Being in the Adventurer’s Guild gave Faye such a feeling of peace that she did not want to leave. Out there was a world that knew she was not what she pretended to be. In that massive Guild Hall, she could hide from the magic of the world for a while.

Taking advantage of the Guild’s hospitality was not something that she felt good about doing. Who actually wanted to be homeless? But soon after finding the Adventurer’s Guild, the blue skies had darkened with the familiar grey shadow of cloud cover that promised cooler weather.

Faye had left the Hall to gather her meagre belongings from the park. Not wanting to tip off Maggie or the other attendants what she had planned, she pretended that she had some chores to attend to but that she did want to return for a training session later.

That ‘later’ turned to be much sooner than Faye planned.

That grey sky that had rolled in darkened until fat drops of rain plummeted to the ground in a slow drum beat against the tiles of the town’s roofs.

“Why couldn’t I have been wearing hiking boots, waterproof clothing, a coat?” Faye muttered to herself as she pulled the blanket and her leftover bread from its hiding place in the park.

“Noooo, that was too much to ask,” she said. “I had to be wearing training gear instead.”

She tilted her head back to face the sky. The rain was cold but refreshing.

Wrapping the blanket around her shoulders, she stuffed the small husk of bread in her mouth and chewed furiously. There was no way she’d let the water ruin her snack.

When she had managed to swallow it down, she wiped her hands over her face and through her hair. Even those couple of minutes had completely saturated the blanket and her clothing. She felt the shivers starting and decided to run back to the Adventurer’s Guild.

Maybe that shimmering blue field of cleaning magic would dry her out?

The doors to the Guild were thick, heavy monsters that shut out the rain perfectly. It was still odd how a place that looked so old-fashioned had furniture and timber that was actually straight. Faye had seen some of those older houses from the 17th century.

They looked like a toddler had drawn them most of the time.

Shaking out her wet blanket and squeezing out the majority of the water from her hair into a plant pot, Faye shook herself and took a seat on one of the benches in the lobby.

The Guild Hall didn’t use glass windows everywhere. Like the tavern, it used small panes of glass in a few conspicuous doors, but the main windows of the Hall were simply shuttered. With the rain, Faye had expected the Guild attendants to close the wooden slats. Apparently, they were not bothered about the challenge of heating the Hall despite the downpour.

Faye moved to one of the windows. Sitting by the windowsill, Faye was able to watch the raindrops fall and listen to their soothing tattoo as they dropped faster and faster, louder and louder.

There was something peaceful about listening to and watching rain fall when you were perfectly safe and…

Faye grimaced; she was far from dry.

“Faye!”

She turned to look over her shoulder. Maggie was coming toward her.

“What are you doing? You are soaked through.”

“Got caught in the downpour,” she said, shrugging. “I don’t have a coat.”

It still sounded odd to say things like that.

“I can see that,” Maggie said. She took a hold of Faye’s arm and pulled her up. “I can’t let you sit there in wet clothing; you will catch your death of cold.”

Maggie towed Faye back through what she thought of as the non-public area of the Guild and to a small room that had not been on the tour, earlier.

She was about to ask what the room was for, but Maggie pressed her hand to a flat piece of stone attached to a plinth in the middle of the room and spoke a quiet word.

Seconds later, the room was flooded with heat. It brought a blush to Faye’s face, and she shivered with sheer delight at the warmth.

“There we go,” Maggie said. “It’s too cold outside for you to just be sitting by the open windows.”

Faye grinned and slumped onto the wooden bench around the wall of the room.

“It’s like a sauna, only without the steam,” she said. She pointed to the plinth, and what she saw was a stone sheltered into a box beside it. “Is that the source?”

“Yes, please don’t touch it. I’ll be a moment.”

Faye nodded absently. The stone looked like a regular stone, but if she concentrated, she could see the wavy lines of heat emanating from it.

Maggie slipped out of the room, the blast of cool air that entered a stark contrast to the already toasty warmth that surrounded Faye.

She closed her eyes. It was good to be fully warm.

I don’t think I realised just how cold, sore, and worn out I have been.

A few moments later, Maggie came back into the heat.

“I took the liberty of getting a dress that should fit you well enough,” she said. “It’s rather plain, I hope that you don’t mind.”

Faye tried not to let the simple gift affect her too badly. But the sudden pricking sensation at the corners of her eyes threatened anyway.

