Elyra's walls loomed over the horizon.

Vex's stomach turned a bit as he stared at them — he never thought he'd see them again so soon. He knew, objectively, that it had been more than a year since he'd left; it still felt like he was returning too early. He'd expected to have three years before being forced to return.

It had only been one and a half.

Only a few weeks ago, Vex would have said he wasn't ready, even with all the progress he'd made with the Guild and with his friends. Now?

He still didn't feel like he was ready; he wasn't sure he ever would. But at least he felt like he could do it, even if he wasn't ready. He could face down his parents and demand they give up his little brother, and convince all his siblings to turn against them...

...well, no, that second goal was a little more far-fetched. Vex knew most of them bought into what his parents had told them. Even his sister, who sympathized with him the most, believed it was simply a necessity to maintain their noble status.

And they weren't even wrong, was the thing. He couldn't dispute that it was the truth. It was the fact of what they were doing that rubbed him the wrong way — starting at the age of six, too young for them to really understand what they were accepting, what they were giving up —

"Are you okay?" Derivan's voice interrupted his thoughts. He spoke in his usual calm baritone. The lizardkin paused, brought back to reality, and gave Derivan a small smile.

"I will be," he said, turning to stare back up at the walls.

"You have us, whatever you need," Misa said. "Although if I get my hands on your fucking parents…"

"Misa," Sev warned quietly. Vex could tell his heart wasn't in it, though; it was more an automatic response than anything else.

"I know," Misa said, looking down and gritting her teeth. "I know. Just... why aren't you angry?" she blurted, directing the words to Derivan. "Even Sev is mad, no matter how good he is at hiding it, and you're not? I don't get it."

Derivan was silent, and for a moment, so was the cabin; Misa opened her mouth to apologize, looking awkward, when Derivan finally responded.

"No matter how much I wish to be like all of you," he said. "I am different, I think. My thoughts do not turn towards anger. I do not understand revenge, except perhaps in a very abstract sense. When those that are close to me are hurt, I think only about protecting them, not about harming those that caused it. And... perhaps this is a blessing, or perhaps it is a failing. I do not know.

"I do know that I have little control over it. Perhaps I will feel differently when we meet them. But I find my thoughts veer more towards the direction of keeping his brother safe.

"I am sorry if that answer was disappointing."

Misa just sighed. "No, I'm sorry," she said. "I shouldn't have put that on you. It just... it feels fuckin' weird that I'm the one most angry about all of this."

"Is it that weird?" Sev glanced at her, offering a small smile, though it was a little tentative. "Aren't you always?"

"Kind of." Misa frowned a bit. "I dunno. This feels different, you know?"

"Let's not talk about this?" Vex gave them all a strained smile. He appreciated them all, but he didn't know how to handle that; having people angry on his behalf — or wanting to protect him, in Derivan's case — was somewhat foreign to him still. "Come on. We're almost at the walls."

And they were.

The gates were well-guarded, built several lengths high with spellcraft-shaped red stone; the mana traces were a telltale giveaway, and they created lovely little striations in the rock, too, for anyone with mana vision.

Near the far-too-ornate gate was a troop of about ten guards; two stationed on either side of the gate, two at the center, and the remaining six lining the walls on top — equipped with ranged weaponry, if the shadows of their staffs and bows were anything to go by.

His mana sense brought up several people skulking around, too, invisible to the naked eye. He had no doubt there were a few more that even his sight wouldn't catch; at least, not at his level.

All of it was more theater than it was anything else. When was the last time any force had tried to invade or sneak into Elyra? If anything, people were more likely to try to sneak out. But maybe that was his bias speaking.

"State your business," one of the guards spoke to them, his voice gruff.

"We're adventurers on a diplomatic mission," Sev answered, flashing their adventurer's badges at the guard and gesturing towards the back of the caravan. "Bringing a delivery of supplies. The Guild here should be expecting us."

"We haven't received word of this," the guard said with a frown.

"You haven't?" Sev's brow furrowed. "We should have been expected for since a week ago—"

"The badges are legitimate, either way," one of the other guards said. "Adventurers are allowed in the city. We might as well let them in."

"Corelius." The first guard scowled, something in his expression turning ugly. "What have I told you about speaking up without being prompted?"

"...To not do it, sir," Corelius said. The man stepped back and bowed his head slightly, though Vex saw his lips twist slightly, as though in disgust.

"The entrance fee is ten gold," the first guard said bluntly. "You can't come in if you don't pay."

"What? Ten gold is exorbitant." Sev frowned. "Give me a moment to send a message to the Guildmaster—"

"Twelve gold," the guard said.

"—Oh. This isn't a rule at all, you just want a bribe." Sev narrowed his eyes slightly. "I'm not inclined to bribe you. We're here to help Elyra; we'll be donating to your food supplies regardless."

"Food, eh?" the guard's eyes immediately lit up with greed. "Shit, you should've told me, I thought your supplies were just wood and junk. If you're giving us food, then all you need to do is give me ten percent, and I'll let you in."

