The Guild Master's hair dances like fire atop her head as she looks from one person to the next. "Slow down, Tucker. Explain what's happening, slowly this time?"
Cough, cough, "Yes, sir. Duke Ishawaak has arrived in town and his carriage was seen heading toward Baron Reynolds manor." The guild staff member explains as he places a report on her desk.
"Not Count Richter's?"
"Correct, sir."
"Also, there's been a disturbance in the forest, it appears the Mankas are becoming more active." Another guild staff member says.
"Someone poked the hornet's nest, how convenient." She replies, sarcastically.
"Jezabel, sir!" Catherine shouts as she runs through the door. "I believe a Noble child just walked in, and he's asking about joining."
Cough, cough, "What in the world?" Tucker says between coughs. He runs his fingers through his black hair and scratches one of the pointy dog ears sticking out of his head.
"The Duke is trying to start another fight with the fairies and he's trying to drag us down with him." The Guild Master says.
"He wouldn't dare!" The second guild staff member shouts. She's standing on her tip toes in order to see over the desk, her thin rat-like tail pushing fruitlessly against the ground to try and give her more height.
"You know what they say, fifth times the charm." Jezabel says sardonically.
"But, why isn't the Duke consulting with Count Richter, he's the one governing the town?" The dog-eared man asks as he raises his shoulders.
"I assume Baron Reynolds is the one pulling the strings here. He's always been too ambitious for his position and he's the one that probably sent that Noble child here as well." The Guild Master weaves her fingers together and rests her chin upon them in contemplation.
"Why would they send a Noble child here?" The rat woman interjects.
"Presumably to force us to intervene. They've already lost to the fairies four times before, I imagine they're pulling out all the stops this time. This also gives them the ability to monitor our activity."
The air in the room grows tense as the three guild employees wait with bated breath for their Guild Master's orders.
"Jezzy!" A cat-eared woman enthusiastically springs through the door wearing a frilly maid uniform.
"I told you not to call me that while I'm working. My name is Jezabel." The Guild Master says as she rubs her temples in frustration.
"I got you some tea!"
"Thank you, Natalie." Jezabel gratefully accepts the beverage despite her annoyance.
"I told you to call me Nyatalie!"
"I'm not going to do that, that's stupid."
"Aww, you're no fun." Natalie runs up beside the Jezabel and leans over the desk, her cat tail slowly waving back and forth. "Whatcha' doin?'"
"Natalie, we're working right now." Catherine says with a sigh.
"Cath-cath! How's my favorite bunny girl?" Natalie says as she runs up and hugs her.
"Don't call me that, it sounds like someone is going to jam a tube up my urethra."
"Natalie." Jezabel says sternly this time to regain control of the meeting.
"But, I'm lonely." The cat-eared girl says with big crocodile tears in her eyes.
"Fine, just stay quiet." The Guild Master smiles reluctantly as she pats her lap.
"Yay!" Natalie shouts and curls up in her lap while purring.
Cough, cough. Tucker clears his throat to hide his embarrassment. "I believe we were discussing the movement amongst the Nobles."
Everyone else in the room shifts around uncomfortably. Though they've all seen it before, it's uncanny to see the normally stern and stoic Guild Master act playfully.
"Any sightings of the Earl of Ras Hafun?" Jezabel says as she rubs the head of the woman on her lap.
"No."
"Hmm." Jezabel hums, "Duke Ishawaak must have some decisive factor at his disposal or he wouldn't even entertain the idea of fighting the fairies. Also, given the guild's neutral stance towards international affairs, I doubt he would hinge this whole operation on trying to gain our support, so let's assume he wants our non-involvement."
"That might explain the disturbance in the woods." Catherine says.
"Maybe, but I'm not sure how disturbing the Mankas would benefit him. Those monsters are almost as dangerous as the fairies."
The room goes silent as everyone contemplates the seemingly unrelated information.
"Sir, do you want me to inform the adventurers?" The rat-tailed girl asks.
"Mary, no offense but I don't think you should be the one to deliver the news; and we still have that Noble child to deal with." The dog-eared man says.
