Contrary to imagination, whilst important, it wasn't towering, it wasn't imposing nor was it easily noticeable either; plain would describe it best, face bricked and a little wide, aged in areas that'd seen better days and where others hung carved wooden signs in the absence of affording neon lights, a solid copper plaque below the arches of the building's roof was the location of their own, a once dazzling copper brown having dulled and oxidized in certain areas to a corrupting blue-green colour although it still read clearly enough, the copper colour vaguely still present enough to discern the words: 'Thrimbohre's Guild'. Where one might come to assume it made up for its shortcomings with impressive inner architecture, however—the building itself continued to further refuse anything so outstanding for itself. Thrand once likened it some old house of his, not bad but it would look a lot better renewed.
They'd made it back not a few minutes after the conversation, newspaper in hand, the growing number of peculiarly dressed individuals spreading around them like wild fire. By the time they'd made it to the building's doorstep, there was truly no doubt that they were home; in the work sense of course, a natural comfort between comrades. Gale stepped through first with Gohlm following close behind, saloon doors swinging open as they waded through a gaggle of standing hunters staring at a fixed request board pinned to the wall. Around them were a few tables, stools and other boards holding the same papers aloft although contrary to the usual pattern, there were less of those staring at the boards than they were the many seated around the tables conversing with one another. They weren't a particularly introverted bunch, far from it although it wasn't the most prone thing with that tag over your neck to feel inclined to indulge in a lot of conversation unless necessary, too many treated the job a little more seriously than they needed to.
Closing in on the farther end of the building, towards a row of sectioned out front desks separating those behind it and in front of it by a thick pane of glass, catching a few snippets of conversation wasn't difficult; they were loud if anything else, most of them always were unless it was something of real importance but whatever it was seemed a shared source of interest, "Varlem too? It's a decent city though"
"No, not attacks you troll, security! Teeming with the forces over there"
"This about that Heart fella? Crisis, it's one lunatic, find him and be done with it. Tsk, all their doing now is making excuses to get their hands around the guild's movements"
Someone groaned, "Dear Theia, here we go again…"
"I'm serious! The Empire, The Mage Towers, The Coalition, all of them can't track down one measly psycho? It's a plot I tell you!"
"They've got their hands full with damage repairs, simple conflict of priorities"
"War repairs? Seriously? It's been over for sixty years"
"Went on for hundreds more, everyone's still fixing"
"Spare me the history lesson, you weren't even there when it happened"
Scoffing with a slight grin at the conjecture, a woman leaned back and asked, "How would you know? Long ears over here never does speak about his past"
The man laughed, "Him? The war? A face as clean as that and you telling me he saw it?"
"Could've been a general, what's the elf equivalent to that again…?"
"Well then why would he become an adventurer? There's more important things to be doing"
"It's been three years, why are we still interested in this? Clearly he used to be a bard"
They snickered, earning a passing glance over them as Gohlm focused forward again, his priorities elsewhere although Gale's gaze lingered for a minute, "The more I hear about it, the more serious it gets…" He sighed as Gohlm stared at him, crossing his arms whilst they walked, "It is a serial killer, I agree with Neil, pooling all those resources without so much as a lead is a bit embarrassing"
"Hearts though...a cannibal?" Gohlm tilted his head, shaking it after a moment, "Who knows, cannibal, cultist, whatever it is still leads back to a lunatic"
There was no argument there, shrugging as they reached the end of the room not long after. Behind the desks, behind the panes of glass lined with rose gold and in front of the messy cabinets from within where their stools sat…or at least where they were supposed to, she'd mentioned a long time ago that standing was a far more bearable endeavor than sitting on whatever seats the guild had to offer were their attendants, the guild's attendants—their handlers if one were to use their lingo. They did what one would expect, processed requests between client and adventurer, gave the rewards for a job well done. Get acquainted with them long enough and maybe they'd even offer up some advice, sing your name to clients a little more loudly than they did others…for a small price obviously.
