“Now what's the plan,” Our resident drinker asks as he makes his way over to the cabinets and starts to go through the bottles.

Part of me really wants to complain about being forced to lead but the much larger more reasonable part says that it won't accomplish anything if I do so I just sigh and point at the roof lurker, “Do you have time to set up one of those traps again.”

“Should,” he says a single thing and nods his head.

“Good, set some up at the top of the stairs and have it go if it is stepped on or if the handle is twisted,” I instruct him and he nods again and steps out of the room and starts to form a sigil on the floor.

I turn to the sleepy elf and look at her for a moment and she just slowly brushes her platinum hair over her shoulder and gently raises an eyebrow at me.

“Can you set up attack magiks to cover the windows?” I ask and after a moment she turns toward Elwyers.

“How big of a sigil do I need to burst the paint ball?” she asks and then yawns.

“A weak Mana Burst will do it,” Elwyers nods and smiles approvingly.

The sleepy elf nods and walks towards the windows and I look between Melodiana and the man sipping at a new glass of wine. He looks more like a fighter than a schemer.

“He probably fits the role fairly well with how bold he was,” Shiva comments as I examine the two of them.

“What do you need us to do?” Melodiana asks after a moment as she stands with her back straight like a soldier ready to take my orders.

“I'll have the two of you handle the door once combat begins,” I decide after a moment, “Your opponents might be dazzled and deafened once they trigger the trap, or they may avoid it all together.” I pause and she nods and the man just takes another sip, “I would expect at least two, or maybe three to assault the room from the stairs.”

“Understood,” Melodiana nods her head enthusiastically and I look around the room again.

“That's all the normal entrance covered,” I sigh to myself.

“At least you shouldn't have to worry about someone bursting through the wall,” Shiva giggles and I make my way over to one of the benches.

“So what do we do until the fight starts?” Melodiana asks and I shrug.

“Basically whatever you want,” I take a seat on the cushion, “Read, mediate, have a nap, anything to keep yourself occupied and ready.” I spot a small game table and I point at it, “If you would like we could play chess.”

“Is that okay?” Melodiana asks and turns towards Elwyers.

Elwyers nods her head after a moment, “It is mostly fine as long as you don't get too distracted from keeping watch. It is often said that waiting is one of the worst parts of our tasks.”

“Really?” Melodiana asks curiously.

“Today we know we wont be long,” I sigh and snap my fingers and mimic drinking from a glass, “In the future you might spend days unable to leave a room smaller than this while you wait for a trade off.”

“Boredom can dull your senses just as much as anything else,” Elwyers elaborates as a half filled wine glass appears in front of me. I take it and nod my head and lean back against the bench, “And it is just as important to know when to rest as it is to know when to act.”

“I think I understand,” Melodiana nods her head and looks around the room. She shuffles around a bit and I take a sip from my glass as she walks over to the game table before lifting it and bringing it in my direction.

She places it in front of me before she brings a chair over and sits down on the opposite side of me. “White or black?” she asks as she starts to pull the pieces out.

“You can decide,” I wave my hand at the table and she nods and goes about setting up the white pieces on my side.

“All done,” the sleepy elf yawns and walks over and takes a seat nearby me. She yawns again and stretches and I have to fight the urge to yawn as well.

“Do you still have any of the paint balls left?” I ask and she slowly nods and produces three blue orbs and puts them on the edge of the game table.

I pick one up and roll it between my fingers and examine it. It is really smooth and I give it a slight squeeze and I can fell it squish and I watch as it deforms and bulges out in the middle. I relieve my pressure off of it and let it roll into the center of my palm.

“A good solid throw should pop it,” I speculate.

“If a weak Mana burst will, that should be plenty,” Shiva agrees with my thought, and I put it back down on the edge of the table.

The sleepy elf lets out another deep yawn as I move my first pawn two spaces forward, and she says, “Pardon me.”

Before I can complain that she is going to put both of us to sleep she scoots down and leans over, putting her head under my arm and resting it in my lap. I pause and look down at her and she yawns again and gently pokes at my leg before she adjusts slightly.

“You have nice thighs,” she complements me with a tired voice like she is struggling to even stay awake, and her other hand comes up to rest on my knee.

“Is that fine?” Melodiana asks and points at her and I sigh and shrug.

“Some Elfin folk are just like this,” I explain, “Moon Kissed. You get rather used to it if you spend some time in their conclaves.”

“Better than being Star Held,” the sleepy elf complains and wallows her head back and forth.

Melodiana looks over to Elwyers with clear curiosity in her eyes and Elwyers laughs slightly, “I'm a Mist Watcher if that is what your were wondering.”

