“Privacy please,” Eve said in a stern voice towards the door where the knock originated.
“It’s me,” Lineah replied. Eve’s shoulders relaxed and Alice quickly pulled the rough-spun over her head. Though the shirt pulled tight in her chest, the tunic’s length covered her well enough that she didn’t rush to slide into the pants. Branch Captain Lineah peeked her head inside.
“Daryl’s back,” she said. “You didn’t mention it specifically, but it sounded like you wanted one of the kids to run an errand for you so I wanted you to know.”
Eve glanced at Alice and seemed conflicted about leaving, but turned and left the baths all the same.
Alone again, Alice’s smile fell from her lips and she looked down at the clothes on her body. Like something she might buy from a renaissance fair, the linen stretched very little and though it felt rough to the touch it didn’t itch or irritate her skin. She felt awkward about going around complete strangers without a bra, but until her own was clean she would have to endure.
With no intricate design on the clothes she was fairly certain the shirt and pants were the base components of the uniforms Eve and her coworker were wearing. What that job was, she wasn’t completely sure yet. She wasn’t sure about a lot actually.
Alice tucked the extra length of the tunic into the pants and laced up the sides, cinching them tight without the need for a belt. Then she looked around for her socks and boots only to find Evalyn took those to lauder as well. In their place she left slippers, made of soft animal hide with the fur on the inside for comfort and warmth.
Once dressed, she gathered her wet hair into a braid and stepped out the way Eve had gone.
Down the long hall and past a set of stairs leading to the subsequent floors, Alice stepped back into the large room at the entrance. Eve, and two others were standing in the center of the room talking. The newcomer, a boy in the middle of his teen years, glanced at Alice and his eyes grew wide.
Why do they all keep reacting like that? Alice thought.
As Eve and their other coworker followed the boy’s gaze and turned, Alice put on her best smile. As if everything was fine. As if she totally wasn’t freaking out at all. The woman next to Eve smiled strangely, perhaps like she sensed Alice’s awkwardness, and gave the gaping young man a smack on the back of the head to get his attention.
“No delays. You got it?” She asked.
“Yes, Branch Captain,” the boy replied. He dipped his head quickly to them all, cast one last glance at Alice, and darted out the front door. The sunlight outside had taken on the strong golden orange of sunset, but time didn’t really matter at the moment to Alice.
“What’s going on?” She asked Eve as the woman called the ‘Branch Captain’ returned to her desk.
“Nothing,” Eve replied. “Just sending Daryl to fetch someone.” She looked up and their eyes met again.
Eve had eyes Alice once only read about in fantasy books. They were purple, for one, which were impossible in her own world, but the more they locked gazes the more Alice saw flecks of silver scattered about the irises. Stars hanging in a twilight sky.
“There’s a lot of work I have to do, but I promise I’ll do my best to help get you settled in,” Eve replied. She chewed on her lip and, to Alice, it looked like a promise she was reluctant to give.
“Tonight though-” she hesitated then shook her head. “Just do your best to relax. We’ll start in earnest tomorrow.”
“I get that,” Alice replied as she looked around. There were still only three of them there, but given the size of the space she figured it was usually a busy place. “Can I stay down here while you work?”
Eve blinked, as if she hadn’t considered sending Alice anywhere else. That, at least, made her chuckle.
“Right. I’ll sit over there.”
She settled in at a table near Eve’s desk. The desk itself dominated the space with its rather imposing size compared to the woman who sat behind it. Almost as soon as she sat down, head bent over papers, her expression turned serious and her pen scribbled furiously. Occasionally, her legs swayed as they didn’t touch the floor and Alice grinned, thinking it was cute.
“I’m back!”
A door Alice didn’t notice behind her burst open, and Alice’s heart took a rapid trip up her throat in surprise.
From the door a teen girl waltzed in, spotted Alice and widened her eyes.
Again… Inwardly Alice frowned but outwardly she smiled. The girl smiled back.
“Hi! I’m Patty!”
“I’m Alice.”
They shook hands briefly then Patty pulled herself closer.
“Are you a new Guild member?” She asked. Eve clicked her tongue from her desk.
“Don’t be a bother, Patty,” she said without looking up from her paperwork. Patty scowled.
“I’m not!” She said. “Captain Lineah, tell her!”
Branch Captain Lineah laughed.
“She’s just a visitor right now, Patty,” Lineah replied. Patty covered her mouth with her hands.
“Oh! Do you need anything? Water? Ale? Food? A book? You’re not just sitting here are you?”
The barrage of friendly questions hit Alice at dizzying speed. She stuttered and stumbled over how to answer until Eve set her pen down with a loud clack.
“Patty. Please bring in the bed linens,” she said with a short tone. Patty looked up at Eve glaring down at her from her desk and glared back. Then she slid from the seat she had taken up next to Alice and grumbled all the way down the hall.