Screech
Jezabel abruptly moves her chair back to stand.
"MEOW!"
"I'll handle it." She says while stepping over the crumpled body of the cat-eared woman who was previously sitting on her lap.
Like a leaf blowing in a hurricane, Jezabel flows swiftly out the door. Her movement is effortless. She walks with short strides and her arms crossed behind her back, dodging several guild staff members on her way down the stairs.
Jezabel opens the door to the main hall and immediately finds Ashley alone with a clean cut child. In an instant, she makes her way behind the boy and places a hand on his head.
"Who's the brat?" Jezabel has a short conversation with Ashley and notices the boy go oddly limp beneath her hand.
"Our terms not good enough for you boy?"
The librarian's child goes on to explain his situation, though Jezabel is distinctly aware that he's lying. As she suspected, he's likely here on Baron Reynold's orders.
"Listen up! There's been reports of unusual monster activity in the woods so all adventurer's are banned from working the treeline until further notice."
The crowd moans in frustration that they may have to join the quest to deal with it should things get out of hand.
The Guild Master finishes her conversation with Ashley and walks over to Travis who is sitting by the bar with the rest of his team.
"Hey, I need you to investigate the forest."
"You must really want me dead if you're sending me into a Manka war." He chuckles.
"What?" Jezabel can hardly believe her ears. Colonies of Mankas keep large distances between each other as even one scuffle can lead to both colonies wiping each other out. "How?"
"The hell should I know?" Travis laughs.
"Keep everyone away from the forest and report back here if anything changes."
"Got it, boss." Travis smacks the head of a woman asleep on table in front of him.
"Hey! What the hell?" She says as she rubs the back of her head.
"New orders," Travis says to his whole team who are all sitting nearby. "Get ready to move out in five. We're on guard duty."
"Whatever." The woman scoffs.
Jezabel then moves quickly to the disassembly room.
"What the hell is going on?"
"Not sure, boss." A man says while standing in front of a large table covered in dead monsters. "Take a look at this."
Jezabel walks up to the table and looks at several strange looking warthogs and some scaled moles strewn about.
"These don't look like Manka wounds."
"Exactly, I pulled out the last couple weeks of monster corpses to inspect the wounds and none of them appear to have been attacked by Mankas." He says as he lifts up one of the beasts to show a number of wounds on it's belly.
If a Manka war were brewing, both colonies would basically strip the surrounding area bare of all living creatures in order to temporarily boost their numbers. This can take months and there would be plenty of evidence of the extermination on the few monsters that managed to escape. The lack of wounds means that one side was not aware of the approaching war, which is unlikely as these conflicts normally occur due to resource scarcity and are proceeded by a number of skirmishes. The only remaining option is much more terrifying; the scourge of the forest was chased away by something much more fearsome. Mankas will send their whole colony to die if they believe they have even a chance of victory, so the threat would have to be so overwhelming that these near suicidal beasts ran away in fear.
Lost in thought, Jezabel walks back up to her office. Though her subordinates are speaking to her, she ignores them and walks to the window that over looks the massive trees in the distance.
"Open a standing quest to gather stones from the river south of town and pile them in front of the northern palisade. This will help our members make a little money while the treeline is off limits and build up our defenses should the worst happen. We should also begin staging stones in the market square to prepare for the coming storm.
""Yes, sir"" The several guild staff members in the room stop what they are doing and scurry off to fulfill their orders. Jezabel stays by the window and stares deeply into the forest.
"Just what the hell is going on in there?"
The next day doesn't do much to reduce her confusion.
"What do you mean that Noble kid is asking questions, didn't he join yesterday?"
"Ashley, said he looked flustered and left shortly after you walked away." Mary says while just barely peeking over the desk.
"This is the problem with using children, they get cold feet." Jezabel sneers.
Again, the Guild Master appears behind Nick.
"What do you say? Yeah. I do." The kid is covering his mouth while whispering to someone under his breath.
"So, you've come to a decision then?"
