be said for Alena however as she stuck close to him. She didn’t cling to his body like she was afraid of anyone but close enough to make sure that people knew she wasn’t alone.

Dorun, on the other hand, was simply bringing up the rear as he slowly peered from side to side.

“I’m impressed at how many more jobs are here. Lots of new ones even compared to yesterday. Of course, this is the capital.”

Victor knew that the bigger the area the more jobs there would be available, but he was still surprised how fast the jobs got taken and completed, at least the lower-level ones.

Apparently, there were people who would wait until specific members of the guild were around to make some requests. This was done in the hopes that the specific person would take the request even though there was no way to ensure that would be the case most of the time without paying a premium or something similar. Victor had even heard of more experienced guild members doing odd requests that would usually go into the black or were ones open to anyone, depending on the reward provided.

While he might have been curious about some aspects of the more open to everyone requests, Victor stuck to the red and black ones, trusting Alena to provide him the appropriate information.

Mostly he trusted her to pick quests that were doable and were ‘worth the time’, as she put it.

“The more we use our time in the best way possible, instead of doing any request that we happen to see, the faster I’ll get my freedom.”

Victor heard Dorun mutter something about respect when she said that, but he was just glad that things seemed to be moving with more stability compared to before.

While looking over some of the posters with Alena, Victor noticed a few old ones and noted that one that started at yellow had an orange circle around it. While looking at it, a guild worker came over and drew a red circle around the orange one.

Seeing the change in color, or at least a circle around the color change, Victor assumed he knew what was going on so he asked Alena what the request was about.

Apparently, the request was to move a series of statues from one point in the city to another for the pay that one would expect from a yellow request. Over time it seems the request rank kept going down while the reward stayed the same.

Alena was able to tell Victor about the size and roughly how heavy the three statues would be, although she admitted that was an assumption and not certain based on what was provided. This told him why the request was not taken already.

The best comparison he could think of was trying to hire a bike courier to deliver something that would require a pickup truck to move.

Sure with enough time, effort, and planning it could probably be done, but most people would see it as a waste when you compare the effort to reward ratio. Luckily for Victor, he had a way to go after it without the effort and time investment other people would have. If he was honest his planning was almost non-existent as he walked up to the counter to ask about the request.

“Excuse me, sir, could you tell me about the statue request?”

From behind the counter, there were three people working and two waiting for someone to come up to them. Victor couldn’t help but see they all looked stressed to various extents as he noticed there looked to be enough space for at least eight guild attendants at a time.

The person turned to Victor and put on a smile with a lot of sharp teeth becoming visible. He wasn’t exactly confident in his ability to read the expression from someone with a snout but was finding it a touch harder than other beastkins as this one was more animalistic for his age than most of the ones he had seen.

Beastkins, at least in his experience, seemed to follow a basic pattern of starting out mostly human-looking with animal ears and eyes, possibly a tail or something else based on the animal they were related to. For some of the beastkin kids, he imagined simple Halloween animal costumes would be a fair comparison. It seemed the older they got the more bestial aspects started to appear and, Victor had learned during his trip to the capital, the race of the children between two beastkins always took after the mother.

This meant that no matter what type of beastkin the father was, if the mother was, for example, a mouse aligned beastkin then all the children would be mice based.

Shaking away the thought, he looked at the beastkin who, he assumed, was some sort of dog or hyena perhaps? He wasn’t sure of what the species was, but it wasn’t a bother to him. He had found himself getting used to the oddities of different races.

He wouldn’t want to admit it, but the fact that most people seemed to be human so far had helped him with the adjustment period, even if things in the capital had gotten a lot more diverse.

“Do you mean the statue making request or the yellow to red one for transport? I assume you want the former.”

Victor hesitated a moment, an action that the beastkin took notice of, causing him to actually focus on Victor, “You meant the latter?”

“I was curious about it yes,” Victor admitted, “I am not saying I will do it, but I want to see the statues before I decide if I do it for him. Is it ok if I do that and just tell you after if I took the request without officially taking it now?”

Moving his hand up the beastkin picked at his teeth with a claw, “Let me ask Heatbrass.”

With that the man left, going into a hallway behind the counter.

“That gnoll seems strong. I wonder why she works doing this job.”

Victor was about to say something about job preferences or perhaps opportunities in life when he paused and looked at Dorun, leaning in just a bit.

“Gnoll?”

Even though Victor recognized the name, he was never really played games like some of the people he knew. He had thought about it and even attended a couple of sessions at the behest of some friends, but hadn’t stuck with it.

