Quick Change Volume 1: Slyborn

by C. T. O'Leary

  When the group finally rounded a bend and took in Slyborn five hours later, Seth almost cried at what it meant: no more walking. Pahan agreed to retreat to the void while they made their introductions, and Seth promised to bring him back as soon as he could without spooking the guild members.

  They approached and two guild members wearing red capes to match Aurora and Ivon exited the fortress to meet them halfway. A single stone bridge served as the only visible entry to the entire fortress that sat perched on the top of a spire of rock. It looked as if the builders had found a pointy piece of rock and simply lopped the top off, creating a flat plane about the size of a football field to build buildings on. There were perhaps ten buildings surrounding an open central courtyard, though a tall stone wall surrounded the complex on all sides.

  Another stone bridge stretched out of the right side of the main fortress and joined with another group of a few buildings surrounded by a high wall, clinging to the side of one of the surrounding peaks. Seth thought the place looked somewhat precarious with steep cliffs so near, but Ivon had said it’d existed for hundreds of years.

  The two adventurers were both male, one in his twenties and one probably nearer to forty. They both looked grave when they took the party in, and Seth recalled what Ivon had said about reclaiming ruins from the spirits of the wild. The men really did look like they hadn’t been getting enough sleep. The older one spoke up first, “State your identities and business in this stronghold.” He seemed relatively relaxed, presumably because of the red cloaks that Ivon and Aurora both wore.

  Ivon answered first, “Ivon, Murkwell territory, we escaped the assault on the Vardon headquarters.”

  The man nodded silently and looked to Seth. Seth said, “Seth, erm…from Bosqovar…? Not a guild member, but I was also involved at Vardon.” Both the older and the younger guard looked hard at Seth for a few tense beats, but then the older one just looked at Aurora, wanting her information.

  “Aurora, Bosqovar territory, here looking for Commander Ramses, we may have some valuable information about the Howlingshield forces.”

  The change in the faces of the two guild men was almost immediate when Aurora said her name. Both of their faces lit up like they’d just seen a celebrity, and the younger one spoke for the first time as soon as she’d finished, “Aren’t you Liora’s daughter? Your mother really is something. Maybe we should send a summons to her for this one, surely she could take out these mercenaries!”

  Aurora sighed like she was used to the behavior, and said, “Yes, yes, my mother is amazing. Now, is Commander Ramses here or not? Who’s in command?”

  Both of the men looked slightly chastened at her lack of response about her mother, and the older one took over again, “Yes, m’lady, Commander Ramses is in charge here. We’ll take you right to him.” Seth couldn’t help but snicker at the man’s use of m’lady, but no one acknowledged it.

  They led Seth, Aurora and Ivon toward the compound. As they entered the stone walls and crossed the main courtyard, Seth saw something out of the corner of his eye and turned. A pool of shadow in one of the corners looked out of place when he focused on it, since the sun was high in the sky and all of the other areas around it were very well lit. As if sensing Seth’s attention, a spike of shadow shot out from the darkness, lancing at him at breakneck speed. Seth tensed and, almost without thinking, swapped to his second set of armor. The spear of shadow clanged off Seth’s plate armor and knocked him on his rear end instead of piercing his chest, but it left a nasty dent in the dull gray metal, and a decent dent in his health, as well.

  Level 28 Ancient Shade hits you with Shadow Spear for 348 damage.

  Seth flipped back to his main set of armor and Charge carried him in a blink across the intervening distance. His sword clanged against the stone of the inside of the wall, passing through the shadow as if it weren’t there at all. In retrospect, Seth acknowledged that it made sense considering it was just a shadow.

  He stood there dumbfounded for a few seconds but, thankfully, he didn’t have to come up with a solution as a bolt of fire slammed into the shade, and it lost its form and vanished. The older of the two guards looked at Seth, and he noticed the dark bags under the man’s eyes.

