I wondered if Stratford had an excuse for hunting people like what he is doing, it wasn’t like he could just say they were his slaves. Alberto and I looked at each other.
“Should we go help her out?” He asked me.
Should we now? I thought for a second. We didn’t owe her anything. But then I looked at Alberto again. He didn’t have to come back to save me. Perhaps I should do the same for Fayette.
“Yeah, she helped us with our escape after all,” I said, standing up.
I tossed a Virgo to the waiter as Alberto and I ran out of the door. We saw a bright, small light up ahead, followed by 3 soldiers. My body was not tired anymore after that hearty meal, so I charged after them with Alberto. Alberto mumbled the Invisibility spell with my necklace in his hands, and before long, we were invisible again. The Invisible spell gets activated by touching a willing target, so if Alberto or I touched Fayette, she would be able to escape. As we ran after them, I noticed that we were significantly faster than the soldiers. Did we get stronger? Or are they slowed by their armors? People were watching from the sides, most of them seemed to be enjoying the chase. Is violence common in this city? I ran past the guards and approached Fayette, she seemed to be able to see us as she flew right on my shoulders. She became invisible, but I could still tell that she was on my shoulders.
“Where did she go?” The soldiers stopped with an angrily confused look on their faces. “Stratford will have our heads for this! We must find her! Spread out!” They started to go in different directions, so I tried to find a safe place we could be in. We ended up in front of an inn when the invisibility ran out.
“Thank you for saving me! Thank you so much!” Fayette flew up to my ear and shouted right into it. Alberto found us shortly after and came up to us.
“Where did you go, pixie?” He said as he was panting from the run. “After Stratford knocked us out of the window that is.”
“I flew out of the window, then when he gave the order for us to be captured again, I got away and hid for a while. Then the soldiers that you just fooled found me!” She said, flying around randomly. She really can’t stay in one place can she? “What now? What are your plans from now on?”
“Alberto and I are going to travel together for a while,” I said, trying not to reveal too much. “What are your plans? Where do you go from here?”
She stopped flying around and crossed her arms. She thought for a moment, and said: “Can I come with you guys?”
Does she not have a home to return to? What is her story? How did she end up on that ship? I looked at her again. I did not want to take anyone that is not going to be useful to me. I thought back to the moments when she shrunk my ax to hide it from Stratford and when she helped us fight Stratford. Alberto raised his hand before I said anything.
“I think it would be a good idea. She might be a better mage than I am, pixies are related with spirits after all.” Fayette smiled brightly with that.
“YES! I can cast all kinds of spells, some of them without chanting as well. I can cast All Languages, Glow Creature, Minima, Cleanse, Magnify Sound, Minimize Sound, Cloud of…”
“Ok, ok, I got it.” I stopped her. It was great to have a mage on board, but it seemed like all of her spells mainly focused on support, which means Alberto and I will have to do all of the attacks. I was fine with that, but Alberto needed a weapon, he couldn’t exactly fight efficiently with a pen. We stood in front of the inn, as we tried to come up on the first step. It was sunny outside, however, it wasn’t hot. The stream of people got bigger and bigger as time went on. Many people on the road had weapons, some of them looked like mages. Each of them had a badge on their chest or wrapped around their neck like a necklace. The badge was decorated with owl’s wings as the one Stratford wore on his chest.
“So, the first thing we need is money, how do we get some money? We could steal? But people are already poor as it is. I guess we can…”
“Hey Alberto, what is that badge that people have?” I asked, stopping his rambling.
He looked up to the stream of people passing by us. “Those are adventurer’s badges! That’s right! We could become adventurers. They don’t require much paperwork and they offer great money! Great observation, Ivo!” He said, his eyes shined at the opportunity.
I smiled and blushed at the compliment. Alberto was excited at the idea of becoming adventurers. Adventurers were similar to mercenaries, but they followed the law and killed mostly monsters. They would complete quests then get paid by the adventurer’s guild while the guild keeps whatever spoils they got from the quest. It was not hard to find the guild. It was the second-biggest building in the city, second only to the town hall. The place was filled to the brim with people of all races. They all had weapons with them, some of them had books and staffs and wands. There was a sign in front of the building written Lumen’s Adventures. We walked in, the door seemed to be always opened. It was loud in here, filled with laughter and shouting, some of the adventurers were fighting each other, wrestling themselves onto the wooden tables. In the middle of the building was a reception, with a lady standing behind it.
“Hello, we would like to sign up to become adventurers please,” Alberto spoke to the lady. The lady then took out a pen pinned to her long blond hair and grabbed a piece of paper.
“Your name here, today’s date here,” She said with her small lips
That’s it? They must really need adventurers. Alberto, Fayette, and I wrote down our names and today’s date, The 21st of Cazmos. After we have finished, we gave our papers to the lady at the desk. She took it happily and said: “Alright guys, now wait here until someone calls you to do your combat exam. Not everyone can be an adventurer after all!”
