Chapter 197: The First Lesson
The Research Guild’s meeting room was already in motion when Lily arrived.
Three of her colleagues were arguing about curriculum order. The blackboard from the previous session was still covered in the eight categories from yesterday, and someone had added notes beneath each one overnight. Papers covered both tables. A diagram someone had drawn of a dispute scenario was pinned to the board’s edge.
"Combat first," one researcher said. "Physical capability is the foundation of everything else."
"Investigation," another said. "If they can’t read a situation, they’ll fight when they shouldn’t."
"Everything simultaneously," a third said. "They need to understand how it all connects."
The arguing continued.
Then the door opened.
Elden walked in.
Everyone stopped talking.
Lily smiled. "Perfect timing."
Elden looked at the board. Then at the papers. Then at the three researchers who had been arguing.
"You started without me," he said.
"We’ve been waiting for someone to test the material," Lily said.
Elden looked around the room slowly.
"So I’m the test subject," he said.
One researcher immediately nodded. "Yes."
Elden sighed. "I walked into that."
The room laughed. The arguing stopped. The atmosphere shifted into something more collaborative.
Elden took a chair and sat near the board.
Lily picked up a piece of chalk.
"First scenario," she said.
...
She wrote on the board: A merchant reports that another hunter stole three monster cores from him. You arrive. What do you do first?
She looked at Elden.
He answered immediately. "Ask both parties what happened."
Lily shook her head. "No."
Elden blinked. "No?"
"What if both are lying?"
He was quiet.
A researcher raised his hand. "Check the cores themselves. See if they match what the merchant claims he had."
Another said, "Ask anyone else who was present."
Another said, "Look at guild transaction records. If the hunter sold cores recently, there’s a record."
Another said, "Check the ground around where it happened. Physical evidence before anyone disturbs the scene."
Elden was nodding slowly as each suggestion came in. "So the first thing is evidence," he said.
Lily wrote on the board: Never decide before collecting evidence.
One researcher sat back. "Half the hunters I know would have already picked a side by now."
"Yes," Lily said. "That’s the problem."
...
Second scenario. She wrote it on the board: Two guilds are outside shouting at each other. Nobody has attacked yet. You arrive. What do you do?
Responses came from around the room.
"Separate them immediately."
"Find the leaders of each group."
"Create physical distance between the two sides."
"Calm the loudest people first because they’re the ones most likely to act."
Elden said, "What if they ignore me?"
Lily said, "Then what?"
He thought. "Call Soldiers to reinforce the separation."
Lily nodded. "Good."
A researcher said, "What if someone attacks despite everything?"
Elden said, "Civilians move first. Get everyone not involved out of the immediate area before addressing the fight."
Lily wrote: People first. Conflict second.
She underlined it.
Another researcher said, "In that order every time?"
"Every time," Lily said. "The conflict can be addressed after the uninvolved people are somewhere safe. You cannot undo someone getting hurt because you prioritized the wrong thing."
...
Lily turned back to the board.
"This one is harder," she said.
She wrote: Your closest friend breaks city law. You’re the attending Attendant. What do you do?
The room looked at Elden.
He answered without hesitating. "Investigate and if the evidence shows what they did, take action accordingly."
Silence.
Lily said, "So easily?"
"If I’m an Attendant," he said. "Then yes."
A researcher said, "What if it’s Kai?"
Elden looked at the board. A pause that was not indecision but genuine thought. Then: "Investigate. Same process."
"Raze?"
"Investigate."
"Sera?"
"Investigate."
A researcher smiled. "Lily?"
Elden looked at her. Then smiled. "You especially."
The room burst into laughter.
Lily put a hand over her face briefly. "I expected that."
The laughter settled.
She said, "That answer is correct."
She wrote on the board: No exceptions. Then she stepped back and looked at it.
"This is the part most organizations fail," she said. "Not the dramatic moments. The moment when someone they know is involved and they have to choose between the person and the standard."
One researcher said quietly, "That’s harder than any fight."
Nobody disagreed.
...
Lily turned suddenly.
"What color are my shoes?" she said.
Elden looked down. "Black."
Lily said, "They’re brown."
Several researchers looked at her feet. They were brown.
"I didn’t notice either," one researcher said.
Lily pointed at the window. "How many people have walked past that window since we started this session?"
The room was quiet.
Nobody had been tracking it.
She wrote on the board: Observe before acting.
"An Attendant who cannot describe a scene accurately cannot investigate it," she said. "Not because they were not there. Because they were not paying attention to the right things."
She looked at the room. "Most people move through a space noticing what confirms what they already expected to see. An Attendant needs to notice what is actually there."
A researcher laughed. "We’re all failing this."
"Yes," Lily said. "That’s why we’re building a curriculum."
She added Observation Practice to the list of topics on the board.
"Starting next week, every session begins with five minutes of observation exercises," she said. "Where things were placed. Who was in the room. What changed between entering and leaving. Small things."
"That sounds tedious," a researcher said.
"Good habits are tedious until they aren’t," Lily said.
...
A researcher said, "What if the building collapses while an Attendant is inside it managing a situation?"
Another immediately added, "Or monsters appear."
A third said, "Or both."
The room started generating responses simultaneously.
"Civilians to escape routes."
"Call for medical support."
"Soldiers take the monsters."
"Attendant maintains communication between all three groups."
Elden raised his hand. "What if there aren’t enough people to do all of that at once?"
The room went quiet.
Lily said, "Prioritize."
"How do you decide?"
"You save the most lives you can reach," she said. "You cannot be everywhere. You cannot save everyone. You make the decision that saves the most people available to you and you document everything so that the outcome can be reviewed."
She wrote: Save the most lives first.
Nobody joked after that.
The room was quiet for a moment. Not uncomfortable. The specific quiet that came when something true had been said simply.
...
By mid-morning the board was completely covered.
The original eight categories had been filled with notes, examples, counterexamples, and the particular kind of improvements that happened when several people with different angles were working on the same problem. A second sheet of paper had been pinned next to the board for overflow.
Elden stood and walked to the board.
He read through all of it. Combat. Investigation. Negotiation. Observation. Law. Emergency Response. Conflict Mediation. Dungeon Procedures. The scenarios and their responses. The principles written beneath each category.
He stood there for a moment.
"This is harder than becoming a hunter," he said.
One researcher laughed. "It should be."
Another nodded. "We’re asking them to be trusted by everyone. That’s a different standard."
Lily was looking at the board.
"No," she said.
Everyone looked at her.
"We’re not asking them to be trusted," she said. "Trust is what happens after they’ve done the work. We’re asking them to be worthy of it."
The room was quiet.
Elden slowly nodded. "That’s even harder."
He turned from the board. "This is going to take months."
"Yes," Lily said.
"You’re aware of that."
"Yes."
"And the city needs this working before then."
"We build what we can build quickly and we add the rest as it develops," she said. "The first Attendants will be learning as they go. The curriculum will grow based on what they encounter."
A researcher who had been writing for the last hour looked up. "So the curriculum is never finished."
"No," Lily said.
Another researcher raised his hand. "I have scenario four."
The room immediately came back to life. Two people argued about whether the scenario was realistic. Someone erased a section of the board to make room. Lily picked up the chalk again.
The board grew fuller.
The arguing continued.
The morning kept moving.
Lily looked at the room for a moment. Researchers who had come in planning to discuss training theory and had ended up genuinely building something. Elden at the edge of the group, contributing specific questions that sharpened whatever answer came back.
She picked up the chalk.
"Let’s hear it," she said.