“I concede.” I announced, my hands held above my head. The words, even as they left my lips, felt bitter.

I’d lost, plain and simple. Her defenses had been too much for me to break through without gambling it all. When flow hadn’t been enough, I’d been forced to my last ditch effort, Null had been my only chance of pulling a win where none should have been possible.

Storybooks would have you believe that by laying it all on the line, miracles would present themselves, and the hero would surmount the insurmountable.

I wasn’t a hero, and this wasn’t a storybook.

My pride was wounded; that much was painfully obvious. The sting of defeat was like a bad itch that couldn’t be scratched.

“And by surrender, the winner of this duel is Iris Steel Haze!” The official stepped back into the arena, shooting Iris a quick glance, a silent indication to lower her weapon. She stepped away from me, her steel haze vanishing, save for a tiny wisp that lazily scooped up my sword before presenting it to me.

I looked down at the cloud of metal particles floating my sword to me, a petty part of me tempted to swat the weapon away.

I hadn’t expected to take the loss so badly, but it was, after all, my first loss. I’d never lost.

Never.

In fact, the last time I had lost any fight had been years ago, the very first time I’d been exposed to the broader world when a Sage was reborn and the village I called home was all but burned to the ground.

I hadn’t lost a single duel within the steel or silver ranks.

I hadn’t lost when I’d fought the adventuring twins, my seniors who’d had several years on me.

I hadn’t lost been facing monsters throughout my adventurers to date.

I hadn’t even lost against a mage who had channeled the power of a True Dragon when by all rights, I should have.

So to lose here felt…. New, strange in an uncomfortable way.

I may not have liked it, but I had to accept the reality. Gaze downcast, I grabbed the pommel of my sword, placing it within the sheathe belted to my side.

“Duelists, now, if you would exchange the traditional post duel handshake.”

Iris approached me, her eyes unreadable as she offered me her hand.

Swat it away.

Contemplating it longer than I should have, I finally accepted, giving her a quick, curt shake.

“While this match was just an exhibition match, Iris remains undefeated against any of her cohorts, defending her title as champion of the Golds! While Zero may have lost, today, those of you in the crowd have witnessed a rare sight of the indomitable, the absolute defense of Iris Steel Haze being breached!”

The crowd was cheering, something I only just noticed, so busy wallowing in my loss as I was.

“The last time the absolute defense of hers was breached in the ring as it was now, was against none other than the leader of the nizeium party, Godsend!”

Bit pretentious of a party name.

The thought amused me enough that I felt a smile begin to crack my defeated demeanor, looking out at the crowd at last.

“Zero! Zero! Zero!”

Oh.

“That was amazing!”

Didn’t expect that reaction.

“Put him in gold!”

They were cheering, cheering for me even though I’d lost.

I cast a quick look at Iris, curious about what she was feeling about it. Across her face, I saw a glimpse of… not disappointment, but not excitement, a look of tentative contemplation, if anything.

Wonder what’s on her mind?

She’d won, but then that was what had been expected. Perhaps she had assumed she would beat me without ever having to lift a finger.

But why schedule me to duel her in the first place if it were meant to be that easy?

Questions, questions without answers.

“Duelists, if you will, one final bow, please.”

Turning to Iris, we bowed stiffly to one another before turning to the crowd, bowing again as they cheered in excitement.

“Duelists.” The official lowered his voice, speaking solely to us. “You are free to go now. If you’ve left anything within the waiting rooms, please collect them.”

Looking back out toward the crowd, he raised his voice once more. “Now, as exciting as that duel was, we have several more scheduled for today as well, Mid-gold rank eighty-two, Laon Douglass versus High-gold rank four hundred, Samara the….”

I stopped paying attention, walking back up the stairs and toward the waiting room, noticing Elsmere standing next to the current, gesturing to me with her finger before stepping inside.

Wonder what she wants?

I took the stairs two at a time, quickly reaching the curtain and pulling it aside before walking in.

“Yes?” I questioned, raising an eyebrow at the woman seated on the lone bench, one leg crossed over the other.

“Perhaps I misjudged you.” She examined her hand as if she didn’t want to say it directly to my face. “I can hardly recall the last time I’d seen her Steel Haze bested.”

“I wouldn’t call it besting, considering I lost.” I crossed my arms, wondering if she was just trying to taunt me without being too obvious.

“Do you know how she does that? Uses magic like that?”

I’d been in the process of turning my back to her when I froze, suddenly curious.

