A Fresh Start (Open Introduction)

Sayuri followed the guild ambassador through the imposing marble halls, eyes constantly roving as she took in all the details, attempting to commit them to memory. Her unease grew with each step they took. Oh sure, Johann had said that they would be willing to take her on as part of the guild, but, well, he'd left that offer hanging. It was fairly obvious that she'd have to prove herself somehow. The only question was what form that would take.

At the buffet in the mess hall she busied herself by pouring herself a cup of some divine smelling herbal tea they had available, figuring it might calm her nerves a bit. She garnished it with some lemon, just for good measure, then turned away, following Johann to the table he had selected. She stirred the tea idly while he spoke, then lifted in to her lips for a sip as she contemplated the best way to answer the question. That was, apparently, a mistake. She winced almost imperceptibly, setting the cup of scorching hot liquid down with barely a hint of a sip taken. Then she finally addressed the question.

"Well, needless to say, I've heard many things about Dies Irae as a guild. That's why I came here, after all. Whether that information is entirely accurate or not, well, that remains to be seen. It is my understanding, though, that Dies Irae seeks to build a better world for all, through persuading or, when necessary, eliminating those who stand in their way. Opinions seem to be rather divided on whether that is the right strategy to take or not."

"However," she continued in a professional tone, "I tend to agree with that view. Granted, I was once a pacifist myself. I thought that with care and compassion, by showing others the right path, they would eventually follow it. I was, as you can probably tell, naive. I came to discover that it isn't nearly that simple. Oh, anyone can change their ways and follow the right path, if they choose to, and should be given the chance to do just that. But many will never choose to do that, simply because they enjoy following dark paths. Worse yet, they lead others down those dark paths. And I believe that if we are ever to have a successful, peaceful world, those people have to be eliminated, whatever the cost."

She paused, sipping at the tea, which had finally cooled down enough to be a drinkable temperature.

"In essence," she concluded, "I believe that we must use force in order to build a better world, once in which using strength to enforce what is right is no longer necessary. It is a long path, to be sure, but one that I believe can be achieved, if enough people are willing to fight for it, for it is not something that can be achieved alone. And that is why I am here. If what I've heard is true, your guild is working toward that same goal as well, and it makes sense for us to work together to bring that about. Unless, that is, I am mistaken as to Dies Irae's goals, in which case you are, of course, welcome to enlighten me on them."

She leaned back in her seat, nursing her cup of tea as she waited to hear what the guild ambassador thought about her explanation.

Sayuri listened to the ambassador's explanation, considering her next words carefully. It seemed like her passionate answer may have given off the wrong impression, and she mentally chided herself for not being as clear as she should have been.

"I think, perhaps, I ought to clarify," she said calmly, sipping at her tea. "I'm not by any means a homicidal maniac, else I daresay I would not have come to a legal guild. I very strongly still believe that people can and should be given a chance to change their ways, and that we should accept them as valuable members of society if they do change. Likewise, if someone who refuses to change their ways can be successfully contained, such as through prisons or other measures, then that would be the most appropriate course of action. However, for those who insist on harming others, with refusal to change their ways, who simply cannot be contained through normal measures, then we cannot be afraid to take more drastic measures, and that is where I think the current system fails. There are so many cases of dark mages and other criminals who have escaped prisons multiple times, hurt so many people, and many people still shy away from taking decisive action to prevent them from continuing on their destructive path. It is in these extreme cases that I support removing the trouble person from the equation entirely- not just killing anyone I feel like."

She paused again, putting her thoughts together before continuing. "Needless to say, in joining the guild I have no problem with agreeing to follow all rules, even if they don't align exactly with my own. After all, loyalty is extremely important, and you must be able to trust your guildmates above all others. If I expect other members of my guild to be trustworthy than I must be as well."

Sayuri fell silent once again, shifting slightly in her seat. Hopefully she had been successful in clarifying her intentions, but she wasn't sure. In all honesty, she'd never really been good at talking to people, and over the past year she'd had so little contact that she often found herself completely unsure of what to say in many situations. Apparently this happened to be one of them. Or perhaps it was the fact that she was talking to one of the Gods of Ishgar that had her on edge. Either way, she waited with bated breath to see if she'd managed not to make a fool of herself yet.

Sayuri released a breath she hadn't even realized she was holding, her posture relaxing somewhat. It seemed that she'd been able to make herself understood this time around, which was always a good start. She shifted slightly as the guild ambassador continued to speak, nodding at his words.

"There is no need to apologize," she said, waving a hand dismissively. "It was I who spoke unclearly, after all. And I agree that it is, of course, of the utmost importance to ensure that those who are members of the guild are aligned with the guild's message. So in that sense you were simply doing your job as the guild's leader."

