“It’s not the fanciest place, but I figure it’ll suit you guys just fine.” Luard says as he looks over a large inn.

  The sons and daughters of Lord Albrinter were turned away at the door of the Falborne estate. Their friend Luard had found an inn that still had vacant rooms. It wasn’t fancy enough for nobles, but it would have to do for these sons and daughters of a noble.

  “Festival season is a bit rough on the room vacancy front.” Luard continues. “I know you fancy boys and girls are used to having your own private rooms, but you’re going to need to share during your stay.”

  “It’s fine. We’ll make it work. The other option is to ignore our queen’s summons.” Lutz shrugs his shoulders as he speaks.

  “Will this affect the length of our stay?” Velaura asks.

  “Hopefully, no. Probably, yes.” Luard says. “In either case, the inn can accommodate you all, as for your servants and guards, a few orders of knights have offered to host them in their barracks to get in my good graces.”

  “Pfft, your good graces.” Sardon scoffs.

  At those words, Luard grabs Sardon and pulls him uncomfortably close and lays a hand on his neck.

  “Hey, bitch boy! You want to know why I’m a chancellor and you’re only the son of a lord?” Luard says in a superior threatening tone.

  “Woah! Okay! Okay! I’m sorry!” Sardon says in a panic.

  Luard gives Sardon a violent shove.

  “You may have survived our queen’s political purge, but don’t you think for a second that you can disrespect me. There’s a reason people want to be in my good graces, you included. The queen expects me to give her advice and council about ruling the whole kingdom. You and your father’s stations as nobles are topics on her mind right now.”

  Ren peeks around a corner to see one of her escort clients violently shove another of her escort clients.

  “Lutz, do I stab him?” Ren points her sword at Luard.

  “Well, no. Consider this a learning experience for my brother.” Lutz says. “Also, you should never threaten to stab a chancellor.”

  “Okay.” Ren says.

  “Oh, before I forget, I need to mark that you completed the quest in the system.” Lutz says while he waves his hand.

  Quest Complete

  Escort the Albrinter Family to the capital

  Ren waits for a moment.

  “No level up.” Ren says without a hint of disappointment despite the context.

  “Well, they can’t all be winners.” Lutz shrugs his shoulders. “Thank you for getting us here. I should be able to get you that shopping trip maybe tomorrow around noon. Barring some disaster or emergency of course.”

  “Sure.” Ren says.

  “Well, you can join the others for their staff meal. I’m sure you can have a chat with the other guards while you wait. You can also join them in the barracks. I’m sure you made some friends on our way here.”

  “Friends?”

  “Yeah. Friends. You must have made one or two during our 3 day ride to the capital, right?”

  There is a long and uncomfortable pause in the conversation. Lutz waits for Ren to respond, but Ren remains silent.

  “Please tell me you weren’t quietly doing nothing throughout the 3 days we took to get here.” Lutz practically begins to beg Ren.

  There is no response.

  “Ren?”

  “I’m going to look around the city.” Ren says.

  “Y- yeah. You do that.”

  Ren quietly walks off and out of the fancy high end inn the Albrinters were staying at. It was the afternoon with only sparse clouds. There was still plenty of time to search through the city. There were shops of all sorts. The wares on display spanned from grimey pots and pans to fine dresses. It is also festival season, so workers are hanging decorations. Flags, streamers and banners were being hung up. A bright and jovial atmosphere lights the streets in the largest city Ren has ever been to. Unfortunately, none of these matter to Ren. There is some place that she wants to visit right away.