The lines today were minimal, the two of them noticed, it was hard to even call the only three out of the seven desks currently being attended to a line—just two or more adventurers on each and the second was idle conversation, a well dressed older gentleman chatting up a woman of similarly aged stature though they both wore it well; it was rumors at first although now, one couldn't deny it, they were pretty much sure the two were seeing each other. Gossip like that, however, was better left to Neil and the others, where their interests lied was thankfully the only desk of the seven currently unoccupied but it was afternoon, the day looked slow but Melfeera was anything if not dedicated…which would be a lie, gambling rings didn't open anytime before dusk.
They approached the empty desk and tapped against the glass, the subtle shimmer of a barrier atop its surface reacting to the sudden impact—a shot from the guards behind the gates wouldn't get through it. "Mel!!" Gale called, resting his arms on top of the desk and tapping again. Cursing at the sound, there was a grumble before a door swung open behind the desk, creaking wood groaning at the shuffle of begrudging footsteps as a groggy lemon gaze swept over to meet them. "Beasty and tin man…" She moaned, moving over and pulling in a stool before she sat—smoothening out the creases in her black and red waistcoat, standard guild uniform.
"The both's of ya look exhausted, good hunt?" Mel half grinned, still groggy from rest, easy to tell that she hadn't been expecting any work, especially not today and most certainly not from the only two that pestered her almost as much as others did the rest of them seated behind these wooden desks. She rested her head on the palm of her hand, melting into it where dark claws accentuated them and swamp green skin spotted in various areas with black alongside small tusks below her upper lip that gave the simple assumption of an orc, she was short but not more so than the average person; the illusion, however, ebbed away at the rest of her features—longer ears and a snout, goblin-like to summarize, a mountain goblin to be exact. "Partially, if Gohlm had got it the first time it probably would've been"
"…" He wouldn't comment on that, the wind had set him off and frankly he'd nailed a decent enough shot in the end anyway. Really, the kicker here was the meat arsonist. Hearing that, Mel shook her head, an exasperated grin tugging at her lips as the grogginess slowly left her,. staring at them for a moment before she frowned, raising a brow where her gaze wandered over the both of them to their seemingly empty hands, "Jus' in case you's didn't notice, y'er. hands is empty" She noted, it was a handlers job to process the completion of a request and thus the contents that would prove as such—if need be. Last she remembered, they'd been on a hunting request, something about hell birds to the outskirts…where was it…Nordebrooke right? She eyed them as Gale glanced back where Gohlm stepped forward, hands on a pouch by his waist she'd only now noticed as he reached in to sift through its contents, the sounds of clattering coins from within raising a brow from her before a letter was produced from it.
"Sorry about this, Mel, it's one long haul from there to here" He commented as he handed the letter over, taking it from him slowly as her free hand shifted somewhere below the desk for a pair of square spectacles she used to read more carefully as she flicked the letter open, frowning whilst mulling it over, confusion slowly turning to exhaustion not a moment too soon. "Benedict paid you personally?" She inquired, earning a nod, the Nordebrooke's family crest seated at the corner of the bottom page, the image of a ring of roses surrounding a coiled serpent. The contents of the letter were simple, brief in their explanation. Benedict had simply written of his decision to personally reward the two hunters personally and that the guild need not bother itself with mandating the entire process as they usually did, after careful consideration he was sure the request had been completed rather satisfactorily. Glancing up from the paper as she met the two's gaze, she sighed, "You knows this's an issue, right? Gots to send's it to central now, big wigs will hound my neck if I don'ts report this"
"It's that much of a hassle?" Gale looked surprised as Mel groaned, "Tell me's about it, I'm too lazy for all that but a good haul though for ya? Bandits didn't getcha did they?" she chuckled, shaking her head at the thought and then placing the letter to the side as she gave them a sidelong glance at the lacking indication of parting words, frowning with a look of concern, "Take's a break will ya? Things don't mend themselves in a days work and trusts me anyway, nothings gonna pay ya well today"
The two of them sighed, that was easier said than done and frankly it was a bit tiring having to hear that. Nevertheless, Gale shifted, unperturbed by the fact that there weren't any jobs open for hire, they weren't looking for the ordinary anyway. Black requests were a special kind of job, they didn't have the level of susceptibility an ordinary request did to be influenced by sudden mishaps if they weren't in direct obstruction of the request itself, the level of necessity was just that high and thus, it was relatively easy for one to bypass such tumultuous tensions through the clients insistence for the requests completion…and besides, a majority of them never did come from the Empire specifically; there was a far more dangerous world in the realms of fantastic creatures.
