The three adventurers and one would-be adventurer traipsed back to the town as the sun started its descent that evening. Having fought the various creatures of the forests until they were all slick with sweat, bodies craving food and rest.

Faye had noticed throughout the day that the group had varied between calling the things they were fighting creatures, beasts, and monsters. She wasn’t sure if they were interchangeable, but at the moment the idea of taking in more new information seemed impossible. She just wanted a lie down and some good food.

Soon enough the town’s walls rose out of the trees. They hadn’t travelled too far from the town, though they had been far enough for the creatures of the forest to be more common. Apparently, the town guards would regularly patrol the immediate town environs to rid them of threats.

Faye hadn’t thought that the idea of seeing the town walls would ever evoke such a feeling of relief than at that moment. For days, they had been a symbol of her lack of freedom. Instead, they were now more of a sign that she would be able to relax.

As they rounded the last minor bend in the trail and came into full view of the walls and the accompanying gate.

“Do we have any of the good ale left?” Ailith asked. Arran shrugged but Gavan nodded.

“A few cupsful.”

“Good, I have a thirst for it.”

“You have a thirst for it?” Arran said, laughing a little. “You mean you fancy some ale. Why are you talking like that?”

“I can’t help it, it’s the feeling of coming back after a job well done.”

Gavan smiled and Faye smirked a little. Arran and Ailith liked to tease one another regularly. If Faye didn’t know better, she would have bet that something was going on between the two.

“Well, we only partially accomplished what we set out to do.”

“That’s not true! She levelled, didn’t she?”

The gates were open, as usual, but Faye noticed that one of the guards was atop the gate this time, and they were looking at the incoming group expectantly. She couldn’t tell if it was one of the ones that she’d spoken to, or if it was one that Arran had spoken to before they had left.

As a matter of fact, she had no idea how many guards there were in Lóthaven.

Stepping through the gates, Faye felt something strange. She looked around but couldn’t see anything.

Gavan was a step behind her, and it wasn’t until he stepped through and gasped that she realised she had felt something, and the others had too.

“Gavan?”

“Not sure,” he said. “Scrying?”

“Damn. Fine. We probably deserve a talking to.” Here, Arran looked to Faye. She blushed and ducked her head; he had let her know exactly how stupid it had been to withhold her true level for so long.

“Ho, there!” came a call. Walking toward them were three guards. Each was armoured, two held spears and the third sported a sheathed sword. “You are the party of Arran, Ailith, and Gavan, no?”

“Aye, that we are, friend. Can we help you?” Arran called. He’d come to a stop a few feet within the town’s perimeter and hooked his thumbs into his belt. He looked calm and collected. Faye felt like her heart would hammer out of her chest any moment.

She clenched and unclenched her hands.

“You are required to report immediately to the Guild Hall. We are to escort you there.”

Arran looked at the others and shrugged.

“We knew it would happen. Let’s just get it over with.”

“Not sure they’re givin’ us much of a choice, Arran.”

“Agreed.”

“But if we make the choice ourselves, it’s less annoying,” he replied to his teammates.

“Not much of a choice when the guards are staring at us as if we owe them money,” Ailith muttered.

“Let’s be fair, you probably do.”

Ailith punched her supposed leader on the arm, and he staggered away, complaining that he’d lost feeling in it. The guards were starting to look uncomfortable, so the group decided to put them out of their misery and follow them up to the Guild Hall.

As they fell in with the guards, one with a spear tapped Faye on the back of the legs with the butt of the weapon.

“You, up ahead so we can keep an eye on you.”

“What? I’m not going—”

The spear shaft rammed into her side, and Faye coughed and bent over the sudden and dull pain deep in her abdomen.

“Hey!”

Faye was basically on her knees, fighting to catch her breath and ignore the pain when a warmth emanated from her shoulder down through her body.

It didn’t take the pain away fully, but it reduced it to a manageable level. She looked up to Gavan’s concerned face. When he saw she was able to breathe again, he nodded and turned a glare on the guard.

Arran was in the man’s face. His sword was not yet drawn, but it was clear that he was on the verge of violence. Ailith had stepped between Arran and the other guards, letting the drama play out between Arran and the one that had attacked Faye.

“She’s gotta listen to her betters!” the guard was saying, jutting his chin out at Faye, even as she still crouched low to the ground. “It’s not my fault that she’s weak.”

Faye could almost hear the grinding of Arran’s teeth. It took him a moment to respond.

“She is unclassed. You struck a young woman who was completely incapable of withstanding the force of your blow.”

The guard shrugged. “Told you, I don’t care. She’s been requested at the Guild Hall. Told she was a flight risk. I’m not getting pay docked on account of no retard.”

