“Hmm,” I muttered.

  “What’s up, House?” asked Selina.

  “I just got an alert from one of my [stray cats] out on patrol,” I replied.

  “Did one of them find the Don?” asked Selina.

  “No, it wasn’t one of them,” I said, “normally I get a sense of why the stray sends me an alert, but I just got a sense of unease from this one.”

  “That is kind of strange,” Selina noted.

  “Hold down the fort. I’m going to check this out real quick,” I said before jumping into the stray that was out on patrol.

  The ping from the stray cat didn’t do the feeling justice. It felt like I was being watched from every direction by hungry preditors.

  “What the hell…” I thought in confusion.

  A slight sound spooked my stray.

  My stray spun around and stared at the direction the sound had come from.

  “All right, fuck this. Get on a roof,” I ordered.

  I figured that whatever was after my cat would have a harder time sneaking up on it if I had a full view of my surroundings.

  My stray latched onto the idea and dashed up onto the nearest building and spent a few moments frantically spinning in circles on the highest point of the roof.

  The feeling seemed to dissipate for a moment.

  “I think it’s- OH SHIT!” I swore as a shadow fell over my cat.

  “Mr. House, Mrs. Medowsong requests a meeting with you,” said the owner of the shadow.

  “U-Ulandi!” I stuttered as the ranger put a rolled up piece of parchment at the foot of my cat.

  “Good day to you, Mr. House,” Ulandi said before taking a step off of the roof.

  I had my stray pick up the parchment and walk over to the edge of the roof.

  “She’s gone,” I thought in bewilderment as I looked over the mostly empty street.

  ***

  “Well this is the place,” I said to Selina as we stood in front of the Delver’s Guild entrance.

  “I still can’t get over how normal this place looks like from the front,” Selina sighed.

  “What, expecting a taxidermied monster out front or something?” I grinned from the [lucky cat] I was piloting.

  “Maybe?” shrugged Selina, “anyways, let’s see what Guildmaster Medowsong wants.

  The two of us walked into the guild to be met by a receptionist at the front desk.

  “Welcome to the Harmony City Delver’s Guild branch. What can I help you with?” beamed a bright eyed human that gave me the impression that she was the niece of someone higher up in the guild.

  “Hi, we have an appointment with the Guildmaster. It should be under Mr. House or Selina,” replied my voice.

  “Let’s see, House, House, House, oh!” the receptionist muttered as she ran her finger down a page, “the Guildmaster is expecting you. Right this way.”

  We followed the receptionist down the same path that we had taken the last time we had visited the guildmaster.

  This time, I began to notice something different.

  “Hey Selina, is it just me or are we drawing an audience?” I asked.

  “It would seem like we are, Mr. House,” Selina replied as we passed by a suspiciously well armored janitor who had all but stopped cleaning in order to gawk at us.

  Some of the people had the sense to at least seem like they just happened to be walking by, but after the third or fourth person who passed us like that, I was beginning to feel like I was carrying my lunch near a flock of seagulls.

  After our short walk, we were finally shown in to Amanda’s office by the receptionist.

  “Ah, Selina and Mr. House I presume?” Amanda said as we made ourself comfortable.

  “That’s correct. Mr. House is attending this meeting in person,” Selina confirmed as she motioned toward the [lucky cat].

  “First things first, what the hell was up with Ulandi stalking one of my [stray cats?] She’s been to the casino before,” I began.

  The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

  “Mr. House would like an explanation on why Ulandi delivered your letter in the manner that she did,” Selina repeated.

  Amanda sighed.

  “What did she do this time?” she asked.

  “She scared one of our dungeon animals half to death before dropping off the letter and disappearing,” Selina explained.

  “On behalf of the guild, I’d like to extend our most sincere apologies,” Amanda said diplomatically, “unfortunately, Ulandi is somewhat eccentric when it comes to her tasks.”

  “I see. Well next time could you have her or someone else deliver any messages to the casino directly?” Selina requested.

  “I’ll be sure to include that in the instructions next time,” Amanda said.

  “So with that out of the way, why did you invite us out here in the first place?” Selina asked.

  “It’s come to my understanding that Mr. House is currently engaged in a conflict with the Skisfink crime family. Fortunately, it seems like the guard is either unaware or deliberately ignoring the situation. For your own safety and reputation, I’d advise you to be extremely careful on how you handle yourselves,” Amanda explained in a professional tone.

  “What do you mean by that?” asked Selina.

