147. The Golden Guild

147. The Golden Guild

A precarious future awaited Brandar. Potential battles. New encounters. Friends. Foes. Tasty food...

But what about respite?CHeCk for new stories on no/v/el/bin(.)c0m

Frost wanted to tone it down a little now. Her mind was fresh off the emotional highs after her beatdown with the Bloody Herring. Truth be told; she would have liked if they didn’t kill him off immediately. But unfortunately, due to the nature of the Heart of Ours, they had no choice but to end him in spectacular fashion.

Of course, if the situation called for it, then she’d have to come off the backburner.

After a healthy night’s rest – Her first night rest since arriving in Brandar – She was summoned by Beholder Carpalis for a special ceremonial induction within one of the inhouse Guilds of the Golden Index.

The details were spared since she only received the message through Jury, who had woken up hours earlier to prepare for this induction. From what she knew, the induction was a vital process that enabled a person to become an Adventurer.

Normally, the Blessed were exempted from this for two reasons. The first was that the Blessed were already inherently Adventurers themselves and could have their progress tracked via the Guilds. The second and more obvious reason was due to the destruction of the Hyperlink Networks.

This made it difficult to track and verify who was who outside of the Guilds without the aid of the Golden Thumb or the Blessed. Since their disappearance the Nex Megalopolis had adapted and introduced a foolproof pen and paper system that allowed Adventurers to carry what was essentially their physical ID on them.

The worlds changing fast, huh.

“It’s a living world. Did you expect it to wait for you?”

Frost shook her head as she followed a highly reflective marble road with Snap acting as her fuzzy vehicle.

They entered a massive clearing that stretched for over 2 kilometers in every direction. It led towards a monumental structure that was built like a hybrid between an airport and a castle.

It reminded her of the Common Hub of the Nexus, save that this was far larger than it should have been, and she saw countless thousands patrol its grounds and loiter around the many wonderful fountains that dotted this otherwise absent plane.

The place oozed with equal portions of majesty and eeriness. The sheer scale was unnatural and was frankly impossible to create even with modern engineering. If H.P Lovecraft was an architect, then she imagined that this structure, the Golden Guild, would have been one of a thousand ‘monsters’ in his bizarre portfolio.

Seeing so many happy faces was a nice change of pace. People of all kinds of races, apparel and color roamed this vast place whether alone, in groups or as a family. Children played in the small fountains, and she could have sworn she just saw one get swept off their feet by the excited jets.

Couples could even be seen here whether holding hands or sharing an intimate moment without a care for the world. As simple as the marble field was the beauty of the highly reflective floor easily made up for it, although, when she peered off to the edge of Snap, she found a rather... peculiar problem.

Good thing no one’s wearing a skirt.

“Can you care to explain?”

Word had spread faster than she realized. The name of the Black Dove was already known within the City of Diamonds, mostly thanks to the thousands she had rescued referring to her as such. And besides, it was hard to miss her, even without her iconic feathered coat.

Her eyes were easily her second most defining characteristic, but she also had to wonder how else they knew it was her.

“She’s as short as they say.”

“Messy hair. Built like a healer.”

“Feels like she’s staring at me... and she’s not even looking at us.”

As per Frost, she was not the kind of person who liked to passively participate. And so, she ended up kindly waving at them with a gentle smile. Unbeknownst to her was that there was another characteristic that defined her.

“What... a scathing smile... those eyes... I’m drowning.”

“Woah. So pretty. Those eyes aren’t kidding around!”

They’re really honest about their feelings, huh.

“No point in hiding them when no one’s here to judge.”

Yeah. Good point.

There were two schools of thought, if it could even be called that. One side characterized her by her damming eyes, but not in a bad way. At least she hoped so. It was kind of like how Frost herself loved her own eyes... Just not to the point where she’d let the world know.

Or in other words, they had Cer Syndrome.

The other side was more mentally sound and was astounded by her golden eyes.

As it turned out, her eye color was mostly unheard of. The expired Angelic race was mostly associated with golden irises, although Frost was too human to be considered one. Demons very rarely had golden eyes. Carpalis was one of them, though it was only her pupils that were golden.

I’m still a human on the surface at least.

As humorous as it was to be thrown into the center of attention, it ultimately amounted to nothing. But knowing that more people were aware of her status as a Color would certainly make it easier when interacting with the Ateliers.

Because the name of the Amalgam still meant nothing to them.