Merigold Lee

24 Years Old

Congratulations on surviving your first expedition as an intern with the Radvik Guild. This letter is to remind you that, under Article 17 of the Interns and Independent Contractors Act, your health expenses are not covered by the Radvik Guild until you have obtained full Apprenticeship. We wish you well in your recovery. You will be expected at headquarters within 3 days of this writing, on 6 May.

Sincerely,

Master Eros

Radvik Guild

Finished with her reading, Reese snorted loudly. Her curly hair was gathered into a single, frizzy ponytail this morning, and it bobbed as she folded the letter back into thirds and tossed it in the table. Merigold eyed it unhappily, prodding the mushroom she was eating with the back of her spoon. There was no need for her to have recovery time away from the guild, but she knew that showing up early without complying with the statements in the letter would be frowned upon. She had brought quite enough attention to herself.

“You must be the only necromancer in the history of Veridith who faints at the sight of a little blood,” Reese pressed, sliding into the seat across from Reese to dig into her own lunch. It was a Sunday, the one day of compulsory time off they received from their education. Most students were expected to spend it studying regardless.

“It wasn’t a little bit of blood,” Merigold said with a stern glance at Reese’s spoon, which she had ignored in favor of picking up a mushroom and biting the top off. Reese’s eyes laughed at her. “It was a little bit of blood on the back of Adarak’s leg when he was shot with a crossbow. This was a pool of blood and a dead man.”

“A corpse, you mean. Like the kind you’re supposed to ‘raise’,” Reese pointed out.

Blowing a long breath out through her teeth, Merigold firmly stabbed the mushroom. Reese choked on her food, snickering.

“You fainted, Meri. And now you’re on bedrest because of it. Damn, that has to smart.”

Before Merigold could actually eat said skewered mushroom, a knock sounded on their front door. Reese looked at her expectantly, snapping the head off another mushroom. When neither of them stood, and the knocking became more insistent, Merigold finally stood up and went to answer the door.

Alecia and Garret, to her surprise, stood outside.

“Shouldn’t you be at—” Merigold began.

“Are you dressed? They’ve called all hands to the guild,” Alecia interrupted her.

“They have? Since when?”

“We were sent to get you since you’re on leave,” Garret explained, stepping into the tiny foyer of the house as Merigold ducked inside to retrieve her bag. “Bring something to write with. I think we’ll need to take notes.”

“Hurry, Merigold, the train comes in less than five minutes,” Alecia hissed when Merigold paused to arrange the brushes in her bag. She left them, though it irritated her to think of fumbling through them later to find the right one, and hurried out with her two friends, shouting at Reese that she was leaving on guild business.

“Well, if they need someone to faint again, they’ll have that covered, then!” Reese called as Merigold slammed the front door shut.

They barely reached the edge of the street before the train blew past them, snarling like a wild beast and shooting steam in every direction. The scent of hot copper and grease swallowed them up as the three of them piled on board to nearly fall into their seats. Jerking back into motion, the train leapt forward.

“So, what is this all about?” Merigold asked, taking the moment to arrange her brushes. They were jolted from her fingers more than once as she gripped her seat to keep from being thrown forward when the train turned a sharp corner.

“Two of the marauders survived their assault on our unit,” Garret explained. “So we took them in for questioning. They must have said something.”

“It almost makes carrying their sorry asses back down that mountain worth it,” Alecia observed. She casually examined her fingernails as she said, “we had to haul down you and Adarak as well. Senior Ilf must have been shocked.”

“She certainly was,” Garret agreed. “She expressed her concern that someone who fainted at the sight of blood had joined a combat guild several times before we left for the day.”

“Concern?” Alecia shook her head, “more like incredulousness. Displeasure. Outright outrage. I’d keep my head down if I were you, Merigold.”

“I did not want to join a combat guild to begin with,” Merigold stated, finally snapping her bag closed and casting a glare in Alecia’s direction. Alecia smiled faintly.

“Oh, I know. But you have to admit, it’s better than the mines.”

“It’s better than the mines,” Garret and Merigold said in unison, as if trying to convince themselves that it were true.

“Because we can do it together,” Alecia added with an exaggerated sigh. “Don’t you get it? I could have had a cushy life, Merigold. Garret was resigned to a combat guild the moment he Awakened as an ice elemental. The death rate in the mines in in the combat guilds is roughly equivalent…it’s high. After Awakening, most people go their separate ways and never meet again. I just couldn’t stand it.” She paused, looking momentarily like she wanted to rip one of her nails off and shove it down someone’s throat. “If anything, I’m the one who should be pouting and stomping around. I’m the only one here who actually gave something up of their own free will.”

