“Are you Aaron Thorn? You’re … shorter than I expected.”

  I looked up from my half-eaten lunch of chicken and rice at the woman who had said that. She was tall and willowy, so thin that a breeze could have knocked her over. Her fine, teal-and-gold robes didn’t do much to dispel my initial impression of her as fairly fragile, to put it nicely.

  Though her fierce, purple eyes made me think twice about being disrespectful toward her.

  Especially knowing that this lady was probably the one who was going to be paying me a good amount of money for this mission.

  I stood up and held out a hand toward her, putting on my best professional smile. “That would be me! Though if I look short, it’s probably because I was sitting down.”

  The woman, who was still an inch or two taller than me, raised a skeptical eyebrow and looked me up and down. She did not take my hand. “No, still shorter than I thought. And younger, too. Much younger.” She peered at me closely. “Are you sure you’re our guide to North Forest? Your voice sounds like the one I heard over NodeLink, but …”

  “He’s the one.” Nimbus hopped onto the table between us, knocking my plate of chicken and rice off the table and onto the floor of the tavern. The creaky wooden table wobbled under his weight but managed to hold. “Though I understand being disappointed. He tends to inspire that reaction in people.”

  “Hey!” I gestured at my lunch on the floor. “Nimbus, you messed up my lunch!”

  Nimbus glanced at the chicken and rice scattered across the floor and shrugged his shoulders. “Why are you so upset about losing some chicken and rice? If it were a banana, I’d understand, but who cares about meat and grain?”

  I resisted the urge to grab the bunny and kick him out of the tavern, but then I heard a grunt from the bar and looked over to see the owner of the tavern—a burly war veteran of the Giant Wars named Zebedee—glaring at me and Nimbus from behind the bar. He was currently preparing a drink for another customer at the bar, but that didn’t stop him from glaring at me as if I’d just insulted his mother to his face.

  Then Zebedee pointed at the mess on the floor and said, “Clean up your pet’s mess or I’ll add it to your bill.”

  I sighed deeply. “I already told you: Nimbus is not my pet. He’s my partner.”

  “Don’t care.” Zebedee turned away. “Clean it up or else I’ll double your bill.”

  I cringed and glanced at the woman I’d been talking to. She hadn’t said a word since Nimbus jumped onto the table, but I could tell she was already having second thoughts about our arrangement. That wasn’t good.

  But I also couldn’t ignore Zebedee’s threat of doubling our bill. Zebedee was infamous throughout the North Forest area for ruling his tavern, The Squirrel’s Nut, with an iron fist. It was said that even the Wolfbrand Bandits avoided the tavern because they didn’t want to be forced to work for Zebedee to pay their bills by messing up his bar.

  Whether that was true or not, I had heard from my parents that one time, he forced my dad to clean up a mess that I accidentally made in the bar when I was a little kid. I had no memory of that, but the fact that Dad always had a hollow look in his eyes whenever the subject came up told me it wasn’t just a family story.

  Whispering a quick apology to the woman from Admah, I dropped to my hands and knees on the floor and started scooping chicken and rice back onto my plate. I cringed when I noticed that the glass plate had a slight crack along the edge, though I couldn’t remember if that crack had always been there or if it was another result of Nimbus’s carelessness.

  Nimbus himself, of course, didn’t even try to help. He just started talking to the woman, who seemed fascinated by him for some reason. Probably because he was a Codex Beast, though I imagined those had to be more common in the other Kingdoms.

  But as I reached over to pick up a particularly big chunk of chicken from under the table, another hand grabbed it at the same time mine did. I looked up and came face-to-face with another woman.

  This woman was probably closer to me in age. She had long, dark hair worn in a braided crown, but it was her purple-gray eyes that caught my attention. They were … mesmerizing, to say the least, even when she looked startled.

  “Oops!” said the young woman, pulling her hand away from the chicken. “I’m sorry. I was just trying to help you clean up.”

  I blinked but found it hard to form words at the moment. The young woman appeared to be associated with the older woman I’d tried to shake hands with.

  “Ruth,” said the older woman, her voice sharper than before. “What are you doing down there with the guide? It’s not your mess to clean.”

  The older woman’s sharp voice caused us to break our gaze. The young woman, whose name was apparently Ruth, rose and stepped back, a sheepish expression on her face as she looked at the older woman standing nearby with a judgmental look on her face. “Sorry, Martha. I was just trying to help Aaron clean up.”

  The older woman, evidently named Martha, huffed and shook her head. “That’s not your concern, Ruth. We’re here to gather herbs and research diseases. We aren’t here to pick up after ‘guides’ who can’t even control their own Codex Beast.”

