Josie got herself together after breakfast. She put on a false smile. She decided that

  it didn’t look good on her face. She was better with the dour expression she usually

  wore.

  “All right, girls,” she called as she pulled on her poncho. “We go to practice, and we

  keep an eye on things until we know where we stand. If the Society is giving us new

  quests, there might be movement involved in things.”

  “I would like to find some new things to eat,” said Angelica. “Maybe some new

  recipes.”

  “We’ll check,” said Josie. “Some salt and spices might be good to add to some of the

  things we cook.”

  “Are we whisking to the Hall?,” asked Melanie.

  “The Society wants more low-key force solutions,” said Josie. “So no whisking unless

  we have an emergency.”

  “That is awful,” said Melanie.

  “This is the real world where existence threatening monsters could just snap people

  up,” said Josie. “So I have to keep a low profile and leave no witnesses.”

  “We don’t want any trouble,” said Bea.

  “Everything will be fine,” said Josie. “But we can’t lose our grip on things.”

  “And you need to work on things, Melanie,” said Laura.

  “Weak,” said Alicia.

  “I don’t want to walk if I can fly,” said Melanie.

  “But you can’t fly,” said Angelica.

  “Barely walk,” said Beatrice.

  “Let’s go, kids,” said Josie. “We can talk about things as we walk.”

  “Should we talk with Jane?,” asked Elaine.

  “I can call her and ask her to send someone to check on Madam Gall,” said Josie. “I

  don’t like that she got dragged into this because her husband was used to enforce a

  bad tax bill.”

  “The husband could have refused and been lashed,” said Elaine. “That would be the

  price of disobeying the senior officer in command.”

  “Nobody wants to be whipped,” said Josie. “I wonder how many other Guards have

  been roped in by the Montrose to help them do things.”

  “The question is how far up it has gone,” said Elaine. “There are a lot of positions in

  the government that people look on for protections and assistance. All of that could

  be suborned by the enemy from the way things look now.”

  “Jack might have improved that without meaning to depending on who died at the

  party,” said Josie. “He knew I was looking for an opportunity like that. We can’t go

  after the alchemists now thanks to him.”

  “Tell me about a newspaper,” said Elaine. “I heard Jack mention it but I don’t think

  I have heard of one of those here.”

  “Where we’re from, events are collected and reported,” said Josie. “Communication

  is like the bands Jack gave you, so some things are known right after they happened.

  A newspaper gathers these events into printed pages to allow people to read about

  them. Reporters, the people writing the stories for the papers, look for events, or

  wrongdoing, to tell people. Some places use the papers and news to cover up what the

  government did or make it seem like another region was responsible for things.”

  “Lying to its people seems a thing the government does no matter where you are,”

  said Elaine.

  “I wouldn’t be surprised,” said Josie. She smiled. “I doubt anyone really knows what

  goes on outside their spaces here. I wonder what would happen if we did start a paper.

  Would we even be able to support it?”

  “How do you support such a thing in your world?,” asked Elaine.

  “The paper, or the organization behind the paper, charges for advertisements so you

  can tell people about something you are selling,” said Josie. “For example, say Harp

  wanted to teach more and had the money, he would just take out an advertisement to

  announce that he had open classes and what hours he was prepared to keep.”

  “I see,” said Elaine. “That was like the preliminary plan against the alchemists.”

  “Who knew Jack would kill a bunch of the rats at one time,” said Josie. “I might have

  to go back to the vampire and track these people down in their homes thanks to him.”

  “Will that make you happy?,” asked Elaine.

  “Not really,” said Josie.

  The group closed on the Hall. A raucous crowd had gathered at the doors. They

  milled about, complaining about not being served, and some had bags of what could

  have been fresh kills.

  “I wonder what’s going on,” said Josie. She scanned the faces and found they were

  devoid of Jack’s handiwork.

  She heard someone murmuring witch in the background. She didn’t bother looking

  around. Some of the others recognized her and pulled back. No one wanted to be

  turned into a frog.

  Should she abandon the lesson? She had been asked to keep her head down. Did she

  want to throw that away so soon? If she saw Harp, she expected that he knew what

  was going on.

