Later on in the day, a few guards came up to our cell.

“Visitor,” said a guard with a black eye, and likely a bruised ego from the morning’s sparing.

Behind him was Zevrack, Nica, Patience, and, surprisingly, Cassius.

“Tsk tsk tsk,” started Patience with a smile. “I can’t believe I’ve fallen in with a criminal element! I don’t know if I can keep seeing you if this is the type of trouble I need to expect you to find yourself in.”

I smirked. “Forgive me for putting an innocent soul such as yourself through such troubles.”

“I can do that…this once.”

Before we’d even finished our exchange, Zev was opening the gate to our cell using his claw as a lockpick, then letting himself in and closing it, before moving to lay down on the cot.

I watched him. “Had to find the most comfortable spot?”

He nodded, burrowing slightly into the blanket.

Nica and Tiberius exchanged a few quiet words I couldn’t quite make out, but Nica had a small smile that led me to believe she was more amused by the situation than anything.

“No Tristus or Millicent?” I asked. “I’d have expected Tris in particular to be all for this opportunity to torment his cousin.”

Patience shook her head. “Tristus is busy smoothing some things over on your behalf, and Millicent is selling the idea of cross training people from the university with your adventurer’s guild.”

“She was meant to be helping me with important adjustments to my gear,” muttered Zev unhappily.

“Smoothing things over?” I asked.

Cassius chimed in, stepping toward the cage, his mechanical leg whirring as he moved. “Well, after you had us storm the adventurer’s bureau offices in protest, I don’t know what you expected.”

“I did what now?”

He nodded enthusiastically. “You stood up on the bar, gave a rousing speech where you decried the problems with modern adventuring. That of course, is a regular occurrence at an adventurer’s bar, and nothing to worry over, but then you actually convince a bar full of drunk adventurers to leave the bar, which is much more impressive, and then go on a tear through the streets up to the Bureau offices.”

I nodded slowly. “I feel like I should have a more severe jail sentence than I do.”

“Well, by the time we got there everything kind of devolved into more of a drunken raid then anything. I doubt the guard was aware that you were responsible for it.”

“I really wish I’d gone to the bar with you. It seems like every time you have a drink something interesting happens,” interrupted Patience.

“Well, there’s an open invitation for you. I think I preferred waking up to the knowledge I’d spent the night with an orcish woman with a tournament to fight on the horizon than this though.”

“The good news is that what you did has gotten a pretty large number of adventurers on your side. That combined with the other news about the dragon and your involvement, well, I didn’t think much of you when Tib introduced us, but I’d say my opinion is improving. “

“You have the oddest luck of any man I’ve ever met,” chimed in Tib with Nica nodding along as he spoke. “You’ve gotten blackout drunk at that bar twice, and both times you wound up harming and helping yourself in equal measure.”

“Wonder if it has something to do with Chaos?” asked Patience.

“The new god? Why would he be involved?” asked Cassius.

I tilted my head. “People don’t know yet?”

Patience shook her head. “I asked around a bit while I was out shopping with Millicent yesterday, it seems like no one's put two and two together yet, or if they have they’re keeping it to themselves.”

I looked at Cassius, mulling over if I should tell him or not. He seemed like a nice enough guy though, and I knew I’d need his help, so lying didn’t seem like the best option. “I’m the chosen of Chaos. Though, I didn’t know who he was when he first chose me.”

“Cor…Cormac…” He paused for a moment. “Not exactly subtle now that I’m thinking of it. I suppose when we first met you simply didn’t leave the impression I’d expect one of the chosen to imprint when I met them.”

“Thanks...”

He shrugged. “You kind of assume anyone who’s the chosen of a god would be a bit broader or taller.”

I raised an eyebrow at him, I was easily half a head taller than him, and had been the tallest person in almost every room I’d been in since I’d arrived in Tu’reyne.

“Well, you just don’t feel tall. Besides, I’d expect the chosen of Chaos to be, well, more chaotic. You seem like a pretty stable sort.”

