Shade and Kitsuno had made another mark on Sarydia with their return with the two mages that were kidnapped, along with bringing back many of the victims that were captured as well from other cities and villages. Some were not thrilled in seeing some of the former bandits roaming around the streets due to them being responsible for the severe actions they have done. The mages especially since it was their fault that Master Wilhelm was knocking on death's door.
Granted, some of the bandits were not present during that attack, but were lumped on the blame due to being associated with the ones who did it. Some of them roam around to tend to community service in exchange for their lives. Those that didn't were prosecuted and imprisoned to await trial and possible execution.
The twins were on thin ice as well due to disobeying orders. Mally ended up getting into a lecture to the two on their own safety and how they threw it out the window, soon to be argued back that they signed up for this stuff to make things safer for everyone else. The main reason she worried more about this was because they were just teens. Among the head count of people who were kidnapped, over half of them were in their early to mid teen years. Something Mally didn't want to see happen to those two. Despite that it technically did.
Zhutto himself was on the verge of letting the two go for another set of reckless actions. Up until Kleau saw the scales that he was given from one of the bandits. Bernice had a worried look on their face because of the mere presence of the scales was a grim reminded of who's it was. This brought confusion to everyone on to why a random set of scales would being worry to them.
The elves explained what they knew of The Black Serpent, mere rumors of what he was as a person that they knew of him. The fact that they were having difficulty finding the people kidnapped was the problem with their tracking. The duo uses mana manipulation in order to find someone's trail and there were runes that existed that can warp mana to cause a distortion. Said distortion was sending the elves mixed signals on who was going which direction, like navigating through fog that you cannot pierce with normal light.
With the knowledge of his existence being true, Shade and Kitsuno were held on high regards from the elves that they have seen his face, which means they are a target for him later on. And given that they escaped him, he wouldn't be keen on being nice the next encounter. Though, when asked about their fight with The Black Serpent, Shade was beginning to get lost as she barely remembers much of the fight. Kitsuno explains what had happened shortly after Shade was imprisoned, but once she broke free, that was where Kitsuno's memory started getting lost to her.
Unable to gather much more info from the twins, the elves took matters into talking to the wolves that were present with them. While some were okay in answering, they did not take kindly to the two stalking them for questions. Thus leading to some complaints coming from them that led Zhutto into forcing the two back to scouting duty outside Sarydia. The minotaur agreed that they needed more information on what happened, but making them mad won't help. Instead, he would tend to the matters himself alongside with Maurice as the two would be more approachable to the wolves.
Within the next couple of weeks, the two kitsunes have been called on and requested left and right for both missions and assignments. At first, the two were going along well keeping busy, to where they had started getting missions outside the city to do some investigations. While a few still had concern for the two, they manage to pull through and return with their spirits held high.
This started dampening when the requests started getting more and more closer to where some started overlapping on the same day. Some escort tasks that were able to be pushed back were forced to be pushed back with it overlapping something else more dire to choose over. Not to mention security duty over both the university and around the Mage's Guild. There was only so much help at the Mercenaries Guild. Most people knew this so they tried to not ask for help unless it was needed.
What started to wear down on the two more was the requests that came from the higher society section of the Sarydia. Pass the university in the north was one of the higher class sections. Normally Shade and Kitsuno tend to avoid areas like this, but with good coin on the way from some of the requests, they had to take it. A few of the city guards had to assist due to a mishap with a client as he was a former student from the Mage's Guild from a place called Solomon. He was arrested due to withholding illegal drugs and in possession of necromatic related objects.
Necromancy is forbidden all around due to disrupting the spirit that was laid to rest. The house was raided by the guards and cleared out of any suspicious materials that was stashed away. The mage was sentenced to confinement to drain all mana from his body before execution. The reasons for this was any possible mana left in a necromancer can possibly revive them into a lich.
Shade and Kitsuno are walking down the streets towards the guild as they return from a high class mission. The two had both annoyed and worn out looks on their faces from what they had to deal with. First the necromantic drug dealer from earlier yesterday, to the mission they had to deal with at night. Which turned out to be someone who was wandering the streets as a familiar.
Kitsuno sighs as she stretches her back slightly to pop a few joints. "I say we head to bed after our reports. Yesterday was brutal." Her elder twin nods slowly before taking in a deep breath to let her own brain refresh. "Bed and then something refreshing to eat. That was just dumb how we were trailing someone who wasn't there."
