It took me a few minutes to hurriedly dress in my armour. After that, John pulled me out of the room and we set off in pursuit of Claire. She had long since vanished, but we had a good idea where she would have gone.

The guildhall.

"That spirit ability they used on you worries me. That person would have to be above even Ray's level to pull something like that off." John glanced around as we strode down the street. "It probably only worked so well because of your level, but we still need to tell him about this. He might know someone that can-"

"No!" I pulled him short with a jerk. "Let's talk about this first, then we can decide what to do. No need to involve Ray just yet."

John looked at me for several seconds before he shrugged and carried on down towards the guild. My heart hammered in my chest as I followed him.

That was too close...

As we neared the guildhall, a loud shout rang out. John grabbed my arm and dashed into the room as the cheery smile faded from his face. What we saw when we entered was a scene of devastation. Claire had lifted the leader of the miner party by his loose overcoat and had him pushed against the wall.

“Claire, calm down!” John ran to her side and tried to pull her back. Claire ignored him as she glared at the leader furiously.

“Why did you do it?” She spoke through gritted teeth. I had never seen her so angry before, and the difference between her usual appearance and the wild scene before me was massive.

“I don’t know what you're talking about. He ran off by himself-”

Claire slammed him into the wall once more. The man winced as his head knocked into the bricks behind him, but he didn’t say anything more. It was clear Claire was incensed, so any more words would more than likely give him more pain as a reward.

“What's going on here?”

The receptionist stepped out of the side room. Another person darted out of the room from behind her, but the woman ignored that as she moved to the centre of the hall.

“I want to make an official complaint. This man tried to kill one of my friends.” Claire spoke in a clear tone, but she didn’t drop the leader or turn to face the guild worker. The receptionist raised an eyebrow at the scene as she crossed her arms.

“That's a big claim. Do you have any evidence to back it up?”

“You know my skill. Rook told me the true story. This man left him alone and unprepared in the middle of goblin territory.” Claire finally turned to face the woman. “He tried to kill-”

“Wait.” The receptionist held up a hand. “I know your skill, but that isn’t proof. All that man has to say is that you're lying and you’re back to where we started.”

“Yeah, she’s lying-” The man blurted out. Claire strengthened her grip on his throat, which cut him off from further speech. Before the scene could escalate further, an unwelcome addition wandered in through the door.

“Put him down, Claire.” Ray walked up beside the furious woman. “I believe you, but you aren’t putting on a good show for others to do the same.”

Claire grit her teeth and let go of the leader. He dropped to the floor and coughed roughly as he tried to crawl away, obviously terrified she might continue her assault on him. Claire gave him one final glare before she stormed out of the inn.

“I’ll take him in for questioning.” Ray lifted the man to his feet and brushed off his shoulders. “Come on, we have a few things to talk about.”

Despite the fact Ray was about to take him into custody, the leader looked happy. If someone saw this scene without context it would be easy to assume the pair were best friends. Ray gave me a wink as he pulled the man away, but John missed it as he had already turned back to me.

He's obviously going to just let him go. If I see him again, he won't be so lucky.

“Come on, let’s go see Claire.” John muttered as he walked out of the guild. The rest of the crowd eyed me as I followed him out, though it wasn’t clear what their reactions were to the revelations they had just seen. Some might believe Claire, some might think she had overreacted. Either way, I wanted to get out of there.

John lead me towards the exit from the town. He gave Karen a quick nod as he passed by, but we didn’t turn into the gate to leave. Instead, he walked into an opening on the wall and moved up a staircase hidden in its depths. The steps were tall and uneven, so it was tricky to walk up without in my distracted state.

After we reached the top, it became clear why he had come this way. Claire leaned against the parapet on the side of the wall as she stared out across the fields. The sun was low in the sky, which showed the day was close to ending. Either I had slept for a short time since the fight in the tunnels, or I had been out for more than a day.

Important information, but not a question that would be good to ask right now.

“Don’t start, John.” Claire said before either of us could say a word. John held a finger to his lips and moved in close to my ear.

