Soul Merger

A light rain had hit by the time they made it to the Pacio Engraver's Guild, so the front lobby was a welcome relief. The others were already there, along with the two strays, so Alissa returned Fili's wave. "Thanks for waiting."

"Well it's not like we have a choice," Rosalina replied. "But sometimes waiting makes things sweeter. Especially when you get to confuse the other people wandering in for business." The secretary and Raiel gave the woman annoyed looks, which the failed saintess probably loved.

"I take it you're all here," the secretary said, standing.

"Yep!" Clara replied. "We're ready to hear the job."

The secretary nodded. "Please follow me." She waited for them to gather up, then headed down a different corridor than they'd gone down before. Between closed offices and filing rooms, then up three flights of stairs.

After that it was a simple left and they entered what was obviously a waiting room. There were a number of seats, as well as large heavy double doors opposite. Two guards wearing engraved breastplates worth more than a modest house suggested whoever or whatever was behind the door was fairly important.

The secretary waited for them all to file in before giving a nod. "The board will be with you soon." With that she stepped out of the room.

Kotori sidled up to Raiel and whispered, "Uh, this seems like important stuff. Who are these people?"

The angel shrugged, but Clara helpfully explained. "Board of Masters. Everyone with Master status in the guild. Well everyone in this city."

Fili and Akari looked a little worried at that. "Uh, is it okay for us to be taking such an important task? Seems like something bigger than our skill level. We just got gear upgrades recently."

"It might not be about the importance. It's probably about the money," Alissa replied. "I don't know about you, but I don't intend to go wandering around at their request for just a handful of pocket change. And that means the guild needs to officially sign off on a very big purchase."

Rosalina nodded. "Even back with the church people got a little hesitant about throwing around huge sacks of money without getting some feedback. It's why we have trustees and whatnot."

There was the loud click of the door unlocking and a well dressed dwarf opened the door from the inside. "The Board will see you now." It was all crafted to give a formal, oppressive air.

Alissa did her best to ignore it and just walked in. To some degree it was theater designed to make the guild's bargaining position better. The rest was probably to remind the guild members they were acting as a group. Neither would help her. Fili still seemed a little nervous, but the mage seemed to take heart from everyone else just ignoring the pomp.

She did have to admit the room they were led into was pretty impressive. A four tiered semicircular seating arrangement allowed the guild masters to all look down on the central speaking area. The room was mostly hardwood, with thin engraved silver lines that suggested several wards against people eavesdropping.

To her surprise Master George was at the primary speaker's podium. Usually when a guild did bargaining like this they had the friendly Master to the side, so that the group didn't feel too comfortable. Alissa wasn't sure what exactly to make of this.

For now she simply nodded a greeting and waited. Master George cleared his throat. "Thank you for coming. First I'd like to ask you to keep everything said here in confidence, whether you accept the job or not."

"Sure." Alissa didn't figure they'd learn anything incriminating so no reason to be cagey about it. The others agreed quickly as well.

"Thank you again." George paused. "I imagine you know quite a bit about the cause that struck our city and the cause."

"Duh," Kotori muttered. The harpy was ruffling her feathers nervously.

Rosalina grinned. "Just a little bit."

There was a bit of muttering from the assembled masters but nothing dangerous sounding. George simply nodded again. "Then we'll skip recounting that, and get right to the heart of the matter. Holding monsters, tamed or untamed, requires a great number of magical items. As one of the major engraving guilds we had a vested interest in finding out how those items were acquired by the criminals."

"Ah, that makes sense," Fili said. "I think the towers were holding a similar investigation."

"As well they should," George said. "To our dismay, we found many of the items involved used our guild's techniques. Further investigations led to a number of journeymen who had been providing work, some knowingly some unknowingly. But some pieces would require a Master's knowledge. Eventually we got one of the journeymen to admit Master Francis was involved in matters."

Akari folded her hands. "Unfortunate."

"Yes." George looked down at them. "In addition there was no information about the trades in our guild records. Which means he broke oath by doing work outside of guild sanction."

"Not good, but I figure that still falls under guild law," Clara said. "What's the catch?"

"We obviously sent a missive to summon him to trial for his actions," George replied. "Along with a team of affiliated delvers to make sure there weren't any unfortunate accidents." Sounded like standard procedure to Alissa. But that meant....

George looked down at his notes. "According to the survivors, Master Francis had hired two delving groups to assist him in fleeing the city. The groups clashed, and due to the weight of numbers, he escaped along with at least six accomplices. In the process our courier and two of our associated delvers were killed." His eyes had an icy gleam when he looked back up at their group. "We're taking it somewhat personally."

"You want him dead," Alissa said flatly. It was a little weird being hired specifically to kill a human. But she couldn't argue the man didn't deserve it. "Why us and not a bounty hunter?"