Promising to attend the same event for four hours on the same day of the week every week just seemed like a lot to commit to. He did remember though, the last time he played the group was planning to go and deal with a gnoll invasion.

Pushing back how a couple of his friends might know about gnolls, he wondered what was different between them and certain types of beastkins.

The gnoll looked like a beastkin in Victor's eye, but larger both in height and width in addition to being much more animalistic. Even his hand, or maybe paw would be the better word, looked like the palm was bigger than his hand, even with all the fingers and thumbs included.

“I’ve never seen a gnoll before,” Victor admitted quietly so only Alena and Dorun could hear him.

Dorun crossed his arms with a huff, “They tend to make communities with their own people more than most. The fact that the woman is here could mean that she was banished by her people, or perhaps is an odd member of her race who wanted to be more separate from her people. No matter how similar a group is there will always be those who go against the expectations of their community.”

“I suppose a war or conflict with a strong enough natural danger could have caused her to be the only surviving member of her community as well. Perhaps she couldn’t find another one willing to take her in if that is the case.”

Having thought that the gnoll was a man, Victor made a mental note to not assume when he met someone new, especially of a race he hadn’t encountered previously. He didn’t want to risk upsetting someone with a mistake like that. Even more so when they looked like they could snap his limbs like a twig.

When the gnoll came back to the counter she, Victor made sure to remember that she was a she, put out a piece of paper with writing on it.

“Here. He said to give this to the customer. You’re the first to show any interest, but since you say you aren’t sure if you’re taking it, he thought it would be better to explain it. Just let us know if you take the job before you do it.”

She looked at him, her eyes slightly piercing, “Don’t feel like you have to no matter what sweet words you are given. Even if you’re desperate for more money there are more effective ways than this.”

After taking the paper and getting directions from the woman, Victor tried to take in how she looked even more as he thanked her for the advice saying he would consider everything before taking or refusing the job.

The walk to the client’s house was, thankfully, pretty easy to navigate, even without signs that Victor could read.

The directions brought the three to a building that looked surprisingly uniform compared to the other houses around it. In a way, it reminded Victor of the generic houses in a town building simulator.

Two floors with windows placed evenly around it and a double door entrance in the front with steps leading up to it. The building materials looked to be good unless Victor was oblivious about something being more or less valuable because of scarcity here, so he thought it was supposed to be a nice place.

As they came to the building and entered through the door, he was overtaken by some of the sights that he found within.

Despite having been told that this was the home and workstation of a pair of artists, Victor was picturing something more like what he saw in movies or at a museum for both work stations and art. Instead, there was something more to it.

Paintings, sculptures, and displays were around and many were like he had seen, but he was already seeing pieces that seemed to work in a way he hadn't seen before when he went places to look at art. At least not in reality since movies and shows would have art beyond what a real museum could have.

Some of the paintings seemed to actually produce light or darkness around them in a whirling motion that reminded Victor of Van Gogh, others produced a mist or moved, one even seemed to speak and answer questions when spoken to.

The sculptures were equally amazing as far as Victor was concerned in that some of them moved slightly while others suddenly switched between forms like on a slide show. One even seemed like its material was shifting.

Before he could really appreciate the artwork a soft but firm voice broke through to Victor.

“Sir if you’re here to look at the art it is one large copper coin. If you wish to buy something prices are listed beneath each piece. As far as commissions go the artists are both very busy already so you will have to wait for at least winter to hit before they would be able to work on anything new.”

The woman, an elf by the look of her considering her ears and her fair skin, had drawn Victor's attention with her words.

“And that is one large copper per person so three in total for your group.”

Victor took a moment to realize what she was asking before he fumbled for the note he had been given, only for Alena to grab it instead and hand it over.

“We are considering doing the requested delivery, but are making no promises until we can verify a few things. This should explain everything that our owner is too flustered to say right now.”

Taking the note and examining it, the elf eventually looked at the trio.

“I see. One moment please.”

The elven woman lifted a small silver bell that, despite the look of it, produced no sound that Victor could hear. Alena however visibly winced and Dorun let out a small utterance as the bell was rung.

Shortly after that a young human boy, if Victor had to guess about fourteen or fifteen, came before them. He was wearing a black outfit that, superficially, looked like a suit of some sort. It was much longer than any Victor had seen and the front didn’t close all the way, revealing a white shirt with paint splatters on it in a variety of colors. One part of it seemed to be smoking ever so slightly.