“How?” I finally asked, unable to deny my curiosity.

“It’s a fusion of magic.”

“Yeah, I know.” I rolled my eyes, annoyed that she was telling me something obvious. “Scortar, metal magic, the composite wild magic of earth magic rentar and fire magic scorz. Considering scorz and rentar are the most common archetypes of wild magic, it’s not exactly surprising that their composite form would be the most common composite magic.”

“That wasn’t what I meant.” Elsmere shook her head.

“Excuse me?”

“It’s fusion magic, and part of it is composite wild magic, yes. But I meant that she utilizes a fusion of wild magic in tandem with Kin magic.”

“That’s.. that shouldn’t be possible? They’re mutually exclusive. Even if you were lucky enough to have inherited Kin magic and be capable of using wild magic, you can’t use them together.”

“That’s what you’d think.” She leaned back before suddenly flailing her arms, nearly losing her balance atop the bench. She gave me a quick death glare, daring me to mention it before continuing. “Her Kin magic is rather… unexciting. It’s the manipulation of granules.”

“Granules, like, sand?”

“Sure, you’ve got the right idea.” She nodded.

“So, what? It still doesn’t change what I said before.”

“You’re thinking too narrowly. It isn’t just physical granules that her Kin magic effects.”

I narrowed my eyes, figuring it out.

“Mana. She can use it to directly manipulate mana.”

“Of select varieties, but yes.” She nodded. “And mana, unlike magic, doesn’t require verbal commands to draw on.”

“Wait… that’s why she uses metal!” I felt a surge of excitement as I put two and two together. “Not all mana is the same; some are fluid and dynamic, some are solid and heavy. Scortar, as the composite of earth and fire, is noted as having a grainy feel to it! Or at least, so I’ve heard.”

“You got it.” She smiled at me, perhaps the first smile I’d seen from her.

“But why.” I stopped, confused. “Why tell me this?”

“Iris, unlike what people might believe, is not a gifted mage. In fact, the only wild magic she has access to is rentar and scorz, and between them, she can only use one of their two composite form elements. Utilizing her Kin magic, though, she can take her rather average skill with her individual wild magic affinities and metamorphize them into something unthinkable, a free flowing, infinitely adaptable form of composite magic.”

“Again,” I repeated. “-why tell me all this?”

Elsmere looked around as if checking for anybody eavesdropping before giving me a shrug.

“Because, based on what I saw right there, I feel it won’t be long until we see each other again.”

“Huh?”

“Anyway, the guild master told me to give this to you post-duel, so here you go.”

Grabbing something from her side, she flicked a small pouch at me, which I snatched out of the air. Pulling on the twine that sealed it shut, I peaked in.

Inside were five light blue crystalline coins.

Five deliciously valuable hast.

“Thank -” I began, but when I looked up, she was already on her way out, departing with a single wave.

“-you.” I finished, slowly looking back down at my newly acquired fortune.

Five hast. Five nizeium coins. Once upon a time, I would have been able to use this much money to purchase the entirety of my village and then some.

So….

Now what?

I’d learned nothing other than being left with a vague implication that I’d be seeing them again soon, but what that meant could have been an entire load of different things.

I’d found no answers, but what I had found was quite the fortune.

Well, you know what they say. A fortune found is a fortune earned.

If they wanted to give me more money than I’d ever seen in one place in my life, I might as well take advantage of it. Securing the pouch where I knew a random pickpocket wouldn’t manage to pull a fast one on me, I made my way out of the waiting room. Someone else, a woman, made her way in almost immediately after I’d exited, brushing past me brusquely.

Probably that Samara person.

Ideas swirling around in my mind of what to do first with the sudden fortune, I decided upon one, a smile settling on my face as I thought about it.

Bet she will love this one.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“Rook!”

“Hey, Pips- ack!”

I was all but tossed from my feet as the girl barreled into me, throwing her arms around me in a bear hug.

“Good to see you too.”

“I’ve heard you’ve been back for a few days now. Why didn’t you come to visit sooner?!”

I slowly detangled myself from the aggressive hug. She was sixteen now, three years my junior, and compared to when I’d first met her, chained to an altar atop Sun-splitter Peak, she was the picture of health.

“I got caught up with other stuff.” I admitted, mostly the truth.

The other part was I’d spent so long on the last commission, that simply put, I’d wanted a few days for myself.

“Was it that duel I kept hearing about? Wasn’t that for today? Are you nervous?”