The blow came fast. Faster than Faye was capable of seeing, the guard too, apparently. The man’s face rocked back, his neck making a cracking noise that made Faye flinch.

A part of her exulted in the man’s pain but another part of her worried that the consequences would come down on them hard.

The other two guards shouted, one levelled their spear at Arran and the other drew their sword. Ailith stepped forward though. Her bulk and height, helped greatly by her armour, made them both take a step back. She just shook her head at them.

Faye sensed Gavan tensing up, his hands ready in what she recognised as his casting stance.

Arran had returned his hand to his hip, his sword undrawn, but ready at a moment’s notice.

“Guard Macloud, I insist on defending the honour of this young woman, who is currently unable to defend her own.”

His words stirred annoyance in her, but not at Arran. It was still ridiculously unfair that some God-awful prejudice meant that because she was a lower level than the people around her, she was so powerless… and to be called that… her blood boiled.

“You fucken slapped me!” The guard’s outburst came out with spittle, making Faye frown in disgust. “I’ll have you locked away!”

Faye found her hand tightly wound on the grip of the sabre. She itched to pull it free, but none of her companions had drawn their weapon. It was a step that would escalate this from incredibly tense into a full-blown fight — or a massacre.

“No,” Arran said. “You will instead receive my challenge. Do you accept?”

The guard barely seemed able to comprehend Arran’s words. The vein on his neck bulged under the strap of his helmet.

He was in Arran’s face. Close enough to bite him.

In a mad second, Faye thought that he might even do it.

“I don’t have to accept no challenge from you, you’re out of fucken line, boy!”

Faye looked at the other guards. They were distinctly unhappy, from the looks on their faces, but they weren’t ready to rush past the bulk of Ailith to rescue their companion, yet.

She readied herself. She wasn’t sure what was going to happen, but she knew that she needed to be ready for it.

Arran simply stood still. Somehow the words of his challenge echoed around them. His words repeating themselves quietly, over and over. The guard shook his head and went to shove Arran in the chest.

But before he could get within an inch of the duellist’s body, his motion was arrested. Faye had no idea what was happening, but it was clear that the guard was in pain. His skin was turning redder by the moment. As if he were straining against something incredibly heavy.

“Do you accept?”

The guard made a noise that no man should be able to make, half scream of rage, half squealing pig. Apparently, that was enough to constitute acceptance, however.

The man suddenly dropped bonelessly to the ground.

Ailith hooked a thumb over her shoulder. “If you’d be so kind as to clean up after yourselves? We’ve got to go talk to someone about this.”

The guards were unsure. They hesitated, but when Arran turned and locked gaze with them, they immediately nodded. The sword wielding one sheathed her blade and waved up to the guard on top of the gate. She flashed a couple of hand signs and then moved around Ailith to pick up the insensate guard.

“Our superiors will hear of this.”

“Aye, and you can be sure that we’ll inform the Administrator of this the moment we step foot in the Guild.”

The guard’s jerky nod looked to Faye to be somewhere between pleased and uncertain. She grimaced. This whole thing had been over her. She didn’t necessarily feel it was her fault, but it hardened her resolve to get stronger as fast as possible.

It will solve so many problems, she thought.

Ailith must have noticed her expression. She nudged Faye's shoulder.

"Don't worry about it, little one. When you hit tenth level and crest, which I expect will happen sooner rather than later, this won't happen anymore."

"Why does it happen in the first place?" she asked. It made no sense.

"It's less of a problem closer to civilisation," Gavan said.

"He's not wrong," Ailith said, nodding. "In the cities, people wouldn't just judge you based on your level."

"So, everyone can see my level? That's why they're acting this way?"

"It's hard to explain. From an early age, especially in a bigger town, you are surrounded by people that are stronger than you, higher level than you," Ailith said. She sauntered as they walked, but Faye noticed that the big guardian swivelled her eyes across the streets as they went. She wasn't as oblivious as some might expect.

"Strong person, strong aura," Gavan said.

"The mage is right," Ailith said, "there are some people that just feel a certain level. But that's beside the point. Over time, your ability to understand what level someone is just by being near them grows."

"So people always know that I'm not crested?" she asked.

"Most will. Out here, on the edge of the world, that matters more than most places," Ailith continued. "It might not seem like it, but Lóthaven wouldn't exist without us. The adventurers keep this place habitable. We'd be overrun, otherwise."

"Those that don't grow quickly don't help the town to survive," Gavan said. He shook his head. "Foolishness."

"Foolish or not," Arran said, and the others fell silent at the words that held the simmering violence he had unleashed on the guards, "that's what matters in most people's heads."