  Ruth smiled apologetically, but I could tell she was uncomfortable with how bluntly Martha—who seemed to be her mentor—spoke to her and me. I certainly didn’t appreciate it, but as I put the last of the rice and chicken back on my plate, I didn’t dare risk arguing with Martha in her face.

  Like Nimbus had said, Martha was going to be paying us money.

  And good money, if we did well enough.

  About a week ago, I’d found only one active listing on the North Forest Node job board: A request for a ‘local guide to the North Forest area’ posted by a woman named Martha from Admah, the Seventh Kingdom.

  But this was no tourist trip or vacation. Martha was apparently a high-ranking healer and researcher from the Harbingers of Health, the largest guild in Admah. Unlike most other guilds, the Harbingers specialized in using the Codex to study diseases, develop cures, and practice and use healing spells. In fact, I’d learned, after doing some research, that Admah was known for producing more doctors and healers than any other Kingdom on the continent. They didn’t even seem to have an army, though I figured they must have some type of fighting force. Otherwise, they would have been absorbed by one of the Kingdoms around them a while ago.

  As for why they wanted to come to North Forest, Martha had already hinted at it. They were looking for some rare herbs said to grow only in North Forest as part of their ongoing research into something called ‘Codexblight.’ I had no idea what that disease was, and neither did Isaac or Nimbus, but apparently, they were desperate enough to find a cure that they were willing to come all the way out here looking for it.

  Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

  Like most of the big Guilds, the Harbingers had an outpost in Hebron; however, this particular research party had come from Admah itself, though I understood they had spent the day before in the Hebron outpost. The job listing had required that the job applicant be both a professional, SNA-licensed, Codex-approved Codexer and be either a native of North Forest or at least be extremely familiar with the area. As far as I knew, the only three Codexers who could even apply for the job were me, Miriam, and Isaac. Miriam obviously had no time for the job, while Isaac claimed that he didn’t want to ‘play’ guide for a bunch of ‘arrogant’ healers from the Seventh Kingdom.

  I’d thought Isaac was being unfair to the job posters when he said that, but after meeting Martha, maybe I owed him an apology.

  Regardless, the job had offered 5 guildmarks a day for the duration of their visit, which was expected to last about 10 days total, meaning I’d be paid 50 guildmarks altogether. Considering how one guildmark was equivalent to one hundred shekels, that meant I’d earn 500 shekels altogether. The average wage in Shinar was 50 shekels a month, so you could do the math.

  That was the main reason I’d accepted it, though I won’t deny I was also curious to learn about this ‘Codexblight’ mentioned in the job listing. It sounded dangerous, and I knew so little about Codex healing and medicine.

  Rising to my feet with my plate of dirty food in my hand, I noticed that Martha and Ruth were not the only members of their research party. About half a dozen other Harbingers, wearing the same teal and golden robes that Martha and Ruth wore. They stood out sharply compared to the rest of the people in the tavern, primarily fellow North Forest natives in browns and greens. Some of the Harbingers were at the bar ordering drinks, but none were interacting with the other bar patrons. To be fair, none of the other bar patrons looked eager to speak to them either.

  After I accepted the job listing, I communicated with Martha via the North Forest Node. I hadn’t realized it, but apparently NodeLink worked with Stationary Nodes too, though unlike with portables, I didn’t get her contact info. It merely let us speak to each other over audio, which was why Martha didn’t recognize me even though we’d spoken before. I’d get her NodeLink portable details later.

  Putting my plate back on the table—though also making sure to put it in a spot where Nimbus wouldn’t knock it off the table again—I said to Martha, “Sorry about all of that. If you would let me go and pay my bill, I will be more than happy to guide you to the forest. What kind of herbs are you looking for again?”

  Martha huffed and glanced at the bar. “That really isn’t any of your concern at the moment. Right now, we are trying to secure lodging in town because this trip will likely take us about 10 days or so. We also need to get meals for everyone on our team. Is this tavern the only place in town that sells food?”

  Slightly startled, I nodded once. “Yes. There aren’t any other restaurants or places that sell food. You can buy food at the markets, of course, but then you have to prepare it yourself.”

  Martha glanced at my plates of chicken and rice and grimaced. “Well, I suppose this is where we will eat most of our meals, then. Ruth, I’m going to order us some food. Stay here and get more details about the village and the North Forest area from Aaron. I’ll be back soon.”

  With that, Martha marched over to the bar with the rest of the party, leaving me and Nimbus alone with Ruth.

  Ruth smiled shyly at me. That was when I noticed she carried a healer’s staff in her hands. “I’m sorry about Martha. I think she’s just very annoyed that it has taken this long for someone out here to accept the job.”

