“I think I heard that guy say your name was Dealla?” I asked. She nodded a confirmation. “Well, I was told this was the local Adventurer’s Guild. This is my first time here.”

“Oh, I’m sorry,” she said. “If you’re here to post a contract, you’re in the wrong place. We don’t work directly with the public. For government assisted contracts you’ll need to head up the hill to the—”

I waved a hand to cut her off. “Whoa there,” I said. “I’m not here to give you a contract.”

The woman raised one eyebrow. “Then what can I help you with today?”

“Well, the first thing I wanted to find out was if adventurers are given access to the Broker’s library. You know. The one where all the Brands are kept?”

“The… broker library?” The woman repeated. “Umm, yes. Senior adventurers are given access to that library. They, uh, rarely exercise that privilege as far as I’m aware. What is this about?”

That was all the confirmation I needed. “I want to sign up,” I said. “To be an adventurer.”

Dealla looked me up and down. I returned the gesture, noticing her even, shoulder length hair and the ring on her right hand with an absurdly large red gemstone on it. The slight narrowing around her eyes as she studied me told me she didn’t like what she was seeing. “I promise I'm older than I look,” I volunteered.

That softened her expression a bit and brought out her smile. “I see,” she said. “Well, anyone can sign up. I can get the paperwork, but are you prepared to pay the registration fee?”

“I think so?” I said, making it more of a question with the upward inflection at the end. “I brought all the money I have. I don’t know if it will be enough. Those jerks outside took some of it on my way in.”

“You can start by filling this out,” Dealla said, pushing a paper across to me with a bunch of lines and boxes on it, along with a feather quill. “When you’re done, we can see if you have enough to cover the fee, and if you don’t, I’ll go outside and make the Breakers give back their ‘tribute’.”

“How did you know it was the Breakers?” I asked.

“They do that to everyone,” she said. “It’s one thing if you’re actually trying to buy their favor, but they’re not supposed to take it if you say no.”

“Well, they each helped themselves to one of my coins,” I complained, “so I’d definitely like it back if possible.” I scanned the page in front of me with all the labeled sections I was supposed to fill out. “Oh,” I said. “This will only take me a second.” I scratched my name at the top and pushed it back to her. “Here. I’m done.”

Dealla turned her attention away from the chubby lizard she was scratching, one eyebrow arched in surprise. She glanced down at the page. “You only wrote your name,” she said.

“Yup. That’s all I have.”

“Are you sure about that?” she asked. “These are very basic questions.”

“I’m sure,” I said. “I’m not from this world. So no next of kin, no city of origin, no birth date, nothing like that. I mean, I can tell you I’m nineteen years and seven months old, but I don’t know what calendar you use. If you want to translate that for me, I could add more, but it’s not like you’d be able to verify anything I wrote down.”

“I see,” the guild attendant said. “Can you at least tell me your Skill and why you want to be an adventurer?”

“I can convert HP to MP,” I said. That would be true even if she had some kind of lie detector I wasn’t aware of. “As for why, I already told you. I want access to that library.”

“That is unusual,” Dealla said, writing that down at the bottom of my application. “You do know there are easier ways to get access to that library?”

“Any that have a chance of being successful in less than seven months?”

“Oh, that fast?” she asked. “I don’t know why the hurry, but the Brotherhood might take you. They’re not as, uh, picky as they normally would be right now.”

“Their members have Library access? How do I join them?”

“I think they do,” Dealla amended. “I mean, the news we hear about them up here is they have a lot of Brands, but I suppose assuming Library access could be a stretch.”

“There’s some other organization that might have access to the Library?” I asked. “Well, where are they? How do I join them?”

Dealla waved a hand in front of her in a placating gesture. “No, forget I said it. It’s a bad idea. They’re a mercenary company fighting in that war down in Dileth. Adventuring is dangerous work, but soldiering is much worse. Why don’t we just process your payment?”

I thought about that for a second, then nodded. “Yeah, sure. I think I’d rather take my chances fighting monsters than get involved in a war.” I pulled the money pouch out of my pocket. “What’s the fee?”

“144 Crosses,” she said. She gave a smile, like I was supposed to be happy about that number.

“144?” I repeated. “I… I’ll have to count these. I don’t know if I have that much.” I dumped the strange iridescent triangular coins onto the counter. They were nearly as big as American half dollars. It looked like I might have enough, but it would be close. I started flicking the coins from one pile to another, counting as I went.

“Ah!” Dealla gasped. “Those are Marks!” She slapped both hands over the pile of money and leaned across the counter. “Put those away before someone sees them!” she hissed at me. She grabbed two handfuls and shoved them back into my pouch.

“Why, what’s wrong?” I asked. “Do you not accept these? Don’t tell me you guys have an evil currency now, too!”

Dealla helped me put away the rest of the coins I’d dumped out. Normally, I’d be hesitant to show my money like that in public, but if the front desk was a place where transactions were normally carried out, it seemed safe. “There’s nothing wrong with Marks,” Dealla said. “They are just worth a lot more than Crosses, and this isn’t the type of crowd you should be showing off a fortune like that.”

“A fortune?” I asked. “How big a fortune?”

Dealla kept back two Marks as she was putting the rest away and held them up for me to see. “Enough that these should cover your registration. With change.” She reached below the counter and I heard the tinkling of metal. “Here you go,” she said, pushing over to me a small pile of square gold coins.

“Wait, these coins are different,” I said. “Sorry. Do you mind telling me how much these are worth?”

Dealla favored me with another of her smiles. I couldn’t tell if it was genuine or just a face she was putting on for work, but I hoped I was being polite enough to earn a real one. “Not a problem,” she said. She pointed to the largest of the coins she was handing over. “These five are called Triple Crosses. They’re worth three Crosses each. These other three are just regular Crosses.” All the coins she gave me were weighty and had an X embossed on one side. To me, it seemed like a larger fortune than the multi-colored coins I’d given up, but I understood that gold didn’t have the same value in Earris.

“So what’s this worth?” I asked, fishing out the small disc I’d received the other day from the lady that had mistaken me for a beggar.

“That’s a penny,” Dealla explained. “It takes nine of those to equal one Cross.” She reached under the table and pulled out a wooden disc on the end of a chain with a picture of a winged sword carved into the front of it. It was the same winged sword I’d seen embossed on the medallion Ferrith had shown me when I first met him. “I have to give you your guild membership medallion,” she said. Before handing it to me, she flipped it over to copy a number on the back onto my registration form.

“Thanks,” I said as I took it and put it around my neck. “I guess getting this means I’m officially in the guild, right?”