The din of conversation hits me the moment I step into the meditation hall. It isn't anywhere near the loudest I've ever heard, but compared to anything we've seen in the quest? Eight voices talking at once is almost deafening.

There's a sort of tension in the air as Dani, Ward, and Rina follow me through. Jumble and Euro say something I can't hear and rush over to talk to their friends. I keep walking towards the newcomers–people I've never seen before–who seem awestruck, confused, and a little nervous at the same time. Clutter's right there assuring them that their concerns are valid and their worries are being heard, but he looks unbelievably uncomfortable.

So it's my turn to step in. I throw an arm around his shoulder and smile at our new allies. He twitches in surprise and snaps his neck to stare at me, then sighs in relief and raises both his hands to cup Pearl's shell. She hurries from being hidden in his cloth to the safety of her shell before I can say a single word.

"So you're our other residents." I say cheerfully. "I'm assuming Jumble filled you in on the rules around here?"

Two of the newcomers–the gris and one of the y'tocwa–share a confident look. The other three keep their eyes locked on me. Yet all of them stay silent. Like schoolkids too scared to speak up in fear of giving the wrong answer. I turn down the smile and cheeriness a notch to shift into business mode. Somehow, that seems to give people more confidence than the friendly approach.

"I'm going to take that silence as a yes." I state. "Before we get down to business, I need to know your names. Or if you're not willing to tell me that I'll need something to call you so I'm not labeling you something like 'y'tocwa one and two'."

The gris–a short woman with cloudy eyes, silvery white fur, and a pattern like broken glass on her left hand that glows with a pulsing teal light clears her throat. She holds her hands in a way that hides the pattern, straightens her back to stick-up-the-ass territory, then locks those strange eyes into the space just next to my head.

"I am Shatterhand, first kit of Godsbreath and Torchpaw. My companion here is Llaliu." She says in one of the quietest voices I've ever heard. But there's confidence in her quiet. "We were brought here as hired help for a group of paindne researchers, but they retreated at the last hurdle."

"With all of our pay, too." Llaliu grumbles in agreement. "In the spur of the moment we went on ahead without them. Huge mistake."

Shatterhand shrugs. "I'd call it a minor mistake, if anything. A momentary flaw in judgment brought on by the annoyance of being stiffed our rightful pay and weeks of work. Yet here we stand now. Ready to work with you if the terms are acceptable."

Llaliu snorts and crosses her arms. "What she means is if you've got a plan to get us out of here, we're in. Just don't jerk us around and leave us in the lurch when you get cold feet."

"That won't be happening." Clutter assures her. "We want to get out of here alive more than anything else."

"I would hope so." Shatterhand whispers.

The two of them share one more look as the tension in their bodies dissolves. Two down, three to go. One ogean, a paindne, and another y'tocwa. The paindne is in the process of trying to hide behind the ogean, his eyes unwilling to meet mine for even a second. But the ogean, too, seems to be avoiding my gaze. Only the other y'tocwa has the guts to meet my eyes, and from the disgruntled look on their face, I don't think that's a good thing.

I offer them a toothy smile. "How about you, friend? Are you in?"

They nod instantly. "Yes. I am Wojkmi."

Okay, didn't expect that. I narrow my eyes to try and see through whatever sarcasm Wojkmi is throwing my way, but I can't make out anything through their unchanging expression. Hell, I can't even tell if they're male or female thanks to my lack of knowledge with the y'tocwa. But I guess this is what I wanted, so let's just roll with it.

"Glad to have you, Wojkmi." I say slowly, then turn to the last two. "Which leaves only our skittish friends."

The paindne squeaks and tries even harder to hide while leaving only one eye visible. "Please don't eat me."

I roll my eyes. "It's been a while since a paindne's reacted like this to me."

"Since me, I think." Clutter laughs. "But you had Illumisia with you, which is at least sixty percent of why you were scary."

"Only sixty percent?"

He shrugs. "You cornered me in an alley. Anyone would've scared the heck out of me."

"Hm. Fair point." I sigh and return my attention to the last two. "Let's start with you then, mister protector. What should I call you?"

The ogean goes stiff and pounds both his fists against his chest in a strange salute. "Sawyer Silvergreen, ma'am! Ready for orders!"

Sivergreen? His fur is an extremely dark green with a slight tinge of silver, so… maybe that's where it comes from. The poor thing also seems just as terrified as his friend behind him, but in a very different way. Maybe he's from a military family or something.

"At ease, soldier." I say sarcastically. "We're on a quest, not a battlefield."

Sawyer swallows hard as he lowers his arms. "With all respect, ma'am, this entire quest is a battlefield."

"Not everywhere. We're safe here." I assure him, but that doesn't do anything for his tenseness. "Alright, be vigilant–just don't let your anxiety affect your performance. I don't want you accidentally attacking one of us."

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

"Yes, ma'am! I-I mean, no, ma'am! I–" Sawyer gulps and snaps his mouth shut. "Permission to be quiet?"

I roll my eyes. This is going to be annoying. "Go ahead. But step to the side so I can see whoever's hiding behind you."

Sawyer nods vigorously and steps to the side. The paindne scrambles to try and follow behind the much larger ogean, but fails miserably. He tries to hide his face, but peeks out from between his fingers every now and again–completely destroying any attempt to remain anonymous. I study his face for any signs of being a first-wave descendant, but nothing obvious stands out. He's just a much smaller paindne.

I gently tap Clutter with my elbow and raise an eyebrow. He shrugs helplessly, then nods back at Jumble. Because she's the one that just talked with them, not him–right, almost forgot that. Well, I'm fairly confident Jumble would warn me if this guy was a first-wave, but I'll have to check when he's not standing within earshot.

"You're the last one left. I need to be confident that you're not going to betray us to the horizonguard. If you're not confident in fighting, we can find something much safer for you to do. How's that sound?"

