Fire, Ice, and Metal (Mercury)

There were few things more satisfying than a full belly. Mercury had been hard at work most of the day so far, keeping herself busy as always. Vandrad had put her through their morning workout, being his unreasonably awake self at god awful early morning hours, as usual. After that was done and they’d gone through some of her piano lessons, Mercury had returned to the guildhall for a shower and to get some work done. She’d been in the labs for most of the day tinkering with an artifact that one of the Hunters had brought in. Mercury had gotten so focused on her work that she’d completely lost track of time and didn’t realize how long she’d been at it until her stomach was audibly growling for sustenance -- which was pretty typical for her.

So, she had gone to get something to eat and on her way back to the lab she passed through the lobby just in time to see a young girl enter the foyer. The gust of wind from outside had been enough to practically dump the poor thing into the room, lifting her skirt up behind her as she fell to the ground. Brushing herself off and standing back up, she looked around and asked out loud where she was. That was odd. Most people that came to Silver Wolf knew where they were. It was usually pretty busy, since it attracted a great deal of tourists that wanted to use the spas. But generally, most people couldn’t even find the place without getting help from either the wolves in the area or guides that knew the route to the building, meaning that anyone traveling there already knew where their destination was. Clearly, this one did not.

It was curious enough to catch her attention. “You’re at the guildhall for Silver Wolf,” Mercury told the girl, approaching her with an easy smile. The ace was dressed in her engineering jumpsuit, a grey article with a red belt at the waist and red stripes on the sleeves. There was a brown leather pouch strapped to her hip and thigh, as well as worn leather boots on her feet. A pair of gloves were currently tucked into her belt, as she had taken them off while she was eating and had yet to put them back on. “If you weren’t looking for us then I take it you aren’t here for the spas. Where were you headed? Not a lot up here in the mountains besides us.” If the girl was lost, Mercury would do what she could to help her, though it was odd that someone so young would be traversing the mountainside on her own. Still, she didn’t want to make any assumptions so she would let the girl speak for herself before seeing what she could do to help her out.

The young girl seemed surprised when Mercury told her she was in a guildhall, seeking clarification that it was an actual home for a group of mages, like the other guilds in Fiore. “You got it,” the lavender haired woman told her candidly, confirming the woman’s revelation with an amused smirk. As she looked around, the girl remarked on the scent of steam and charcoal that had preceded the building on her way up the mountain, stating that it seemed a reasonable enough confirmation of Mercury’s claim.

Satisfied with the answer, she explained that she was currently traveling to a place she needed to get to within the next week, and sought to cut a couple days off her traveling time by passing over the mountains rather than going around them. Mercury raised a curious brow. “That’s quite the feat. These mountains aren’t exactly hospitable, even in the best of times.” She watched as the girl relieved herself of the burden of her weapon, leaning it against a nearby wall and speaking her satisfaction of the removed weight before introducing herself.

“It’s no problem at all,” she told Lehanna with a small chuckle as the younger woman curtsied. “I’m Mercury Arseneault, Ace of our Scholar branch. Please feel free to hang out and relax. We’re all about that, here. Despite being a guild for mages, we have a bit of a side business as a tourist attraction. The guild is set on top of some natural hot springs from the mountain, and a lot of people come to visit for some pampering. In fact, if you need a place to stay for the night we have guest rooms available for reasonable prices. We also have a restaurant here if you need something to eat.”

Jabbing her thumb over her shoulder, Mercury pointed toward the area she’d just come from. “As far as your journey goes, the Phoenix Mountains probably aren’t the type of place you wanna trek through on your own. The wolves are generally well mannered, mostly because they are used to people being in the area, but there’s more than just wolves lurking out there. Not sure exactly where you’re headed, but if you need a guide of some kind through the mountains we could probably work something out with you. All of our members are pretty familiar with the area, and are trained to handle its dangers.”

Mercury’s emerald eyes flicked briefly to the huge sword still leaning against the wall and an appreciative smirk tugged on her lips. “Not that you necessarily need protection, of course. I highly doubt anyone would carry around a weapon that big unless they knew how to use it. But it doesn’t hurt to have a little back up.” The ace was quite curious as to this girl’s story, but prying would be rude and this wasn’t the place for that. For now, she was content to just do her part to make Lehanna feel welcomed as a guest within the confines of the guildhall and to see what kind of services they might be able to provide the younger woman.

