Chapter 38: Just Another Adventurer (1/2)

The guild district was the region of the Island that contained the Adventure Society campus, along with many other guilds and societies. Occupying the north-west region of the island, the guild district also contained the bulk of the Island’s visitor accommodations. Staying on the Island was a relatively expensive prospect, but with price came quality. Rufus, Farrah and Gary had secured a three-room suite in Sailor’s Watch, an inn at the very edge of the island, with exceptional ocean views.

Having returned from the Geller Estate, Rufus ran into Farrah outside their lodgings as she returned from her own business.

“How did it go?” Farrah asked.

“Well enough,” Rufus said. “Now we just need Jason to finally arrive.”

Farrah sniffed at the smell of fresh baking wafting out of the inn.

“Smells good,” she said. “Should be just about time to get some supper.”

“It should,” Rufus agreed, and they went inside.

Walking in, they headed in the direction of the dining room. There was a doorway leading directly to the kitchen, from which they heard a familiar voice.

“Now, it’s equal parts sugar and water, then flavour to discretion, and I do mean discretion. You don’t want the flavour of the syrup to overpower the cake. Once the syrup is soaking in, there’s no getting it back out again. Unless you can extricate the syrup with magic, somehow. I need to get my hands on a cooking magic skill book.”

Farrah snickered at the exasperation suddenly on Rufus’ face.

“Jason?” Rufus called out.

“Rufus! Excuse me for a moment, ladies.”

Jason wandered out of the kitchen wearing an apron marked with flour.

“G’day,” he greeted them. “Nice little place you’ve found. A bit exxy, but I picked up a decent bit of coin during our misadventures at the Vane Estate. Fighting cannibals is lucrative. I forgot to loot that woman, Cressida, though. Probably missed out on a good bit of coin, there.”

“I still have your share from looting the manor,” Farrah said. “They filched all the really good stuff before running off, but they left enough behind to be worth splitting up.”

“Oh, nice,” Jason said.

“What took you so long?” Rufus asked.

“I took the scenic route through the delta,” Jason said. “I had a good time.”

“There was some talk about someone roaming around healing people,” Farrah said. “Did you hear about that?”

“How did you hear about it?” Jason asked.

”What we heard was that he was doing it for free,” Farrah said. ”The church of the healer wasn't happy. Did you see the guy?”

Jason looked about shiftily.

“Um... yep.”

“Seriously?” Rufus asked. “It was you?”

“I have that cleansing power,” Jason said.

“What happened to splitting up to prevent drawing attention?” Rufus asked.

“What did you want me to say? ‘Sorry, Miss, but while it may seem that healing your father’s horrifying illness would cost me nothing, someone might notice.’”

“Surely there’s a middle ground between doing nothing and walking the earth, healing the sick and lame,” Rufus said.

“And where do I draw the line?” Jason asked. “Should it be where people aren’t sick enough, or where they aren’t impoverished enough?”

“He does have a point,” Farrah said. “Who looks at the poor and sick and tells them they aren’t poor and sick enough?”

”The church of the healer, from what I've heard,” Jason said darkly.

“I’ve seen this kind of thing before,” Farrah said. “The Healer likes to give his worshippers the freedom to make the right choices on their own. The church of the healer is really important in isolated areas like this, though, and more than one church leader has been known to go a bit power mad.”

“The god’s real, right?” Jason asked. “Doesn’t he step in?”

“I’ve heard they do, if they take it too far,” Rufus said. “You always hear stories about churches who lose their way. I’ve never seen it reach the stage where their god intervenes.”

“I have,” Farrah said. “Rufus is a big city boy, but it normally happens places like this, where there’s less to keep them in check.”

“Did you at least go to the Adventure Society before getting to the kitchen?” Rufus asked Jason.

“Yeah, I did the paperwork,” Jason said. “I have some kind of assessment tomorrow.”

“That’s just to clear you of things like restricted essences,” Farrah said.

“Once that’s done you’ll need to go through a field assessment,” Rufus said, “Which they do at the start of each month. The next one is in nine days, but you can take yours the following month.”

“What’s wrong with this month?” Jason asked.

“You won’t be ready this month,” Rufus said. “Training you up to an acceptable standard by the end of next month will be rushed enough. Nine days from now, you wouldn’t come close to passing.”

“You don’t know for sure,” Jason said.

“I’m administering that field assessment myself,” Rufus said. “So I can speak with an amount of confidence.”

“You’re doing it?” Jason said. “Fair enough, then. Having you assess me wouldn’t exactly be ethical. Conflict of interest and all that. Well, I’ll see you at dinner; I have to get back to my cake.”

Rufus and Farrah watched Jason retreat into the kitchen.

“He thinks he’d fail because of ethics?” Farrah asked.

“He’ll figure it out once the training starts,” Rufus said.