The small paindne bristles, even as he shivers. "I can fight! I'm not weak! Do you think that just because I'm small that I can't fight? Because you're wrong! I'm powerful!"

I raise an eyebrow. "Then you're fine exploring on your own?"

He nods vigorously. "More than fine. Better than more than fine! I'll be the best at whatever you need doing no matter what it is you need doing! Gnash's the name. Don't underestimate me and we won't have any problems!"

Punctuating the end of his sentence, Gnash darts behind Sawyer and hides most of his body from me. I can't tell if he's all bluster and no substance or if there's actual power behind his words since my awareness can barely feel a wisp of magic from him. But hey, if he puts himself in danger for self-aggrandizing reasons, that's no skin off my back. I scan the group of newcomers as Jumble brings her party into my field of view, putting our numbers at fourteen. Even if most people here only think it's twelve.

Jumble gives Euro a confident nod and pats them on the shoulder, then breaks off to stand to my left. All conversations quiet instantly, as if everyone here can sense that it's time to get down to business. I clear my throat, startling the hell out of Sawyer and Gnash, and gather my thoughts in the brief moment before I lay out the plan.

"I'm sure Jumble already told all of you everything, but right now, you're standing in a magical room that lets you experience subquests that anyone connected to the tower has already finished. Right now we have two–one that unlocks our map and another that unlocks the messenger function."

I pull out my Class Card and hold it out between my fingers. "Whatever the final objective is for this quest, we're going to need completely unlocked Class Cards to achieve it. That's why you're all standing here right now; as guests, you can use the facilities we've unlocked and also contribute to them."

Shatterhand nods knowingly. I wait a moment for her to speak up, but apparently she's more than happy to stay silent. Much to my surprise, so is everyone else. Just in case I give it a few more seconds, then lower my Class Card and pull out the wreath-sphere.

"This thing tells me where every single subquest in this district is." I explain, which widens more than a few eyes. "We don't know which of them does what, and we also don't know if each and every one of them's going to come with a respective room addition. So we're going to split up, tackle as many of these quests as quickly as possible, and un-grey all of our Class Cards. Then we move out and figure out how to add the surrounding districts to our tower's influence."

Gnash raises his hand and waves it about. I point at him and he steps out from behind Sawyer. "How come we don't get full access to the tower? If we're doing an equal share of the work, we deserve an equal share of the spoils."

I can't hold back a snort. Gnash frowns, obviously thinking that I'm laughing at him. Before he can open his mouth to let loose whatever he's got cocked I hold up a hand to get him to stop.

"The damn rewards we've gotten are all here," I gesture at the meditation chamber, "and in our Class Cards. No Worth, no treasures, no spells, no stats."

Llaliu crosses her arms with a scowl. "That's what we've seen, too. We finished one subquest before we got here, but it only unlocked our stat screens. Not really valuable when there's no new Worth to level with."

"Hm. Good to know." I turn to the other three. "How about you three? Finish any subquests before you found our tower?"

Wojkmi shakes their head. "No quests. Only combat."

"Too much combat." Sawyer shudders. "So many things that wanted to kill us. So many things."

"But no Worth from any of them!" Gnash loudly butts in. "Even when we mushed them into paste the system didn't give us the break bonus! What're we supposed to do with a bunch of meat, stone, and spilled magic?!"

Clutter winces. "Maybe… you could've saved the magic? Because it could be important to the quest?"

Gnash shakes his head. "If it was important, they wouldn't make 'em so easy to accidentally kill."

"There's a staggering lack of logic in that statement." Shatterhand sighs.

"Well excuse us for not trying to disarm a giant with a glass reservoir on its back." Gnash grumbles and crosses his arms. "All I did was throw one thing at it. Damn thing exploded like quickly cooled glass and almost blew all of us up."

The two quickly devolve into an argument that neither of them seems to have their heart in, but they fight nonetheless. I take a breath through my nose and try to come up with the right thing to say, but Jumble's arm lacing through mine shifts my attention to her. She smiles confidently and silently mouths a question; 'want me to finish up'?

Shit, yeah, I'm more than happy to let her have the final word. I give her a nod which she returns, then puts on a genuine smile and catches everyone else's eyes one by one. Except the two who are sort of arguing. You know, now that I have a second to think, I'm surprised Dani hasn't spoken up. He has an almost faraway look in his eyes ringed with fear that flares up for a moment when he meets Jumble's eyes.

The hell did she say to them while my back was turned?

"Thanks, everyone, for listening so far!" Jumble says, her words scything through the noise like a sharpened blade. Gnash and Shatterhand go silent instantly and laser-focus on Jumble. "Don't worry, we're almost done with the boring part. If you're confident enough to work on your own, you'll get a quest and go do it as quickly as you can. Otherwise you'll get a partner to work with. When you finish the quest, come right back here and take a break for a little while, and if anyone else has found quests that give more of our Class Cards, use the meditation chamber to do those quests."

She feigns a pause, and right when the questions start, resumes talking. "But before any of that happens, we have two quests that you should really finish. Maps and messengers will make this a whole lot easier, you know? Now–split into groups so you can finish these meditations as fast as you can, and when you're done, come to Shelby for an assignment. If you have any grievances or need help with anything, come to me. And don't bother Clutter–he's going to be way busier than anyone else."

Clutter's eyes widen as if to say 'I am?', but he keeps his mouth shut. So does everyone else. Jumble looks around with the same smile, then claps her hands.

"If we're all on the same page, then it's time to get moving! Every second we're doing nothing is a second someone else is getting ahead of us, so let's do this as fast and efficiently as possible!"

She turns to me, and her smile lightens a shade. "The quicker we're done, the sooner we can get on with the rest of our lives."

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