It seemed Lehanna had run into a couple of the Vulcans on the way up the mountainside. That was unsurprising, and while she didn’t comment on it Mercury didn’t miss the subtle admittance that the young girl had fried them to death in some fashion. It was confirmation enough that she could at least handle herself out in the wilds, which was more than most people could boast. Lehanna admitted to being impressed about the set up of the guild and its side business, assuming that it probably wouldn’t be too successful unless there was a safe way to and from the guild up the mountain. Mercury grinned a bit. “Well, there is and there isn’t. There’s no sure path. The guild is actually protected by the elements and by magic to keep out anyone with ill intentions toward us. They’d never find us. But those who are looking for us to deal business or interact with us peacefully are led safely up the mountain by the wolves. It’s actually very rare that we have someone such as yourself accidentally stumble upon us without intent.”

They chatted a bit more, or rather Mercury did as she explained a little more about the guild’s purpose and some of its functions, offering to work some things out for Lehanna if she needed a place to stay for the night or some warm food to eat. At the nod toward the large sword the young girl had been carrying, Lehanna simply shrugged and mentioned that its true owner would be back for it eventually, who was apparently some kind of Vulcan god with an anger problem. She didn’t seem too fascinated with the idea that she’d met a god or stolen from one, but on the flip side Mercury was equally unfazed by the notion. Gods and demons were still concepts that she was struggling to put in perspective, as they didn’t exist in her culture. She had only just started learning about them less than a year ago when she’d come to Earthland, and from all she’d learned Mercury honestly didn’t really see what all the fuss was about. As far as she could tell, they were just really strong people that lived longer than the average humanoid.

But even if she had been wanting to, Mercury wouldn’t get the chance to comment on it as the girl inquired about the scholar branch of the guild that Mercury ran. Lavender brows furrowed a little in confusion. Had Lehanna just called her… eighty? That was a strange nickname. Her exposure to Earthlanders so far had taught her that nicknames between strangers wasn’t altogether uncommon. Hell, Mercury used them on strangers all the time. But usually nicknames were things like… nods to a person’s physical appearance, or parts of their personality that were easily drawn from even a quick meeting. She’d never heard of someone using a number as a nickname. Was this a cultural thing that she’d missed in her studies of the planet all this time, or was Lehanna herself perhaps from another place she hadn’t visited yet?

Mercury wouldn’t have to wait long for her answer. Lehanna must have caught the questioning look on the Silver Wolf Ace’s face as she turned a slight shade of red and explained that she’d reflexively referred to Mercury by the number associated with the element on the periodic table, which was how she was used to talking about the elements. Enlightenment dawned on her then and Mercury felt a little silly for a moment about forgetting the periodic table was even a thing here. She had studied it in depth before, of course, and knew it by heart, but given that the list of elements her people had was… much larger than that available to Earthland, and organized in a different manner, it wasn’t a reference she was readily able to catch.

She chuckled. “Honestly, I’m just a little ashamed you even had to explain it to me. I should have been able to work that one out myself. As to your question, the purpose of the scholar branch is pretty straight forward. See we have three branches here: Hunters, Defenders, and Scholars. The Defenders are charged with keeping the guild grounds, it members, and its guests safe from harm. The Hunters, on the other hand, go out into the world and search for artifacts of different natures. Things with value in fields like culture, language, magic, technology, history… that kind of thing. They bring those items back to the guild, and that’s where the Scholars take over. Our job is to analyze them for their usefulness and understand them so we can then categorize them and use that knowledge to expand our own resources. We also do things like preserving and restoring such artifacts.”

Mercury tilted her head a bit in curiosity, giving the girl a studious look. It occurred to her that if Lehanna draw the numbers so easily off the periodic table -- a skill that not even half of her Scholars were capable of, as the numbers were much more difficult to recall than the names of the elements themselves -- science and the study of it was likely a large part of the girl’s hobbies. “You interested in that kind of stuff?” she asked, now more than a little drawn to the notion that this young woman that managed to randomly stumble into the guild could wind up being a potential new member.