  After asking around, Ren finds a run down and dilapidated building. From it’s front a sign hangs that reads The Table and Tale. The wooden door hangs loose, and seems to have come off it’s bottom hinge. Despite the state of the building, conversations can be heard inside. Ren steps inside to see what was once a great adventurer’s guild. To the side was a corkboard with papers with documents of some kind pinned to it. There were various tables and chairs loosely prepared for seating. None of these tables or chairs matched and seems to have been taken from various sources. Inside, there were a great variety of people sitting, playing cards, reading, drinking and many other activities. Notably, this place has few humans. Unlike in most places here in Longcrest city and in Blue Pine town, the majority of people in this building were of other races. Dwarves, elves, catfolk, foxfolk, rabbitfolk, fairies, gnomes and even a blazemane. There are still humans, but in this building, they make up a minority of the guild’s inhabitants.

  As the sun puts itself behind Ren’s back, it casts a long shadow on the interior of this guild building. This draws the attention of almost everyone inside. They are greeted by the sight of a girl in her mid teens dressed in dull red mage robes. A spellbook dangling by a chain and resting on one side of her hip while a belt keeps a scabbard with a sword inside on the opposite hip. Her red hair was pulled back and pinned in a half up hairstyle. Seeing a new face, everyone looks over her status.

  “Woah! Look at this kid!”

  “She’s got a title. Blue Pine’s Favorite Adventurer. That’s one of the towns down south, right?”

  “Looks like she’s got a lot of promise.”

  “Woah! Her stats are nuts for a level 13!”

  “A level 13 assassin! Shouldn’t you be a rogue at level 13?”

  “An advanced class at level 13! Rare, but not impossible.”

  “That- that is a lot of skills and spells.”

  “Eh, at least her status is clean enough to read. I always appreciate a clean status.”

  Some people don’t remain at their seat to gossip. Some people leave their seats to approach Ren and to surround her and bombard her with greetings and questions.

  “Woah! Hey! Welcome to the adventurer’s guild!”

  “You looking to join? We can always use new talent.”

  “Woah! A katana! Netami style? Is that a foreign fighting style?”

  “Hey! We’re looking to slay a hydra. You want to join our party?”

  Ren remains still, motionless and expressionless in the face of all these people.

  “Alright. Calm down. All of you!” an older man’s voice breaks through all the noise. “And which one of you idiots asked a level 13 to hunt a hydra?”

  The surrounding crowd parts before the source of the voice. Once they do, a blazemane man approaches Ren. A tall muscular man with tan skin begins to step through. He wears thick hide armor over a tunic and an axe at his back. The most notable feature is that his beard, eyebrows and hair are made of fire. A feature of the blazemane race. This giant man looks down at Ren.

  “This kid what you’re all up in arms about?” the blazemane man says.

  “Yeah- guildmaster. Look at this kid’s status!”

  “Hmm…” the man looks Ren up and down more closely. “Not bad, kid. Seems like you were an accomplished adventurer in a town to get a title like that. Welcome to the city, kid.”

  “Hello. I’m Ren. I’m an adventurer.” Ren says simply.

  “I’m Crane Baross.” the blazemane man introduces himself. “Some folks around here call me guildmaster, but really that just means that it’s my name on this building’s tax code and the guy the guards complain to whenever one of these knuckle heads releases a bull in a jewelry store.”

  “It happened one time, boss!” a voice in the distance cried out.

  “I take it you want to join our little get together.” Crane continues.

  “Yep.” Ren says.

  “Happy to have talent like you.” Crane nods as he speaks. “Typically, our job is to perform tasks and services that involve danger. This is typically in the form of bounty hunting, odd jobs, fetch quests and other such quests. We operate using the old ways. Someone asks for help, we march into the jaws of death expecting to best it. Like heroes of yore. If we’re lucky, we usually stumble upon a conspiracy while doing these quests. Someone plans some fishy conspiracy, some small guy issues a quest to us. We complete the quest and trip over a conspiracy rearing it’s ugly head. We unravel a mystery, find out some guy is committing mass murder or treason and the city goes nuts. Rinse, repeat and keep on questing.”

  “I wanna stumble on my first city conspiracy.” Ren says.

