Chapter 195: The First Alliance
Mira arrived at Titan Forge’s training hall and immediately understood what had happened.
Several hunters were sitting against the far wall in the specific way of people who had been hit and were still processing it. Others were standing but with the posture of people whose legs had opinions about remaining upright. The training hall had the atmosphere of a space that had been used recently and intensely.
Raze was standing in the middle of it, smiling.
Mira walked over. She looked at the hunters against the wall. Then at the ones barely standing. Then at Raze.
"You hit them too hard," she said.
Raze shrugged. "They’ll survive."
"That’s not the point."
"If they can’t handle this," he said, gesturing toward the city visible through the training hall windows, "they won’t handle what comes next."
Mira sighed. "You’re impossible."
"Kai said that too," Raze said.
Several of the recruits laughed. Not the performed kind. The genuine kind that came when the person at the center of something acknowledged it was happening. The atmosphere in the room shifted, the tension of evaluation releasing slightly into something more human.
Mira looked at the people who had come through whatever Raze had run them through. About eight of them standing with the particular quality of people who had been tested and had not left.
She turned toward them.
...
She bowed slightly.
"Sorry about him," she said.
More laughter. Raze included.
She let it settle.
"You’ve probably worked out why you’re here," she said. She walked slowly between them, not performing anything, just moving through the space the way she moved through spaces when she wanted people to hear rather than watch. "Kai isn’t building another normal guild. He’s not building something that competes for dungeon territories or accumulates resources or rises in the rankings."
She paused.
"He’s building people that every guild can trust."
Silence.
"You’ll still be hunters," she continued. "You’ll still clear dungeons. You’ll still protect the city from monsters." She looked at each of them as she walked. "But when hunters become the problem, you’ll protect the city from us."
Nobody answered immediately.
One of the recruits quietly said, "...So we’d investigate other hunters?"
Mira nodded. "If necessary."
Another frowned. "Even guild leaders?"
"If necessary."
The room became even quieter.
For the first time, several of them understood just how much responsibility they were being offered.
She kept going. "Attendants are the core of it. Respected. Neutral. Independent judgment in the field. They lead investigations. Oversee disputes. Make the hard calls when something needs to be called." She looked at the ones Raze had apparently already identified for this role. "Not above anyone. Just responsible."
She looked at the others. "Soldiers aren’t lesser. Different responsibility. You’re the backbone. You maintain order during operations. You secure civilians. You support the Attendant leading the situation." She paused. "Without Soldiers, Attendants can’t function. Without Attendants, Soldiers have no direction. Both matter."
One of the recruits raised a hand.
"What happens if an Attendant is wrong?" he said.
Mira smiled. "Then another Attendant stops them."
He looked at her.
"The system only works if no one is above it," she said. "Including the people running it. If an Attendant abuses their position, another Attendant addresses that. Nobody in the Abyss Watchers is exempt from accountability. That’s the whole point."
The recruit nodded slowly.
...
Raze stayed with the recruits.
Mira went upstairs.
Titan Forge’s Guild Leader was waiting in the meeting room at the end of the second floor corridor. The room was functional. A table, chairs, a window with a partial view of the training hall below.
Helena was already seated when Mira came in. Older. The specific kind of calm that came from someone who had been in enough difficult situations that calm had become their default rather than their performance.
Mira had known Helena for most of her time as a hunter. The respect went both directions.
"Kai sent you," Helena said.
"He asked," Mira said. "I came because I wanted to."
They sat. Someone had brought tea.
Mira explained everything. The Abyss Watchers, the structure, the purpose, what it would require from participating guilds, what those guilds received in return. She was direct and thorough because Helena responded to direct and thorough.
When she finished, Helena was quiet for a moment.
"Why should I give away my best hunters?" she said.
Mira smiled. She had been expecting this question.
"Because they’ll come back better," she said. "Training with Kai, Sera, Raze, Lily, Elden. Five of the strongest hunters in Mythal, running them through something none of them have done before. The ones who go through that will be different when they come back."
