Three hours after their discovery in the cellar, Val let himself in through the front door of the guildhall.

He had to admit that the response to his “surprise”, thousands of rough, hand-carved images chipped into stone by, assumedly, Ebid himself, had exceeded even his wildest expectations. Katya had cajoled Hal into retrieving whatever other portable lamps were available on the first floor, and then immediately set to work scanning the walls in the only slightly better lit cellar. 

Val eased his way back down the stairs, carefully avoiding the rotted out steps that would have sent him tumbling into the darkness, carrying a warm ceramic pot wrapped in a rough piece of cloth and a loaf of bread tucked under his arm.

“Yo!” he hollered into the cellar as he reached the last step.

No answer.

Frowning, he scanned the dark room. It didn’t take him long to find Katya seated in a pool of light cast by a handheld lamp, transcribing a section of the wall onto a rolled out sheet of paper with a stick of pressed and sharpened charcoal. Her brow was furrowed in deep focus, so he made his way over to her unnoticed.

“Kat,” Val murmured.

She jerked with surprise, despite Val’s soft tone.

“Sorry, sorry,” Val apologised, “Did I mess up your drawing?”

“No, it’s fine,” she replied, rubbing at a skewed line with her finger, “What’s that?”

“We got lucky,” Val said, “That place doesn’t normally do take away, but I flicked them an extra copper for this pot and they agreed to let me walk it out.”

“Huh, nice.”

“Right? I think it had honey in it? Anyway.”

Val put the pot down next to Katya and pulled the lid off. The smell of the warm, rich stew inside immediately flooded their corner of the cellar, and Katya’s hands drifted unconsciously away from her drawing.

“You mind sharing?” Val asked, “I can go get bowls from the kitchen.”

“No, no,” Katya shook her head, then held out her hand, “Don’t bother.”

Val sat down across from her, pulled the loaf in half and handed her the larger piece. Katya tore a chunk from bread and dipped it in the pot before shoving it in her mouth. 

“Good?” Val asked, smiling.

“Mm,” Katya replied, already dipping another piece of bread in the pot.

Val nodded, taking a bite from his own chunk of bread and chewing thoughtfully.

“Find anything useful?” asked Val, glancing at the sketch on the ground.

“Not yet,” she answered, between bites, “But there’s other runes scattered around the walls, I’m sure there’s some clue.”

“Okay…” Val responded, trailing off.

Katya looked over at Val.

“What?” she asked, deadpan.

“I don’t know,” Val started, “How is it possible that we’re the first people to discover this, if it’s even something people are looking for? Wouldn’t dozens of people have lived here when the guild was active? Wasn’t Ebid a really big deal? The way you talk about him I would have expected a state funeral, full military royal honours, that kind of thing.”

“Sure, sure,” Katya agreed, “That all happened, but not because they had a body.”

Val couldn’t keep the confusion from his face. Katya, realising she wasn't going to escape the conversation without a full history lesson, held up a finger and quickly shoved the last two bites of broth-soaked bread into her mouth, hurriedly chewed and swallowed.

“Okay, so,” she began, pausing to clear her throat, “Third era, age of heroes, all that stuff. The guilds were at the peak of their power, and every other week new depths of the labyrinth were being cleared and secured.”

“Good times,” Val interjected.

“Very,” Katya continued, “But with that, the politicking and the power struggles between the guilds, and even within the guilds, were constant, intense, sometimes violent. Ebid was a powerful figurehead, but his combat prowess, battle awareness, everything that made him a once-in-an-age warrior, did not translate to political acumen. He had at least fifteen children with a series of wives, probably a dozen other soft-acknowledged bastards on the fringes of the guild.”

Val’s eyes widened. He was certainly not surprised by the idea of a powerful guild leader and adventurer sowing their wild oats wide, but this was the first time he’d heard Katya, or anyone, say anything about the Ten Thousand Blades that didn’t portray him as some kind of warrior-saint.

“By the time he was seventy,” Katya went on, “He was starting to lose a step or two, and the wolves were starting to gather with regard to… Succession. Nobody was willing to take a shot at him, yet, he was still capable of handling any of the other fighters in the guild, even in his old age.”