“Go find Bryan, he’s good at calming her down.” He whispered to me. "I think Bryan mentioned he was going to speak to a friend of his. Susan has been cured, but she asked me to come to check on you. I left a message for her, so she should be joining us soon." before he wandered up beside his leader.

Wait, Susan's been cured? That means they won't know if I tell the others about Ray!

The pair stood in silence, obviously happy to watch the world go by without a word. After a few awkward seconds, I walked back down the stairs and set off in search of Bryan. As there were no clues to his whereabouts, the best place to start would be to ask someone who might have seen him.

“Karen, have you seen Bryan?” I asked after I reached the street once more. Karen frowned for a moment before she pointed back into the town.

“I think he went to the guard barracks. He mentioned he wanted to ask some questions.”

A chill ravaged my heart. Why would he decide to make a scene now? It was clear to me that Ray was in cahoots with the leader of that party and Claire had already rattled his cage. Now was the worst time for Bryan to raise an issue with the man.

Please, don’t do anything stupid.

It took five minutes for me to reach the barracks. It was near to the centre of town, right next to the council chambers. Whilst there were satellite garrisons near the main exit points from the town, this was the main place where the decisions were made. A few people made their way in and out of the beautifully carved place, but they were easily ignored as I barged my way in.

There was no sign of Bryan in the entrance hall, so I ran to speak to a receptionist. Luckily one was free to answer my questions, though he didn’t seem too thrilled once he noticed my attire.

“If you have issues with the guild, please raise them with the receptionist there. We can’t-” He started to speak a standard phrase in a dull tone, as though this was a scene that had played out too many times for him already.

“I’m looking for a friend, I was told he came here. Name is Bryan, uses two swords, ringmail armour.” A quick glance down the corridor behind the receptionist proved he wasn’t there. “Have you seen him?”

The receptionist raised an eyebrow as he shuffled several notes around his desk. After a few seconds, he glanced up at me once more.

“Indeed, a man named Bryan lodged a complaint. He’s currently meeting with the guard captain in his office-”

I didn’t wait for the receptionist to finish. There was no time to follow the correct channels. After I leapt over his desk, it didn’t take long to run up the stairs. Each doorway had a little plaque with a name and a title engraved on it, so all I had to do was look for the largest one and that would likely be my target.

Shouts came from the ground floor as the receptionist called for help. My time was limited, so I darted down the corridor at full speed. After a quick glance at each doorway, I moved on. The clamour from downstairs increased by the second as several thunderous footsteps made their way up the stairs.

As they reached the corridor and yelled at me to stop, I found my target. Without a pause, I dashed into the door and barged into the room. Ray was behind a large desk and Bryan was sat in front of him. The pair looked at me in confusion for several seconds before a squad of guards burst into the office.

Two of them grabbed my arms and prepared to pull me from the room, but before they could drag me off to the cells Ray spoke up.

“That’s enough, you may leave.” He waved at the guards. They glanced back and forth between me and their captain several times before they released my shoulders and saluted to Ray. My mind still hadn’t caught up as the squad left the office and closed the door behind them.

“What the hell are you doing, Rook?” Bryan stood up and moved over to me. Ray watched the scene with a smile as he settled back into his chair.

“I came to find you. John asked me to get you. Claire-”

“Calm down. Bryan, I understand what has happened. No charges will be held against your friend, but please keep a tight hold on him for the rest of the day.” Ray knocked his fist on the table twice. “If I didn’t know better, I would think you wanted to fail, Rook.”

I didn’t respond to Ray's subtle jab. Bryan didn’t say a word as he pushed his way out of the room, but before I could follow Ray spoke to me once more.

“I heard your friends will be coming to meet you today, but we have seen no sign of them.” He shook his head sadly. “Its a shame, they might not get here in time for the fireworks.”

I turned to ask what he meant, but he had already left the room via a doorway at the back. The lock clicked behind him, which was a hint he wouldn’t speak to me any further. His plan was in motion, and there wasn't much time left for me to counter it. I dashed out of the room and joined up with Bryan.

“What’s the problem?” He asked.

“We need to get back to Claire. Come on, we don’t have much time.”

What the hell is he planning? I need to tell the others the truth, right now. We'll have to stand against him with what we have... there's no time to wait for Susan to recover.