As both Liane and Joanne positioned themselves to start, it was agreed they would fight to first blood, and Liane was allowed to use all her abilities, which confused me.

"Won't that make it too easy for Liane?" I asked Jen in a hushed tone.

"No. Guild masters are usually some of the highest levelled individuals, so there won't be any real danger, and in a real fight—going all out—Liane wouldn't stand much of a chance, I'd guess. Also, someone so keen to spar like this wouldn't be lacking in tools to defend," Jen explained.

"Just watch," she added with a wink, and I turned back just in time to see Liane placing what I swore was a bit of the candy in her mouth before vanishing.

I thought it would be over in a second, but as Joanne stood still waiting, everything happened in a flash. A long blade formed, deflecting Liane's dagger as she came out of the shadows in an instant. Following it up with a lunge, Joanne pushed the advantage—only to find air as Liane was already gone.

Again she appeared behind Joanne and, in the blink of an eye, Joanne had her water blade in exactly the right position to deflect Liane. This time Liane seemed ready for it, dropping low and, with a sweeping kick, trying to take Joanne's legs. Joanne leapt back to avoid it—where Liane was already behind her, the dagger hitting something hard.

Again Joanne jumped backwards, breathing hard.

"You're very tricky to hold down, aren't you," she said, as Liane stood there with a wicked smile on her face.

"And you're difficult to cut," Liane retorted with a laugh.

After a brief laugh between the two, they launched back into it, and it was mostly Joanne defending from Liane's strikes. I also noticed when I spotted Liane eating something else before continuing on.

As Liane came out of her shadow, a ring of water appeared around Joanne, quickly coalescing into teardrop-shaped shards that shot off in all directions. Liane immediately vanished again before it erupted. I was a little worried it would hit us—and they did, almost—however, by the time they reached us, the shards were evaporated mid-air by Crisplet.

"Ooh, Liane is forcing her to use some other abilities," Micca commented.

I saw Liane appear from all directions, striking at Joanne several times but finding a water shield blocking the blow. The exchanges went on for some time before both combatants looked like they were running out of energy. Liane appeared in front of Joanne, daggers in hand, going for her chest.

Joanne predictably deflected the daggers. I was shocked as Liane's whole form was knocked to the side—as if pulled along with the daggers. Joanne capitalised, and with the blade of water she stabbed into Liane's leg as Liane fell to the side.

Only for that version of Liane to vanish, as a grinning Liane appeared behind Joanne.

"Got you," she said, stepping back.

It was then we all noticed a very small cut just on the right side of Joanne's neck—her own leg completely uninjured.

"Nice trick," Joanne said with a laugh, rubbing her neck where the small cut was.

"Decoy?" she asked. Liane just nodded.

"Well played," Joanne said, bowing to Liane. "I don't know how you lasted so long. Your stamina and mana must be monstrous. I was nearly dry myself."

"I may have had some outside support for that," Liane said, laughing.

"Oh? You can use potions in the shadows?" Joanne was looking at her in a new light.

"No, no—nothing like that. No potions at all." Liane didn't elaborate further, just basking in her glory.

"Anyone else want to try?" she said, looking us over, and I shook my head. No chance I was going to embarrass myself with combat. Micca likewise said no, but Jen seemed to consider it for a moment.

"Maybe in the future if we spar outside, but not down here," she said finally.

"Ah, need more space. Yeah, it is very cramped down here, I understand. Well, I'm going to head upstairs and get changed. Do you all have your rooms in town sorted? If not, we do have guild rooms available at this branch," she said.

This caught Hari's attention, who had been training George and Darren the entire time—although I did notice not a lot of training was happening while the sparring was going on.

"We'll take you up on that offer. We'd like a little peace and quiet if at all possible, and after our entrance into town, I think we need to let things settle before we head back out," he said.

"Makes sense. Well, if some of you want to follow me, I can get you all sorted—including the non-guild members—with a temporary pass," she said, heading towards the stairs.

Jen, Liane, myself, and Micca all went towards the stairs as well. Hari stayed behind to continue training, not missing his chance, and Crisplet was observing Milo as he worked.

As we reached the guild hall, it was an absolute buzz of activity, and it seemed word of our entrance into the town had spread because the room practically fell silent as we came up the stairs. Almost every eye in the room turned to us.

"Back to your business unless you want to be given a job to kill and clean the razor barnacles off the cliff!" Joanne barked, noticing all the attention, but quickly everyone went back to their conversations or drinks.

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Well, at least they appeared to anyway.

Approaching the counter, "Hello, Clive. Could you please register their entire group for the rooms on the third level? Several members are not guild members. If you'd like, I'd love another spar tomorrow," Joanne said to Liane, who happily agreed, before we wandered off, leaving us with Clive at the counter.

Clive looked to be busily preparing several things.

"Before I escort you up, how many in the group, and how many will need guest passes?" he asked.

"Three will need passes, and there are eight in total," Jen explained, taking the lead.

"And how many animals do you need housed? We may need to use stables off-site to hold your horses," Clive began.

"Just the five horses, thanks," Jen replied happily.

"Didn't you enter with another one?" Clive asked, looking up at us for the first time.

"I'm not entirely sure you want to treat Lily as 'just an animal.' She can understand everything you say and do," Liane said coldly.

Clive just gulped. "Of course, of course. Let me show you to your rooms," he said, quickly gathering his items at the desk, and he led us towards the stairs.