Once the boy was there he stood straight and offered a soft bow of his head to the elf as well as Victor's trio. It was during the bow that Victor saw an earring that matched the ones that his slaves were wearing.

After bowing the elf handed the boy the paper she had been looking at as she spoke in a slow manner.

“I need you to take these three into the awaiting delivery room. Then give this paper to Xelebre, but if she is too busy right now then bring it to Zaldujen. If he complains remind him that he is two projects behind and if he isn't working right now he can do this.”

With his orders the young slave did as he had been told, speaking just a little when he left Victor and his slaves in the aforementioned room.

“The master or mistress will be here soon. Please stand or sit in the provided furniture in the corner of the room. It shouldn’t take too long for one of them to see you.”

Pointing towards a corner, the young man directed them to what appeared to be three couches that were lacking in armrests, surrounding a table that was shaped, instead of in a simple geometric shape, a randomly cut piece of wood with jagged points and curving sides.

With each member of the trio taking a seat on a different couch, Victor commented on how comfortable it felt when he looked over and noticed that Dorun seemed to be sinking in his couch while Alena had already stood back up.

“I think that this one is made out of stone. Much too hard for a person to sit on comfortably.”

Standing next to it, Alena dropped a coin on the couch and it made an audible clanking sound through the layer of cloth that must be covering whatever it had been made of.

Dorun, on the other hand, was struggling to get off of the couch he had sat on, almost rolling instead of trying to stand up properly. For some reason, Victor saw this and imagined a cat trying to get out of a swimming pool made of syrup. It wasn’t something he had ever seen but the visual had inserted itself in his head.

Eventually, Dorun managed to get out of the couch, refusing the help that Victor offered him and in the end, Alena was sitting on the couch next to Victor while Dorun stood at his side.

“The three bears.”

A quick look at her side lead Alena to ask, “The what?”

Having not realized that he had said what he was thinking, Victor shook his head a bit, “Nothing just a small story where I came from. The couches made me think of it is all. Too hard, too soft, just right.”

Pointing at each of the three pieces of furniture in succession as he spoke, Victor began to consider telling them the story to help the time pass when the door opened.

Despite the fact that they couldn’t see the figure right away, it wasn’t long before the figure of a woman came into view. She was a little on the short side, but not short enough that Victor thought she was anything except for the human she appeared to be.

Her clothing was covered in paint splatterings which all seemed to be magical in their own way as many of the effects had their own zone and in some cases seemed to mingle with each other.

A few of the paint splatterings were on her hair and almost seemed to blend in causing Victor to wonder if the three colors of hair, no make that four colors, she had were intentional or a result of her art. He thought the yellow had the potential to be natural, as something akin to blonde. Another section was brown that looked typical and normal, but between those two parts, her hair was divided by a hot pink color that had stripes of white. The stripes of white were so clean he couldn’t help but wonder how she kept it that way when dealing with such odd artistic materials.

“I assume you are the ones who might be taking the request. I also see you all are using the same piece of furniture. A pity.”

Sitting down on the chair that seemed to absorb Dorun not long ago, the woman’s form seemed to vanish as it sank, but not like Dorun had.

While Dorun had sunk in a way that made Victor think of a cartoon character in a quicksand chair. Xelebre, he assumed that was her name, on the other hand, seemed to be sitting on it with only a mild descent into it in a way that reminded him of someone balancing on a ball chair. She only made slight movements as she kept herself seated.

Watching her sit, Victor began to wonder if the couch cushions would move as if they were something halfway between a couch cushion and water. Even though he had never seen one, he had heard of water beds and wondered how it would have compared.

Once everyone who was going to be seated was, Xelebre rang a small bell in a specific pattern four times, this time it was a bell Victor could hear and set it down on the table between them.

“This request has been up for forty-four days now. So far nobody has even come to look into the request except you.”

Xelebre spoke without looking at any of the trio, instead picking something off of her pants and rolling it into a ball that created a soft sound as she rolled it similar to water flowing.

“Forgive me for being blunt, but what is wrong with you that you would take this request?”

Victor couldn’t help but feel at a loss for words as the woman effortlessly stood up from the couch.

“Thank goodness you didn’t actually accept the quest already. I can’t have you do it yet or she would expect us to be able to do it like this every time.”

Walking around, Xelebre was fidgeting with the paint she picked off her pants as she spoke.

“If you really want to do it today I will stand aside and let you, but it would be in both of our best interests if you wait for six days.”

The woman started to walk around in, not a circle, but something shaped more like a lima bean. After a bit, however, it became more of a figure eight.