"What? No! Do you have any idea—" Sev clamped his mouth shut as he spoke, and glared instead.

"You will let us in," Vex said quietly.

"Who the hell are you?" the guard sneered at him. "Don't interrupt when the big boys are talking."

"Who the hell calls themselves 'the big boys'?" Misa muttered in the back, to Vex's amusement; he'd flinched a little bit when the guard spoke to him, and that remark made a smirk tug at the corner of his snout, and he straightened instead.

"I am Vex, of House Ashion," the lizardkin said, glaring at the man with his haughtiest look. "You're going to let us in."

"...No you're fucking not," the guard said, but his face was considerably paler.

"Richard," one of the other guards warned; this one hadn't spoken before, but he clearly recognized Vex, because his face was much paler than the man who was presumably named Richard. "Do the test, or you're going to get us all in trouble."

Richard grit his teeth. "If you're a noble," he said. "And I'm not saying that you are. Then share a drop of your blood, and we will validate your bloodline."

The last words were recited and well-practiced; Vex still frowned, then held out his hand anyway. He was used to this. The guard stared at him for a moment, and then promptly used a small black box threaded with a gold needle to pierce through Vex's scales. Blue blood oozed out for a second, and the guardsman allowed the blood to flow into the well of a second, smaller device.

For a moment, nothing happened, and a satisfied grin began to spread across Richard's face —

— until the whole thing lit up with a buzzing green, and Richard flinched, almost dropping the box. "Shit," he said, and frantically waved at the men atop the gate to start opening it. "I'm so sorry for the inconvenience, sir. Please don't report me."

"I won't," Vex said, not meaning a word of it. The guard looked relieved anyway, apparently trusting the lizardkin to keep to that promise; he wondered how many nobles the man had met before, to think that he could gain their favor just by following their every whim.

Probably too many.

He hated this, though. This was another part of the reason he'd left Elyra in the first place — too much worship and attachment that came with his name. No one treated him like a person.

He just wasn't above using his status to let them get into the city faster.

"There's something wrong with the Guild here," Sev muttered to himself, already busy with his system and apparently rapidly scanning through a message, if the way his eyes flickered was any indication. "They haven't responded properly to Guild communications in days."

"They went dark?" Misa asked.

"No." Sev shook his head. "They're responding. Just disregarding all the communications protocols. The Guildmaster says she tries to rotate people here to make sure corruption doesn't take root, and the last shift was pretty recent, so I can't imagine..."

"I guess we better visit the Guild branch here first thing, then," Vex said quietly. "It's this way."

He knew the way by heart, and he quietly adjusted the caravan's magic to account for the new route. He'd been planning his journey for so long, after all — he knew that the Guild was his one shot at getting out of Elyra and having a chance at earning something close to prestige. There were, technically, more opportunities by his parents' sides, but...

Those opportunities felt tainted, somehow. Becoming an adventurer was, at least, his own choice.

The roads of Elyra, unlike many of the towns they had been in prior, were more built for caravans to make their way through — and so they had no issue navigating the surprisingly crowded streets. There were other caravans on the street, too, doubtless owned by nobles, for how big and ostentatious they were; the streets were only built as wide as they were so they could accommodate the absurdly overbearing vehicles.

And yet, besides the prominence of moving caravans as a mode of transport, the place felt surprisingly... quiet.

Part of it was doubtless the food shortage. Vex's heart sank to see how different it was to what he was used to — he was not a fan of Elyra at the best of times, but often there were people in the streets that were happy, at least; now there was an empty listlessness with which they walked the streets, and too many people seemed too thin for their clothes.

Hunger was a very real ailment, despite the system. Health wouldn't prevent death by hunger; it would simply appear as a [Malnourished] status effect that got steadily worse, cutting off more and more maximum health.

Sev let out a sharp breath, at this point, and Vex looked up, alarmed.

"Is the Guild building supposed to be that... you know..." Sev gestured, staring up at the Guild branch.

And he really did have to stare up.

The building definitely had not looked like that when Vex had left.

When he had left, the Guild had certainly been a well-maintained building, with ample space for its adventurers to room and sleep in, as all the Guild branches did. It had not been a massive cathedral, which was the best word Vex could think of to explain the vast change in architecture that had occurred. He was pretty sure at least two adjacent buildings had been demolished just to make room for the damn thing.

"Uh... no?" Vex managed. "No. It definitely didn't look like that before."

"Something's up?" Misa said.

"Something's definitely up," Sev agreed.

"I have a number of concerns," Derivan said, and cocked his head forward slightly. "One of which is related to the fact that that building is connected to the system."

"It— what?" Vex jerked in his seat. "A building? That's—"

"It appears to be connected to the system in the way that monsters are, yes," Derivan said. "If it is any consolation... there are many smaller signals within, as well. So the Guild branch here is not dead, at the very least."

"Gods forbid we have to deal with a building-sized mimic," Sev muttered. "Okay, come on. Let's go."