Cass met Kara just outside the Atrium.

  “How’s your friend, Gary?”

  “He’s great,” Cass said fondly, “Best apprentice Baker in Liora. We’ve been friends since we were toddlers.”

  “I know,” She replied, snapping her folder open for emphasis, only to close it a moment later. With a heavy look at Cass, Kara began to walk with her usual long strides. As they passed two buildings on the right, she spoke in the voice of someone reciting something from memory. “Those are the meeting rooms. Companies rarely rent them out because they normally have their own, but we built them all the same. Mostly, they get used whenever we have a nearby Incursion that needs immediate planning, but don’t want to use the Atrium for whatever reason.”

  They passed two more buildings, though far larger in size. The first was the Company Commons, a neutral recruiting location backed by the Guildhall. The second was called the Provisioner’s Exchange, where Questors could exchange points gained from special Quests that could be traded for virtually any gear within.

  It wasn’t long before they approached a massive gray building standing on four thick legs. Large smokestacks erupted from the top, and the Guildhall symbol was burned into the front. The utilitarian stone design was unique in that many of the buildings in the Guildhall compound were made of wood.

  “And this,” She said, gesturing at the monstrosity, “is the Foundry. Once you get some Levels in you, working with the members of the Foundry will be commonplace; that’s why we’re touring it today. With four levels, the Foundry is the second largest building in the Liora Guildhall.”

  Cass looked up and up as he gauged its size. Four levels… getting resources in there must be a nightmare. Noticing Kara was waiting for him to do something, he asked the obvious question she’d set up, “What’s the first largest?”

  Kara smiled, “The storage unit on the other side. I will say, I’ve never liked that they built them on opposing sides, as materials constantly get moved back and forth, but then again, the Guildhall sprang up as the first defense point of Liora. After the Reshaping, a lot of oddly designed locations were raised.”

  Approaching the bottom area, the defining smells of a crafting area struck him with speed. Burning coal, wet leather, and something else on top of it. A slight burning feeling was digging its way into his nose.

  Eyes watering, he tried not to breathe too deeply as he asked, “What is that?”

  “Hah, you feeling that already? Come on, I’ll show you.”

  Stepping through a giant arch, Cass had expected utter chaos, like stained tables and curses, as he’d grown used to with most crafting areas. Instead, they entered a perfectly organized room where everything was labeled, and clean, shining tools hung up on the walls around the area. Quiet conversations filtered around the room, along with the soft clinking of several people at work. The contrast almost felt wrong.

  “Welcome to the Enhancement floor. This is where most of the Guild’s Alchemy and Enchanting services are completed.” Gesturing as they passed by several areas, and she received a few nods of recognition, Kara continued. “Alchemists are rare, but we’ve got a few and we’re lucky to have them. Enchanting is generally used for finished products, but as your nose told you, something else is going on here.”

  They continued to walk across the broad floor towards a red, glowing area. Cass scooted around a man carrying several plants with gloved hands when he asked, “How rare is the Enchanter Calling?”

  “For the Guild? Very. Most Enchanters receive a premium to join a Company or Consortium. Alchemists, too, though there’s a long-standing connection between the Guild and Alchemy. When the Guildhall first stood up, Liora’s head Alchemist, Brannic Greeve, was the first to join Guildmaster Hollis. He’s currently the Master of the Foundry, and we’re heading over to see him now.”

  The red glow grew stronger the more they moved, until it covered Cass’s vision so completely that everything took on a tint. Kara looked at him with red eyes as she pointed at a huge tube sticking straight up. “What do you think that is?”

  Cass stepped closer, noticing that the burning feeling was growing stronger. Now, his eyes stung, and every nerve in his body felt like it was being pricked with a needle. Through an itchy throat, he said, “I have no idea, I just know I’m not enjoying the feeling it gives off.”

  Kara laughed, “According to the combat teams, you grow used to it the longer you hang around.” She flagged someone down, then grabbed Cass’s shoulder and led him a distance away. Once they reached a certain stopping point, she held him still as the man she’d waved at approached.

  “Kara Tullis, you’re two minutes late.” The man said in a high-pitched voice. Like the others around them, he wore serviceable working clothes, with thick gloves and a skin-tight cap over his head. Other than that, he looked like everyone else in the room. Unmemorable.

  Kara’s reaction told him differently, as she stood at attention. “Apologies, Master Greeve, I wanted to make sure Cass received a thorough education.”