Faye nodded. It didn't really make sense. But she understood that it didn't have to make sense to her. She just had to make sure that those people didn't control her life forever.

The Guild Hall was as magnificent as before, the hushed sense of stillness in the lobby pervaded everything still, but this time it held an undercurrent of something else. Faye wasn’t sure if it was just her, but it seemed like everyone was holding their breath.

Two people were waiting for the adventurers as they entered, a man and a woman. The man was standing in the very centre of the grand hall, his hands clasped behind his back. He looked somewhat detached. His gaze lazily wandered over the group, locking onto Faye for what felt to her a split second longer than the others.

The woman, on the other hand, was glaring at them all with unadulterated anger. Her aura of authority was almost palpable. She held a large tome in the crook of her left arm, its thick cover bursting with sheaves of paper. Her right hand was resting on her hip.

For a moment, Faye had a flash of her mother’s scalding tongue when Faye had done something else wrong at school. She flinched. If they were about to get a tongue lashing, she was hoping it would be brief… or skip over her entirely.

The way that the woman turned her gaze on Faye didn’t promise any easy-going for the new girl, though.

“Ah, the adventuring group returns,” the woman said. Her voice broke the stillness in the air, but instead of causing everyone to release, it was as if her words sucked in even more of the atmosphere. “But it seems that there is a new addition to your team that my records,” she tapped the huge tome with her free hand, “don’t reflect properly.”

The woman stepped forward, until she was a few paces away from Arran and the team.

“As it happens, there was a new entry into our temporary membership recently. One Faye Weaver.” The woman turned and walked along to stand before Faye. “Hmm, let me see… female, fair hair, short, sword user, class… hmm. Level… mhmm.”

Faye cleared her throat and nodded. “Nice to meet you, ma’am. I’m Faye Weaver.”

The woman barely acknowledged Faye’s words. She turned and walked back in front of Arran and the others. It was now that someone moved at the side of the room. The sound drew Faye’s eye, and her stomach plummeted at the sight of the teen that had caused so much trouble.

In fact, now that she looked, there were numerous people around the hall. She hadn’t seen many of them before, though she may have seen them from a distance without realising.

It seems that people knew there would be a spectacle today. She grimaced. Her reputation was going to take a further nose-dive.

“It seems that your team failed in one of its core duties, team leader.”

The woman’s voice filtered back through.

“I would argue that—”

“It is past time for you to be arguing with me,” she replied. “You put a temporary member of the Guild in direct danger by removing her from the town walls. The standing orders have not changed. Were you under the impression that they had?”

“No, Administrator.”

“No. I thought not.”

Administrator, Faye thought. It sounded like this was the leader of the Guild. She wondered at the title. She would have thought that adventurers would be led by a captain, or a commander, or something else militaristic.

“What did you do outside of these walls?”

Arran cleared his throat and began a recitation that sounded like he’d been practising to get perfect. It came out in a cadence that sounded like a military report — or what Faye imagined a military report might sound like.

“The group left the town earlier today by the eastern gate, we entered the forest along the nearside edge, following the trails for approximately two miles, engaging as we went. Engagements were handled by me, initially. After coming across low level monsters, the group assisted the temporary Guild member in defeating the monsters.” Here, Arran paused slightly, and swallowed. “Unfortunately, it was at this point the team realised that our temporary member was… weaker than we originally assumed. At this juncture, the group immediately took on overkill procedures. In a further misfortune… it seems that our earlier fights had attracted attention of wandering monsters or creatures.”

“An unknown monster?” The interruption was brief, but effective. The Administrator’s eyes narrowed. “What classification?”

“Medium humanoid, we assumed woodland elemental initially. They were accompanied by medium predators, leaping treecats levels two to five, that were used as fodder. Intelligent and strategic, the humanoids turned out to be Briag Sprites, ranging from level six to nine.”

“Briag Sprites?”

“Yes, Administrator. Our temporary member indicated that her system told her the name of the creature.”

“Your temporary member fought one of these Sprites? You indicated that they ranged from levels six to nine.”

Arran nodded, glancing aside to Faye briefly. She tried to convey her apologies through the look alone, but she wasn’t sure she’d succeeded.

“She did.”

The Administrator didn’t say anything else. She looked to Faye, however. “Is that true, young woman?”

“Yes, ma’am. The group were protecting me, but the briags drew them away with a two-pronged attack.” Faye shrugged. “It would have been fine if one of the sprites hadn’t circled around to the rear.”

The Administrator nodded, slowly. She turned back to Arran.