She was nearly hopping with energy, a stark contrast to my early memories of her. Her hair was kept just above her shoulders, shorter hair the norm within the warmer climate of the central region. A shade of light sandy blonde with a healthy sheen, they framed her freckled face, freckles which nearly blended in with her tan complexion, tanner than even I. I was sure she would be considered a pretty girl, but I couldn’t see her in the light; she was like family to me. What did stand out, aside from her ‘pretty’ features, were her eyes. They were like scarlet rubies, red as blood. Most would guess her eyes were nothing more than a rare natural gift, but as I’d discovered, they hadn’t always been that color, formally a rich shade of brown.

It was only after the events of being used as a conduit for draconic mana that her eyes had apparently changed, something both she and her father had confirmed.

Speaking of which…

“Where’s your dad?”

“He’s out, had errands to run.”

“I see.” I nodded. Her father, the same man who had long ago, or what felt like long ago, desperately pleaded with the Red Foxes and me to undertake a request to find and save his daughter.

Which had turned out to be quite the undertaking, but you should already know that story.

After I’d made it to Dunehold with Rosalina in tow, her father had arrived several months later. Ever since they’d been living together, her soft-spoken father had been offered a position within the finance department of the Adventurers Guild, apparently, a much more robust department than one would expect from an adventurers’ guild of all places.

Don’t ask me why; I just swing my sword around and try not to get myself killed.

“So, are you coming just to visit for a bit?”

I smiled at Rosalina, pulling out the small pouch.

“It’s been a while, so why don’t we go somewhere nice, Pips?”

Rosalina rolled her eyes at the nickname I’d so fondly given her, Pips, short for Pipsqueak; my preferred method of teasing her.

“Wait,” She seemed to realize something after a moment, reaching out to the pouch. “is that-?”

“My earnings from the duel.” I confirmed with a nod.

“Oh, so it already happened.” She eyed me, her scarlet eyes never failing to make a spark run down my spine, the ghost of a memory from when I’d been bursting with draconic mana. “Of course, you wouldn’t go out of your way to spend your own money.”

“You say that like I have that much in the first place.”

“You’re an adventurer and a high-ranking silver at that. Surely you’ve got more than enough to pay for some food.”

“For your information, and I’m sure I’ve mentioned this before-” I stuck my hands on my hips, leaning my shoulder against the doorframe I was standing in front of. “-just because I’m an adventurer doesn’t mean I’m rolling in money. Do you know how much it costs to repair my sword, if not outright replace it, plus travel expenses, food, and boarding costs at places if they don’t have an adventurers’ rest?”

“How much do you have in your account?”

“Excuse me?”

“You heard me.” It was her turn to mimic me, hands on her hips as she fixed me with a look like she knew she had me in checkmate already.

“Er… ten rosts. But-”

“No buts!” She laughed, clearly feeling like she had proved her point. “You’ve got the money to settle down for two, three years on that alone, and that’s here in a regional capital to boot! You could probably live for ten or twenty years on that alone if you moved out somewhere cheaper!”

“It’s not about the money.” I finally sighed. “Anyways, you going to continue grilling me on the merit of wealth, or do you want to go?”

“Depends-” Moving fast, she surged forward, snatching the pouch from my hand before peeking inside.

I wish I could say I had let her, but the truth was, she at times moved with speed and grace that one would be surprised to see from steel or silver rank adventurers, much less an untrained kid. It served as a reminder that within her chest was something that mages the continent over would go to war for if they knew about it, the heart of a True Dragon.

Well, assuming they even understood what a True Dragon was.

Regardless, the power it could grant would be immeasurable, the potential to give powers like that of a god to whoever so obtained them. It was a power I’d once been offered myself by its progenitor, a grouchy vestige of a True Dragon with a bone to pick.

I’d turned the offer down, and the rest was history.

Shaking my head, I dismissed the overcast thoughts. It was part of the reason they had moved to Dunehold in the first place. She could get away from Kar’anza and the trauma it represented, the small village now abandoned in the aftermath of the events. More importantly, she was no longer near Sun-splitter Peak. Far away as she was, the chance of her family history somehow being tracked down was far less likely, as was her connection to the True Dragon.

Here, she could be normal.

“Rook?”

“Yeah?” I tilted my head in sudden concern as I was ripped away from my thoughts, her voice frighteningly shaky.

“A-are these Hast?”

Oh. Right.

“Five of them.” I smiled smugly, confirming it.