Gale shifted raising an innocent brow, "Black requests too?" he inquired, a frown creasing Mel's features before darkening into one of greater gravity, "You're crazy" She scoffed as Gale pressed, "We can handle ourselves"
"You!? Beasty and tin man?" She growled, her gaze growing sharp as her tone froze, "Competent adventurers the two's of you are, Val, but so help me Theia; neither of you's going anywhere near those things. You and what army? Last I heard's, Tenma's workin' as an artificer and Thrand's got a tavern, nice place that is" she grumbled, setting the down her spectacles as Gohlm chimed, "We can make one" he said, it probably wasn't best to mention now that they'd been meaning to go alone from the start in order to carry most of the profits for themselves but Mel only glared, her lemon gaze settling on him like a dousing bucket of ice, "Fifteen years and that's your reasoning? Part of a party's strengths is familiarity, Gohlm, you's don't just fight with anyone when you's spent years fighting with others. Under circumstances like that, you's grown used to the way they fight, you's changed yourself to fit the mold withouts even realizing it. You's can predict them, you's can fight together withouts losing precious seconds having to communicate thoughts—THAT'S the essence of a party! THAT'S safety! THAT'S what toes the line between life and death and you's don'ts do it for a black request, you's don'ts place your life in the hands of others on a mission as dangerous as that, you hear?!"
She huffed, a quaint silence falling between them as the three of them stared at one another; Gohlm's gaze lowering first. To a certain extent, she was correct, there was a reason requests of that nature recommended a party for completion and even then, experience was of importance. Although there were degrees to the severity of every black request just as they were the regular, a dangerous request was still a dangerous request. After a moments more of that silence, Mel finally let out a breath and softened—tried to at least, "What coulds you want from it anyways? They pays a good haul but theys ain't an easy task" She sat upright and stretched, frowning slightly, "You're doing fine, you hears? That's why I never once considered this a profession ya know? Yous forgets that you're mortal, bleed and die, don'ts let that get to ya too"
They couldn't refute that, it was pointless to do that to the truth although no matter the circumstances they would've been fine but faced with the reminder of what that kind of request really was, it did sound a lot dumber now to have thought about it. Gohlm sighed, irregardless of the fact that there were few to no situations he could think of that would truly put either of their lives in mortal danger where his dragon companion was present, the sheer absurdity of two individuals completing such a request without any outside assistance was preposterous to even consider, at that point he might've as well have announced to the world what Vale and Gale were. Last time anyone checked, one was a highly competent combatant, the other was a decently skilled beast-man in the realms of elemental magic but no indication that they were anywhere near skilled enough to handle the job, a feat like that was unprecedented, a feat like that would undeniable spell trouble.
Mel raised a brow, "And why woulds you needs that much so suddenly?" She set her gaze between them, waiting for an answer before Gale coughed, making an effort of trying to showcase something along his fingers, funny really if Gohlm had to comment, Mel couldn't quite tell the difference, she'd never quite understood where she'd acquired such accessories nor how; let alone how they'd been struggling with so much gold in their possession. Maybe it was sentimental, she wouldn't question, though that notoriety for jewelry made it impossible to really spot anything new, most especially when the other party tried not to make it a process of outright telling them what had changed. She frowned more at Gale's interesting attempts at accentuation, perhaps noticing her usually bare fingers held at least one accessory now although wasn't that always the case? Maybe, who really knew, Val wasn't really answering the question so her gaze naturally shifted slightly to Gohlm.
