At the top of the stairs, I was greeted by a blazing sun shining directly into my eyes. ~tssss~

"haha, painful is it?" said a guardsman type boy

Tilting my head slightly I respond "What?"

The boy opens his mouth again before being cut off by Maria "She can't understand you, she doesn't speak common"

The boy looked at Maria as if he was waiting to hear an explanation "Hah, Well as you can tell she's an Elf, but if you take an even closer look you'll notice that she is not a dark elf but is instead a deep elf"

The boy's eyes widen for a moment before saying "Better take her to the guildmaster see if that old hag can do anything about it"

Maria just shakes her head disapprovingly "That's no way to speak about the guildmaster, and yes that was the plan"

After speaking for a while Maria pulls me by the wrist for a while before we arrive in front of what looks like a dragon-horse, Maria then gets on and pulls me up (With much difficulty)

After which we rode the dragon-horse down the road at an incredible speed, arriving at the town in a little less than an hour

Maria starts patting the horse whilst muttering some gibberish "God I'm so glad I rented this guy"

Afterwhich Maria dismounts and pulls me with her, The girl then leads both me and the horse in front of the guards.

An aged yet burly looking guard starts speaking first "Maria you're back early?"

"Hmm, Yeah I met some unexpected trouble, fortunately, this fine lady saved me but sadly she can't speak common so I am taking her to the guildmaster to see if she can do anything"

"Ah well you're free to go I just need a toll from the elf and to check if she's a criminal"

"Ah, I'll pay the toll, it's the least I can do" Maria then hands over a few coins to the aged guard who then turns to me and holds out a blueish crystal.

My brows furrow subconsciously as I try to figure out what they want me to do.

Maria looks at me with an expecting gaze for a bit before facepalming and then putting her hand on the crystal causing it to glow green, then she looks at me beckoning me to try it.

Following her lead, I place my hand on the crystal, which does not react at all.

"Hmm, well I suppose she can pass, she didn't do anything serious enough to make it red so she won't be imprisoned"

"Thanks! see you later Uncle Graham, Ah! can you take flakey back to the stable for me? Thank you in advance!"

Maria once again grabs my wrist and starts dragging me around, leaving the sighing old man to take care of the horse.

The streets we travelled down were packed with various storefronts and stalls, most of the buildings had stone lower levels while the upper ones were made of wood. I found it to be quite pretty especially the multicoloured awnings adorning the stalls and storefronts. sadly the windows were less extravagant while a few of them had glass, the panes weren't all that large. most of the stores just had a hole in the wall with a wooden shutter over top it, or just no windows at all.

Eventually, we arrived in front of a 3 story building with a sign bearing a dragon being impaled by a sword.

Maria looked at me for a moment before unceremoniously dragging me into the building. Once we were in the building I was greeted by several rows of gruff people chatting at tables either eating or tending to the wounded.

I, however, didn't get time to observe more before I was dragged before a counter and a fairly pretty lady.

"Ah! Maria dear what can I do for you?"

"Ehh... well I kinda need to talk to the guildmaster"

"Oh? and what do you need from her?"

"Well it's not me that needs to see her" She looks towards me "This one can't speak common, and since they're both elves I figured the guildmaster might be able to figure something out"

The pretty lady turns to me with a bit of a surprised expression.

"I didn't even notice her... Well I suppose I'll go tell her"

The pretty lady after speaking her garbled sounds rushed upstairs only to come back a short while later with a drop-dead gorgeous woman.

The gorgeous woman spotted me really quickly and immediately her eyes widened.

She as fast as lightning appeared in front of me her platinum blonde hair whipping me as she stopped, she hastily grabbed mine and Maria's hands and dragged us upstairs into an office type room.

The blonde woman sat us down on one of the two couches and then sat opposite to us before speaking.

She turned to Maria and said, "Where'd you find her?"

"The forever dark forest"

The blonde lady cocks her eyebrow before returning her gaze to myself, then she spoke and for the in this world, I was able to understand someone though with a little difficulty, "What brings a Deep elf to the surface?"

Shocked I hurriedly responded "I-I don't know, I was just there"

She contemplated for a while before responding "Well you can't be lying, but you're not being entirely truthful? Well, Half-djinn are known for that, mind telling me where you were before the forest?"

Thinking for a bit I see no harm in telling her, "The Blackness"

"The blackness?"

"A space where colour loses meaning, no lights just the incessant whispers knawing upon you're mind"

She seemed taken aback by my description "do you remember before that?"

"No"

"Hmm, the Queen of Hel must've been really angry at you to not even allow you to remember the sin, Usually she lets the sin stay there so they can repent" (Looks like I'll have to take care of her for a while and hope she remembers) "Anyways, let's introduce ourselves, I am Guildmaster Gwenhwyfar Cleddyfgwelw, or in common Guinevere Palesword, you can call me Gwyn or Guildmaster, I am a silk elf, that is to say, a mix between a high elf and a wood elf"

"Hmm, I am called Rin Ashfall, the name gifted to me by the Smouldering god, as you know I am a half-djinn, a mix between a deep elf and a djinn"

She stares at me for a bit before sighing and continuing "Well Rin, you're lucky that Ter'alven is compatible with what us surface elves call 'Universal Elven' and considering you've been speaking it for the last while I'll assume that your system has registered it as a language"

I was shocked for a bit but it quickly when away. Hey system what languages have I learned?

[Ter'alven (fluent), Universal Elven (Fluent), Common (2%)]

"Well now that the system recognizes you as fluent in it you should be able to use this dictionary to learn common"

"how..."

"shh, I just know"

The guildmaster then passes me an absolutely massive book before saying, "I'll send you to the room next door with your little friend so she can help you learn it, I expect the system will count you as fluent in a few hours considering how quickly you picked up universal, but you never know, anyways come back and return it when you're done that's my mother's book so I don't want any rabbit ears or ripped pages when you give it back"

Gwyn quickly explained to Maria the gist of the situation and we left to the next room over to practice.

Maria and I spent a little over 3 hours going over the dictionary repeatedly till my common language was recognized as fluent by the system, while her Universal elven reached a little over 5% fluency, Maria said she wanted to practice more but I could tell that language was probably her worst subject. Knowing this I took the dictionary and went back over into the guildmasters office.