  “Take the girls and circle around to the side, Elaine,” said Josie. “If things get rough,

  I might have to resort to a lot of flash to get out of it.”

  Elaine nodded. She waved for the Ducklings to group at the side of the Hall. She kept

  an eye on the adventurers around them. A lot of the mercenaries could be dead in the

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  next few minutes.

  Josie nodded when she had a clear space to work in. She didn’t want her girls or

  Elaine hurt by whatever she had to pull out of her bag of tricks. She wondered what

  Jack had used at the house to kill so many. That might be useful here.

  On the other hand, if she dialed in Bulletgirl, a lot of these adventurers would start

  sprouting holes to show them they should have kept their distance.

  “Madam Witch,” said one of the adventurers. “Could you help us?”

  She recognized him from the first day she had visited the hall. He looked a little older

  now, a little more scarred. His light armor had scratches. He had hit something with

  the hilt of his sword at one point from the dent in it.

  “Your friend was the lady’s man,” said Josie. “I remember your group. Where’s the

  rest of you?”

  “I asked them to wait at the back of the crowd,” said the adventurer. “No one knows

  what’s going on. Can you find out for us?”

  “I guess,” said Josie. “It’s probably nothing.”

  “Some of us have bounties that have to be handed in so we can resupply,” said the

  adventurer. “To do that, we have to get into the Hall and fill out the paperwork. The

  longer that takes, the more the smell will fill our space.”

  “The kids have to take their lessons,” said Josie. “No one knows what’s going on?”

  “No, Madam Witch,” said the adventurer.

  “Here’s the teacher for my kids,” said Josie. “Spread the word around that I’ll talk to

  whomever’s on duty if they’ll be a little patient. I’ll have Sir Harp come along as a

  witness.”

  “Thank you,” said the adventurer.

  “Don’t thank me yet,” said Josie. “They might not be open because no one is in

  residence.”

  “The hall should never close,” said the adventurer. “If no one is there, then something

  bad has happened to the clerks and the staff charged with the building.”

  “All right,” said Josie. “Start telling people to line up and Sir Harp and I will open the

  door and see if there is anything we can do to fix the problem.”

  “Right,” said the adventurer. He started with those close by and worked his way

  through the crowd, waving at his group to come forward to assist him.

  Josie waved at Sir Harp. She needed someone to act as her cover so she could break

  in and find out what was going on. She didn’t want to increase her reputation as a

  witch so people started trying to act on that.

  She had plenty of people she had to kill. The Society wanted to her to tone it down.

  She could do that.

  She doubted they would take her watch with more quests coming down, but they were

  right about the two of them attracting too much attention. They couldn’t do the quests

  and fight the whole world at the same time.

  Jack might be able to do that, but she knew she couldn’t.

  “Hello, and good morning, Mistress,” said Harp. He looked over the crowd. “What

  seems to be the problem?”

  “The Hall is locked up,” said Josie. “One of the local adventurers asked me to take

  a look at the reason why.”

  “It seems odd,” said Harp. “I have only seen that happen a few times.”

  “So it is strange,” said Josie. “Can you keep an eye out for me?”

  “All right,” said Harp. “The Ducklings?”

  “They are around the side,” said Josie. “I wanted them out of the way if I had to cut

  loose in the middle of all this.”

  “I understand,” said Harp. “Let’s look at this door and see if we can open it.”

  “And we want to keep the adventurers back until we have things settled,” said Josie.

  “I might have to do things inside the hall to straighten things out.”

  “Go ahead,” said Harp. “I’m ready.”

  Josie called on the Locksmith. Two turns from an extendable rod from a specialized

  gauntlet and she had the door open. She stepped inside, letting the persona go.

  Harp followed, throwing the bolt back until they had everything straightened out.

  The Locksmith was good for breaking locks, but his combat abilities were low. It was

  better to be ready to call on Dragon, or Bulletgirl, than try to depend on someone

  Batman beat with one punch.

  Josie and Harp crossed the grand hall. She noticed that her job for Kearnly was still

  on the board. She frowned at the clerks arguing behind the counter.