As we entered the floor, I quickly noticed our group would be taking almost the entire level as he showed the rooms we'd be staying in—going so far as to prepare a room for Lily as well. I knew she'd never use it, but I didn't want to correct the poor man who clearly looked nervous.

Thanking him, we all entered the same room, and I was shocked at the size—especially since everyone had their own room—and yet it was massive. Along the wall hung weapon racks, with two large chests to hold belongings by the beds, a desk, and even a mannequin in the corner for training.

"Wow, these rooms are amazing," I commented, looking around.

"Not surprised. Usually these rooms are reserved for dignitaries who come from the capital to inspect the guild and its actions," Jen said, falling onto one of the beds.

"They even have a bath!" Liane said excitedly as she peered behind a screen while exploring the room herself.

"I'm going to go have one right now!" she said, practically skipping out to go to her own room.

It seemed Micca was quick to follow. "It's been so long! I'm going too."

Jen just sighed. "I want to run off too, but first I need to drop these passes off to the others downstairs. Do me a favour, Trev—don't wander off today. From tomorrow you should be okay to walk around here by yourself. I doubt anyone will want to mess with someone who has such dangerous friends." She chuckled before leaving the room too.

And for the first time in a very long time, I was alone.

I decided to lie on the bed, and it was so incredibly comfortable that it only took a few minutes before I was asleep.

***

I woke to the sound of knocking at my door.

"Trev? You in there still?" a voice called out as I groggily got up.

"Wha… what?" I mumbled.

"We're heading down for some food if you want to join us," Micca said, now coming further into the room.

"Oh, sorry. I must have fallen asleep. Yes—food, thanks!" I said as I hurriedly tried to get off the bed and tidy myself up a little. Hopefully I wasn't the only one who hadn't had a bath.

Micca was waiting by the door as I approached.

"You fell straight to sleep, didn't you?" she said with a chuckle.

"The bed was so comfortable. I'm pretty sure it's magic," I said in my defence, giving the bed a glare as if it had lured me.

"Come on, everyone else is waiting," Micca said, opening the door to lead me out.

As I took in the others, I quickly realised that George and Darren had been training all afternoon—they both looked exhausted. Crisplet rushed over to my side the moment I came into sight, and the only person missing was Milo.

"Milo still working down there?" I asked curiously.

"Yeah, we're not going to see him for a couple of days at least. He keeps running into patches of rock that are harder to work with than others—and taking out his notebook," Hari said with a chuckle.

"But that's okay. We wanted to relax. I think we need to find you a kitchen to use tomorrow," Hari said, as if in thought, before leading us down the hall towards the stairs.

The town was not overly large, but it still took us three attempts to find an inn that wasn't full of loud drunks telling a story of how they stared down death incarnate itself and banished it from the town.

Jen was just shaking her head when I heard Liane whisper, "If any of these weak bastards came face to face with Lily, they'd be pissing themselves in an instant."

I couldn't help but laugh. I feel she was absolutely right.

In the third inn, we found a place serving crumbed local fish with a side of fried potatoes. It smelled amazing!

"Geo does the fried potatoes sometimes when Buvul tallow is cheap at the market. You cut the potatoes into little finger shapes, then boil them briefly, before drying them off and frying them in the Buvul fat. They are absolutely amazing, and we always sold out incredibly fast," Micca explained.

I had seen him do the crumbed fish, but never the potatoes that way. If the smell was anything to go by, I was really looking forward to it.

As we all sat down—making sure to take a booth as far away from the door as we could—we were quickly served by a waiter. Everyone ordered the same, along with a different kind of alcoholic drink for Hari, and a new fruit-based drink I had never heard of.

When it arrived, it was almost a deep purple in colour and smelled really sweet. When I poured a mug of it from the jug, though, it bubbled. Tasting it, there was a tingle on my tongue as little bubbles popped. The flavour was amazing, light, rich with berries and I realised it was very dangerous because I could finish the jug by myself.

"Often it's mixed with spirits, which are high-alcohol liquids, and the berry hides the alcohol taste, so you end up with a sweet, tasty—but dangerous—drink," Liane explained, trying it herself.

"This place is particularly nice—they have a really nice one, I wonder if they make it in house," she added, taking another sip.

I couldn't help but notice George and Darren were both sharing the ale with Hari. I wondered if they'd had it before.

While I was pondering that, the meals came out, and they smelled even better in person. The fish was large, with perfectly cooked golden crumbs, and the fried potatoes were absolutely amazing.

They were crispy on the outside, but the inside was super fluffy, and the flavour was rich. They were also lightly salted. An idea struck me: I flagged down the waiter and asked for four more of the fish.

When I got a raised eyebrow from Jen over it, "I'm going to give some to Lily—see if she likes it," I said excitedly.

"And if she doesn't, then I will have spares in my storage," I added with a smile.

The rest of dinner passed without much issue. The waiter must have thought I had a massive appetite, because he did a double take after dropping off the four extra plates—and by the time he made his rounds again, they were all empty, sitting in a stack in front of me.

We thanked the waiter as we left for the night and made our way back to the guild without trouble. It was a strange feeling not having to look over our shoulder, or be in a rush to do something, or have to leave.

I could get used to this.

"Erm, Trev, I know you were saving all those fish for Lily. I don't suppose you could put one aside for Milo—I completely forgot about him," Hari said, scratching the back of his head and looking embarrassed.

I just laughed. "No problem—three should be plenty as a tester for Lily."

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