“I’m thinking… I’ll stay up here for a day or two. Check in with Thalia and say hi to Aunt Seren. Maybe see if Lott got any news about Caspian?” Miles wondered, speaking over hawkers and merchants as he strolled down the market with Hazel next to him. The witch was lazily munching from the skewer of roasted meats as she observed the people around her, but he knew she was listening. “Can you sense his tracker?”

  Hazel slowed and frowned for half a second before nodding and drifting toward their left.

  “Great. Let’s start with him, then. While I’m thinking I haven’t given him enough time to get us some news on the Caspian front, it could be a good start. See if anything happened while I was away. After that… it’s either speak to someone about the rights to the village and the land around it, or head back down and work on my reputation. I think doing the latter first might help with the former, but I’m not sure. Though I’d likely get less questions that way.”

  Miles wasn’t spelling out everything, just in case anyone was paying attention, though he believed his meaning was getting through to the witch as she trailed toward an alley and slapped away the hand of a pickpocketing youth. The boy gave her a wide-eyed look as he hurried away, while Miles shook his head.

  He knew some beginning Shadows trained that way, but there must be a better way. The kid certainly didn’t look like he needed to steal.

  Turning his attention back to the alley through which Hazel was leading them as she continued to casually eat, Miles considered what he wanted to get done over the next couple of days. Seeing Aunt Seren was high up on his list, but he also had to get started on establishing his new identity. While he’d love to get started on the shop and having his front outside of the city walls, it was sure to attract a decent amount of scrutiny. A solution for that would be to continue delving for a short bit and start small. There was nothing odd about a mid-level Torchbearer wanting to open a business. It happened often enough. So yeah, he probably should start with a couple of jobs.

  “Maybe I could sponsor those two,” he considered as he thought of Thalia and Brie, but a scoff was his response.

  “What will they learn if you clear the way for them? If a job is difficult enough to earn you recognition, it’d be way above what they could handle.”

  “Well, they could help on the first couple of floors,” Miles argued back. “After that, I could let them train in the Custodial room. Get George or Ash to run them through some drills. Then again, if I register them on the assignment people might have questions for them once we’re done. Plus their presence will trigger a Dungeon challenge on the 10th,” he hummed, scratching the back of his neck as they stepped back in one of the main streets before Hazel pulled them into another alley. But when he mentioned having his other summons run Thalia and Brie’s training, Hazel slowed and by the time he finished, she glared at him.

  Miles smiled back at her, which made her narrow her eyes further. “I would be a better instructor than those two.”

  “I’m sure of it… but can you promise me they wouldn’t be traumatized if I leave them more than 4 hours with you?”

  “4 hours? Please,” the witch scoffed. “I could have them blabbering in a corner in ten minutes.”

  Miles just raised a brow at her, his point already made, and she grumbled under her breath as she turned away. “Yeah, alright. Fine. But you know I wouldn’t take things that far with family.”

  “I know,” he chuckled as he followed after her. “I’m just teasing you. But yeah, they could learn a thing or two from you. And they will. But we’ll come back to that later. Are we there yet? We’re approaching the richer area of the city,” he said as they exited into a new street, at which point Hazel nodded to her left.

  “Close. Should be a couple of minutes. As for the other stuff you were saying… yeah. Working on that flimsy new persona of yours is probably better. There must be a reason why the land of your old village isn’t being used, and I’m sure none of the local powers would appreciate a nobody butting in with questions,” she said, putting as much disdain as she could manage when speaking of the local political players.

  Miles was listening and as they took a right, he had to nod. Navigating the bureaucracy with his current status would be a little rough and it just so happened that as the witch navigated them toward their destination, an old, familiar building that Miles hadn’t stepped in for years caught his eye.

  With a nostalgic twinge in his chest, he nodded to himself. “I guess I can get started on that right away,” he said, eying the well-maintained stone hall of the Torchbearer’s Guild. It was a two-story building with neatly glazed red tile-roofing, and two merry torches burning in front of the entrance. Runners and messengers were going in and out every few seconds from its wide-open doors, their messenger’s bag securely hung around their shoulders and as Miles slowed, Hazel gave him a quirked brow before eying the entrance for a second before she shrugged.

  “Well. The tracking spell isn’t moving. But better do this quickly just in case…”

  Inside, the space was as busy as he’d always remembered it to be. It was well lit, and the scent of freshly baked bread hung in the air, wafting out of the far left side of the space where a little canteen offered their services to the resting messengers. It was where Torchbearers hung around between jobs, chatting or just waited for jobs to come their way. To the far right, a wall where jobs were hung and taken down before the slip of paper would be taken to the reception desk in front, where the assignment would be claimed and the details provided so without further ado, Miles headed to the right and began scanning the assignments, attracting a few curious gazes though no one came to bother him.

