Tridor Plaza, Meteo Town

Uncomfortably aware of the platinum coins tightly clenched in my fist, I lean over the recently reconstructed fountain in the middle of the plaza, staring at my murky reflection in the tremulous water's surface, and wait for the medicinal agent I was passed to counteract the side-effects of the tranquiliser to do it's work, feeling for all the world like I'm experiencing a full-body concussion at the moment of impact, sharp pain, tingling veins and numb muscle.

All in all, upon reflection, the meeting with Count Hiolh and the Imperial Council went remarkably painlessly. Ignoring the actual physical discomfort I'm still undergoing, naturally. As for my first time meeting the Councillors and my impression, I'd say the only one worth keeping an eye on would likely be the one least interested in what was happening: Lord dun Noellor.

The other two are fairly simple to understand, but I can already tell that my plans for a port are going to attract more attention from him than the others, who will only really care when I do something they take issue with or when they want me to clean up a mess they don't want to deal with, respectively. Until the day comes to put those plans into motion, however, I expect he'll ignore me.

If only the same could be said for the others.

"What next?" I mutter, weighing my options, "Check in on Henna? Mmh, that can probably wait, with how much Olrica seems to care about her, she can probably be trusted to keep an eye on her for now. I somewhat want to head back into Town Hall to start buying up some Land in town, but the Count made it pretty clear they don't want me present for that clerk's punishment."

Resisting the primal urge to dunk my head into the water, I smear my palm across my face, teasing out some of the soreness, "Not like I have any interest in that sort of thing outside of work. Guess it's time I went back home and settle things with the others...After that, who knows?"

Truthseekers Main Headquarters, Fander Street, West Residential District, Meteo Town

"...Well, hello Henna," I greet the stock-still blacksmith awkwardly, as she stands in the doorway staring right at me with an inscrutable expressionlessness that only makes her feel more out of place with the scenery, "I must admit, I wasn't expecting to run into you here from what Olrica was telling me earlier."

After a too-long silence, Henna speaks up, "It weren't my idea. Girl wouldn't take no for an answer and dragged me out here like I weren't busy at all. Still got dozens've pieces left to make now that the shop is fixed up. Again."

Scratching the back of my head, I can only shrug helplessly, "Well, you seem to be doing fine? It's certainly been a while."

"That it has," she nods slowly, the conversational spirit drying up pretty much immediately.

"Ugh, you're both hopeless," Olrica's complaining voice rings out from behind me, strolling along the path with her arms folded behind her head.

"Hm? Welcome back," Henna greets her simply, "What were you expecting?"

"I dunno," Olrica's arms collapse to her sides, "A little more than a 'how do you do' for people meant to be friends? It's been weeks, from your perspective, and it's not like there's nothing to talk about either."

Henna considers it, "I don't really have anything to say Silver don't already know I don't think? You've all been sending him reports somehow, ain't ya? 'sides, I got nagging enough to take care of myself from you, Olrica, without 'im adding to it."

"I mean, sure, but..." Olrica promptly gives up on her, "Nothing to say either, boss man?"

"It's nice to see her doing well of course, but all else aside, my brain isn't exactly running at full capacity right now," I excuse myself apologetically, "I had to drink a pretty strong tranquilising agent to suppress the effects of the Charisma of those present at my meeting with the Council. The counter-agent is taking a while to kick in, but it's just making me feel even more mentally exhausted. Considering just heading out early after this next meeting - you might as well sit in for part of it since you're here Henna."

"Alright," Henna agrees without giving it any further thought, "You still owe me some combat instructing, y'know?"

"So I do," I frown, understanding my fault, "Sorry about that, I didn't mean to neglect my promise to you."

"It's fine, days've been hectic of late," Henna forgives me with an amused smirk, "Not like I haven't gotten plenty of practice on my own."

"Please spare me from being used as your training dummy any longer," Olrica pleads pathetically, "Seriously, you're making me question the last seven years of my life with how fast you're picking it up."