Nick shouts in surprise. Jezabel concludes it's likely because he realized she was listening in on his remote conversation with Baron Reynolds.
"I just wanted to check on our potential new member, and a noble one at that." Jezabel continues.
"It doesn't really seem that way, does it?"
Jezabel narrows her eyes as it becomes clear to her that Nick knows she's onto his ruse. In order to make it understood that any further espionage would be harshly dealt with, she decides to explain to him his position.
"I suppose not. Once you sign, you'll be just like anyone else; your prior status no longer matters and your significance will now be tied only to your rank."
The boy deflects with a question about the equipment, seemingly hesitant to join now that the consequences of his behavior have been revealed. He'll likely back off now. Satisfied that she's foiled the Baron's plot, Jezabel returns to her office.
When she opens the door, she sees a very pompous looking boy standing before her desk. He seems tall for his age and has straight black hair.
"I tried to make him wait outside but he barged in anyway." Tucker sighs.
The Guild Master raises her hand to silence her employee and sits down in her chair.
"What do you want?" She asks the boy.
"My name is Tyrion and my father, Baron Reynolds, sent me here to join your guild." He says with a smirk.
"Wait, Baron Reynolds sent you?" Jezabel asks with a streak of confusion clear across her face.
"Yes." Tyrion responds, happy that he's gained the upper hand in the conversation.
"Then who sent that other boy?"
"What other boy?"
A whirlwind of thoughts fly through her head as she drops her face into her hands. "Nevermind, just leave."
"But, I said-"
"Out! Now!" She barks. Tyrion pales and stumbles over himself to scamper out of the room.
"Are you sure that was a good idea, sir? He's just going to come back with his father and demand entry."
"It's fine. It'll stall Reynolds and make him come to me personally. Maybe then I can get a little better idea about what his plan is."
"Yes sir, and what should we do about the other boy?"
"I don't know, just keep an eye on him I guess." She sighs and sinks down into her chair.
The next few days pass without incident. Travis and his party, Ironhead, are preventing contact with the woods and reporting on the ebbs and flows of the Manka war. On the other hand, having his son Tyrion join the guild is apparently low on the Baron's list of priorities as he hasn't even bothered to send a messenger to complain about Jezabel's refusal. As she has no proof of foul play, she can't keep him out forever but has enough power to deny entry to anyone for two weeks without cause. This is typically only used against suspected bandits to stop them from having access to information regarding the bounties on their heads.
"Um, sir, that kid Nick is back, and it seems he brought a friend." Catherine says as she walks into the Guild Master's office.
"Just what the hell is he trying to accomplish?" Jezabel says as she makes her way out the door.
"Where is he?" Jezabel growls at Ashley as she walks into the guild hall.
"Nick? I think he went to the courtyard to use the equipment, the same as always. By the way he had someone-"
Jezabel darts out the back before Ashley can finish reporting. Sure enough, there he is, jogging next to some unknown person nearly twice his size.
"Who's your friend?" Jezabel asks while doing her best to keep her anger under control.
Nick jumps back in surprise but she quickly brings him back to the topic at hand.
"Well, I'm not really sure. We talked for a bit in the town square and then he just followed me here."
"So? What's your name?" She asks with venom in her voice.
"Josh." The larger boys says.
"The Mason's kid, huh?" Since it's not another Noble then it's likely just a coincidence. The two kids continue their conversation while Jezabel attempts to sort through all the scattered information she's collected over the last few days.
"I'm glad you two are getting along so well but that doesn't explain why a civilian is on guild property."
"What do you say? Want to join the guild?" Nick asks.
"Okay." Josh replies.
"Don't think you can just bring anyone on guild property, it has only been a few days since you joined and you've already broken one of the rules." The Guild Master frowns as she pulls a piece of parchment out from her robe and hands it to the tall boy. He quickly eyes over the contract before signing.
"Right, sorry," Nick says before turning back to Josh. "Cool, now we're both adventurers."
"I'm keeping my eye on you two." Jezabel says as she walks away. While she no longer suspects either of them of being spies, they both reek of trouble; especially the small one.