I’d like to think I’ve grown as a person over the past month or so. A lot has happened, after all, so it’d be strange if I hadn’t learned anything. Between all of the training, the digging through both Alexei and Danielle’s lives I’ve been able to do, and especially the fighting for my life I’ve learned a number of things.

  The first: I have a strong opinion on certain topics, more so than others around me. Everyone had thought Chatterdeem was an awful person, but were willing to work with him and some even were willing to wed the man. Looking at it from a few angles, I can even see the logic of using him to get what you want, with an eye for discarding him later.

  I was in a room with him for less than an hour and laid him out. I can still vividly remember how disgusted with him I was, and I didn’t even know half of what he’d been involved with. I still don’t even know the ramifications of his death, and it’s been weeks.

  Which leads to the second thing: I tend to act first and think second. I recognize that I should change it, but I still haven’t really formed a core that belongs just to me. I don’t have the background to handle more complex situations, even with cramming relevant books and having Grimoire lecture me while we train.

  I do need to be less reactionary though.

  And that leads to my third thing: I wasn’t a fan of being touched. Which made me very proud of myself for not laying Calmar out when he rushed forward for a hug. I put my hand up to stop him this time instead.

  Progress.

  “Dani! What is going on?!” He looked between me, Deacon, and became incredibly confused upon seeing Elayne. “Elayne? And who…” Grimoire closed the door behind him as we all loitered in the foyer of the home. I looked towards the stairs leading up and then back to Calmar as he looked like he was connecting several dots together, “Grimoire, was it the same people after Paige?”

  I whipped my head to look towards the elf butler, and he hesitated with his mouth open. At the butler’s raised eyebrow, I forced my face into something less hostile. “Where is she?” My voice still came out clipped and promising violence.

  “Easy, Dani.” Deacon was the one who responded. “Let’s take this somewhere we can all sit, please?” He gave Calmar and now Porter, whose sword was drawn and poorly hidden at his side, a weary look. “We’ve had a long week, and it’s already looking like that’s going to bleed into a second.”

  Elyane grunted in amusement, heading towards a hallway by the stairs, “The accounts room is probably the best choice.” She stopped just before turning down the hall, “And if possible, I’d love something strong enough to dissolve paint.”

  We watched her go, brow furrowing. Deacon started after her, already slinging his pack off his back and carrying it beside him, “Something a little weaker for me, if we’re doing drink orders.” He disappeared soon after and I just watched them go as I got a handle on my emotions. I’d just been in a fight less than ten minutes ago. I was still ready to go.

  But I needed to slow down.

  I took a few deep breaths as Grimoire started to walk past me, Calmar, and Porter. “Your friend is here and safe. She’s sleeping in one of the spare guest rooms.” He lifted his arm in a motion for me to proceed as he took position by the wall. “Please, make your way to the accounts room and I will get refreshments and Miss Paige.”

  Reluctantly, I let Cal grab me by the wrist and start tugging me in the right direction. “When we got back, Grimoire said you’d be back soon, but that was a a few days ago. Porter said the trip was only supposed to take a few days based on what Grimoire said.”

  “From the look of it, you’ve been running for a while. Do you know who’s behind the attempts on Paige’s life?” Porter asked as we walked. “Or for that reason why someone wants her dead? Is it true she stole something?”

  I blinked a few times and looked at Porter, “Where’d you hear she took something?”

  “Rumors. A party member was yelling about how she took his signet ring and gave him crotch itch.” Porter said, frowning. “I got a couple adventurers to spill his name over drinks, Jason David. Some minor lordling on the out.”

  “That arrogant twat?!” I shouted, whirling on Porter. He actually flinched, but despite the reflex to put his sword between me and him he kept it still. I took another deep breath, trying to calm my temper. “Sorry.”

  He nodded, and went to the effort of sheathing his sword. “No problem.” Porter huffed out a laugh, “Actually, that’s a pretty accurate description.”

  I felt Calmar’s hand on my shoulder and I forced myself to relax and be lead towards what I’d thought of as Calmar’s study. Elayne had leaned her sword up against a bookshelf and was in one of the more comfortable armchairs, leaning back with her eyes closed. Deacon was on the couch, and had planted his bag on the floor next to where he was sitting. He looked up as we entered, “So. You were right.”

  I undid my sheathe from my belt and sat down. I set it leaning against the arm of the couch, the tip of the sheathe resting on the floor as I looked towards the door that Porter was perched. He was leaning against the doorframe as he kept an eye out for Grimoire while looking in on us. Cal paused as he looked at the available seating and went for his chair behind his desk. “Right about what?”

  “It shouldn’t count, but we ran into trouble before we even got into town. On the road there was a group of ten waiting for us while we ran from the bugs.” I said, scrubbing at my eyes with my hands. I was suddenly incredibly tired of everything. “How was I supposed to know he held a big enough grudge to try and get us killed?”

  The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

  Both Elayne and Deacon barked out laughs at that. When I looked between them, Deacon sighed and turned to Calmar. “Apologies, but we haven’t been properly introduced. I’m Deacon, Lady Dani’s bodyguard and a Tier 4 adventurer in the guild.” He dug around in his pack for a moment and pulled out a small rectangle made of metal that he lightly tossed onto Calmar’s desk. “And, while she didn’t hit the target, she’s in the right area.”

  “How so?” Calmar said, holding it up. I saw a faint glow emanate from the card, but couldn’t see the side facing him.

  “Let me answer your question with another: Who stands to gain if a new quarry is to be dug out?” He didn’t wait for an answer. “On top of that, let’s say the previous quarry’s issue was a bunch of insects?”