His arms were crossed and he didn't seemed similarly confused by Val's mannerisms although the nature of his posture made it more than easy to glimpse something else, his hand resting on his arm, covered hands that were usually bare now had a—?! Involuntarily, her gaze flickered, catching the difference almost immediately as her eyes slowly widened, "Seriously, during a request?" She laughed, glancing at Val and back at Gohlm with a shake of her head, "Real romantic, Gohlm"
Hearing that as Gale beamed, proud of himself at the success of his 'subtle' hints, Gohlm coughed, shifting and glancing off to the side, "For your information, it was in a forest…"
"JURA FOREST?!" Mel hollered, spiraling into a fit of further laughter as he grumbled whilst Gale seemed to nod, "We'd just caught the thing we'd been hunting for nearly a week when—"
"Rights next to a corpse?!" She wheezed as Gohlm glared, staring back at Gale who seemed just as amused as she was, it wasn't even his fault, they'd been the ones who'd practically pounced on him for it, what was he to do in such a situation, fight off the strength of a dragon? But of course he couldn't mention that and of course Gale knew that much too and was readily enjoying the lack of a rebuttal of what was clearly a gross misrepresentation of the entire situation as he grumbled to himself beside them, 'I really hate this hiding thing sometimes…'
The embarrassment only deepened as Mel's laughing drew curious ears till in no time at all, what'd been a room swallowed on the topics of the situations outside of the city pivoted and narrowed upon himself. 'Haa' He sighed to himself just as a hand landed on his neck, "The two of you strolled in so quietly that I hadn't noticed, where is it, let me see it!" A man bellowed, bearded and amber eyed, larger than himself but a little shorter. Gohlm sighed, he was sighing a lot these days, but his hand raised itself anyway, lifting it enough that Draum beside him and those within the building could properly see it. "Crisis, it's really true!! I knew the tin bastard wouldn't die alone!"
"What sorry lies are those? You reckoned he was a living suit of armour, couldn't feel love if he tried!" A voice laughed as Draum scoffed, "You all thought it so don't ruin my praise!" He patted Gohlm on the back again, "Congratulations, brother, Theia be with you" He smiled as another lifted their hand and bellowed from the end of the room, "Glory to the tin man!!"
""Glory to Tin man"" They shouted, raising their hands in unison as the old gentleman from before nodded in Gale's direction, "And to Val, the spark that'd set him alight!!"
""To the lovely, Val!!"" They cheered again, an oddly warm feeling rising in his heart as Neil stood, "Thrand's tavern I say, tonight we celebrate the two!"
Draum scoffed, "Look at the opportunist, we all know that Thrand and them were in a party together once, could you be any more obvious about wanting free drinks?"
Neil scoffed, "That and celebrating them, two things can be true at once" Hearing that, Mel snorted from behind the desk and raised an incredulous brow, "Lay off on the alcohol, will ya? You'd be a fine adventurer withouts it, that's what clients say"
Neil groaned, shooing her off with a frown, "Spare me, Mel, what are we; the righteous Sword Saint? If I can do the job with a drink, what does it matter?" they nodded in agreement to that as a woman chuckled to his right, "Maybe if we all followed in his footstep, we'd be ramming those bloody daemon quests" she joked whilst Neil glanced at her, wincing at the thought, "No ones born like that beast, I can be sure that there's a person beneath all that armour of Gohlm's but that saint? Flesh and blood be damned, there's no human behind those eyes"
"What was it this time anyway?"
"Leviathan out at sea, I heard it was breathtaking—the way him and his party dealt with it"
"Is the swordless thing true? A blade technique so thin it appears nonexistent, splits the world itself?"
"Nonsense!!"
