Anya hated the heat. It hastened dehydration. It latched clothes to skin. It could even blur vision. All of the aforementioned impeded physical performance.

She hated the humidity most of all. It had an annoying way of being muggy and dry at the same time.

This world didn't have some of Earth's conveniences like cozy college dormitories and air-conditioned classrooms. There were no coffee shops on each road corner or cool showers with a gym membership. It was difficult to acclimate after such a lifestyle. Adventurers in the world of Hovestile didn't have the guarantees of sanctuary from the elements outside the cities, and mid-afternoon in the Central Kingdom of Tevilandis promised what felt like record-setting humidity by Anya's guess.

She waved a hand in front of her to ward off the heat as if it was an incessant insect buzzing in her face. Sweat poured over her bronze-toned skin and made darkened streaks around her eyes as if following some predetermined, invisible path. Her short, messy brown hair stuck to her forehead and rubbed uncomfortably against her lower neck. The shirt under her leather armor felt as if it was threaded alongside shavings in a metal-working factory.

The archer strummed her bowstring absentmindedly. There were no places for enemies to hide in the open area, but just holding the bow served to numb the unsettling, barren atmosphere.

Anya glanced over her shoulder and frowned at her large companion trailing a few feet behind. The warrior didn't seem the least bit uncomfortable in the beating sun. He strode easily with the base of his warhammer's long handle cupped in one palm and the rest leaning against the concave portion of his pauldron. The black armor he wore absorbed the heat and kept him slightly cooler, but Anya figured his black hair being cut so short didn't do any favors for his head.

“How do you do it, Derek?” Anya asked. She swung a leg around and started walking backwards.

“Do what?” he asked.

“This insufferable heat. How do you stand it?”

The big man shrugged and rolled his shoulders. He observed the empty landscape, as if it reminded him of a specific place that pertained to her question. “I listened to music all the time when I ran laps around the bases I was stationed at. Helps you forget the heat. You eventually adapt and fill your head with more important things to occupy it."

Anya took a moment to process the unexpected answer and shook her head. “Sounds like it would give me a headache.”

“Well, you're more accustomed to talking than thinking.” Derek lifted his free hand and pretended to suppress a chuckle.

The archer feigned a hurt look and went back to walking with her eyes forward. “Rude.”

She allowed herself an amused smile. It was typical of the former soldier to throw some playful jabs into the conversation.

As an outworlder, Derek wasn't a former soldier of Tevilandis, but of Earth. She was a little surprised that he had even mentioned his time on a military base. He usually preferred to avoid details of his past life, so she had let the opportunities for such conversation pass. She respected his aversion to the topics as long as he kept up with his dry sense of humor.

Anya licked her parched lips as the word brought her back to the environment. Dry humor was fine. Dry air was not.

The road fell into a steep decline as they cut through another abandoned patch of land, this one marred by struggling trees and cracked earth. The newly-named village of Lamfell had supposedly grown prosperous with the adoption of a farming technique for crop rotations before the outworlders arrived. It resulted in renewed soil and better fertility, but this place suggested the contrary. It appeared too empty and lifeless for revival. Anya wondered if magic was involved somehow.

The increased deirgu sightings seemed to be at least partially responsible for the village's reserved expansion. It was difficult for Central patrols to keep an eye on every monster hiding among The Dipping Plains leading to the Mesatend Forest out west. A few small dungeons also littered the area with passages and caverns that extended for miles beneath the continent. These sections were home to mostly weaker monsters like deirgu, goblins and kobolds, with the latter in scarcity thanks to confirmed migration patterns.

But such grievances were still no excuse for the ogre Anya and her party fought a few hours prior.

While riding in a farmer's wagon departing Forgedalk, the behemoth had emerged from a line of boulders with a dozen or so deirgu shrieking and hollering from behind.

It was unlike any ogre she'd ever seen. The beast had towered an extra three feet higher than the ones she faced in dungeons further to the west. The usual gray tones for skin were replaced by a dark color like obsidian. Anya couldn't quite place it, but the monster's eyes seemed to hold an intelligence far superior to its brethren.

