There were few things that Ace didn’t enjoy. Sitting around in a waiting room and being punished by the law were high on the list. Unfortunately, being part Demon, he was used to receiving these things more than others. His light red skin and horns rarely discussed if not to scare children into behaving or convince a villager they needed their pitchfork in hand. The sclera of his eyes were black, but they almost seemed to hum beneath the surface of his blue irises.

He was sitting outside of the Guildmaster’s meeting room, opting to sit in the middle of the row of chairs. The Dunlock Guild was not recently established, but due to poor funding and residing in the small village of Wirthwire, nothing about the building gave off a feeling of confidence. The windows were broken, grime marring the wooden floors even this early in the morning.

Time passed and more people came in to wait, the problem with small towns soon becoming apparent as the newcomers sat far from him on either side, some even opting to stand. Despite the hood of his tattered grey cloak being up, his horns still made his outline noticeably different from that of an ordinary human. His thoughts were interrupted as a gruff voice caught his attention.

“Ace, the Guildmaster will see you now.” The man in plate armor said, his eyes barely visible through the helmet. Ace didn’t need to see his eyes to know what he was thinking. His hand hovering at the side of his weapon told him enough.

He was guided to a bare office, a woman sitting behind a large brown desk with papers strewn across it. The woman couldn’t have been past her 40s, but her wide face seemed to carry an exhaustion that only paperwork could provide. She barely looked up from her paperwork when he came in. Better than the reactions he usually got, he thought.

“Sil- no. Ace…just Ace. Nice to see naming conventions haven’t changed among the Demonkin.” She said dryly as he sat down. Looking around the haphazard desk, he found himself craning his head to read the barely visible name plate. Guildmaster Mop Ieng.

Yes, I’m the only one here with a weird name, he thought to himself.

“It is pretty weird.” Ace said with a forced laugh. “Did you have time to look into my case? I told the people at the front desk that-”

“Yes, we did.” Mop said cutting him off. “You have been charged with attempted murder. The party you joined seems to believe you attempted to kill them with a fire spell. You said it was your only chance to survive. The severity of this cannot be denied. This could result in imprisonment.”

“We were surrounded by monsters. It was either that fire spell or certain death. I healed them all afterwards anyway.” Ace said, his voice raised. They were trying to bleed him dry of gold and kick him out of the guild. Months of no access to guild services was the least of his concerns if he did not have enough gold to make it to Velantris.

“Yes, I see here you claim to be a holy sorcerer.” She said, looking at him unconvinced. The most obvious part of his heritage was on the opposite end of the spectrum so it wasn’t surprising that she didn’t buy it.

“Look at this.” He said holding his hands out in front of him, the cuts and bruises from the Kobold ambush still with him. Focusing on the cuts, he spoke one word.

“Recover”

As the word left his lips, his hands were surrounded by a pale green light that seemed to thread itself through the wounds and close them. He looked up to see Mop staring at him with a dumbstruck expression painted on her face.

Honestly, that is almost always worth it.

“Now that you’ve seen this was all a mistake, can we drop the charges?” Ace asked.

“Well, I’m sorry to tell you this, “Mop said in a tone convincing no one. “But your former party took the rewards for the quest and left.”

“What?” Ace said, springing up from the chair as the door to the room swung open, the guard on the other side looking inside with his weapon drawn. Guildmaster Mop waved him away dismissively, the guard bowing twice before closing the door allowing Ace to continue. “They didn’t have to wait for the investigation to be finished?”

“You could have been trying to kill them to keep the reward.” Mop said, showcasing her preferred version of events. Ace felt the heat rise under his skin as he tried to keep an even tone of voice.

“Then they would be dead since I was the one who hauled their bodies off the battlefield. You can ask the owner of the caravan I paid to help me if he saw any other adventurer that looked like me helping injured adventurer’s get back home. His name was Victor Mayne.”

“We can’t trust the word of someone you paid.” Mop said with an exasperated sigh, lazily resting her head on her hand.

“I didn’t pay the villagers that saw me bring back Alexi and his dimwits” Ace said calmly.

