Patty and Daryl stepped through the door from the Dove Tail pushing carts of food and drink.
The general chatter exploded as ravenous men and women crowded around. The guild hall took on a new level of liveliness as voices rose over chairs scraping against the wood floor, the sounds of clanking armor moving about or being discarded entirely. The sound of heavy bottomed tankards hitting the tables. The smell of alcohol. The rise and fall of laughter.
Patty slid a modest sandwich and a glass of water to Alice through the commotion. Rough chunks of pulled meat and a thick smear of soft cheese between a freshly baked roll tickled her nose and reminded her that she had been without food for nearly two days. Restraint flew out the window as the first bite hit her tongue and Alice devoured the sandwich with ravenous fury.
“Don’t forget to chew,” Eve said from her desk. She continued working on the commissions in front of her and Alice hadn’t noticed her gaze at all.
Felix returned with similar meals for his party members as well as a plate of chopped vegetables that he set in the center.
“Acting like you haven’t eaten in days…” Dahlia muttered. “There’s plenty, so don’t hold back. It’s one of the benefits of being next to a tavern.”
“Don’t make yourself sick though,” Orbahn grinned.
The evening passed as such, with lively conversation all around them. Contrary to Eve’s fears, once people settled in everyone’s attention turned to their own friends and companions. The only ones who focused on Alice were the three adventurers that sat at her table and after Eve’s warning from earlier they focused less on asking Alice about herself and instead talked about themselves.
“We used to have a healer in our party,” Dahlia said as she sipped her third glass of wine. At some point a second bottle appeared. “But she went back to her hometown awhile ago, after she received a letter that a bunch of physicians in town had left.”
“Why did they leave?” Alice asked. She nibbled on a spicy slice of parsnip.
“Hard to say,” Felix said. “There’s been quite a few skirmishes in the countryside lately. Lots of lesser nobles out there wanting to expand their influence. Even other guilds have been caught brawling it out. There’s also been an up-tick in monster attacks. Physicians are a hot commodity these days.”
There was a weight in his words that Alice couldn’t grasp. A sense of blame for something other than what he suggested.
“Anyway,” Dahlia loudly interjected. “Without her we got booted from the Hunt board, but at the same time we haven’t found anyone new to join us so we’ve been stuck running errands.”
“Hard to argue being kicked off the hunt board after today though,” Orbahn replied. Eve snorted from her desk.
As the wine dried up at their table Alice, Felix, and Dahlia enjoyed a comfortable state of inebriation. Dahlia hummed and swayed to the music of someone playing a flute on the floor above them.
Felix squinted at Alice and reached across the table.
“Your white hair entices me to touch it,” he mumbled. “I want to know what color i can make it.”
Alice leaned out of his reach. Her unfocused eyes watched him warily. He grinned and wiggled his fingers at her.
“I have a fun Gift, you see. I call it Fae Touch. I can make things happen by touching them.” His frown faltered for a second and he pulled his hand back. “Of course, there’s a luck element involved. Sometimes I don’t get the results I’m hoping for.” He picked up the last remaining slice of parsnip and held it up for the whole table to see.
“Let’s test my luck. I want to sprout this.” He twirled the parsnip slice between his fingers like a coin, then gripped it between his thumb and pointer finger. Alice felt…something…shift in the air around them.
One moment the parsnip slice was just a vegetable slice, and the next instant she saw roots and a green stem growing from an immature parsnip. Her eyes grew wide. Felix beamed, amused to find someone captivated by his parlor tricks.
He dropped the transformed parsnip on the table and reached out to Alice again.
“Come on, let me try. You could have sky blue hair in an instant.”
Alice looked around the table, but even Orbahn who had remained sober seemed not at all worried for Alice’s safety. Her eyes looked up to the reception desk. Eve watched from her vantage point and slowly chewed on a bite of sandwich.
