by Sarah Lin
"I suppose." Bloodwraith did his best not to sigh when he said it. Only temporarily, until he mastered his power and learned more of the truth of his situation.
"The list of rules is on that plaque there. First, an adventurer must-"
"I can read, wench!"
The woman stared at him a moment, then shrugged. "Makes my job easier, then. Read the rules, then fill out this form. We'll give you a testing assignment, then if all goes well, you can officially accept our code and join the Guild."
"No need!" Danniah shook her head cheerfully. "This is the man we told you about, who helped us with the bandits! That's a lot harder than the testing assignment you gave us, so it works, right?"
Again the woman shrugged. "Makes my job easier."
Given the form, Bloodwraith took it to one of the tables and began using the quill he found there. It had taken no time at all to read the rules, of course. A bunch of nonsense about a moral code that he doubted even the adventurers held to. Signing his name would be easy enough, as it would certainly have no hold over him. Best to get it over with as soon as possible.
"So..." Khassfhit drew out the word. "You can read? Not a lot of sword-swinging peasants know how."
Danniah squeaked. "Khassfhit! That's rude!"
Bloodwraith only shrugged, continuing to fill out the form without looking down at it. "Of course I can read." He saw their gaze, Herena in particular looking surprised, and realized he needed some sort of explanation. "My, uh... my dear mother taught me how... before she passed..."
That answer seemed good enough, because they shut up until he finished the form. Bloodwraith brought it back to the woman at the desk, who barely glanced at his answers and then took the paper. "Alright, good enough for me. Just the fee and you can officially register."
"The fee?"
"Five silvers. Standard fee to keep out riffraff." The woman gave him a bored look and Bloodwraith swallowed. If only he hadn't spent so much... no, equipment was more important. But to have this happen in front of other adventurers...
"Are you serious?" Herena sniffed and walked back to the table, while the other two looked at him with infuriating pity.
Danniah dug around in the pack she carried and produced the money. "Here you go, Raigar! You can pay me back later!"
This was already humiliating enough, Bloodwraith just wanted it over. He snatched the money from her and dropped the five coins down on the table. The woman didn't seem to care in the slightest and whisked the coins away effortlessly. It looked like she wouldn't remember any of this tomorrow, if even an hour from now.
The adventurers, though... Khassfhit looked unimpressed, while Danniah beamed encouragingly. Bloodwraith focused on her first. "Do you regularly just loan people money like this?"
"Oh, sure! I mean, Khassfhit here owes me... what, 19 silver pieces?"
"Hmph!" The drakekin shook his head. "It's 17 silvers, silly girl."
"Oh, whoops! Sorry about that!"
Looking between them, Bloodwraith was quite certain that the debt was more than 19 silvers, or at least once had been. Though he suppressed his reaction, now he was the one unimpressed. Acting like a miser for a mere few silvers? He supposed that he should expected as much, from adventurers.
"Alright, you're in." The woman handed him a necklace with a band of iron in it, his name written across the band. "Congratulations, Iron Ranker. So long as you don't break the rules, this will grant you access for the rest of your life. Your fee also lets you use all the Guild's facilities for a tenday, but after that, you have to pay dues."
So it wasn't free after all. He should have known, considering that the Guild ultimately had to be profitable as well. Still, it was enough that he wouldn't have to sleep outside like a beggar. Though Khassfhit seemed less interested, he at least stayed close while Danniah grabbed his arm and tugged him back toward the table.
It seemed like she was going to babble more, so Bloodwraith cut her off. "She called me an 'iron ranker?' What does that mean?"
"It's the lowest rank in the Guild." To his surprise, it was Rhil'lahan who answered, having stood up from the table to greet him sourly. "Iron Rankers come and go like flies. Most will never advance to Bronze."
Bloodwraith noted that Rhil'lahan wore a necklace with a bronze plate on it instead of iron - it had his name on it, of course, pretentious accent mark and everything. But as proud as he seemed of it, if the ranks were named after metals, bronze was far from the top.