  It wasn’t that uncommon for traveling Torchbearer to pick up jobs around here.

  Quickly enough, Miles began moving from one section to the next. The job posters were organized by specialties, so he quickly moved away from the mundane stuff he wasn’t interested in, and while he paused for a half a second in front of the party jobs, he quickly moved past them.

  He didn’t want to work with strangers for this one. Thankfully, he quickly found the section he was looking for, and while there plenty of local work, especially about messages and parcels to the top floors or toward other surface cities, Miles quickly narrowed his attention on a couple of posters.

  Assignment TL-5-L-271

  Parcel delivery to the 5th floor’s Waystation.

  Min-requirement: Tier-6, storage ability, can fend for one-self. Deliver within 30 days of reception of parcel.

  Remuneration: Negotiable, bonus if delivery is speedy.

  Assignment TR-11-U-6440

  Urgent delivery to Dawnhold. Delivery to the Registry’s offices or to the Torchbearer’s Guild. Must arrive within 7 days from reception. See reception for details.

  Min-requirement: Tier-15, speed, storage ability, discretion, can fend for one-self.

  Remuneration: 150 platinum coins.

  Miles hummed as he eyed the two jobs. The first was pretty easy, but the second was more his speed. He could maybe even set a wardrobe down at Dawnhold and while the pay wasn’t that impressive for him, it was decent enough. Though before he could make a decision, a shuffle to his side made him glance away.

  The author's narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

  “Excuse me,” tiredly spoke an uniformed agent, and when he took a step back, she gave him a quick thank you before she slapped a new poster right next to the ones he’d been looking at.

  Assignment TI-11-R-6443

  Letter Delivery to the Ironvault compound in Dawnhold. Deliver within 60 days of reception of letter. See reception for details.

  Min-requirement: Tier-15

  Remuneration: 500 gold coins.

  “Oh this looks good,” Miles hummed as he scratched his chin. In fact, all three of these postings looked good to him. He didn’t care that much about the remuneration, but the tasks were difficult enough to prove his capabilities. The problem was that his fake ID had him registered as tier-8, and he’d have to prove he met the requirements before he could pick all three. He’d have to get through reception and talk to the guildmistress. And most likely, the information would leak, and while that could be a little dangerous, it could fuel his reputation, especially once he completed the assignments.

  It’d be worth the risk, and it’d allow him to upgrade the key pretty quickly and so within moments, Miles found himself in front of a smiling receptionist in red and gold uniform whose smile slipped when he saw the three posters.

  “Um… sir? I think I need to see an ID before I allow you to pick these two,” the middle-aged man said as he pulled the two Dawnhold runs to the side. “And I might need to get approval from the guildmistress to allow you to take both.”

  “I understand,” said Miles with a smile as he put his forged ID on the marble. “My ID isn’t up to date though, but I assure you I meet the requirements. I could prove it to your boss.”

  The receptionist’s polite facade slipped, and a flare of annoyance slipped through. They must have heard that often enough and in their eyes, Miles could see the agent weighing his options.

  Miles was pretty sure if his ID had showed even a tier lower, the man would have asked him to put the posters back but instead, with a barely suppressed sigh, the man pushed himself off of his chair and nodded to the left.

  “Follow me, please. I’ll take you to the guildmistress’s office. If your words prove to be misleading, you will be fined. Understood?”

  Miles just shrugged. “Sure.”

  The man pursed his lips but said nothing, and so Miles followed along with Hazel until the man took them in front of a large door behind the receptionists’ counter and knocked. He entered alone, and less than a minute later, the door swung open again, and the receptionist gestured to them with a smile and closed the door after them once they entered.

  Unexpectedly, the guildmistress looked already done with the conversation before it had even begun. She was scribbling her signature on the pile of paperwork ahead of her and sparing him barely a glance above her black-rimmed glasses. “We can’t allow you to pick up the contracts unless you prove you’re capable of handling them, which your ID says you’re not. Is that your partner? Is she supposed to be the one who escorts you down? Or are you planning to do this as a part of a larger party? If either of those is the case, someone who qualifies has to take in the assignment, otherwise—”

  She continued to explain, but Miles tuned her out and decided to shorten the conversation. So carefully, he weakened the veil around his core and immediately, the scratching of pen on paper stopped as the air rippled behind him. Behind his back, the ambient mana churned and raged as the influence of his core was allowed to extended to the foreign energies, and by the time the surprised woman found her voice, the first halo was partially visible, a circle of pales whites, like a mixture of barely visible white flames and air-distorting heat.

