Chapter 507: The Days They Sing Songs About (1/2)
Trenchant returned to Soramir’s balcony lounge after escorting Farrah away, finding the diamond-ranker mid-conversation with Princess Liara. He stood at attention, remaining quiet.
“I would have like to ask more on what she said about starting the monster surge,” Liara asked. “I didn't sense any lie from her, but is that even possible?”
“I had already suspected something along those lines,” Soramir told her. “There has been speculation of interference in the natural process of the monster surge for some time. A possible scenario is that Asano and Hurin found a means to negate that interference. I would very much like to know more about their absence from our world, but I'm sure you'll agree that this was not the moment to push.”
“I do, ancestral majesty.”
“Commander Moore, what is your opinion of Miss Hurin?”
Trenchant spent a moment collecting his thoughts.
“She is passionate. Loyal. Brave. She was terrified to come here and confront all of us but she did so unflinchingly, knowing we could feel her fear and see through any lies. She has steel running through her.”
“Do you think it was a sensible move, coming here and talking to us like that?” Liara asked him.
“They don’t write songs about sensible, your highness.”
A smile crossed Soramir’s face as he turned to gaze out over the palace rooftops.
“These are exciting times,” he said. “The days they sing songs about. Such days belong to the bold and the courageous.”
“And the lucky,” Liara said. “Most of the bold and courageous die early and easy.”
“Yes,” Soramir said. “But Asano has already done that. Let's see where he goes from here.”
“What will you do about his team?” Liara asked. “We've committed to bringing them here as quickly as we can, now. Will you push the Adventure Society? I don't think Vesper wants things escalated to the point of your intervention becoming widely known. It will also burn some of the family's goodwill with the Adventure Society.”
“One of the reasons I agreed was that Miss Hurin all but confirmed a suspicion of mine that may help us in that regard. It requires my owing a favour, but that can be an advantage in and of itself. A favour owed to the right person can help you establish a valuable connection.”
“You founded the Rimaros dynasty,” Liara said. “Who is qualified to even be owed a favour by you? And what connection can't you make just by turning up?”
“Both Jason Asano and Farrah Hurin have been telling us that there are larger interests in play than those of our dynasty. I think, perhaps, it is time we started to listen.”
Jason was striding across the Adventure Society campus in his blood robes, heading for the jobs hall. Shade’s voice spoke from Jason’s shadow.
“Mr Asano, another messenger bird has arrived at the cloud house.”
Adventure Society messenger birds were small construct creatures, the written messages they carried were unlocked by the aura of the intended recipient, or destroyed if the bird was tampered with. For people like Jason, impervious to the bird's tracking magic, they were less efficient and had to be sent to fixed destination points. Jason has his destination assigned to the cloud house, where the Shade body left to manage the building could contact him at need.
“The timetable for your contract has been moved up,” Shade continued. “You have been directed to attend the jobs hall by the turn of the hour or you will be deemed non-participatory in the contract waiting for you. The message directs you to the Jobs hall’s priority contract office instead of the main centre.”
Jason didn’t respond other than to change the direction in which he was walking.
“Perhaps you should decline this contract, Mr Asano.”
Jason still didn’t respond.
“Mr Asano, I feel obligated to point out that you can sometimes enter a certain frame of mind where the choices you make are ones you ultimately come to regret.”
“What’s one more regret?” Jason snarled, then his expression softened. “Thank you for your concern, Shade. But that is concern enough.”
Jason found the priority contracts office within the jobs hall, where he didn’t have to wait long.
“Sorry for the last-moment change, Mr Asano,” the Adventure Society functionary told Jason as she handed over his documentation. “If you head out that door, past Trade Hall C and turn left, you’ll come to Marshalling Yard H. It’s the smaller one on the right; there are signs posted.”
Jason nodded, stowed the documents in his inventory and left.
Unlike Greenstone and its single marshalling yard, the Rimaros Adventuring Society had many. It was functionally no different, just a gathering place for adventurers about to head on contracts. Marshalling Yard H was one of the smaller ones, set amongst the gardens that spread through most of the campus. There were benches around the edges, although only two of the gathered expedition members were using them.
The gold-rank expedition leader, Jeni Kavaloa, was checking her pocket watch. The guild team had arrived, along with the bulk of the independents. She wasn’t happy about being saddled with the mixed group, especially since the late inclusion of two princesses told her that the reasons behind it were political. She detested people playing games with Adventure Society activities, which were life and death affairs.
There were still three people who still hadn’t arrived, presumably missing the notification of the time change. The eleven they had, plus Jeni herself, were enough that they didn’t need to call on supplementary forces. There was also a little time until the portal specialist arrived at the turn of the hour for more people to arrive.
The six-person guild team were standing easy and relaxed. They were typical of their kind. Young and at the low end of silver-rank, they were still flush with their team’s first successes independent of gold-rank supervision. Being back under a gold-ranker for this expedition had them chafing at the bit and looking for a fight.
Stuck waiting, the place they had to look was with the loose adventurers assigned to the expedition. It was unusual to mix guild and non-guild except for large operations or specific reasons. The fact that two of the other adventurers were royalty made the political games being played even more obvious.
The guild members were not fool enough to mess with a pair of princesses, who were the only expedition members sitting on the available benches. Instead, the guild people were harassing the other three for fun.
The unaffiliated expedition members were not gullible enough to let themselves be provoked. They had their own ambitions of guild membership and, without family or political connections, that meant showing their professionalism. It wasn't the brash young guild members they wanted to impress but the gold-ranker and the two princesses.
One member of the guild group stood out from the others, standing impassively aside while his fellow guilders teased the independents. Jeni noted that he seemed to know one of the princesses, at least in passing, having nodded greetings on their arrival.
Jeni wasn’t happy with this strange soup she had been assigned to supervise. It was a volatile mix that reeked of politics, leaving her with a sense of another shoe, waiting to drop. When she sensed the approach of a strange aura, she felt that it was about to. A man in dark red robes entered the marshalling yard. His eyes weren’t normal, blue and orange with black sclera, and he had scars on his face.
For a silver-ranker, his aura was hard to make out. She was certain that none of the other silver-rankers could see past its façade. Even Jeni herself could barely sense what lay within, but even that disturbed her. Trapped behind the rigid control, it was a maniac in a cage, howling into the dark.
Jeni felt reactions from some of the other adventurers as he appeared. The two princesses recognised him, as did the quiet guild adventurer. She read curiosity and surprise from the guild adventurer, while one of the princesses was wary. The other was an odd mix of trepidation and shame, standing up and staring as the man arrived. This did not go unnoticed by the other adventurers.
The man didn’t so much as glance at any of them as he strode up to Jeni. He plucked his contract documentation from a dimensional space and held it out for her inspection. She took it and read it over.