Chapter 6 - Choices
Advena
As the sun rose over the town of Advena, the rays of sunlight, passing through the cracks on the window, managed to find their way directly into Sen's eyes, this time however, he couldn't force himself back to sleep. Much to his annoyance, he sat up in the bed, and looked around.
The room he had taken was comfortable enough, albeit a bit spartan in it's decoration and furniture; a headache greeted him after that thought, his mind racing to know where he knew the Spartan thing from, eventually, after a minute of thinking, he gave up, and looked around again, searching for his roommates, Aquilo, slightly taller than him, was still sleeping in his bed, on the top bed of the other bunk bed, safe from the rays of light at this time, lucky him, he thought, looking at the window, before he looked to the lower bed.
Them person supposed to be there, Paul, if he remembered correctly, was missing, maybe he had already woken up, and left to do something, he'd meet the man later he supposed. With more difficulty than he thought was needed, he managed to will himself off the bed, and made his way towards the window, preparing for the blinding light that was about to come, he closed his eyes, and pushed them open.
Despite his preparations, the light blinded him slightly, before his eyes accustomed themselves to the light, ever so slightly, he opened his eyes, and looked outside, At least the sun seems to be the same. He looked out into the city, they hadn't had the time to see it in the night, nor the light to do so, but now, in the gleaming sunlight, the city was even bigger than what Sen had expected, buildings of all sizes and shapes strewn around, the sounds of hammers, animals and people reached his ears, as he looked into the distance, he could see the faint outline of a wall, small, and gray, if his eyes weren't failing him, this city seemed gigantic in size, but that meant that there were many options of work, many places to be and see.
"Turn the lights off." Aquilo's voice cut his train of thought, some annoyance present in his voice, he turned in his bed to face the wall, before apparently deciding that that also wouldn't work, and began getting up in his bed, "Good morning everyone", he said, at the same that he started yawning, clearly a bit sleepy still, Sen suppressed a yawn of his own, before turning to address him.
"Morning, how was your night?" Sen asked, now facing Aquilo as he tried to get down from his bed.
"Not long enough, that's for sure," Aquilo jumped down, and started stretching his arms, as he turned around to look at the bed, "Morning Pa-", He stopped mid-sentence, turned back to Sen, and asked, "Where is he?" some confusion clear in his voice.
"No clue, It was empty when I woke up," He turned back to the window, before deciding to look around the immediate area of the 'Barracks', as it had been called, there seemed to be a small building near the back, Hopefully a bath, he thought, before he kept looking, there also seemed to be a small well and a table for them to eat, and near that... He turned back to the table again, and called Aquilo, "I think I found him."
Aquilo walked over to the window and looked out, there, sitting in the chair, leaning on the table with his back, was Paul, unmoving, probably sleeping, Aquilo frowned, still looking at him, before asking, "When did he get there and why? It's like he slept there by the looks of things." Sen couldn't help but agree, it was a bad position to sleep in, but the tiredness they had felt the last night was too strong to give them much of a choice, he himself had fallen asleep the moment he fell on the bed, which brought to him the question, why didn't he sleep here.
The answer had to wait however, as someone knocked on the door, Sen looked at Aquilo, who looked back at him, before Aquilo began moving to the door, while he asked, "Who's there?", before Aquilo reached the door, they heard a voice coming from the other side, a female voice he knew he had heard once, but couldn't remember who it was.
'It's me." Was all the person responded, as if that was enough to identify them, for Aquilo apparently, it was, as he opened the door and greeted her, from what he could hear, her name was Ashlyn, and he knew he had heard the name, his mind telling him it was last night, he nodded to her when she looked inside, and turned back to window to look around, Paul appeared to still be sleeping, or he had woken up but didn't move, still, he kept looking outside, away from the table, there seemed to be another area to it's right, though he couldn't see it thank to the roof it had. Ashlyn's question caught his attention, "Weren't there three of you?" some confusion present in her voice, it seemed that this morning was just as confusing as the last night.
He simply looked at her, pointed outside, and turned around again, this time looking at the city again, there seemed to be a flag flying above a building some ways away, but he couldn't see it too well, as he looked outside, Aquilo and Ashlyn started talking. "He slept outside yesterday it seems" Aquilo said, both of them still near the door.
"What? But why? Where did he even sleep?"