Henna's smirk softens to a proud smile, "Still not as good as you yet. Knifework don't suit me much, it seems, and I've got two left feet compared to you."

"At least I still have something over you," Olrica mutters, dispirited, "Wow, I said that out loud. Sorry."

"Don't worry about it," I console, knowing how she feels to some extent, "Just think of it as Henna making up for lost time."

"You'll plateau eventually, even if you don't want to," I add for Henna's benefit, not really at liberty to mention her potential this early into her development. Like as not, she would openly reject the notion she has any talent at all when the subject is brought up directly, but there's no reason to plant the seeds of later arrogance or place unneeded expectations on her shoulders.

Henna will grow at her own pace. A pace far more absurd than most...but, her own pace nonetheless. Training for her and, indeed, the Guild as a whole, will be my primary concern for the foreseeable future once our finances stabilise. Good as Windy, Angelus and the others are for their age in their respective roles, they are all amateurs in the end.

Because of the time crunch, I can't come up with a long-term training regimen even if I had access to enough resources and potential mentors, so our best bet would be for me to train them on the job as we prepare for the Greentide close to a year from now. Ordinary members will need to be at minimum Level 60, while our Elites and Officers need to be pushing 80, which is...going to be a damned slog.

I don't want to think about it, my head hurts enough as is.

"Earth to Silver," Olrica taps my arm, "You spaced out again."

"No rest for the righteous," I smile self-deprecatingly, "The ever-present burden of the future hangs off me like thick ivy."

"Poetic," she snorts, "Are we going inside or..?"

"Sure," I sigh, "Is everyone here?"

"Dunno," Olrica strolls alongside me, "Think only Angelus was lagging behind when I left to fetch us some lunch. And uh, Jericho's crew is busy trying to get out the city for that mystery job you sent him on. He should still be here himself though?"

Henna opens the door for us and heads inside, "They should be waiting in the basement, watchin' the enchanters complete their work on that odd pedestal."

Private Sparring Chamber, B1F, Truthseekers Main Headquarters

Other than the much newer Employment Bureau, I think that this large, mostly empty basement room might very well be the cleanest room in the entirety of our headquarters. Not a speck of dust to be seen anywhere, the stone slab floor and exposed white brick walls have a break sheen to them. Judging by how the inner-workings of the actual Training Hall itself - on a slightly elevated floor, spanning a good 20m by 20m I believe - are neatly laid out in sequence along the floor on deep blue cloth strips, the enchanters are meticulous neat-freaks.

"Hey hey," Olrica smiles chummily as she approaches the, "We're all back. Did I miss anything?"

"Nope," Jupiter tilts his head back, "Maybe I'd have a better idea what they were doing if I was able to watch from up close but when they tried that they kinda just stared at me so intensely they tunnelled holes into me until I stepped back. And I don't have Jade's eyes either so I'm just absorbing the process through commentary - thanks by the way."

"Mm," Jade mumbles, staring straight ahead at them as they work, "Don't know what the fuck I'm looking at, exactly - since magic -but it's like an old junction box or a home computer from the thirties. Similar principles, wired cards with nodes, transmitters and so on. Made one for a project in high school."

"My school didn't really have the interest in that, they were one of those sports scholarship chasing places," Grand frowns, arms folded, "So long as you got all C's in MES and a sport you were good at they didn't really care."

"How'd you end up at an internet café in Paris then? Shouldn't you be on a pro tennis team?" Windy questions, turning her head to address him instead of staring at me.

Grand nervously chuckles, "Weell, I kinda spent more time playing games than working out or studying when I was a teen. Nowadays it's more of a balance."

"Ok, but, Paris?"

"I live here?" Grand shrugs, unsure what to say to the sudden hotseating, "I mean, I might not sound it 'cos I spend all day talking to English speakers, but I am a native. Well, I'm from Marseille, if you wanna be specific, but there ain't shit for jobs there since they shut down the docks for renovations, and I wasn't going to try my luck with the rush to relocate to Toules - heard from a friend studying at Sorbonne there was a job going at Gaming Sanctuary, made the trip inland. The rest is history."