“That commission was a pain, but well worth the money. I find it ironic that she spent so much money on the statues to be crafted, especially considering the material she wanted it made from, only to go cheap on the delivery options.”

“We are at day forty-four and I want the delivery to wait until day fifty at least. Do you know why? Of course, you don’t know why. I’ll tell you why.”

The woman's smaller figure almost bounced around the area at this point, the slave from earlier coming in and offering her a slice of fruit sitting in a teacup filled with a hot drink.

Quickly drinking the beverage first, she ate the fruit slice in one bite and gave the cup back.

“She agreed to our demands that if she can’t get someone to do the job then we can hire a proper delivery service. Legally I can’t deny you this job if you want it, but I don’t want you to take it because if she gets what she wants once she will probably try again. This time she might not even allow us to have a time when we can do things properly in the deal and I don’t want to lose a high profile client.”

Biting her fingernails, Victor noticed that they were chipped but colored and styled like he might see back home, but only on her left hand. Her right hand had nothing to make it stand out, except for the exaggerated gestures that she made with it as she walked and spoke.

“I know you have no obligation to accept my request in this and I would be in the wrong in more ways than one to demand it, but please refuse this delivery.”

Alena spoke up at the same moment that Dorun did, causing them to glare at each other. This gave Victor a moment of silence to speak.

“I wasn’t sure I wanted to do this but the money looked pretty good and I thought I could manage it on my own. Is this woman really that bad that you would beg me to refuse a job? The money I would get from it would be a big help.”

Xelebre looked at Victor as she adjusted the shape of her pacing into something closer to a bloated triangle.

“I could give you another delivery. It is one I would normally do on my own, but if it means you will pass on this job then I will give it to you. I am even willing to pay you more than a fair price so long as you stay silent on everything we talked about... Please.”

Victor stayed quiet for a short moment. He wasn’t sure what to say as he looked at the woman. He had expected people to talk him out of taking the job, but not the person who was offering the job to be the one to do it.

It’s always worth taking a moment to look at a piece of art you just finished, Xelebre thought to herself as she looked at her latest creation.

Sure it was a piece that was a commission, but the customer had only given her a few specifics that she had to follow. A person, a setting, a few options for extra items to use in it, and three different outfits that he could be wearing in the piece.

An odd, but fun, part was that he only wanted her to use paint that could be found from any art shop and skip using any of the paint that used components for external effects. He wanted a piece using nothing but classic artistic talent with only the most basic tools.

He said that he wanted to challenge the artist in some ways while allowing large degrees of freedom in others, such as poses, style, and he had paid ahead of time, unlike many others who were a bit eccentric with their requests.

Since he was willing to take a chance on her art she decided to take some risks on what she did.

For the foam on the water she ended up doing some blistering, something she would normally never do, but she thought if done right it could add a little extra to the piece.

While the beach was still tacky she blew some sand onto it to allow it to stand on top of the paint instead of just mixed within it.

The last risk was adding a bit of intentional flaking onto the customer's painted sword. The red that she had dripping was over-exaggerated for the blood that was supposed to be on it. This along with the flaking was used to show that the sword had both fresh and dried blood on it.

Thinking she would enjoy a snack and a nap now that she had finished, Xelebre found her attention drawn away by a knocking on her workshop door.

“Come in,” Xelebre said with an obvious hint of annoyance as she began to wipe her brushes on a canvas she kept near her work. It was something she had taken to doing and had even sold her last one after setting it up in the gallery, just to see if it would be bought.

Turning around she saw the house slave that had been bought two years ago. Looking at him she noticed the paper he was holding and held out her hand.

As usual, he quickly provided what he had and scampered off.

I’ll tell him to get me a snack and tea later, she thought to herself

Opening the paper she looked at it and she almost laughed aloud as she shoved it into her pocket without a second thought.

Someone was thinking about taking the job? At least it took this long for anyone to even think about it despite the rank request going down. Whoever it was would see the statues that needed to be moved and, like she told her client, refuse to make the delivery without a large pay hike. Especially since it was the guild and not the people who only did deliveries.

Letting everything stay as it was, Xelebre checked the mirror and picked up one of the small vials near it. After uncorking it she drew a line through the middle of her hair, letting it change from blue to pink. Then she used small drippings from a second vial to create white lines within the pink hair.

Even though she didn’t plan to keep anyone waiting, Xelebre saw no reason to rush and speak with whoever was foolish enough to come for the request.

She had a slight hope that someone would be sitting on the stone furniture. The sides had a small hidden compartment with cushions to be sat on, but that wasn’t something she would ever show to someone new.