  “Good! The Golden Autumn festival is in 4 days. I expect something to go crazy. Maybe we’re not looking at treason. Maybe there’s a conspiracy to do some price fixing or a parade is really a dark ritual. In either case, I expect you to do your best to unravel the whole mess as best you can.”

  “Yay.” Ren raises her arms in a cheer, but maintains her tone of voice.

  “There’s still time before sunset.” Crane begins to shout. “Hey! Alliot! Get a party going and take the new girl with you. Get something done today.”

  Someone starts to shove their way past the crowd.

  “I’m coming! I’m coming!” a young man’s voice starts shouting.

  A lithe handsome young man with green hair emerges from the crowd. His skin is rather light. His hair is a bright green and light blue eyes. He wears light armor that displays his features nicely. Some of the notable ones are that he has both cat ears and elf ears. Last, he has a cat’s smooth tail swinging behind him.

  “So, one adventure with the new kid before bed time?” the lithe man asks.

  “You bet ya. Introduce yourself already.” Crane says.

  “Hey there. I’m Alliot Greenbloom. Nice to meet ya.” the man introduced as Alliot reaches a hand out.

  Ren takes the hand and shakes it.

  “I’m Ren.”

  “Alright, we gotta do 2 things.” Alliot says. “First we gotta pick out a quest. We have a whole board right over there.”

  If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

  Alliot points to a corkboard. It seems that there are plenty of papers detailing adventuring jobs.

  “Take a gander and pick something you like and we’ll start looking through these jokers to see if anyone wants to form an adventuring party.”

  Ren hops toward the board and looks it over. There are bounties for wanted men, monster slaying, a serial killer case, a fetch quest for herbs outside the city, clearing a rat infestation, finding a missing person and so much more. Ren moves to pull a paper from the corkboard. It is a job detailing a monster hunt. It depicts what looks like a dragon or wyvern with a sketch, however this sketch has an elephant’s trunk and a spiked mace for a tail. The monster called Krosstetch has a bounty for slaying or capturing it.

  “Maybe not that one.” Alliot says. “That one is a bit rough. Even then, we don’t have a target. We don’t have a location. So we can’t just walk to it and stab it.”

  Ren quietly pins the paper back to the corkboard. Her hand then moves to take another paper posted. This one is a job for recovering a stolen necklace.

  “Oh! That one. It’s a fresh one.” Alliot says. “A band of thieves swept through a noble’s vault while he was out. The servants noticed and the guards couldn’t help. A private detective couldn’t find too much either. They left us a job in hopes that we can help. We got the private detective’s written report in the back. I’ll get it once we form a proper party.”

  “Okay.”

  “Alright, folks!” Alliot says. “Who wants to find some stolen jewels?”

  “I’ll do it!”

  “Pick me!”

  “Hey! I can help!”

  “I have an eagle companion. I got eyes in the sky!”

  “No! Pick me! I have a crow companion! My boy loves shiny things!”

  Ren looks over the crowd of eager volunteers. Alliot leans over and whispers into her ear.

  “Typically when forming a party there is a formation known as the ‘holy trinity’. You need one party member called a damage dealer. Their job is to deal damage to enemies or progress towards the quest objective. In this case of an investigation and recovering something stolen, a damage dealer is someone who can find the necklace to begin with just as much as a guy with a big sword. Next is a tank. Their job is to manage enemy threats and give the rest of the party room to do their jobs. In the case of an investigation, they make sure to help find the guy where they can and since it’s stolen, the guy who stole the necklace may pull a knife on us. The tank would… manage the thief appropriately if they pull a weapon. Last is the healer. Their job is to support the team and recover from mistakes the party makes. Here in an investigation, their job is to make sure that the investigation stays on task and to make up for any lost progress if that ever happens.”

  With the long explanation over, Alliot takes a breath.

  “So take your pick. Everyone here is lining up to join you.”

  Ren looks the crowd of volunteers over. After some time, the voices in her head make a decision.

