Yuna stared at the elf in front of her that was speaking. When she walked into the room, she had instantly recognized the elf. It was the female elf that fought against the giant golem alongside Akira.

‘And she’s beautiful as well. Why is everyone in this guild attractive? She looks younger than I thought. though. Around her twenties?’

“Yuna?” the elf asked with a raised eyebrow. “I asked a question. Questions normally are followed with a reply.”

“Oh, I’m sorry,” Yuna rushed. “I’m a little overwhelmed, that’s all. I didn’t expect to be called in.”

“From that, I take it that you know who we are then?” The elf gestured to the other people that were sitting around the table. 

“The elites?” Yuna replied.

“Yes, we’re the elites,” the elf nodded. “The others can introduce themselves if they want. You can call me Boss.”

“Okay, Boss. Wait,” Yuna frowned. Then she let out a breath as she thought about what she just heard. “Are you the head of the Valkyries?”

“I would hope so. Otherwise, calling myself boss would be very pretentious, don't you think?” 

Yuna’s respect for the lady in front of her skyrocketed when she combined the lady’s position with her obvious strength. This was the leader of the guild Yuna had joined. An elf that can easily defeat golems that shake the earth with their footsteps. 

“You still haven’t answered my question. Are you ready?” the elf asked.

“I am,” Yuna nodded. She paused for a second. “But I have a quick question, if I may.”

“Go ahead.”

“We’ve met in the Academy Forest before, haven’t we?” she asked. “You defeated a golem along with Akira.”

“You’re wording could be a bit better but yes,” the elf nodded. “We did meet briefly that day. How else do you think I recognised that you weren’t eighteen when you joined?”

‘That makes a lot of sense now,’ Yuna thought. ‘Otherwise, why would they hack into the Academy database for that information if they didn’t already suspect? It seems like a lot of work to do for one person.’

“But that isn’t the concern for this little meeting,” the Boss continued. “What I want to talk about is you, Yuna. I want to know why did you join the guild? What’s your motivation?”

Yuna froze as her mind raced to formulate an answer. The most obvious answer would have been because she supported the guild’s cause. The problem with that answer was that she didn’t know what the guild’s cause was.

“From your reaction and your delayed response, I take it you have no real motivation then,” the elf said. Yuna didn’t reply. “That’s completely fine. I just find it odd. There are only two ways for someone to know about our guild. One is that one of us goes out and gives an invitation directly to someone. The second is word of mouth. The problem here is that I know for a fact that none of us gave you an invitation.”

‘This is bad.’

“That means that the only way that you found out was from other people. I know it wasn’t online because we make sure of that.” The elf rested her chin on her hands. “Now, I understand that the guild had just opened its doors to more people and so that increased the amount of people that know of the guild. What I find odd is that no one told you what the goal of the Valkyries’s is. It’s almost as if you were forced to join.”

“I joined on my own accord,” Yuna said instantly. “No one pressured me into this.”

“Then why did you join?” Boss pressured. “Teenage angst? Wanting to run away from the norm?”

“If I was to say why, I think it’s because I want to have an impact on the world,” Yuna said. Her voice loudened as she spoke. “Because I want to do something for this world. And I thought that doing this would help me.”

The elf stared at Yuna with contemplative eyes. The other people sitting around the table said nothing as they, too, watched her.

“I believe you,” the elf nodded. Yuna let out a soft sigh of relief. “But I have another question. Why did you not ask?”

“Ask?” Yuna repeated.

“Yes, ask. Why did you not ask what the goal of this guild was?” the boss said. “Most people who we interview would ask questions during that interview. Questions like how we’re going to achieve our goal, why they should trust us, and how we can help them. They’ll also tell us about themselves and their hardships that they’ve experienced. But you asked nothing. Wouldn’t that have been the best time to find out what this guild you were joining was about?”

“I was afraid that if I asked I would be rejected,” Yuna mumbled. “Or that questions like this would be asked.”

“That’s fair. You don’t need to worry about that though. You’ve been welcomed to our guild and you won’t be leaving it anytime soon. Though you may not know quite what it is you will be doing here, you can still help us. That is, if you want to help us.”

“I do. I want to help. I just don’t know how.”

“I’ll show you how,” the elf said confidently. “You have potential, Yuna. You have the potential to grow stronger and more powerful that most people in the world. And so, I want your help. Now, I’m not going to just ask for your help without offering anything in return. So, Yuna. What do you want?”

‘Information,’ she thought instantly. ‘I need information to report back.’

She opened her mouth to speak but the elf raised a finger to stop her.

“You’re thinking too much,” the elf shook her head. “That isn’t what I want you to do. I don’t want you to tell me what your head wants. Tell me what you’re soul wants. Your heart. Not what you think you want.”

‘My...heart?’ Yuna thought. She furrowed her eyebrows. ‘I don’t think I have anything I need. I don’t need money or power.’

“I don’t think I need anything,” she said out loud.

“I didn’t ask for your needs, Yuna. Do not think of physical needs. Or even desires. I won’t give you gold. I won’t give you power. What. Do. You. Want?” the elf said. “What have you been missing in your life? What is it that you’ve always wanted to experience but couldn’t, not because of you, but because of things you couldn’t control. That is what you need to tell me.”

Yuna looked down and racked her mind. Something that she was missing in her life. As she thought, a memory rose up unbidden in her head. She remembered her second year ever training at the police academy. It was family visitation day. She was ten. It was the day that drove through her mind that she was alone. As she watched the families of her peers hugging each other, laughing with each other, the slow realisation that she would never experience that spread through her. Yuna remembered that she had left early and went to her small room in the LIA main headquarters. Her room where she cried quietly to herself.

‘Not that anyone would have been able to hear me anyway,’ she thought bitterly. 

The memory quickly sunk back down into the depths of her mind. But the few seconds that it had surfaced was enough. Though Yuna had never thought about it, she understood that there was one thing missing in her life.

“A family,” she whispered. 

Being born an orphan, the only thing that she could remember about her parents was that they existed. She could not recollect any time she had with them. From the age of six, she was raised with in the LIA. Training to become an officer. That had been her family for almost ten years. 

‘But it wasn’t really a family was it. That isn’t what families are. They shouldn’t be a rigid hierarchy of people.’

“I see that you’ve found your answer,” Boss said quietly. “Tell me. Don’t be shy.”

“I want a family,” Yuna said. There was a twinge of sadness in her words. “A real family.”

“Then I will give you that,” the elf declared strongly. “That family that you’ve never had. You will find it here. And I will make sure of that.”

Yuna didn’t know how to respond to those intense gray eyes. Those eyes that told her that the elf believed without a doubt in the words she had just said. Words that Yuna never had spoken to her before. 

‘No one has ever promised me something like this before. Only commands.’

“So. What do you say, Yuna?” the elf asked. 

“What do you need?” Yuna asked with a hesitant smile.