"Familiar are strange. Didn't think that they had that big of a distance for the caster." Kitsuno looks over towards the guild as it comes in sight and spots a few people walking in. She tugs onto Shade's shoulder to pull her closer to the sideline of the street. "It's not even eight yet... how can there be more to ask already?"
Shade groans before slapping a hand on her face and slowly drags it down. "I get things have been dangerous, and stupid, but if this keeps up we need more people around to help." Kitsuno nods as the duo slowly approached the guild and duck around to listen through the doorway.
Inside, Mally had just collected some paperwork signed from the mayor and noticed the group entering. Putting on a warm smile, she greets them. "Welcome to the Mercenaries Guild. How can we be of assistance?" Among the group a gruff looking brown bear dressed in a faded grey uniform lets out a cough before speaking. "We are with the Boreal Mining Company, I've heard that the guild has been gaining a reputation again." Mally nods, "I guess one can say that. What can we assist with?"
Shade pokes her head in slightly to take a look at the room. Not seeing a clear indication of getting in without getting spotted, she moves back and looks up towards the second floor. "I don't care what they want right now, we've been up all night."
Kitsuno closes her eyes for a moment before an idea lights up in her head. She taps on her sister's shoulder, "There are some windows in the library portion of the guild. We can sneak in from there and wait until they leave the main room. Mally will no doubt have to talk with Zhutto on getting whatever they have need of the guild."
The duo make their way across the street to move along further to the other side of the door frame view of the guild to not get seen by Mally easily as she talked with the clients. Once pass the point, they return to the guild side of the street and move closer towards the western side wall of the building. Moving closer to a windowsill, Kitsuno leaps up and grabs onto the ledge and hoists herself up and climbs inside the library.
Shade follows suit and leaps up to grab the windowsill and climbs inside the library. She however misses her step and ends up faceplanting on the floor in front of Bernice. The female elf looks down at Shade with an unamused look on her face. "You two do realize we have a front door, right?" Kitsuno reaches down and helps her sister up off the floor. "It's been a bit of a night Bernice. Had to chase down someones familiar because they were scaring the residents."
She shrugs before walking over to one of the bookshelves to grab from the selection. "Just remember that you do live here. You two don't have to act like you need to break in to your living quarters." Shade lets out a puff of air, "Welp, people know we are here now. Let's just go sis."
The twins walk out from the library and not long before being spotted by Mally and the group. The bear immediately walks over to the two, "So these two are the two foxes we heard about." Before either one of them could answer, he quickly turns around and points at his two followers, a pink furred rabbit in a green mining outfit replicating his, and the gazelle in a yellow tunic who was diverting his gaze away from the bear. "Alright you two. When we get back with the deposit for the smithy, be sure to bring back all your belongings. If these two girls can make a living at their young age, you should have as well instead of screwing around."
The rabbit looks down at his own feet but snaps back up to attention when the bear stomps forward. "Don't be starting that Nate! You and Walter shouldn't have done what you did and you both know it." He then stands firm and looks at Walter. The gazelle continued to divert his attention away but understood the tension that was in the room. "There is a nearby apartment complex you two can get settled in for your new assignment. Now get moving so we can get the deposit in before sundown."
The two make no haste in leaving the guild as they swiftly got on their feet and rushed out the door. The bear shakes his head, "Spineless lot they are..." he then turns back towards Mally, "When we turn them over, be sure they don't try escaping. Especially Nate. The boy means well, but he is a coward at heart." He then turns his gaze over to the twins and smiles. "A pleasure to meet you two, sorry to keep this meeting short. Ore won't move itself unfortunately."
And with that, he leaves the guild. Shade and Kitsuno were just confused on what had just happened. Kitsuno looks over at Mally as she sighs and sits down in her chair. "Mally, what... just happened?" She looks over at the two, "That was Klaus. Head foreman of the Boreal Mining Company. The two young men that were with him are being sent here to train to become guards."
Shade looks over at the front door, "Last I checked, none of them looked related. How is he able to do that?" The fox begins to shuffle through her books on her desk, "Unfortunately Nate has to listen to him as he was adopted as a young boy. Walter... is close to Nate." Kitsuno looks over at Shade as she sighs before walking towards the stairs. "I can already tell this is going to be an interesting day." She then disappeared up the stairway.
Mally blinks a bit before turning her attention to Kitsuno. "I take it the mission was not well?" The younger sister sighs, "The thing that was scaring the residents was someones familiar. We did what we could to figure out whose it was, but there was only so much of a trail we could find." The fox nods before pulling up the paperwork to sift out the night time creature issue and opened up the document. "I'll go ahead and mark that down for the mayor to look at and have the city guards look into it more then. Not much we can do without a proper lead."