“You are the one pouting and stomping around,” Garret said, furrowing his brows. “Merigold here is just being Merigold. But anyway, I do appreciate what you did, Alecia. You know I do.”

The two of them shared a glance, and Merigold looked questioningly between them. She felt much how Alecia looked – like she wanted to rip something to shreds with her bare hands. But Merigold had to admit she had not considered what Alecia gave up by joining Radvik. She had simply assumed the other woman did not want to follow the traditional course of an Illuminator’s – rich and illustrious – career.

“Thank you, Alecia,” she said a bit tightly.

The train arrived before any of them could determine how to continue what had quickly become a heavy conversation. Merigold disembarked, peering around the street that had been deserted on her last visit. It was anything but deserted today. Clouds of magical light scuttled through the streets, drawing the eye to hawkers selling food and other goods to the occupants of the business district. There was a line six deep in front of a warmly dressed lightbringer who seemed to be selling cookies. Music wafted from a few doors down, where a small crowd lounged on benches hastily erected for the orchestra of wind elementals playing a concert outside the massive City Industries building. In the daylight, the austere brick and marble entrance of the Radvik guild looked almost shabby compared to the buildings around it.

They pushed their way into the guild building when the entrance proved to be blocked by two apprentices shouting for everyone to get inside and shut the heck up. One of them was red in the face already, and when he glared at them as they passed, Merigold had the impression it was just because he wanted to go inside himself.

Inside, the woman from the front desk stood by the door to the hallway, pointing people towards the room where Merigold had been tested. Inside, there were nearly a hundred people standing in lines of roughly ten. After casting around for a moment, she found Ilf, Derek, Nihil, and Adarak, who was leaning heavily on a cane. Ilf saw her at nearly the same moment, grimaced, and waved them over.

“I see Ilf,” Merigold said, looking back at Alecia and Garret. They followed her to the line, and stepped into place.

Shortly thereafter, a condensed ball of flame appeared at the front of the room, above Eros. Merigold noticed that the chatter immediately began to die down. Around the room, the Senior members of the guild were hushing people, either with their hands or with pointed demands. The two Apprentices from outside appeared in the back of the room, closing the door as another sphere of flame appeared.

“Be seated,” Ilf said, as a wave of motion passed through the room. Everyone sat, Adarak with a relieved sigh and the clatter of his cane on the brick floor.

A final sphere of fire appeared, and then all three went up in smoke. Eros raised his hands, taking them all in with his gaze.

“Welcome, Radvik guild regulars and Interns, alike. Today, we have urgent news, which is why I’ve called you all here.” He paused for effect but also, Merigold suspected, to allow the last of the chatter to fizzle. It did. Silence reigned in the empty space.

“Yesterday, Ilf’s unit went on a standard patrol outside the city limits, and came across a group of bandits led by a man named Joseph Kilig. Joseph did not survive the encounter, I am told. However, two of his subordinates did, and they have shared some interesting information with us. Ilf, as the one who brought them in, to the front of the room, please.”

Asking no questions, Ilf stood abruptly, and marched towards the front of the room. She stopped when she reached Eros and turned to face them all.

“Report, Ilf,” Eros prompted.

“The two people we captured have made clear that their band of brigands only recently expanded their territory into this region following a decline in the number of erowist in these parts,” Ilf said smartly. “They expressed intrigue that the route had gone unmolested for so long. I suppose,” she looked around with a faint smile, “they weren’t aware the Radvik guild patrolled it.”

A ripple of ironic laughter swelled and quickly faded. Eros was nodding appreciatively.

“It would seem our marauders…excuse me, self-proclaimed brigands…were unfamiliar with this area. They broke with comrades to the north, seeking out their own hunting grounds. The merchants here must have looked like easy pickings. Nearby cities had lost several merchant carts in the last month – now we know to whom they lost them.”

A collective nod moved through the room. Merigold found herself nodding with the rest of the guild.

“Ilf, additional details,” Eros said, gesturing towards Ilf. She answered without hesitation.

“Reaching out to our neighboring cities revealed that there has been a measurable decline in erowist activity in the region. It has been marked enough, in fact, that some merchants have been forgoing security when taking the passes.”

