“Here.” The guild worker pushed a small scroll across the counter, and Plume stumbled to catch it before it fell to the ground. “Fill this out, and then bring it back. Anything you enter into the achievements box will be verified by the guild, so try not to brag too much.”

Plume nodded his head at the woman, but she’d already turned away to deal with another customer, the never-ending sea of adventurers stretching out of the room and into the hallway. Holding his scroll in both hands, the half-elf made his way to the writing desk the worker had pointed out, unrolling the scroll and drawing a pen from the nearby inkwell.

His name… Plume paused, the pen hovering above the parchment. If he wished to change his name, now would be the time. But a name… what name could he choose?

“Plume!” The half-elf jumped at Larry’s shout, turning towards the entrance to see the trio of adventurers as they waved over at him. Them again… They were certainly more than friendly enough to someone who would have been their enemy just a day before, but was it really okay for him to be ignoring the crew members who had fallen at their hands? No, the pirates had been acquaintances at best, and only Hare had looked out for him at all. He had abandoned his old life in any case. That man, Christoph, might be an exception, but surely there was no harm in making friend with the guild members?

“I’m not going by that name anymore,” Plume said. “I’ll take a new name from now on.”

“Eh?” Cecilia made a face. “A new name? What name?”

“I…” Plume’s pen remained hovering over the paper. “I don’t know yet, but-”

“You can’t lie to the guild, you know?” Barry said. “If you use a fake name the scroll’ll burn up when they finish the ritual.”

“Oh,” Plume said with a sigh. “No, I didn’t know that.”

…

“You’re a bronze ranker now!” Barry said, slapping the young man on the back, the guild building fading away behind them. “Soon, you’ll move up to Iron, and then you’ll be a real member of the guild!”

“Well, he might even skip over Iron if he’s good enough,” Larry said, reaching an arm around Plume’s shoulders as they walked down the hardened clay road. “Come to our store, we’ll get you fitted out with everything you need to start adventuring!”

“A store?” Plume asked, shrugging off Larry’s arm. ” I didn’t know you guys were merchants.”

“Of course we are!” Larry replied, stretching his hands out at his sides. “The Merry Brothers, people call us!”

“Merry was our father,” Barry said, raising a finger. “Well, he was eaten by a landshark testing one of his inventions a while back, so now we run the shop!”

“Your father’s name was Merry?” Plume asked. “That’s peculiar.”

“No no,” Larry replied. “His name was Harry. He was merry, though.”

“Eh…” Cecilia said. “You guys have a shop?”

“Of course we do!” Larry said, throwing his arms into the air. “The Merry Brothers’ shop, people call it!”

“Merry was our father,” Barry replied, waving his finger back and forth. “Well, he was eaten by a landshark-”

“You didn’t know?” Plume asked the canid beast-woman. “I thought the three of you were long-time companions.”

“Nah, we only met up recently,” Barry said. “This is her first time to the city, too!”

“Anyway,” Cecilia interrupted with a wag of her tail. “I’m hungry. You guys don’t sell meat or anything, do you?”

…

“Ah!” Jacques exclaimed. “The owners are back!”

“The owners?” Christoph looked up from where Jacques had been outlining the various enchantments the store could offer, frowning as he saw the merchant greeting the people who had just walked in. They were the owners?

“Oh hey, it’s Christoph!” Barry said with a wave. “What brings you to our store?”

“Jacques!” Larry said, patting the merchant on the shoulder. “It’s good to see you!”

“You too, master,” Jacques replied. “Was the journey fruitful?”

“Let’s discuss that another time,” Larry said. “Here, meet Cecilia. We picked her up near the Bay, she’ll be with us for a while.”

“Hmm.” The beast woman mumbled a greeting past her mouthful of food, waving the skewer she held in her left hand as she took a bite from the one in her right.

“Hello,” Jacques said, holding out a hand to be shook for a moment before dropping it back down by his side.

