Eres awoke to a blur of motion rushing around the room. The bed next to him was still warm, and the light filtering past the curtains was still weak, so he figured Freya had only just gotten out of bed. Honestly, he was surprised that her getting up hadn’t woken him. Usually he was a light sleeper, but he felt more rested than her had in a long time.

  He watched sleepily as Freya whirled around the room, grabbing discarded clothes and straightening everything up so it looked perfect and neat. She was on her second run-through, adjusting chairs that didn’t need adjusting and refolding clothes when she realised that Eres was watching her. She blushed and stopped her fidgeting, just standing there.

  “Morning, love,” Eres called out, his voice still thick with sleep. “Sorry I didn’t notice you get up, and thanks for tidying up. You didn’t need to do that.”

  “Good morning,” Freya responded, coming to perch on the edge of the bed. “And I know I didn’t, but I wanted to. I did actually rather enjoy being your maid, you know? Looking after you makes me happy. And it’s fine, I wanted to be up early anyway, I was just waiting for you. Now come on, we need to have a bath and breakfast and get moving!”

  She began to tug on Eres’ hands, trying to pull him out of bed, but he instead pulled her down to him, wrapping her in his arms and giving her a long kiss, only stopping when her eyes were unfocused and her breathing heavy.

  “Come on then, let's go get that bath,” he laughed, extricating himself from the tangle of blankets and limbs. He pointedly ignored the huff and glare she gave him as he pulled his clothes on, before heading towards the door. “Come on, love, keep up.”

  The sound of swearing followed him out towards the baths, and he started his day with a smile.

  ***

  Breakfast was, thankfully, without awkwardness. Eres had only just got out of his bath when he remembered once more that they would have to see Myla that morning, and she would know what they had done. Not only that but the woman he had just slept with was now encouraging him to pursue their friend, the same friend he was now feeling awkward about seeing. His life had suddenly gotten remarkably complicated on the romantic front.

  Not that he could really complain. Freya had seemed to genuinely embrace the idea of multiple partners, something he hadn’t even dared hope for, in either lifetime. Now he just had to work out how the hell he was going to manage it. A saying from Earth went through his head, something about a dog catching a car.

  However, Myla acted about as normally as could be expected. She teased Freya a little, blushed a little when Freya teased back and talked and laughed with Eres as normal, which is to say shyly, as they enjoyed another fantastic meal from their current residence. Breakfast consisted of scrambled eggs, sausage and toast. Considering how simple it was, Eres still devoured the whole plate and made himself an extra sausage sandwich for the road, while they decided that the plan for the day would consist of them heading out to the Guildhall before they went and spent the rest of the day shopping at the market.

  Currently, Eres was finishing the last bite of his sandwich as he could hear Myla talking softly to Freya behind him. He couldn’t hear the contents of the conversation, but judging by how they both blushed and avoided his eyes when he looked over his shoulder to check they were still following him, he could take a fair guess.

  “Okay, and then past the mayor's place we turn right, was that it?” Eres called over his shoulder, catching the two women mid-giggle. They had just passed a large home, with ostentatious marble statues at its front gate depicting a pair of rearing gryphons and gold-painted filigree along the edges of the doors, windows and supporting pillars of the main building. It was by far the largest house they had seen, and its gaudy description matched the description they had heard of the mayor’s house perfectly.

  “Yep, that’s what Sara said. She said we wouldn’t be able to miss it if we just turned after the-” Freya’s words came to a sudden stop as they rounded the corner and were presented with perhaps the oddest-looking building any of them had ever laid eyes on.

  For the most part, it was a squat one-story building of wood so dark it looked nearly black. The roof was covered in dark green tiling, and the double doors ahead of them were open wide, their brass fixings worn with use. Overall it reminded Eres of the great hall that had made up the centre of his father’s estate, or particularly large churches from Earth. It looked strong and sturdy, and judging by the sounds rolling from the open doors, it was full of exactly the type of people Eres would expect to be in a building for adventurers and explorers.

  However, it was all of the additions to the building that made it strange. Sticking up at an angle from the back right of the building was what could only be described as some sort of wizard's tower. Round, with stone walls and a pointed blue roof, it only seemed to have windows on the top floor, and currently, they were all open, and a pale blue smoke was billowing out into the sky.

  On the left side of the building was a crooked structure that looked almost like a replica of the guildhall, but squished at the sides until it was three stories tall and less than half the width. It was the same green tiling and dark wood on the exterior, or at least Eres thought it was. It was hard to be sure with the sheer amount of plants crawling up the outside of the structure. Various vines, flowers and other flora could be seen fixed to the outside, even seeming to slip in some of the small windows.

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  “Well, she was right, I guess,” Myla said, her eyes wide as she took in the strange sight ahead of her. “We certainly wouldn’t have missed it. How come we didn’t see the blue smoke from further away, though? You would think that would be pretty obvious even from a distance.”

  Eres looked back over his shoulder. The little blonde woman had one hand on her chin in an almost painfully cute pose as she thought. He was gratified to see Freya was even more dumbstruck than him. The more he thought about it, the more he realised that Freya had always shown little hints of being interested in Myla, he just hadn’t thought much of them. It was strange how learning something new expanded on the things he had seen previously, but he found he liked the new perspective.

