Finishing the First Task

About a half an hour outside the village we saw a stack of stones that indicated for us to turn north. After checking that we weren't being followed we began following Thelora's markings. Another half an hour later she called to us from behind.

"It doesn't seem like you were followed. I was a little worried about that Holy Knight. She seemed much more perceptive than the others." Thelora said.

"Thankfully they're on a Relic Hunt and most of the other Followers of the Holy Light didn't seem all that interested in the theft. How are the other two?" I asked.

"If they stuck to the plan they are far to the east and out of their reach. But they'll be leaving false trails for the next day for them to follow. We'll have to meet up with them later." Thelora said.

"So what's our next move?" I asked

"First we need to find a small wagon at a nearby farm." She replied.

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Late that night Lariss and I waited nearby the inn we had stayed in last night. The merchant was still there with his guards but everyone else was gone. After we were given the signal, we made our towards it way with a stolen cart full of hay. Thelora opened the gates for us and we passed two guards that the inn had hired that were knocked out.

At the merchant's wagon Thelora pried open one of the barrels. Inside was the item that we were after. I jumped up and helped her pull it out while Lariss kept an eye out. Even with our stages of aura, it was incredibly heavy. The item was three cylinders made of back stone that were attached by a thick iron triangle in their middle. Each of the cylinders contained numerous runes and glyphs from various parts of this world.

"I don't suppose you know what this is?" I whispered as we loaded it onto the cart.

"Those aren't questions you usually ask on these types of jobs." She replied.

"What if it could be dangerous?" I wished I had a camera so that I could consult Uhtric and Vegaror. Maybe I'll have to describe a camera to them and see what they could do? What other items common from Earth would be nice to have?

"That's not our concern." Her tone didn't fully match her words. She liked to pretend to be completely cold to all of this, but the more I interacted with her the more I doubted she actually wanted to be a part of this. Or she was tricking me. Damn I hated not being able to tell.

"Unless of course we end up in the middle of the danger." I said.

She had no response to that as we finished loading it and headed out of the village. We traveled the rest of the night and all of the next day. After having kept a hard pace we stopped at an inn that night with a little less than a day till Torinheim. My eyebrows shot up when Thelora one got one room for us.

"Don't get too many ideas, we need someone to stay with the cart tonight." Thelora said.

"I'll help." Lariss said to me.

"Aw I was hoping for some girl time, just the two of us." Thelora wrapped herself around Lariss' arm.

After dinner the two of them headed up to their room, Thelora gave me a big smile, while Lariss looked a little worried. Out in the stables I set up some wards around the cart and hung up Lariss' bell, then settled in for the night. In the morning the three of us set out for the city.

As Torinheim started to come into view we let Thelora get further ahead of us so that we wouldn't enter together. She also didn't want us to know where she was making the delivery. After we passed through the gates we headed towards the Adventures Union to see if our representatives had any messages for us. It was late in the evening so we ended up getting dinner in the main hall.

"So what did the two of you talk about last night?" I asked.

"Oh just girl stuff. You wouldn't be interested." She blushed as she smiled.

"I bet." While it wasn't likely the same since they were both adult women, I remembered stories of slumber parties that I overheard my teenage daughter telling my wife back on Earth.

"Don't give me that smirk as if we were talking about you all night. You only came up once." She said.

"And how long did you talk about me?" I asked.

"For the briefest of moments." She said.

"And what about me required such a small amount of time?" I asked.

She opened her mouth to respond but was interrupted. "Wilmaer I received the catalyst you requested of me." Raginhard stepped towards our table. He had a stern look as he presented me with a small package. Behind him was a representative with one star on her collar.

"You must be Wilmaer, my name is Borhildr, I represent Lariss here. Since the two of you seem to be working together, I thought I'd introduce myself." She was taller than most women with silky blonde hair. When she extended her hand it was in a way that I could easily give it a kiss as a greeting. I hadn't experienced that type of greeting since I had to run from my father's.

"It's a pleasure to meet you." I took her hand in a nice handshake.

She sat down next to Lariss and as Raginhard was about to sit down next to me she said to him. "Doesn't Senior Representative Tofstr need you to pull some almanacs for him?"

Raginhard gave her a blank stare before turning to me. "If there is nothing else you need from me I will be on my way?"

"Thank you, you have done enough. Just let me know if you get any more leads on the other items I asked for. I'll let you know when I'm looking for another quest." I wanted to tell him to just sit down and join us, but that could just make his treatment outside of my view worse.

As he started to walk away Borhildr said, "What exactly is he looking for, maybe I can help?"

"That's not necessary. I'm not in any rush." She gave me a smile and let it go.

"I've been hearing a lot of good things about you Wilmaer. Word has spread that Yngvarr was impressed when you joined them recently. It was a little surprising that you didn't join the Rainbow Blades." Borhildr said.

"I like being a freelancer." I replied.

"Well once you make C rank, the two of you will be able to take on some higher ranked quests. Have you thought of forming a Companionship? I have a mage freelancer under me that also doesn't want to join a guild. I think the three of you would make an excellent team." She said. Lariss looked at me expectantly.

"I'm not really interested in anything like that." I could tell she was a bit of a sly one. She sent Raginhard away before bringing any of this up. Even though Companionships didn't need to have the same Representative, they often did and if two out of three were under her, why shouldn't I be. Also if I did advance to C rank, I wouldn't be able to work with Raginhard but I could work with her. I just regretted that I couldn't explain my thinking to Lariss right away since her expectant look turned a bit disappointed.

"Oh maybe it hasn't been explained to you all that well. Companionships are really informal. I'd present a quest that I think suits all of you and if you want to take the quest you can. If you don't then you don't have to." She said.

"Raginhard is aware of what I'm looking for in a quest so feel free to coordinate with him." Her smile became strained.

"Of course I'll work with him on this matter. But since I have you now, there is a quest that I think you'd be perfect for." She said.

"I'm currently focusing on training. It'll be a few weeks before I'm looking to take on a quest. I'll have Raginhard talk to you when I'm ready." I said.

"I'll look forward to hearing from him. Lariss, I can get Sundri and Kay here tomorrow morning to go over the quest with you." Borhildr said.

"Oh, I'm going to be training with Wilmaer, so I can't be joining." She said.

"Well don't take too long between quests or it will affect your chances of becoming B ranked. Your private quest to the Forest of Gosigronn doesn't count and you didn't take one for a while before that. If you don't start letting me help you, you'll be out of a representative again." She gave a patronizing smile. If I already didn't dislike her, the way she talked to Lariss would be enough for that.

"Oh, it shouldn't be too much longer." Lariss returned the fake smile.

She soon left us to finish our dinner.

"I don't want her to know but I plan to form a guild. One of the problems is that I want Raginhard to be our representative but as a Junior Representative, he's considered not qualified." I said.

"Oh that's wonderful to hear. Is there a reason you want him to be our Representative?" I was relieved when she included herself in the guild without question.

"I get good feelings about people from time to time. When I met you I had that feeling and also had it when I met Raginhard." I said.

"Is there anyone else you've had this feeling with?" She asked.

"There have been a few." I said. "Thelora was one of them. That's why I was willing to…. Help them with three tasks."

"What are the other two?" She asked.

"I don't know. We'll have to wait to be contacted but they're most likely similar to the one we just finished." I replied.