As he drank with the others - Herena getting the tab - he learned that the ranks went: Iron, Bronze, Silver, Gold, and Diamond. That was an international ranking system, however, and Cresthaven held almost no adventurers who were Gold Rankers. Apparently Silver was the point where the rank gained real advantages, including waived fees and the ability to vote on Guild matters.
It all seemed very dull, but at least a few overheard conversations between adventurers made slightly more sense now. Bloodwraith wasn't sure he wanted to waste time with this at all, but for now it was good enough. If the Guild could be any use to him, however, he'd use whatever tools he could control.
Aside from acquiring more information about his circumstances, Bloodwraith enjoyed the company not at all. Adventurers were noisy and dull, even the mages. He was able to occupy himself a little by examining boxes and thinking of plans, but it was difficult to think with the others yammering and occasionally asking him questions.
Strangely, Danniah wasn't the worst of them. As much as she liked to talk, the others didn't let her get too many words in, frequently mocking her. She took most of it as friendly ribbing, but he didn't think some of it was friendly, especially when the jests flew over her head.
While it didn't matter in the slightest, Bloodwraith found himself annoyed by it. Danniah might have low "Intellect" but she had been the most useful one in the fight against the bandits. Sticking up for her would gain him nothing, so he didn't. It vaguely irked him, however, in a way that left him even more frustrated. Was this Raigar wanting to defend the weak or some such nonsense?
So Bloodwraith stuffed his frustration deeper down inside him and pretended to enjoy their company. He could find some sort of solution after he had gotten a full night of rest and had more time to establish himself.
When the night grew later, Herena yawned and left - no Guild accommodations for her, she was headed to a family home in the city. It seemed like things were winding down, leaving Danniah the most disappointed. She looked at all of them plaintively.
"I know it's getting late, but I still feel all sweaty from the fight... does anyone want to try the sauna?"
Khassfhit sniffed. "Of course not."
"Oh, sorry, I forgot! But Rhil'lahan, Raigar... what about you two?" She saw his curious expression and struck herself on the forehead. "Oh, I didn't realize! When you stay here, they'll bring you baths, but they also have a wonderful sauna! I always get so tense after fighting, but it lets me relax."
"I have other business to attend to." Rhil'lahan rose and strode away without saying farewell. Since Khassfhit had slunk away, that suddenly left Bloodwraith alone with Danniah, who looked at him sadly.
"Are you sure you don't want to give it a try? Please? It's no fun going alone..."
"Alright, I'll go." Dammit, what was he doing? The words were out of his mouth before he could think about them too much. Bloodwraith cursed Raigar's memory for forcing this on him and pledged that if the adventurer's soul had yet to pass on, he would find it and torture it for all eternity. "I'd love to try out the sauna with you."
"Oh, great! But get cleaned off first - I'll see you there!"
Sighing at his new commitment, Bloodwraith resigned himself to it. He was assigned a decent room at the Guildhall - thankfully, one far enough away from the drinking area to be quiet. They brought him a tub of water and he enjoyed cleaning himself. Living bodies might have a few advantages, but they generated so much filth, unlike preserved undead bodies.
When he returned the tub, he a
sked about the sauna and was directed to one of the strange side buildings. In this, at least, the Guild impressed him: skillful magic was used to pump water beneath the chamber and transform it into steam. He imagined the sauna itself wouldn't be worthwhile, but he appreciated the skill that had gone into it.
Only when he was directed to a small room where he exchanged his clothes for a white cloth did he reflect on what being in the sauna meant. He scowled and tried to think back to what he knew about the region's traditions. Cresthaven was in the southeast of Bannlind, which was mildly conservative. Weren't saunas usually split between genders? But if so, then nothing Danniah had said made any sense.
Dammit, how had he gotten himself into this? He should just leave, but an irritating instinct from Raigar didn't want to disappoint the girl. Bloodwraith wrapped the cloth very carefully around his waist and headed into the sauna.
