"Hello, what can I do for you?"
When the barman spotted the emblem on the Bangaa's bishop robes, he added: "Ah, from Clan Amethyst"
"Yess, I'm here to asssign thesse two their firsst misssion and ssee them through it."
The bishop called Ramsey pointed at the two slightly nervous Humes standing beside him.
"Ah, newcomers? Pleased to meet you. I'm Istvan." He extended his hand towards them. The boy was the first to shake it. "I'm Aleph."
Grown up in a lumberjack family near the Nubswoods, Aleph had always been very strong. He also learned handling swords and axes in battle very early, since they had to defend themselves from the constant attacks by the thieves hiding in the woods. Longing for adventures he enrolled in the Soldiers' Academy in Cyril at the age of 14 and after three years of training now joined Clan Amethyst.
The girl was the next to shake the barman's hand. "My name is Soraya."
Her parents were members of a now disbanded clan and went missing during one of their missions, back when Soraya was still very young. A good friend of them, a Nu Mou and professor at Cadoan Academy, received notice of their uncertain fate and thus agreed to take in and raise their daughter until they would come back. Studying under her foster-mother, reading lots of books on various types of higher magic and attending to lessons actually not intended for the not so magically talented Humes, she attained great knowledge about the arcane arts, though being unable to practically use most of it yet. As a Black Mage she joined Clan Amethyst at the same time as Aleph in the hope of finding clues as to the whereabouts of her parents.
"Now, now, no reason to be nervous."
The barman reached for his list.
"Let's see if we can find something suitable for you... Ah, how about this? We've recently had a theft in the neighborhood. The culprit was a moogle, not very strong but fast. Usually the Judges would take care of things like this but they seem to have more pressing matters to attend to."
He beckoned them to lean closer and added in a lower voice: "But that's just the official version. I bet the Judges just don't want to get their hands dirty." He winked. "Well?"
"Ssoundss good. Are you up to it?"
The Humes nodded.
"Okay, that makes 400 Gil for the information then. Although..."
Istvan stroked his beard and pulled out an abacus. "Since you're from Amethyst and considering this is your first mission, I'll give you a discount..." Finishing his calculations he asked: "How do 200 Gil sound?"
"Great, thanks!" smiled Aleph.
After being told the remaining details, they set out in search for the thief.
Soon after arriving at the Giza Plains, they heard the sounds of two people fighting and an angry voice shouting: "Leave me alone, kupo!"
"A Moogle?" Soraya asked.
"Let's take a look," decided Aleph.
The sight that presented itself to them was rather strange.
The shouting Moogle was without a doubt the culprit they had been looking for, but he was already engaged in a fight with a Hume. Now what was strange, was that this Hume donned the attire of a Time Mage. Humes usually lacked the necessary magical talent to become Time Mages. Sure, there were sometimes especially gifted people, but it was a rare sight nevertheless. Furthermore he didn't seem to bother with using magic. He just danced around the Moogle, occasionally clobbering him with his staff, with a surprising agility the thief simply couldn't keep up with.
"HEY! That's our target!" shouted Aleph, but the two combatants didn't seem to notice.
Soraya turned to Ramsey. "What should we do now? Should we attack both of them?"
"No," he advised. "Thiss Hume is very sstrong for a mage. If he can actually usse magic, he would be too dangerouss for uss to handle."
"But if he is that strong, why does he bother with such an easy mission?" she wondered.
The Bangaa simply shrugged in response.
A triumphant laugh caught their attention.
The Time Mage had manged to pin down the Moogle, which, considering the latter's size, wasn't too difficult.
With a smirk he said: "Here's something I wanted to try for some time now."
Then he started incantating a complex spell. A spell that sounded strangely familiar to Soraya... She tried remembering the Time Magic lessons she attended to. And just as recognition struck, so did the Time Mage's spell, engulfing both him and his opponent in a dark violet hemisphere.
She turned around with a loud groan.
"Oh, please don't tell me this guy actually cast a Gravija at point-blank range."
"Is Gravija a spell that produces a dark violet hemisphere in which gravitation is extremely amplified?" asked Aleph.
"Uh-huh..."
Looking at the two ridiculously flattened bodies, he said: "Okay, I won't."
With a long sigh she turned back around.
"All brawns and no brains... And he's a Mage for crying out loud! A Mage's top quality is supposed to be their intelligence. Every idiot knows not to put themselves in the range of their own spells!"
"Now, now," Aleph tried to calm her. "This works in our favor. We can just take the Moogle and get the reward, right?" He looked inquiringly at Ramsey.
"Neither of thosse two are in any sstate to complain, I'd ssay."
"But then this mission won't be a real success," complained Soraya.
"Don't worry about that. You'll have enough ssucccesssess oncce you do ssome more misssionss. Bessidess, nobody will have to know."
Surrounding the now paper-thin Moogle, the party was looking for a way to transport him.
"Maybe we can fold him?" suggested Aleph.
"No, he might break. Besst not to take any chanccess."
In the end they decided to carry him as a flag by tying his pompom to a stick, while Ramsey used Aero to create a steady wind so the sheet of Moogle wouldn't bend too much. Needless to say, they attracted quite some attention on their way to fetch their reward.
Back at the tavern, Clan Amethyst celebrated the first successful mission of their two rookies. Their target not having been too strong, the other members didn't ask for details on the capture of the thief, for which the two of them were very grateful. They enjoyed themselves, in spite of feeling a bit guilty for pretending they caught the thief themselves.
"I'm sooooorry!", they heard someone cry at another table. They turned their heads to see the Time Mage from before getting chewed out by a particularly nasty-looking Seeq, obviously his clan leader.
"You know the young man over there?"
The barman had left his post behind the bar and was now standing behind Aleph and Soraya watching said man shrink before his boss.
"Yeah, actually he got the thief before we could do anything about it," Aleph whispered.
"Then how come you still managed to get the reward?"
"This idiot got caught up in his own Gravija finishing off the thief," Soraya answered, visibly annoyed at the Time Mage's stupidity.
"Oh. Well, that explains why the clan leader told me to keep the mission open for others," he said with a smirk on his face.
"Huh?" Aleph and Soraya were now staring at the barman with slight confusion.
"Actually, our Time Mage here accepted your mission some time before you did. Soon after he had gone, his clan leader came to me and told me to keep it open for others because he wasn't too confident he'd actually catch the thief. Truth be told, only because of him paying the information fee, I was able to give you a discount.", he admitted.
"Hunh... I guess we should be grateful," mumbled Aleph.
Slowly taking pity on the poor Hume, they decided to talk with him afterwards to clear things up.
"What? So I did finish off the thief?" asked the Time Mage.
"Yeah, along with yourself," answered Soraya, her resentment for him evident in her voice.
"Ahaha... Well..."
"So we decided to let you have part of the reward. After all, we owe you our first successful mission," Aleph explained.
"Really? Oh, thank you so much! By the way, I haven't introduced myself yet, right?. The name's Leroy."
"Pleased to meet you," the two younger Humes replied, although when Soraya said it, it didn't sound very convincing.
"Ah, how can I repay you for your kindness?"
"Don't worry about it," Aleph answered. "If you really want to repay us, you could help us out on missions sometimes."
"I'd be glad to," Leroy said happily.
Soraya gave him an angry stare. "Just don't try to cast Gravija while we're near you."
"O-Okay... Um, can I ask one more favor of you?"
"What is it?"
"Would you mind explaining all of this to my boss?"
Not really keen on having to deal with the Seeq, they answered in unison: "You're on your own there. Bye."
Leaving Leroy with his head hanging, they went to get some rest for their next mission...