Ch. 2.10 | Guild Gone Frantic
PoV: Lania
“Zahira! I know you want to stay by Esmat right now. I need you to Globetrot this party to Hope!” Some woman's voice yelled.
Lania and the others emerged into a hallway somewhere. It was brightly lit with llumifruits, with doors along the walls. The hallway opened up into a large room she could not see well from here. There was a staircase leading up, and then some bench-like seating. One detail stood out from the rest, and it had nothing to do with the sights.
It smelled like food—both human and . . . blood. Lania started to drool, and she felt the heat overpower her face. Oh no . . .
“Lania?” Nadiyya noticed, tilting her head.
Sanya and Mai rushed out ahead of them, into the room. There were obviously more important things than the bloodlust of the vampire next to them—with the smell of blood and a shouting and demanding voice, and all.
“What is going on!?” Mai cried.
“Thank Heliux my favorite people are back!” the voice cheered. “Is Nadiyya back there too. How about the target? Any messenger raven has yet to arrive.”
“Nadiyya's still in the hall—Esmat!” Mai rushed forward, out of Lania's vision.
The “target” the voice referenced must have been Lania.
“Let's—mreowr?—see what's going on,” Nadiyya whispered in Lania's ear. Lania flushed, she did not know why it felt so intimate. Maybe she was extra easy now that she had a little bit of bloodlust going on. Why did someone have to be bleeding in here? And could Nadiyya stay right there and whisper sweet nothings into Lania's ear?
Lania nodded at Nadiyya, thoroughly flushed and worked up, and the two of them entered the large room.
Pillars held up the ceiling, to make up for such a massive space. Columns and columns of bench-tables lined the room. A counter sat at the right, for ordering food? The far side of the room positioned a board, posted with all sorts of missions. Ah! Of course, the guild hall for the Adventurers’ Guild, in Calderae, as Mai had set her teleportation spell to.
Lania had been here a couple times before. It's how her expedition had decided to study the red portal . . . ah the expedition . . . The thing that had made her watch people die, and turned her life around for the worse.
Yet, with Nadiyya and the others on her side, maybe it would not be terrible . . .
. . . if she could hold back her desperate need for blood.
Lania gasped. The owner of that voice earlier was none other than Aisha Of-Jinan, founder and owner of the Adventurers’ Guild and Calderae.
“Mai, I need you to heal Esmat,” she ordered.
“Got it!” Mai ran up to Esmat, who lay on one of the tables. The overpowering scent of blood came from them, owing to the missing arm and the bloodied bandages that made them look like a mummy. “What on Heliux's forsaken hellscape happened?”
“That dastard Zulfaqar,” this came from some girl standing next to Esmat. Her robes’ sleeves were rolled back, and blood stained her fingers. She had been tending to Esmat.
“The warlord? Zahira, how new are these wounds?”
“An hour at most.” Zahira—the standing girl—nodded. “And yes, the warlord. He's got his dirty fingers around Glorestra now.”
“Yeah,” Of-Jinan crossed her arms. “He's poking in Calderae too . . . speaking of which—who has the Fleshweaving grimoire, Mai, you?”
“This is gonna hurt like Halimah's shoe, Esmat!” Mai announced, seemingly too occupied to respond to Of-Jinan's question.
Zahira snorted. “Mai, that was terrible, don't say that. Also, Esmat didn't go to Halimah‘s.”
Esmat nodded, grunting. Something was in their mouth, biting down on it for the pain. They could not speak.
“[Fleshweave - Flesh Memory],” Mai cast.
Lania watched Esmat's face grimace, contorting with immense pain.
Mai undid the bandages around Esmat's missing limb.
Lania's mouth gaped as she watched the wound repair at shocking speed—Esmat's flesh even expanded, forming back into an arm. Though it was pink, raw. Esmat groaned and grunted. If that wasn't the strangest thing Lania had ever seen, she did not know what was. Although, limbs regrowing from magic was probably tame, all things considered. Still, it was novel.
“Zahira! To Hope, now!” Of-Jinan demanded. With Esmat mostly healed, there was no reason for Zahira to stay clinging around, that was probably Of-Jinan's reasoning, anyway.
There was a party of five loitering around by the entrance to the guild hall, just before the foyer. They obviously tried hard to look anywhere but Of-Jinan and the others, but struggled.
The guild hall was otherwise cleared out of people at the moment. Of-Jinan had probably called for space and privacy. It was very evident that there was more than one crisis or fire that needed dousing.
Of-Jinan wasn't done. “Mai? The grimoire?”
“What?” She responded.
At the same time, Zahira cast a last glance at Esmat, watching their recovery. Then, she turned and stepped up to the group of idle adventurers. “Contact, please,” she extended a hand.
The group reluctantly touched her hand with a finger each, slowly understanding what needed to be done.
“[Pocket Repository]. [Globetrot Anchor - Hope Academy],” Zahira cast in quick succession. Lania barely saw between those two, where Zahira suddenly held her staff. Wow, Zahira was fast.
The people in the room now really were the best of the best . . . and Lania was in the room with them!
Although, as an oddity, or a captive, of sorts.
Still! Lamia could squeal and fangirl and—
“Ah! Right! Um. I have the original right now. Do you need it?” Mai caught up with Of-Jinan's earlier question.
“Yes,” Of-Jinan said. “Wait, the original?”
“There's one copy.”
“Who has it?”
“Rim had it last, I believe, you know her?” Mai caught up with Of-Jinan's earlier question.
“You want to keep the original?”
“Very much so.”
“Alright.” Of-Jinan snapped her fingers. “Tabassum!”
Some butler-esque guy stepped out from the foyer. “Yes?”