There was nothing facetious in Sayuri's statement. She honestly didn't see Johann as having done anything wrong, and being apologized to for that made her feel, well, just a tad bit uncomfortable. She was quite happy to let the conversation move on from that topic, truth be told.

Her eyes met the guild leader's as he asked for her pledge, and she swallowed hard, the seriousness of the moment truly sinking in, and for a moment that old doubt reared its ugly head.

Am I really ready for this? Am I even good enough? What if I mess it up, make a disgrace of myself?

But she pushed those voices down again, shoving them into that little corner of her mind that she usually kept them locked in. After all, she knew those weren't really her own thoughts- she was just parroting back what everyone else had told her over the years. But unfortunately, it was even harder to ignore those sentiments coming from herself than from outside sources. But at least for the moment they weren't too persistent.

She took a deep breath, then nodded. "I do," she said firmly, her tone matching the seriousness of the situation.

Sayuri watched in relative fascination as the swirling orb of red ink- or at least she assumed it was ink- floated toward her, settling on her hand before flowing along her skin until it settled just below her left collarbone, forming itself into the cross-shaped guild mark, fading to a bright white. She had to admit that she’d never heard of a guild mark being administered like that before, but then again, she’d only been in one other guild before. Most, from what she’d heard, just used a stamp of some sort. Still, she supposed this was a much more elegant way to handle the situation.

The slim illusionist snapped herself out of her reverie as the guild’s ambassador continued to speak. She digested his words slowly, reaching out and accepting the key he had offered to her.

“Thank you M-, ah, Ambassador Von Weiss,” she said, mentally kicking herself for her mistake. She’s almost referred to the guild’s leader as “master,” like she would for any other guild master, forgetting for just a moment that Dies Irae preferred to stick to military terminology. She was just glad she’d caught herself in time to correct her mistake- at least this time. She was definitely going to have to get used to that.

“Yes, I do hope we get a chance to work together, Ambassador,” she said smoothly, hoping to make up for her stammered response earlier. Of course, she was slightly skeptical of the fact that they would work together directly. After all, she was nowhere near powerful enough to rank going on any missions that would require the God of Ishgar’s personal attention. Still, she supposed that as long as she was working for the guild she would be working with him indirectly, so it was true in that respect.

Of course there were so many more questions she could have asked the ambassador about the guild. But none of them were particularly urgent, and she was sure she’d already taken up entirely too much of his time, so she held her tongue. Instead she remained seated at the table in silence, sipping at her now cool cup of tea as she reflected on recent events. Truth be told, she hadn’t expected that it would be nearly as easy to gain entry to the guild as it had. She’d suspected that there would be some sort of test, at least, to prove that she was strong enough to handle the guild’s mission. But then again, she supposed that she had made no effort to conceal her magic, and with how strong of a mage the guild ambassador was, he’d undoubtedly had no problem assessing the strength of her magic.

She shrugged. Well, she certainly wasn’t going to complain about the situation, since it had played to her advantage. She wasn’t entirely sure how impressed such a powerful mage would have been with her illusions, the main backbone of her magic. That was the reason she relied more on quick thinking and fast reflexes to win fights, rather than brute force. Well, that and a healthy dose of luck, which she seemed to have more than her fair share of when it came to fights. Unfortunately, however, those insights and lucky breaks seemed to all but abandon her during social situations.

She sighed, gulping down the last dregs of her tea and rising from her seat, straightening her hair perfunctorily before glancing around the dining hall. Was there somewhere for her to leave her dishes? Or did someone clean the tables? She wasn’t sure, and she was feeling entirely too socially-exhausted to bother asking anyone. Finally after a few moments she spotted what looked like a tray return area. That would do. She gathered up the small amount of dishes she had and crossed over, leaving them with the small group of dishes already there. Then she frowned. The ambassador had said that the living quarters were in the west wing of the guild hall. However, Sayuri did not have the best sense of direction ever. Not to mention that she’d been so nervous on arriving here that she didn’t remember what direction she and the ambassador had entered the room through. Nor had she paid attention to his leaving. Not that that would have helped anyway, as she had no idea where he had been heading when he’d left.

She considered her options for a moment, then shrugged to herself. She would have to explore the guild hall at some point anyway to get the lay of the land, so she may as well start now. She headed toward the nearest door, shouldering her way out and finding herself in a gray granite hallway. She passed several offices, most of which were closed, some with light peeking under the doorways, while others appeared to be empty. It seemed like a veritable warren back here. A few people passed her in the halls, but she decided against asking for directions, instead forcing herself to walk with back straight, as if she belonged here and knew exactly where she was going. Thankfully, no one saw fit to question that air.