“Righttttt.” She slowly handed the pouch back, her hand shaking. “Soooo, you’re taking me to the nicest place in Dunehold, right?”

A peel of laughter escaped me as I continued watching her expression until at least I settled down, still smiling fondly.

“Just go get ready.”

----------------------------------------------------------

“You lost?”

“Yes,” I sighed, leaning back in my chair. “-I lost.”

“But… you never lose!”

Her eyes were furrowed as if I’d told her the sun wouldn’t rise tomorrow or that down was up and up was down.

“Pips-” I searched for the words before shrugging. “I’m not some great hero who goes around never losing and vanquishing demons and dragons.

“But… what about that last commission you were on? That mountain lion thing?”

“First off, a mountain lion is an actual animal; the name you’re looking for is Peak Lion. Second, it was a team effort. I couldn’t have beat it alone.”

Technically it was true. It had been a team effort.

Even if most of that team effort was them being glorified bait.

I could still see the uncertainty in her eyes. To Rosalina, I was this larger-than-life figure at times. Her home had been destroyed, her parents, to children their infallible protectors who would keep them safe no matter what, he been helpless. Her life had become hell until I and Tez-

Wonder what she’s up to?

-managed to save her. Ever since then, in a way, I’d taken on that mantle as guardian, that if anything ever happened, I would ride in and save the day. My exploits within the adventurer guild hadn’t helped dissuade those thoughts either, my rise to high silver only further proving it.

And yet, I’d still lost.

“It was a shock for me as well.” I finally admitted. “I won’t lie; I didn’t expect to lose. Logically, sure I understood the difference between us, but it seems subconsciously I bought into my own hype a little too much.”

It was tough to admit aloud, but I couldn’t just ignore the reality of it, verbalizing thoughts I’d needed to accept.

“Well-” Rosalina looked around, her slight frown turning upside down. “At least you got a nice payday out of it.”

We were within a lavish-looking restaurant, with gold leaf, gems, crystals, expensive silk drapes, everything one would expect from a place where only the wealthiest and most influential figures would typically be seen.

Then there was us. The only reason they’d let me in, even after I’d showed them the money I had, was the mention of who I was, just barely enough notoriety that the front bouncer had begrudgingly let me in. If not for that fact, they likely would have tried to detain me, assuming I must have robbed a bank or something.

In my defense, for the usual crowd who come to a place like this, a few nizeium is far from notable.

“The money is a nice bonus.” I began to grin when I paused, something catching my attention.

“What is it?” Rosalina leaned forward, noticing my reaction, and fixing me with her crimson gaze.

“Nothing.” I lied. For a moment, I had sworn that I saw someone I recognized, but there was no one there but a girl around my age, her hair the color of-

A sudden splitting pain cracked through my head, making me wince.

“Rook?”

The girl I swore I recognized made eye contact with me for a split second before vanishing around a corner.

“Uh, one moment.” I faked a half-smile before standing out of my seat, quickly chasing after the figure.

“Rook? Rook!”

Ignoring Rosalina, I followed where I presumed the girl had gone until I finally pushed a pair of doors out the back of the establishment.

Outside, I took in my surroundings. The sun was beginning to set, but more importantly than that, the girl was nowhere to be seen.

Instead, a man stood leaning against the back of the place, looking at me with surprise as I rushed out.

“Well.” The man gave me a look of pleasant shock. “I didn’t expect to run into you here, Zero.”

“Di- Guild master?” I stared at the man, briefly forgetting the girl. “What are you doing here?”

“Well, I was meeting with someone for a business talk. Nothing too exciting.” The man smiled pleasantly at me, quickly waving it off. “I had just stepped out for a breath of fresh air, was all.”

“Right, have you-” I was about to ask him if he’d seen a girl come out this way when he interrupted me.

“That reminds me. I was in such a hurry earlier today that I didn’t think of it then, but before the duel, was there something you were trying to ask me?”

“I-” I felt torn, wanting to ask about the girl, but I realized I must have simply been mistaken. The idea I’d recognize anyone here was absurd in hindsight. “Yeah. The duel. What exactly was that all about in the first place?”

The Guild master leaned back against the marble restaurant, reaching into the folds of his white-colored robe that covered most of his body, pulling out a pipe and lighting it up.

“Oh, excuse me.” He said after taking a deep drag from the pipe, releasing a mahogany-colored smoke cloud a moment later.

“Er, not a problem.” I waved my hands in front of myself. “Just didn’t take you for the type.”