  “Can I get the raven guy, the eyepatch lady and the wizard dual wielding wands?” Ren says.

  A dwarf with a bright red beard and a raven perched on his shoulders leaps and cheers. A mature dark skinned human woman with an eyepatch begins to step forward from the crowd with a wide smile. An elven man sporting wands holstered across his chest like they were pistols, pumps his fists and cheers.

  “Sorry folks. Better luck next time.” Alliot says to the crowd.

  Those who weren’t picked by Ren give a dejected sigh and walk off back to their tables. The three who were stood before Ren.

  “Alright. Let’s start with introductions.” Alliot says.

  The dwarf with the raven begins the introduction.

  “Hey there kid! Name’s Bron Stonearm. This here is Borp. Say hi.”

  “I pooped on a turtle! He hasn't forgiven me since.” the raven says.

  “He may be the dumbest raven in the world, but he can talk. You would not believe how useful it is to have a scout animal companion that speaks. Even if he is the dumbest corvid in the world.”

  “That turtle regularly hires hitmen to come after me.” Borp says.

  The human woman follows after Bron finishes.

  “Hey there, sweetie. I’m Linda Bona. I’m bit of a flirt. I also get a bit handsy with men. Hope I can be a good role model. Hoping to find some good husband material in this one. I hear the client is a noble’s manservant. There’s gotta be some good men grateful to me once this is done.”

  The woman licks her lips and coos at Ren. With that said, the elf starts his introduction.

  “Sup! I’m Malo Goldleaf. Fastest draw in the city. Maybe the kingdom. The guys who develop quickdraw techniques make them with the aim to beat enemies who already have their weapon drawn. The samurai and musketeer quickdraw techniques were developed with that goal in mind. I may be a wizard, but that doesn’t mean I can’t start making my own quickdraw skills.”

  To show off his technique, Malo draws and stows his wands with blinding speed to show how fast his hands actually are.

  “Cool.” Ren says.

  “Aren’t you going to ask this guy about his ears?” Bron points to Alliot.

  “No.” Ren says.

  “Pfft, hahaha!” Alliot bursts out laughing. “You sure? It’s my one party trick.”

  “I don’t care.” Ren says.

  “Ouch. You’re going to hurt the poor guy.” Linda chuckles. “He has 4 ears to hear all those hurtful words.”

  Alliot wiggles his cat and elf ears at those words.

  “You want to know if he was born that way or if he’s a chimera?” Malo asks.

  “No, not really.” Ren says in her usual tone of voice. “Are we ready to go?”

  “Alright, alright.” Alliot says. “I got the written report here. Let’s see how far that private detective got.”

  Alliot pulls out a folder and the party gathers around a table to look through it.

  “There’s a map here. It looks like a diagram of the place that was robbed. These lines are the entrance and escape route in and out of the place. They left through the window here. Beyond that, all we got left is a witness that saw a man matching the description of the thief fleeing down a street here.”

  “Oh! That street!” Linda snickers. “I know a guy we can squeeze for some current events.”

  “Cool. Let’s go.” Ren says.

  The party heads over to where Linda knows an associate. As the party walks through streets, she waves to every age appropriate man. In turn, every man screams, runs and hides. When they arrive, the associate she was talking about also tries to run and hide.

  “Ah! Linda! I gotta get out of here!!!”

  “Oh, leaving already?” Linda says.

  In the time it takes for someone to blink, Linda grabs him. She then begins to caress his chest.

  “Don’t be like that. We came here looking for some news about a stolen necklace.” Linda coos at him.

  “OKAY! OKAY! I’LL SNITCH ON THEM! JUST SPARE MY BALLS!!!” the man screams. “IT’S THOSE TWO OF THERE!”

  The man points at a crowd of men gathered in a dark alleyway. It is a group of 6 men.

  “The guy on the left is the thief! The guy on the right is the buyer who hired him!”

  “Oh! Why thank you. I’ll be sure to thank you with a visit later tonight.” Linda speaks in a seductive tone.

