Smiling dryly, she set the book she'd been trawling through on the table. She was in what passed as the Guild's tavern, her study materials strewn all around her. Although she'd been sitting there for hours, no one had come by and ordered her to tidy up, and the only companionship was the drunken barkeep, continually washing the same mug. And now, after five or so hours of studying, another apprentice came by and asked her what exactly it was that she was studying.
"Oh, nothing in particular. How about you go through the demon door and ask Hooktooth what he's studying?" she responded, her tone thick with fake innocence. The curious apprentice scowled and left. She returned to her studying, forgetting her aggravation in the hand printed text and beautiful illustrations.
Since Hero became the Guildmaster many years ago, Albion went through quite a few changes. The Guild, which apparently used to offer both "good" and "evil" quests, now only allowed for "evil". Some villagers nicknamed the Guild "Skorm's Filing Cabinet." Of course, if a villager used that name in the presence of a hero, said villager's head was summarily removed from the body. There were also rumours that Hero was planning on destroying the Guild, but there was no way to prove or disprove the theories.
Either way, Albion had come across dark times the day Hero took up two more names. Although originally called Hero and whatever his old Title was, he now preferred to be called either Hero or Guildmaster. His third name was Jack of Blades. Hero usually killed whomever he heard call him Jack, however. It was hard to refrain from it, though, when all of his face that you could see were his eyes, horns, and hair.
Soon after Hero destroyed Jack of Blades' dragon form and taken the mask, he returned to the Guild and took over. Only Scythe expressed his displeasure, but he did not object. Eventually, he became a second advisor to Hero, the first being Jack's spirit. If such a thing could be said, Scythe was the most like a friend to Hero than anyone else was.
Hero had selected five apprentices that he would train himself and told Scythe to choose three. The eight apprentices had been allowed to select one-word titles and had been given access to areas that were forbidden to the other untitled apprentices. All of Hero's apprentices had recently been given hefty assignments, while Scythe's were training in the Guild Woods.
Although Hero's apprentices were closer than many others in the Guild, they chose to work alone, and were rewarded with Hero's approval. Scythe's, on the other hand, were the most outgoing rivals of any in the Guild and could often be found trying to poison one another's drinks. Hero's apprentices included Hooktooth, Pauldron, Clasp, Invert, and Hourglass. Scythe's were Datura, Pulse, and Theatre.
None of Hero's apprentices knew what the other was researching, and none of them spoke of their tasks to each other. Invert sighed, wondering where the others were, for she was the one working in the tavern area. She knew that Hooktooth was beyond the demon door, most likely sitting naked in the water, reading with his back against the ground. Although there was a perfectly good chair, Hooktooth always preferred to be in the water.
She had no idea where Hourglass was, since he always seemed to be at ease anywhere. Clasp was probably on the roof of Traitor's Tower, which was apparently once a hero named Maze's quarters. And Pauldron was more than likely being an ass and choosing to work in the map room so everyone else would have to go around him.
They had started their assignments a few days ago, but they were finishing up today. Looking over her work, Invert smiled slightly. All she had to do was finalize her writings and then clean up. Her mind drifted again, pondering how the others were doing. Hooktooth had most likely finished already and was testing how long he could hold his breath underwater. Hourglass, always the unpredictable one, could be at any point in his work. Clasp was probably about ready to toss the books off the Tower (if that was indeed where she was) and complain to herself about not having enough damned time to work. And Pauldron was probably nearly done, but purposefully dragging out the length of his task to irritate those who wanted to pick up new quests without getting on Pauldron's bad side.
Glancing outside, Invert realized that the sun was setting and quickly returned to finalizing her work. She had been researching Albion's creatures and had produced a thick encyclopedia-type report complete with illustrations and a decent binding. She was relatively confident that Hero would approve of it. Although most of his actions were predictable, they were occasionally completely unexpected.
Standing up, Invert closed her book and set it on the chair, then sighed as she looked at the many books covering the table. "How the hell am I supposed to clean all this up before night?" she thought irritably, but proceeded to close, sort, and stack her research sources. By the time the average apprentices were coming in, Invert had neatly set the books back on the shelves that lined the area and held the product of her research to her chest.
Pauldron strolled in from the map room, his face bearing the usual wide grin, a thickly packed folder in his hands. Taking up a guard's accent, he drawled, "Gotcher work done, eh, 'ero?"
"Of course. Should we go get Hooktooth? He's probably fallen asleep in the water again. Wouldn't want him to drown, now would we?" Invert replied, waving to Hourglass as he ambled in, his expression blank and his hands empty but his pack looking a bit more full than usual. He waved back, unhurried.
"Aye, aye, cap'n," Pauldron responded. "Though he may think he's a fish, I'm pretty damn sure he ain't."
Rolling her eyes, Invert walked over to Hourglass, who was entering from outside, and the three then headed to the demon door. Recognizing their specialized robes, the door said, "The fool's sleeping. I can't get any rest with all that snoring," and allowed them inside, closing quickly behind them.
Hooktooth was lying halfway on the ground and partly in the water. Although the water was clear enough to see anything beneath its surface, Hooktooth had apparently thought enough ahead to pull on some pants before dozing off. Hourglass made his way forward and kicked Hooktooth in the chest while Pauldron sat on the tabletop. Invert looked around, spotted a thick book on the chair, and assumed that Hooktooth had already cleaned everything else up.
"You don't have to kick me to wake me up," Hooktooth grumbled, scowling. He clambered out of the water and, after Invert had turned around, stepped out of his pants and changed into the second dry pair he had brought with him. Hourglass shrugged and Pauldron supplied the words, "Well, I suppose we could always punch ya or fill ya with arrows, aye?"
Hooktooth stuck his tongue out. "How 'bout tapping my shoulder?" he suggested jokingly, then followed the others out to get Clasp.
"She's probably just finishing up now," Invert guessed, noting that it was a few hours into the night already. Hourglass nodded in agreement and gestured to a figure jogging towards them. Invert recognized it as Clasp, toting a pile of research books.
"And so Invert guessed correctly for a second time. What will she predict next?" Pauldron announced in the tone of an Arena speaker. Hooktooth chuckled and Invert rolled her eyes. Clasp soon joined the group, grumbling halfheartedly about deadlines. They were headed to the servant's quarters, which was close to one of the many doors in the ground that headed to their quarters. None of them knew where Hero slept, or if he even slept at all, but they knew he'd be there tomorrow to check up on their assignments.
Knowing that Hero would always know where to find them was comforting. Such a constant was unusual but profound. As the five entered their separate small rooms, their minds were all on the same thing: Hero's constant presence, even when he wasn't physically there.