“Wow…”

“So, one day, he calls everyone to the entrance of the labyrinth, main family, branch family, cousins, bastards, the whole guild. A hundred or so people gathered in the plaza, and they expected him to announce his retirement, the new meister of the Patricians’ guild, anything. It was unprecedented, so it drew a crowd of people who weren’t invited too, word got around, so the other major guild leaders, or their proxies, all showed up to find out what was going on. It basically turned into a soft festival.”

“What?”

“Seriously. People just started turning up because there was a crowd, so food vendors, street performers, hawkers, all turned up and started peddling their wares. Wildly different energy to at the centre of the hubbub, around the labyrinth entrance. Ebid arrives, out of the labyrinth, which kind of surprises everyone, but it’s lucky because he would’ve had a time trying to get to the middle of everything, and he jumps up onto the gate post and waves everyone to silence.”

“Hold up,” Val interrupted, “A seventy year old man jumped up onto the labyrinth gate.”

“Please, that would have been nothing,” Katya cut back in, “Anyway, everyone falls silent. He’s got full command of the crowd. Almost every major player of the time is there, gathered to hear Ebid speak about the future of the guild and, therefore, all the adventurers of Al’Lachia.”

“Kat.”

“Yeah?”

“Eat.”

“Right, of course.”

Kat took a short break from her tale to wolf down the last of the stew from the pot, holding it with both hands and pouring the last of it into her mouth.

“Okay, so,” Katya made to launch back into her story, but the look on Val’s face stopped her.

“You got a little…” Val told her, pointing to his own cheek.

“Oh,” Katya muttered, wiping the gravy from her face, “Thanks.”

“No problem.”

“Okay, so,” Katya continued, “Ebid gets up in front of everyone, all the strongest warriors of the time, his entire extended family, and he tells them… You’re all weaklings. None of you will ever be as strong as me, and even after I die, not one person here could challenge me with a blade or spell.”

“Holy crap,” Val uttered.

“Yeah,” Kat said, clearly excited by the hubris of her forebear, “So he tells them that he doesn’t care who takes control of the guild, he’s emptied the coffers, cleared out the guild’s accounts and he’s leaving them all to scrabble over the remains.”

“What did he do with the money?” Val asked.

“Nobody knows,” Katya answered, “He made a large donation to the royal family at the time, which caused its own scandal because of the rumours swirling around him and the crown princess, but, according to my grandfather, there was no way that that accounted for all of the money that went missing. But the point is, once he’d told everybody this, he literally turned around, jumped down, walked into the labyrinth and was never seen again.”

Katya adjusted her posture, stretching out her legs.

“By the time all the chaos had died down at the labyrinth entrance, certain parties had already started to move,” Katya said, her tone serious, “Ebid’s oldest son arrived back at the guildhall to find two of the wards basically looting the place, and a fight broke out. Others turned up and it turned into a full blown melee, everyone picking and switching sides, until the royal guard showed up and broke it up. The gilt council locked the guildhall down until the matter of a new meister could be resolved, but there were at least thirty different parties vying for the position, and after close to five years of litigation the crown came in over the council ordered the guild dissolved and all the assets left within the guildhall sold to pay for legal costs and the damages caused by the succession brawl. After that, people could have technically reincorporated the guild, but there was nothing to be had except an empty guildhall that, even by that point, would have needed more than a fat purse worth of repairs and maintenance.”

Katya trailed off to silence, and Val released a long, slow breath. He followed her gaze back to the wall and into the darkness where the carving of Ebid’s likely resting place sat.

“So what do you think is there?” Val asked.

“Gold, probably,” Katya responded, “Whatever loot he gathered up during however many years he survived in the labyrinth after abandoning the guild, the weapons he was carrying when he went down there…”

Katya trailed off.

“Maybe nothing,” she went on, “But Ebid was considered to have been the best chance we had of ever making it to the bottom of the labyrinth, before he went crazy and told everyone that they were garbage people, so if we’re going to do it there’s probably something we can use.”

Val looked back at Katya, catching her eye, and she sent him a small smile.

“Thanks,” Val said, simply.

Katya nodded, then looked down at the empty honeypot turned stew container.

‘You still hungry?” Val said.

“Uh huh.”

Val stood up.

“Come on then,” Val declared, “We’ve basically just found a treasure map, we can get a second bowl of stew.”