"No idea, we just woke up, we didn't talk to him yet, or anyone else for that matter. What we can see from here however is that he slept on a table outside."
"Shouldn't we go talk to him then? After that whole night sleeping on that table he might not be feeling well." Before Aquilo could respond, Sen heard a low grunt, followed by a long yawn, looking below him, he noticed Paul, still sitting in the chair, starting to get up, or at least willing himself to get up. Sen turned to tell both of them.
"He woke up." He said, before he made for the door, "Let's go", he told them, he stopped near them, they looked at him, nodded, and started moving, first Aquilo, then he left, followed by Ashlyn, he noticed someone hanging back, a little behind Ashlyn, but didn't ask about it, not now anyway, they made their way down the stairs, and as he looked around, he noticed things he hadn't during the night, for starters, the couches and the small table in the middle, a large round shield hanging in the wall, with two swords crossed at it's center, and even an empty weapon stand, this place was truly supposed to be, or have been, a barracks.
As they made their way outside, the sunlight hit him again, and although not as strongly as before, it was still a bit annoying, Aquilo, making his way towards Paul, began, "Hey, had a good night of sleep?" Paul turned around, a bit confused and sleepy, before he let out another yawn and stretched himself.
"Morning everyone," He said, waving to the others behind Sen,"Could have been better, my back's hurting a lot, but aside from that I'm fine. You?"
"Been better, so care to tell us why you're sleeping out here and not in the bedroom back there?" Aquilo said, pointing behind him, to the direction of the barracks, Paul just gave a sheepish smile and scratched the back of his head.
"Couldn't sleep, and I didn't want to wake anyone, so, I decided to go for a small walk, sat here a bit, and next thing I know, it's already daylight." After saying that, Paul looked at them, back at the table, and asked, "So why don't we sit down and talk a bit more?" Sen wasn't opposed to the idea, and the others didn't see a problem with it, so they all sat down, but before they could sit down, Ashlyn made her way to the head of the table, and only now did he pay attention to her, she was by far, the shorter of the group, a brown-pink hair, dropping all the way down to the middle of her back, behind her was a girl, taller than Ashlyn, and a bit taller than him too, he noticed, was following her, Ashlyn turned to all of them, and started.
"Guys, I'd like to introduce to you Idonia", She waved slightly from Ashlyn's right, he looked at her, brown hair a bit below her shoulders, she seemed shy, or at least uncomfortable with them, which he could understand, since they were all unknowns, in and unknown place. Still, they all greeted her, Sen with a nod, while Aquilo and Paul waved at her, after that, they sat down, as he looked around, he noticed that none of them knew what to talk about next, he sighed, If I don't say anything, it's likely that we'll just sit here in silence. He looked at everyone one more time, before asking.
"So, what exactly do we do now?" He looked around the table again, Aquilo looked like he had something to say, but confusion was clear on his face, as if he wasn't sure about saying it, Ashlyn and Idonia looked like they were thinking about something, while he and Paul just looked at the others. After what felt like an eternity waiting there, a sound caught their attention, the sound of an stomach grumbling.
"Uh... before anything, could we grab some food?" He turned to his right, only to notice Paul looking at them, a look of embarrassment on his face, he heard Aquilo trying to hide a laugh, and the girls just looked at each other before Ashlyn nodded, Sen agreed and they got up, before Aquilo turned to them and asked.
"Where do we even get food here anyway?"
...
A few minutes of walking, asking around and getting lost in some streets, the group finally made it's way to the market square as some called it, or the center of town, full of market stalls strewn around, selling all kinds of things, some selling flasks of some unknown liquid, others selling plants, weapons, even clothes, none of it their priority now, though they made a point to return to the clothes store at a later time, after some more time looking around the market stalls, and some occasions where Aquilo had to be dragged away from a Leathersmith's stall, they finally found the place they where looking for.
Some adventurers had recommended, a simple soup stall, but it was cheap, and it was agreed that they should not waste too much money at this time. The stall in question was not a big stall, the counter had three sides for chairs, four on each side, a big white cloth served as a simple roof and back wall, inside a man stood, an apron over his clothes, a cauldron behind him, and an almost persistent smile in his face, he welcomed them to Sal's Soups, and they ordered some.