“It’s a spare that we keep for members that arrive without supplies.”

Faye shook her head and smiled. It was definitely better than wearing the same clothes over and over for days at a time.

“Thank you,” she whispered.

Maggie smiled, then turned to leave.

“Leave your wet clothes over there.”

It was there, laid in the warming room, eyes half-closed in dreamy, warm, bliss that Faye resolved that she couldn’t keep camping under the stars. She had gotten used to the idea, but muscles she hadn’t realised had been tense were slowly unwinding in the warmth and the release was sending her to sleep.

She didn’t fight it.

Faye woke to find Maggie shaking her.

Her head throbbed with pain. She was finding it difficult to focus on Maggie’s face.

“Come on, it’s not good to spend too much time in here.”

Faye staggered out of the room by clutching the walls, and her head, to try and stay steady. Maggie put what felt like a cool glass in her hands. Without hearing what she had to say about it, Faye put it to her lips and downed it.

The liquid was icy cool. It slipped down her throat and sent icy waves across her skin as it spread throughout her. Her burgeoning headache was cut off, almost literally, as the pain vanished the moment the ice-cold sensation hit her head.

“Wow, that was good,” she said, blinking.

“Mmm,” Maggie said, a concerned look in her gaze. “Faye,” she started, but stopped herself and shook her head. “Here, come with me.”

Faye followed along dutifully. She felt a little under dressed in the loose dress. She had gotten too used to the close-fitting tee shirt and her trousers, but she put that feeling aside. It was nice to be wearing something different.

She wasn’t sure where Maggie was taking her; the hallways all looked the same. She did notice the occasional statue, plant, or other piece of artwork that livened up the place.

The kitchenette — for lack of a better word — they ended up in was rather small but empty of other people.

“I think it might be my fault you ended up passing out, I’m afraid.” Maggie didn’t look too concerned, though there was a crease between her brows. “Which means something I’m not sure I wanted to know.”

She didn’t say anything else for a little while as she put some dried ingredients in a couple of pots, filled them with water, and placed them on what looked for all intents and purposes to be a modern set of oven hobs.

“Are they magic too?” Faye asked.

“Yes, they heat up the pans,” Maggie said. Then she turned and placed her hands on her hips.

Faye froze. She knew a telling off pose when she saw one.

“What did I do?”

“That’s the thing! Nothing! How was I supposed to know what level you were? It’s policy not to know. We’re to treat everyone the same. Well, it’s not working, and I swear they’ll have to listen to me this time. But first,” Maggie said, pointing a finger at Faye. “You. You’re not uncrested, are you?”

“Everyone said I’m uncrested!” she protested. She wasn’t sure what was making Maggie so frustrated. No, angry. This was more than frustration.

“Faye,” Maggie said. “What level are you?” Emphasis on each syllable.

Faye thought for a moment. The last one she had seen had been…

“Level two,” she mumbled. Something was wrong with her tongue. It had gone a little rubbery.

Maggie’s eyes widened, dramatically. It would have been funny if… well, no it was funny. Faye smiled, and tried to giggle, but nothing really emerged.

“Gods. Faye, listen to me, you’ve absorbed too much mana.”

The walls were shifting, as was the floor, and the chair that she was sitting on was sliding around. It didn’t seem fair.

“Faye, you’re sliding around, you silly goose!” The words were coming from everywhere and nowhere all at once. She wasn’t sure if Maggie was even speaking. “Humans don’t slide around like that. You’ll melt into a puddle if you’re not careful.”

“I know!” she said. She didn’t think she knew what to do to get it all to stop. Suddenly it wasn’t Maggie in front of her anymore, it was a shape of an older woman, and a man beside her had his arm around her shoulders.

She wasn’t sure who they were, and that thought disturbed her. She felt tears try to burst forth, but there was no moisture to produce them.

The two figures faded away, as if something bright was emerging from behind them, overpowering their silhouettes. That light took the form of a figure.

But that light was not a good light.

It burned.

She shut her eyes to escape.

“Too bright,” she murmured. “Light’s too bright.”

“She’s lucky we were here,” a voice said. “To be honest, we wouldn’t normally have returned so fast…”

“But this one intrigued our intrepid leader and so here we are.”

“Don’t say it like that, it sounds awful.”

“What, that she intrigues you? Why? It’s true.”

“You make it sound like I’m some creepy uncle or something.”

