A Wolf's Maid

It was almost a bit strange to be out and about without a disguise. Mercury had been under cover for so long after her faked death that she kept reflexively checking to make sure she was disguised, only to remember that she no longer needed it. Within the walls of Silver Wolf, she had rarely covered herself up, of course – her guildmates and Leona had been well aware of the fact that she was obviously not dead. But Silver Wolf was a guild that saw a lot of visitors for the spas, and while the magic and wolves protecting the hall made it next to impossible for anyone will ill intentions to make it to the building, she’d still always felt it best to err on the side of caution when in the public eye.

But now, she was free to be herself again. Maker was finally dead after over a year of her time and expertise in espionage. She’d lost two very dear friends in the process. Genesis had given his life to bring Maker down, and out of necessity Blade had taken his own life a few days after the completion of their mission. It still hurt for her to think about them both. Mercury had never lost anyone that she cared about before, and the pain of it, of having to say goodbye to them and watch as they left, was something she didn’t expect she’d get over any time soon… if ever.

Still, she knew that neither of them would want her to lose herself with grief. As such, Mercury pressed on with her life, focusing on her duties with her guild and doing her best to settle back into a normal routine. She was on her way down to the labs when Lyvia flagged her, the receptionist alerting her to a visitor that expressed an interest in coming to work for the guild as a maid. Giving Lyvia her thanks, Mercury made her way to the entrance hall. It wouldn’t be difficult to figure out who to look for; a lovely young woman about Mercury’s own age sat and waited patiently in the traditional black and white garb, carefully inspecting her appearance in a pocket sized mirror.

Approaching the woman, Mercury gave her a friendly smile. “Hi there! You must be Euphelt? My name is Mercury; I’m the ace for Silver Wolf.” She offered Euphelt a cordial handshake. Mercury was dressed casually in a pair of khaki pants and a green button up shirt that was tied around her chest. The beanie on her head covered most of her hair, but plenty of wisps of her lavender locks still poked out from beneath. She wore a bracelet around a wrist that looked as though it had been fashioned out of ancient gold coins, and on her left ring finger was a ring with an emerald stone indicating her engaged status. Sitting on her shoulder was a crow, who watched Euphelt with his beady black eyes but otherwise remained quiet for once in his life. “I’ve been told you’re interested in offering up your custodial services. We’re always more than happy to have a few extra hands around. Gods know there’s always something that needs doing. Why don’t you come along with me and I’ll introduce you to Leona, our guildmaster. She’s the one who has final say on things like this.”

Nodding for the woman to follow, Mercury would lead her into a hallway and up to Leona’s office, where they found the guildmaster sitting over a pile of paperwork. Mercury knocked on the open door to get her attention before leading the newcomer inside. “You look like you’re in dire need of a distraction,” she teased with a grin, knowing how much Leona disliked administrative work. “Leona, this is Euphelt. She’s just arrived and expressed an interest in coming to work for us as a maid. Figured you’d be interested in meeting with her.” From there, Mercury would stand off to the side and let either woman continue their own introductions with one another.

Well, she was certainly polite and professional, if a bit… detached? Euphelt bowed several times in the process of greeting her, and Mercury had to fight to not look as amused as she felt. Despite being second only to Leona in the guild’s hierarchy, Mercury was exceptionally casual and laid back, and not altogether big on formalities. Still, she had no desire to scare the newcomer away by being impolite, so she merely smiled, though there was perhaps a twinkle of mirth in her eyes.

The bird cocked his head when Euphelt greeted him as well. “He certainly thinks he’s a master, bossy little bastard.” Despite the perceived insult to the bird, Mercury turned her neck over to give him a small smirk, reaching up pet her fingers against his chest affectionately. He leaned eagerly into her fingers. “He is aptly named Bandit, and he is a feathery little terrorist but he’s cute enough to keep, I guess.”

Shortly afterward they found themselves in Leona’s office. The guildmaster greeted Mercury cheerfully before turning her attention to Euphelt. Mercury stepped aside and leaned against a nearby wall to observe the exchange, forcing herself to ignore the alluring scent of Leona’s coffee. Mercury had already had a couple cups herself that morning and truly should not give in to the temptation to have more – not that the additional caffeine would truly affect her one way or another. The maid was about as formal as she had been with Mercury, all business and professionalism, giving a few more details about her background and skills. It was a well rehearsed and pretty little speech, even if the woman’s tone lacked much by way of personality.

Mercury sensed the arrival of another individual, her internal radars monitoring a lifesign as it approached the door to the office and knocked. Leona excused herself to open the door, revealing Yuvon. The Ace’s eyes caught sight of the device in his hands, but she said nothing toward it for the time being as Leona invited the scholar inside. “Good to see ya, Yu! Euphelt, this is Yuvon, one of our guild members and scholars.”

Apparently she was making a lot of introductions today. Not wanting things to get too far off track, Mercury turned her attention back to the newcomer. “I don’t think I even knew that schools for maids existed,” she admitted, genuinely curious by the notion. “But it sounds like you have a pretty wide array of skills that could certainly be useful to the guild. You also made quite the journey to get to us all the way out here in the mountains. Is there any reason in particular that you want to work for Silver Wolf?” Mercury could only imagine that there were easier places of business Euphelt could have applied to that didn’t involve having to navigate her way through a blizzard, leaving her to wonder if there was some particular thing about the guild that had drawn the maid’s interest.

Mercury peered at the flier that Euphelt produced, her brows narrowing at the paper while the woman explained about the man that had gotten lost in the blizzard. “May I?” She asked, pointing to the flier and then, should Euphelt agree, taking it from the would-be employee so she could examine it closer.

It was absolutely atrocious. “Yeah, this is definitely not ours.” The lavender haired woman was in full agreement with the guildmaster. She continued to peer at the paper, scanning it for traces of DNA and various dust particles, or anything else of interest that may give her a clue as to what region the paper may have originated from. As she did, she listened to Yuvon and Leona discuss the situation, with the former hoping the man wasn’t harmed and the latter asking if the rest of them felt that they needed to search for the individual.

“I guess that depends on if you want to find someone that clearly didn’t have friendly intentions for us,” Mercury said simply, offering the pamphlet back to Euphelt. “If the wolves do find them, I imagine the only help they’ll provide him is to discourage any additional attempts at whatever the guy was thinking of trying.”

She glanced at Euphelt to explain. “We have security measures in place that prevent those with ill intentions toward the guild and its members from being able to locate us. If he got lost in that storm, it was probably a good thing. Besides, you’re not a member of the guild – or at least, you weren’t at the time, assuming you are planning on staying around – so it was hardly your responsibility to lead anyone here.”

With a shrug, Mercury looked back to Leona. “If you’d like him tracked down to ensure he doesn’t come around again, you know I’m always happy to teach a lesson and send someone packing. But, I doubt it’s worth our time. Plus, Miss Fillecygne only just came in from the storm herself; I imagine she’s earned a bit of warmth and a roof over her head. Maybe even a meal, or at least something hot to drink.” In the end, if Leona felt that the man was worth investigating then Mercury wouldn’t hesitate to join in and put her considerable tracking skills to use. But as far as she was concerned, the man got caught being up to no good and she help little sympathy toward whether or not he was still lost in the storm.