Cedric was lost.

  He’d walked a few hundred paces North of the market square, but as he looked around, he seriously considered slamming his head into a wall in frustration. For Olric, a single pace is probably about eight of mine he thought, mentally comparing his own stride to that of the hulking half orc. Which means the directions he gave me are basically useless.

  He sighed, looking glumly at a fork in the road of the random side street he’d found himself in. Either direction would probably take him further off course. He had to head roughly North from the market square, and could faintly hear the sound of the docks in the distance. For a port city, this didn’t feel like a very significant clue as to where he was.

  I need to find North. That’s all. If I keep going in that direction, I’m sure I’ll find a sign. So…I just need to make sure I’m facing North…?

  He took a second, then grinned. He raised a hand to his hammer necklace, and closed his eyes. He took a deep breath, reached inside himself, and felt for the mote of light inside him….and promptly got walked into from behind.

  “OI! Don’t stop on the sidewalk, idiot!”

  Embarrassed, Cedric shuffled off to the side of the footpath, and tried again. This time he felt the mote of light inside him easily. It was light a small ball the size of his fist of a glowing, shifting mass of light. Like a star viewed from the ground, but dragged forwards. He pulled on it and a pinprick of light separated, leaving the mass slightly smaller than before, but no less bright. He focused on the pinprick he’d separated as he opened his eyes, and remembered the feeling of being lost in a tunnel when a sign had fallen down once. The time in question, he’d spent an extra hour stomping around in circles trying to find the rest of his mining crew, and he’d never forgotten the event. As he let the memories and the feelings that came with it fill him and the pinprick of light, he relaxed his body and spoke the words.

  [Orientation: North].

  He felt his vision shunt in a direction almost 45 degrees to the right, and as he relaxed his body, didn’t resist as he pivoted to face that direction.

  A smile on his face he rejoined the flow of traffic on the footpath and headed in that direction. And who says cantrips are useless?

  _____

  The Adventurers Guild was a tall, four storied building made of wood and stone, with a massive arch set into the front. While it could have been taken for just about any government office, it also had a helpful sign out the front that said “Adventurer’s Guild” and pointed Cedric towards the reception.

  It also had a gigantic mural on one side of a bearded man in armour hitting a dragon with a giant hammer.

  As Cedric walked through the arch, he saw a neat row of desks alongside one of the walls, with people lining up to speak to the receptionists. In one of the lines, tough looking people were carrying objects that were then assessed by the receptionists, and one particularly angry looking woman was covered in scorch marks, had half her hair singed off, and was holding a giant egg. Cedric blinked at the sight, and kept looking. Along the right hand side of the hall was a more relaxed atmosphere, filled with tables where all manner of people lounging around, flicking through sheafs of paper, or rummaging through bags. There were multiple notice boards lined up along the edges of the room, and a pair of staircases at the end of the room. One lead up, and simply had a sign out the front, and only a few walked up or down that Cedric observed, despite the tide of humanity filling the room. There was an almost unspoken ring of peace around the staircase, which everybody seemed to respect unless they walked with purpose.

  There was also a staircase leading down, set into the wall. It had a rope along the entrance, with a sign hanging off it, and Cedric noticed that everybody gave it a wide berth. Unlike the respectful distance they gave the staircase leading up, it seemed like an aversion to this downwards facing staircase.

  The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

  He looked around the massive hall aimlessly for a moment, before remembering his unfortunate footpath experience and hustling to the side of the entrance.

  “Over here, rookie!” one of the receptionists waved at him, and he approached the desk, noting a few people clustered around. “We’re just about to start an orientation!”

  “Wait, what?” he spluttered, still taking in the place.

  “We usually run you through induction as a new adventurer on a per case basis, but I’ve got a few others here in the same boat, so to speak, so we’ll run you all through at the same time!” the receptionist continued, her enthusiastic way of speaking complemented by her slowly bobbing her head in time to her obviously well practiced spiel. She had short brown hair, along with brown eyes, and she seemed legitimately excited to be there.