In its own way, seeing how people treated the three pieces of furniture was a form of performance art in her mind.

The cocky warrior who would struggle to get out of the soft furniture and the stuffy academic stuck on the stone or the one who is sitting upon the normal piece, watching their companions struggling. Those faces would so often deserve to be reflected in art, but they would be gone just as quickly as they appeared so she didn’t get her hopes up about seeing the initial reactions.

Appearing in the storage room, Xelebre was disappointed to see that nobody was on anything except the normal couch.

As she approached she took note of all of the people who were around.

Standing strong next to the couch was a slave who seemed to be missing two fingers and an eye. It was possible he was some sort of guard or protector who had lost some of his body doing his job. A bit injured, but to some that would make him seem even more intimidating as he had already made sacrifices in his life.

The slave stood next to another man who looked to be his junior. He was the only one of the three who wasn’t a slave and must have been the one who said he might be taking the request. A fairly typical looking young man who had slightly feminine features. He didn’t appear to have much muscle mass and, while some of him was tan, what she could see at the edges of his clothes were quite pale, showing he wasn’t a farmer's child or anyone who worked in the sun growing up. She thought he likely spent most of his time indoors until recently.

Lastly, at the only free person’s side sat a lady slave. She was by no means a beauty beyond reproach, but Xelebre could think of a few pieces where her figure would be perfect, although her hair and face would likely need to be tweaked based on the customer’s demands. Likely someone wishing to have their past brought back in the form of a statue.

“I assume you are the ones who might be taking the request. I also see you all are using the same piece of furniture. A pity.”

Sitting across from the group she looked at them, looking to see if any of them were shocked that she could comfortably sit on it without sinking.

The guard slave gave her a look that told her all she needed to know as she wondered if his lack of an eye or missing fingers would have made the sight she missed more humorous. She internally cursed herself for missing it while she spoke with the group about the job.

Losing herself in the entirety of it a thought slowly began to creep into her mind. Sure this man, the note called him Victor, seemed to be nobody special, but his name was Victor. A name that meant achievement or overcoming another either in battle or competition.

He also had slaves at his side. While this wasn’t something so uncommon it made her think about it like she would a painting. A man named Victor, so used to achievement that he made others drape him with it like a champion given an award.

A man who made others call him such a thing while a slave of strength and a slave of, to a degree at least, beauty, stayed at his sides with who knows how many other slaves at his disposal back home. A man who stayed silent as she went on about things related to the request.

He barely seemed to respond to anything she said, instead just watching her and listening. Being interrupted was something she was so used to that Xelebre found herself rambling longer than normal, explaining and elaborating on the situation.

She didn’t even remember ringing the bell for her favorite tea to be brought in, but when it was she drank it and ate the fruit that had soaked in it quickly.

The only reason that Xelebre stopped talking was that she heard so many voices at once. Both of the slaves spoke first but seemed to talk over each other leading to their owner speaking up.

Victor, or perhaps the victor. Only nobles or royals would give someone such a brazen name, she thought to herself. Even then many of them would hold back in case their child turned out to not take after the family in the way they wanted. The only thing that made sense was that someone had given him this name for a reason.

When people talked to or of him they were calling him more than just his name as a result of his name. Even if not directly, by calling him Victor she saw him being used to being called the champion, winner, conqueror, and more. His silent confidence had nearly broken her as she heard his first words.

“I wasn’t sure I wanted to do this but the money looked pretty good and I thought I could manage it on my own. Is this woman really that bad that you would beg me to refuse a job? The money I would get from it would be a big help.”

His words. Were they something she needed to decipher?

The money looked pretty good? Was it a comment on the fact it had been reduced to a red rank request while the price stayed the same or was it a jab that he thought it was a fair price for this sort of delivery?

He asked if she was that bad? Oh god, what did I say about her? I lost track of myself what if he knows her? It wouldn’t be impossible for a noble to be sent by a higher noble like this to check on things.

Again on the money, though it would be a big help. Is he a noble trying to rough it? To live amongst us to see what it is like? Or maybe he isn’t noble at all. He could just be someone who is oblivious to how he seems, but that is as unlikely as the crown falling out of the castle and landing on someone, and that being the way they decide who will marry into the royal family.

Unable to think of anything else, Xelebre spit out the words without any planning to them, trusting her instincts to carry her through like she did pieces of art.