  He said, “Those gods forsaken shades are pretty weak but they pack a punch and seem to come out of nowhere. Can’t wait until we get this place reclaimed and can actually get some sleep.”

  He didn’t mention anything about Seth’s quick armor swap, and didn’t even look suspicious, so he wondered if the man had noticed at all. Seth was curious about how many of the shadow monsters the guild members had been forced to deal with over the last week, and he wondered how hard it was going to be to get any sleep around this fortress.

  They were led through the open courtyard and over a covered stone bridge to the second section of the fort that Seth remembered Ivon saying had been added later, on a neighboring spire of rock. Most of the available space on the second spire was taken up by one large building, like an overlarge mother bird trying to stay balanced on her too-small nest. A small tower jutted up from one end of the building, and the rest had a red-tiled roof like the other buildings of the fortress.

  Upon entering, they began climbing a circular stair that Seth could only assume led up the tower, but before they got to the top, they stepped off on the second floor of the main building and walked down a long wooden hallway. At the end a single door was slightly ajar, sunlight spilling into the corridor. The guild member leading their group had them stop before knocking and entering. He emerged less than thirty seconds later and ushered them in, Seth let Ivon and Aurora lead the way, a bit nervous about meeting the Ramses fellow.

  Seth followed Aurora into the room and was greeted by the sight of a slim man with tight fitting black leather armor standing behind a large wooden desk scattered with papers. Instead of the typical red cape around his shoulders that Seth had grown used to seeing on Adventurers’ Guild members, he wore a black version with red peeking out underneath. Two wicked looking daggers were strapped to his waist, one on either side, both hilts black to match his armor. The overall effect made the man look more like a thief lord than an Adventurers’ Guild leader.

  His eyes landed on Ivon first, darting from his face, to his bow, to his hands, and finally to his red cloak before shifting to Aurora. He repeated his glances with her, checking first her eyes, then her weapon, then her hands and guild cloak. Apparently, the two of them satisfied him, for his eyes flicked to Seth, meeting his gaze.

  The overall flatness of the man’s eyes startled Seth a bit. He had a cold, calculating look, and no emotion could be gleaned from his eyes. He didn’t seem to have bags below his eyes like every other Adventurers’ Guild member they’d seen in the fortress so far, and Seth immediately wondered if he was the kind of leader who forced those under him to do all of the work while he took it easy.

  The man’s gaze lingered on Seth longer than the other two, and he jumped slightly when he realized that Aurora and Ivon were both holding their fists against each other in front of their chests, as if they were fist bumping themselves. Seth considered trying to mirror the gesture, but the officer spoke up before he could move, barking, “Ranking Adventurer, report!”

  Seth looked to Ivon, but was surprised when Aurora spoke up. He hadn’t realized she outranked Ivon this entire time, and wondered how they could tell, since he’d never heard them discussing it. She filled the commander in on who they were and what they’d been through, though thankfully she left out Seth’s other-worldly heritage, painting him as a mercenary that had decided to join her in traveling to Vardon when Enrique had tried to assassinate her. Which was mostly true.

  When she finished, she nodded to Ivon. He told the commander how he’d been in the market when the attack had happened, and had been captured when he returned to the headquarters and found the bodies. He also explained how he’d been in Vardon with his son, also a guild member, and could only assume the worst. Seth hadn’t known
that, but from the stone-faced expression on Aurora’s features, he thought Ivon must have told her before he’d respawned.

  When the reports were done, Ramses nodded his head and shifted his focus to Seth again. “I’m grateful to you for sticking with these two and helping them get here in one piece. I’m grateful to you for fighting the Howlingshields and helping my brethren escape, but I can’t call you one of us. I’m not sure that I want to let you stay inside these walls. These are dangerous times, and I can only trust in the guild.”

  Seth gaped at the statement, unsure what to say, but Aurora jumped in for him, saying, “I had thought this might come up, Commander. Something to consider, if Seth were to join the guild, by passing the trials, would that change things?” Seth redirected his gape at Aurora, wondering why she’d said nothing about this if she’d thought it might be a possibility.