Alice sighed and leaned forward. Felix stood on his seat and leaned fully across the table. His slender fingers slid through her hair and Alice felt that strange…something… again.
The table fell apart in a fit of laughter.
In an instant, Alice’s white strands flared to life with a vibrant pink.
“I THOUGHT IT WAS GOING TO BE BLUE!” She said and the three across from her fell apart even harder with a new cascade of laughter. Heads all around reception turned towards the sudden outburst. Eve turned away, hiding her face.
Alice smiled, despite herself, and a chuckle eventually bubbled up in her chest.
“She’s fitting in pretty well for someone who stands out,” Captain Lineah said as she approached Eve’s desk. Eve wiped her mouth and regained her composure in an instant, but Lineah had caught her friend’s expression that she had tried to hide.
“If she joins the Guild she might be a good fit for their group. Orbahn is too laid back to keep Felix and Dahlia from fighting all the time. And losing Maeve has really cut into the work they can do.”
“I know,” Eve nodded and ignored the dark knot twisting in her heart. Lineah set a stack of papers on Eve’s desk.
“Either way, they’re not the only party who could use a new member. We could take this opportunity to rework the roster a bit. It’s worth thinking about.”
Eve scowled at the stack of papers and looked up at Lineah. “Rosters are your job.”
“Ah, but see…” Lineah grinned and leaned against Eve’s desk. “What is a secretary for if not to do all the work the boss doesn’t want to do?”
Eve rolled her eyes and Lineah laughed.
____
As it grew late, the many men and women slowly vacated the main hall and headed up the stairs to their rooms. Dahlia and Felix leaned against each other for support as they staggered down the hall. Orbahn rose to follow them and bid Alice a goodnight.
Soon the large reception hall was as quiet as when they first arrived. Though much, much, messier.
Patty and Daryl shuffled about, cleaning up without complaint, as they discussed some of the fascinating tales they heard over dinner.
The front door opened and a hooded figure stepped inside.
Callum lowered his hood as the door shut and Lineah called for the two teens to finish up what they were doing and go to bed.
As their excited chatter vanished down the hall, Alice heard a myriad of door locks sliding into place. The four of them remaining in the hall stared at each other.
“I had to wait a lot longer for the rowdy crowd to wear themselves out than usual,” he said as he shrugged off his cloak. He glanced at Alice then back at Eve and Lineah.
“I got your message from Daryl that you wanted to meet so I had assumed it was about the woman who appeared in my shop. But I didn’t expect her to be here.”
“About that-” Eve started. Alice rose from her seat.
“Sorry about earlier,” She said. Callum jumped and the smell of ash burned Eve’s nose.
Lineah’s hand shot out and grabbed Callum’s shoulder.
“Easy,” She warned. The smell vanished. Callum regained his composure and ran a hand through his hair.
“You understood me.”
Alice nodded.
“But not at the shop?”
Alice shook her head.
“Ah. Well then,” Callum scratched his chin. “I guess now I can tell you you cracked my window when you burst in like that.”
Alice winced and sat back down. “Sorry…”
Callum took in a deep breath then pulled up a seat. Lineah sat next to him.
“Alright, Eve. You’re normally an unpredictable one, but I can’t believe you would grab a Divine Totem bare handed and just run out of my shop after a stranger like that.”
“Of course you knew what it was,” Eve muttered. “Why didn’t you say?”
“I tried. You didn’t exactly give me a chance.”
Lineah glanced at the two of them then tilted her head.
“You’re not exactly what I would call impulsive,” she said. “So…what happened?”
Eve bit her lip.
An unsettling aura rolled over her body and Alice jumped as all throughout the reception hall tankards and plates lifted into the air and slowly drifted down to stack themselves on the carts that came from the tavern.
Callum and Lineah remained unphased, waiting for Eve to speak. She rolled up her sleeve enough to show them the chain of hearts along her wrist. Then she grabbed Alice’s arm and showed them the same mark. Lineah’s eyebrows rose up her face and Callum whistled.
