The Kelford guild hall smelled like spilled ale and wet dogs, its scarred tables crowded under smoky rafters. A notice board covered the far wall in layered bounties, while hunters in patched leather hunched over breakfast.
Ray kicked the door wide with his coat swinging open, letting the morning chill roll in behind him.
"Sergeant Bram told me to register by morning, making me the most law-abiding man in this building before breakfast," he announced, spreading his arms wide.
Yuzu yanked him back by the sleeve, "Lower your voice, half this room owes my clinic money."
"Then they should love you, meaning by association they love me too, which is just basic math."
"That isn’t how math works."
A freckled clerk slid a ledger across the counter without looking up, chewing the end of his quill like jerky.
"Registration is five silver, sir, then your name on the line with your hand on the rank stone, if you please."
Ray dropped the coins one at a time, each one ringing on the wood, "Five out of a hundred leaves me ninety-five, still the richest morning of my life."
He signed his name with a flourish that sprawled across three whole lines of the ledger.
"Weapon of record?" the clerk asked, his quill hovering over the page.
He patted the Breaker Dagger on his hip while keeping his coat closed over the holsters, "Put down two daggers and a winning personality, whichever fits on the line better."
’Nomi told me to keep the pistols secret, making a guild ledger the last place in the world they belong.’
"I’ll write daggers, sir," the clerk mumbled, "since the guild doesn’t recognise a personality as a weapon."
The rank stone sat on a brass stand, a fist of clear crystal that glowed for anyone with mana.
"Palm flat on the crystal, please, and don’t worry about the tickle, since everyone feels a little one."
Ray laid his palm on the crystal, feeling it stay cool while every eye in the hall drifted his way. The crystal flickered once with a faint grey spark at its heart, then went dark like a candle in rain.
The clerk squinted at the dead crystal, then at him, his face folding into open pity, "Forgive me, sir, but that’s F-Rank... the lowest mark the stone knows how to give."
"Does it go any lower if I try harder, or did I just set some kind of record?"
The laughter started at a corner table, spreading across the hall as men slapped the boards and spilled their ale.
"Hahaha, an F-Rank dragged in Rogan’s whole crew?" a drunk howled from the back, "Then he must’ve tripped over his own feet!"
A hunter with a boar-tusk necklace shoved through the crowd, slapping the stranger’s shoulder hard enough to sting.
He leaned in close, his breath thick with ale, "Tell us the truth, little F, did that clinic girl carry you home piggyback, like a sleepy little—"
Ray reached up without turning, folding the man’s thumb toward its wrist in a quiet Krav Maga lock. The smile was simply gone from his face, his eyes resting on the clerk as the hunter rose.
The laughter at the nearest tables stopped mid-breath, one trapper frozen with his mug halfway to his mouth.
"Aghhh, let go of my thumb, let go of it!"
"You will call her Yuzu from now on, or you will learn to hold a mug with your other hand," Ray said quietly, without looking back.
"Yuzu, I’ll call her Yuzu from now on, I swear it!" the hunter gasped, sweat beading on his lip.
"Is there anything else you need from me, or is the registration finished?" he asked the clerk in the same level voice.
"Th-that’s everything, sir," the clerk squeaked, staring at the purple thumb, "and welcome to the guild, truly."
He let go, sending the hunter stumbling back into his friends as the hall held its breath. Under the hearth bench a hound slunk out the back door, its tail tucked between its legs.
The grin came back as easily as a coat going on, Ray winking at the purple-faced hunter.
"Next time you want a piggyback ride, buddy, ask Yuzu nicely, seeing as she charges by the mile."
"I charge double for idiots," Yuzu said without looking up.
An old trapper at the nearest table lowered his mug, staring as if he spotted a wolf in a hat.
"That weren’t no spell or wrestling hold I ever saw, so what in the rivers did he just do to that boy’s hand?"
"It’s an old family trick for wandering hands that I’d happily teach you for a very reasonable fee."
"The stone measures mana, not sense," Yuzu said dryly, accepting a token from the clerk, "and it’s wrong about him both ways."
Ray glanced down at the token in her palm, where a crisp letter C caught the light from the windows.
"Holy hell, you’re C-Rank, yet you let me walk in here like a stray?"
"Healers rank on mana... which you never asked about."
His own status window stayed quiet, its rank line still reading Unranked as though the stone never spoke at all.