They were lucky to have a decent party composition to deal with it: two warriors, an archer and a healer with mid-tier binding magic.

Anya had managed to take out half of the deirgu with her trusty bow. The two warriors dispatched the rest amidst the larger monster's heavy, undisciplined attacks as the spellcaster restricted its movements. Once the grunts were taken care of, a well-placed binding spell and two heavy weapons driving into the ogre's head and neck finished the job.

Unfortunately, their wagon was destroyed in the battle, so the party was stuck walking. Their driver, now the owner of nothing more than a fine pile of splinters and one traumatized horse, had disappeared off into the distance towards Lamfell.

Anya didn't blame the poor peasant for high-tailing it. He didn't have the abilities of outworld adventurers (or native adventurers for that matter). She hoped he at least found someone in Lamfell willing to give them a lift. But if he mentioned what transpired on the road, it might be difficult finding volunteers to venture out.

Heading back to Forgedalk to report about the ogre was now on the party's list of priorities. Anya and her companions affirmed there were no quests on the board back at the Guild Union that mentioned ogres, and they would need to be notified as soon as possible. But despite the urgency of this latest development, their current objective still remained at the top of the list.

Anya looked up and stared at the backs of the two remaining members of their party. The warrior of the pair took in the bleak surroundings with hard eyes. The massive double-edged axe held in both hands nearly obscured the short and slender spellcaster walking a few feet ahead of him.

“Hey, Ruslin!” Anya shouted.

The one to acknowledge her was the disgruntled healer wearing a robe of sky blue. Her face held a countenance that would make anyone's bright day turn into a rainy one. In her hand was a staff of deep cerulean with jagged spikes shaped like gnarled branches at the head. Her icy blue eyes narrowed when Anya waved to her enthusiastically.

As a result of the pronounced lack of color variety and emotion, Anya and Derek had pulled their heads together to fashion a suitable nickname for the spellcaster. Derek's nickname took first place. The young woman's name was Sue, and so he had opted to touch on some rhymes and call her Blue Sue. It was simple, yet fitting.

The man she initially addressed, Ruslin, gave her a hard look that soured the memory. He made it a point to stop his advance and turned to her fully. His crimson armor seemed to shift hues in the dull light from the partially obscured sun in the sky. The armor was similar to Derek's, but notably wider at the shoulders and thicker near the chest.

He rested the head of his axe on the ground and planted a fist on one hip. “What is it?” the warrior asked gruffly.

Anya casually laced her fingers behind her head and whistled innocently. “Oh, nothing. I was just wondering if you needed help with your apology. Evan and I are buddies, y'know?”

The former leader of the guild Forward Earth twisted his face into something she couldn't quite read. His lips parted a bit as if he were about to answer, but he instead turned and continued walking as if they hadn't spoken.

Anya managed to pick out the first bit of some muttered words before he faced away, "I'll apologize through action..."

Derek had caught up to her in the meantime. He watched as the spellcaster, Sue, gave Anya a disapproving look before trailing behind the disgruntled warrior.

“We're already on bad terms,” Derek said. “Do you need to go rubbing salt in the wound?”

Anya gave him a wry grin. “Well? Isn't that why he tagged along?”

“Well, yes. But maybe you could consider our position too?”

“Meh, whatever.”

She brought up the topic in a vain attempt to lighten the mood and to distract from the heat, but she'd hated the former leader of Forward Earth long before the accusations towards him after the Siren Incident. He was too focused on earning a seat on the High Council rather than distributing quests that improved the livelihood of the country's people. His harshly blunt personality and tactless interaction with the smaller guilds also left a bad taste. It was as if he viewed the world as a game rather than something living and breathing.

