CLEO – Ankratur
“You’re going to need to know that the Adventurers’ Guild,” said Rosalia, “apart from offering protection to carded adventurers, is also an organization that provides adventurer-for-hire services for many people and organizations within the Eternal Empire. Do you follow? The Guild organizes all of the news and evidence and word-of-mouth information it receives, and based on that knowledge generates missions which are open to adventurers. Anyone can also request their services, for a fee of course. And they deal with valuable resources like rare beast and monster parts, as well as miscellaneous loot and artifacts.”
“And they have a big book,” Kalak added. “In it they record details of every mission and information on Guild members. It’s a magic book, too. Anything written in it is duplicated in linked books in all the other Adventurers’ Guild outposts.”
“So they all know what’s happening in other parts of the Empire,” Rosalia said. “And commissions can be purchased for specific adventurers, which can sometimes be anonymous. Though you usually figure out who commissioned the mission, since often you need to know who to turn over the loot or artifact or whatever to.”
They walked along a busy street, before turning down a side alley that Kalak assured them was a short-cut. The layout of the city was confusing, and she suspected that was a result of the number of structures built on the pyramid’s steps spreading over time, with no clear plan. Come to think of it, was Ankratur a stepped-pyramid or a ziggurat? She wasn’t exactly sure of the difference, her strengths being maths and science, but there had to be a difference between the two, didn’t there?
Cleo had quickly changed before they’d left, and she felt much more comfortable in new clothes she could considers hers. The boots were lined and comfy too, with actual laces rather than the buckles she’d expected. She wore the backpack, which Kalak had explained as she looked through it before they’d left, contained a few essentials that every adventurer needed; namely a sewing kit, a knife, fork and spoon, a packet of fire-sticks—that looked like matches—some cordage, a water canteen, a hatchet, a bar of soap and a small towel, and teeth-cleaning implements and powders—the last of which she quickly used. She was sure all the clothes and gear had cost far more than the silvers she’d given them, but when she’d queried it with Rosalia the mage had brushed Cleo off. Her dress and torc and armbands were stuffed at the bottom of her pack.
“Wait,” Cleo said. “Is ‘Eternal Empire’ another name for the Korazail Empire?”
“Yes. Many call the Empress the Eternal Empress, as she’s lived for over two hundred years, so far.”
“May she live forever,” Kalak said fervently.
Rosalia started to shake her head, then stopped herself. “People often call the empire the Eternal Empire, as a sort of tribute to her. They also want the empire to rule as long as possible, believing that it will be the only thing able to stop the threat of the Corrupted Scourge.”
I know that won’t happen. She needed to make herself strong, and as hard as steel. Saskia and Mau had both spoken of a tempering, which Cleo now decided wasn’t good enough, at least for her. She wanted more than to just survive. Perhaps forging would be more appropriate—heating and hammering her into a useable instrument. But what could she do that an entire centuries old empire couldn’t?
The Adventurers’ Guild was located in what Cleo decided was one of the city’s hubs, as there were many well-designed and built structures surrounding a busy square. It was a huge three-story corniced building made from a speckled desert-brown granite, roughly finished, except for the arched windows and doorways which were polished smooth. Of the three ground floor doors, only the largest was wide open, the others were closed with heavy iron locks.
“Here we are,” Rosalia said. “I’ll do the talking, unless you’re asked a direct question. There will be a form to fill out, but it’s a relatively quick and simple process. New adventurers are usually focused on joining for protection first, and then on the missions later. They usually party up with their sponsor. At least at the beginning of their careers.”
Inside, there was one large room, with the right-hand section looking like a waiting or common area complete with tables and chairs and even a bar along one wall. The air fairly hummed with the loud din of conversation, and smelled of leather and oil and sweat. Cleo could see two servers behind the bar, one cleaning pewter mugs and the other preparing what looked like a cold-meat and cheese sandwich with sliced pickles. Do they have mustard pickles here? The left-hand side of the room contained a long counter topped with polished marble, and the attendants behind it looked and acted businesslike. Between two of them, the largest book Cleo had ever seen sat open on a solid wooden stand. There were around thirty adventurers lounging in the common area, some alone, some chatting and laughing in groups, and all of them with a drink of some sort. Cleo could feel their eyes on her when they entered, analyzing and assessing, and she wouldn’t be surprised if she’d been Identified a few times. Luckily, she would show up as an Aura Mage, and hopefully be dismissed without drawing too much interest—she had no desire to make small talk and fend off questions from curious card-holders.