"Bounty hunters work solo or in small groups," George replied. "If the man still has the delvers with him, any bounty hunter would be overmatched."

Rosalina looked grim as she moved up to speak. "That's fair, but we're a group who hasn't been together long, and we're specialized in Labyrinth delving. Trekking across the wilderness would be new to us."

"We understand. But you're also more trustworthy than any other group we could reach out to," George said. "We're going to include proper supplies like a fortress chip to assist you in travel."

"Don't suppose those supplies include fresh blood from the target?" Clara said. "Because we're not exactly trackers."

George presented a sealed flask. "We have blood from one of the renegade delvers, but obviously we have no proof they stuck together. We are aware we're asking quite a bit of you."

"All this also assumes they've gone into the woods instead of simply taking a fast coach out of town," Fili pointed out. "How do we know they aren't halfway to the other side of the continent?"

"Our agents in other cities have confirmed they haven't passed through on the trails," George replied. "Past that we're aware it is a difficult mission, which is why we are willing to pay two thousand crowns each, purely as a retainer."

Alissa considered that. It wasn't a lot of money, but it was decent pay for a camping trip. Especially if the guild was going to give them supplies. "Give us a moment." She turned to huddle with the rest. "What do you think?"

"First we should ask if everyone is okay with hunting down another human," Akari said, ears twitching. "It's dark work. Were I a full priestess I'd probably have to refuse. However, in this case I feel the crimes are worthy of punishment."

"Hey if I eat his brains, it's not you killing him right?" Kotori chirped. "Everyone wins!" Alissa rubbed her forehead. That wasn't something you were supposed to be cheerful about except as a joke.

Raiel sighed. "I don't think it works like that."

"No actually it does," Akari replied. "It's about the spiritual residue, so having a summon kill him makes it fine." Alissa blinked. That seemed like a really ridiculous loophole, but maybe she was looking at it from the wrong angle.

Rosalina laughed. "Yeah, her religion's fun like that. But I think we're all fine with taking this particular asshole out right?" The rest of the group nodded. "So that brings us to the other problems. We'd be doing this instead of our normal work."

"Honestly, it might be good for me to get out of the city for a bit," Fili said. "Even ignoring the assassins, tamed monsters aren't popular right now. Especially humanoid ones. My friends are currently rooming at the tower themselves."

"Biggest questions are what's the rest of the deal, and how many people are we gonna be dealing with," Clara said. "Figure the money's no good if they want us fighting eight delvers geared up with whatever stuff this guy had around his shop. And even if it's a reasonable number I want serious cash for this."

Good questions Alissa had to agree. "I think those are the two sticking points. What's our aim in negotiations?"

"Ten K for the target and a bonus for all the minions," Rosalina said. "And a cutoff point after which we can call the contract done."

"Plus the info on who we're up against," Fili added.

"Plus the info," Rosalina agreed.

That seemed to settle it. Alissa turned back and asked. "Who are the delvers? And what's the terms?"

"There are five delvers, left alive from the initial encounter with our team," George said. "We have documentation based on their guild applications, but the simple term is a priest, an archer, and three fighters. All male. The teams' mages were both killed in the initial confrontation."

Ah. That was the other reason they were being called up, Alissa guessed. Their group had an incredibly unfair advantage. Assuming the information was good. She'd have to stay on her toes.

"Meanwhile the terms are simple. Nine thousand crowns for the corpse of Master Francis. Two thousand for each of his allies. Plus possession of all gear we allocate to assist you."

Well wasn't that a nice and vague offer. Cross country travel gear could be incredibly expensive and useful, or cheap junk that broke after two months. "Can we get a list of the gear?"

George handed down a paper to one of the secretaries that had been quietly lurking the in dark. The dwarf walked up and handed it to her and she turned to peruse it with the others. "Looks like the only real bits of value are the lightened packs and the fortress chip. How much does that go for Fili?"

"One hundred," Fili replied. "One fifty if it's a complicated variant."

Alissa quickly did the math, then turned back. "Ten thousand for the capture, a two month cutoff date, and supplies are to be measured based on party needs not 'average requirements.'" They wanted Clara and Akari on this mission they'd have to pay the proper amount.

Her request got a few chuckles, which was a good sign. George just wrote down the alterations. "Amended. Masters, your votes please. All opposed to the altered contract?" There was a short silence. "All agreed?" The hall erupted in 'ayes.'

"Then it is official. The guild offers you this contract. We'll hash out the exact wording and sign in the main office." George rapped a gavel on the podium. "The matter is concluded. We are adjourned."

Alissa looked back at the others. "Well, looks like we're going camping."

"Yep!" Clara grinned. "Time to sit down and plan out a little trip."