Though Sal made some small talk with Aquilo, with Paul and Ashlyn sometimes joining in on the conversation, Sen just ate his food, occasionally answering some questions, always with few words, before they finally finished eating, the soup, although cheap, only 10 Aeris per serving, was good enough to last for a while, they bade him goodbye, and made for the place Matthew had been, questions already on their minds.
As they reached the street leading directly to the shack they had been before, they noticed some people leaving, though these didn't look like part of their group, they looked just like soldiers of the town, armor, weapons, two of them had robes, another a bow, the sight left the group surprised though, these didn't seem like the guards of the town, their equipment wasn't as uniformed as the guards, and the way they behaved was way different from the soldiers they had seem around town, while the soldiers always carried themselves with a sense of professionalism, these people seemed fairly laid back.
"Who are those?" Paul asked, looking at the group making their way out of their sight.
"Probably other volunteers" Sen answered, looking back to their objective. "Come on, we're here." He said, standing a few steps away from the door, as he looked back he saw the others still looking at the others watching the group turning a street some ways away, though he was also curious about those people, he had questions that he wanted answered at this moment, so that was the main concern now.
"Well then, shall we?" Ashlyn said, moving in front of them and opening the door, Idonia followed right behind her, the girl hadn't spoken much, not to anyone aside from Ashlyn, but Sen had expected that much, so he pushed the thoughts aside, and walked inside with the others.
The inside of the building was just as he remembered it from the day before, only this time, with the windows open, he could see more of the place, still, not much more was noticeable, same wall decorations, same benches around a cauldron, the only new thing was a hole on the far side roof where he saw light coming in from, probably a place for the smoke from the fireplace beneath the cauldron to leave the building.
Looking to the place where the counter stood they noticed Matthew there, filling papers, seemingly not too happy with his current situation, if the frown on his face was any sign of it, still, he had said they should return here today, and so, they made their way towards him.
Matthew
As always, more people meant more paperwork, he knew that, hated that, but that was his job, and do it he would.
The day hadn't been that busy, small groups of the last 'batch', as some called the new arrivals, had been entering his workplace, asking him the same questions he had heard many times before, and leaving before another group entered some time later.
The last group turning in the bounty for metals was a welcome addition to his day, as he talked with them about their adventure in the nearby mines, with the excuse that it was all in order to get information about the place, it was in fact, just a distraction from his paperwork, after some minutes of talking and laughing, the group left and he went back to his work, filling paperwork, mainly on the new arrivals, some about the state of the volunteers force, or just managing new bounties.
The door opened, five people this time, two girls and three guys, usual group size and composition, from their clothes, they were part of the new batch, they looked around before making their way towards him, intentions clear to him as he laid back into the wall and eyed them, though they were a welcome distraction as the others had been, these would be just like the last groups, same questions, before leaving to attend to their new found problems, they were nearing his counter when he stood up and motioned towards the benches, "Welcome back, sit down and I'll help as well as I can." Directly to the point, something that his colleagues didn't appreciate too much, but it was his way, and they would need all the time they could get to prepare themselves.
They sat down and looked at him, as he made his way to the bench in front of theirs and noticed them staring, as if waiting for him to say something, before one of the boys started, "So, what exactly are we doing?" A vague question, he knew, but it was one of the most basic ones.
"Simply put, we need more people to help the town, your jobs will involve mainly going outside the walls, dealing with any external problems the town might have." Also a vague answer, but not far from the truth, although the details of it would be explained soon.
"How exactly? You said we would have to fight or something, right?" One of he girls said, the pink haired one, he was still debating whether or not she actually had that hair color normally or if that was something else, before dismissing the thought, whatever the case, it wasn't important.
"Yes, essentially, we have problems outside the walls that we can't send our own soldiers out to deal with, otherwise we may become defenseless should anything bad happen, so-"
"So you want us to do it?" The other girls said, looking directly at him, he knew what she wanted to say, you want others so your own don't die, which wasn't far from the thought process of those in power, but there wasn't another way to phrase it, the dark skinned boy spoke next.
"So if you lose people in these... ventures, your military isn't affected?" Though he spoke matter of factly, the meaning was the same as before, another guy had asked the same thing before, the tall muscular one, that seemed to be leading the whole group before, only more bluntly, he thought he heard the kid saying something under his breath, but ignored it, opting to continue speaking.
