Cass had seen Amelia off with a Guild Clerk some time ago. She still looked more than a little estranged at the whole of her life changing in a moment, but he was as kind to her as he could be. This wasn’t a fair situation, but war could be like that.

  Moore and Pellin dropped by. The System Engineers' prototype, code-named Whispr, resembled a small black box with a light-blue glow. Just by touching its oddly cold surface, Cass’s screen updated.

  >Whispr active…

  >Cassio Vale Masterkey recognized…

  >Connecting

  Pellin promised to get more made, but just by looking at him and the stacks of lines under his eyes, Cass could see how exhausted he’d become. He sent him off to bed with a few words of thanks and encouragement, then had Moore help him write a message.

  They went back and forth on Cass’s plans, but in the end, Moore agreed with what needed to be done.

  [SYSTEM ANNOUNCEMENT – REGION: LIORA]

  From the desk of Guildmaster Pro Tempore Cassio Vale

  To all Liorans.

  The city is being surrounded.

  Effective immediately, I am recalling all able-bodied persons back to the city. If you’re on a homestead, a satellite location, or a farm, and believe you are within travel distance to the gates, abandon the area entirely.

  Monsters are attacking the Red Tower in the north, citizens are disappearing to the south and west, and we have enemies within. They seek to scare us into running and hiding.

  But this is not the time for fear; it is the time for unity.

  The war efforts will be housed within the Guildhall, as it always has been. Guild representatives, Council members, and high-ranking company officials will provide further instructions.

  Randomized testing will occur throughout the city. Checkpoints will be established. Defenses built. Blood, spilled.

  We will endure, fight, and rebuild what we must.

  We will prevail.

  For Liora,

  Cassio Vale

  Guildmaster Pro Tempore

  Moore stepped out, the second prototype in hand as he headed off to the Grounds. Vex was waiting there for him, along with a large group of Company intermixed company members, as they prepared the area for the voluntary militia that would soon be raised. There weren’t enough combatants in the city, but there were enough people.

  It was a hard line to drive, but both the books Cass had in Hollis’s office and his QuestWright abridged versions agreed. A city could be defended against an army as long as it did so with proper preparation and innovative thinking. Since the incursions had ramped up a few weeks ago, Cass had studied barricades, fallback positions, and reinforced shelters. He’d even looked up how to create signal beacons and mobile watchpoints. He’d even been clued in on a few secrets that many in the general populace didn’t know. About things both within Liora and below it. Now, with Profile’s help, he would get everything ready.

  But as Changelings romped through the city wearing the faces of his fellow citizens, he didn’t know who he could trust. Randomized testing was Moore's idea, and it would help find a few. But if Cass’s thinking was right, and dozens of Changelings infested the city, then no one person could know all of their plans.

  Nobody but him. So rather than complain about it, he went to work.

  The first step was to designate combat and safety locations. Everything beyond a quarter mile from where he stood was labeled combat-possible in tiers. Those at the edges by the gates were red, orange, yellow, then green. Alleys became bottlenecks for possible last stands, courtyards would house supply caches, and rooftops were now available for those with the ability to see far or shoot straight.

  He didn’t necessarily do it alone. Jimmy’s voice could be heard in the Atrium, calling out the names of people Cass needed in that moment for a clearer picture or to get a better understanding of the city's position. After updating all of the Hollis Quests into Profile, he had a strong sense of which Craftsman focused on which projects, of how the Quests were designed, and who had done enough work for the Quest to become routine. And they came in a flood, receiving instructions, then glowing gold as they went on their way to see his vision come to fruition. Waypoint showed its value, as each knew precisely where Cass wanted the work done once they’d gathered their supplies.

  He wasn’t sparing with who he gave the assignments and required Crests to. Common Solutions came up several times when he needed raw materials formed into functional parts, and with their focus on basic elements like screws, nails, and roughly hewn wood, Orla was seen in his office several times throughout the day as a dozen projects drifted into the red, orange, and yellow zones.