The room was empty except for the steam. He sat down against one of the walls, at least enjoying the warm heat a little. Perhaps he would get lucky and Danniah would forget about it, or one of the others would order her to do some other task. Anything other than-
At that moment Danniah entered, wrapped only in a white cloth, and Bloodwraith realized that he had been wrong about her.
She wasn't shaped like a barrel, she had just been wearing sensible armor. Though her dwarven blood gave her a wide and sturdy body, without the armor it revealed surprising curves. The cloth around her covered her from knees to neck, but it conformed to her body enough that it left little to the imagination.
Just as Bloodwraith was about to chastise himself for staring like a hormone-addled fool, he realized that Danniah was staring at him. "Wow, you're... really muscly. I mean, I knew you were 'cuz of your arms, but... men usually wear a robe thing, not just a cloth around their waists..."
"Not where I'm from." He was sick of being treated like he didn't know what he was doing, so Bloodwraith decided to just lie. Besides, this body was at least in its prime and capable of exerting great physical power. There was no sense in being ashamed of it.
"Oh, okay!" Danniah hopped up onto the seat beside him and relaxed back against the wall. "I really like the steam. I know that Herena healed me completely, but I just don't feel completely right until I can relax all my muscles, you know?"
"I think I'm starting to understand."
"Good! I was hoping I could show you something nice." She let out a long, satisfied sigh. "In here, it all feels worth it. Sometimes when I'm in the middle of things, I feel like I can't do anything right and I just mess it up for everyone."
"You did fine." He was surprised how firmly he spoke, but decided not to question it. Raigar's instinct was correct in this case.
"Really?" Danniah stared at him, eyes wide.
"When fighting together, everyone needs to fulfill their own role. You did your best to protect everyone, including me. You might be able to do better, but you didn't make serious mistakes."
"Aww, thank you!"
To distract himself from less relevant things, Bloodwraith summoned her box again and examined the details. Yes, as he'd remembered, her statistics seemed good relative to her level. Though he didn't know if others followed the same rules as he did, he decided it was worth asking... "You were stronger than I expected. Do you do anything in particular to train?"
"Oh, definitely! Most adventurers say the best thing to do is to go on assignments and fight things. And there's definitely no substitute for real combat! But I've always had a hard time getting people to take me with them - until Rhil'lahan, anyway - and so I've had to train myself. They have a nice yard for it out behind the Guild..."
She went on talking about the training yard and it actually wasn't inane babble. On this subject, she was at least competent, and she certainly knew more than he did. It would serve him well to take all the information he could from her for later use.
Raigar's body was frustrating him in two ways, however. One, it insisted that he wanted her badly. Two, there was a stupid warm feeling somewhere inside his chest. He - or at least Raigar's instincts - actually liked Danniah a bit. Though not the brightest, she tried hard and was so earnest about everything. She deserved better than a team that didn't support her.
Since he couldn't just force the foreign instincts away by raw willpower, Bloodwraith found a compromise. He was the Corrupter of Worlds and Father to the Undead, after all, not... Hater of Everything. If Danniah was tolerable, she was tolerable. For now, he couldn't act on it, but one day...
He indulged himself with a fantasy of eliminating Rhil'lahan and the others, then ravishing Danniah. Then he could make better use of her somewhere her abilities would be appreciated. She wouldn't even resist.
Of course she wouldn't resist. His eyes wandered away from her to the box over her head, declaring that "Affection" had increased again.
Bloodwraith didn't enjoy the rest of his time in the sauna. When he went back to his room he fell asleep quickly and tried not to dream.
Chapter 8
The next morning, Bloodwraith felt surprisingly refreshed. It wasn't the night of normal rest, though that did him some good. It wasn't the breakfast purchased from the lower part of the Guild, though it did remind him of the simple pleasures of food. And it definitely wasn't having to spend time with the other adventurers, which he did as little as possible.
