"So. Why are we here?" Tanner asked.

  Miller lifted her eyes from the report she was compiling, and looked at her mentor. "The gods got bored and played with clay."

  Tobias snickered from the corner of the waiting room. He had found beef jerky from somewhere, and was sloppily chewing on it.

  "No, no. I meant why we are here, in this building. Why are we meeting the guildmaster of the Adventurer's Guild and not the local lord first?" Tanner clarified after sighing.

  The trio had just popped out from the dungeon after weeks of journeying underground. To their astonishment, they had covered thousands of miles and actually skipped a kingdom or two, arriving directly at the Kingdom of Iron's crown jewel— the Adamantine Bastion. That would have been a major political problem without their status as investigators for the Order of Illumination.

  Upon hearing where they were, Tanner had marched straight to the Adventurer's Guild, and demanded to see the guildmaster at the earliest convenience. His tone of voice had layered the message with the meaning of 'get him here, now.'

  They had been ushered to a comfy little room with tea and snacks. That was an hour ago, and Tanner was clearly getting bored to quiz Miller with procedure. He had made himself busy by sending a letter to the Order, but that had occupied him for only a mere minute.

  The Order had trained her of course, but Tanner had his own little quirks and metrics to assess his trainees and apprentices. When they had first met, he had Miller recite the whole Creed of Light to him. While walking on a plank. Blindfolded. Backwards.

  She had failed the reciting miserably, but walked the plank multiple times back and forth. Miller smiled at the memory. Apparently Tanner didn't care about the Creed— well, he did, but not at the precise wording— and just wanted to see how she would react to the situation.

  Miller turned back at the report, dipped her quill, and started to cross her t's and dot the i's "It's faster to get here than to the local lord. Even with the Order backing us up, there is a certain amount of pomp with official visits to nobility."

  Tanner nodded. "Yes. And?"

  Miller sighed. It was one of these games again. "Two dungeons connecting beyond multiple borders of two nations pose a serious political mess and security risk. Not only that, there's a high probability of new spawns and mobs all around the dungeons when the two mix together."

  Tanner nodded and gestured her to continue.

  "Adventurers are the boots on the ground. They must be warned of the shifting parameters to avoid causalities."

  Tanner waited her to continue, but gave up after a couple of minutes.

  "Also I don't have the faintest clue who the lords over the Adamantine Bastion. Could be an actual lord or baron. Maybe a selected mayor. Better to collect intel before seeing the man— or woman— face to face," Tanner said.

  Miller listened to the explanation, but didn't exactly buy it.

  "And it doesn't have anything to do with your dislike of court decorum? Or your forever suspicions of nobles sending messengers to all of the guilds to cover them from all of their wrongdoings, shady deals, and misdeeds before the meeting is even over?" she asked.

  "Of course not," Tanner smoothly lied with decades of experience.

  Miller rolled her eyes. "You could have at least shown your badge. We would have been seen immediately."

  Tanner looked at his vest and the silver star badge on his chest. He gestured at it indignantly. “I am wearing a badge!”

  “Yes, a badge. If you had used the badge we wouldn't have to speak our way out of the spear point with the watchmen.”

  "And then there would definitely have been runners and messengers running around," Tanner said and scratched his beard. It had grown while they were in the dungeon, and was getting a little scraggly. It held more color than his hair, but the grey was creeping in from the sides.

  "Good news lumber. Bad news fly. Tanner news teleport," Tobias said. He had eaten the jerky and was currently reading his tea leaves. "A heptagon! Very rare. Very strange."

  "Thank you, Tobias," Tanner said dryly.

  Smiling, Miller pulled her Inkstone out of one of her pouches, and moved it slowly over the fresh ink. It dried quickly on the parchment, and Miller started another report with a little less details.

  After half an hour, they heard a knock on the door.

  "Enter," Tanner said.

  The door opened revealing a bear of a man at the other side. He had to duck to avoid hitting the doorframe, and slid in sideways to avoid getting stuck. His shoulders were massive, and his arms resembled tree trunks.

  He had short dirty-blonde hair, clean shave, and brown eyes scanning the room. His posture was relaxed, but everybody knew he was ready to fight in a split second.

  Tanner rose from his seat and offered his hand. "Chief Inspector Tanner, Order of Illumination. This is my colleague Tobias," he gestured at the pale elf. "And my mentee, Apprentice Miller."