“So, after Alice hurried away we thought she left this object behind-” Eve began.
After she finished recounting the day’s events Callum sat back with a grave expression.
“It sounds like one of the gods got involved for sure,” he said. Eve nodded.
“The power I felt inside can only be described as divine. I heard a voice too but…” She shook her head.
“I can’t remember what it said.”
“Still,” He leaned forward and took Eve’s hand. Eve turned stiff but didn’t pull away. “I’m not familiar with this mark. The totem wasn’t familiar either.” He reached into his pocket with his other hand and pulled out the two halves of the broken totem.
“How-”
“I went snooping for information myself after Daryl left,” Callum replied. Eve nodded.
The totem, now exhausted of power, had been reduced to a mere broken figurine. Cylindrical in shape, it had the image of a woman in chains carved into stone.
Despite its power having transferred to Eve and Alice, Eve felt a shiver run up her spine at the sight of the totem. The woman felt…familiar. A deep ache throbbed in Eve’s heart. She resisted the urge to clutch her chest at the pain of the icy betrayal screaming deep inside.
“I think you should visit the temple as soon as possible,” Callum said. “If they have any leads at all to give you I can point my Librarians in the right direction.”
“You can go tomorrow,” Lineah offered. “And order some uniforms for Alice on the way back.”
“Uniforms for what?” Alice finally asked. Branch Captain Lineah smiled.
“For working, obviously,” She replied. “Guild Members are required to wear them.”
“You… want me to join?” Alice couldn’t stop her mouth from hanging open slightly.
Eve scratched the back of her neck and nodded.
“It’s not a bad idea. The Adventurers’ Guild is different from other Guilds. They will take anyone regardless of skill or history so long as you can complete Commissions.”
“More-over,” Lineah leaned forward, “As long as you work for us we can protect you and your secret.”
“Ah.” Alice fell silent.
Despite what Eve had said earlier about not trusting anyone, she easily and readily trusted Lineah and Callum with the fact that Alice wasn’t from this world. Perhaps even more of a surprise was how those two took such a revelation in stride, accepting it as truth as they moved on with their lives. If the situation were reversed, Alice couldn’t say with full confidence that she would accept someone approaching her on the streets of New York asking for help and claiming to be from another world.
Alice glanced up at Eve, who was discussing plans for the next day with her peers, and wondered at the significance of the trust she placed in those two and no one else.
“-them down. We should go after them while they’re still in town just to be safe.” Callum fiddled with a bracelet on his wrist.
Shoot. What did I miss?
Eve nodded and rose from the table. She turned to Alice and motioned for her to follow.
“Come with me. You’re going to stay in my room tonight.”
The locks all around the reception hall unlocked and Alice followed Eve down the hall to Eve’s bedroom on the second floor. Her tongue burned with the desire to ask about what they talked about as she was lost in thought.
“There’s a wash basin to wash your face if you need it, the linens on the bed are clean so you can make yourself comfortable. Your… jean jacket… is there-”
Indeed her jacket had been moved to Eve’s room like she promised, along with her purse and lacy Victoria’s Secret bra and panties.
“If you need to relieve yourself, there is a resting room next to the baths. It’s shared so be sure to knock.”
They lingered at the entrance to Eve’s room briefly before she nodded to herself and turned to leave. Alice caught her arm.
“Where are you going? This is your room right? Are you going to sleep somewhere else? I’m perfectly fine sleeping on the floor.”
Eve stared down at Alice’s grip, then up at her face. She shook her head.
“It’s not that,” she replied. “You’ve just been through a lot and it’s good to get a decent rest when you can. I will bring in a cot and sleep on that when I return.”
“But where are you going?” Alice repeated. Anxiety over being separated gripped her heart with icy claws.
Eve patted Alice’s hand which had gripped tighter.
“I’m just…taking a walk,” she said.