"That explains a lot," Windy nods to herself.

"You didn't know?" Jade tilts her head, confused.

"Never came up before," she answers, a little clipped, "A-anyway, uh, hey. Hi, Henna, Olrica. Silver."

"Yo~" Olrica waves.

"Good afternoon," I nod, glancing at the enchanter duo, "Not sure here is the most appropriate place to hold a meeting, so how about we move into the corridor for a bit?"

"Alright," Windy agrees.

The basement area of Voinete Mansion is quite a bit larger than you might expect it to be. In addition to the already large room for the Training Hall on this floor, there are three more similarly sized rooms, mostly for food and alcohol storage, and another floor of similar size beneath us for storing the family's other valuables. With the size of the mansion itself as well, it is an extremely suitable place to base a guild for many years to come, but the exact allocation of each room's purpose is not something I've decided upon yet.

More urgently, since Mr Fathom brought it up to me, even with all that space we can't accommodate all our members with personal rooms or even dorms. We can make do for now, but as we start including more facilities with dedicated purposes, they'll inevitably need somewhere else to sleep, especially as the roster grows in numbers. Keeping it confined to a smaller group of a few hundred elites like Astral Knights is attractive, but not something I can rely on if Truthseekers is to be self-sufficient and reach far enough to achieve its goals.

While pondering this, Angelus helpfully fills in those that weren't present of the circumstances surrounding one of the reasons this meeting is happening in the first place: My rejection of the Pavillion - no, of Miss Dawn Waker's proposal without consulting anyone else's opinion or ruminating on the issue first.

"...That's about the whole of it," Angelus finishes, leaning against the wall.

"Hm, well, I can't say I really care all that much," Grand shrugs, "Not like I'm rich or nothing, but I make enough to get by with room to splurge every once in a while."

"How much more do you make than I do, anyway?" Jade eyes him, looking  - unsurprisingly - ticked off. At me, not him, as if clarification was needed.

"Secret," he clears his throat, refusing to elaborate further.

All eyes turn to me, expecting to hear my side of the tale.

"Should I speak first, then?" I offer rhetorically, "Fine. I am definitely sorry for not bringing the matter to your attention first, that much I can understand my fault in - however, that's as far as it goes."

"What do you mean?" Windy frowns, brow furrowed.

'This is almost definitely going to cause a commotion,' I grumble internally before I reply. Let's just hope they let me finish before they jump down my throat.

"I don't really think I should have to remind you, but..." I chew on the words like a tough piece of gristle, not wholly willing to voice it and thereby set in stone the fact that I'm being forced to compromise on my own ideals, "Whether to accept the investment proposal or to deny it....was never your decision to make. Certainly, I acted too hastily, but even having thought about it, I wouldn't have considered accepting. As the leader of Truthseekers, and to ensure that the reason for its existence is carried out, I cannot and will never consider parcelling out such massive slices of the guild and its subsidiary businesses to outsiders who haven't earned my unshakeable trust. And I have to add, that not a single person here has gained that level of regard with me as yet - not that I don't have any faith at all in you, or I wouldn't have asked you to join with me, and I certainly wouldn't have felt safe leaving the guild in your hands while I travelled."

Out of all of them, that last admission caused Henna and Windy to exhibit the most hurt. The others run the gamut from apathy to varying levels of offence in turn. But it's true all the same. I can barely rely on myself, in the face of it all, when it comes down to it, never mind anyone else. For as much of a burden as I carry, it's also the only thing I can believe in to carry me forward with the momentum its weight carries. Nobody else can say the same, which philosophically speaking, I'd normally applaud and encourage, but if there's one thing I've been forced to take away from my recent experiences, it's that even if I want people to walk with me for their own sake, someone needs to hold the map and set the pace.