“I’m afraid it’s even more dire than we originally thought. Taking the temporary member out of the town’s perimeter in normal circumstances would have been an egregious mistake on your team’s part. But now,” the Administrator looked back to the man she’d been standing next to earlier, until now he’d been utterly still. He met her eye, nodded grimly, then turned and walked away. “Now that we know what happened…”

“Administrator, may I say that Faye performed extremely capably. For a young woman like her to be able to not only succeed, but thrive, in combat is one thing but it was her knowledge of obscure lore that allowed her to succeed in the fighting.”

“Be that as it may, team leader…” The Administrator shook her head. “You took a young woman, a girl, out of the protection of this institution and into the wilds. She could have died from a stray blow from your opponents on this reckless, thoughtless journey.”

“That is—”

“Her toughness is a single mark above the minimum,” the Administrator’s harsh whisper cut across Arran’s started counter words, strangling his words in his throat. “A single mark, do you understand me?”

Arran straightened and though Faye couldn’t see his face, she could picture the shocked expression already.

“You and your team are suspended, pending a review of your status, effective immediately. Any jobs you currently have are removed from your duties, and you may not take future jobs until you have been cleared by myself or the Guild Leader.”

Arran nodded. Ailith’s mouth was stuck in a grimace, but she nodded too. Faye couldn’t see Gavan on the other side of Ailith’s bulk, but imagined he was as unhappy as his companions.

Sneaking a glance around the room, Faye noticed that most of the gathered folk wore grim expressions. Except for one.

The Administrator looked at Faye. “As for you,” she began, but words from the side of the room interrupted.

“If I could, Administrator?”

The woman’s expression told Faye she wasn’t used to being interrupted like this, but she smoothed out her features and turned to the teen that confronted Faye in the market.

“Yes, An Bradáin?” she called.

The teen stepped forward; his smile as close to a grin as he could get without openly mocking Faye. “I feel that it is my duty to inform you of this girl’s behaviour outside of this great Hall. It may be that my esteemed adventurer friends were misled, Administrator. This girl assaulted me, publicly mocked me, and went out of her way to ignore my reasonable requests of her. It is my view that she is unruly, wild, and prone to fits of temper.”

Faye frowned. Did he realise he’d basically said the same thing three times?

“It is not the purview of the Guild to punish… behaviour outside of this Hall, Ríoghnán. Otherwise, we might find ourselves punishing every member of the guild for their actions.”

Faye couldn’t help but think that the Administrator was hinting at something the teen had done but he didn’t seem perturbed… so perhaps not.

“Quite right, Administrator, quite right… only, I am loath to see my Guild compatriots blamed fully for the actions of this girl when she has already proved to be unwilling to listen to our traditions and laws. Should children not be punished for stepping outside of the boundaries, so that they know for future?”

“Enough, Rían, I heard you the first time.” The Administrator’s words lost some of their commanding tone, reverting to a more normal voice.

The teen bowed and backed away. His smile had turned smug, and when the Administrator turned away from him, it turned outright vicious.

Faye tried to ignore his looks; it was engaging with him in the first place that had caused her trouble. She didn’t want to compound it. But it seemed that the Administrator was already willing to punish her for her so-called crimes.

“Faye Weaver. As a temporary Guild member, you fall under our, my, jurisdiction in matters of the law. You are fortunate that there is no written law preventing uncrested,” though the way she said the word, Faye was certain she wanted to say unclassed, “people from sneaking out of bounds of the town’s protection. That does not mean that there isn’t a long honoured, time-tested custom that those who are unable to competently and easily defend themselves should stay within the walls at all times.”

Faye clenched her hands. Did the woman not see the dirt, the obvious signs of fighting that Faye had been through? The sabre tied to her hip. Her obvious maturity? This place was infuriating.

“You may consider this formal warning that you are requested and required to stay within the walls of the town until and unless you can demonstrate your capability as a fully crested person. The town has already been informed of this decision. You will be detained, forcefully, if you attempt to circumvent this. Do you understand?”

Faye almost nodded, but she opened her mouth instead. “I want you to be clear. You are saying that I am confined to the town until I am level ten, correct?”

“Yes, and not a single point before that.”

Sighing, Faye nodded.

“Good. Oh, you are also removed from our ranks and are no longer a temporary member of this or any branch of the Adventurer’s Guild.”

Faye clenched her jaw. That was definitely worse than the first punishment, which wasn’t a punishment and was more a fact of daily life living in Lóthaven at her level.

“Now, leave the Hall. We are closed to the public after sundown.”

Turning on her heel, Faye stalked from the Hall, ignoring the stares of the people arrayed around the room. She heard Ailith murmur something, but she didn’t catch what it was as she walked away.

I’m starting to get the feeling that I am going to have to do something drastic.

Okay, more drastic.