When the door shut with a heavy bang Lineah laughed and Eve sighed.
“Listening to her made me realize we’re about to get bombarded with questions like those,” Lineah said. Eve nodded and turned to Alice.
“Do your best not to answer questions lightly,” she said. “The Guild Members love to gossip and tell stories. Chances are they’ve probably heard about the ‘white haired giantess’ as soon as they got back to town. There’s no point forcing you to stay in my room out of sight but any information you give them could be… troublesome.”
“They’re good people,” Branch Captain Lineah said, though Alice couldn’t tell to whom she was speaking.
“They can’t be trusted,” Eve said flatly. “It’s better if we get our story straight before we divulge information.”
The onerous sound of heavy bells rang outside the Guild Hall, falling silent after eight strikes.
“It’ll have to wait until tomorrow I’m afraid,” Eve lamented as the doors to the entrance opened and the first ragged Adventurers stumbled in.
Within half an hour the reception area to the Guild hall went from dead silent to overflowing with raucous activity. Men and women of all types, wearing the same uniforms in various states of distress, gathered inside. With their gear tossed haphazardly onto sofas and beside tables, they crowded around the two large desks.
Branch Captain Lineah smiled and joked with those at her desk with a degree of familiarity bordering on unprofessional. As she took strange tokens from the men and women covered in, what Alice could only assume was, various amounts of blood. They laughed as if they were gathering for dinner, rather than turning in bounties. An eerie chill ran down her arms and she scrubbed them with her palms.
It's… a lot scarier seeing it in real life… but they're laughing like DnD characters, she thought as she eyed them.
Lineah took the tokens she was handed and placed them onto the lit up portions of the board behind her. It seemed to register the kills somehow and sent that information…somewhere.
At Eve’s desk, the small woman handled the results of the day’s “fetch quests” as Lineah had put it. She divided up and expertly bundled herbs, harvested mushrooms, stones and minerals, colorful feathers that drew in Alice’s eyes, and more. All the while tallying off the weighed amounts, writing down which Commissioners requested which parcels, and doling out immediate payment.
As Guild members received their fees and stepped aside to let the next in line step up, several stopped to chat with Alice.
As Lineah had said, they seemed friendly and welcoming. As Eve had said, they had all heard about Alice’s appearance in town. A few even heard that she had been running around “speaking tongues”, so they were shocked that she was speaking to them now. All the while, Alice did her best to smile, though she often found Eve glancing in her direction. Unlike earlier, when Eve’s glances had given Alice the vibe that she was being checked out, these glances seemed nervous. Eve worried that Alice might say too much. But truthfully, she wasn’t sure what she could say at all.
Patty returned from laundry and Daryl returned from delivering Eve’s message around the same time. The two playfully teased each other then got permission from Lineah to put in the evening’s dinner order with the Dove Tail.
All around her life bustled and moved, but Alice felt completely detached. As if she had been plucked from the audience to participate in a play even though she didn’t know the lines. Or perhaps as if she were watching a fantasy series on TV, and she pressed her face to the television screen in order to fully immerse herself. Mentally, it didn’t feel real. But the scratch of the linen shirt against her back; the smell of metal, leather, mud and even blood; the dim light of the many lamps hanging from the walls and ceiling; and the appearance of people who looked not quite human reminded her physically that she was indeed experiencing something real.
We’re not in New York anymore, Toto, she thought and swallowed against a hard lump forming in her throat.
A group of three Adventurers approached Reception and dropped multiple baskets full of raw chicken on Eve’s desk. Alice’s eyes widened at the still slightly bloody carcasses. One of them had a long reptilian tail.
Eve stared at the dramatic display then looked up at the three adventurers.
“I thought I told you three no hunt commissions until you find a new party member,” she said. “The Dove Tail asked you to bring back wild pheasants. They’re not paying for the Cockatrice.”
“Someone will pay for a cockatrice,” the shortest of the adventurers said with a scowl. He LOOKED rather uncanny for a human, but Alice wasn’t sure what else he could be. His features were simply too sharp compared to the others around him, and the air about him seemed to distort slightly.
“Besides, it wasn’t a hunt! The damn chicken-snake attacked us first. We would’ve been back a lot sooner if it hadn’t, so cut us some slack.”
“I’m not the one who needed the pheasants so the slack isn’t mine to cut,” Eve scowled. She glanced at the big guy in the back of the group who stood with his right arm hidden from Eve’s sight. Alice tried to crane her neck to see and the hairs on the back of her neck stood on end. The man’s arm looked like chiseled marble.
Eve also spotted it and sighed.
“Wait here,” she said and hopped down from her seat. She disappeared through the door behind Alice that led to the Dove Tail Tavern.
The three Adventurers’ eyes all fell on Alice as the door closed.