Where the line is drawn between firm leadership and tyranny for me, is a fuzzy demarcation for now, but I can only...compromise. To take a step, one must put one's foot down.

Unhappy as they are, none speak up immediately so I continue, "I've more or less explained my position before to some of you because of what trust exists. And, due to the sensitive nature of one of the facts revealed at the time, I won't repeat it. But I don't think it really sank in for you just how serious I am about all of this, and how significant it is to me. Come what may, I will see my Path to the end and gain the answers - or the Truth, to be poetic - I seek at its end. I'd prefer to travel alongside as many people with me to the end as I can, but it will be my map we follow - no-one else's. Consider this your last chance to leave without consequence - I'll even go as far as to dissolve the contracts without penalty right now for anyone who can't agree to that, out of respect for everything you've accomplished so far.

I daresay that in the coming days you'll make something noteworthy of yourselves without me - but by then you will only be able to see my footprints heading off into the distance without you."

"Where," Morn begins, thus far so silent it'd be easy to forget her presence, "Exactly is this endpoint you're talking about?"

"In broad terms, it'd be the coming 20th Astral Eclipse," I explain, feeling calm to such a degree I wonder if I'm still experiencing the effects of the tranquillizer, "Elaborating further would be...difficult. Not least because those extra details are precisely what I'm looking to discover. Sufficed to say, that is the landmark I am navigating by and towards, with a few stops along the way. The first of which is tomorrow, the first major patch update, Rise of the Adventurers."

"And pursuing this requires you to spurn all potential investors?"

"That would be an exaggeration," I reject the assertion, "To paraphrase one of my more embarrassing moments, I've no patience for hitchhikers. Anyone I work with on such a high level would need to be trustworthy, and never shall any significant authority be taken away from me, only delegated according to the situation. I am no multitasking god, so of course, Officers are required, and people among you who can be trusted to represent Truthseekers and me as well. That's why I asked Windy to take the second-in-command position, Angelus to be our first Raid Leader and why I Sponsored Henna's shop - if I didn't think you capable I wouldn't have asked at all. For me to consider a business partner, they'd need to be just as close to me and at least as competent; Preferably moreso, since, speaking completely honestly we're all - myself included - still somewhat inexperienced on the whole. Still learning. If anything, you might be the most professional amongst us in our roles, Morn."

"....Thank you," she frowns, not understanding how to take the sudden compliment.

"I feel like I may have overstated a few things and jumbled my thoughts through others. However, that is all I think I have to say on the matter," I conclude, tired more than anything, "Unless there's anything anyone has to say that springs immediately to mind, I...I'll head off early and leave you all to think through whether you're serious about continuing or not - and if not...I really have to wonder why you worked so hard to build up and protect our home here when by all sense you didn't need to go along with me in the first place."

Henna

Watching the rapidly retreating back of Silver go, the absence of his voice is not soon filled. Henna herself perhaps the one least eager to part her lips and speak. Of course, each of the gathered members of Truthseekers kept their peace per his suggestion for their own reasons as they processed his speech.

After a few minutes go by, the first to break the silence is, perhaps surprising nobody at all, Jupiter Trails, one of the two resident Wizards and unrelenting motormouth.

"Well, that just happened," he fakes a cough into his fist, "Not gonna lie, I didn't entirely follow everything he was talking about, but I don't really...care? Actually? I'm just here for a good time man, and so far, not disappointed. Well, I still kind of regret rolling Silva because seriously, mana deprivation suuu-hu-hu-huuuucks...but yeah. You with me bro?"

Passing the conversational baton to Grand Arcanist, which from the first time she heard it, Henna thought it a title rather than his actual name, the taller, more mature of the Wizards smiles sardonically, "I think the sentiment is probably a little different, but on the whole, yeah that sounds pretty close. I don't get what's motivating him to this extent, but it's not like it's any of my business to pry, either."

The vice-leader, Windy Fields, sighs, rubbing her forehead, "How carefree."

