“What about Marian?” Karen asked suddenly.
“She has nay gone out to hunt with her life mate yet,” Stacia replied. “so ya might be after Deidre.”
“Okay, let’s get going,” Alburet said to cut the conversation off. “Vanessa, if you hear about any problems with Bloodmoon, let me know please.”
“Will do,” Vanessa answered as she watched them go.
Chapter Twenty-Two
When they got to the Portal Guild, the place was crowded. Alburet waved to the few groups of Alpha Company he could see meeting up to take portals. They paused while Karen stopped to chat with Violet for a moment.
“What’s up?” Alburet asked when they’d continued to their portal.
“I was just checking something, and it seems I was right,” Karen replied, brushing back her short hair. “Violet is who Marian has been seeing of late. Yesterday, Marian asked to go out hunting with her. Violet told her it would have to wait until the quests for the guild had been completed.”
“Me last sister has settled on her, then?” Stacia asked, gently touching Karen’s shoulder.
“It seems that way,” Karen shrugged. “Sorry for the delay. Might as well hit the fort and see the sights before Gerald and Marysue catch up to us.”
As they started up the stairs, everyone got a pop-up announcement. They paused to read it.
Announcement: Player Housing and Guild Buildings are now available in and around major cities.
Visit the City Hall in your capital city for more information.
Warning: All property is subject to monthly taxation. Failure to pay taxes can result in loss of access to and even loss of ownership of property.
Large Guild Keeps are now available in end level zones. These Keeps are capable of providing all the amenities of a city, but will require staff to make those amenities available. In some cases, repairs will be required before a Keep is usable.
“Aha. There must have been a leak on the internet. This is why it’s so busy here,” Alburet mused as he watched people in the lobby suddenly streaming toward the stairs. “Looks like they were just waiting for the announcement. They’re all going to go try to find one of the keeps.”
“We could do that,” Karen chimed in quickly. “We could totally do that.”
“We would be needin’ a large party of powerful adventurers to take such a keep,” Stacia tried to caution Karen.
“It would be fucking epic, though, if we could grab the first one,” Karen retorted, turning to Alburet. “We can do this.”
Alburet could see the desperation in Karen. He had to admit the idea was appealing, to be the first would surely bring them even more fame and renown. “We probably won’t be able to pull it off today, Karen.” He watched her lips tighten and held up a hand, “Hold on. I like the idea, but it will take a day or two to line up a really serious attempt at it. I have some favors I can call in with people.” He grimaced as he imagined Vladimir laughing over his audacious idea. “The raffle is tonight at the guild hall after sun down. We can put the idea to them then. If a majority of the guild wants to do it, then I’ll call in my favors.”
Karen flung herself at him, wrapping her arms and legs around him and kissing him hard. Alburet reacted like he used to, catching her and holding her tightly as they kissed. With a start, he realized what he was doing. He was about to push her off when she let go and beamed at him. “Best guild leader ever!”
Alburet looked at Stacia with guilt etched on his face, to be met with her loving smile. “It be fine, Asthore, I have been tellin’ ya tha’ all along. All I be askin’ is tha’ I be allowed to get what ya just did. It be only fair tha’ way.”
Alburet was torn. She was right, it would be only fair. But his father’s teaching still loomed large in his mind, insisting that it would be wrong. A part of him insisted he was being an idiot and that Karen sure knew how to kiss. He nodded at Stacia and turned away, to find Fluff watching him covertly. He smiled at her as Karen cheered before the kissing started behind him. He watched Fluff’s eyes track over to the women behind him. It was easy for him to see the sadness and longing in her face before she looked away while blushing slightly.
“Fluff,” Alburet said softly. “When you’re ready, neither of them will tell you no.”
She jerked, her head snapping back to look at him. Her cheeks flamed, “I…”
He rubbed her ear gently, “It’s okay, it really is. Take your time. None of us will think anything but the best of you.”
She dropped her eyes and nodded, her voice quavering, “Okay.”
He stepped forward, hugging her and planting a kiss on her cheek, “We will never hurt you, trust us.”
Fluff laid her head on his shoulder, her voice barely audible even with her mouth next to his ear. “Would… you… watch? Tomorrow, when Stacia helps me?”
Alburet tightened his arms around her just a touch. “I would be honored, Fluff. We should make sure that is the right thing to do first, okay?”
“It be fine,” Stacia said from behind him, making them both start. “She be dealin’ with some rough parts of her issues now. Iffin she wants ya there, it be a good thing.”
Fluffball looked at Karen, catching her hurt expression, “Karen? Will you…”
Karen turned at Fluff’s unfinished question, her eyes showing her emotional turmoil. “If you want me to help Fluff, I will.”
Stacia nodded, “Tha’ be fine. I just be needin’ to check somethin’ with me Ma’, otherwise we will be good to go tonight.”
“This did distract us from the conversation just a moment ago,” Alburet said, letting Fluff go as he realized he was still holding her. “I’ll need to make arrangements with people, so give me a minute to set up some meetings. Once I get them slated for tomorrow morning, we can head off to the Blighted Hills.”
“Going to go without us?” Gerald called out as he and Marysue approached.
“We were going to check the fort while we waited,” Fluff told Gerald.
“She’s right, but first the big news,” Karen bounced in place excitedly. “I was convincing Alburet that we should go after one of the keeps mentioned in the announcement. He wants to check with the guild before we try it, and he wants to set up some help with his contacts.”
Gerald paused, rubbing his chin, “It would definitely raise our standing. I was hearing just before the immersion test started that we might actually be slightly behind the group over in Asia. You know how into gaming the Asian culture is, I won’t be surprised if they come out ahead of us on this.”
Karen frowned, “No. I want it first.” She turned to Alburet, who was busy sending messages via his Mindstone. “Al, we need to do this first.”
Alburet put his stone away, “Then you better hope that they don’t have the kind of contacts I’ve been able to set up. Going sooner than tomorrow would be a really bad idea, though. I have the meetings set for tomorrow morning, so we’ll probably have a good idea of when we can try after that.”
“Fine,” Karen started for the stairs. “We might as well get going, if we aren’t doing it today.”
As they followed her up the stairs, Gerald stepped close to Alburet. “I think the nobles are unhappy with us.”
“Why?”
“It seems there has been a shift in power among the noble houses. House Theron is suddenly poised to be a major power once again. It’s common knowledge that Alpha Company is behind Lady Theron finally naming an heir. Several houses, both major and minor, stand to lose rank in the shuffle. I think we will be getting cancellations on the last few meetings we were supposed to have.”
“Good, that means we can actually go out hunting without having to wait,” Alburet laughed. “House Jones, House Dracon and now House Theron all count us as allies, so we should be okay.”