Kitsuno stifles a yawn before rubbing her face slightly with her left hand. Mally takes note of this, "Kitsuno, go ahead and get some rest. When Zhutto comes back from the smithery I'll relay the information to him." The young kitsune thanks her before making her way upstairs.
Shade had already reached her room and had haphazardly discarded her armor onto the dresser and had flopped into bed. It has been a long while since she felt this exhausted. Just as soon as she thought she was getting comfortable enough, her ears perk up as she heard a knock on her door. The elder kitsune picks her head up to look at the door to see her sister standing there. "You okay sis?"
She shuffles a bit on her bed before sitting back up. "Yeah, just tired. Yesterday wasn't really one of our better days." Shade looks at Kitsuno as she leans against the door before waving her hand forward, "Well get in here silly. Or do you prefer sleeping at the door?"
While she joked on that, Kitsuno was starting to feel her adrenaline wear off. The necromancer was more trouble than expect given the difficult task he gave them before having to arrest him, and chasing a random familiar was no better as it fought back. Shade forced herself off the bed and walked over to her younger sister and took ahold of her hands. "Come on Kit, I can tell the exhaustion is settling in. Your bed or mine?" Kitsuno looks over towards her room then shuffles her feet more into Shade's. "Dibs on the pillow."
Shade chuckles a bit as her sister walks in and closes the door before she started taking off her armor. "Which pillow? My tail or the pillow on the bed?" Kitsuno shakes her head a bit to realign her hair as she took off her leather tunic over her ears. "You know which one you goofball. The pillow."
The elder sibling reaches back and takes her pillow to move it to the right side of the bed. After that she stretched her arms a bit before her shoulders popped. "Ack... gonna be feeling that sooner than I thought." Kitsuno had kicked off her boots and climbed into bed, "Well you did bash down a few doors to get that mouse. Just because they were made of wood, doesn't mean they are all flimsy." She then laid down gently onto her half of the bed and yawned before closing her eyes.
Shade followed suit on laying down, but instead of a pillow, she went and grabbed onto Kitsuno's tail to hold onto. "Shade... really?" She shuffles her tail a bit to get more comfortable. Not long the two quickly fell into slumber to catch up on all the energy they have burned off.
.......
The day has passed by and the twins had woken up a little after noon hit to get some food. Mally had given them the word from Zhutto that the two had the rest of the day off. The two both gave a sigh of relief that they could catch a break and spent their time wisely before they were called for something again.
It was when the two came back to the guild to where they decided to talk to Zhutto about how busy things have been. Shade was the first to approach the minotaur in the meeting room and got his attention by poking him in the back. "Hey boss, you got a moment? He turns his head around to look down at the kitsune, "What do you need Shade?"
She leans one elbow onto the table as Kitsuno goes and takes a seat on a chair next to her. "We're gonna make this simple and to the point as it is getting obvious." Zhutto nods before turning his gaze back to a map he was looking at. "That the guild is getting busier by the day now. I am well aware of what has been going on and you two I have my thanks for." He picks up a pencil and making notes on the map as he begins to triangulate some locations together. "Mally has already informed me that we have a couple new recruits from the Boreal Mining Company and there was a few of the local residents who have decided to lend a hand. We unfortunately will have to see how well they do with training first before assigning them to cover a majority of the missions we do and get tasked by from the mayor."
Kitsuno begins to ponder on where the new recruits will be lodged. "Sir, with the guild getting new recruits, where would they be staying? Last I checked all the rooms upstairs have been taken up."
Putting his pencil down and walking over towards a shelf with a couple devices on the middle shelf, he pulls one out and returns to the table to place it on the map. "The rooms upstairs are meant for guild members yes. Ivan chooses to stay here to not waste time and energy flying to Sarydia from his hometown. The elves, as you can guess are not from here, so they choose the lodging here in the guild over living in one of the residential areas."
Shade looks at the device that was on the map, "Not to get sidetracked on what we were about to discuss, but what are you doing?" Zhutto pauses before looking at the map. "Well there has been some attacks going on from direwolves. A bit more than usual. Normally Maurice would handle this kind of stuff, but he's out north escorting some folks back to their hometowns. It's been a good while since I last triangulated this far of a distance."
He then returns his gaze to the twins as Shade lifts up from the table and stretches her arms. "Back to the housing recruits thing. We figured this place would have had more space for others. Surely there was something planned for such a thing, right?"