  “Please, no! Anything but that!” the man begins to sweat and take panicked breaths.

  The party heads over to the crowd the man pointed out.

  “Oh my. So many strong and dashing men.” Linda says.

  “Huh! A group of armed and armored rag tag people! They must be adventurers coming to ruin our sale! Kill them!”

  At those words, the 6 men turn to 20 men as 14 men suddenly jump out and brandish weapons. The party is instantly surrounded. Nearly half of them have trained crossbows on the party. As they do, the sound of crowded footsteps rush from one side of the alley.

  “What’s going on here?” a patrol of guards rush to the scene. “Adventurers! They’re surrounded by men.”

  “Hold on. They’re not citizens. We can’t risk getting involved.”

  The guards do not move in to stop the violence. They instead just stand there and do nothing when there is a clear threat to someone’s life. Even then, the party is not helpless.

  “Heh! You guys are fast, but I’m faster.” Malo chuckles.

  Malo draws his wands with lightning fast speed. The wizard uses a skill that then leads into spells.

  “Quick Draw! Fire Ball! Chain Lightning!”

  Despite the fact that men had crossbows trained on the party, Malo easily fires off his spells before any of them can fire their weapons. A ball of fire erupts on one side and lightning ships around in the other. Ren followed up with her own quickdraw skill.

  “Blade flashing, steel drawn.

  Your blade sang first, feel cold light.

  In a blink, you die.

  Form 1: Flash”

  Ren swiftly closes the distance on a man and cuts him in half from shoulder to hip. With the quickdraw skills concluded, only 12 of the men remain after two spells that attack multiple targets and a single target skill. The rest of the party leap into action.

  “Looks like we’re doing this!” Alliot says excitedly.

  Alliot rushes up to a man and delivers a flurry of front kicks to him. Each front kick was impactful and served to pump him up and lift him up like he was climbing a ladder. One of Alliot’s feet rests itself on the man’s shoulder while the other was lifted above his head. He then brings his foot down in a stomp onto the man’s head and brings him down with a flurry of kicks that ends in a downward stomp.

  Bron pulls out a short sword and rushes for another man. Unfortunately, his initial sword thrust is blocked and he is forced to engage in a more close quarters fight. As he does, one of these men move to help his fellow against Bron. As he does, the raven Borp flies into the man’s face.

  “Hi!” Borp speaks into the man’s face. “I have a message for you about your wagon’s insurance policy. Please have a look.”

  Borp throws a blank piece of paper into the man’s face.

  “What the! Out of the way! Stupid ass bird!”

  The man swings at Borp. In the time it took for that man to wave off Borp, Bron had stabbed the man he initially rushed at. Bron then turned his attention to the man who was distracted by Borp. He rushed at the man with renewed focus. As the others fight their own battles, Linda was dominating several men.

  “Wait no! Please!” a man screamed.

  Linda had grabbed him by the beck. She then tossed the man into the air and leaped up after him. While the man is spinning out in the air, she grabs him out of the air and comes back down to the ground hard. The impact left a small crater in this alleyway. Emerging from the dust, Linda steps out and searches for more men to manhandle. Two men look on in horror at what Linda had done to their cohort. Linda begins to slowly approach the two men. In a panic, one of them swings a sword at Linda. Linda only lifted her arm. When the man’s sword slams against Linda’s arm, a metallic clink is heard and the sword bounces off of Linda’s arm. She then pushes the sword aside and reaches out with both hands to grab the hip of the man.

  “What! Wait! No! What are you doing?” the man screams in a panic.

  “I’m going to bury my knee in your colon." Linda says.

  She lifts the man above her head and goes down on one knee. The man goes wide eyed as he realizes that she fully intended to make good on her threat. She brings the man’s pelvis down onto her knee. The man’s panic and screaming stops. He remains perfectly still. It is as though he wanted to be dead, so he tried to embody a corpse. This act is betrayed when the man’s eyes become pin points and tears spill from his eyes uncontrollably. That or the man is in shock. Linda stands up and the man flops down onto the alley floor motionless. The remaining man begins to back away.