“How many different types of Elfs are there?” Melodiana asks after a moment.

“How many seasons do the Elfin people recognize?” I ask her across the table and she looks confused and I laugh, “A lot.”

“The mana we produce changes with the season we are born in,” Elwyers gives her a proper explanation, “I was born when the mists cling heavily to the forest. A Moon Kissed is born when the moon dominates the sky, or a Thunder Caller is born during the stormy time after the flowers have bloomed.”

“I see,” Melodiana nods her head.

“Of course those are just the names as they have been roughly translated,” I explain as Melodiana turns back to the board, “The actual names have much deeper meanings that doesn't come over well.”

The roof lurker returns to the room and walks over and pours himself a glass of wine while Melodiana makes her move.

 

There is a loud bang outside the room and I turn and look, but before I can say anything there are several more in rapid succession and I raise an eyebrow at that. “Looks like you two are up,” I say as I look across the table.

“I'll assist,” The roof lurker volunteers and the three approach the door. Before they open it there is a much quieter pop from behind us, like someone clapped loudly, and I turn around and stare at the man covered in blue paint hanging halfway in the window.

Pfft,” Shiva tries and fails to hold back her laughter and as I watch his face change from surprise to well passed grumpy the front door is pulled open with a crash. I turn just in time to watch Melodiana lead the charge out onto the landing and I glance back to the window.

The man has climbed the rest of the way in and he slides down against the wall to wait. Not even a minute later Melodiana and the others bring three more of our opponents into the room all with big blue slashes on them.

“I think the angry woman is hiding,” I laugh at how catastrophically their assault has gone so far and I wonder how she will try to recover from this, if she even tries at all.

“It's your turn,” I call out to Melodiana as I place my remaining knight in a threatening position and I look down at the Elf sleeping in my lap. It is impressive that she hasn't even moved with all of the commotion going on around us.

“What about the last one?” Melodiana asks as she stays standing and she looks around.

“Who knows. It could be that she gives up on the assault, and would retreat. That would be the intelligent thing to do in this situation.”

“Why is that?” she asks another question and it doesn't seem like anyone else is interested in answering her so I continue.

“Now she is massively outnumbered, and her entire crew was decisively slaughtered or captured. The smart play is to back off and regroup with the new information that you gleamed from this failed probe.”

“Is that so?” she tilts her head a tiny bit.

“That's the smart play,” I say it again, “The emotional play is that she tries to take everyone on by herself and probably dies by herself.”

“Knowing when to retreat is a part of valor as well,” Elwyers chimes in and Melodiana nods at that before she walks back over to the table and looks at the board. The other two have already gone back to what they were doing as well.

Sure enough the time limit expires and there isn't a peep from the angry woman. I nudge the sleepy elf slightly to wake her up and after a couple of times she stirs and stretches before she sits herself back up on the bench.

The lead instructor walks into the room and the others all file in behind him and he looks at all of us and then points at my group of misfits, “It's your turn to attack a position.”

We all silently stand and look at each other before we leave the comfy room and head back down to one of the larger rooms we used earlier.

“What should we do if we are attacking a group that has already set up?” Melodiana asks.

“Generally don't,” I plop down on a far less comfy cushion, “Hire mercenaries and have them flood the position with pure numbers.”

“You can't just go hire mercenaries for a test of your abilities,” The lead instructor sighs at me.

“So assuming that you don't use mercenaries what do you do?” Melodiana alters her question slightly.

“There are a few different options,” The first drinker speaks up this time, “But I always find its a good idea to have a distraction. Set a couple of rooms on fire and everyone will come running and split up.”

“No,” the lead Instructor barks again and holds his head.

“How about a warehouse then?” The roof lurker offers.

“Do I really need to rebuke that one?”

“I don't know if he wants to laugh or cry,” Shiva observes him for a moment and I wonder just how simple minded the other group really is.

“How about using spirits as scouts?” the sleepy elf offers as she eyes my lap again.

“You can summon spirits?” Melodiana asks and tilts her head.

“No,” she yawns in response, “but it sounds like a good plan.”

“Can anyone else summon them then?” Melodiana looks over to the three of us.

“How has the pack been doing?” I ask Shiva after a few moments of silence.

“They would probably be happy to stretch their legs,” She says, “And you shouldn't even need the full pack.”

“I'll rely on you then,” I nod and turn to the others, “I can probably do something about that, but it is going to cost everyone some chicken.”

“I thought you preferred fish,” Melodiana questions my taste and I nod.

