So, the guild was not what I expected. First of all, there was a bunch of buildings all around one somewhat large open area. Each building had a symbol on a sign in front of it, and thanks to my lack of education on symbols and their guilds, I had no idea which building was which. I could have guessed, and I might have been close, but to start guessing with suspicious guards right next to me was not something I wanted to try. I waited for them to find the adventurer's guild themselves, and start leading me to it. It didn't take them too long, just a couple seconds as they scanned around the plaza before they started heading towards a building with a symbol that looked kind of like a big back pack. Like the ones people use for hikes that take several days.

I noticed a lot of people in the plaza didn't have a look of pity in their eyes. Most of them didn't even seem to care. They just glance at us, and then carried on with what they were doing. A few had unpleasent looks, but most of them were shouting things like,

"Need healer then good to go. Firestone plaza."

"Tank here. Looking for anything."

"Marcus the Magnificent, here for all your wizarding needs."

"Selling surplus monster cores."

It took me a moment, but I quickly realized that this was the gathering place for players. At least the ones in one of the guilds. Maybe the Warden players met somewhere else. Most of the people in the plaza were human, but I did see elves, dwarves, bipedal reptilians (definetly not dragons), and humanish people with some interesting differences. Mostly things like animal ears and tails, but there were some with horns, feathery wings, bat wings, and even one guy made out of polished stone (I thought he was an oddly placed stature until he moved).

The guards didn't seem to care about all the people, and they almost dragged me through the middle of the plaza while I tried to gawk at everything and everyone.

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ShadowM3n007 has sent you a friend request.

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'Um, do I really want to be friends with someone named that? No.'

I tried to find the guy who sent me the friend request, but I didn't see anyone who looked like a shadow man, which is probably because they were hiding. Like a shadow man should. By the time we got to the middle of the plaza I noticed a couple of people following us. Looking at the guards I was pretty sure they hadn't noticed, but they were very focused on getting to the adventurer's guild. They looked a bit uncomfortable here.

We continued to the adventurer's guild, and went through the large open double doors. Inside reminded me of a bank. There were lines that led to a bunch of receptionists which seemed to be where everyone was heading to. There were also some rooms off to the sides that were probably offices, or meeting rooms for guild members, and by the door there was a large bulletin board with little pieces of paper all over it. Which I could not read. It looked like scribbles, with doodles and more scribles on top. It almost hurt my mind trying to read what everything said.

Luckily the guards didn't leave me to suffer with my lack of literacy. Instead they pulled me around the lines and right up to one of the receptionists who happened to have an empty window.

"We don't got much time, so just verify this girl's ID and we'll get out of here." Pot belly tried to sound important, but the receptionist glared at him, like he was interupting something important.

"There is a line for a reason, and town guards are supposed to uphold the law." She spoke in a haughty tone.

"This girl might be a spy, so we need to know who she is. She said she's one of yours, all we need is verification. Otherwise we can stand here until you die of old age." He leaned up against the wall when he finished, like he was a bouncer keeping people away.

She sighed, "Fine, miss, if you would put your hand on the orb, please."

I was incredibly nervous. I mean, here I was, in a human city, surrounded by humans, and they wanted me to put my hand on a strange magical device. If things went badly, there was no way I'd get out of this alive, or in even worse shape. I had skills, but I had never used any of them. I didn't even know if I could. Like, supposedly I could fly, but my wings were tiny so who knows how that would work, and for all I knew my dragon breath was just a tiny little spark.

So while I froze with nervousness the guards started smiling, and nodding to each other, like they had just won something. Because I realized they were acting like that because they thought I was lying I decided to put my hand on the crystal and hope for the best. When I did both guards, the receptionist, and me looked at the crystal waiting for whatever it was supposed to do. And we waited. Until finally the receptionist put her hand on the orb and it started glowing, then she took her hand off and it stopped.

"Well, I may need to speak with an administrator. I've never seen this happen before." She started to leave.

"Wait, my dear lady. I, Marcus the Magnificent can solve your problem." A man with a booming voice, dressed like a circus ringmaster in blue, wallked out of the little crowd that had formed to watch me.

"Marcus, this has nothing to do with you." She seemed to know him, and looked a little annoyed.

"Alas, whenever a fair maiden is in need I cannot help but interpose myself. Besides, why waste these fine gentlemen's time any more than needed. I am sure they have much better things to do than stand around here all day." He winked at me. I raised one eyebrow.

"Yeah, I'm getting tired of standing here all ready, you people are too wierd." Pot belly started pushing Marcus to the window, "If you can fix this then do it."

"My good sir, it is but a simple matter. You see, there are some of us who cannot use an orb with only one of our hands. Allow me to demonstrate." He put his left hand on the orb, and nothing happened. "Now with my other hand." When he put both hands on the orb it started to glow. "And finally." He took his left hand off and it stopped glowing. "As you can see, there is a small portion of the population who must use two hands in order to start the process of the identification orb." The crowd started applauding. "Thank you, thank you. Remember Marcus the Magnificent for all your magical needs."

"You heard the man, get both your hands on that orb." Pot belly seemed upset with the show Marcus just performed.

As I went to place both my hands on the orb, Marcus patted me on the shoulder and said, "Good luck," with another wink, and something more. I felt something, almost like water, that went from his touch to the tips of my fingers. I hoped it was his magic, and not something like actual water. This time when I touched the orb it started glowing, and after about ten seconds wierd glowing squiggly lines started forming over the orb. When they stopped forming I realized that neither of the guards were making a sound, and even the receptionist was staring at the lines with amazement all over her face.

"I, I'll, um, I will create your identification papers for you, your highness." The receptionist barely regained her composure by the time she said "your highness".

"We're sorry to have bothered you, please excuse us." Both guards were slightly bowing, waiting.

"Oh, um, well you may go. I'm not angry or anything." I was starting to feel embarrassed, especially since I didn't even know what the orb said.

"Your highness, it was a pleasure to meet you, here are your identification papers. Thank you for visiting the adventurer's guild." The receptionist had fully recovered and handed me some papers, with unreadable squiggly lines.

I wasn't really sure what to say, so I just took the papers and left. Everyone was watching me as I left. It was really awkward. The moment I got outside I started moving towards one of the roads that led away from the plaza. I wanted to get out of there as fast as possible. It was hard not to just start running, but I was almost in a panic. Why did the orb say I was royalty, and what did Marcus do? Wasn't this going to make it hard for me to quietly learn about human culture, and cure my curse? My future was too uncertain.