  “How did you even know I’m a rookie though?”

  “You were looking around as if you’ve never been in a guildhall before.”

  “I could be looking to hire adventurers! I could be a wealthy merchant…”

  The receptionist looked meaningfully at Cedric’s gauntlet, sitting proudly on his hip, and cocked an eyebrow.

  “…but I’m obviously not, so I’ll stop holding everybody up and asking really dumb questions”.

  “Wonderful!” she said with just enough enthusiasm that Cedric felt his ears grow slightly red.

  “First off, welcome all to the Adventurer’s Guild, and thank you for waiting! Due to the sudden influx of new applicants, we’ve been run off our feet, so we’re running group induction sessions! So I’ll ask you to hold all questions until the end!”

  The last part was directed at a tall man wearing a bandanna over his head standing in the group who had just opened his mouth. The younger man standing next to him, around Cedric’s age, seemed to shrink into his shadow out of embarrassment. The bandanna clad man closed his mouth.

  “The Adventurer’s Guild is an exciting career choice! A thrilling pursuit, and a chance to test and challenge yourself in a way that not many professions can rival! Congratulations for taking the first step and coming here!

  “First off, to discuss the purpose of the Guild, we add structure to those who would pursue things like dungeon delving, guarding the citizenry, exploring new lands, and fighting monsters! We’re a font of exploration, helping others and in general trying to band together to do some good!

  “The world is a dangerous one, and with the stirring of the Forest to the Northwest of Almscliffe, this is an excellent place to begin your new lives as explorers and adventurers! I do want to stress; we are not a mercenary company. Although a small amount of combat aptitude is essential, it sits in balance with more exploration based skills, a penchant for identification of monsters and artifacts, guarding duty, and a few other skillsets.

  “You can absolutely choose what sort of jobs you undertake, and we try to fit people with things within their skillsets, but I do expect you all to understand that there is danger implied. You may die, or be horrifically wounded. You will be asked to sign forms denoting your understanding of these conditions. I don’t mean to scare you all, but I do need you to all understand!”

  She looked around expectantly. Cedric got the distinct sense that this was a rehearsed speech. I bet she pauses because this is where people jump in. Cedric thought privately.

  An older man who had been nodding along with his arms crossed, looking around himself with a cocky grin and barely paying attention, spoke up.

  “Yeah, but that’s a pretty low chance, right? The name’s Dan Smith. I’m here to for that loot that adventurers always seem to be hauling in. It seems like a cushy job; the dangerous stuff is just the high level operators, right?”

  The Receptionist looked back with an even gaze, and when she responded, her voice was at odds with a second ago. It was strangely flat, and emotionless, and her smile had flicked from a warm and inviting one to one that didn’t reach her eyes. Cedric felt the back of his neck prickle.

  “Mr Smith. I once saw a party of adventurers come in banged up after a monster encounter on a job that was meant to be a routine patrol to asses whether a trade road that skimmed the Forest needed to be repaired. A really simple job, rated with a low danger warning, in other words. One of the frontliners, who was considered a seasoned hand and was a Copper ranker due for promotion any day was grabbed and dragged a little way off. Every single one of his finger and toe nails were pried out, before the digits themselves were cut off and eaten in front of him. The monster was starting on an arm when his comrades were able to track him. The monster in question wasn’t slain; it was all his party could do to drive it off long enough to grab him and run. By the time they dragged him to the nearest Guild Outpost, he was so covered in blood the only reason we knew he was alive was because of the sound he kept making. He was screaming, but the monster had cut out his tongue and eaten it in front of him. That’s quite common, apparently tongues are a tender and easy to grab snack for them.”

  The Receptionist looked at Dan. Dan was turning pale.

  “Yeah, but that’s…”

  The Receptionist cut in.

  “That was last week.”

  There was a pause.

  Dan nodded the Receptionist, nodded to the group of prospective Adventurers and briskly walked away, looking slightly green.