"Yes, as such, we provide you with money and a place to stay, which brings me to my next point, how you will fight them, as I'm sure you want to know." He looked around, two nodded, the others just looked at him, he proceeded. "With the funds you have currently, you should be able to pay for entry in one of the many guilds in the town, as others call them." He saw some eyebrows raising, curious and confused with his statement, not the first time, and certainly not the last.
"Each one is different, they teach different combat arts, so to speak, the Knight guild, the Hunter guild, the Thief and or Scout guild, since they don't exactly know how to call it themselves, the Priest and Mage-"
"Wait, wait, the mage guild? As in, magic, shooting fireballs and stuff?" Another expected outburst, this one from one of the boys, apparently it was a concept they had knowledge on, but only in theory, wherever they came from, they didn't have practical use of magic.
"And the PRIEST guild? Like, those guys in the church that make sermons and stuff?" The same guy asked, this also a common question.
"Yes, and yes but no, the Mages guild trains various schools of magic, the mages there can explain it better, the priest guild however, or as they call themselves, the Church of Luminus, are those that deal with light magic, healing and things of that area." He looked back at them, some confused, others surprised, but the one that asked all of that seemed to be the most interested of them in the new information, whatever the case, he proceeded.
"Lastly the Ungeist sect, better known as the Demon or Dark guild, they teach the same as all the others but with some different things, for starters, the only magic they teach is dark magic, their knights receive different training from the regular knights, and lastly, you can't join any other guilds after joining them, and you can't leave them either."
"Wait what, calm down, so, if we want to, we can join two guilds?" The dark skinned guy asked.
"And why can't we leave after joining?" The girl from earlier asked, still staring at him.
"First question, yes, if you have the coins, you could be a hunter that has the power to heal allies, or a knight that can cast fireballs, that sort of stuff, as to the second question, nobody knows, they don't explain, and people don't try to test that theory, not anymore at least." The last part brought some worry to their faces, which was expected, some 'incidents' of Ungeist Volunteers disappearing had become common for quite some time now, and Matthew was certain they wouldn't stop any time soon. He looked around again, and asked, "So, anymore questions? There's a map on the right side with the locations of the guilds, or you could just ask around, price for any of them is 6 Argenti-"
"SIX ARGENTI? That's almost all of our money, not to mention we'll have to pay for food and clothes at some point." The outburst from them was not uncommon, Matthew looked at them, and began speaking.
"Yes, you see, we will be providing you with free housing, food, training and equipment for the duration of your training, which should be one week, after which, the barracks will start charging ten Aeris per day you spend there, and before you ask, whichever money you've already spent before coming here will not be regained." It had happened before, people wasted their money before actually thinking about it, granted they weren't told they'd need it later, but it was supposed to be common sense to not waste everything as soon as possible.
They looked at each other, looked at him, and at each other again, not certain of what to do, or rather, he thought they knew what to do, just not how to start doing it, so, he decided to give a little help, "If I were you, I'd go looking for a guild at this exact moment, the sooner you start, the sooner you finish, and the sooner you can make your own money." They looked at him, no clear emotion on their faces, before one of the boys got up and moved to the map on the wall, before the others, after exchanging glances, followed suit, albeit at a much slower pace than he did.
As they looked over the map, he remembered the last detail they had to know about their new 'jobs', "One last thing, currently, you are volunteer recruits, if you manage to put together 20 Argenti, you can buy you Volunteer member status, you get free from paying on the barracks, and new quests will be available to you." At that one of the guys turned around, the same one that asked about the mages and priests.
"Why do we have to buy that to have more opportunities available, it doesn't make much sense." He asked, apparently not understanding it yet.
"Because if we manage to gather that much money before dying, it means we're ready to survive the harder quests, isn't that right?" The girl from before said, to which he nodded, it was decided, after novices died trying to tackle quests which were way above their league, that they should pay the tax before being able to even see those quests, therefore signaling that they were prepared to take on whatever came their way, and that they were smart enough to know when to pull back.
The group looked over the map for a few moments longer, before turning to him, thanking him for his time, and making their way outside, with the sun just reaching it's highest point, they still had a great amount of time to decide where to go next, and what guild to choose, but that was out of his hands, so, he walked back to his counter, picked up his pencil, as the merchant had called it, and started writing again, waiting for the next distraction to come by.