“I wasn’t.” The man chuckled. “But trying being the youngest Guild Master of the Adventurers guild in three decades, then add on top of that the current state of affairs within Haerasong, and you’ll understand.”

“…Current affairs?” I questioned after a moment.

“Nothing you need concern yourself with.” He waved it off before releasing another ring of smoke. “Now, about that question. Where do I start… Hmm, you know what, I’ve decided. Clearly, you appearing like this must be a sign from the gods above, so who am I to fight the flow?”

“Thanks…. I think?”

“Don’t get too ahead of yourself. There are things I cannot disclose for now, so I’ll say what is appropriate for now. We are currently looking for… individuals for a certain task. There is a quest that I will officially disclose in a few days, a quest which will be headlined by Iris and her team.”

“So you needed me in this duel because…?”

“I was getting there.” He puffed open his lips, a triangle of smoke billowing out.

How did he do that?

“While considering the finer details of this quest, we decided we needed to widen our potential candidates to partake. Normally, that would be constrained within the gold ranks for this quest, but a certain name has rocketed up the low grades’ ranks to high silver in less than four years. Well, I decided to give it a look.”

“You were scouting me.” I answered, realizing it after only a second of reflection.

“You could say that.”

“Why not inform me of that, oh, I don’t know, beforehand?”

“Because that in itself was also part of the assessment, how you would react to the sudden announcement.”

I was silent, thinking through what he had just told me.

“There is also the matter of your not-so-little secret.”

My head shot up, sudden apprehension filling me

My secret?

I felt as if the rings on my right arm were tingling, suddenly keenly aware of them.

“The commission you were part of several years ago with the Red Foxes, the same commission which would lead all but one of them to retire from the guild. It’s common for copper parties or the like to bite off more than they can chew. Still, there was also the little bit about Kar’anza being abandoned shortly after, as well as the loss of a Steel grade who had been commissioned with, coincidently, guiding the same girl who would later be at the heart of your commission. I did some digging back then, and the details surrounding that doomed commission proved quite… interesting.”

I felt like a deer fixed in the sight of a lion, frozen in place.

“Zero, by any chance, do you know the orders of existences within our world?”

“The.. what?”

“Four orders.” The guild master spoke as if he had planned to wax on about it from the beginning. “The first order is the order of Humanity. Humans, you, and me.” He pointed at us as if I needed the reminder we were human. “Next, there are monsters. Monsters, in truth, are nothing more than exceptionally savage animals. Sure, some may have unique traits, but at the end of the day, they are still animals, albeit highly dangerous ones. Then, there are magical beasts. They are much like monsters, except magical beasts are, as the name implies, magical. Mana is weaved into their very essence, and on top of that, they are considerably more intelligent than monsters.”

I nodded, understanding what the Guild Master was talking about.

“What is interesting is that for most, that is where the orders of existence end, Humanity, monsters, and magical beasts, and for some even, they lump magical beasts and monsters together. But, what if I told you of a fourth branch?”

I already knew where this was going, but I said nothing.

“Dragons. They are to magical beasts what magical beasts are to monsters. I know the name conjures images of giant flying lizards, but Dragons, in this case, are just a title, an order name. Anything outside the standard system and understanding of mana and magic is considered a Dragon. Take an actual dragon, for instance. Did you know that their elemental breaths come from nothing? Unlike human mages and magical beasts, they do not draw in mana from their surroundings nor purify it within a core like humans do, nor do they breathe it in and make it a part of themselves as magical beasts do. It is simply from a source we still do not fully understand.”

The guild master puffed out another ring of smoke, and it suddenly flared ablaze with a snap of his fingers.

“How did you do that?” I questioned, never hearing him utter a word.

“The words of power we use to construct and give form to mana, in other words ‘magic’ are merely that, a way to construct and give form, insulation against the raw energies and wanderings of our own human minds.”

The man spun the pipe out of his mouth, handing it to me.

“Take a look.”

A word had been carved into the side of the alabaster pipe.

Scorz.

“You see, humans can learn from magical beasts. Magic comes to them like breathing because the intention and understanding are carved within their essence. Now, we as humans, by nature of our Humanity, have minds that can never fully be tempered of wandering thoughts. Still, at the very least, magic can be used in ways not always thought possible, such as the usage of simple wild magic without a single spoken word.”

“That’s amazing, but-” I tried to find the best way to phrase it before finally shrugging and deciding to be straightforward. “But where is this going?”