Anya only agreed to work with him because of Derek's insistence. She couldn't fathom why Derek would want to work with one of the people directly responsible for dismantling his guild. The soldier somehow managed to maintain his air of calm collectedness even as Forward Earth slowly ingested his guild and separated their comrades into groups with more suitable compositions. Composition was all well and good, but it couldn't replace familiarity and trust.

Though Anya had to admit, despite his many faults, there was one quality to Ruslin Vasiliev she could appreciate.

He'd dutifully handed his position as leader to one of the other founders of the guild and demoted himself further than the Guild Union and High Council demanded. After all, he was partially responsible for not thoroughly examining the Siren named Rachel who used his guild as a suitable front to conceal her true intentions. This eventually led to the attack against GRIM at the Hammered Anvil tavern. Ruslin had decided to take his punishment a step further and dismissed the offered title of lieutenant and ingrained himself among the lower ranks of the guild.

When asked about it, he simply said that he wanted a different perspective on adventuring, and that he still owed GRIM a massive debt for their grievances. The other founders grudgingly accepted the explanation and moved on.

Even if his personality didn't sit right, Anya could certainly respect his sense of responsibility in regards to his own actions.

“So, Evan took the quest somewhere around there?” Derek asked, interrupting her thoughts. He motioned to the west, where they could just make out the faint outline of a natural stone wall extending beyond sight.

“Supposedly. But knowing him, he probably has most of the area scouted further east as well.” Anya pointed further north. “There's a pass a few miles that way. If I was Evan, I'd definitely use that spot as a fallback point if things got dicey.”

“As cautious as ever," Derek said thoughtfully.

“He borders on paranoid.”

The warrior shrugged. “Can't say I blame him. But the quest details should be enough to find them if they make enough noise. I can think of a certain catgirl that makes plenty of it.”

Anya nodded begrudgingly. She didn't blame Evan for his discretion either, but it was frustrating all the same. She'd mentioned that they were 'buddies,' but even she found herself questioning it. The scout had proven to be a reliable party member and leader. He was plenty agreeable rather than standoffish or overly introverted. But there was still a reserved attitude that felt almost purposeful. It was even a struggle to just simply contact him outside of quests.

His beastkin companions were no slouches either. The warrior, Kirie, had an insatiable appetite for combat and nearly put Derek to shame on their first joint quest. The healer, Asa, could easily be classified as a future candidate for top-tier spellcaster with the control of her protection spells and superb power behind her secondary offense.

That being said, the guild was shrouded in mystery, and the evidence provided by Kaede at the Guild Union made recent events all the more suspicious. According to the receptionist, there was an alarming increase of misinformation among quests over the past month or so. She'd done a bit of digging around and found that the quests GRIM received far exceeded the usual rate of discrepancy for other groups. The Siren Incident served to reaffirm Kaede's suspicions, and after some more careful probing, her unease escalated to genuine concern. It was true that the quests for other adventuring parties had their share of problems, but the amount towards GRIM seemed beyond mere coincidence.

Kaede even went so far as to suggest that GRIM was being specifically targeted for some reason. She didn't necessarily say it outright, but her words held enough connotations for Anya to catch on.

Kaede had asked her to meet at one of the Guild Union's meeting rooms a few days earlier. That in itself had already flashed some warning signs. If she wanted a place in private, then it was something serious...

 

 

 

“Look at this,” Kaede said. She slid a pile of documents towards Anya immediately after she sat down in the meeting room. Near the edge of the wooden table was a bulging folder with some of its contents expelled. The receptionist looked to the door for a moment before walking over and locking it.

Anya read the guild name at the top of the first sheet as Kaede moved back to the head of the table. She pursed her lips when she realized that all of the quest documents involved GRIM. These were the original versions as well, which should have been left confidential in case the guild didn't want anyone knowing about certain details. Only the edited copies should have been available to the public. The receptionist was taking a huge risk breaking protocol like this.

Kaede seemed to read the conflicted look on her face. “I know what I'm doing can get me in serious trouble, but you're the only one I can trust with this.”