The adventurers were an eclectic bunch, some obviously mages, others were warriors in either leather or scale armor, while a few she couldn’t figure out—likely ranger or stealth types, perhaps, or support classes like hers. There were no full-plate wearers to be seen, which made a kind of sense, since it was heavy and tiring to wear, and difficult to sleep in and take on and off. In a corner, a woman in a long green dress played a jaunty tune on an instrument that looked like a cross between a lute and a guitar.
A dozen or so adventurers lined up in queues in front of the marble counter, along with some civilians. The attendants were talking, handing out coin purses, papers, and having people sign documents; along with making notations in the large book.
“Right,” Kalak said. “You get the paperwork started, Cleo and I’ll get a table and some drinks. A beer would go down well.”
“It’s still morning,” Rosalia said.
“The water here tastes terrible.”
Cleo hadn’t noticed anything strange with the water’s taste. She suppressed a smile. She knew she would miss these two, even though they hadn’t known each other for very long.
Rosalia joined a queue at the counter, while Kalak ordered three beers at the bar. Cleo stood around and tried to act inconspicuous, but it was fairly obvious that she was a new adventurer. Not quite yet, she reminded herself.
“Wouldn’t Rosalia prefer a wine?” she asked Kalak.
“She’ll drink a beer, even if she complains that it’s too early. Here’s a tip for you: don’t ever order a fancy drink at an Adventurers’ Guild. You’ll get a reputation.”
Wine was fancy? “A reputation for what?”
“For being fancy.”
When the beers were ready, Kalak handed over a few coppers and they retreated to a table against a side wall. Kalak drank half his beer in one go, licking the foam from and smacking his lips. Cleo sipped hers, not sure she’d ever had a drink this early and not wanting to aggravate her lupus.
“Drink up, princess! You need to rehydrate.”
“I don’t think that’s how it works. And anyway, alcohol aggravates my illness, so I don’t drink much.”
“Oh. I’ll have yours then.” Kalak snagged her pewter mug and dragged it over to join his beer.
“I’ll get something else. Mind my pack.” Cleo wandered over to the bar, asked for something non-alcoholic, and handed over a copper drab for two snozberry juices.
“Isn’t that— never mind,” she said.
“It’s a little sour,” the server said. “Would you like me to add some honey?”
“No, thank you. I’ll try it without.” Cleo returned to their table with her glasses of blue juice, sipping one on the way and finding the drink tart but delicious—like blueberry juice with a citrus tang.
“That stuff’s rank,” Kalak said.
Stolen story; please report.
“I quite like it.”
“You’re a princess, you like fancy stuff.”
“Stop hassling the girl,” Rosalia said, as she made her way over. “Cleo, you’re needed for mana testing and your signature, and then we’ll be done. You can bring your drink. I’ll grab mine. Kalak, you can have my beer.”
“My lucky day.”
As Cleo and Rosalia made their way to the marble counter, she noticed one wall half covered with dozens of fliers.
“Missions,” Rosalia said, noticing her look. “Listen, they’re going to be amazed by your mana pool. Just downplay it, explain that it’s something to do with being an Aura Mage like you said before. I’m sure they’ll get over it, especially since you’re leaving, but word will travel fast. I’m sure nothing bad will happen because of it, but you might get a few offers before you can make it out of Ankratur.”
“Even as a shitty Aura Mage?” Cleo said.
“Even as. Classes can’t be changed, but skill and ability cards sure can. That reminds me, I’ll think of a few cards that you might want to look into acquiring when you have a lot more coin.”
“Thank you.”
“Here we are. Acker, this is the prospective recruit we spoke of.”
The attendant was a thin middle-aged man, with unruly blond hair. “A pleasure, young lady. Now, Rosalia has sponsored you for guild membership, which as I’m sure you know is a privilege.” He stopped and looked at Cleo.
“Yes,” she said.
“Right. Now, we’ll have to measure your mana, and you can read and sign the guild membership form. At your F minus rank, it costs a silver talent to join, renewed yearly. Then we can have your guild badge made, and you’ll be all set. I don’t think you’ll get many missions as an Aura Mage, but you’ll be registered and that’s the main thing.”