  Ramses seemed to consider for a moment, and then spoke up again, “I’d prefer to avoid using the trials as a way just to ensure someone’s intentions if they didn’t want to join our guild in the first place, but if the man really wanted to join…” He looked at Seth then, questioning.

  Seth didn’t know what to say for a few moments. He almost asked what the trials were, but thought that the question may seem like something everyone should know, and didn’t necessarily want the intimidating man knowing about his adventurer heritage yet if he could prevent it. Seth said “If the organization as a whole matches the noble behavior I’ve seen represented in the actions of these two,” He motioned to Aurora and Ivon, “then I’d be honored to join.” Aurora looked a little embarrassed, and Ivon just looked sad for some reason, but before he had much chance to think it over, Ramses responded.

  “Then it’s settled. You may stay here one night on a probationary period, but you’ll be accompanied by at least one full member at all times, and you’ll take the trials to become a novice adventurer at dawn. And if you change your mind tonight, I expect not to see you in my fortress.” They were whisked out of the commander’s office, and Seth was left wondering what he’d just signed up for.

  Chapter 23

  Seth, Aurora, and Ivon were given a tour of the fortress after they left Ramses’ office. They began in the courtyard where Seth had failed to kill the Ancient Shade thing. Two squat guard towers framed the gate they’d entered through, and Seth saw pairs of guild members in each.

  Off the central courtyard was a large general barracks, split into men’s and women’s, an armory, a crafting building, and the remnants of some large circular building, but it almost completely collapsed. The man giving them the tour was the younger one who’d met them outside the fortress, he’d introduced himself as Kent.

  He explained that the circular building were the remnants of a truly massive tower had stood in the fortress when it’d originally been built, but it had collapsed during the years when the fortress was unoccupied. The guild planned to reconstruct it as it greatly increased how far the inhabitants of the fortress could see. The buildings on the second spire, where they’d met Ramses, were all administrative offices, jail cells, and food storage. They weren’t given a tour of that building at all, except from what they saw when being taken to Ramses’ office.

  There were more guild members in the fort than Seth had originally thought, and they found out there were three shifts, so there were always people awake to protect those who were sleeping. There was also a rule imposed that no one could ever be alone, and a buddy system had been set up to keep it that way. This was because the shade monsters could appear literally anywhere within the fortress, as the wild spirit hadn’t yet been pushed back.

  When Seth finally did have a moment alone with Aurora, he asked the question that had been burning inside him since the meeting with Ramses. “What in the world are the trials?”

  She nodded like she’d been expecting the question, and said, “Thanks for not asking what that was in front of anyone else. Everyone, at least every civilized adult knows the answer to that question, at least generally. I’m assuming there are no guilds in your world? Guilds like ours that you can bind yourself to magically?” When Seth nodded that she was correct, she continued, “Alright then, you’ve heard of the Adventurers’ Guild, obviously, and the Transportation Guild. Both of those are examples of real, official guilds, and I don’t just mean collections of people that agree to work together. The Howlingshields, for instance, are just a mercenary group, they can bring people in and kick people out without much effort, and their ties are very loose to the organization as a whole.”

  “When it comes to the magical guilds, things are different. When a group wants to officially become a guild, they draw up a charter with their ideals, what they plan to do, how they plan to use their power and more. The charter is then ritually burned in a ceremony to Ilbus, god of guilds, who reviews it. If the gods agree to allow the formation of the guild, the charter will reappear to the guild leader, and its magic will take effect. To join a magical guild, you must pass their trials. The trials vary per guild, but every guild has a trial that essentially confirms whether or not you harbor any ill will toward the group you’re trying to join. It makes it very difficult to implant spies into rival guilds because of this, though there’s nothing stopping you corrupting someone that’s already in.”

