Carlos reached the property while the morning haze still clung to the low ground. The farm appeared similar to many others he had passed during his years on the road.
He noticed the straight furrows in the earth and the carefully mended sections of the perimeter fence. The barn showed the graying wear of several seasons, though the structure remained solid and well-kept.
Near the coop, a few chickens searched the dirt for grain, while a thick-necked ox stood in the paddock with steam curling from its nostrils.
Nothing about it said, "Here lives a problem."
Quest Updated
Objective: Secure consent from guardian of anomaly before next gate run.
Status: Incomplete.
Carlos clicked his tongue and shoved the faint shimmer of words out of his thoughts.
The barn door opened, and Arthur stepped out, wiping his hands on a rag.
He wore simple work clothes, but there was a way he carried his shoulders that said the hoe and the hammer were not the only tools he knew how to use.
"You must be Carlos," Arthur said, squinting against the light. "Jacob told me you might come."
Carlos inclined his head.
"Figured it was better than you coming to find me," he said. "Do you have a moment?"
Arthur glanced at the fields, then at the barn, then nodded.
"For this, I do," he said. "Walk with me."
They fell into step along the packed earth between two plots, boots crunching lightly on frost.
"So," Arthur said after a few paces, "how badly did he embarrass himself?"
Carlos huffed.
"He did not," he said. "Your boy stood up to Tamsin for longer than most fresh E ranks manage. Took hits that would have put a normal lad in the healer's care. He stayed calm and blocked when he should have blocked. And he let his armor do what it was made to do."
Arthur's mouth curved, proud but subtle.
"He said he lost."
"He did," Carlos said. "He was never going to win that fight. Tamsin has years of experience and tricks your boy has never seen. But losing and being useless are not the same thing."
They walked a few more steps in silence. A crow called from the fence line.
Carlos cleared his throat.
"I'm not here to tell you he is weak," he said. "I am here to tell you where I'm taking him, if you agree to it."
Arthur's eyes hardened a little.
"The gate."
"Yes," Carlos said. "We are going back in a few days. F-rank or not, it can still kill you if you make enough bad choices. People older and stronger than Jacob die in those places. I can keep him behind us, and I can make him stay back and watch. I can also drag him out if something goes wrong. But there is always a chance I walk out with fewer heads than I walked in with. You understand that, right?"
Arthur was quiet for a long moment.
"I remember monsters on the road," he said at last. "Not the same as a gate, but close enough. You don't plow into a nest without accepting someone might not come back."
He stopped, turned to face Carlos fully.
"I watched him walk out of here yesterday," Arthur went on. "Then I watched him come back with bruises and all his skin still attached. He faced an experienced fighter who was trying to hit him, and his work held. That is reassuring, and it shows me that he is taking this seriously."
"It is," Carlos agreed. "It's why I am even considering this. But he is still a boy, Arthur. He has no training and no tricks to pull him out of trouble if all the enchanted steel in the world fails."
Arthur snorted.
"Do you honestly believe he would be safer if I told him no? If I refuse him, he will just spend the rest of his Trial Year searching for more reckless ways to prove his worth. This is part of his growth. He is supposed to find the limits of his own strength. If I forbid him from going, he will eventually find some desperate caravan guard or a drunk who happens to own a sword to follow into trouble. At least by letting him go with you, I know someone with real experience is watching his back."
Carlos held his gaze.
"If he breaks my orders, I'll be sending him home," Carlos said. "If he freezes, if he runs forward when he should be hiding, or if he tries to play hero, I will drag him back to your door myself, and you will not see him near a gate again until he is grown. I can make sure this happens through the guild."
Arthur nodded.
"That is fair, and also helpful. I would hate to see him rushing back to a dungeon if he's not ready for it."
"And if he dies," Carlos said quietly, "even with every precaution I can take, I need to hear now whether you will come looking for my head."
Arthur looked past him, out over the fields, then back.
"If he dies because you were careful and the world was still cruel, then that is the life we live," Arthur said. "If he dies because you were arrogant or lazy with his safety, I will bury you right here in my field and plant barley over you."
Carlos believed him. The man was but a farmer, but there was still a subtle sense of danger coming from the man that Carlos could not quite place his finger on.
A slow grin tugged at his mouth anyway.
"Reasonable terms," he said. "So. Do I have your permission?"
Arthur let out a breath.
"You do," he said. "On one condition."
Carlos raised a brow.
Arthur's eyes softened.
"You bring him back with a story," he said. "Not just fear. Something worth the bruises."
Carlos considered that, then nodded once.
"I can manage that," he said.
They shook hands, grip firm, dirt cold under their boots, and the winter sun just starting to climb with the crows calling out in the distance.
Quest Updated
Objective: Secure consent from guardian of anomaly before next gate run.
Status: Completed.
New Objective: Escort anomaly to new F-rank gate.
Status: Incomplete.