Cleo nodded along, and then pursed her lips when Acker brought out a cobalt crystal similar to Rosalia’s mana measuring device, except five times the size, and as far as she could tell a perfect cube. Was there a way to hide the size of her mana pool? She didn’t know, but it would be interesting to find out. As an experiment, she activated her regeneration and energy shield auras, reserving sixty-percent of her mana, leaving the other forty-percent free.
As she did, a thought occurred to her: why was it called an energy shield when it used mana? Why wasn’t it called a mana shield? Putting the idea aside to contemplate another time, she focused on what the attendant was doing as she felt Rosalia stiffen beside her, before the mage relaxed. Cleo realized they were all still in the party they’d created in the Blighted Lands, so she’d felt the auras activating. The mage glanced at Cleo and gave an approving nod, quickly catching on to what she was doing.
“I’m sure you’ve used one of these before,” the attendant said.
“Of course.” Cleo took hold of the crystal, which was almost hot to the touch.
As before, from one moment to the next, the crystal went from hot to cold. Cleo felt a mana tendril connecting her to the cube, and then the sensation disappeared and the crystal began to warm up again.
“That’s a negative for necromancy,” Acker said.
“What?!” Cleo exclaimed.
“Just checking. You can’t be too sure. And now…” His eyes went wide and his mouth opened and closed. He squinted at Cleo. “That’s um… maybe the crystal needs recalibrating. Perhaps we should wait a bit and test again.”
“There’s no need,” Rosalia said. “The reading is correct. I’ve tested her myself.”
“It’s because I’m an Aura Mage,” Cleo said quickly. “My auras use up a lot of mana so I’m compensated with a larger pool.”
“But it’s three-hundred and twenty-six thaums! For an F minus class card! It’s… I’ll need to make a note of this.”
Cleo suppressed a grin. Ah! It worked! Forty percent of the seven-hundred and twenty that Rosalia had measured was around—seventy-two times four, so… hang on… that’s about two-hundred and eighty, much lower than Acker’s measurement. What was going on?
In her mind she brought up her Legend card, as she recalled something about mana efficiency…
Legend
Legendary F– tier
Class/heart card
+500% mana
+10% mana regeneration
+10% mana reservation efficiency
+1 card slot (hidden)
Class titles can be customized
There it was, plus ten percent mana reservation efficiency. So with that factored in sixty percent reserved was actually around fifty-four percent. Yes, that was about right. She’d have to remember all these figures and try to work out what formula mana reservation followed.
And if she had more auras to reserve mana she would test even lower. That would be a good way to keep her mana pool unremarkable, and under the radar. But wow, what had seemed like a measly ten percent efficiency really made a big difference to her leftover mana.
“I don’t think that’s necessary, Acker,” Rosalia said. “It’s a class feature, nothing out of the ordinary. You just never see Aura Mages out here as they’re too weak.”
“But still,” the attendant said, “I’ll make a note, as someone might be interested. Almost two-and-a-half times the average is ridiculous.” He said this last part with annoyance, which put Cleo on guard.
“Do what you think is best,” Rosalia said.
Acker jotted notations into the large book, and then brought a sheet of paper over for Cleo to sign. It was full of legalese language about the guild’s charter and conditions, along with various charges and commission rates for guild missions which averaged around twenty-percent. She signed at the bottom, using a wooden pen with a metal nib, and handed over a silver talent. All the while, the attendant gave her a strange look, like she was an annoying but interesting bug to study. Or maybe one he wanted to collect. She did her best to ignore him.
Once she’d signed, he produced a badge on a metal chain, the same as Kalak and Rosalia still wore. He touched a finger to the badge, and it softly glowed before returning to normal.
“There. Your membership information is stored, along with your sponsor’s. Make sure you wear it! We don’t want to clean up any misunderstandings.”
“I will,” Cleo said, as she slipped the chain over her head. The badge was iron or steel, and bore a symbol on both sides—a navy blue enameled four-pointed star overlapping another black enamel four-pointed star, so it looked a bit like a compass. She didn’t know how to read the information it contained, but she could figure that out later.
“Good, we’re done,” Rosalia said. “Thank you, Acker.”
She guided Cleo by the arm and they joined Kalak, who now had three empty mugs in front of him. “Pay no mind to Acker’s bad attitude. Some of the attendants are failed adventurers, like him. Well, not failed, that’s too harsh. Some make enough coin to be satisfied and settle down, but others lose their nerve and can’t bring themselves to go out any more. They’ve seen too much blood and destruction, and lost too many friends. He’s just jealous, though he usually hides it better.”
