The Flying Emporium

At no point during their admittedly short travel through the small but full-fledged town did the woman stop her constant chatter.

On the one hand, it was exhausting, causing Emily and Severin more than once to exchange exasperated glances with one another; only Samuel – probably already desensitized due to their apparent history together- seemed mostly unperturbed by her constant talking and the overall absurdity of the situation, though even he could not help rolling his eyes on one or two occasions.

On the other hand, this meant Severin wasn’t expected to do much talking himself, apart from a sporadic acknowledging grunt here or there -something he was rather grateful for on this day.

It also helped that the woman wasn’t just mindlessly rambling about meaningless matters. In fact, some of the information she shared seemed way too confidential for an outsider like him to be privy to. But though he considered her a chatterbox, Severin understood it had to be deliberate as he dared not think the woman to be either stupid or negligent; though he didn’t know her official job title or her rank inside the organization, just knowing she and her group were apparently the first line of defense made him determined not to underestimate her.

It was far more likely, he realized, that simply being led by Samuel himself held just that much weight. That, and maybe her realizing who Severin was, prompted her to be more open and trusting than she otherwise would have been towards an outsider.

And so Severin not only learned that Gillion, the man they were on their way to visit, was a close confidante of Ringald, handpicked to manage this outpost, and at least the nominal leader of the Malcos Eagles, but also that in turn this meant that Markus, as the leader of the second string raid squad, at most, was third in the chain of command of both the guild and this outpost as a whole.

At most, because while there was some talk regarding the structure of the guild, Severin didn’t know for certain just how high ranking the position of a raid leader actually was. It was at least thinkable that there were some other, even higher, ranking positions out there.

But either way, third ranked or not, Markus’ rank had to be up there. That much Severin could infer from when the woman voiced her suspicion that the reason the [Prince] was so eager to prove himself to the degree he wouldn’t wait any longer for Samuel’s arrival and instead was willing to rush ahead into some dungeon was exactly because his position inside the guild was such a high-ranking one. One that, apparently, he hadn’t earned purely based on merit; not originally, at least.

Samuel managed to find the rare opportunity to get some words in himself on this topic and voiced his agreement with that assessment.

“Yeah, I can see that. No one thinks he’s just some pampered princeling. Not after everything he has achieved over the years. And at such a young age. But he's always been insecure about that. Still thinks he has to prove himself. Stubborn fool. Like all of them. The whole family.

The girls aren’t any better, either.” When he wasn’t immediately interrupted, he continued.

“Set up some kind of forward base up there, you know? When they were discussing who to send-to be in charge-the oldest of the daughters insisted on going herself.”

Now that came as a surprise even to Severin, who had been closely listening in from the side. It wasn’t hard for him to figure out where exactly this up there was supposed to be, and the identity of the oldest daughter was accordingly easy to figure out as well, but he recalled, especially during the early days, it always had seemed that Jasmine all but resented being stuck on his mountain.

‘But maybe that isn’t necessarily a contradiction,’ he thought.

Judging by her reaction, the woman had quite some things to say about the matter. She took a deep breath and opened her mouth, undoubtedly about to unleash another one of her barrages, ready and willing to offer her own thoughts, opinions, and conclusions on the matter. But it was also the moment they turned into a busier alley at which point it was deemed only prudent to stop the discussion of the inner workings of the guild and the dealings of the royal family.

But this, of course, did not mean the talking stopped altogether. It only meant their escort turned into something of a tour guide instead, now solely for Severin’s and Emily’s benefit.

Not that there was actually much to see in terms of attractions for her to comment on. Instead, she explained some of its not-so-secret structure and organization.

The outpost, as a whole, was closed off. That meant access to foreigners- non-guild members or affiliates- was severely restricted to people with personalized invitations. Otherwise, one would have to request access way in advance, with chances for approval being relatively slim.

Even when a visitor was admitted, they would usually have to go through many careful examinations; a fact which- though unspoken-to Severin all but confirmed the special privilege he was granted.

All the more surprising to him was the crowd of people they now found themselves in. And those weren’t just adventurers. In fact, the vast majority of them, judging by the style of their clothes- not their quality- seemed to be classless people. Enough to make the streets near the center of this outpost suddenly seem very lively, even.

How could there be so many people if access was so limited and security measures supposedly this strict?

Given just a few moments to consider this thought and Severin likely would have drawn the correct conclusions himself. But the woman beat him to it.

She immediately pointed out the manpower the maintenance of a permanent fortification like this required. And not just the fortification itself. Their gear. Their consumables. Food and drink. Entertainment. Housing. Administration.

Everything a regular city required, this outpost did, too. And, of course, those were not the kind of things most adventurers would take care of themselves. Assuming they could, in the first place.

In the matter of just a few minutes and only some hundreds of meters traveled, Severin had counted three smithies, four herb gardens, two leather workers, two taverns, and one eatery. All underscoring her claim. No matter how much he liked Markus, Severin did not have confidence in him for any of these tasks.

Interestingly enough-and something that was not specially pointed out to him-none of the buildings had shop or house signs attached to them. On a closer look, street signs seemed similarly absent. It appeared everyone was expected to know exactly where everything was located and how they could reach it.

It was also due to that lack of clear identification that Severin didn’t realize they had reached their destination until the chatter had suddenly stopped and they stood in front of a nondescript, if larger than average, building.

“You still know the way from here, I assume?”

“Right. Very funny, Rania. We’ll catch up later.”