“Larry and Barry,” Christoph said, arms crossed as he leaned back against the table. “I didn’t know you two were store-owners.”

“Geoff knows,” Barry said, scratching his head. “Guess we never told anyone else.”

“Ah, you know this gentleman?” Jacques asked. “He’s requesting a custom enchanted gauntlet, for his left hand.”

“Gentleman?” Larry said. “That’s stretching is a bit, right Cecilia?”

The canine woman nodded vigorously, fur shaking as she moved. Christoph suppressed his revulsion, turning away as she frowned, her ears pricking up in his direction. Past the two brothers, he saw the half-elf pirate ducking away behind a rack of armor. The adventurers might not think much of him, but that could hardly be helped, really. Try as he might, the way he felt about the furry beast races was not something he could control. Why would Liam do this to him?

“I’m here as a customer,” Christoph said to the angry-looking twin.

“We don’t want your business,” Larry replied. “Refusing customers is not something we usually do, but I’ll make an exception in this case.”

“I have money,” Christoph said, dropping his sack of gems onto the table behind him. Cecilia’s eyes bulged as she realized what the contents were, and she turned to tap at Larry’s arm with one of her skewers, the other still clenched between her jaws. The mage paused, looking over at his companion for a moment. Was he using telepathy? No, Cecilia was doing her best to communicate to the human with nothing but her facial expressions.

“Cecilia says she’ll forgive you if you apologize,” Larry said. Christoph forced down a sigh, reaching up to cover his face with his hands. Would it be better to leave? No, Serana had led him here, so he doubted there was anywhere else that would compare… Could he contain himself long enough to apologize to the beast-woman? Even simply being so close to her made his skin crawl.

“I’m sorry,” he said, bowing his head to the group as a whole. “I simply cannot stomach the sight of her people. This is not by choice, it’s just how it is.”

“Is that so?” Barry asked. “I wondered if it was something like that…”

“You thought he was racist,” Cecilia said, finishing her first skewer of meat and moving on to her second. Barry glared back at her. So she could talk now, could she?

“Well I was half-right,” he said, turning back towards the crystal-studded swordsman. “Or do you have some reason to hate the beast clans?”

“I do not,” Christoph said. “You might say it’s a curse of sorts.”

“Eh?” Cecilia asked, taking a step forwards. “What kind of curse makes you hate cats and dogs?” She took a step forwards, and Barry held an arm out to stop her as Christoph shifted his stance ever so slightly.

“That’s enough,” Barry said. “We’ll take your request. Jacques, take Cecilia and the young elf and get them fitted for questing. We’ll deal with this.”

“Ah, of course,” Jacques said with a bow. “This way, miss. Now, the main three types of armor are…”

Barry and Larry watched the merchant lead the beast-woman away, turning back to look at Christoph and his sack of crystals when the trio had left earshot.

“What are you after, then?” Barry asked. “Let’s put the past behind us for now. You’re a customer, and we’re the merchants.

“A left-arm gauntlet,” Christoph replied. “Something sturdy, that’d keep my arm together even if it was cut in half. Because of my… condition, I can’t use any storage-type enchantments, and defensive enchantments are next to useless, so if it’s enchanted then something offensive would be best. Can you do that?”

“We can do almost anything,” Barry replied. “Can we do this? Of course.”

“It’ll be expensive, of course,” Larry said.

“Of course,” Barry said with a grin. “You’re only capable of pure magic, right? Maybe a converter of some sort…”

“A focusing array?” Larry asked. “We could adjust the output with the positioning of the fingers-”

“No, that’d be too fragile,” Barry replied. “Maybe a spiral array, with some sort of motion calculation…”

“Too complicated,” Larry said, looking up at their customer. “What type of spell did you have in mind?”

“Rock or ice missile, lightning bolt, mana pulse, it doesn’t really matter,” Christoph said. “I can adjust the output with the amount of mana I put in, so anything else is unnecessary.”