“Well, it doesn’t matter why you’re all here. I have to thank you for helping me. I wasn’t sure what to do, she just started flopping. It was… it was awful.”

Faye slowly came to hearing their conversation around her as she floated. The sensation of lying on some kind of hard surface eventually filtered through the floaty weightlessness of unconsciousness and she opened her eyes.

“Oh, my! Faye! You’re awake. Thank the gods and thank the spirits for healing magic.”

Maggie’s concerned face swam into view above her.

“Hey, Maggie. What happened?”

“You had a reaction,” came the first voice she’d heard. It was Arran, the swordsman. “We haven’t seen it before, not like that anyway. Fortunately, it was no match for the power of our mighty healer, Gavan.”

Faye heard a semi-violent expulsion of breath from Gavan’s nose.

“Thanks, Gavan. You’re the best,” she muttered.

“Be more careful.”

“Ah, yes, it was definitely Faye’s fault for becoming mana sick. Yes. Silly girl, running around in places where mana exists and allowing it to get under her skin.”

That was Ailith, her tone dripping with indignation and sarcasm.

“What’s mana sick?” Faye asked, she pressed her hand to her brow. She felt fine, physically, but there was something odd behind it — as if the memory of being unwell was affecting her still.

“Your body was overloaded with mana, Maggie here said that you took a nap in the heat room, and that the cooling draught caused a reaction.”

Faye turned to look at Maggie. “I remember that working really well. I had been so hot, as if I’d been roasting. Wait, how long was I out?”

“Only a few minutes,” Maggie took up the explanation. “I only had to leave the room to bump into these three. They had been on the way to the training room.”

“Looking for you, actually,” Arran said. “We heard that you’d spent some time with Maggie and assumed that she’d enrolled you in the Guild.”

“Only a temporary membership, she’s… well, anyway, a temporary one,” Maggie said. Her eyes were wide with worry.

Arran shared a look with Ailith and Gavan, nodded, and turned back to Faye.

“Well, we’re going to let you rest. We have some tasks to complete.”

“But don’t worry, our leader won’t let you get away being all bored…”

“Ailith, stop it, really it doesn’t have to be creepy.”

“I’m not being creepy, Arran. If you think I am, maybe that’s some kind of projection?”

The bickering pair moved into the hallway, and they could still hear them as they walked. Gavan shook his head but gave Faye a brief smile before leaving, too.

Maggie pushed a small bowl into Faye’s hands.

“Eat this. It’s nothing special, but it’s what I wanted to bring you in here for in the first place.” She bit her lip.

“Come on, Maggie, what is it you’re wanting to say?”

“Nothing! No, just eat—”

“I’ll put the bowl down if you don’t ask me the question.”

Maggie glared at Faye, but she clearly knew she’d lost. Before she said anything, she moved over to the door, carefully closed it, and then flicked a latch above the door handle.

“Faye,” she began, quietly. “You’re level two.”

She took a bite of the food, it was almost rice-like with a rich, meaty broth.

How did this only take a few minutes to make? She couldn’t help but wonder.

“Faye?”

“Hm? Ah, sorry, yeah, yeah… this is good by the way. Mmm. Yeah, so level two. Uh huh, that’s right.”

Maggie was biting her lip so hard Faye was worried she would bite all the way through.

“Stop worrying yourself about it, girl, I have. Sort of. Okay, so I haven’t, but that doesn’t mean you have to. It’s my job to worry about my level.”

“Actually, that’s literally my job at the Guild.”

“Oh.”

Maggie smiled, briefly. She stepped up to Faye.

“I’m not sure what’s going on with you. I have never met someone like you before. Only my little brother and sister when they were still kids… but that’s not the point. You’re clearly not slow, or, or… you know, stupid.”

Faye’s face darkened. “No, I am not. And even if I were, the way people treat—”

“I know,” Maggie said. “It’s why some things were changed, but they weren’t done correctly… look that doesn’t matter.” Maggie took a breath. She visibly reset herself, then started again. “You’re not uncrested, Faye. You’re unclassed. You haven’t received a class yet, have you?”

Faye shook her head. “What level do you get classes?”

“Level five.”

She thought back to the lesson she’d overheard from Taveon to the children of the town. That was something he’d mentioned. At the time, she had somehow glossed over it.