“'Trouble?'” Anya parroted with a heavy sigh. “Well, that's a big fucking understatement. You won't just lose your job. I may be an outworlder, but I know they can throw you in a cell for this.”

Kaede shifted in her seat a bit as she straightened herself. Anya originally thought that the movement indicated she was beginning to second guess herself, but the leveled look she gave her dismissed such a possibility.

“Yes,” Kaede said. “I'm aware of the repercussions. But it is my duty to ensure the safety of adventurers to the best of my ability. This falls within my capabilities.” She parted some of her blonde hair that concealed the blue heterochromic eye that differed from the other brown iris she usually relied on. “I said as much to Evan once, and I intend to uphold it.”

Anya considered the declaration for a moment and couldn't help but feel a warmth in her chest. If Anya was being honest with herself, she didn't think that she'd earned nearly enough trust from Kaede to confide such information. The fact she was willing to go so far for Evan, whom she'd only known for a few months, spoke true volumes of her character.

Anya smiled and shook her head in bemusement. “I guess this is why we became such good friends. I can always rely on you to keep me and everyone else in line.” She assumed a more serious demeanor and allowed the tense atmosphere to permeate once again. “Alright. What's on your mind?”

Kaede dragged some of GRIM's quest documents back towards her. “I assume you've noticed that all these documents are quests involving Evan and his guild.”

Anya simply nodded in response.

Kaede delicately removed each document from the folder and provided a brief summary of each as she slid them one by one back to Anya, "This one is a request to kill a dozen goblins. The actual number of goblins at the scene was actually confirmed at over two dozen, with a troll to boot.” She moved on to the next one. “And this is for intercepting a small group of deirgu near the edge of The Dipping Plains to the west. The group was far from small, and GRIM was ambushed ten miles closer than the indicated location. They carried out the quest two days after it was posted on the board. There should have been hardly any error with this one.” Kaede extended her arm towards Anya and held a quest with names that looked plenty familiar.

Anya squinted her eyes as she read the first few words. “This one is...”

Kaede nodded. “Your joint quest with GRIM. There were over double the amount of trolls specified in the quest description. And you arrived at the scene two days after the first disappearances of the villagers.”

The receptionist reached into the folder and dumped a few more packets of paper in front of Anya. The archer only needed to give each one a cursory glance before her mild curiosity morphed into plain apprehension. Every quest had a few notes at the bottom stating the compensation GRIM received for the error in the descriptions. They were also accompanied by signatures from leaders of the guild outposts in the nearby villages.

“This is crazy,” Anya said. She leafed through a more recent quest that was supposed to be a simple scouting expedition. Needless to say, it was far from simple. GRIM had also been tasked with mapping a specific area on another quest for gathering common herbs. Enemies had emerged on these basic quests with no mention of any hostiles. Not even remotely. Anya had also visited the area on a few occasions and knew there were also no dungeon entrances recorded nearby.

“Did you mention this to your superiors?” Anya asked as she finished reading.

Kaede nodded. “I did, but they said little would come of it. Most of the intelligence officers involved received no more than a slap on the hand for the error while a few others, like the ones from your quest, were either demoted, relocated or outright relieved from duty on the spot. I've seen issues with quests in the past. Time can make things unpredictable. But monsters do not behave this way, and I've never heard of intelligence officers ever being so incompetent. Evan is also very thorough about his work.”

Anya bit her lower lip and pushed the stack of documents back to Kaede. Her palms rested flat on the table as she took a few slow deep breaths to compose herself. Anya realized that her friend didn't actually place any real accusations on the individuals directly involved. For all she knew, these people could be completely innocent. Which meant that Kaede thought that something shady, perhaps even downright sinister, was going on behind the scenes higher up on the chain of command.

“And then there's the Siren Incident,” Anya said. She rested a hand under her chin as she considered some possibilities, but she immediately found herself settling on one with no dispute. “You think someone is targeting GRIM?”