"I'd believe it, that monster's yet to lose a fight"
Unsurprisingly, the conversation pivoted again, allowing him to breathe a sigh of sigh of relief that attention had drifted elsewhere even though to faintly warm feeling still lingered, still pleasantly sat in his chest. Hearing snippets of the conversation however had clued them in on something as Gale turned to Mel who'd spaced out to the commotion, ears twitching as he brought her back where her a lemon gaze drifted and focused on them again, an exasperated smile over her lips though one that seemed more disbelieving than anything, amused perhaps even a little terrified, it was a an oddly complicated wrapped within a smile that settled towards them as Gale inquired, "Ramming through black requests? The Sword Saint?"
Mel chuckled, half so as though not really believing it herself but she nodded all the same, "I was goings to mention it if you'd kepts on insisting but there's no black requests anymore, no dangers that that kids allowin' to fester" She shook her head, "Him and his party, those monsters too, they's been trying to sweep that slate clean"
A frown creased the two's faces, they could do that? They could clean a specific kind of request down to complete eradication? That was preposterous, that was insanity….and yet, what part of guild rules denied the possibility of anyone being able to do such a thing? Thinking about it now, as far as regular requests went, there was no limit to how many times one could continue taking them up, there was no strict process of moderation that showed an abhorrence to te idea and thus, by all means one could simply do this, run a genre of requests to the ground, collect as many earnings as they could—rinse and repeat. There were no rules against it, specifically, none written on paper, unwritten yet firm but perhaps it was the threat of retaliation, none of them would've allowed someone to monopolize a certain kind of requests format like that. With that in mind, it made more sense why there'd be less of a volatile reaction to the whole thing, apart from an honest good deed, who here had the gull to tell the saint to stop; who here had the strength? No one really, not even all of them combined.
At that, their plans really caved in on themselves, the easiest path forward had been barred off completely; if it was a culling of requests of that nature then they were surely going to lose in a race to complete one, besides, the more he thought on the matter of explaining a successful mission of that nature, the less inclined they were to take it anyway. Gohlm sighed as Gale followed suit, dejection at the fact that the more realistic option was slaving it until they could afford it…best not to do the math of when that'd happen; the results wouldn't be satisfying. Staring at them, however, Mel frowned—thinking on something for a moment before hopping off the stool and moving to the door she'd entered through earlier.
"It'd eat me alive if I didn'ts at least mention something of help", the two of them heard her mutter whilst coming back through the door with an envelope sealed with a family crest—noble? Gohlm raised a brow from behind the helm as Gale pondered although their questions were quickly answered, "It's a special request, the kinds the guild promises to do hiring through personal recommendations—ya know, nots on the boards, fewer candidates for hire?"
Gale's eyes widened, wondering all the same, "What is it? If you were so adamant on us dying on a daemon request, what's the difference here? Special requests are of urgent matters aren't they?"
The goblin scoffed, "You wish they were, Val, not all the time and most certainly not this one but there was some merit to it"
"Merit?" Gohlm chimed as Mel slowly grinned, "Escort request, right up your alleys aye? They's got money to spend—noble heritage but the rewards pretty handsome, I know how much a weddings probably gonna cost the both of ya but whatever they've got will be enough"
Listening to that, his brow couldn't help but lower, crumpling with the other into a frown, "They didn't specify what kind of escort constituted that level of compensation?"
Mel shrugged, "secret stuff, guild left it to us to leave in recommendation for suitable candidates so I can tell you that much that it's real. For what? They didn't say and in all honesty it's in none of our business to know really—between client and adventurer in these kinds of manners but it pays well, noble's lives revolve arounds entertainment these days so whats the worst you could be guarding them from?" She joked, "I'll recommends ya, alright with that?"
They took a moment to ponder before answering, a sudden part of the conversations happening around soon garnering their ears attentiveness, "We've gone off the road, Thrand's Tavern, tonight. Celebrate our lovely lovebirds, we'll have a dress code yeah?"
"Put a sock on it, we'll be there for them and the drinks"
"C'mon, since when do you dress well anyway?"