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The original was posted on /r/hfy by /u/Sylesth on 2025-06-26 18:18:38+00:00.
Howdy everyone! Sorry I’ve been so slow at writing. I’ve simultaneously had nothing going on but felt pulled in many directions, and just been struggling to write. BUT! I still have managed to do some, and ye shall reap the rewards. Some personal notes, in case you’re wondering how I’ve been in the last month, I lost a job and was jobless for a bout a month and I’ve just recently found another and will be onboarding soon, so that’s exciting. And another milestone we’ve reached in the story is that I’ve now surpassed page 500 in my word document that houses the story! That’s 500 pages of 11 point font calibri text. I’m sure some of you could do the math on how thick that would be on a traditional novel, but I sure can’t. I never imagined I could write so much, but it’s honestly been an enjoyable experience the entire time, and I’m nowhere near what I imagine an end would be for Xander’s story. Hope you all enjoy this chapter, even though there’s not much exciting going on in it! I promise I’ll try and get some action in soon.
‘Demons,’ some call them. That would be a… vast oversimplification. What the common folk refer to as ‘demons’ encompasses a panoply of creatures, some natural to our world, and other being brought into it through the use of summoning skills, rituals, or even rare natural phenomena. If it’s violent, looks frightening, or is poorly understood, someone has likely called it a demon. True demons are vastly more frightful than most of the other creatures that erroneously share their label. Summoned from other realms by powerful skills or particularly intensive rituals, a demon, bound by a skill or not, is an intensely violent creature, possessed of a devious cunning. They are as intelligent, if not more so, than any man, and often test the bounds of their bindings. One should refrain from open ended instructions to a demon. “Clear out this room,” could very easily be interpreted maliciously by one as “Kill every living soul in this room.” What is most dangerous, however, are the rare breaches into our realm from other realms. Through their own sorcery, a powerful demon, or group of them, may find entry into our realm. This is typically followed by the wholesale slaughter of any nearby population centers until the demonic incursion can be quelled either by military or mercenary might. What could be arguably more sinister are the demons who manage to slip into our realm who are possessed of more guile. They lurk in the dark corners of the world, making ventures forth to commit violence against others before retreating back into the unknown, plaguing regions for years or even decades before they are discovered and rooted out.
-Marcus Vink, on demons.
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“Where do you think we ought to go first?” Gabrelle asked, as they walked away from the inn.
“Mm, I think the guild hall should be the first visit,” Graffus suggested. “They mayor might be able to give us the specific details of the kidnapping, but the guild can tell us why no one took the contract in the first place.”
“I agree with Graffus,” Atrax spoke up as they continued to walk. “The contract has been waiting for a while as is, it can wait another half hour while we find out if something is suspicious about it.”
“That’s fair,” Xander offered.
“Sounds like the guild hall it is,” Frazay said.
The guild hall was a small affair, a side branch of a side branch nestled between a tannery and a cooper. Inside, the building was mostly empty. A few solitary mercs looking over the sparse contracts that populated the contract walls and a single counter with a clerk behind it. The arrival of six mercenaries and two large animals at once brought all eyes to the party for a short time before interest waned and the eyes went back to scanning contracts and other paperwork. The six of them made their way to the small counter to the clerk, who was eyeing them up and down.
“Welcome, to the Breks branch of the mercenary guild. You’re all new faces here, are you here to take a contract or update your status?” The clerk asked.
“Actually, we’re here about a contract that we got from Rock’s Bay,” Gabrelle spoke up, stepping forward slightly.
The clerk’s face fell. “Oh… that. I’d feared that’s what you were here for when I saw all the new faces… Have you spoken to the mayor yet?”
“Not yet, why?” Gabrelle asked.
“Ah, well, perhaps that’s for the best. That you’ll be going to see him with all the information first, I mean. So… the short of it, is that Antellina wasn’t kidnapped, she ran away. Rumor has it that she found herself a man in the werewolf village down by the forest a few years back. Rumor also has it that Antre disapproved. Vehemently. Now she’s run off to that village and Antre won’t see reason. He’s convinced that they’ve kidnapped his daughter, and he’s terrified they’re going to turn her. That’s why no one here has taken the contract. No one’s interested in dragging a woman who doesn’t want to leave her lover back to her father, even if he is the mayor. But we do need the situation resolved… I’m afraid that Antre might try and do something drastic soon. It’s been months since he’s seen Antellina at this point. If you can make him see reason somehow, I’d happily mark the contract complete. He’s already paid us the commission for the contract, so there’s nothing he can do to stop payment.”
Outside the guild hall, the group paused to get their bearings.
“Well… at least we don’t have to fight any werewolves?” Atrax asked, trying to sound upbeat.
Xander let out a synthetic sigh. He’d honestly have rather had to fight something. The idea of convincing a father that his sweet, perfect daughter had run off with a werewolf sounded harder than fighting said werewolf. Xander assumed there had to be some kind of bias against werewolves thrown in there, too, considering the implied vehemence of Antre’s disagreement with Antellina’s choice of lover.
“So,” Xander said, pausing to think. “We have to convince a probably racist old man that his daughter hasn’t been kidnapped, and, in fact, chose to run away from her assumedly cozy life as the mayor’s daughter to live in a village that goes by the ‘old ways,’ whatever those are.” He sighed again. “That doesn’t sound hard at all,” he huffed sarcastically.
“It can be… difficult for parents to let go of their children,” Gabrelle offered. Given her experience with her own parents, the situation might be closer to home for her than for anyone else.
“Well, I suppose there’s not much else we can do,” Atrax groaned, stretching his arms above his head and working out the kinks of travel. “And if he won’t see reason, maybe we can convince his daughter to at least talk with him. Pay some kind of visit.”
“Aye.” Graffus added with a nod.
Frazay huffed. “I thought this was going to be exciting, not small town romance politics,” she complained.
“Small town politics are the ones that most frequently explode,” Valteria offered.
“Ugh,” Xander groaned disgustedly, raising his face to the sky as if to ask, ‘why us?’ “Well, we might as well get going. Let’s try and be… quiet about our disbelief of Antellina’s being kidnapped, okay? No sense getting the man riled up.”
A round of nods was had by all and off they moved to the mayor’s house. It was the largest domicile in the town, at least that Xander had noticed, by a good margin. Columns out front rising to the second level and supporting a roof for the large porch at the front of the building reminded Xander of the old antebellum houses he used to see on occasion in the South. He sighed quietly, just to himself, wistfully remembering humid summers back home, driving through the countryside to get to the beach.
Shaking the nostalgia off, Xander followed the rest of the team up to the door. Atrax was the first to reach the door. There was a large, cast-iron knocker bolted to the door in the shape of a lion’s head, holding the loop of the knocker in its mouth. Atrax took the knocker in hand and banged it against the door. A few moments later, the door was opened by a young man wearing simple, but crisp white clothes.
“May I help you?” The man asked politely, holding the door ajar.
“Ah, we’re here to see the mayor. About his daughter,” Atrax explained.
The man, who had yet to introduce himself, but Xander assumed was in the employ of the mayor as some kind of servant or attendant, perked up at the mention of the mayor’s daughter. “Oh yes! He’ll want to see you right away. He specifically instructed that any mercenaries inquiring about his contract should be led to see him right away. Please, step inside and wait in the foyer while I inform him of the situation and set the sitting room for you.”
The foyer was well adorned, large windows letting in the natural light of the sun. Chairs and couches were tastefully arranged around the area to allow multiple parties of different sizes a place to wait and converse without forcing them to mingle as they waited on the mayor to see them. Currentl…
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