Kalak snorted, and then peered into a mug to check whether there was any beer left. “He’s a pants-pisser, no doubt.”
“Kalak!” Rosalia hissed. “Keep it down, you don’t want to get black-listed.”
“Okay, okay.”
Cleo sat down, relived to take the weight off her feet, which were already aching. She sipped her snozberry juice.
“Don’t get comfortable,” Kalak said. “We need to check out the caravans.”
Rosalia finished off her drink, and gave a satisfied sigh. “Cleo, is there anything specific you want? You have basic gear and clothes now, what else?”
“Some healing potions, or something to help with the discomfort my illness causes.” Discomfort was a mild way of putting it. Sometimes she’d been unable to get out of bed because the pain was so intense. “And is there any way I can afford a wand?”
Kalak laughed, and Rosalia shook her head.
“No, I’m afraid you can’t afford one,” the mage said. “Unless you sell your orichalcum beads which I don’t recommend. Most mages trade up their wands when they can, for better quality ones that hold more charges and do more damage. But out here on the frontier wands are far more expensive than you’ll find they are in cities.”
“Don’t you have an old wand?” Kalak said.
“I have one of my old wands, but it’s cracked from when I tried to push too much mana into it.”
“Bah! It should still work, shouldn’t it?”
“No… The crack looks cosmetic, but the inner core is damaged. And even an unusable wand is worth a fair amount because of the raw materials. Out here a cheap wand is ten gold florins, and that’s for one that would probably sell for six or seven in a city. In any case, Cleo, you’ll need some training on how to charge wands, but I guess with your mana reservoir and with how quickly you picked up mana cycling, you shouldn’t have a problem. Healing potions won’t be possible, I’m afraid. They’re also far too expensive. But I’m sure an alchemist or herbalist would have a viable alternative.”
Cleo suppressed an annoyed sigh as she realized her dream of owning a magic wand would have to wait. It would have been nice to have a wand so she didn’t have to use her cards, or as backup. At the moment she had to use her curse if she found herself in a fight, and it took time to damage a foe. Something that packed more initial punch would be extremely useful.
“If I had a spare wand I’d give it to you,” Rosalia added as she looked at Cleo.
“Thank you,” Cleo replied. “I’d pay you back too, but right now I’ll have to make do without.” Rosalia and Kalak had been more than generous, and she already felt like she was taking advantage of them and owed them both. A debt was a debt, and always had to be repaid. Normally, she would decline all their help and make do as best she could, as she absolutely hated being in debt. But with the urgency Mau had drummed into her, she shouldn’t be choosy. “Then I guess it’s a herbalist next, then the caravans.”
Kalak burped loudly, and a few passersby glanced at him. “I need to walk these beers off. And one of us should check the Deck Makers for Scrubby’s cards. I’d hate to have missed one of his cards because we were both scurrying around for Cleo.” He smiled lopsidedly at her. “No offense.”
“None taken,” Cleo said with a grin.
“Cleo,” Rosalia said, “let’s leave Kalak and his uninformed opinions, and get you something to help with your illness. You know what’s best, I think, so I’ll follow your lead once we’re there.”
[Party disbanded]
The awareness of where Kalak and Rosalia were disappeared, along with the sense of their overall health and the other thing she couldn’t figure out but was probably mana.
Oh… she’d almost forgotten about their party. Cleo’s chest tightened and she could only take shallow breaths. Her first adventuring party, disbanded. She’d been lucky to find herself with Rosalia and Kalak, but perhaps that was Saskia’s doing? Whatever it was, she was grateful, and couldn’t help but feel sad that their time together was drawing to a close.
“This is goodbye, then, Kalak.”
Cleo stood up, muscles stiff and aching just from the walk here and from not having enough time to recover. They both said a few more goodbyes to Kalak, who surprised Cleo by giving her a brief hug.
“You stay safe, princess,” he said gruffly.
“I will. Thank you, Kalak. Thank you for everything. I’ll be back, someday.”
“See that you are. I’ll miss you, and your auras!”
Kalak wobbled across the floor of the guild and out the door. Cleo wished she had a crutch, or a wheelchair, but she’d put herself through worse pain and survived.
She wondered if most people were as bloody-minded as she was, or if it was just her.