  "Guildmaster Jonathan Vask. You can call me Jon," the man shaped mountain replied and covered Tanner's hand with his own. His voice was deep contralto gently massaging everybody's diaphragm.

  They shook their hands— once— and Jon stared at Tanner's hazel eyes. Especially the golden corona surrounding his pupil. To the guildmaster's credit, he didn't squeeze with all his might. Just a sturdy shake.

  "Apologies for my tardiness. There was an issue I had to personally attend," he continued.

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  "Ah, the dungeon expansion?" Tanner hazarded a guess.

  Jon's eyebrow raised for a millimeter. "Yes. How do you know about the matter? It came to light just yesterday when a group of returning adventurers reported about it."

  "I'm afraid we walked all the way from the Herdeman Dukedom. Not only is the dungeon expanding, it is already connected to one other dungeon beyond your borders. And there are clear signs of spatial compression," Tanner said while sitting down and gestured Jon to do the same. “Or maybe it was just old fashioned teleport, but Tobias there didn't notice traces of Spatial Mana, right?”

  Tanner leaned to look at Tobias behind him. He was still focusing to his teacup. “Ooh, now there is an octagon? Will they combine? Merge? Conjoin? Interesting...”

  Jon had chosen to stand. His eyes flicked at Tobias as he spoke, and his mildly suspicious manner rose a peg or two. He folded his arms, making his bulging muscles grow a tad.

  "Oh? You wouldn't have a report detailing all this? And a map where you came from? The name of the other dungeon?"

  Tanner gestured to Miller. "My apprentice has compiled a report for you and general public. I believe you have already enacted the Conjuncture Protocol?"

  "Yes. Extra guard shifts and warnings of possible new monsters." Jon peeked at the parchment, and Tanner could see his eyes darting from left to right, reading the upside down text from his point of view. A speedreading skill.

  "A Bronze-rank dungeon? I see. They will have the biggest problems then. The conjuncture happened in a Steel-ranking section of the dungeon so it should be safe in this end. Unless the Conjunction does weird stuff with the mana and create something above both ranks."

  Miller cast a side glace at Tanner while writing.

  "EE-rank and D-rank, respectively," Tanner reminded Miller. "Kingdom of Iron is a little... old-fashioned with their terminology."

  Jon snorted to Tanners remark. "Terms aside, this 'Spidersilk Grove' needs adventurers as fast as possible to secure the location. I'll send out a word to local branch and advice them for caution."

  "Already taken care of. I sent a letter to the local guild, it should arrive within nightfall," Tanner said.

  "Oh? You paid for courier service? Highly noble of you."

  "Hardly. The Order will foot the bill. Besides, it is a matter of safety of the Realm."

  "And you just didn't tip the Republic of a new handy way to smuggle their troops through the continent?" Jon asked. His eyes were locked to Tanner.

  The question was framed politely, but was filled with accusation and deep doubt. The Valerian Republic and Kingdom of Iron had been at each others throats for generations now, and the old suspicions were rooted deep.

  Herdeman Dukedom was a small piece of land bordering the Republic, and Jon's suspicion was grounded in reality. The Republic had a history of using foreign troops and lands as landing spots with their invasions.

  Tanner answered with a smile. "I understand your suspicion and I'll let that one slide. As a gesture of new friendship."

  Jon snorted with amusement. Tanner had pegged him somewhere in the low C-rank — or Silver as they said in here. He probably saw Tanner as somewhat equal in Rank, but without jurisdiction. Certainly Tanner had no business to order any guildmaster around.

  “Anyways. We need a workspace here in the guild. We have ongoing investigation that led us to the Herdeman Dukedom side of the dungeon.” Tanner looked around in the waiting room. “Yes, this will suffice. We'll just remove some of the couches, and bring in a couple good desks. You have a storage of office supplies nearby? Parchment and the like? Some red string?”

  “Excuse me?”

  Tanner's abrupt change of pace and subject had off-footed the large guildmaster visibly.

  “The dungeon is your jurisdiction. We can and will provide support if needed— probably just some extortion of local lords for funds... but we came here for a reason and will continue our investigation. Here, in this room.”