Kaede laced her fingers on the table. She matched Anya's look, which actually belied her actual thoughts. "I don't know, but something strange is going on. In all my years working with adventurers, I've never seen anything quite like this.”

“It almost seems too obvious,” Anya said. “It really could just be a coincidence.”

“You're right. It might be some rotten luck, but with GRIM being so...” Kaede trailed off as she considered the right word for her explanation. She finally settled on, “...unique...I can't let this slide.”

Anya tapped her finger on the table and leaned back in her seat. She wasn't used to such a serious conversation. A diabolical plot such as this seemed way too fantastical, especially if it involved monsters. But Kaede was right about one thing, there were plenty of reasons she could think of for people to display some hostilities towards GRIM. The larger guilds certainly weren't happy about a smaller guild taking up quests involving Reputation meant for recognition by the High Council. The natives also held hostility for demihumans, and rumors spread misinformation like wildfire.

But was it enough that people wanted them killed? And she doubted a conspiracy went so far as to involve so many intelligence officers and individuals higher up on the food chain that enacted such meager punishments. It was too early to make such assumptions. However, one thing was obvious that Kaede didn't need to voice aloud. The only way someone or many someones could make the quests more difficult for GRIM was if they had a contact in the Guild Union feeding them the information.

But how could they manipulate monster numbers and location so quickly? Anya wondered.

“So, what do you want me to do?” Anya asked after some quiet deliberation.

Kaede gave her a pleading look as she raised her hands, as if she were about to fall into some sort of prayer. “Will you accept a quest from me personally? Please, find Evan and make sure this next quest doesn't escalate to something beyond his ability. You can still catch up to him if you leave by morning...”

 

 

 

Anya looked up at the sky as the first signs of rain dampened her hair and woke her from her recollections. Another drop made a soft plink against her leather armor. She stared off in the distance and observed the towering wall of rock that extended to the pass a few miles away. It was clear that the rain fell heavier around the forest on the other side much like relief precipitation, judging by the grey streaks.

Those clouds sure rolled in fast, she thought.

She looked to Derek and noticed the deep frown on his face as he stared in the direction of Lamfell.

“Hey, what's up?” Anya asked. She followed his gaze and failed to ascertain anything of note.

He then turned in the direction of where Anya had looked previously. “The rain,” he said. “It's unnatural. Have you ever heard of something called virga?”

Anya shook her head.

“It's rain that evaporates before hitting the ground,” Derek explained. “There's a downpour happening on the other side of the pass, but just a few miles away the rain is trailing beneath the clouds and vanishing. I don't know, something just doesn't feel right.”

Anya examined the blanketing forms towards Lamfell and noted the tendrils and billowing portions beneath the clouds, as if they were extensions of the overcast. The curling fog seemed to pull towards the ground a bit, as if preparing to form a row of narrow tornadoes. Near the central base of the clouds the nearly-evaporated precipitation appeared to form a sort of cone shape.

Weird, Anya thought. But it seemed more like a natural phenomenon rather than a genuine concern.

“Pay attention and hustle up!” Ruslin called out. It was some mix between a growl and a shout. Anya hadn't noticed him looking at her as she'd been absorbed in the sky's fascinating display.

Anya rolled her eyes at him. Dick.

But his prior criticism did keep her from walking into his back when he stopped a few minutes later. She was about to share a few choice words with him when she noticed the grim expression on his face.

He whispered something to Sue and observed their surroundings with more intensity. The drained fields were gone, replaced by some mutilated forest with most of the surviving trees separated a considerable distance. The gnarled branches reached down and seemed to insert themselves in the ground to act as roots. Not a single leaf decorated the trees, allowing for complete silence as a calm breeze brushed through.

Derek focused on the sky again and smacked his lips together purposefully. He crouched down and pressed a hand against the dirt. His eyes never left the clouds. A greater darkness rose on the horizon.

“Smoke,” Derek said, breaking the tense silence. “I've seen its kind before.”

Ruslin spoke barely above a whisper, “Sonuvabitch. Is Lamfell burning?”