  “Ah… well, tier-10 is definitely better for the assignments,” she allowed, but her brows furrowed. “But that’s still not enough. It’s still—er—”

  The guildmistress trailed off, eyes wide as the pen dropped out of her hand while the second ring materialized behind him, framing him in front of the woman in a whirlwind of manifested mana, and while one might think it was an illusion, the guildmistress was experienced enough to recognize the signs and feel the weight of his control over the space. At any moment he could cut her off the surrounding mana, and she was sensing it.

  With his demonstration done, he pulled his veil back, took a moment to make sure the layers were secure, then gave her a small smile. “I lost my actual ID in a delve, and I’m forced to use that old thing and upgrade it. You know that’d be a lot easier than having to go to the Registry. So could you give a senior a hand here? I’d be sure to repay the favor.”

  ***

  Much like his experience in the lower levels of the Dungeon, the favor of a higher-ranked individual was always sought after. Even if that meant the guildmistress might be skirting the rules though as far as she was concerned, he was holding on to a valid ID that identified him as a Torchbearer, and he did just prove to her that he was at least tier-20. While she must be only a few tiers below 20 considering her position and the feel he’d gotten from her, a favor from him was still extremely valuable, and he did specify that it would need to be confined to the job of a Torchbearer as she signed off on his assignments. The limitation disappointed her a little but she still agreed.

  With Hazel with him, they continued following Lott’s scent, with Miles still holding on to the signed assignment form of the last poster. He’d gotten the two parcels of the other two jobs already and had them safely tucked in storage, but the last one—the letter—he had to go pick up in person, in a hotel Miles was pretty familiar with. Back when he was still running assignments as a courier, he’d taken plenty of deliveries to—and from—The Prince’s Rest, so it wasn’t too surprising that his newest assignment brought him here. What was surprising was the staring crowd and the security around the place, as well as Hazel’s whisper that came a breath later.

  “Lott’s in there,” she said. The two shared a look and without a word, they stepped away to the right, walked for half a minute in which both had their ears perked up to glean any tidbits from the people milling about, then found an alley in which they disappeared before they came face to face.

  “I think I’ve heard some say Inquisitor. And I’m pretty sure those were Registry uniforms inside the hotel. Tell me you didn’t hear that?” he hopefully asked the witch.

  “Aw? You need me to coddle you with lies, now?”

  Miles clicked his tongue then groaned, head tilted back as he glared up at the sky. Looking back down, he shook his head. “Yeah. That makes sense, I guess. That they’d send one of ‘em up here. And I even fought for this damn thing,” he said, waving the assignment about. Miles would bet it was the Inquisitor who had put the order in. In fact, maybe the two assignments were from them, as far as he was concerned. And he had to walk in there, with them tearing the place about looking for him. It wasn’t that he couldn’t handle the attention of an Inquisitor. He’d had to deal with worse. He just didn’t feel like dealing with them right now.

  And sure, maybe they weren’t even around for him. But the timing’s suspicious, and he didn’t like the fact that Lott was in there.

  Taking a deep breath, Miles rolled his neck. “Yeah, alright. Wait for me here. Keep a low profile. I’ll go in, get the letter, then get the hell out. Divination won’t work anyway and there shouldn’t be anyone in there who could peer through my veil, so we’ll be fine. And worst comes to worse, I’ll burn another identity. It’s not the end of the world.”

  “Maybe you’ll be lucky and they’ll be as dumb as the one-eyed crow,” Hazel said with a shrug, leaning against the bricks of the wall behind her. “Not all of them are that sharp.”

  “I bet it’s another recruitment attempt. You know how pushy they get.”

  “We won’t know until you go. But,” she added, voice low. “If the Shadow’s in there, you think your sister got pulled in?”

  Miles’s brow furrowed, and he glanced behind him out of the alley. “… Maybe,” he said after a moment. Then folding the signed paper in his hands, he nodded and reaching into his storage, he pulled a couple vials, eyed them for a second, before putting one of them back and downing the second. “Wait here,” he said with a grimace and already, he could feel the world growing louder in his ears as the elixir began taking effect. “I’ll see what I can find out, otherwise we’ll go to the station and ask.”

  Leaving Hazel behind, Miles put on a pleasant smile and headed toward the hotel, with none of his unease showing. He hoped Lott was just helping around. Because if he was being interrogated, that meant both Thalia and Brie might have been pulled into questioning. If the patrol in which he’d met them had been noted as suspicious, that was. And if that was the case, then a more serious foray might be needed.

  He hoped he wouldn’t have to, and as he showed the job assignment toward the guards at the door, he stepped through and smiled at the blank-faced receptionist that was already eyeing him. A brisk couple of steps later, he was in front of the man, with the document presented with both hands. “Hello! I’m Torchbearer Miles, and I’m here for a job that you guys posted?”

  The receptionist took the offered piece of paper and began reading, while Miles began sifting through the various bits and pieces of conversation that rushed into his ears.

  It didn’t take him long to hear a recognizable voice.