  “If I were advising you in an official capacity, which I’m not by the way, I’d tell you to stop sending your higher level dungeon creatures out of the casino,” Amanda replied before switching to a more informal tone, “hower I’ve delt with adventurers long enough to know when to follow the rules and how to make the rules bend to me. I’ve got no love for organized crime, but if you cause an incident that can’t be easily swept under the rug, I’ll have to update your classification from a non-hostile dungeon to a hostile one.”

  My eyes went wide as the situation was spelled out to me.

  Granted I wasn’t planning on doing a ton of collateral damage, but if my previous fights were any indication, I might not have a choice in the matter.

  However, Amanda did have an interesting caveat in her warning.

  “Ask her what she would recommend off the record,” I said to Selina.

  “Mr. House would like to know your recommendation off the record,” Selina repeated.

  Amanda grinned.

  “Well let’s just say that the Skisfinks aren’t the only ones who have connections in the guard,” Amanda said mysteriously, “let us know when and where you plan on hitting and I can make it look like it was the guards’ idea. You won’t be receiving credit for taking down a crime family, but there are times when letting someone else take credit is the wisest corse of action.”

  I let out a metaphorical breath.

  “Trust me Amanda, the guild is the last group of people I want to cross. I’m more than willing to work with you on this,” I said.

  “Mr. House is aware of the consequences should he cause an incident and has informed me that doing so is the furthest of his intentions,” Selina repeated in a more diplomatic fashion.

  “As long as we both understand one another,” Amanda concluded.

  “Don’t worry Guildmaster. House wouldn’t want one of his strongest allies to get into trouble after everything you’ve done for him,” Selina said with a wink before starting to leave.

  I had a brief moment of shock before I composed myself and followed after her.

  “What was that for?” I hissed as I followed her towards the exit.

  “Just making sure that she knows that we know what situation she’s in,” Selina said with a grin, “if we cause an incident, we won’t be the only ones in trouble.”

  Meanwhile, Amanda took a moment to rub her temples.

  “Maybe I should start drafting apology letters now…”

  ***

  “Hey Odez, I’ve been thinking-,” River began.

  “Oh boy,” Odez interrupted.

  “What’s that supposed to mean?” River asked with a scowl.

  “Every time you get an idea, it usually involves some hair brained scheme,” Odez replied.

  River couldn’t help but notice Edwin and Morgan doing there best to hold in their laughter.

  “No I was just going to ask you why more mages don’t learn the telekinesis spell,” explained River, “it’s not exactly common, but it seems really useful. Also how do you counter something like that?”

  “Ah that’s because telekinesis is somewhat of an all or nothing spell,” explained Odez.

  “What do you mean?” asked River.

  “I’m assuming you’re asking because of how badly we were beaten by Mr. House’s scions?” Odez asked.

  “Well yeah, but what does that have to do with it being an all or nothing spell?” asked River.

  “How much do you know about magic attenuation and elemental types?” asked Odez.

  “Not much,” River admitted.

  “Well without getting into a whole lecture on the subject, telekinesis has a weak attenuation to all objects whereas a spell like stone missile has a strong attenuation to just earth,” explained Odez.

  “What does that mean?” asked River.

  “Well a lot of things, but when it comes to doing something like moving a rock, both of them are fairly similar depending on the caster,” continued Odez, “the technical approach is different and you can argue that they have there advantages and disadvantages in a few edge cases, but they differ in one key aspect especially when it comes to combat magic.”

  “And that is?” asked Edwin who found himself drawn in to the conversation.

  “How easy a spell is to counter,” revealed Odez.

  “How so?” asked River.

  “Well since telekinesis has a weak attenuation to whatever it’s cast on, even a novice at counterspells can unwind a talented mage’s telekinesis. Hell, you can even make a fairly simple charm or talisman to make it almost impossible to be levitated. On the other hand, a strong earth spell is going to need an equally strong counterspell to unwind it,” Odez finished.

  “In short, if a mage has a strong enough talent in telekinesis and their opponent doesn’t have any anti-magic, the mage wins. If the mage’s opponent has basic anti-magic for the telekinesis, their opponent wins,” River clarified.

  “Exactly,” Odez agreed.

  “But what if the mage just decides to throw something at their opponent?” asked Morgan.

  “At that point, you’re just investing time and effort into doing something that you can do with a crossbow or a sling,” said Odez.

  “So what I’m hearing is you need to learn how to counterspell,” Edwin said with a teasing tone.

  “You don’t need to learn counterspells if you can hit them with a good old stone missile,” Odez shot back.