Getting Paid

Now that we were all seeing eye to eye it seemed to me like a pretty good time to go collect our reward.

We all got dressed wearily looking at daggers each of us kept stowed away under our garments, and at our sides. At least Melli and I were on equal footing now. She'd never really be able to trust me again, and I could never trust that she wasn't trying to kill me. That's the thing about people who desire power. They usually desire YOUR power.

Either way we head out into the city and travel to the adventurer's guild. I've been in this town for three months now, and still no one's aware of the evil in their midst. The carts turn as they always have, drunk traders shuffled through the street at night. That business with the goblins is all but forgotten. In many way I'm a failure, but that's just how these things go. When I got assigned Crossroads I was sure it was a **** sentence, no shame living this long.

We make it to the adventurer's guild, a nice stone building in the middle of all the lumber and brick. It's rather large, as they usually are. Adventures are usually vagabonds living from paycheck to paycheck but their guilds are more often than not quite rich.

We head in, and it's quiet this time of night. A few adventurers are sitting at a table in the lounge, but there's only a single clerk working the desk. I wonder up to her with a big smile on my face. "And I thought this night couldn't get any more beautiful, but here you are!"

"Ugh." Elizabeth and Melli rolls their eyes, and the clerk joins in.

"What do you need?" She asks, a hawk has never been shot down in a more definite manner.

"We're claiming the reward for that dungeon that opened up." I slip Cyrus's shield off of my shoulder.

I'd expect her to be impressed with the boss loot, but she just takes it and nods. She pulls a crystal out from her desk and runs it over the object, where it produces a very healthy orange glow. "Just give me a second to check to see if this item has already been catalogued." She takes out a sort of plate with glyphs drawn around it. She then places the crystal within the circle. She does some kind of magical bullshit and nods her head. "Okay looks like we're good. She looks to the three of us. I'll just need to see your adventuring badges."

Fuck!

Identification!

That's the downside of being born to an underground sex cult. You don't really claim citizenship to anyplace in the world.

Or any guild.

Melli produces her's easily, but Elizabeth and I don't have one.

"You don't have one either?" I ask her, kind of surprised.

"You don't need a permit to hunt monsters." She says casually.

Should have known she'd take a job that didn't require any paperwork.

"Okay." I say, moving Melli to the front. "She's here to collect the reward."

The woman shrugs, vanishes into the back office for a few minutes and then comes out with a small sack of coins, and a contract. "Just sign here." She says, pushing the paper forward to Melli.

Melli being a fucking nerd, actually reads the contract. "Single collector?" She says aloud, looking at the clerk then the sack of coins. "That's not right, this is only a fraction of the reward."

"One forth, yes." The clerk sighs, no doubt having had this conversation a thousand times before. "The guild takes ten percent off the reward as a processing feed. Then the reward is divided up into four shares. Each participating guild member is awarded a share, up to four members. Non-guild participants instead have their shares withheld as membership fees and can chose to join the guild."

"That's bullshit." Elizabeth barks.

"It's to discourage higher stars from soloing the dungeons." I think aloud. "Still utter tripe." I say. "We nearly died, a few times for this gold. You can't withhold it."

"Legally we can." The clerk sighs, she produced a tablet with several legal scripts and court cases cited. Pure gibberish as far as I'm concerned.

Elizabeth reaches out, grabs the tablet and snaps it in half. "How about that?"

The clerk just sighs some more. "It regenerates."

Elizabeth breaks the halfs into quarters.

"It'll regenerate."

Elizabeth crushes the entire tablet into dust, and let's it drift to the floor.

"Listen." The clerk sets the money and contract down beneath her desk, and goes back to reading a novel. "We just act as a processor for the Capital's contract. If you want the entire reward, you can travel to the capital and claim it there."

Now there's an idea.

"Side bar." Mellis grabs Elizabeth and me and pulls us to the side. "Let's do that." She whispers. "We'd have to go there anyway to sell the shield, and I was going to Join The All Seeing Eye after getting my star anyway."

"Eh I'm kind of leery about leaving Crossroads." I might be struck down by holy lightning if I do. I look to Elizabeth. "Maybe we just send Melli."

"You can't be serious." She hisses. "She tried to kill you twenty minutes ago."

"And you tried to kill me last week." I hold my hands up. "I'm very forgiving."

"And awfully trusting for a demon worshiper." Melli observes.

I hold my hand to my heart. "Bellowyn teaches us to let everyone into our hearts."

"I can't with you." Elizabeth throws her hands up, and storms out of the hall.

Melli shakes her head and goes after.

"Okay we're going now." I say throwing up fingers to the clerk and adventures. "Fuck ya'll!"

The three of us going huffing out onto the street, villagers looking at us revrently no doubt thinking us to be glorious adventurers rather than homeless victims of the system. "Well that went well." Melli sighes.

"Those fucking snobs. Processing fee my ass." Elizbeth looks like she needs something to strangle.

"I guess you have your first mission Melli." I smile.

"I'm not working for you." She sneers at me.

"Keep telling yourself that." Elizabeth folds her hands behind her head and takes a few deep breaths.

"Yeah." I agree. "Keep in mind my witch king talent only works if you're working for me."

She grimaces. "I'm starting to think I'll never truly have power if I'm always going to be under you."

"Great you'll have plenty of time to plot your betrayal when you're in the capital." I tell her with a smile. "Here's your mission. You're going to collect our reward for clearing the dungeon, and poach me two female magic users from The All Seeing Eye, fulfilling my challenge for that star."

She gasps, the very idea an insult to her. "You must be out of your mind."

"It's the best place for magic users, you're the best person to join the organization, and I need two more. Everything seems to fall perfectly in line."

"Except for putting the person still thinking about killing you in charge of it." Elizabeth reminds me.

"You should be happy about it." I say. "My downfall can only benefit you."

Elizabeth shakes her head. "I'm in too deep. If you go down, I go down."

"Well them Melli." I say with a smile. "We're depending on you."

"This is insane." She says shaking her head. "I'll see how big of an advantage you actually give me when compared to the other mages." She says, almost to herself. "Then I'll see if that skill is even worth having, let alone improving."

"Pragmatic as always." I grin.

She reaches out for the shield, but I shy away. "Aren't we selling it?"

I laugh. "I guess I don't completely trust you. A full dungeon reward, and pawning off a boss item gives you a little too much money for me to be comfortable with." I shrug. "This way if you do betray us, we still have a nice shield."

"Suit yourself." Melli shrugs. "I'll head out in the morning. I'll send letters to your, hut."

"Sounds good."

Elizabeth and I watch her leave. "You're the only person I've ever seen beat a dungeon and walk out broke."

"Yep." I sigh. "We might have to recruit an accountant next."