  “No! Help! Help!” one of the remaining men screams. “Guards! Help!”

  At those words, the guards finally move to help.

  “All of you stop! Weapons down! Now!”

  The guards move to push everyone apart with their armor. A few of the men try to continue their aggression, but guards push their way in.

  “Stop! Now! All of you! Don’t do anything I can arrest you for!”

  “Aw, you guys had enough?” Alliot chuckles.

  “Guards! These crooks came at us and tried to kill us!” one the men says.

  “We saw everything already. Just because we came to your aid doesn't mean that these adventurers can't defend themselves.”

  “Just tell us where the necklace is.” Alliot says.

  “Hah! Jokes on you! I don't have it! I left it in a dead drop. I was going to fetch it when I got paid!” the man says.

  “Oh, so it must be decently close by.” Bron says. “Borp, find a shiny somewhere around here.”

  “What would happen if we put a werewolf on the moon?” Borp asks.

  Despite the question, Borp flies off to search for the necklace. The raven returns in short order with a jeweled necklace.

  “Hah! Look at Borp go!” Bron boasts about his companion.

  “Seven ate nine, but four saw it all happen. He's just too much of a coward to tell everyone what happened to nine.”

  Borp hands the necklace over to Bron. Then Bron hands the necklace to Alliot. Then Alliot hands the necklace to Ren.

  “Check it out bitches! We got the fancy necklace you stole!” Alliot proudly mocks the men they were just fighting.

  “I’ll gut you in the night.” one of the men spat back.

  “Good luck with that. The last guy who came for me in the night can’t walk any more!” Alliot says back.

  “Dude, too much information.” Malo shrinked back from Alliot.

  “Oh! You had men come for you in the night? Why wasn’t I invited?” Linda cooed.

  “Oi! All of you shut up!” a city guard snaps at everyone. “Get out of here before I arrest you all!”

  “Alright. Alright.” Alliot chuckles. “Let’s leave the guards to their work. We certainly gave them a lot of it.”

  The patrol of 6 guards must now sort through 20 men in various states of dead, dying and uninjured. The party walks back with their spoils in hand.

  “Well, that was fun.” Alliot says. “Yeah, that’s how the guards usually do things around here. Just stand around while trouble is rearing it’s head up and around. It’s only when there are a certain number of citizens at risk and stuff, but when you’re in the adventuring line of work you see it more often than normal people going about their day. We’re the ones that see them standing around.”

  “Cool.” Ren says.

  “I know, right!” Alliot cheers. “We can make a mess of things until one of those bitches begs them for help. Give them a real humbling experience.”

  “You get to loot the bastards if they don’t call for help too.” Bron says.

  “Wow.” Ren says.

  “We got the necklace back, but it seems like we didn’t trip on a conspiracy today.” Malo says.

  “Aw.” Ren somehow sighs without any emotional tone.

  “Ah well, we’ll have to try again another day. If we don’t stumble on a conspiracy this month, then that just means that we’re not working hard enough.” Alliot says.

  “That’s the spirit!” Linda cheers.

  As the party walks through the streets Ren’s looks at a pair of men standing over a small child. These grown men are clearly beating on the small child.

  “Help! Please help!” the child helplessly cries out.

  City guards are standing to the side. The cry for help is clear to them, but they do not move. Almost half of this patrol avert their gaze, but do not use the weapons in their hands or armor they wear to help this clearly distressed child. The party notices this and stops their stride.

  “One of the perks of being an adventurer is that if you see evil, you can just stab it.” Alliot says. “Doesn’t matter what anyone’s citizenship status is. You want to stab evil?”

  “Yep.” Ren says.