“That’s-” Alice bit back her burning tongue, swallowing the words ‘a lie’.
Her trust doesn’t include me, she realized. I guess… that makes sense. Even though…I only…
Alice let go. Eve rubbed her arm where Alice gripped and nodded with approval.
“Do your best to sleep, even if you think you can’t,” She said. “I’ll be back soon, and tomorrow we’ll start looking for answers.”
“Okay.”
Alice remained in the doorway until Eve vanished down the hall back to the reception area.
___
Though spring had come with full force to Rothnia, along the south-eastern border with Albagard up in the high elevation of the Haltha Mountains, Root Hollow and the surrounding land still experienced a deep wintry chill after nightfall.
The lack of streetlights surrendered the town streets to the creeping cold and dark. On the one hand, it made Root Hollow itself a quiet and peaceful town to walk around at night. On the other hand, it made it easier for thieves and assassins to slide through the town unnoticed.
Because of its status as a trading hub, the security of street lights and armed patrols prioritized market places and trading halls, as well as the main avenues that ran through town and the wealthy residential district. Traversing such a town was child's play for Evalyn and Callum, as they slipped from district to district undetected by a single soul.
“Those guys who tried to mug Alice were pretty beat up, but since they were alive I thought they didn’t have anything to do with you at first,” Callum whispered as they reached one of the river avenues and waited for the patrolling guards to pass.
“I haven’t dominated a person in a long time. There was a recoil I wasn’t expecting and by the time I regained my senses they managed to flee,” Evalyn replied. The guards faded from view and the two of them slipped across the bridge.
“The other one…I should have killed him, but Alice was watching and-” She sighed and shook her head. “I don’t know.”
Callum smirked in the dark.
“They were being treated at a clinic on this side of the river earlier today, and last I heard they moved on to a pub down the way to drink off the pain.”
“That’ll make this easy then,” Evalyn replied and the hairs on Callum’s neck stood on end as he felt an unnatural power roil beside him. They came upon the pub in question and easily spotted the two men from the alley. Covered in bandages and grumbling over beer, they sat apart from the rest of the crowd huddled together in a far corner.
Callum fiddled with the bracelet on his wrist and nodded at Evalyn.
“Ready when you are.”
Evalyn returned the nod and focused her attention into the pub.
At first, she considered making them get up and walk from the pub on their own two feet. But nothing would stop them from crying out for help as their bodies betrayed them. It was possible they would be written off as two drunk men causing a scene, but if even one other person in the pub believed them it would be trouble for Evalyn down the line.
She needed to be subtler than that.
“I’m ready,” she whispered. “Get ready to grab them.”
That strange power pulsed from Evalyn, and Callum imagined a blanket of madness covering the entire pub. A man who had stood to get a new drink from the counter became the trigger. Evalyn’s power pushed against him, forcefully tripping and pushing his body so that he came down hard onto the waitress delivering a tray of ale to a table.
In an instant chaos erupted. The men at the table descended on the man Evalyn shoved, and that man’s friends jumped in to defend him. As fists began to fly and people shoved, Evalyn’s power pushed those stumbling bodies further back than they would naturally lose balance. Until soon everyone in the entire pub, except the two Evalyn truly targeted, were tangled up in violence.
Callum whistled softly under his breath.
Those two men, sensing something off, rose quickly from their seats and headed for the exit. They pushed and shoved despite their injuries to make a path and soon they stood outside the pub on the dark street, lit only by the lights from inside the pub.
“Hey.”
They spun in unison to face Callum as he leaned against the wall of the pub. He tapped his bracelet and a portal opened up behind the two men, revealing woods beyond.
The men turned to run but an invisible force fell over them both, seizing their bodies. In the darkness, mostly hidden, two silver eyes glared at the men. They screamed as their bodies moved on their own, but the sounds from the pub brawl drowned them out. The two men stepped through the portal against their will.
Evalyn and Callum followed.