“Straight forward.” He smiled, puffing more smoke. “I can appreciate that. Much like my rambling talk on how humans can touch into the essence of other orders, such as magical beasts with nonverbal magic, at least to a limited degree, what if it were possible for humans to touch into the essence of dragons?”

I was about to open my mouth, but he slashed a hand down, silencing me.

“What I mean is that your commission from years ago, and the girl involved. I, and do not worry, for I alone¸ am aware that the girl carries the bloodline of a dragon.”

I held my breath, waiting for the other shoe to drop.

“As I said, I investigated it. We even found the body of the one responsible. My goodness, it has been a long time, if ever, that I’ve seen such destruction of the internal mana core; imagine, if you will, what would happen if you tried to cup magma within your hands. The state of their mana core was akin to that. What was perhaps most interesting was that it had been undergoing forceful adaptation, before the mage in question had been killed that is. As for why I bring this all up, knowing what I know of you, I must ask you, your meteoric rise, does it have anything to do with that?”

Oh.

Oh crap.

From an outside perspective, I suddenly realized what it would look like, that I’d somehow benefited from that same power, drank it in, and was now using it for myself.

I mean, in a way, I had, using the vestiges of that mana to build a portion of my first Sage ring, but I couldn’t explain that to him, not without explaining my status as a sort-of Sage.

“Not just that, but Iris delivered the report directly to me of your duel with her. Your actual magical capacity seems to be nonexistent. Not once did you do what would be expected of a rising star of an adventurer and try to directly clash your magic output against hers, which, lucky for you, was the right choice.”

I imagined trying to fight her magic head-on, throwing balls of fire against her cloud of steel.

Yeah, something tells me that wouldn’t have changed the outcome.

“What you did appear to do was magically augment your physical strength. Combined with your magic negation, ordinarily, one would think you were simply an exceptionally gifted user of Inner magic.”

Inner Magic. Now that was a term I hadn’t heard thrown around in some type. It, by all intents purposes, was nearly identical in usage to how I used mana and my word magic. Granting enhanced speed and strength, as well as a form of innate resistance to magical attacks.

“Except-” The guild master smiled at me, that of someone who wasn’t asking questions but merely confirming what he already knew. “-inner magic isn’t potent, not to the level you demonstrated. It can make you faster and stronger, but it can’t make you superhuman. It can resist magic, but it can’t dispel it outright and negate it entirely.”

I wasn’t sure what to say. In fact, if anything, I was sure the man would spill every secret I had, privy to every one of my thoughts.

“I’ll be honest.” He tapped his chin, smiling as if this were nothing more than friendly banter. “Had the events of that commissions years ago, by chance, led to the death of the girl, I would’ve had you taken into custody and interrogated, but as she now lives here happy and healthy with her father, I’ve been able to assess that you’ve never lifted a finger against her or used her as part of some unknown spell.”

“Wait, is that how her father got a job within the guild?”

He shrugged as if unsure what I meant, his coy smile the only response to my question.

“I will end our conversation here.” The guild master finally snuffed out the flickering embers of his pipe, placing it back within his robe. “But, let me ask you one final question.”

“What?”

“Your magic. It does not come from that same place, does it?”

I shook my head.

“No.”

Not like it’s a lie.

“Alright.” The guild master nodded before shooting me one final smile. “I’ll believe you.”

“Wait.” I stopped, scratching behind my ear. “That’s it?”

“Yep.”

“That easily?”

“Trust me, Zero, if you were lying, I’d know.”

A chill went down my spine, to which I laughed awkwardly, trying to repress the feeling.

“Good, now, I’ll be on my way. As for you,” He turned around as his hand wrapped around the handle of the door I’d come out of only a bit prior. “-three days. Before you decide to pick up any new commissions or join any new parties-”

Why am I not surprised he already knows I’m no longer with the Desert Hawks?

-give it three days, then come down to the guild.”

My mouth dry, all I could do was nod.

What else was there to say? I wasn’t as if I could say no when it was the guild master himself telling me this.

“Now, if you’ll excuse me, I must be going. You have yourself a good night.”

I watched him again enter the restaurant, frozen in the same place for several minutes longer.

Well.

That had been quite the encounter.

Sighing, I rested my forehead against the marble that had begun to cool in the afternoon, clearing my mind of cloistering thoughts.

Somehow, I’d gotten answers in the last place I’d expected.

It was just too bad they had only led to more questions.

No point thinking about it now.

Besides, I’d left Pips alone for more than long enough now.