  “Ah, Cassio Vale.” He said as the man’s attention turned to him. He squinted, as if trying to measure something only he could see. “Between you, Pellin Cray, and a few other standouts, my fears for the Guildhall’s future are lessened.” He looked Cass up and down with a head tilt. Without warning, he walked over, plucked a glowing green bottle from a shelf, and handed it to Cass. “Drink this, please.”

  Cass held it at a slight distance. “What is it?”

  “Cass!” Kara admonished him, “He’s not trying to-”

  “Quite alright, Kara.” Brannic said with a wave, “He doesn’t know me, and I haven’t explained anything. That kind of suspicion keeps a person living where the more gullible would have their life stripped from them. It’s a low-strength, long-lasting healing potion we devised here late last year. We found a group of monsters that are horrifying in almost every aspect of the word, but which have a special gland near the roof of their mouths. By extracting the material within, we were able to blend it with a few other elements to create that little wonder. I noticed you were favoring your right, and thought you could use a little help with whatever pain that’s striking you.”

  Looking from the potion to the Head Alchemist and finally at Kara, who nodded at him, Cass popped the top off and drank it down in one gulp. It tasted like pickle juice, of all things.

  As the fizzy liquid drifted down his throat, it ignited a spreading heat that poked across his skin, replacing the soreness and aches with a strange, buoyant energy. Cass looked at the bottle with large eyes.

  The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.

  “Wow!...Wow! That’s amazing!”

  Brannic gave him a wide smile, “Exactly! That’s the wonder of Alchemy. The power of harvesting materials and applying hard work and precision to create something truly transformative.” He sighed, “Rarely do I get to see the fruits of our labors used in person, so this is quite the treat for me. Come, come, let's head over to my office so I can explain a few things to you.”

  They stepped over to a small room filled with filing cabinets and glass cases. Inside the cases were skulls, claws, oddly shaped organs, and what appeared to be several different eyeballs suspended in a yellow fluid. Unlike the central area of the Foundry, it was cool and dry.

  Gesturing at the cases, Brannic said, “Every one of these is the part of a creature your fellow Liorans have fought and killed. From Grey Beards, whose gland produced the concoction you drank earlier, to the skin of Palehides, which we create Quest Vellums from.”

  Cass fought the urge to gag. Suddenly, every Quest he’d written felt like it had a pulse. A life. “Wait, I’ve been touching monster skin? That’s what the Vellums are made from?”

  Brannic nodded, “Precisely. Lucky for us, Palehides are quite large, and the Vellum’s treatment is not so complex. We’ve developed a process that allows for hundreds to be produced with great efficiency.”

  Kara scooted over and then leaned against a wall with one leg up. “Tell him about the tube.”

  “The tube?” Brannic said, squinting at her. With a blush, she stood up straight. “Ah, right. The holding container. I’m certain you felt the effects of being so close. That, my young friend, is raw Monster Blood. Even contained, the magical essence it holds leaks directly into the air. Most human systems can’t process it; it's too volatile. It’s only recently that the Capitol found a recipe that allowed us to contain it at all. Before, we had to send out teams on quests with equipment and very particular directions. Wasteful, far too wasteful. But now, we get to experiment to our heart's content.” He took a deep breath as he seemed to stare at nothing.

  While he seemed to be daydreaming, Cass took the opportunity to ask a question. “What have you discovered so far?”

  “Hrmm,” He said, blinking, “Oh. The uses for the creature’s blood are manyfold. We’ve found its efficiency in maintaining enchantments is far greater than we’d originally expected, and when it is infused into equipment upon first forging, rare effects begin to appear.” He gave a giddy laugh, “It’s quite the time to be an Alchemist. So many discoveries so quickly. We’ve only had the container in there for a few days, maybe a week. I lost track somewhere around…a Tuesday.”

  That was a lot for Cass to process. Monster skin. He'd been handling it all day, writing on it, keeping it in his bag. Did he care that the Vellums were made from monsters?

  He exhaled through his nose as his mind looked within. Did he feel revulsion at the idea? At first, yes. A knee-jerk blend of "oh that's disgusting" and "It's only fair." But after a brief introspection, he decided it was only fair for what they'd done to his homeworld. The world was harsh, and from everything he'd heard, monsters were never innocents. So what if the Quests were created using monster body parts? It’s not like they’d take it easy on him if he ever ran into a few. Besides, using your enemy to defeat your enemy had a certain poetic feel to it. A certain symmetry.

  As Brannic seemed to enter another bout of daydreaming, Cass asked, “Why show me all this? You’re the Master of the Foundry. I figure you’d be too busy to show some kid around.”