“Ah, right. I still have some way to go then,” she said. It wasn’t a positive thought at all. If the guards weren’t going to let her out to train, then what could she do? What could anyone do in her position?

“You do, but it’s worse than that. I’m not sure I understand how you are in this position. I just know that you are and the fact is, if you leave the town, I’m almost certain you will die.”

Faye made a face.

“I’m serious, Faye!”

“No, I’m sure you are. But when I was out in the mountains on my own, I didn’t have the luxury of dying.”

Maggie gasped. “You were in the mountains? Where? When? How?!”

“I don’t know where, but it was four, five days ago now, I think. Why does everyone keep asking me that?”

Maggie’s round eyes were a little too much for her. She ate the rest of her food in silence. After she was done, she slowly stood from the seat she had taken. There was, like any ordinary kitchen, a small bowl for washing up. Faye took a moment to revel in the seemingly normal activity of washing her bowl and utensils.

“Faye, I don’t know what happened, but please promise me you’ll be careful. I, well I think I would feel like it was my fault if something happened to you.”

Faye shook her head, the warm water of the washing up bowl almost scalded her; she yanked her hands out. “It wouldn’t be your fault, Maggie. It’s my life, you’re not my parent. Even if you were, I’m an adult, where I come from, and I make my own choices.”

She tried again with the water, but it scalded her again. “Ow, that’s far too hot.”

Maggie’s hand appeared, slapping down into the scalding hot water. Faye looked up at Maggie’s face. She wasn’t just worried, now, she looked angry.

“Faye, you’re not listening to me. You will get hurt. I’m not saying that because I think you need to be coddled or carefully wrapped up in wool so that you can’t hurt yourself. I mean that the world out there can be very dangerous, and you’re not built for that. You can’t even hold your hands in this water.”

Faye looked down and saw that Maggie’s hand was still in the scalding water.

“Doesn’t that hurt?” she asked, half-whispering.

“No, it doesn’t. I’m level…” Maggie cleared her throat. “I am level thirteen, and my body is able to withstand things that you couldn’t dream of standing up against. Those things aren’t just warm water either, they can be animals, monsters, or even worse: other people.”

Faye made another face. It seemed that humanity was its own worst enemy here as much as it had been back home, too.

“My point is that you don’t seem to understand that there’s a whole world out there that’s dangerous.”

“I don’t think you understand,” Faye countered, “that I have already been out in the world, on my own, and I know that it’s dangerous. So dangerous that all I want is the chance to get strong enough that it’s no longer dangerous.”

Faye stared into Maggie’s eyes, trying to convey depth of her desire to get out there and get stronger. She did not want to stay this low on the totem pole forever. She couldn’t.

“Fine. If that’s what you’ve decided, that’s up to you. Just know that I think—”

“I’m sorry, but I really don’t think that it’s fair for you to try and judge my decision or try to force me to stay ‘safe’. I have to get stronger. You already are. It’s not fair to ask me to stay weaker than literal children, Maggie. So, frankly, I don’t care what you think.”

Maggie’s jaw set. She nodded, roughly, then she pulled a jug of liquid closer. “Drink something, then make your way out. Goodbye, Faye.”

Then she left the room, gone before Faye could even think to say anything else. Not that she was sure what she wanted to say.

“Damn it.”

Faye made her way out to the lobby, the whole way thinking over the mistake with Maggie. She didn’t have many people she could consider as friendly, and she’d just blown a burgeoning friendship out of the water with the way she’d spoken.

She can’t ask me to stay weak forever though.

Emerging from the hallways that led into the private sections of the Guild, Faye was surprised to almost run into the adventurer trio. They were still wearing their adventuring gear. It was considerably dirtier than when they had set out a few days ago.

Arran’s boots were covered in dried mud. He was somehow still trailing little pieces across the floor, actually.

“Faye, I thought we told you to get some rest?” he said.

“Hey, umm, no I’m feeling great,” she lied. A white lie, because physically she did feel almost fine. Just a tiny wobble.

Arran eyed her critically, then looked to Gavan. For his part, Gavan just shrugged his shoulders. Ailith, however, stepped forward and grabbed Faye around the shoulders.

“She’s got spirit. We’ll make her into a proper adventurer yet.”

“That would be great,” Faye said. “When can we start?”

Arran’s speculative look turned downright mischievous, he made a ‘follow me’ motion with his hand and all three adventurers made straight for the exit.