“I do. The pack likes chicken more though, no matter how I try to convince them otherwise.”

“Lets go with that then,” the sleepy elf nods, and everyone else agrees.

I stand up and look around the room before I head over towards the fireplace, and I crouch in front of it and and begin to draw the summoning sigil onto the stone. I trust Shiva to pick out who should be summoned so I just focus on completing the circle.

Even for half the pack it still takes me about four minutes to finish the sigil, and once I am done I stand and stretch, “Are we ready?”

“I've got them set to go,” Shiva responds quickly and I circulate Mana through my body and reach out with my boot and tap on the sigil. The Mana in the air suddenly swirls and condenses, before the temperature rapidly plummets.

The sigil circle starts to glow brightly and the howling Northern gale seems to have suddenly descended on us as wind rushes in through the chimney, and Lumi Leaps out of the swirl. She immediately looks around and moves towards the center of the room and gives her silver coat a shake before coming to a rest on her haunches.

The sigil continues to glow and after a moment the next wolf descends from the wind. About halfway through the summoning there is a strained creaking groan, and I look around and try to recall where I've heard that sound before.

The fifth wolf is summoned while I think about it and the creak happens again but it is much louder and sounds like grinding stone and I pale as I realize what it is. “Oh dear,” Shiva coughs slightly like she didn't have a hand in this.

“Full retreat now,” I call out and start to run. I cancel the rest of the summoning and Lumi and the small pack immediately follow. The rest of the misfits are a little slow on the uptake but they all start to run as the chimney lets out another angry groan.

The group of instructors follows closely behind them and I can hear someone above us running as well. There is a shuddering crash behind us as the chimney gives out completely, and the sound of splintering wood is right behind the sound of collapsing brick.

The impromptu destruction kicks up a large cloud of dust and through the crashing continues for what feels like several minutes. We all arrive safely outside and turn in front of the crowd that has formed to watch the destruction.

The dust forms a heavy haze in the air and we all wait silently as the second group quickly emerges and we look to see what the damage is. Once the dust settles the lead instructor sighs and looks towards me.

“This isn't my responsibility,” I defend myself and point at the damaged buildings. The chimney completely tore out of the building we were in and smashed into the second floor of the adjacent building and knocked out part of the next chimney doing some damage to the third building as well.

Thankfully it appears that the destruction stopped there. “If it's not your responsibility then who gets it,” the lead instructor asks tiredly.

“I blame whomever constructed the chimneys in the first place,” I nod my head and put my hand on my hip, “Quite poor work if that's all it took to bring it down.”

“Did you even once consider the repairs before casting such a large summoning?” he argues back and I tilt my head.

“What repairs?” Melodiana comes to my rescue with a timely question. He gives us all a blank look and points at the buildings.

“The structural repairs of the buildings,” he rests his head in the palm of his hand.

“So you let us run around all day in buildings that could have come down at any time?” The roof lurker places attention on a fair point.

“It was sound enough,” the lead instructor continues to argue, and I notice that the other instructors aren't actually taking a side in this.

“If it was sound then why did it collapse?” the sleepy elf comes to the defensive side as well.

“You know at some point it wouldn't hurt you to ask their names,” Shiva sighs and I raise any eyebrow and look around.

“None of them bothered with introductions either so it should be fine?” I question the thought for a moment, “I'll make sure to know what to call them if we ever work together in the future.”

“I'm sure you will,” Shiva says in that tone she uses when she doesn't believe me, while the others continue to argue with the lead instructor.

“FINE,” he cries out, “The scaffolding wasn't a clue that the building was being worked on, and the supplies weren't either. Does that satisfy you?”

“So it couldn't have been any of one of our faults then,” I cut back in, and he just sighs.

“All of you go home,” he snaps at us and we take the cue and slip away before he can change his mind.

Once we are a few blocks away my misfits all pause and we look at one another before their gazes settle on the pack. “Since they didn't do anything, and we helped keep you out of trouble we don't have to feed them right?” the drinking man asks and I look around for a moment and sigh.

“That's fair I suppose,” I give the argument to them and they quickly say their goodbyes before leaving Melodiana and the pack with me. I look at her as she reaches out to one of the pack, “I won't ask you to pay but at least help me carry it back.”

“All right,” she agrees as she pats the wolfs head, “What is his name?”

“That one doesn't have one yet,” I explain as we start to walk, “I am only contracted to Lumi, and since she is the leader of the pack the I can summon them. If they form a contract with someone else they will get a name then.”

“I see,” she nods her head as we head towards the butcher, and I ignore the gazes and pointing that the pack draws on the way there and home.