Perhaps her most important discovery was the massive library. She walked in, an expression of rapt wonder on her face. Sayuri had always been extremely partial to books, and she’d had no idea Dies Irae had so many of them. She had a feeling she would find herself a good number of days, and possibly just as many nights, hanging around here doing research of her own. However, that was not her current mission, so she forced herself to turn away from the temptation. At this point she’d explored almost all the hallways on this side of the dining hall, so she could only conclude that she was in the east wing of the guild hall, exactly opposite to where she wanted to be. Of course, it was easy to come to that conclusion, but the real trick would be finding her way back out to the throne room, which she had concluded was the center of the massive building.

It took a little work, but eventually she managed to navigate there. She paused again for a moment, her attention taken by what seemed to be Dies Irae’s job board, covered in postings. She wandered over, eyeing the slips of paper tacked onto the board. There were so many names hidden in that mess, including some high profile dark mages. Yet another important location discovered. It seemed her wandering had paid off in some ways, and she was glad that she’d decided to find her own way.

She turned away from the job board, heading toward the west wing of the building. She would need to take a job soon, there was no question of that. It had been almost a year since she’d earned a steady income, and her emergency funds were running low. But she would rather get settled down here and get the lay of the land before she headed out again. Still, she was sure she would be back here in a day or two.

Of course, that was assuming she was ever able to settle down. But for that to work, she would have to find her room. It appeared that the west wing was even more confusing than the east. Of course, it certainly didn’t help that all the doors looked pretty much the same, with the exception of the numbers affixed to the doors, of course. However, it seemed that she was getting closer, as the numbers were approaching the one on the key she’d been given.

And there it was! She spotted the nondescript door on the left side of the hallway she was currently walking down and hurried over, fumbling the key once before managing to slide it into the lock. It twisted with a satisfying click, and then she was stepping into the room.

Her first impression was, well, dark. The slight greenish glow emanating from her headpiece didn’t shed nearly enough light to see by. She fumbled along the wall, feeling for a few moments for the light switch, sighing. This would be so much easier if she would see her own illusions, in which case she would be able to conjure her own light. But she couldn’t see them, not voluntarily, so that didn’t really help her in this case. Then her fingers found the switch, and it became a moot point anyway.

The room was suddenly bathed in a bright glow. Thankfully the light was clearly made to imitate a natural light source, rather than the harsh tints of many artificial lights. Sayuri turned to survey the room. It was a good size, much better than she had expected. Then again, she supposed that that would explain the sheer size of the guild hall. It would have to be, to accommodate rooms of this size. There was a large bed along the opposite wall, its red and black linens and bedspread mirroring the guild’s colors. It looked so comfortable, and Sayuri was so tempted to just go flop down and sleep for about a week. But she’d been on a less than hygienic ship for a trip of several days, and, as she’d recently become aware, she smelled faintly like fish, which had been the main cargo onboard with her. She had no desire to transfer that smell to her sheets. The gray walls were mostly bare, but that was hardly surprising, and Sayuri supposed that simply gave her more room to customize its appearance. She was sure she’d find something to hang up on the walls in no time. Especially since the dark gray felt oppressive at times, something that the dark color scheme did nothing to alleviate. But while she had no control over the public areas of the guild, she would brighten her room up in no time.

She quickly took stock of the rest of the room. A simple chest of drawers was on one wall, and opposite it was a decent sized desk. Well, that would certainly come in handy. Even more handy was the bookcase that completed the furniture set, nestled along the same wall the exterior door was on. There were also two other doors leading off of the main room, but she would investigate those in a few minutes.

She set the bag she had brought with her on the bed. There wasn’t a whole lot there. She’d shed a lot of the trappings of her past before she had come here. The most important thing that she’d brought was, of course, her swords. Those were still strapped to her waist, and she unbuckled the belt they were fastened to, laying it across the top of the chest of drawers. She had some spare clothing, of course, most of which she folded and put into the drawers. She was hesitant to fold the couple of dresses she’d held on to, so for the moment she spread them out on the bed. She had a hunch that one of the doors led to a closet, so she would hang them up there. She’d also held onto a few treasured books, which she set on the mostly empty bookcase. She was sure she would fill that up soon enough. She dumped out the toiletries she had brought with her, figuring she would deal with them in a few minutes, once she figured out her bathroom situation. And then all that was left was the bag itself, which she tucked into one of the drawers. And that was that. The unpacking was done. The room was still very empty, of course, but it would do for the moment. She would fill the room up as she stayed here, not with things connected to her past, those that reminded her of all her past hurt, but rather, hopefully, with things accompanied by happy memories of time spent with friends. That in and of itself was a good enough reason to have simplified before she came here.

She wandered over to one of the two doors she hadn’t investigated yet, and was pleased to discover that it was, in fact the bathroom. Well, at least she wouldn’t have to share a communal restroom, although she’d already suspected that this was the case. After all, she hadn’t passed any communal restrooms in the west wing of the building, although she had seen a few on the east side. She swiped the toiletries off her bed, then returned to investigate the room more fully.