Helena waited.
"And because if the Abyss Watchers fail," Mira said, "Titan Forge fails too. If hunters from Titan Forge cause a major incident and there’s no neutral organization to address it cleanly, the guild’s reputation carries that incident. If there is a neutral organization and it handles it properly, Titan Forge’s reputation stays intact."
She looked at Helena directly. "We’re not asking you to give up your people. We’re asking you to help build something that protects them."
Helena sat with this for a moment.
Then she said, "You really believe in this."
"Yes," Mira said without pause.
She reached for the documentation Mira had brought. "Then I believe in you."
Helena smiled. "People trust organizations." She looked at Mira. "But organizations only exist because they trusted someone first."
She signed on the first page.
Not because of Kai but because of Mira.
"I trust you."
...
The morning continued.
The first small guild Mira visited after Titan Forge had a leader who met her at the door with the expression of someone who had questions before she had said anything.
Mira explained the Abyss Watchers.
The leader listened. Asked three questions. Received three clear answers. Considered.
"Alright," he said. "I have two hunters who would suit this."
The second guild agreed before Mira had finished speaking.
"If Titan Forge signed," the leader said, "we’re in." She looked at the documentation. "Where do I sign?"
The third guild was smaller. A family operation in the practical sense, most of the members related or connected for years.
The leader shook her head when Mira introduced herself. "We’re too small. I don’t think you’ll find anyone here worth your time."
Mira said, "I think you’re wrong."
The leader looked at her.
"Small guilds produce strong hunters," Mira said. "Often stronger, because they’ve had to develop without the resources the larger guilds have. The people who figure things out with less are usually better at figuring things out."
The leader paused. Then she smiled. "The twins," she said.
"I was going to ask about them, yes," Mira said.
The leader laughed. "Sure. If they’re willing. I won’t force them."
"I wouldn’t want you to," Mira said.
The fourth guild took longer.
The leader was not opposed. He was worried. He sat across from Mira and laid out his concern carefully. If the key members left, even temporarily, the guild could not function at its current capacity. Operations would have to scale back. Revenue would drop.
Mira listened to all of it.
"We won’t take the key members," she said. "The ones the guild needs to function stay. We’re looking for the ones with the most potential, not the ones carrying current operations."
The leader looked at her.
"The people with potential often aren’t the ones running things yet," Mira said. "They’re the ones working under the people running things. You know who I’m talking about. You’ve noticed them."
He was quiet for a moment. "One of our younger hunters," he said, slowly. "She’s been training hard. More than anyone else."
"That’s who we want to talk to," Mira said.
He nodded.
Then she added, "And the safer the city becomes, the easier recruitment gets for every guild. Including yours."
He considered this. Then nodded again, more definitively.
The fifth guild refused before she finished.
The leader crossed his arms when she was two sentences into the explanation.
"We’re not interested in having our hunters report to an outside organization," he said. "No matter who’s running it."
Mira did not argue. She did not push. She did not try to find the angle that would change his mind today.
She simply smiled.
"That’s fine," she said. "The offer stays open."
She left.
...
Evening. Mira sat on the steps outside the last building she had visited and opened her notebook. The notes from the day were in her own shorthand, quick and dense.
She took out her phone.
She sent Kai a message.
Titan Forge agreed.
A moment later, another.
Three smaller guilds as well.
She looked at the notebook. The fifth entry with no signature.
One refused.
She sent that too.
Almost immediately, Kai replied.
That’s still a good start.
She looked at the message for a moment. Then closed her notebook and looked at the city around her. The street was in its evening state, the light dropping, people heading toward their own evenings. Guild banners visible on the buildings across the road. Hunters moving in small groups. Two children running between adults’ legs.
She thought about Helena’s signature. About the small guild leader mentioning the twins. About the young hunter the fourth leader had described, the one who had been training harder than anyone else without being asked to.
She quietly said, "One guild at a time." She put her notebook in her bag. Stood up and started walking home.