  “Then let’s go.” Alliot gives Ren a wink. “If the guards won’t stab evil, an adventurer will.”

  Ren quietly walks behind one of the men, and runs her sword through his back until it shoots out from his stomach. Alliot gives the other man a swift kick behind the knee and grabs him by the neck in a choke hold. The child they were beating on can only look up in horror with a small hint of relief. The man that Ren stabbed can only weekly cry for help.

  “Help! Guards! Help!” the man that Ren stabbed calls out.

  The guards who were standing idle nearby give a heavy sigh and moves to help the men who were beating on a child just a moment ago.

  “Alright, break it up!” one of the guards says.

  The guards pull Ren and Alliot off of the men. As Ren’s sword is pulled from the man, blood shoots out like a geyser.

  “Shit! That’s a lot of blood." the guard says. “Alright, all of you, get out of here!”

  The guards start to push the party away. Before that, Alliot grabs the child who was being attacked by the men.

  “I’m taking this kid with me.” Alliot says as he is ushered away.

  As Ren and Alliot rejoin the party, they swiftly look the boy over.

  “Kid is in a bad way.” Malo says.

  “Not as bad as what Ren did to that other guy.” Bron scoffs. “Your sword inflict a super duper fun bleed effect or what?”

  “Maybe.” Ren says.

  Ren flicks the stale blood off her sword before returning it to it’s scabbard.

  “Forget that!” Malo snaps. “Let’s hurry to the guild. We’ll get someone to see to the kid’s injuries.”

  “Right you are.” Bron says.

  The party begins to rush through the streets and return to The Table and Tale.

  “Hey! We need a white mage or cleric. We pulled a kid from a fight!” Alliot shouts as he enters the guild.

  At his words, a number of white mages and clerics snap to attention. From 3 different tables they all swiftly rush to clear someone else’s table.

  “Bring ‘em here!” one of them says.

  Alliot rushes over to the table and lays the boy down.

  “It was a beating. The kid was breathing shallowly when I got to him.” Alliot says.

  The group of healers swiftly work their literal magic.

  “So, how’d the girl do?” Crane Baross the guildmaster approaches the party.

  “Show ‘em Ren.” Alliot says.

  Ren shows Crane the necklace she recovered from the men.

  “Excellent.” Crane inspect the necklace more carefully. “Now how did my boy Alliot do? He show you all the ins and outs of being an adventurer?”

  “Yep!” Ren says.

  “I can’t ask for anything better than that.” Crane says. “Sounds like it’s about time we have a welcoming party for you.”

  “I have to go soon.” Ren says. “I have to go back and have dinner with the clients of my escort quest that I brought into the city.”

  “Ah. You’re a busy girl. Some other time then. But we can still toast to you!” Crane says before he announces to everyone inside. “EVERYONE! WE’RE TOASTING TO REN!”

  The room cheers. The boy that the party brought back wakes up to a cheering crowd.

  “COME ON! GET SOME DRINKS FOR EVERYONE!”

  The boy is handed a tankard of what seems to be a fruit juice of some kind. It is as thick as his head. Ren is also handed a similar tankard.

  “It’s just some apple juice.” Alliot says. “You want the hard stuff, let a guy cast Find Age on you. You ever done a toast before?”

  “No.” Ren says.

  “It’s easy. Everyone gathers around and then thrusts their drinks into the center. Everyone’s drinks splashes together in the air so that everyone gets a bit of everyone else’s drink. The drinks also gets on the floor and some people. It makes a fine mess, but we do it so that everyone drinks the same thing.”

  “Cool.” Ren says in her usual tone of voice.

  “TO OUR NEWEST ADDITION, REN! A TOAST TO HER!” Crane says proudly. “REN! ANYTHING YOU HAVE TO SAY?”

  There is a brief moment of pause as everyone in the building looks at Ren expecting something. Maybe something cute or funny. Instead Ren gives them something grand.

  “I have found my people.” Ren says.