“Of course,” said Barry. “Hmmm… so no adjustments, just a converter… a linear array?”

“Too unwieldy,” Larry said. “He moves too much for it to have a fixed stance cast.”

“What about materials?” Barry asked. “The crystals should be pretty large… How large do you want this, anyway?”

“As large as you can,” Christoph said. “I’ll be going after the biggest subjugation quests I can take. That reminds me, when’s the earliest you can have something ready and finished for me?”

…

“The dragon?” The beast warriors laughed at the elf woman, silver medallions dangling at their necks. “Are you trying to die?” they asked. “Not even the platinum rankers want to take that request.”

“We could make an expedition!” Diana said, waving her arm out in a gesture that encompassed the entire crowd. “We could take it down!”

“Don’t be crazy,” one of the beast-men replied with a shake of his head. “An expedition in the shifting sands? Why don’t you go gather some more of your people and take their ships after the monster. What rank are you, anyway?”

Diana glared over at the Silver-rankers. She was a former platinum rank! She’d taken down one of the giant lizards before! No, shouting out her name here would only increase the animosity growing in the mass of adventurers. It was bad enough that she was reduced to begging the weaklings for aid, but this was not a quest she could take alone. If she had even one competent ally…

“You still here?” Christoph raised an eyebrow at her from where he was leaning on the wall nearby. “Most people would have made an official request, you know?”

“Most people do not share my history,” Diana said. An official request… The adventurers would take one look at her name and laugh in her face. “Did you come back to gloat?”

“Yes,” Christoph said with a smile. “It’s nice to see the always-correct Diana rushing about in a panic for once.”

“Lend me your skimmer,” she said. “Just for this one quest. I’ll have it back before-”

“No way,” Christoph shook his head. “Even if I did, you’d still need a partner to take down the beast.”

“I’ll pay you well,” the elf woman said. “I still have my share of the crystals from the journey, so-”

“I don’t need them,” Christoph said, cutting her off. “Crystals won’t make me any stronger.”

“What do you want?” Diana asked.

“Well, it’s going to be difficult for my reputation, having been pushed through to Gold without any warning,” Christoph said, raising a hand to where he’d hidden his medallion under his long tattered cloak. “Siding with the infamous traitor Diana on top of that isn’t going to make me any friends… So it won’t be cheap. And you want to keep studying me as well? Oh man, I can’t even imagine how much-”

“I’ll give you the remains,” Diana said. “You can have the whole thing. I’ll even join your party, and help you on your quests.”

“Hmmm…” Christoph leaned back against the wall and pretended to think over her offer. “Close, but not quite enough.”

“I’ll give you my body,” she said, staring over at him.

Christoph shuddered against the wood, his face twisting into a grimace. “Please never say that again,” he said. “I know where you’ve been.”

“…I’m fairly certain Bastias is a preferable partner to your little mistress,” Diana said with a raised eyebrow. Christoph shuddered again at her words, raising a hand up to stop her from talking.

“Please stop,” he said. “I get it.” Swallowing his saliva, he shook his head, shivering at the memories that came bubbling to the surface.

“Will you help me?” Diana asked.

“I have another condition,” Christoph said, turning to look up at her.

“Oh? Let’s hear it then,” Diana said, ignoring the looks they were drawing from the nearby member of the guild.

“You’ll have to answer any questions I have,” Christoph said. “Starting with this – why do you want to return to the guild so badly?”

“Why do you hate the beast races?” Diana retorted.

“Ah.” A smile spread over Christoph’s face as he leaned his head back against the message board, closing his eyes for a moment. “So it’s Liam’s influence then? I thought that might be it,” he said, eyes snapping open to lock onto her own.

“Okay, here’s one more,” he said. “Exactly what changes did Liam make to the two of us? Which memories did you receive, and what did he take? Our personalities, preferences, anything you can remember. ”

“I have no idea if he took anything at all,” Diana said with a shake of her head. “But I know I’m not the person I was before.”