Tiberius chortled, seemed surprised by his own amusement, then blushed a bit.

I shook my head. “It’s a fair thing to laugh at. Especially from your perspective in this cell with me.”

He grimaced at that.

“So, I guess the only thing to ask now is, next steps?” asked Cassius.

“Well, you’ve told me before that the majority of adventurers do work like clearing mines of mites, or keeping skitterlings from clogging the sewers right?”I asked.

He nodded.

“I’d say the next step would be to organize a strike. Band together and refuse to work those jobs unless our demands are met.”

He shook his head. “I don’t know. There are certainly some adventurers that will continue to work anyway, particularly those with patrician sponsors.”

“Understandable, but I’ll bet you they won’t exactly be thrilled when they're forced to do the work of keeping Heracleum running rather than hunting down lost treasure, and slaying goblin kings.”

He nodded. “It could work. Just need to make sure the right people sign off on it. I’ll put out some bait, see who bites.”

“Anyone we should be particularly wary of?” I asked.

“There are a few of the higher level adventurers who I’d be concerned with. One named Thanteau, a solo adventurer sponsored by three different patricians, may be the biggest problem. The rest of them may sit this out completely, if not actually support us. You saved a lot of their friends when you got the dragon to bring them back.”

“Alright, so at least one piece of hard opposition on the adventurer end. How will the Senate and Consuls handle it?”

Cassius shrugged. “Not sure. It’s part of what Tristus is up to figuring out at the moment.”

“Even after we get all of that rolling, we’ll need to start thinking about a guild hall, how work will be distributed, what guild dues will be, and how to spread into other regions. I’ll see if I can get some parchment and paper to draft something out.” It wasn’t exactly what I expected, but it seemed like I may be able to put my business degree to work here on Tu’reyne. “Tib, would you take a cursory look at it after I’m done. I’ll need input from a local.

He nodded. “Happy to help. It’s about time I got out from under that, ‘slay all skitterlings in the sewers’ quest.”

I nodded, thinking for a moment. “We actually may be able to use that quest to our advantage, but let’s focus on organizing for now. You’re okay with being my point man Cassius?”

He nodded. “Point man, and leader of the Heracleum branch of the adventurer’s guild.”

I raised an eyebrow. “I don’t see why not. It would be good to have someone with your experience and contacts here.”

“We can discuss my pay later.”

I chuckled and nodded. As I did, Patience picked the lock to the cell, and went to lay down next to Zev. She yawned, stretched luxuriously, and laid down.

“Tired?” I asked her.

“If I’d known you were going to talk business this whole time, I wouldn’t have come.”

“When are you both out?” asked Nica.

“In three days,” answered Tib.

“I’ll have a more solid plan by the time we’re out. Cassius, would you be able to visit every day? Coordinate things with us?”

He sighed. “It’ll be hell on my leg, but I’ll make it happen.”

I nodded, things were moving quickly and a little hectically, but it was as Tib had suggested, as much of a good thing as a bad one. If I could accumulate enough support through Cassius and his contacts, it should be more than possible to get the guild off the ground. I’d need to hear from Tristus to know where the Senate and Consuls stood, but I was fairly certain a strike would give us the leverage we needed either way. After that, I would just have to get things moving, and show how effective the Guild could be in comparison to the bureaucracy that was in place, and I was even starting to form a plan for that in my head as well.

A bored looking guard walked over to the cell, yawning. “Alright, visiting is up for now, you can come back tomo-” He stopped and looked in the cell. “How did you?”

Zev and Patience got up, Zev simply slid through the bars, not bothering to open the door, and Patience let herself out with the same ease with which she’d let herself in, giving the guard a light pat on the cheek as she walked by. “Try not to worry about it too much,” she said, giving me a wink as she walked out.

The guard stood there for a moment and looked at me. “Is she uh, visiting tomorrow too?”

I smiled. “I hope so.”