  “There are three trials to join the Adventurers’ Guild. The first is the one I just spoke about, you’ll drink a potion that forces you to tell the truth to a single question, and then you’ll be asked if you intend anything negative to happen to the guild. You shouldn’t worry about that one unless you’re an incredible spy and I’ve judged you very incorrectly.”

  “Secondly, you’ll be forced to duel someone in the guild near your level. Regardless of win or loss, you’ll be graded on your performance, and the person conducting the trial will give you a pass or fail. They are usually pretty lenient on this, just making sure you know how to handle yourself in a fight, as our guild’s mission revolves around protecting people from the monsters of the wilds.”

  “Lastly, whoever is conducting the trials will summon the spirit of an ancient Adventurers’ Guild member. This is an ability granted by the magical charter, and the ancient member will test your honor. I’ve heard this is different for everyone, for me when it happened, I was taken to some dream world and told I had to decide who would live and who would die in a group of people that were standing before me, chained up. I won’t tell you how I chose, just in case you’re given something similar. It should be genuine, and they’d know if you had help.”

  “In general, I don’t think you should be worried about it, though if you don’t want to join us, I think you should speak up. I just proposed that as a way to try and keep you in the fortress, but it’s up to you. You’re strong enough now that you could make your own way in the world. You could make a good life for yourself as a mercenary or guard.”

  Seth thought about what she had said and didn’t answer for a moment. She was addressing something he’d been trying to ignore since he’d been dropped in this world little more than a week before; What did he want? He felt surprisingly little pull to go home, and doubted that it was even an option anyway.

  If any of his family were here, too, he’d like to meet up with them. But as far as what he wanted with his life in Morgenheim, he wasn’t too sure. He’d barely just arrived. Joining the Adventurers’ Guild seemed like it could be a good thing. They seemed like good people in general, with a noble cause, and they also had quite a lot of resources at their disposal. He wanted to ask her a few things first, though.

  Seth said, “I have two questions, will I have to be stationed in some backwoods town for years at a time like you’ve been doing in Bosqovar, or can I travel where I wish? Secondly, if I ever want to leave for some reason, is that an option or am I some kind of member for life? Not that I plan on leaving, I just want to know what I’m getting myself into.”

  Aurora smiled and answered. “Luckily for you, since you didn’t go through the guild
’s training program like I did to get the levels, you aren’t obligated to take an assignment like that to pay them back. And as for leaving, it is always an option. You may break the contract at any time in your guild menu and walk away, though they’ll want you to pay them back for anything owed, like my situation with the training, if I wanted to leave right now. You’re also not allowed to advertise yourself as a member if you’re not, and they’ll hunt people down to enforce that one. That means not wearing the cloak after you leave as well.”

  Seth mulled it over and came to a conclusion. He looked at Aurora and said, “OK, I’m in. I’d like to join.”

  She replied, “I’m happy to hear it. Let’s go grab some dinner, and you should get ample rest tonight. The trials aren’t terrible, but they definitely aren’t easy.”

  They headed to the mess hall, and Seth tried his best not to obsess over the trials for the rest of the night. He didn’t succeed.

  Chapter 24

  Dawn came too soon, though the guards who’d been on shift all night, loitering in the corner of the men’s barracks seemed happy for the shift change as they headed to their own beds to catch some rest. There actually had been one shade attack in the men’s barracks during the night.

  Seth had awoken to a shout, but the monster had been slain before he could even stand up and pull his pants on. It turned out that a certain spell on swords would allow them to harm the shades, and a priest had cast it on Seth’s before bed the night before, saying he needed to have it renewed every twenty-four hours.

  Seth followed Ivon out of the room full of beds after getting dressed, heading for the main courtyard of the stronghold to take the trials and officially join the guild. Ivon had been very quiet since they’d arrived at Slyborn, and Seth had tried to ask him about it the night before as he’d readied for sleep, but the old scout hadn’t seemed like he wanted to talk about it. Seth assumed the man must have been grieving for his son.