’The guild can call me F all day long, since nobody ever watches the hands of the guy at the bottom.’
Yuzu stopped in front of the notice board with her arms folded, glaring at a cluster of empty pins. Scraps of torn paper still hung from several of them, the corners ripped away by someone in a hurry.
"Six river reports hung on this board two days ago," she said, her voice low and dangerous, "while today there are none."
"The council’s men took them down at dawn," the clerk mumbled, shrinking behind his ledger, "and forgive me, miss, I only work here, but they said the reports were causing a panic."
"Did the council’s men sign for these in your ledger, or did they just walk in and help themselves?" Ray asked, turning toward the counter.
"They signed nothing, sir, they only told me to forget their faces, a thing I’m trying very hard to do."
Ray pinched one of the torn corners, rubbing the paper between finger and thumb like a tailor judging cloth.
"These were ripped down rather than unpinned, telling me whoever did it was nervous, rushed and damn sloppy with it."
"The Merrow girl went into the ground yesterday while the council worried about panic, which makes panic the only sane thing left in this town!"
Her fists trembled at her sides, her whole body shaking with anger that found nowhere to go.
’Some bastard on that council read those reports, priced the damage to the harvest trade, then made them disappear before anyone important noticed.’
"That’s a cover-up, plain and simple," he said quietly, "which means somebody up top is getting paid to look the other way."
She turned to face him, studying him like a fever she was finally ready to diagnose, "You went colder at that well last night than you did with the goblins or with Rogan, so tell me why."
Ray studied the empty pins for a long moment, choosing which piece of the truth he could afford to sell.
"I’m working a long contract that runs north... with this river looking like the first stop on the road."
"Then I’m in, given nobody else in Kelford will fix it."
Blue text slid across his vision before he could answer, in a panel the Arsenal never showed him before.
[ CANDIDATE COMPATIBILITY DETECTED ]
[Candidate: Yuzu]
[Covenant: Freely Spoken Oath Before a Witness]
’Nomi never said a word about candidates, so either she forgot or she wanted me to find out the hard way.’
"If you mean it, say it properly, out loud and in front of a witness, the way I take every contract."
"You want an oath in a guild hall that smells like a wet dog?" she asked, wrinkling her nose.
"I want you to mean it, Doc, while the dog smell comes free as atmosphere."
She drew a breath, squared her shoulders, then laid her right hand flat on the counter between them.
"Clerk, you’re the witness, so pay attention," she said crisply, "for I’m only saying this once."
The clerk blinked with his quill frozen halfway to his mouth, then sat up straight as if a lord entered.
"I, Yuzu of Kelford, stand with Ray against whatever is poisoning our rivers, freely and by my own choice, for as long as the work takes."
The nearest tables went quiet around them, even the hunter with the sore thumb lowering his mug to listen.
"Witnessed," the clerk said, scratching a quick mark into his ledger, "and that’ll be one copper for the ink, if it’s no trouble."
’There was no glow or thunder, just a woman meaning every word, yet somehow it hits harder than any magic I’ve seen.’
[ HERO CANDIDATE REGISTERED ]
[Candidate: Yuzu]
[Count: 1 / 10]
Ray kept his face still, though the number in that last line sat in his chest like a swallowed coin.
’Shit, one out of ten means nine more of these are out there somewhere, while nobody bothered to hand me a list.’
She tilted her head, watching him with a healer’s eye, "You look like you just swallowed a bee."
"That’s indigestion from all the sincerity, Doc, hitting a guy right in the gut," he said, patting his stomach.
She pointed a finger at his nose, "This is a partnership, not a fan club, so don’t let it go to your—"
"Too late, given my head is already so huge that there’s no room left for anything to go to it."
"Pfft, you’re an idiot," she muttered, a real laugh slipping out before she could catch it.
She slapped the copper onto the counter herself, then hitched her satchel higher on her shoulder with a sniff.
"Then where does a partnership start, oh mighty F-Rank?"
"It starts with breakfast, considering nobody fights a cover-up on an empty stomach, then we see what the F-Rank board thinks I’m worth."
He waved down guild tea for her and two greasy sausages for himself, ignoring the stares from every table.
’She brings a glass sword, a temper and a conscience, making her the first hire I never had to pay for.’
Behind them the hall kept muttering about the F-Rank, though nobody laughed quite as loud as before.