The younger girl quickly caught Mercury’s meaning when the ace asked if the type of work they did for the guild was anything of interest to her. Lehanna hadn’t climbed the Phoenix Mountains in search of Silver Wolf, but fate or whatever one wanted to call it had led her there anyway, and it was rather fortuitous that she seemed so intrigued by what they did. Hell, it seemed like she already had quite a bit of schooling in the field of science, or at least chemistry. Not even the average scientist just offhand knew all the elements of the periodic table, so Mercury was quite certain Lehanna would fit right in.

The girl herself expressed that her attention had been piqued at the mention of the scholar branch, and that she would be more than interested in joining if they would have her. “Absolutely! We love people with a passion for science and are always open to new recruits. As long as you can keep to our code about making sure you never do anything that jeopardizes the guild or its members by painting a giant target on our backs for the Rune Knights or Magic Council. We’re an independent guild which means the Council more or less leaves us alone to our own devices cause they don’t perceive us as an active threat. We’d like to keep it that way. But that’s really about it. So if that sounds fair to you, then that’s all I really need to know.”

Mercury waited for a moment to get some kind of confirmation from Lehanna that the behavioral expectation was reasonable. Once that was given, she’d wave the girl over toward the front desk. “Then let’s get you set up. I just need to know what color you’d like your tattoo to be and where you’d like me to put it. Then I can get you set up with a room if you need one. Not all the members live in the guild hall, but a lot do.” Wandering over to the front desk, Mercury opened a drawer behind the counter and pulled out the stamp, taking a moment to adjust the settings to what Lehanna desired. “Why don’t you give me an idea of any kind of magic or skills you have that we might find useful, and then after we get you all set up as an official member I’ll give you a tour of the guild.”

Lehanna agreed to the condition that Mercury had laid out, with some allowance left in regard to the girl’s young age and the fact that there were people in her life who apparently had some bones to pick with her. Impressive that someone so young already had people breathing down her back over personal grievances. Mercury flapped a dismissive hand. “That shouldn’t be a problem. Shit happens. Really we’re more concerned with members willfully having a disregard to protecting the guild. Accidents are unavoidable, as are enemies sometimes. Though as a point of interest, since it sounds like you got a few less-than-friends in your life, you might like knowing that they will never be able to find you here. There is an enchantment that protects the guild and keeps anyone with ill intentions to us or our members from finding us.”

She twirled the stamp lazily between her fingers as she waited for Lehanna to let her know what settings to punch in. The girl gave it some thought and decided upon one of her wrists, with the color being pink. “Coming right up,” she told her, fiddling with the stamp until it had what Lehanna wanted. While Mercury accepted the girl’s wrist and set the stamp upon it, the request was posed to accept the offer of a room, if only because her trip had become more exhausting than she’d anticipated. “I think we can certainly arrange something.”

With a playful smirk, Mercury pulled the stamp up, revealing the new tattoo in all of its pink glory. “Welcome to the pack, kiddo!” As she put the stamp away, Lehanna described a bit of her abilities, which primarily seemed to revolve around sword fighting, flames, and some mysterious abilities meant to fight gods. The last bit sounded like slayer magic, which Mercury herself had only recently acquired and started to understand. However, given that she had yet to tell anyone in the guild that she had access to magic, Mercury elected not to broach the subject. Either way, it seemed that the young girl was a warrior, despite her age. She even took a moment to demonstrate a bit of the magic, conjuring a small, black flame on her fingertip. “Oooh, that looks nifty,” Mercury complimented her, eying the fire with keen interest.

Once it was gone and Lehanna was inquiring about what came next, Mercury waved her to follow. “Next we’ll go ahead and get you set up with a room so you can crash. Honestly, you can get a tour of the place whenever you want, so why don’t you go ahead and get rested first? Your room will be pretty bare for now, but it will at least have a bed and I can get you some clean sheets and blankets to use until you’re able to get your own.” Leading the way to the residential wing, Mercury made sure to get the girl set up as quickly as possible and, true to her word, ensured that Lehanna had some fresh linens to use. Once she was sure the new recruit was all set, she’d leave her to her privacy and rest, knowing the rest could come later.