“Find Rim, you know where to find her, right? If she has the copy of the Fleshweaving grimoire, run to the scribes, and offer an extra luxury to whoever starts copying the grimoire! Find Rim someone she can teach what she already knows. Or—better yet—multiple somebodies!”
Lania had not a clue as to who Rim was.
“It shall be done,” and with that, Tabassum was gone.
“Next . . . Nadiyya,” Of-Jinan continued with her orders. “I need all of your birds in the air right now.”
“What for?”
“Someone stole half a dozen grimoires some ten minutes ago. We need those back!”
“Ah! I'll get on—brark!” Nadiyya croaked to the birds on her shoulders, then ran up the stairs to do who-knew-what.
There was far too much happening. Of-Jinan was dishing out demands and moving people everywhere. Lania could barely keep up or process one thing before the next person made a move at Of-Jinan's prompting. This definitely was not normal for the guild. Why had all these different issues happened at once, all of a sudden?
What was it like to be in Of-Jinan's shoes right now?
Of-Jinan cursed. “Aargh! I need Mai in Hope.”
“Why?” she asked.
“The first party got clobbered. They probably need your Fleshweaving. Can Sanya get you there?”
“She can't!” Mai said.
Of-Jinan tilted her head. “. . . ‘She can't?’”
“Uh . . .”
“It's fine,” Sanya cut in. “Let's go.”
“Wait for Zahira to come back, she'll take me.”
Of-Jinan put a hand to her forehead and rubbed. “If Sanya can't, then that's fine.”
It was so strange to be ignored in all of this—the pale girl with silver hair and red eyes sticking out in the crowd of people. Then again, there was a gray-skinned white-haired guild master, and the literal Voidwitch, Firmament Sovereign herself, in the room. As well as all two—no three, Mai learned it at some point—Spatial mages that knew [Globetrot Anchor]. Then, the rumored assassin, Esmat (or at least, Lania thought) . . . the Fleshweaver . . . and the bird girl. Stacked ensemble. It begged the question—where was Fazl Of-Salama?
Someone floated out from the hallway. “I finished writing these new quests that you wanted posted.”
Oh.
“Great, can you stick them up for me?”
Of-Salama paused to scowl at Of-Jinan. “Sure . . .”
Then, Zahira materialized back into the guild hall. All she really needed to do was ferry the team to Hope and then come back, which was practically instantaneous. Mages of the Spatial variety truly were something indeed.
“Perfect! The first party is still stuck in Hope, yes?” Of-Jinan asked.
Zahira nodded. “Bloodied, but they'll live.” Mmm . . . Blood. Could I get teleported and lap all of their wounds up? Eugh! Gross. I'm not a dog!
“Do they need Mai?”
Zahira shook her head.
“Ah.” Of-Jinan sat down on a bench, sighing. It seemed the guild master and governor could finally take a break. How long had she been doing that for, before Lania and the others had arrived? “That was a lot . . .”
Sanya turned to look at Lania. Mai did too. There was one more item on Of-Jinan's frantic agenda that needed taking care of. Herself—Lania!
Of-Jinan caught on, and took a deep breath. “Right . . .”
“Um, may I have some blood?”
Everyone paused to blink, facing Lania's direction.
“L-like from a goat! O-or something. Whatever animal is on the menu. I'm not picky! Or rather—I don't know if I'm picky yet. So, um, blood, please?” For good measure, Lania flashed her fangs with a smile.
Silence.
Of-Jinan broke it. “Are you . . . actually freaky or is that a vampire thing?”
“What?” Right, Of-Jinan probably noticed Lania's absolutely flushed face. “Oh, it's a vampire thing.”
“Right. Two freaks are too many, thank Heliux I don't need to deal with a third.” Hah . . . Of-Jinan had no clue . . .
“Hey!” Mai and Nadiyya protested at the same time.
Lania took a moment to process that, and came to a conclusion more relevant to herself. “Does that mean, like, no oubliette or execution for me?”
“What did—awoof—tell you?” Nadiyya said. “You'll be free.”
“You're a person. Granted you don't go on a murder spree on the innocent—barring the one you already did. I believe that was a neonate exception though. Still doesn't make it any better. Let's say . . . all your pay is going towards Emergentia for three months,” Aisha said.
It wasn't lost on Lania that this could also be political leverage or influence of Calderae over Emergentia, if the town was paid. It depended on how much Lania would get paid . . . Wait . . .
Lania tilted her head. “‘Pay?’”
“Congratulations, you're being adopted into the guild against your will.”
“Ummm, okay?”
What? Why did Of-Jinan use the word “adopted?” This wasn't, like, some weird family, was it? Between the entire group present in this hall, it really was an assemblage of weirdos. The perpetually flying left-leg-less Aeolian master . . . The dead necrotic-Temporal-Elemental mage . . . The Voidwitch, transfeminine and overpowered . . . Esmat, the non-binary assassin . . . Mai, the Fleshweaver . . . Nadiyya, a rabid Fauna mage (who is way too cute) . . . Zahira, the other top-tier Spatial mage . . . Whoever stole those grimoires was in for a treat, and not the fun kind! The hall currently held more violent power than an entire mobilized army.
Actually, even just Sanya or Of-Salama probably had more power than an army, alone.
Also, did that mean Nadiyya and Lania were sisters, and that they wouldn't be able to romance or else it would be weird? Hey, could adopted sisters romance, since they weren't blood-related? Mmm, blood.
Why was she even thinking about that?
Okay, so, she was an employee (indentured servant?) of the Adventurers’ Guild . . . What did that entail? Was she going to go on quests and stuff? Why did they want her? Why did they think she would be socialized into society again? Did they?
Argh. Too much thinking and speculating on an empty stomach.
“May I have blood now?”