  A spider's web of popped vein appeared on Jon's forehead as he processed the demands. His lips rose to a sneer, and he opened his mouth for a loud objection. Everybody in the room could almost feel the boom in their bones.

  Tanner lifted his finger to stall Jon's incoming remark— the guildmasters face reddened noticeably— and slowly fished his badge of office from his pack. The badge.

  The Order of Illumination used the Guiding Star as their symbol and every sworn in member carried their own badge made from different materials corresponding with the old ways of differentiating rank.

  Tanner dropped the stylized star symbol on the table and waited for the big man's reaction.

  When the guildmaster saw the reddish bronze touched by magic, his blood drained from his face. He probably hadn't ever seen an Orichalchium-badge before.

  There was a loud gulp vibrating the glass windows, the red disappeared from Jon's face— he began to pale a bit— and with stilting stiffness Jon shifted his gaze to Tanner. "Sir, I meant no disrespect. There's just standing order to report and detain any suspicious persons linkable to the Republic, and you lot just appearing out of nowhere and—"

  Tanner stopped the escalating torrent of words from Jon's mouth with a wave and chuckle. "And we're the enemy since we came from the north. No harm, no foul. I already told you that you got that one for free, didn't I? Now, who has given you such orders?"

  "Lord of the Bastion, Sir. Mayor Medina, Sir," Jon answered.

  Miller hid her rising smile behind her hand. It was a rare treat to see a guildmaster groveling, but seeing a high B-rank badge had that effect on most people. In a world where rank was everything— like in Adventurer's Guild— respect flowed automatically from power.

  "I see," Tanner said. "Let's cancel that order for time being, and channel your time and effort for something else. I need a complete record of every single necromancer you have on file. Starting from the newest arrivals and the highest Ranks. You have a guild in town? Necromancer guild I mean?"

  "Yes, sir. Corpse Flower. They're at the basement, sir."

  "The basement?" Tanner's eyebrow rose in amusement. They really played in to the stereotypes in this city.

  "They're subletting the basement, sir. They also run the archive for both guilds."

  "Sounds like an unusual arrangement. I'd like to meet their Guildmaster."

  "Of course, sir. We can go there immediately if you like?" Jon said.

  "No need yet. Let's get them get the list and we can pop by when we return."

  "Return, sir?"

  It started to hurt Tanner's ears being called 'sir'. Miller was well enough.

  "No more siring me, got that?" Tanner said.

  Jon opened his mouth just to close it and nod.

  "Excellent. Returning from the Lord's Manor of course. I assume there's a manor? Anyways, that's our next stop and you get to introduce us. Isn't that great?" Tanner said while getting up from his chair.

  Jon gave Tanner way by stepping away from the doorway. "Of course. May I ask why the list? Something I need to know?"

  Tanner scratched his scabby beard absently. "No, not yet. I have this feeling of something being... off in our current case. Dead nobleman and so on."

  "I'd be honored to help you and your order any way I can," Jon said while offering an accommodating smile. It seemed he had recovered from a shock of meeting Orichalcum-ranking investigator, and went straight to political groveling.

  "We can check the nobleman's name if something comes up from the archive?" Miller suggested.

  Tanner eyed his apprentice. There was a faint glimmer of mischief. Tanner's mouth twitched with a start of a smile.

  "I see no problems with that," he said and turned his attention back to Jon. "Check the name Elijah von Strauss the Third, maybe this Corpse Flower has a mention of him somewhere?"

  The guildmaster's face gained a fresh pallor directly comparable to Tobias'. Tanner reckoned that Jon was actually winning.

  "Vo-vo-von Strauss? Of course... I'll personally check..." Jon's voice came out in a high-pitched squeak. "After meeting the mayor."

  Tanner smiled and patted the pale man. His shoulder quivered like jelly under distress.

  "Of course. Shall we?" he said and opened the door, gesturing others to follow. He had a mayor to scare next.

  Jon nodded politely to Tanner and Miller as they walked ahead.

  Tobias stopped by him and handed over a delicate porcelain cup. "They are close together now, see? Heptagon and octagon in a figure of eight. It's a head short of a snowman."

  Confused, Jon accepted the cup and peered in. All he could see was mushy tealeaves.

  “One last thing.” Tanner's head peeked from the hallway. “Do you have a cathedral somewhere close by? Tobias has... a thing he needs to show to the clergy.”