Uh oh. Alice smiled. They stared at her with inquisitive eyes full of hunger.
“So you’re the one everyone’s talking about,” the short man said as he sat across from Alice. Eyes a little too big for his face looked her up and down. “Definitely not a giant. Half maybe? Like me?”
Alice’s eyebrows raised slightly. “You? Half giant?”
The woman in their group and the man with the stone arm laughed. The short man scowled.
“Obviously not,” he replied.
“Felix is half fae,” the other man said and used his still working arm to ruffle the short man’s hair.
The man, Felix, ducked away and smoothed his hair back down. Alice’s eyes returned to the standing man’s arm.
“How did that happen?” She asked. The man grinned and gestured at the basket of meat on the counter with his thumb.
“Cockatrice. They can turn living beings to stone with some kind of venom in their bite. Tons of people get bit by ‘em cuz they look like a harmless bird at first glance. The farmers near where we were hunting pheasants reported it and put in a Hunt request, but we stumbled on it without even knowing about that.”
“Does that…hurt?”
The group of Adventurers all turned to look at the man’s arm, stone solid and white under his shirt. The man smiled.
“At the shoulder it’s like holding my skin inside freezing water,” he said. “So…yeah. But the arm itself is numb now.”
“The arm itself is nothing now,” the woman scowled. “Stone can’t feel.”
The man laughed and held out his good hand to Alice.
“Nice to meet you, Giantess. Name’s Orbahn. You already know Felix, and the lass is Dahlia.”
“Lass.” Dahlia scoffed and rolled her eyes.
“I’m Alice,” she said for what felt like the fiftieth time that evening.
Orbahn sat at Alice’s table as Dahlia moved their baskets of pheasant kills off the center of Eve’s desk to make room for the Members still waiting in line behind them. Then she sat as well.
“We heard you defended the secretary today,” Orbahn said. “That must’ve been quite a feat, Eve is extremely skilled at defending herself.”
“I-” Alice chewed on her lip. “It happened so fast really. Eve was actually the one who saved me.”
“One day in town and already starting trouble, huh?” Felix fiddled with the clasp of his cape and smirked.
“Your hair is really cool,” Dahlia chimed in. “It’s not natural is it? Is it a half giant color?”
“Uh- I don’t know.”
“What’s it like in the Bondellfi Mountains? I’ve heard most giants are from there.”
“Have you signed up to join the Guild?”
“Um-”
“If you’re a half giant you’re probably good with magic right? We could use someone like that.”
“She might have a Gift instead if she’s half human, you know.”
“...”
Alice’s eyes darted from one to the next and panic started to set in. She became conscious of the eyes still waiting in line watching them, and the tables from the half story above them looking down to watch. She cast a cautious eye to Lineah, but the Branch Captain still appeared busy processing Hunts.
Orbahn’s good hand tapped on the table, drawing her attention.
“Ignore them,” he said with a calm smile. Though he appeared at ease, sweat beaded on his forehead. The stone affliction crept up the nape of his neck. “Felix and Dee are desperate for a new party member since our fourth left recently.”
“I’m sorry to hear that-” Alice croaked. As she struggled with what else to say, a bottle of wine landed on the center of the table between the group. Everyone looked up at Eve as she also set down three glasses as well as a small paper envelope in front of Orban.
“Antidote,” she said as she pushed it close. “Take it and don’t drink alcohol tonight. Don’t get your arm wet tonight either.”
“Life-saver,” Orbahn grinned as he emptied the components of the envelope into his mouth. He grunted against their bitter flavor and reached for his water skin. Dahlia reached for the wine bottle with a massive grin.
“This brand is my favorite! Thanks, Eve!” She gave Eve a radiant smile and Alice noticed Eve’s gaze soften a touch though she remained stoic.
“The Dove Tail will take the Cockatrice,” she said. “The cook said he wants to try the meat himself. Since it was technically a hunt request though and you’re disqualified for those at the moment, the tavern isn’t allowed to pay you the Hunt fee. Instead they’ll be paying for the cost of the antidote and the wine. You’re not receiving extra payment at this time.”
Orbahn chuckled as Felix and Dahlia groaned.
“And one more thing-” Eve placed her hand on Alice’s shoulder. “Don’t bother Alice too much today. She’s my guest and she just arrived.”
A pleasant heat rose in Alice’s ears unrelated to the wine she just sipped. She found herself smiling into her goblet despite herself. Barely known each other a few hours, and all it took was one plea of help from Alice to have Eve’s protection.
It’s really cute… She chuckled to herself as she sipped her wine. The blend was tart and dry with just a hint of sweetness. Floral notes danced across her tongue and she could see why Dahlia called it her favorite.
As Eve stepped away from the table and returned to her desk, the door behind Alice opened once again.