This time, a somewhat alarmed muttering rose up in the room. Merchants paid for a great deal of the Combat Guilds’ existence, funding guild activities by hiring units to protect them on their routes from city to city. It was bad for business, Merigold supposed, if the routes were suddenly deemed safe enough that merchants could traverse them alone. It was also bad for business if said merchants proved wrong, and were set upon by brigands. The only comparable customer the Combat Guilds served were the mines.

“Why, you might be wondering, would erowist activity suddenly decline?” Eros said, pacing back and forth at the front of the room with a look of staged bewilderment on his face. “We could have finally killed enough of them to see their numbers decline. Some regional climate affects might have driven them away. The most likely explanation, however, is the least desirable – that the erowist we typically see are the weak and rather unintelligent ones, and that they are being displaced by something stronger and more cunning. Explain, Ilf.”

“Yes,” Ilf agreed. “One of the brigands admitted that a dozen of their group had been killed recently by the erowist. A single one, in fact, which they banded together and were only just able to defeat.”

“This sounds nothing,” Eros took up the narrative seamlessly, “like the erowist we are used to dealing with, which can be dispatched by relatively small and even inexperienced units. I’ve warned the governor of Hakarth, and his response was what you might expect – a number of contracts will shortly be released to the guilds of Hakarth, amongst which a full thirty percent will be forwarded first to the Radvik guild owing to our expediency in discovering and reporting this matter. In addition, we will be contracting with the East and South Hakarth Academy to send units with small survey teams into the surrounding mountains in search of more information about these mysterious and deadly erowist.”

Eros stopped pacing, and clapped his hands together.

“Ilf, you are dismissed. The rest of you, return to your assignments. Your seniors will share more information with you. This is our opportunity, as the Radvik Guild, to build our niche in the Combat Guild ranking system. Make the best of it!”

A murmur of approval filled the room as everyone stood. The room drained from the back first, the Senior members of each unit leading their unit through the single door only when the previous unit had gone.

Ilf gestured for them to stay together as she lead them out from the hallway through the foyer of the guild hall, and out into the tepid sunlight. It was just as busy and noisy in the streets as it had been earlier, but their unit slipped through the crowds to a shady alcove in the gap between buildings. There, they came to an abrupt halt.

“We have our first task,” she began to explain immediately. “In two days’ time, we’ll lead a survey team of three people – one earth elemental, a psychometer, and an organic who specializes in fauna – to the scree fields adjacent the mountain pass. Adarak, do you have any concerns?”

“Derek patched me up fine,” Adarak said, patting the thigh the crossbow bolt had protruded from only the day before. Merigold blanched when she thought of it.

“That’s what I like to hear,” Ilf agreed. “Well then, make yourselves ready. Merigold Lee, stay here for a moment. The rest of you, dismissed.”

Merigold felt the looks from the rest of the unit as they moved away from her. Garret and Alecia would not go far. Nihil peered at her knowingly. Adarak made a sound of contempt on the way by.

“Merigold Lee,” Ilf repeated, staring her up and down. “Why did you join the Radvik Guild.”

“My only other option was the mines,” Merigold said, meeting the Senior’s gaze. Ilf snorted.

“True. Not much blood in the mines, though. The work is no riskier than what we do.”

Merigold averted her gaze, pulling her bag a little tigher across her body.

“Eros told me what happened. I admit, you were one of the first applicants he ever tried to fail. That test you took was meant for placement, not rejection. But you managed to join our unit on a technicality, and technicalities don’t matter in what we do. A technicality won’t save your friends when an erowist rips them apart. An Illuminator, a necromancer, and an ice elemental…” Ilf fixed her with a dark-eyed stare, cocking her head slightly. “I found myself rooting for you a little when I heard what happened, but after seeing you in action…if you hadn’t have managed that trick with the salamander, I would have expelled you from the guild the moment you fainted at the sight of blood. Don’t look so surprised, Lee. You’re only here because of your friends, right? Don’t get them killed.”

They remained standing as they were for a minute or so. Just beyond the pool of shade where they stood, the sounds of music and revelry continued. People rushed past in all manor of clothing, carrying all manor of things. Business careened onward, in the form of magics and carts and the roar of a nearby train spitting steam as it squealed to a halt.

Then Ilf patted Merigold’s shoulder and left, headed back to towards the guild.