  “I’m not sure, but I’m going to guess magic,” Eres laughed, shrugging his shoulders. “Blue smoke, strange tower, and not noticing it before now all add up to a wizard and magic shenanigans, as far as I can tell. Come on, let's go get set up.”

  The inside of the Guildhall was exactly as Eres had pictured it. Along the back wall was a long row and desks and tellers, separated by dividers and screens. These desks were further divided into sections, with large titles above them for which service they provided, but the appearance of the desks alone was enough to take a guess at who they belonged to. The rest of the room was filled with long tables on one side, where people were eating, drinking and socialising, and a large empty patch on the other, which seemed to be sectioned off. Currently only one of the sections was in use, a man sitting in the centre with a large block of wood, slowly carving it down.

  The desks for the Crafters Guild were heavy wooden creations with ornate scrollwork carved into their limbs, the Scholars Guild had rickety-looking tables that were so stained with ink that it was hard to tell if they were wood at all, and more than one seemed to be propped up mostly by books. The desks of the Hunters Guild couldn’t even be seen under all the furs and hides piled atop them, and the Explorers Guild desks held navigation devices so complex that Eres wasn’t even a little bit sure how they worked.

  By comparison, the desks for the Adventurers Guild looked almost normal. Sturdy-looking wooden tables with surprisingly plush-looking chairs in front of them. It was only as they got closer that the strangeness of the desks became apparent. Every inch of the wood was covered in shallow carvings. Some just appeared to be names and dates carved into the wood, but Eres could feel magic radiating from some of the runes on the desks. It felt almost like a warm wind against his skin. It didn’t feel threatening, but it did feel powerful. Whoever had carved them had clearly had some serious power, and the skill to back it up.

  The desk they walked up to had a young man behind it. He had sandy brown hair and green eyes, and was dressed in a shirt and jacket. He greeted them with a smile and gestured to the chairs in front of the desk. “Good morning, how can the Adventurers Guild help you today?”

  “Well, we were hoping to register as Adventurers,” Eres explained, settling into the seat. “We also saw some briar wolves on the way into town, about a day or so northwards. Not sure if that information is worth anything to you at all. The guards at the gate didn’t seem phased, truthfully.”

  “Ah, yes, we can get you registered easily enough. As for that information, it is something I can pass along to those headed that way. The guards likely weren’t concerned because briar wolves don’t venture towards settlements, so they knew it wouldn’t affect them,” the receptionist explained. “Now, your registration. The three of you are registering as a party as well, I assume? Wonderful. If you could just fill out this paperwork, we can get you all signed up. If any of you have trouble reading or writing I would be happy to assist or call one of our scribes.”

  Eres was surprised by how simple the form was. It simply stated the expectations the guild would have for them, followed by a box for their signature. The expectations themselves were pretty simple. Adventurers were given a rank, from Iron up to Platinum, and they were expected to understand their limits and not accept requests outside of their ability. Nothing was stopping an Iron rank accepting a Platinum request apart from good sense, but as most of the requests involved delving into dangerous ruins and demi-planar spaces or slaying various monsters, biting off more than you could chew would usually lead to injury or death. Adventurers were expected to complete a minimum of three requests a year, unless there were extenuating circumstances, or they would drop in rank. There was also a stipulation about Adventurers needing to at least consider responding if the Guild put out an emergency request, but neither the Guild nor any ruling body could command an Adventurer into actually taking a request.

  It all seemed pretty fair to Eres. They were essentially freelancers, and the Guild just collected potential jobs for them to look at. He signed his name at the bottom and handed his form back, just before Freya and Myla did the same.

  “Thank you very much. Alright, with that you are now registered adventurers. I will go and get your tags for you now, just a moment.”

  “Huh, that was easy,” Eres laughed. “I expected a test or something, or some shenanigans with another adventurer.”

  “Eurgh, don’t jinx us!” Myla mumbled, glancing around furtively. “I swear, you keep talking like that, and problems are going to pop out of the woodwork, you wait and see.”

  Eres held up his hands in apology, smiling at the little blonde Berserker as the receptionist sat back down. He handed each of them a small piece of iron with their name engraved on one side and a strange rune on the other. “These are your Guild tags. You need to have this on you to accept a request, which will be logged magically into the rune on the back. You are currently registered as a temporary party, and once you reach Copper rank, you will be able to register permanently, though that will have a few extra steps.”

  “How many requests do we need to fill to reach Copper?” Freya asked, studying the metal tag she was holding.

  “Either ten Iron-ranked requests, three Copper requests or one Bronze request. Though we at the Guild suggest you take it slowly and work out how strong you are before trying to climb the ranks.”

  “Sounds good to me, we can start looking at that as soon as we get our armour,” Eres said, bracing to stand. “If that is all? It is, great. Come on then, we have shopping to do. Thank you very much, I am sure we will be back soon to pick up a request or two.”

  As they turned and left the Guildhall, Eres couldn’t help but notice a few of the men sitting around drinking were glaring at him or looking at his companions with rather unpleasant gazes. He remembered their faces as best he could and shook his head in exasperation.

  It could be nothing, he thought, but maybe Myla is right. Perhaps I bring this all on myself.