  In between his visitors, Cass worked on understanding the new Quest types he’d unlocked. Hunt and Observe Quests were similar enough to others he’d designed that they were simple enough to produce. Combat, however, was as complicated as expected.

  Like crafting, new conditions were created. Terrain appeared with a series of options. Directionality, expected equipment and supplies, and even Questor synergy made their appearances as well. Profile would again help there, but only if he or Adya had spoken to the Questor and learned a bit about them. Mismatching difficulty and skill on these had only one likely result. As such, he wasn’t very confident in his ability to create drafted Quests.

  That wasn’t to say he wouldn’t. Hollis’s ongoing combat Quests at the Red Tower were a guide he would be foolish to ignore. So he studied everything he could, spoke with those who visited, learned as fast as he was able, and tried his very best to see the city through this crisis. The Quests would undoubtedly come, but that meant he’d have to get up close and personal with the Questors. The more information he had, the better off they’d all be.

  The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

  Cass spent hours designing fallback locations, checking his notes, and speaking to advisors. To be clear, this wasn’t a one-man operation. Dozens of those with the know-how checked in and provided their sage wisdom and lifetimes of experience. But this was a one-knowing operation purely out of necessity.

  The drafted construction Quests were messy, filled with doubts and recriminations, but nobody said anything. They saw a young man pushing his limits to the best of his abilities, and as Cass worked and his Quests filtered throughout the city, his Reputation, both systemic and figurative, rose in the eyes of others.

  Word and rumors trickled to Liora that they’d seen houses and shops deliberately collapsed. Roofs were sloughed off through effort. Homes demolished and bricks piled. It was a city under siege from without and within.

  The grapevine wasn’t only concerned with the city's deconstruction. There was another rumor that, as people moved toward the gates in answer to the Guild Master's announcement, they were stopped and put into a line. Standing at the front of it was a brown-robed Guild member holding a silver dial.

  Sometimes there was a fight. There were even whispers that two had died near the southern gate. But it spread from mouth to ear so often that nobody could be sure of what had really happened. The temporary Guild Master was so busy that he’d resorted to Jimmy whispering many of the messages to him, so he wouldn’t have to take his eyes off of whatever he was looking at for the moment.

  I need more information. What if we…

  He pulled up his notes and found several images that might help him. Calling on one of the higher-tier construction workers, the man arrived out of breath as Cass wasted no time in explaining what he needed.

  Cass wasn’t content with the standard set of city watchposts they’d always used. The enemy wouldn’t be coming from the gates, but from any direction they possibly could. In one book, he’d found notes on mobile scouting posts that the Foundry craftsman believed they could build quickly.

  In a matter of hours, several new towers rose above and behind the walls. Each was designed as a climbable pole on wheels. Firm enough foundations for a single person, but also with a substantial lack of permanence, as they were designed to be built and then broken down again at need.

  No monsters were sighted within range of the south, east, and west, but many were seen to the north. With the new information in hand, Scouts were sent, Adya intentionally added, though with strict instructions not to move too closely.

  They reported back that the Monsters were acting unusually calm, sitting within a copse only a mile or so from the city. When Adya’s Observation skill struck the monsters, Profile filtered back to Cass, who made a few minor adjustments to his plans based on the information he received. Sending an observe Quest out to one of the senior Scouts, he took a deep breath, then dove back into the books.

  As for Moore. Tables were set up just inside the Guild, overlooked by the harsh-looking man with a straight back. People would approach, shake their hands as if in pain, then be given a waiting piece of vellum and sent on their way. Sometimes they left with a cart laden with supplies. Othertimes, with weapons in hand, and a promise that equipment would be sent to the location the moment it left the dragooned smithies in the forge.

  Adya checked in on him whenever she wasn’t grabbing an Alchemist, Construction manager, or doing her part as a Scout. Food and drink were not high on Cass’s priorities at the time, so she brought him what she could. At one point, she grew worried that he was running himself ragged. His hair was a mess, his eyes bloodshot, and he seemed to be doing a dozen things at once as people moved in and out of his office at a run.

