Second Interlude: What A Guild Leader Does

Erin was fairly certain she was having the worst day of her life. There had been, first, a somewhat fractious reunion with Amber.

“You were supposed to funnel him towards me,” the thief complained, the moment they were all back in the Grove.

“We couldn’t,” Erin replied, loosening the strap of her greatsword.

Amber flung her hands up. “Why not? The ambush was set. It was perfect. What went wrong?”

Erin’s sigh could have levelled a mountain. How was she supposed to explain? For one thing, Taria hadn’t actually agreed to the ambush plan; that had been Amber’s devising and hers alone. For another…

“He had Oska,” Erin said, as patiently as she could. “If we’d attacked Artair, we might have lost Oska forever.”

Amber’s silence spoke volumes. She was thinking, Erin knew, that might have been a sacrifice worth making.

But that was the difference between them. It was why, in the end, Erin led Light’s Memory rather than the asura. They both wanted victory, but only Amber would pursue it at any cost.

Amber folded her arms. “So what now? Do we have any leads on Artair at all?”

“Taria’s people are tracking him.” After his head start, anyway. Erin had been surprised to find that Taria was willing to honour that particular agreement.

“You don’t actually trust her, do you?”

Erin glanced down and found Amber’s golden eyes staring furiously back. “No, I don’t trust her,” she said wearily, “but we have to work with her. There’s no way around it.”

Amber snorted and slung her belongings over her shoulder. “Fine ‒ but she’s not tracking Artair without me. I’ll report back when I have news.”

Erin nodded in agreement, simply because there was nothing else she could do. Once again, she wondered how she’d found herself leading a guild filled with so many stubborn hot-heads ‒ or why any of them listened to a word she said.

After that, it was through one asura gate, then another, before she arrived at Blackthorn Manor. The twins were just leaving, with nothing to show for it but shrugs of bemusement. Erin suspected Taria had had some stern words for them ‒ words that Oska and Auri, true to form, had paid no attention to.

Erin’s own meeting with Taria, though… That had been long and fraught. Erin had wanted to walk out more than once, but each time, Taria had made her stay. What she’d learnt there… It was horrifying. Monstrous. And that was exactly why she had to keep it a secret.

Which meant she had one last meeting to hold.

She found the twins back in Lion’s Arch, lounging around the destroyed remnants of the guild hall. Darr was overseeing the reconstruction, but all the city’s best craftsmen seemed to be otherwise engaged. Erin couldn’t help noticing that the newly built guild hall was going to lean sideways even more than the old one.

Oska gave her a casual salute. “Permission to burn this one down, too?”

Erin grimaced. “It’ll look better when it’s finished.”

“Will it?”

It almost certainly wouldn’t ‒ but that wasn’t what they needed to talk about.

Erin folded her arms, then unfolded them again. Best not to look defensive before she’d even started. “I’ve spoken to your grandmother.”

“So have we.” Oska seemed to have lost the temper he’d displayed in Maguuma. Maybe he was looking forward to chasing Artair all over again. “She basically smacked us on the wrist and told us to be more careful.”

Erin resisted an urge to roll her eyes. Of course that was all Taria had done. Of course she’d saved her real demands for later, to make sure someone else did the difficult bit.

And of course that ‘someone else’ would have to be Erin. Somehow, she kept walking into these situations and she never saw them coming.

She folded her arms again, unable to help herself. “We’re sending you to Brisban Wildlands.”

“Because Artair is there?”

“No. Taria’s sending you for training. You, Auri, and Ruby.”

Erin had expected an explosion. She’d expected Oska to shout and scream, maybe jump up and down. His long silence was far more alarming.

“Training,” he said slowly, his voice low. “What sort of ‘training’?”

Erin shrugged helplessly. “Taria’s steward will oversee it.”

“In Brisban Wildlands.” Oska’s voice was becoming increasingly deadly. “About as far from anything important as we can possibly get.”

“This wasn’t my idea,” Erin said, trying to sound reasonable. “As far as I can tell, Taria wants Ruby out of the way and she wants you to keep an eye on her. The minute we have any intelligence on Artair’s location, we’ll send for you.”

So much of that was a lie and she wondered if Oska could see it. Taria didn’t want Ruby out of the way. If anything, Ruby was being sent to keep an eye on the twins, not the other way around.

That wasn’t what seemed to be bothering Oska, though. “Will you? Or will you send us even farther away, to make sure we never get near Artair again?”

Or to make sure Artair never got near them. Erin couldn’t let the words out. She hated lying to her guild, hated taking orders from Taria Valpari, hated doing the old woman’s dirty work… But Taria was right about one thing. This whole situation was too dangerous. The twins were better off somewhere else.

Erin’s gaze drifted along the quay, to where Auri had wandered after getting bored of the conversation. She lowered her voice. “Listen to me, Oska. It’s not you I’m worried about. We need to keep Auri safe.”

“Auri can look after herself,” Oska said, but he sounded hesitant for the first time. “What’s this about?”

Erin shook her head. If only she could explain… But the more the twins knew, the more danger they were in. “You’re going to have to trust me.”

A storm of emotions crossed Oska’s face. Doubt, humiliation, fury ‒ and then, finally, he gave a dubious nod. “I’ll take care of Auri and keep an eye on Ruby ‒ if that’s what you want me to do.”

Erin didn’t miss the emphasis. Oska wanted to know the order came from her, not Taria. And it did, in a sense. She’d be far happier if the twins were somewhere safe.

“I… wanted to thank you,” Oska said, even more hesitantly. “For coming after us. For bargaining with Artair. For…”

For letting the Archon go in order to get Oska back? For Erin, that had been a decision she’d barely needed to think about. Oska thought more like Amber, though. She knew he wouldn’t see it that way.

She nodded solemnly. “I’ll always come for you, Oska. That’s what a guild leader does.”

Oska returned the nod, his expression lightening again. “Do you think it rains much in the Wildlands?”

Erin managed a weak grin. “All the time.”

She watched the twins leave, the way they exchanged meaningful looks without needing to speak a single word. She’d done as Taria had asked. She’d sent them away.

She only hoped it was the right thing to do.