"It is what it is, Win," Grand Arcanist shrugs, "I'm only here because of you and Jade anyway, stuff like going pro never really occurred to me or mattered."

"If that's all, I will go back to work," Generous Morning abruptly turns on her heel and makes to leave, as if nothing happened at all.

"Morn?" Angelus Reach blinks, reaching out to stop her.

"I already made my choice, there's nothing more to think about," she shakes him off and calmly walks down the corridor, "Come on, Olrica. Or you're doing the dishes tonight."

"Hey, we have a schedule!" Olrica Nennot huffs, sharing a conflicted smile with the others, lingering a little longer on Henna before running to catch up, "I guess I'm in the same boat though..."

Silence ensues again, for a much briefer period. Jade Fairy looks up at her closest friend, no longer angry, only concerned for her friend's well-being, as she had ever behaved since Henna had known her unofficial student. Easily given to emotion, yet unusually loyal, and in her, Henna felt something of a mirror in personality, not that she would have declined to teach the blacksmithing trade to her when Silver requested her help.

"Win? You alright?" Jade Fairy frowns, poking at Windy Fields' waist like a child tugging her eldest sister's apron strings.

"Feel like we both lost a little trust in each other," she eventually replies, "He's right though, I don't think I really understood what the guild meant to him. Not like he's guiltless, but I still have a little time left before my decision is made for me. I think...I'll stick around until then, see if things really will turn around for the better like he clai- needs it to."

"Your uncle?"

"Mhm. It's about a week left to go," Windy Fields nods, shrugging helplessly, "End of the day, whether I get to stick around or I go looking for a job elsewhere is up to Uncle Eric. How about the rest of you? Any thoughts?"

"I mean to earn his trust and absolve my debts," Henna declares with calm certainty, "It rankles at my heart to hear myself being held in doubt."

"Mark me down for the 'entertainment' club, primarily," Angelus Reach smiles guiltily, "Still pretty annoyed, but I won't dwell on it. Hard to accept it's only been a month or so, from our perspective, but having been around since basically the beginning, I can more or less understand what makes Silver tick by now. Socially inept or not, he has a sense of drive I can at least respect. Whether or not he makes something of it, I don't mind helping out for as long as I get something out of it. Not like I need fame or fortune, hah."

"Show off," Windy complains, "We can't all be bestselling authors, Ange."

"No, but I am, and I will be bragging about it all the way to the grave," Angelus Reach chuckles arrogantly, a disgusting smirk tearing across his face that is wholly at odds with his normal demeanour.

"So, that just leaves the weirdly quiet Jade, huh?" Jupiter Trails peers down at her, "Not gonna lie, I was completely expecting you to blow your top and gnash your teeth at him the whole time. Ain't like I'm complaining because your voice gets super shrill when you're mad and my ears are grateful for the lack of resulting torment, of course, but it's still weird that you've not said barely a word...'Not said barely'...grammar, yes...Eh, you get what I'm putting down."

Jade Fairy bites her lip, unwilling to answer and avoiding his stare, "I'll figure it out tomorrow. I...made a promise."

"First I'm hearing of it," Windy Fields exclaims.

"Yeah, 'cos I never brought it up," Jade Fairy mutters, "That's all."

"I suppose," the now calmed Avian Panoplast cuts in with a tone of finality, "That means we've all decided to stick around. For now, anyway."

"Seems that way," Henna agrees, staring down the corridor, "I'd think it a shame if you were to all leave."

"D'aww, thanks," Windy Fields smiles, "Well, I'm gonna go back in and check on the progress of the Training Hall. You want to help break it in when it's done, Henna?"

"...I would," Henna bows her head, "Since Silver and Miss Olrica have already fled, I will have to trouble your for your teachings, Miss Windy."

For some reason, Windy Fields' smile becomes stained with looming dread.

IdleFancy

It's done. Rise of the Adventurers Part 1 is now basically complete, and next time will be Part 2, The Day of Patch, long hath it been awaited.

Thanks for your continued attention.