  They walked up to the counter and stood there. The argument seemed to be about the

  absence of the Hall manager and the lack of procedures in effect. The three clerks

  didn’t notice their visitors.

  “Maybe we can help you,” said Josie. “What seems to be the problem?”

  “Everything is locked up and we can’t open,” said the clerk Josie dealt with over the

  Ducklings. “Master Guan hasn’t come in with the hall keys so we can get started. No

  one has seen him.”

  “I can open the locks for you,” said Josie. “There are a load of adventurers outside

  that want their bounties cleared. Can you three clear the crowd without him?”

  “Yes,” said the clerk. “But we have no way to secure the money at the end of the

  night, and without him we can’t make policy decisions.”

  “Don’t worry about any of that,” said Josie. “The first thing we’re going to do is get

  you keys for everything, and get you open. Just make policy decisions like you think

  he would until he shows, or he is replaced. Sir Harp will have the groups come in so

  you can disperse the crowd outside. It should be a snap.”

  “A snap?,” asked the clerk.

  Josie snapped her fingers.

  “All right,” said the clerk.

  “Sir Harp,” said Josie. “Can you see if you can get the crowd outside to line up. Ask

  the adventurers who talked to me to help you out.”

  “I understand,” said Harp. “Do you want me to let them in?”

  “Not yet,” said Josie. “I have to open the locks and get keys for the clerks to run

  things. As soon as I do that, we can have the line come in and start getting

  processed.”

  “Understood,” said Harp. He went to the outer door and stepped outside.

  “Show me these locks,” said Josie. “I’ll help you out.”

  The head clerk pointed to the shelves behind her. A shutter had been pulled down

  over the operational ledgers. Notes from the overnight clerk filled the tray for writing

  in the ledgers when the shutters were lifted.

  She led the way to a small vault next to an office. She demonstrated both were locked.

  “There is a secondary vault in the office,” said the clerk. “I don’t know if it needs to

  be opened, but we might need to transfer funds from it to the small one out here.”

  “I’ll open everything up and provide keys for you,” said Josie. “That should get you

  through the next few days. If you need anything else, just talk to Elaine and she will

  let me know.”

  “Can you open the locks?,” said the clerk.

  “It might take a minute,” said Josie. “Let me look at the ledger shelf first, and this

  vault. Then we can open the office. I’ll look at the vault in there and open that for you

  too. It will be up to you to run things until something more permanent is done.”

  “You act like Master Guan is dead,” said the clerk.

  “I don’t know anything about that,” said Josie. “He’s probably sleeping off too much

  ale and will wake up and get here in a rush. Until then, you are in charge. Do well

  with the position and you might have your own guild hall to run.”

  “I doubt that,” said the clerk.

  “We’ll see,” said Josie. She used the Locksmith to undo the locks for the women. She

  produced copies from a grinder around her belt and handed them over. The vaults

  opened after few moments of examination with the lenses the persona came with over

  the hood it wore. She popped them open and let the clerks take the tills out of the

  small vault to put in the counter so they could start the business of the day.

  “Let’s get started,” said Josie. She went to the main doors. She cracked them open

  and looked outside. Harp had organized the people into three lines. He glanced at the

  doors, and nodded at Josie standing there. He approached so they could talk without

  shouting across the courtyard.

  “The clerks are getting ready,” said Josie. “I guess we can start sending them in so we

  can clear everyone out of the way.”

  “It should be quick to do,” said Harp. He waved at the first line to come forward.

  “Did you fix their problem?”

  “Until they get a manager to run things for them,” said Josie. “The clerks will have

  to run things without Guan to enforce any policy.”

  “A letter will have to be sent to the Central Hall to let them know that he is missing,

  or dead,” said Harp. “A week is usually the deadline for such a sending, unless the

  death is confirmed earlier.”

  “I have a feeling that he was at the party Jack hit, and he isn’t coming back,” said

  Josie.

  “Then maybe the local adventurers will get someone better as their manager,” said

  Harp.

  Find a way to get home.

  Find a way to get home.