Silence permeated the room as Zhutto stares. He then lets out a heavy sigh before stepping away from the table to pace around the room. "This place use to be very active with other members. Back when we had Reeves with us."
Shade goes and takes a seat on a chair as this was taking more time than she thought. "So... who was this Reeves and why did they cost the guild this much trouble?" Zhutto stops and lowers his hands onto the table to stand firm on his statement. "Reeves was a good man. Hell, in truth, he was the one who started the guild back up after the last one packed up and left."
Kitsuno looks at Zhutto with confusion. "Wait, so you're not the owner of the guild?" He reaffirms with a shake of his head. "I am these days. Cause on legal terms the second in command is in charge when the main commander is out. It's part of the reason Mally gets mad at me for recruiting people out of nowhere because she knows one of these days I'm going to get in deep trouble." Keeping a firm stare at the twins, he continues. "Granted, she was right about the trouble part, but you two are in the prime of your youth. In the end you are doing what you are trying to do."
Shade feels a bit of content in those words as Zhutto levels things down with them. "Now for the reasons why I am in command is because Reeves isn't here in Sarydia anymore." Shade's expression changes into a more questionable look as things were making little sense. "Boss, if he's not here manning the place like he should be, where is Reeves?"
"That is where the problem is Shade. We don't know where he is at all. Reeves as well as several members of the guild went out on an exploration. This was a year ago by now since he left, and just like that. Nobody knows what happened to him or the team. They all just vanished." Zhutto pauses a bit before looking over at the map. "If memory serves me correctly, Reeves went up towards the valley crossing in the mountains. More towards where my old hometown is. When he never came back, I tried contacting some old friends there to see if they had seen him or any traces of the guild members in the valley should something had happened. But in the end, nothing was found. No remains, no traces of activity. Nothing."
The twins felt the soloumness that Zhutto had amongst himself. To have that much responsibility dumped on him without any say. Shade gets up out of her chair and places a hand on his back. "So since then you have been trying to run this place? Would there be any reason why Reeves would disappear like that?" Zhutto raises a finger. "The one thing I would think that would drive Reeves away would have been one person in the high society section of Sarydia. I'm not going to specify who, mainly because..." he keeps a stern look over the two. "After what has happened since you two started working here, and that you two have told me you had broken into a few places before, I have to draw a line somewhere."
The two nod in acceptance. "Now, I know this was not suppose to turn into a slight history lesson of the guild itself and how it came into the state that it is in when you two arrived. You were wondering about the new recruits and where they would be staying? Well with the reputation of the guild coming back to light, Mally will have to contact the nearby apartment complexes to see about housing some new recruits that don't live in Sarydia."
Shade looks over at Kitsuno, "Well aside from that. We were wondering on the stuff we have to do." Kitsuno nods, "Yes. The two missions we did yesterday made us think a bit. Besides having to do stuff for the guild, we are also pulling guard duty at the university and what I was thinking, possibly being guards for the Mage's Guild." Shade blinks as that was not what she was thinking about fully. "Shade, I know we haven't fully talked about it, but think about it. Master Wilhelm is still recovering from the attack. I get you don't want to because of that whole incident a few years ago, but they don't seem that bad. Besides, Liam is our friend. It wouldn't hurt to help him out more and get to know him better."
Unable to disagree with her sister, Shade closes her eyes to ponder her thoughts. "Well... you're not wrong Kit." She then opens her eyes, "Though where I was going towards was that we can't go do double duty like this forever."
Zhutto clears his throat to get both of their attention. "Have you two thought about splitting the work up then? You two are a unique duo, but we've noticed that you two barely leave each other." Both kitsunes look at each other as they knew the reasons why. "Think of it this way girls. You both are strong and smart. We can understand why you don't want to seperate because of the cult you two got involved with, but you need to face facts that sometimes you need to find new ways to tackle on the problem."
The two understood what he was saying. "Think it over some more if you both are unsure of it. Just remember that you can deny some requests that don't agree with either of you." Shade sighs before walking over to Kitsuno. "No, you're spot on boss. We're going to have to get use to not being together for a lot of stuff." A smile warms up on his face, "To make it easier for now, how about you two work with Mally on making a schedule to where you will be able to handle some of the missions."
Zhutto looks over towards the clock. "The day is still young and I am sure this is what we needed to discuss. Now go enjoy the rest of the day and tomorrow we can set in what you two will be tasked for for the week." Kitsuno gets up from her chair and she joins Shade on their way out of the room. Both of them were still unsure on how to feel on this, but to expand further in life, they need to do this.