  He’d been the Guild Master for two days, and aside from falling unconscious once, he hadn’t slept since. But somehow, he was still thinking clearly, as he had her bring Kara in for a quick word.

  “Kara, I’m assigning Amelia as your charge. Make sure she’s safe, has a grasp of the area, and, most importantly, is working to understand the city’s makeup. If anything happens to me and Brannic can’t fix Gerald fast enough, I’m fairly certain the Guild Master role will fall onto her.”

  Kara snorted, “Surely not. There’s no way the System would give her that status when she’s brand new.”

  “You’d be surprised,” Cass said, looking at her with a worn-out smile. “How many times in recent memory have I been pushed into something before I was ready?”

  Kara looked like she wanted to say something in her standard taciturn manner, but instead, she paused, gave a stiff nod, then exited. However, Adya stayed, closing the door behind her in a small flash of silver.

  “You need to sleep.”

  “I’ll sleep when it’s dark,” Cass said, pulling up an outline for a new Quest. “A Changeling was discovered at the south-east gate. It killed the guard before being put down. Another was found within the Guild itself. Moore’s random testing caught it out, as it refused and had to be forced. We put it under guard for now, but the Maestro doesn’t think we’ll get any information out of it.”

  “It’s close to midnight.”

  “Vex got his communicator, and now he just won’t shut up. I had to tell him twice that we only need to report updates, code words, and progress with each other. He’s so enamored with Pellin’s Whispr that he started to tell me about a meeting with two women in the Capitol long ago. I didn’t like the direction it was heading, but at least I know it really is him talking to me. He even said a group of adventurers had come-” Cass blinked twice, realizing what she’d said, then looked at her, “Is it really?”

  “Yes. Come on,” She stepped over and sat on Hollis’s bed. “I’m not going anywhere until I hear the sound of your snores.”

  As if given permission, a yawn stretched its way across his mouth, “I don’t snore.” He stood up woozily, though much of his lost strength was beginning to return; he still wasn’t one-hundred percent recovered.

  Adya patted the bed twice for emphasis, “Could’ve fooled me. It’s a shame that the poison let go of your mouth so fast. Took me ages to fall asleep when I was last watching over you.”

  Cass moved to the head of the bed and sat down. Reaching over, he weakly pulled off his shoes but left his robe on. The moment his bare feet touched the floor, Adya pushed him down until he was flat, then got up and spun his legs over for him. It was intimate in an odd way.

  “You taking care of me now? It’s not very dignified for a Guild Master,” He mumbled.

  “And yet, it is necessary.” She said in that same clipped manner he’d grown used to.

  Before he knew it, her smiling face faded away, and he was asleep. His rest was filled with both dreams and nightmares. One moment, he was in a grand city surrounded by the forest. Laughter moved through its streets like the wind as everyone went about their day, enjoying the sun on their faces and speaking kindly to one another.

  The next, Skreels, Driftclaws, and things better left in the dark rampaged through blood-soaked cobblestones as fire and fury consumed all. When he finally awoke, it was to someone pushing on his shoulder. He instantly sat upright, his hidden, ever-sharp knife coming out of the robe's sleeve in a rush.

  “Whoa, Guild Master! Calm down!”

  “Jimmy?”

  “Yeah, Jimmy!” The big man’s face was set in a worried frown. “Must’ve been a heck of a nightmare!”

  Cass rubbed his face as he put away the knife, “What time is it?”

  “Quarter past six. Officer Vex sent a messenger.”

  “Why? What’s going on?”

  “The messenger said, the enemies are at the gates. Said you’d understand what that meant.”

  “Shit, they’re doing it sooner than I thought.” Cass slipped on his shoes, grabbed his bag, and stood up, leaving the Annex behind. “Jimmy, I want you to go and get a horse, right now.”

  “Right now, right now?”

  “Yes, right now. We’re leaving, and you’re my guard. I need to be closer, or we might get into some real trouble.”

  “Why?”

  “Because they’re coming at us from under the ground.”