  Squinting eyes found his own, “Because you’re the new QuestWright. Soon enough, you’ll have some levels in you, then I’ll be coming to see you about a few hunt and retrieval quests. Or one of my assistants will, at least. The better you know what it is we do, the better off everyone in the Guild is.” Looking at Kara, he said, “Show him the second and third floors, but not the fourth.”

  Standing at attention again, Kara said, “Yes, sir.”

  With a smile and a pat on Cass’s shoulder, Brannic left the office. Following orders, Kara took Cass around the second floor, filled with the standard world of crafting that he’d grown used to, while the third floor held a distinct atmosphere.

  Rising up the stairs, the noise of hammerfalls and shouted instructions faded as they entered a different realm. It was filled with far more people than the first two floors, and held a considerable variety of crafting, all happening at once. To some small degree, it reminded him of the Commons, only without the somber expressions of helplessness he’d seen on those who’d refused an enterprise.

  Kara explained that this was the floor where he would likely spend the most time in the Foundry.

  Cass watched a pair of crafters working together as they etched matching symbols into a set of shield faces. Across the way, a woman shaped thin wires into a frame that looked like it belonged in a puzzle, not on a battlefield. But he still had a question.

  “Why will I be on this floor the most?”

  “Crafting quests are fairly common once you reach a certain reputation level. The request comes through the Petition Chamber, gets approved or denied by a walking, talking Clerk,” She shuddered, “Then reaches the Quest Registry for your final approval and creation. After that, a Craftsman from the Foundry can choose to pick it up or not. Their pay is dependent on how many of those quests they’re able to knock out. Crafting and Quests are the bread and butter for the Guildhall. Without them, we’d be destitute. The better the gear, the better the Guild.”

  Cass looked around again. Everyone looked happy. As if they were doing something they loved. “Most of the Alchemy and Enchanting are done on the first floor, smithing on the second, and the third is for what looks like Quest items.”

  “Yep,” Kara said, looking at him as she waited for the obvious next question.

  “What’s the fou-”

  “Can’t tell you that.” Smiling at him to take away any residual rudeness, she gestured toward the crowd as a few children walked by, laughing at something their parents had said behind them. “This place is magic. You’ll come to love it. I honestly wish I could be here more. Come on, I’ll introduce you to a few people.”

  After that, they wandered for a time, with Kara introducing Cass to enough people that he knew he’d never remember all of their names. A few even slipped him items while he was still explaining his role in the Guild.

  “A QuestWright? Don’t get many of those around here. Hrmm, take this. A boy with a new Calling can always use a good knife, and I don’t have a use for it. You won’t ever need to sharpen it, I can tell you that much.”

  “Ah, you’re a Vale? I know your mother.” An old woman said after shaking hands. “What do you have in that sack there? Canvas, sleeping bag…here. This’ll help you out, and never let it be said that the Guild doesn’t support their own.” Reaching into a box behind her, she pulled out a leather-wrapped canteen. “Any liquid you put in here gets purified, quick as a jiffy. Now go on, I’ve got a commission from the Council that needs looking to.”

  Several more items were placed into Cass’s spatially-locked bag. Along with the ever-sharp knife and purifying canteen, a dozen small kindnesses from strangers who’d barely learned his name joined them. As the weight in the bag ever so slightly grew, so too did a strange tightness in his chest. They didn’t owe him this, but they gave anyway. Always with a smile and well wishes.

  As they were leaving, he glanced at Kara with a serious expression. “You knew they’d do that, didn’t you?’

  She shrugged, “Guild takes care of their own. If you ever get lost or attacked, or anything like that, we come out in numbers. Most Companies do the same with their people, though it’s not guaranteed. But the Guild? Never do I worry about the Liora Guildhall leaving someone behind.”

  Their time block was just about over, so Kara wished him well with a small warning.

  “That bag isn’t for nothing. Tomorrow I have you scheduled with a friend of mine, Shamus. He does deliveries for the Depot, and I thought it would be a good idea for you to tag along and see what his life is like. Logistics and all that. Have you ever been outside Liora?”

  Cass shook his head, “Can’t say that I have, no. Just the Grounds, really.”

  “So, it’ll be something new. Take care of that bag, and I’ll see you in the morning.”

  With a wave, she left, and Cass headed toward the Atrium for the next guest speaker. As the update came in, he smiled. This was going to be fun. Walking in, something hit his screen.

  [SYSTEM NOTICE]

  Your Liora Guildhall Reputation has increased by 1