  Calmar’s brow was furrowed, “Well… there’s a few associations and companies you could hire. The big ones have enough adventurers on the payroll for odd jobs that it’d be easy to lock the quarry job up for months at the very least. Mostly with claims of safety concerns. They could even just make the job exclusive to people on their payroll.”

  Porter added in, “And a lot of adventurers don’t like bug extermination missions underground, so it’d be pretty costly for any earth moving company to get anyone else to do anything about it through the guild. They’d probably wind up asking for regional funding…”

  It seemed to click in all three of our heads at the same time. Deacon smirked, “Now, what if I told you there was already a regional commission being fought over? And that the bugs can be traced back there.”

  Calmar chewed the problem over. “That… is a huge mess waiting to happen.”

  “What am I missing?” I asked, honestly glad someone who knew more about these things than me was here.

  He cleared his throat and pulled a bottle from a drawer of his desk. Looking down at the drawer he grabbed it from, he sighed and undid the lid before taking a small swig from the bottle and offering it to Deacon who sniffed and took a longer swig. Cal sighed, “There’s three major companies in the region that qualify for the earth mover label. The Xianite Construction Group, The United Mage Association, and the Stonehead Trowel.”

  I took the bottle from Deacon and took a long swig from it. Wood base with a bit of fruit. Nice. I thought before passing it to Elayne, who eagerly took it from me. “One of those doesn’t sound like the others.” I commented.

  “Yea, Stonehead is dedicated exclusively to developing new farmlands and discovering ore deposits. The only reason they’re on the same list is because they have also been fined for trying to take care of the sinkholes closest to town without taking the contract the other two are fighting over.” He leaned back in his chair, “Mostly one large family running it, too.”

  “And they likely aren’t behind the dead adventurers we fought on the road earlier today.” Deacon said, reaching over to grab his… badge? Card? Whatever the metal thing was. “No, I’d put money on the XCG trying to get ahead of information on this.” The thought must have been hilarious to him, because he started to chuckle, “Not that you can exactly hide a screaming swarm of bugs.”

  “Is that why the guards are all hands on deck right now?” Porter asked, stepping to the side to let in a girl in clothes similar to my own. Comfortable pants and a shirt, though she looked gaunt despite having just seen her less than a week ago.

  Paige moved to the couch I was sitting on and hugged me. I tensed up and looked panicked between Calmar, Deacon, Porter, and Grimoire, who was just stepping into the room with a tray of expensive looking bottles and glassware far too nice for the current group. Deacon gave me a shrug, and I suddenly realized that Paige was crying.

  I hesitantly put my hand on her back and rubbed in little circles. “Paige…” I asked hesitantly.

  “I didn’t have anywhere else to go… I’m sorry.” She was crying into my grimy leather armor and I couldn’t stop from thinking how uncomfortable it must be… “They killed my mom…”

  The room went quiet. The only sound was the choked sobs from Paige as she tried not to cry but failed. I ran my hand through her hair, doing my best, and probably failing, to comfort her. I desperately looked at the three other people in my line of sight, Elayne was behind me, unfortunately, and mouthed ‘Help’. I did not know how to handle this.

  “Miss… Paige.” Calmar hesitantly said as he valiantly tried to lend his aid. “We don’t know that she’s really…”

  Grimoire shook his head sharply after catching Calmar’s eye. I looked at Grimoire and at my narrowed eyes he nodded, gravefaced as he started pouring drinks from the bottles into their own glasses. He knows. It was probably one of the first things he checked…

  I kept trying to comfort Paige, but she suddenly let out laugh that tried to be happy, but hid a lot of pain. “You’re really not good at this kind of thing, are you?” Paige sat up, looking at me. She had been crying, but she was trying to hide behind a brittle smile.

  I rubbed at my eyes with the palms of my hands again, trying to get my brain moving in any direction. “So, do we think this is something Jason did intentionally, or did he just open his mouth to anyone claiming a noble title?” It probably wasn’t the right direction, but it would at least get talking started again.

  Cal took the glass offered to him and drained half of it before Grimoire had turned around. “You’ve a pretty low opinion of him. What’s it based off of?”

  “His father is getting ready to disown him if he doesn’t show at least some competence in the guild.” I took my own glass after motioning towards Deacon when I said the word ‘guild’. “I suspect this is some stupid idea to get around doing it the right way.”

  “Sounds good enough to me.” Elayne said from behind me. I saw Calmar wince and I turned just enough to see Grimoire handing the warrior her own glass, and taking an empty bottle from the small tablestand next to her chair. “No offense, but this sounds like something a noble’s kid would try.”

  “Some taken.” Cal said dryly.

  “None taken.” I said dismissively, already turning away and taking a sip from my glass. It was similar to what had been in Cal’s bottle, but didn’t burn as much on the way down. Paige was sitting up and had a glass of her. Thankfully, that meant she’d moved away on the couch.

  “Like night and day…” I heard the warrior whisper, probably to herself.

  I failed to suppress a sigh, “So, plans?”

  Everyone turned to look at me. I looked between them all confused, “What?”

  Deacon shook his head and just focused on his drink, nodding in appreciation at Grimoire. Calmar steepled his fingers on his desk and started tapping them against each other. “Dani… There’s not a lot we CAN do.”

  “What do you mean?” I asked, confused.

  “We’ve no proof.” Porter responded. “At least not on our end.”

  I looked at Deacon, “So… what about the seven bodies in my Spatial Closet?” I asked as I looked from him to Calmar and then Porter. The later two had gone considerably green, “What? I did say we were attacked.”