“You are telling us a secret of your family,” Rolland said. “It is only fair that we return such a gift with acknowledgment worthy of it.”
“Are you allowed to take anyone else with you for this quest?” Kim asked suddenly.
Alburet chewed his lip, “I don’t know. I mean, I’ll have my minions with me, but other than that I don’t know. I’m supposed to meet an Infernal sent by the Dark Lord.”
Rolland pursed his lips, “Would you be okay with me going with you? I have a passion, as it were, for anything that deals with bloodlines.”
Alburet considered it, then nodded, “You might not be welcome to go where ever the Infernal takes me, but yes, you can come with me to the Dead Lands.”
Rolland’s eyes glowed briefly, gold and blue, “Another step on the path of understanding.”
Stacia blinked, “Does ya surname have anythin’ to do with tha’ interest?”
Rolland blinked, his eyes shifting back to their normal brown, “Hmm?”
Kim sighed, “You got excited and your eyes shifted, dear.”
“Well, fuck,” Rolland sighed. “Yes, Stacia. My bloodline is thought to be not completely human. We’ve never been able to pin down exactly what else it might be, or who introduced it and when.”
“I’ll still be glad to have you along,” Alburet said. He glanced at Stacia and flicked his eyes at their guests.
She looked away from him, clearly afraid of what he was asking with that look. He stroked her leg gently, “My family has other secrets, as I am sure you do, Magiblood. If one day you wish to exchange more information about uniqueness, then maybe we can both learn something new.”
Rolland nodded, “Maybe at a later time. I’m not sure how I feel about opening up the family closets at this time.”
“Fair enough,” Alburet laughed, “we can let the skeletons rest in piece a bit longer.”
Kim jerked slightly at Alburet’s comment, but Rolland quickly calmed her, “Of course.”
The conversation turned to small talk before Kim and Rolland took their leave for the night. After they were gone, Stacia collapsed onto the sofa.
“I was so scared, master,” she said softly as he sat next to her and pulled her into his lap. “What if they had nay been so understandin’?”
“Then things would have gone differently,” he told her as she curled up against him. “In the end, they understood and we know that they also have a secret they would rather keep close. I’m sure they won’t do anything rash.”
“Aye,” she leaned into him and took deep breaths. “Mayhap in the future we can tell them…” She sat up, her eyes shining, “Oh! When we do the quest and I go with you. We can say tha’ I was changed durin’ the quest, too. Then me family would be safe, even iffin everyone thinks I be a Half-blood. Iffin the quest changed us both, tha’ be.”
Alburet chuckled and pulled her against him again, “Good idea, my little Kitten. Now how about we go to bed, hmm?”
“Aye master,” Stacia said as she stood up. “Mayhap we can take a long bath together first?”
“I can agree to that, Kitten,” he stood up, then picked her up and carried her towards the bed room. “But first, I want a little something to nibble on.”
She purred at him and nibbled his neck as he carried her, “Aye master.”
Chapter Ten
Alburet and Stacia headed over to the guild hall after breakfast the next morning. Kim nodded to them, “Morning. What are your plans today?”
“Probably going to hook up with the others once Gerald gets done with his meeting this morning. This evening I hope to be having dinner with Lady Theron. Any reply on that yet?”
“Not yet, I’ll message you as soon as I hear anything, though,” Kim replied.
“Where is me sister?” Stacia asked.
“She asked to step out, said she needed to go see a tailor about some alterations to a dress she got from your mom last night. Said she would need it if she was going to accompany you all to see the Lady.” Kim grinned, “She is so cute sometimes when she gets nervous.”
Stacia giggled, “Aye. Thank ya for bein’ so understandin’ of her.”
“She’s great to work with, so eager to learn everything I show her. With her trying to land a man, I can cut her a little slack right now. Besides, it’s not like we need two of us here all the time. It doesn’t hurt for one of us to step out for an errand from time to time.” Kim grinned.
“If things get too boring, let me know,” Alburet said with a straight face. “I’ll come up with some way to make them interesting again for you.”
Laughing, Kim shook her head, “I’m sure it’s going to get busier in a few days as it is. Something about some quest that can change the very fiber of ones being? When that comes out the guild is sure to attract more attention.”
Rolling his eyes, Alburet nodded, “Yeah. Let’s hope it’s good attention, though. Well, might as well go check on our recruits and see how they’re coming along.” He turned to the door, then stopped, “Kim, you know you and Rolland are free to go hunting, right? We don’t have restrictions on that.”
“Yes, and thank you. He still gets hit with a major penalty for hunting, though,” Kim replied with a half-smile.
“He could join the guild…” Alburet stopped himself. “He would have to give up portals for a bit, and he has a vested interest in them.”
“Correct,” Kim nodded, “he would love to join the guild, but he needs to power the portals. It’s one of the few ways for him to…” She paused, searching for the right words, “ease the pressure he feels.”
“Blood related?” Alburet asked.
“Yes.”
“Let him know the offer stands. I’ll see what I can do about getting a keep and a portal he can power.”
“Have fun with the recruits,” Kim said, switching tracks. “Haven’t seen them since the first day. Then again, it’s not like you hold meetings or anything.”
“We will in the future, I’m sure, but it hasn’t been that long since they joined. No doubt soon they’ll start asking about organized events.”
“Oh, tha’ could be fun,” Stacia chimed in. “We can run a group event to see who can kill the most of a certain creature in a four hour span.”
Alburet chuckled, “I’ll let you and the rest figure those out, dear. Let’s head out to the goblins and see if our lowest members are still there or have moved on.”
“As ya wish, Asthore,” Stacia said, taking his offered arm. “We be seein’ ya later, Kim.”
“Have fun,” she said in parting as they left.
They took the portal out to the Goblin Fort, but didn’t find any Alpha Company members. The area was still pretty heavily hunted, and some of the players wore guild tags for other newly formed guilds.
After a quick hop back to Stormguard and walk back to the Portal Guild, they visited the Orc grasslands. They found a few groups scattered about with enough distance between them so everyone could pull without issues.
Alburet stopped for a moment to talk to Jaxton, Brightlight, and their group. They were doing okay, so he moved on to speak with Ironhand, Greenbeard, Leggylass and the other two with them.
“Thanks for the push the other day,” Ironhand said after they’d talked for a bit. “With the others, I feel like I can really make a difference and help out. Even got my level ten ability, which lets me up the number of traps I can carry.”
“It really is more fun in a group,” Leggylass added. “Even when we have to pause between groups we chat about stuff. That really helps stop it from feeling like such a boring grind.”
“Yea. Even though this game seems pretty heavily skewed towards grinding, she’s right. It feels different with a group. Maybe it’s because we’re really here and not just in a VR suit or in front of a keyboard. The interactions just seem way more real,” Greenbeard said.