  I scratched my chin, glancing at Martha, who was now doing her bossy routine with Zebedee. But Zebedee appeared unimpressed, though he was taking her orders. “How long ago was the job posted? It didn’t have the date on the listing.”

  Ruth furrowed her brows. “About six months ago, I think. At least, that was when Martha secured funding for the trip from the Guild. I think she was just worried that she might lose her funding if someone didn’t accept the job soon.”

  I blinked at Ruth. “I’m sorry, but I don’t understand how that works. I didn’t realize that your Guild funds research.”

  Ruth nodded. “Of course. Pretty much all of the major Guilds provide some research funding for Codexers, but the Harbingers of Health devote more funding to research than any of the other Guilds combined. Last I heard, 50% of the Guild’s yearly budget goes straight to medical research.”

  Nimbus grunted and jumped off the table onto the floor. “What kind of research does your Guild do? It wouldn’t happen to involve torturing innocent rabbits, would it?”

  I waved off Nimbus’s comment. “Ignore him. He doesn’t know what he’s talking about most of the time. So your boss is worried that she might lose her funding if she doesn’t use it?”

  Ruth nodded again. She pulled up a chair from one of the free tables and sat down on it. She yawned as if she were more tired than she looked. “Yeah. The Guild has pretty strict rules about how research funds are used. If you secure research funding but don’t actually use any of it for a year after you get the funding, then they will take all of the funding back and put it back into the overall budget. I’m not an expert on it myself because I’m still pretty new at all of this, but that’s how Martha explained it to me and is probably why she is so bent on getting results.”

  I relaxed a little bit when Ruth mentioned that she was new. I had been worried that all of the members of the research party were experienced Codexers who were much stronger than me. So I also sat down to chat. “How long have you been a member of the Harbingers?”

  “Six months, actually,” said Ruth. “Before that, though, I graduated from the Admah School of Codex Medicine. That was four years of studying medicine, and then after I graduated and got my portable, I took my Codex Trial and passed. Then I went straight into the Harbingers just like my mom, and I’ve been working with them ever since.”

  I blinked at Ruth again. “Wow. That is a completely different way of becoming a Codexer than the way I did.”

  Nimbus nodded in agreement. “It sure is! And he’s only been an official Codexer for like a week. Sounds like you have a lot to teach him. For example, you could teach him that bananas are a superior lunch to chicken and rice.”

  Ruth glanced at Nimbus again with a confused look. “He’s only been a Codexer for a week?”

  I cleared my throat loudly. “Uh, yes, but my older sister was a Codexer before me, so I already knew a lot about how things worked before I completed my Arcane Simulation. So I didn’t go into it blind.”

  That wasn’t entirely untrue, but it was hard to make my experiences sound interesting when it was abundantly clear to me that Ruth was probably a more experienced Codexer than I was, even if she was the novice among her research party. I considered scanning her Node to find out exactly what her Chapter and Page were, but I didn’t want to be rude. I had only scanned Herod because he had been a threat. It was normally considered rude to scan a Codexer’s Node without their consent, so I didn’t.

  Ruth nodded again, though I could tell she was still a bit confused about Nimbus’s comments. “That’s cool that your sister is also a Codexer! It’s nice having Codexers in the family. My mom was a Codexer and a member of the Harbingers of Health before me, so I like to think I’m walking in her footsteps.”

  I nodded, relieved that Ruth was a lot friendlier than Martha. “You said your mom was a Codexer? Is she retired now or something?”

  Apparently, I must have asked a question I shouldn’t have because Ruth immediately looked away from me and bit her lower lip. “Well, about that—”

  A bowl of soup suddenly landed on the table in front of Ruth, making both of us look up to see Martha standing over us. She was carrying a plate with chicken and vegetables on it, which she set down on the table before grabbing a chair herself and sitting down. Even though the food smelled delicious, Martha was still scowling like she was unable to smile.

  Martha gestured at the soup bowl in front of Ruth. “The owner told me that this beef soup is quite popular, and I know you like beef, so eat up. Once we’re all done with lunch, we will head out to the forest and begin our research.”

  Though Martha didn’t mention me at all, it was obvious her orders were directed not just at Ruth and the other members of their research party—who were taking tables around us to eat their lunch—but at me and Nimbus as well. But again, I didn’t argue with her because she was the one with the money, and I knew it was bad business to argue with your customers.

  Then Martha immediately began grilling me about the North Forest area and the various herbs that could be found around here. I did my best to answer her questions, which left me no time to continue my conversation with Ruth.

  But it didn’t escape me that Ruth looked relieved at not having to answer my questions about her mother, which only made me even more curious about what happened to her mother that she was so reluctant to talk about. Perhaps I would get answers later.

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