The guild district was different from the north marina district in which Jason had first arrived on the island. Rather than the large private residences, it was occupied by various organisations, with smaller permanent residences serving the people that worked for them. Other than that, there was a large number of storefronts that seemed to be extensions of the various societies and associations headquartered around them.

Two sprawling campuses dominated the guild district. One was the Adventure Society, and the other was an organisation called the Magic Society. Jason knew Farrah was a member, but only had a vague idea of what they did. From what he could gather, they were something between a magic university and a magic utility company.

By size and centrality, the Forge Society and the Alchemist Association were clearly second to the Adventure and Magic Societies, but still occupied impressive chunks of real estate. Other organisations in the district ranged from occupying large buildings to being clustered into one space with other groups. Some were trade organisations, while others were adventuring guilds; private organisations of adventurers banded together for varying purposes.

Rufus had warned Jason against joining any of the local adventuring guilds. According to Rufus, they were all small-time affairs that took more from their members than they offered, although Jason wasn't entirely convinced. He’d learned enough about Rufus' background to realise Rufus looked down from a very great height.

Arriving at the Adventure Society’s administration building, Jason was shown through to a waiting room. There was one other occupant, a young man Jason estimated to be in his mid-to-late teens. He had the usual olive skin and dark hair of the local population, at least the human part of it. The young man was handsome, tall and broad-shouldered. If that wasn’t bad enough, there was a puppy in his lap receiving a scratch on the tummy.

“G’day, mate,” Jason said, sitting down next to him. “I like your dog.”

“His name is Stash,” the young man said. “Mine is Humphrey, Humphrey Geller.”

“Jason Asano,” Jason said, shaking Humphrey’s offered hand. “Nice to meet you, Humphrey. Stash is an unusual name.”

“It’s short for Velitraxistaasch,” Humphrey said. “He likes ‘Stash,’ though.”

“Velitraxistaasch?” Jason said. “What is he, a shape-changed dragon or something?”

Humphrey’s eyes went wide.

“How did you…?”

“Wait, he actually is?”

Jason burst out laughing, then reached over to scratch the puppy’s tummy.

“Who’s a good little dragon? You are, yes you are. Good boy.”

The puppy transformed into a canary, flying out of Humphrey’s lap to settle on his head, where it twittered away merrily.

“That’s impressive,” Jason said. “I take it he’s still a baby dragon.”

“Yes,” Humphrey said. “Our mothers arranged him becoming my familiar. Or me becoming his person, depending on how you look at it.”

“Your mum knows dragons,” Jason said. “I guess mine does too, although it’s more of a metaphor. Great Aunt Margaret doesn’t literally breathe fire.”

Humphrey laughed.

“You’re here to be assessed for the Adventure Society, I take it?” he asked.

”Yeah, I did all the paperwork yesterday,” Jason said. ”Any idea of what to expect?”

”They'll just check to make sure you don't have any restricted abilities. There'll be an official from the Adventure Society, of course, but they're only there to oversee things. The actual checking will be done by a priest from the church of knowledge. Don't try to slip anything past them, because there isn't any point.”

“Because a god’s involved?”

”Exactly. Then there'll be someone from the Magic Society to record your essences. They'll imply you have to let them record all your individual abilities, but you actually don't. I'm told that the trick is to let them know that you know you don't have to and then do it anyway. Getting on the good side of the Magic Society is always a good idea.”

“Thanks for the advice.”

“If you’ve awakened any of your racial gifts, though, keep those to yourself,” Humphrey advised. “They’re very big on those at the Magic Society and you can trade the details in exchange for favours down the line.”

Jason recalled Farrah telling him that humans all had dormant racial gifts that awakened unique powers based on their essences. He assumed the same advice would hold true for his outworlder abilities. More so, if anything.

“Good to know,” Jason said. “Much appreciated, mate.”

“I hope you don’t mind me saying,” Humphrey said, “but your manner of speech is a little unusual. Are you using a translation power?”

“I am,” Jason said. “I’m not local; I just arrived in town yesterday.”

“Where do you hail from, originally?” Humphrey asked.

“Australia.”

“Never heard of it,” Humphrey said. “Best not tell Mother or she’ll harangue my geography tutor. Does everyone there shave their eyebrows.”

“I didn’t shave them,” Jason said. “I lost them.”

“How do you lose your eyebrows?” Humphrey asked.

“It’s been an odd couple of weeks.,” Jason said.

A door opened and the canary on Humphrey's head morphed back into a puppy, its front paws dangling over his forehead. Humphrey lifted it down as a man entered the room. He was wearing what Jason had come to recognise as local business attire, quite different from the equivalent in his own world. The local fashions all went for loose, hanging designs that were more practical for the hot climate.

“Young Master Geller,” the man said to Humphrey, not so much as glancing at Jason. “This is, of course, a formality for you, but the formalities must be observed.”