It was easier to find the light switch in this room, since there was a brighter glow in the main room than there had been in the hallway outside. The bathroom was hardly massive, but it was, like the bedroom, a decent size. There was both a claw footed bathtub and a stand-up shower, tiled in a stark black, which didn’t even surprise her anymore. The countertop had a lovely black and white marbled pattern, although she couldn’t say if the rock itself was marble or granite, and it was a decent size. Big enough for her to spread out all of her make-up on to put on in the morning, before scrubbing it off in disgust at her lack of skill and using illusion to improve her appearance instead. She smiled mirthlessly, taking a moment to stare at herself in the mirror. She knew how she would currently appear to others, but the mirror showed only the truth. Chestnut brown hair, currently dull from lack of recent conditioning, plain brown eyes, and a surprisingly plain face, other than the small smattering of acne currently breaking out. Her clothes were rumpled from travel, sporting a few stains she hadn’t been able to remove without proper laundry facilities. Her lips curled into a frown. Of course, to everyone else her skin seemed flawless, her hair luxurious, and her eyes a brilliant emerald green, the color she’d chosen for the day, and her clothing impeccable. She was so used to these small alterations to her appearance now that she didn’t even have to think about it anymore. It was second nature, and even by now very few people had seen her true appearance. Save for herself, of course.

She sighed, then turned her attention away from her visage, stripping off her grimy clothing and switching on the shower. To her delight, the water turned hot almost instantly, and she climbed in eagerly, glad to scrub away the wear of travel. It was amazing, she thought, how a little bit of hot water could make you feel like a whole new person.

Of course, all too soon it was time for her to leave. She dried off and wrapped herself up in one of the plush white towels that had been hanging on the wall, then grabbed the second and wrapped it around her hair to contain the dampness. Then she wandered back out into the main bedroom. It was late enough in the day that she had left a lacy nightgown out on the bed. After all, she was certainly tired enough to curl up and sleep the evening away. But she didn’t want to get the bed damp, nor her nightclothes, so instead of changing right away she headed for the other door. Upon opening the door, she discovered that it was, in fact, a closet, like she’d suspected it would be.

But contrary to her expectations, the closet was not empty. Hanging in the closet were a few outfits, which she recognized as a couple variations of the Dies Irae guild uniform. It wasn’t difficult to judge that, considering that she’d seen those uniforms throughout the guild hall on her way to her room. It was a riot of red and white, with metallic gold accents. Not really the color scheme she usually went for, but that wasn’t a big problem. Her appearance was plain enough that she could adapt to just about any color, and of course, her ability to adjust her appearance as necessary would help as well. She could adjust. And considering that most featured skirts, they were obviously intended for a female’s use. But their presence did raise a question. Had someone come in when she was in the shower to leave the uniform here? She considered that option for a moment. It was true that she’d brought the key in with her, but there was nothing to say that there was no spare key or master key. After all, if a guild member was doing something untoward in their room the guild’s staff would have to investigate it. So that gave no clues to the answer, but there was something else that made Sayuri discount the possibility. Sure, the sound of the water may have covered up some sound, but if someone had come in then surely she would have heard something. More likely, the uniforms had already been here when she had arrived at the room, she just hadn’t seen them because she didn’t investigate the closet when she first came in.

That left two options. Firstly, it was possible that Ambassador Von Weiss could have sent someone to bring her uniforms to her, and they had arrived before Sayuri, while she’d still been wandering around the guild hall. Or there was the second possibility, that the guild kept rooms ready at all times, in case of a new arrival such as herself. That, she thought, was the altogether most likely solution. Then she shrugged. It didn’t really matter, she supposed. Either way, the uniforms were here, and that was what mattered.

She pulled one out, eyeing it appreciatively. As far as uniforms could go, they could certainly pick a worse one. She hesitated, then on an impulse decided to try it on. The one she’d pulled was a short dress, with a longer skirt tail attached at the back, and a military-style coat overtop. The neckline of the coat was just low enough to show her new guild mark, the stark white standing out even against her pale skin. The tall flared collar certainly gave it some drama, as did the gold tassels on the shoulders, white gloves, and tall red boots. The clothing was, at first, too big for the slim, short girl, but after only a moment it shifted around her, magically changing size to fit her. Well that was convenient. At least she wouldn’t have to worry about going through alterations. There was a red belt as well, and she fastened her sword scabbard to that belt before settling it around her waist. And finally she pulled the towel off her hair, mostly dry by now anyway, before padding across her room and into the bathroom again, studying herself in the mirror again. This time, though, she was less bothered. She no longer looked like some wandering vagabond. “Now,” she thought, a smile suddenly gracing her face. “Now I look like I belong.”