“Let’s start with the Guild of Lust.” Jane waved her hand and a book appeared from seemingly out of nowhere. I gave her a questioning look, but Jane just smiled at me.

“I can use pocket dimensions as well, just not to the degree of you and Conrad. Now, look here.” She opened the book and stopped on a page that had eight symbols on it.

“The Guild of Lust,” Jane said, pointing to a symbol of a red heart with three lines running down it vertically, “has been one of the most consistent Guilds when it comes to how they regulate their members. Trust is very important to the Guild, but so is freedom. As such, they don’t require members to get a crest just for joining, only if you desire to become a high ranking official will you need to obtain one.”

“The Guild of Lust has strong connections to the Guilds of Kindness, Sympathy, and Love as they all share the basic concept of intimacy as one of the founding traits of their teachings. The lustful aspect makes them friendly with the Vagabond Guild, the freaky bunch that they are.” Jane shivered. “The Guild of Lust has always been about making connections to others through intimacy, and as such, they have one of the largest information networks out of any of the Guilds.”

Jane moved her finger to another symbol, a triangle pointing downward with three dots on each of its faces. “The Guild of Love is very similar to the Guild of Lust, however, they take the searching and recruitment of their members much more seriously. Not anyone can join off the street, and a mark is required to join, as they are dedicated to finding only those who will pay back the Guild long term.”

“The Guild of Love has deep ties with Lust, Kindness, Sympathy, Beauty, and one you may not expect, Inventors. The former because of what we mentioned with Lust. Beauty, as they believe one must find beauty to fully love something. Lastly Inventors, who believe that they require a love of their work in order to fully expand upon and reach the ideal form of their creations.”

“Next is the Guild of Grace, whose teachings dictate that grace in all things is the surefire method to a successful life.” Their symbol was a long curvature that looked like an ‘S’, with a line going straight through the middle horizontally. “Their allies are the Guilds of Rogues, Vagabonds, and Oracles.”

“Rogues and Vagabonds for the obvious reason that their professions require a vast amount of grace in their actions in order to perform the missions that they are required to. Oracles may be a little less clear, but their profession requires them to carry an air of grace when on official business. They are expected to represent their guild well at all times.”

I looked Jane up and down before she started to pinch my cheek. “You’re quite the rude one, you know that?” She sighed, and placed her hand that had pinched me back on the book page. The next symbol looked like an ‘8’ with two dots in each of the loops.

“The Guild of Beauty is similar in world view to the Guild of Grace. They believe that by surrounding yourself with beauty, your life will never be dull. They are allies with the Guilds of Love and Inventors. However, their rivalry with the Guild of Grace might land you into some difficult to navigate situations.”

Next was a crudely drawn dagger pointing downwards, with three spikes coming out of the handle of the blade, and to the right of that was a satchel with a half-closed eye on it.

“I figured we should talk about Vagabonds and Rogues together. Now, while they share many traits together, Vagabonds and Rogues share different fundamental values. Vagabonds are committed to the importance of their own journey, and a sense of Wanderlust that guides them. On the other hand, Rogues carry much of the same skills that Vagabonds do, however they are weapons for hire, and their varying skill sets make them one of the more formidable guilds to go through when it comes to combat. Rogues and Vagabonds both get along with each other and the Guild of Grace. However, Vagabonds have deep ties with Lust and Sympathy, whereas Rogues tend to stick to themselves and not have any clear allegiances save for the guild of grace, as they take requests from all over the continent, and any discord between them and other could affect their business.”

“The Guild of Oracles,” Jane shook her head as she started, “well, you’ve seen their emblem already. A silver crystal with the eye of awakening on it.” She said, pointing to her chest.

“They are a secluded group, rarely seen by the common-folk, as most members are in lofty positions of power, or protected by their own local governments. Oracles are known as the diviners of fate, and are used to see the flow of the world, and where their employers fit into it.”

“Oracles get along well with the Guild of Grace, but like the Guild of Rogues, allying themselves with other Guilds would harm their business practices, as most aristocracy in this world has ties to one guild or another.”

Jane pointed to an image of five vertical lines with two horizontal lines on the top and bottom. “The Guild of Inventors is probably the quirkiest Guild of all. They have no working requirements, but rather strive to make the world be unable to live without their inventions. The Guild of Love is their ally, but as with the former two, any further alliances would hurt their business prospects.”

Jane turned the page to reveal a spade with a diamond cut into it, and a diamond with a spade cut into it. “Lastly, the Guilds of Kindness and Sympathy are ancient organizations. Whereas the rest of the guilds are public organizations, these two guilds work behind the scenes to try and ensure that a moderate amount of peace will always be present in the world. The Guild of Sympathy is the only one of the two who has contact with an outside guild: the Guild of Vagabonds.”

Jane closed her book and it disappeared in a shadowy mass. Folding her arms, she gave me an appraising gaze. “So Leon, based on what you’ve heard, where are your thoughts now?”

“Well-”

“I know where you should go.” I gave a sigh as I was interrupted by a randomly appearing Hazeel the Conqueror.

Jane’s eyes widened and Conrad jumped out of his chair, drawing his sword from his pocket dimension in the process. Bella just yelped and hid under the table.

“Ah, my lord, time feels like an eternity without you.” The wood elf hugged me from behind, resting her arms on my shoulders and nestled her head next to mine. I shuddered as her warm breath hit my ear.

“It’s been a while, Hazeel.” Jane stood up and held her arms wide, an opportunity which Hazeel gladly took.

“Master! It has to have been at least a decade since I’ve seen you!” Hazeel nuzzled her way into Jane’s embrace, a smile adorning her face the whole time.

“That’s you, Commander Hazeel!? By the Gods graces you don’t look like you’ve aged since you were my superior!” Hazeel smiled at the compliment, and separated from Jane.

“And you, Conrad, look like you’ve had a rough time of things. You’re all grey now, how pitiful.” Conrad sighed at the comment, and Jane cleared her throat.

“While it is nice to see you, do you think you could enter in a way that doesn’t scare my granddaughter next time?” Hazeel lifted her sleeve, revealing a bright blue dagger like the one I had just seen in Jane’s book.

“Sorry Jane, old habits die hard… where is Belladonna anyway?” Jane pointed across the table, where Bella was just starting to peek her head out from under the table. She shakily got up to her feet and pointed a trembling hand at Hazeel.

“Is… is it true that you entered into a blood contract with Leon!?” I watched in exasperation as a smug smile started to form on Hazeel’s face.

“My, aren’t you a popular one, my lord.” Hazeel once more walked up to me and linked my arm with hers. “That’s right. He dominated me like no one had before and made me submit as his willing slave.” Bella collapsed in her chair as Hazeel laughed at my side.

I had a feeling that Bella was going to need a long explanation for this one.