“I could give you another delivery. It is one I would normally do on my own, but if it means you will pass on this job then I will give it to you. I am even willing to pay you more than a fair price so long as you stay silent on everything we talked about... Please.”

Looking back at her words, Xelebre thought she sounded a bit weak. Her tone was softer than normal and her pacing was slower, but it couldn’t hurt to show a bit of submission to a noble of unknown status.

She feared that he would reject her offer. That there was something she had forgotten or overlooked about him and his slaves.

It fit the stories she had heard. Especially if the child was taking his or her status for granted, but when they got the status back it wasn’t unheard of for them to seek retribution against those who they thought wronged them during those times of hardship.

Watching the trio she felt herself about to chew on her fingernails, but Xelebre stopped herself. Only when drawn close did she see two of her fingers had their art cracked and realized she had been chewing on them earlier.

“We’re already here,” Victor said causing her to snap her attention to him, “I guess if you tell me what you need delivered, how far it is and the pay, we can think about it.”

He agreed. Xelebre almost cheered but kept it to herself. Instead, she allowed a smile and a small bow to Victor. He was quick to accept which meant he might be a beggar noble instead of a high ranking one, but even then it never hurt to be good to them.

He seemed nicer than the others she had met in her line of work. Perhaps he wasn’t a noble after all. She had to test him, but how.

There were only a few ways to identify a noble that would leave no doubts and they often required connections that Xelebre didn’t have or ones that she didn’t wish to stress for this situation.

Eventually, she decided on something that, while not a certainty, often helped.

“I did notice that the guild's paperwork only gave me your first name. Could I ask for your last name?”

Holding her breath just a bit, Xelebre waited to hear if he had one and if so what it was. Most people didn’t use last names in this area unless they had a lot of connections, money, power, or history. It wasn’t a way to know for sure if he was a noble, but if there was one, especially one she didn’t recognize as fallen from grace, it meant that her assumption was more likely to be right.

“Oh sorry, I didn’t know you needed it. My last name’s Atkins. Do you need my middle name too?”

Xelebre mentally froze, but physically went back to her pacing in a zigzag pattern as she tried to remember that name. Think as she could she didn’t remember ever hearing that last name before. But beyond that a middle name? What was a middle name? Was he messing with her or was he serious? She could see either of the possibilities as true and wasn’t sure which scenario was worse.

“I see, in that case, I’ll be right back.”

Trying to act calm, a skill she had worked on for years, Xelebre left the room and went to get a scroll of paper writing a short note on it before rolling it up. Casting a spell on it, she made sure that it would be stuck solid until either the spell wore off, which would happen within the day or less if someone actively tried to force it open, or the intended recipient touched it.

After a short break to recollect her thoughts, Xelebre realized she didn’t comment on the middle name. Pushing that realization aside she walked back into the room and found the trio speaking about something. She thought it was about games, but the mentions of tactics, attacking from the sides, picking off the vulnerable, and sacrificing a knight to save the queen, she felt a touch of uncertainty.

When she got their attention, Xelebre held out the roll of paper and explained to the group where they had to go, that the paper would let the shopkeep know what was wanted, and that they would bring it back to get the pay.

“So take this, do whatever you need to because I trust you to do what I am paying you for, and just pick up my order. I told him to take it out of my account so no worries about paying for it just bring it back here when you’re done.”

Victor took the paper and lightly tapped it with his fingers as he turned it. Having made sure that there was nothing that would be a risk if noticed written on it she had no concerns, but felt like he was trying to examine her since it was a bit of her magic she felt he was looking at.

Xelebre was curious how long he would be like that when he spoke up again.

“So you don’t mind if I treat this like it’s mine while we’re transporting it? I mean the magic, I’m assuming it's magic, makes it harder to put in places since it is so stiff and well I can’t fold it or anything.”

The question seemed a bit of a curiosity to Xelebre, but she quickly waved her hand in a dismissive manner, wishing she hadn’t the moment she did as she felt too invested to stop midway.

“Yes I did a bit of magic, but without a mana core to keep it powered it won’t last long, sometime around sunset I think it will wear off. As for how to treat it, treat it however you like. So long as the paper gets to its place and you bring my order back I don’t care what else happens. Just try not to take too long.”

As she watched Victor and his slaves leaving the area, Xelebre noted that he seemed to be, if not happy, fine with how things went.

With a deep sigh, she picked up the bell from the table and rang it without any pattern before falling onto the couch and sinking in so only her limbs and head could be seen.

As she relaxed she had no way of knowing that she, albeit indirectly, opened a path for Victor that he would have struggled to find otherwise.