No, it was simply the fact that for the first time since he had used the Wand of Soul Exchange, he felt slightly stable.
He might be plagued by boxes, but he understood his surroundings a little. Though his goals and objectives were feeble, they were better than nothing. Eventually he would need to face some unpleasant truths about his reality, and he had to purge all these foolish do-gooder instincts, but there would be time. Given some space to work, he could build from this.
When he went to leave the Guild, however, he heard the sounds of a disruption and realized that not everything was as peaceful as he felt.
A short distance down the street, he saw a confrontation between two groups. At first they both seemed like random chaos to him, but as he approached he understood the division. On one side was a mixed group of adventurers, while the other side was unified by dark green cloaks. Beneath and over those cloaks they looked unorganized and disreputable, but they clearly formed a unified force.
Something between the groups kept them apart, and once he got closer he understood: six bodies lay on the ground between them. Adventurers, he thought, bloody but not bleeding because they had been dead for some time.
Some adventurers and the green-cloaked fighters were yelling at each other, but Bloodwraith worried more about those who stood with quiet tension. As he tried to understand the nature of the conflict, he scanned over the group: mostly similar level to him on both sides. The boxes wouldn't give him any level or statistic information on the bodies.
"Enough!" One of the greencloaks moved forward, actually stepping onto one of the bodies. His shout overwhelmed all other voices long enough for him to continue in a lower voice. "We didn't lay a hand on them. These idiots got themselves killed trying to complete Daek's task. You should be glad we brought their bodies back."
Several of the adventurers yelled back, most wild accusations. A mage in a red robe raised a more reasonable objection, so Bloodwraith focused on his words. "If you're just delivering them, why come in force?"
"Because we can't afford to get jumped by a bunch of adventurer thugs. We have enough problems without you adding more."
"Then why can't you take care of this problem yourself?"
"We just might." The lead figure among the greencloaks swept his eyes over the whole group. "Daek the Knife is starting to lose faith in the Guild. He wants a representative to reassure him that you can actually be of use to Cresthaven."
That led to a cry of outrage and one of the adventurers actually stepped forward and attacked. All the greencloaks lunged from the sides, flanking him and stabbing fatally. Some other adventurers attacked and things d
evolved into a brawl.
Bloodwraith briefly considered joining in and cutting people down from behind - it would certainly be a quick way to acquire EXP. But no, that would be short-sighted. He didn't know enough about the overall situation, plus the conflict seemed to be ebbing. What he needed to gain from this situation was a better understanding of Cresthaven.
It seemed that the conflict between Daek and the Guild was more antagonistic than rumor had suggested. Daek's green-cloaked forces were more dangerous than he expected as well - hardly just burglars and cutpurses. And where was the town guard?
When Bloodwraith found them, he realized the seriousness of the situation. There were two guards within sight, but they pointedly stared forward, ignoring the fight. Daek really did have control over the town guard, then. Perhaps not enough to use them to exert his will, but enough that they would do nothing against him. Then Meara's rumor had been correct about Cresthaven rotating around him.
Eventually the two groups pulled apart. Many were injured, but only the first adventurer to attack had been killed. Daek's forces retreated to a safe distance before the leader called out one more time. "Send a representative to Daek before sunset or your little Guild will regret it!"
With that he turned to go and the whole group joined him, their green cloaks swirling. Most of the adventurers watched them with hatred, so Bloodwraith tried to glare as well. He was more interested about what task was at the heart of all this.
"Should be a good opportunity." The voice from his side took him off guard, and Bloodwraith looked sharply to find Rhil'lahan standing nearby. "Daek would respect a larger group, though, so I suppose we can let you come along."
"You want to be the Guild's representative? Is that safe?" He gestured toward the bodies, but Rhil'lahan snorted.
"It's all theater. Actually being a representative is a simple task, if you have a spine and you can reach Daek's headquarters safely. But you get respect for doing it, and quick points toward your Guild ranking. You want to come along, get yourself a little closer to Bronze?"