Maevus followed as Letya skipped down the hall toward the stairs Vraylor had led her up last night. The morning was still young and most of the rooms were quiet, though Maevus could hear as some of the guild's denizens began to stir.

"Most of them tend to be night owls," Letya chattered happily. "But I like the early morning sun. The light's so crisp it's like playing with water."

To demonstrate, she wound a few strands of sunlight coming into the stairwell from one of the many windows around her fingers. 

The casual display of magic was still a bit shocking. Lox leaned over, trying to play with the strings of light that Letya wound around her fingers in a cat's cradle.

Letya giggled and sent the strands of light squirming around the dragon, who growled in delight and launched himself from Maevus' shoulder. He tumbled through the air, wrestling the strings of light which had turned to the consistency of thick jelly.

The tiny girl beside her was apparently an extremely talented Encant.

Letya kept up the game until they got to the bottom of the staircase, which spilled them into the grand hall that had been packed full of Encants last night. Now Maevus could practically hear crickets.

A handful of Encants were scattered around the room, enjoying breakfast with friends or shoveling down some food before they were running out the door.

"Come on," Letya said, looping her arm through Maevus' as she pulled her along to the solitary man standing behind the bar. "I'll pay for breakfast this morning."

"But—"

"No buts!" Letya cut her off, hopping up onto a stool. "You can pay me back after you've taken a couple jobs and have more to wear than an old shirt and pants with holes in the knees."

Maevus peered down at her legs with a frown before sitting down. "They don't have holes."

Letya just waved an unconcerned hand, her attention turning to the guy behind the bar. 

"Letty doll, you can't expect everyone to be a morning person," he said, his voice tinged with the rolling accent of eastern Escana. He reached below the counter and set a chipped but clean mug in front of Maevus, then turned a stern expression on Letya. "Don't start in until the poor girl's had some tea, yeah?"

Letya rolled her eyes but crossed her heart.

The man turned back to Maevus. He was maybe a few years older than her. Pleasant-looking if not handsome with tan skin and hair the color of ripe wheat. His blue eyes sparked as he winked at Maevus before he disappeared behind a door into what Maevus assumed was a kitchen, judging by the smell. 

"That's Gil," Letya said fondly. "He's a Fire-Charmed Encant, but he prefers cooking to fighting so Master put him in charge of the kitchens about four years ago. We've all gained at least ten pounds because of it."

Maevus snorted, eyeing the girl's petite frame dubiously.

"Let's see," Letya said, twirling around on her stool and motioning Maevus to do the same. Lox hopped over to Letya's lap, purring as she gently scratched behind his ears.

Her eyes scanned the few people in the hall, and she blew out a small sigh before launching into a stream of names and Charms that Maevus quickly stopped trying to keep up with.

The guild hall was home to every sort of Encant imaginable, from every race and nation around Escana and the world. Maevus supposed skin tone hardly mattered when you were all tied together with the thread of something as deep as magic.

Gil returned with a kettle and a selection of teas for her. She picked a black breakfast tea, and he murmured about coming back with something for them to eat. She hardly heard him, drinking in this new world she'd found herself thrown into.

The guildhall was much calmer in the morning hours, allowing her to study the people.

Everyone seemed so...happy. Content. 

Like they knew they were somewhere they belonged.

Gil came back with a plate piled with scrambled eggs, toast with strawberry jam and strips of crackly bacon. A bowl of late summer berries and diced melons was put beside it. Maevus' mouth watered at the sight and she barely managed to say, "Thank you," before she dug in.

Lox pawed away a piece of bacon before she could stop him, scampering down the length of the bar when she yelped in indignation. He settled back on his haunches, eyes crackling with a merry flame as he ate the bacon, staring right at her.

A few of the other Encants around them murmured at the sight of the dragon, but there were no gasps of outrage or fear. Just a few chuckles as Lox finished the bacon and licked his paws clean in a very self-satisfied sort of way.

Maevus rolled her eyes and took a sip of her tea, sweetened with a lump of sugar and a little milk. Letya apparently took that as permission to start talking about the guild rules.

"Easiest of course is never harming another guild-member, or telling someone outside the guild about something that could hurt the guild or a member," Letya began around a piece of honeydew melon.

Maevus nodded. She would never hurt someone unless they tried to hurt her first.

"Next is about living at the guild. You could live somewhere else in the city if you wanted, but most prefer to live here." Letya's eternally sunny expression dimmed as she added, "Especially lately."

Lox began to creep back toward them, and Maevus narrowed her eyes at him, eating a strip of bacon.

"The guys have the top floor," she continued. "And the girls have the third floor, with common rooms in between. Since we have underage members who live with us, Master's pretty strict about us staying out of each other's floors."

Maevus blinked a little at that and looked over her shoulder. As far as she could tell, everyone here was an adult.

"If you meet someone, you can live with them if you want but the rooms are pretty small. Most people if they get really serious will move out." Letya smiled at that, like she was thinking about someone in particular.

Maevus didn't really see how that applied to her, but kept that to herself, giving Lox a warning glare before tossing him a triangle of toast.

"How do we pay for stuff?" she asked suddenly, watching Lox fall on the bread like a starved wolf. She rolled her eyes at his dramatics.

"We take jobs, silly," Letya said with a small laugh. "I was just getting to it." She jerked her thumb toward the ceiling. "The second floor is sort of our administration center. That's where Master's office is and the library. But it's also where jobs are posted."

Maevus finally caved and split her last piece of bacon with Lox. "Jobs?"

"Well," Letya mused, "most jobs anyway. They have different ranks based on difficulty. Anything ranked at a five or below in difficulty is up for grabs for any guild-member. But any job ranked six and up goes straight to Master, and he decides who's best for which job, and who's strong enough to handle them."

"Who hires us?" Maevus asked curiously, finishing the last of her tea. 

"Oh, anyone can post a job," Letya said with a shrug. "But that also means the pay fluctuates from job to job."

Maevus frowned, wondering if this was really supposed to be her life. If she was supposed to travel around the country, hawking her magic like some kind of cheap tool.

Letya chuckled, hopping down from her stool. "That's really all there is to it!"

Now Maevus blinked, slowly sliding off her own stool as Letya laid five copper coins on the counter and gave Gil a wave. Lox jumped into her arms and she hugged him closer as Letya led her back toward the stairs.

"Master should be awake by now," she said brightly. "And mostly pleasant. Why don't we go see about getting you your first job?"

Maevus' head spun with how quickly everything seemed to happen in Valmor. She very nearly wanted to throw her arms up in protest and demand that everyone just give her a moment to catch up.

But that wasn't how the world worked.

She'd do much better to adjust now. Besides, making a little money so she didn't have to keep relying on other people's charity did sound pretty good.

So Maevus simply squared her shoulders and nodded firmly.

Time to start earning her keep.