I just stand there for a few seconds. Whatever the answer is, I’m not going to figure it out tonight. Whether that’s going to stop me from trying though is another question entirely. Me and sleep have never gotten along at the best of times, and I’ll probably end up laying in bed staring at the ceiling all night again. I guess I might as well know my options before I start overthinking … it’s late enough at night that nobody’s going to be up in the main guild hall. I quietly make my way up there, and it’s pitch black, all the magical lights have been covered up. It’s rather nice honestly, a bit harder to see, but so much more peaceful. Staying by the wall I make my way to the posted quests before using a bit of magic to make a ball of light float by my ear, pity that’s the only ability I share with light mages. The quests are about what I expected, a dark mage spotted to the south, an infestation of man-trap spiders to the east, and some corpse bears far off in the north. In summary a fat lot of nothing I could even consider. At least it makes things simple. I extinguish my light and head back to my basement.

  The next morning I have the last bit of my original work to finish. At least I won’t have to sit at this stupid desk waiting for people for much more of my life … silver linings and all. I do more work on my dragon design, the appearance is decent, but that’s just one part of it, and sound is a big part of what makes dragons so imposing. Allthough I can’t just practice a draconic roar in the guild basement, I’d definitely get more than a few people yelling at me if I tried that. Instead I focus on the little sounds dragons must make, deep imposing breathing, the scratching sound of a claw casually dragging on the ground, the swish of a massive tail sliding on the ground, and the whoosh of air as wings bigger than me flick through the air. It’s beautiful … but it can still be better. As I’m thinking that the door opens and Alex looks in. “Morning, sorry to rush, but we’ll be heading out soon.” He barely even acknowledges the illusion this time. I guess he’s already seen this one so that’s not all that surprising. I dispel the dragon as I set his vials on the counter, it’s not like I’ll need something to do here once he leaves.

  “Right, no worries. You’ve got the last order for my shop, best of luck with your mission.”

  He seems a bit surprised. “Oh, wait really? Are you closing shop? I think someone mentioned something like that, but I assumed they were joking. Are you going to be ok?”

  That’s nice of him to ask. “At least for a little while. Long enough to figure out what I’m going to do … hopefully.”

  That seems to calm him down, and he takes the vials and puts them into a pouch. “That’s good, I’m sure we’ll be done with our mission in a week or so, I’ll see you once I’m back, and hopefully I’ll be able to help then. Sorry, but I really do need to run now, we’re already behind schedule.”

  “It’s fine, good luck with your mission. I’ll see you then.”

  He finishes situating his pouch, and turns to leave. “Yeah, and best of luck to you too. I’m sure you’ll be fine.” With that he leaves me alone again. I’m not sure any of that really made me feel better, but at least I don’t feel any worse. Still, for now, it doesn’t change anything, I need to go talk to Bridget.

  Bridget’s at her usual stall at the usual market, although the market as a whole is a lot quieter than I’m used to. I guess I’m usually here in the evening, so maybe it just picks up later in the day. Also like usual Bridget notices me before I can even get into reasonable talking distance. “Welcome back pal! How’re things going? Given how early you’re here I assume something’s up.”

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  I nod as I approach. “That’s … you have the right idea. It turns out yesterday was my last day. I got told about it last night.”

  Despite what she said yesterday she looks more than a bit startled by that. “Oh … I’m sorry. I can’t say I wasn’t expecting it at some point, but I thought they’d at least give you a few days notice. Did they at least let you keep your equipment? I’m sure some people outside the guild need magical items made, you could even charge for labor.”

  “They let me keep the equipment, but I can’t just open up a new shop … apparently the reason I’m getting fired is that the church is directly closing down other magic shops. There’s been an issue with sales to dark mages or something. At least I’ve already paid for my room for a bit longer.”

  I can’t read her expression at that, it seems like she wants to say something but thinks better of it, but I don’t really know what she would be thinking of that she wouldn’t want to say. Regardless after a few seconds she seems to decide on whatever it was. “Well at least if you want to go adventuring you could make yourself something magical to help out … that has to still be allowed right?”

  “Of course, but anything fancy is out of my price range. I’d have to use my own magic instead of materials, so it wouldn’t help all that much. It wouldn’t be able to do anything with it that I couldn’t do with magic normally.”

  She shrugs at that. “Might be worth trying it, especially once you’re in a better situation. Speaking of which, I wasn’t joking about that work I had. I happen to think you’d be quite good for it. I usually just need someone to scare away some random wild animals. You even already know most of what I’d be looking for.”

  It still feels a bit like she’s giving me charity, but it does sound like something I could do. At least most wild animals will run from something big and scary appearing out of nowhere without questioning where it came from … as long as we don’t run into magical beasts of course. “I’d be happy to, and … thank you for all this. If you hadn’t offered me a job I don’t know what I would have done.”

  She just shrugs “What are friends for? It’s not like I’m losing out on this, I would need to hire someone anyway since I don’t even have magic. I do really think you’d be good at this particular work, I’m almost surprised you haven’t done it before.”

  “There aren’t a lot of opportunities to do stuff like that … well weren’t. Back when I was paid for my time at the guild I was on a pretty strict schedule if I didn’t want to go out at night … and there were rules against going outside at night if you didn’t have an official job. I’d definitely thought about it a few times to save money on finding materials … no offence.”

  She actually laughs at that. “I’d be offended if you hadn’t thought about it. I don’t even know how they’d enforce that no going out thing, but if you ever want to, just tell them I sent you on a job. Though, I can’t imagine that rule still applies now.”

  I’m more than a bit certain that suggestion is a crime, but I think she’s also right that I could go out at night now that I’m taking normal quests and not a crafter. “I’ll keep that in mind, but I should wait to see how this goes first before I start planning midnight excursions. Did you have a time and day in mind for all this?”

  “Why don’t you swing by here tomorrow morning. I wasn’t planning on going too far with just one person, and I’m not really selling enough to justify a major trip yet. All to say we should only be out till the evening the day after give or take a day.”

  That’s a bit longer than I thought it would be, but I guess I’m new to all this. That timeline probably makes sense, and it’s not like I haven’t seen adventurers gone for longer stretches of time. “Then I guess I’ll see you then.”

  She gives a smile to that, and claps me on the shoulder. “Sounds like a plan. You should bring a sword or something similar to cut through vines and the like, I can advance you a bit of the payment if you need it.”

  “I can at least manage that much, but thanks. Until next time.”

  “Until next time.”