Sen
The group left the Crimson HQ, as the guards had taken to calling it, and made their way back to the barracks, from there they could make their way to wherever they wanted to go, Sen had been thinking about where to go for the last few minutes ever since leaving the HQ, he knew he wasn't as strong as others probably were, but there was one thing he was, faster, or at least, his sparse memory was telling him that, and since he didn't remember that much he wouldn't go against this single piece of information he had.
"So, what will you do?" Paul asked, moving in front of the group, his head turned slightly towards them, seemingly curious of their decision, or just wanting to learn more about them, or just to pass the time, or all of them, whatever the case, Sen spoke first.
"Scouts, probably, I think I'm fast enough." He said, to which Paul nodded, before turning to face the others, truth be told, he himself was a bit curious about their choices too, plus, if they were to travel together, it would be good to know what each of them would and could do, "Aquilo?" he asked, to which Aquilo answered.
"I've been thinking on it, but I'm still not sure, the word Paladin has been going through my mind, but what even is a paladin?" Sen looked at Paul, who just shrugged, before turning to the girls, who just shrugged as well, before Paul started.
"I think, maybe, I'm not sure, that it's a sort of a Holy Warrior, like, a Knight and priest, or something like that?" Sen looked at him, and something in his mind was agreeing with that assessment, and apparently, Aquilo agreed too.
"Yeah, sounds right, so, I'll go for the Church then, that way, I'll take the first step to it." Sen just nodded and turned to the girls, Ashlyn looked around, and begun speaking.
"I've been thinking about it, I'm not sure yet, I'll get back to you on that one." Sen nodded, before turning to Idonia, she looked at them and said.
"Same here, nothing conclusive yet." Sen nodded, and turned to Paul.
"Not that sure to be honest, scout is a no-go since I'm not as fast, and I don't think I'm strong enough to go Knight, so maybe Hunter? I'll tell you by day's end." He said, before looking ahead again, the conversation seemingly over, not that he minded it that much, but these conversations of theirs felt somewhat weirder than he thought he remembered, but maybe it was because they didn't know each other enough yet, whatever the case, Paul spoke up again, "So, what do we do now?"
Sen looked up, first at Paul, then at the others, apparently Aquilo didn't know either, but the girls seemed to be thinking on that before, as Ashlyn quickly spoke, "What if we start going to our guilds now? Or at the very least checking which one we want to join. That way we get this done sooner and don't have to worry about money for it later." He had to agree on the plan, should anything happen to their money before they joined a guild things would become much harder for the affected, grunts of agreement and nodding signaled him that the others agreed with Ashlyn.
They made their way back to the market square, not to grab clothes, not yet anyway, but to ask for directions, though Sen had remembered the map Matthew had shown them, it was better to make sure he knew where he was going, than to get lost in the middle of this unknown place. Though the plan was to have everyone go together, it seemed as though the situation would be different.
According to another Volunteer they met while asking around, the guilds were each in a different part of the town, the Church that Aquilo wanted to join stood on top of a hill on the north side of town, the hunter and knight guilds were located near the west gate, the gate closest to the places were they would have to go eventually, the Ungeist Sect was located on the South part, the Mage's guild on the west side, and as for the Scout's guild...
"You see, they have some sort of... initiation test, or something of that sort." Sen looked at the woman, her face covered by some sort of scarf, a bit confused, they required something else aside from the money? "Essentially, all they give you are clues, and you have to find the location based solely on that information." Marvelous, he thought, now he'd have to go around this place he knew nothing of, to a place he had no idea where it could possibly be, though when he thought about it, it made sense, it was basically what a scout's job boiled down to.
"Fine, where do I get this information?" He asked, the woman eyed him a bit, then motioned for him to get closer, and whispered some directions to him, ending it with a quiet warning to not tell anyone, with that, she bade them goodbye and left.
"So, you got it?" Paul asked.
"Probably, you guys can go, I can't get help on this." He said, turning to face the group, they all nodded, though some looked like they wanted to say something, before stopping themselves, they offered him good luck, and went on to the Church, while left, in search of the place he had to go.
He just hoped it wouldn't take too long to find it.
AN : So, for starters, yes I took a while, I had decided that I would try and make a chapter every two weeks, but life and procrastination manage to make their way into my time table. I can't promise this won't happen again, but I'll try to keep it from happening.
Secondly, this is my first writing attempt, and english is not my first language, so any mistakes or advice anyone may have on both wording and story writing in general I'd appreciate it.
Thanks for reading, see you in two to four weeks.