“I suppose we could round up any willing witnesses to see what they have to say.” Mop said with what looked like a sneer. “We would have to keep you in a cell until the investigation is concluded.” Ace grimaced at that. She was stalling to find a way to keep him from getting his gold. Fighting this would get him nothing but wasted time. The idea of spending any more time with this woman frustrated him enough. He could not afford to waste months in a cell. Wait. Maybe there was a way past this.

“I saw a job post for escorting a caravan to Silva. Put me down for that and we can forget about all of this.” Ace said. Silva was a 2 day journey from Mica and the job posting had said they would receive payment as well as free meals. That would have to tide him over until then since he was losing out on the gold for this quest.

“I can definitely do that.” Mop said with a smile, no doubt elated at no investigation being launched into the issue. Ace tried his best to keep a grimace off of his face as he reached over to shake her hand. Mop’s smile faltered as she cautiously took his hand and Ace felt his fake smile become genuine. Seeing her uncomfortable would have to be his reward for killing those goblins.

Ace strode out of the door quickly after Mop signed the new quest document, hoping to get an idea of who his team would be right away. He headed to the information desk where Lilah, a human woman, was in charge of quest referrals. She was tall with sharp features, her black hair braided down to her waist.

“Ace, what was the verdict?” she said with a concerned expression on her face. He doubted her at first. An attendant at a guild should be courteous to everyone regardless, but the ideal definitely was not something he had seen in practice during his last two guild visits in Southern Aseria. Would it be so bad if she was really just pretending to be concerned? She would still be slightly better than everyone else.

“I don’t get the gold for this quest,” Ace said with a shrug before putting the quest form on the desk. “But I get put on the caravan quest heading out tomorrow morning.”

“Should be a quiet trip at least.” Lilah said as she stamped the paperwork and placed it under the desk in front of her. “The people on this one seem nicer than the ones you left with before.”

“Yea, though it’s hard to be worse than Alexi.” Ace said, his annoyance renewed. Alexi Vorunaff, the sleazy knight. When they first decided to work together two weeks ago, Alexi made a big show of how accepting he was of other races. His God, Moratta of the Earth, welcomed all under his banner. The villagers ate it up at the time and even Ace had a bit. It was hard enough to find people willing to work with him in a small town that he could not scrutinize every person who offered.

“I did try to warn you.” Lilah said. “I’m not sure how he convinced you to join him in the first place.”

“I thought he was just a showoff, not an asshole.” Ace said. He had known enough people with extravagant ways of speaking. All types of people find their way to the sea eventually. None of them liked him either though he could not blame them. “Regardless, quiet is just what I need right now. Do you know where he went?”

“I heard he took a ship to Velantris this morning. Megan and Vorose went with him.” Lilah said.

“He’s already far away.” Ace said with a hint of anger. Ace could not recall much about Megan or Vorose outside of their skills. Megan was a slim raven haired magician that seemed to specialize in water magic while Vorose was a taller than average bald man who fought in the frontlines alongside Alexi. The only thing the two had in common was their docility when it came to following Alexi’s orders.

“You said you were headed to Velantris, right?” Lilah said as she brought out another quest document. “Why not just take this quest? It will get you passage through the Elysian Ocean in a matter of weeks. They head out tomorrow so you wouldn’t be too far behind him.”

“Are you condoning revenge?” Ace asked with a bit of hope in his voice. It was true. The quest would get him there a week after Alexi, accounting for the different pit stops the quest giver requested along the way. This was assuming the weather was decent.

“Adventurers should settle all squabbles between themselves.” Lilah said matter-of-factly, but with a glint of a smile. Alexi must have pissed her off somehow.

“Thanks, Lilah, but I’ll have to pass. I’m heading out now. Going to get ready for tomorrow.” Ace said with a forced smile as he turned towards the door.

“Fine. I don’t see why you’d risk falling behind.” Lilah said.

“Because I can’t count on good weather.” Ace said as he opened the door and walked outside, the beginnings of a storm already starting to form in the sky.