The Guild of The Future

It felt nice, Flare admitted to herself, not to be the only one lost. Everyone held close together as the area around them turned dark, with the only thing they could see beyond their group being torturous tableaux of those who slept in other worlds.

Beside Flare were Spark and Sprout, each holding one of her hands. Most of them were holding hands with the rest.

The fears lost their effect after enough instances. Even some horrifying vision of a dragon did little to them aside from make Nightingale and Void lift either side of Stéri’s glasses, obliterating it.

“You see,” Puerile said, “After all of that, we don’t even have Stéri worried the thing could have feelings.”

“I still don’t see why we couldn’t have started here,” Nightingale complained.

“Because if we dropped directly into nightmare territory, they would have seen us coming, not to mention you would have been unprepared for the journey. Everything went perfectly.”

“Even getting arrested?” Void asked.

“That gave me another chance to rescue one of the few people I care about, so I think it turned out well.”

Flare disagreed, but made no comment.

“Speak your mind, Fire Master.”

“I didn’t know you were a criminal when I came here.”

“Unjustly convicted,” Puerile insisted, “Besides, I didn’t ask to be put on the team for this hopeless mission.”

“We did kind of force him,” Splash admitted.

“And you all would have been lost without me.”

“At least we would have had Sprite,” Spark said.

“I’m sure they’re having a lot more fun with paperwork than you give them credit for.”

He stopped the group, leaving Flare a little unbalanced.

“We’re here!” Puerile sang, revealing climbing gear in his hands that wasn’t there before.

They finally let go of each other to grab the gear, Nightingale hesitating longer than the rest as Void helped Stéri into the gear.

Flare had to trust Sprout, who seemed strangely familiar with the equipment, to help her put it all together, but eventually they were all ready. Puerile formed a rock for each of them from the ground, as he insisted that connecting to the same one would leave them all falling if even one of them thought hard enough about it disappearing. A glance from Sprout fortified them further.

They were still anxious as they descended into the abyss, suddenly understanding why Puerile called the mission hopeless.

“Can you hear me?” Nightingale asked after several feet, “Is anyone down here?”

No response. Flare heard several others swallow with her as the panic set in.

“Sound takes time to travel,” Nightingale chanted, staring up at the dwindling light above their chasm.

“Good plan, yes,” Puerile said, “Don’t look down, anyone.”

Flare’s head was stopped from its instinctive turn. She chose not to struggle about it.

“I meant it.”

It didn’t change much as they descended, which made it all the more concerning, like they were making no progress.

“You know,” Splash said, “It almost feels like a trench.”

“A trench?” Void asked.

“A deep crevice of the ocean: You can’t see much, and most people wouldn’t survive it, but it’s kind of wonderful. I’m not sure anything else goes that deep.”

Behind them. They felt some large creature swimming past.

“That’s not my experience in trenches,” Splash insisted.

The creature made the sound of a whale-call but more like a growl. It rang in Flare’s ears, reminding her of how much effect they had on the landscape. She did her best not to wonder what the creature might look like, especially after the forest incident.

Spark started coughing, water coming out of her mouth, except instead of soaking her clothes, it bore a hole through her. She disappeared after that, Sprout and Splash taking on some of her features. Splash in fact seemed more stable than before. Flare couldn’t stop herself from staring.

“I didn’t expect it to take this long,” Puerile said, “You’re a resilient group.”

“Thanks?” Splash said, his voice sounding different, like Spark was still around through him. He noticed Flare’s staring. “I guess you’ve never seen us combine like that before.”

Flare shook her head.

“If one of us takes a nasty shot, like drowning because some fool opened his mouth about trenches, they recombine with the remaining parts. The opposite element loses their power, and the remaining ones become like a combined element. Sprout can mess with lava now.”

Flare found the explanation comforting, even if she knew how Tetra in Magek recombined already.

“Charming,” Nightingale said, “Please keep flirting, it keeps our minds off of potential doom.”

“Were not—” Flare started, but then she saw the blood on Nightingale’s hands.

“Fuck.” Nightingale stared at them, “I was worried these walls might cut someone…” their form flickered as the transformation seemed to wear off.

“So much for control,” Puerile muttered before ordering, “Flare, return Nightingale to the base.”

“But—”

“Now!”

Flare took a breath, as flames left her mouth, surrounding Nightingale, who screamed, then disappeared, rope fully intact.

“I didn’t—”

“We don’t think you burned her,” Splash said.

“Thank you.”

“I take it our thoughts have even greater potential to harm us down here?” Stéri asked.

“Thank you for not making me spell it out,” Puerile said, “I hoped it didn’t need explanation after our whole misadventure, but what do I know?”

“More than the rest of us,” Void said, “At least in this environment.”

Flare kept her mind on the tourists. They’d been shown photos before they left, so it wasn’t hard to picture them. Hopefully if she thought hard enough about them, they could actually come to their rescue, prove to Puerile it wasn’t a useless endeavor.

Puerile hadn’t been wrong so far.

She shook her head. No, Puerile was a fool.

“I take offense,” Puerile said, “Though it’s a good mentality.”

“Then why comment on it?” Void asked.

“Because I was offended.”

“Have you ever thought about a consequence in your—”

The wall disappeared from in front of them as Steri’s eyes were clearly open. Flare was already taking a deep breath as Puerile gave the order to send him back home.

She returned her thoughts to the tourists, comforted in the fact two of their companions were much safer, slightly envious actually. Quick as it came she ignored the thought she might be only one able to get all of them out. If she thought too hard about it, then it would spell disaster.

They could find the tourists any minute now. They had to keep an eye out, but not too open.

“Does anyone know any good travel songs?” she asked.

“Any that don’t invoke potentially dangerous imagery?” Puerile specified.

Everyone stayed silent, unsure if the next phrase would spell their doom.

Sprout started coughing, turning to hard rock before crumbling to dust. Splash looked a bit more like them now, and terrified.

“Send Tetra home now,” Puerile said.

“What?” Flare asked.

“Otherwise we’re stuck at Chardri’s,” Splash explained, “Because that’s where the last one of us will be.”

“But—”

“See you on the other side,” he said with an insistent smile.

Flare took a deep breath, exhaled flame, and watched Splash disappear, feeling Sprite alongside him. She was very tired of this.

“I’d say they knew the risks, but I made a point of not informing you about them,” Puerile said.

Void and Flare bonded over their mutual scowl before continuing down.

Flare focused her attention on the tourists, until she heard the cries for help.

As she made eye-contact with the group, Void fell from his rope.

“He’ll be fine,” Puerile insisted, “He has wings.”

“We’re here to save you,” she told the tourists. “This may be frightening. But it may pale in comparison to your other exploits.”

She took one final very deep breath, before exhaling, focusing on the tourists and her remaining companions.

Her eyes opened in the infirmary, where someone in all black, familiar by the features and garb of their four selves, was sleeping on a nearby chair. She sat up, back sweating, as she realized how warm the bed had been.

“What happened?” she asked, searching for Elva.

Tetra stirred awake, instantly quadrupling to the unique appearances Flare was more familiar with.

“We were on watch duty,” Spark said, “Sorry we fell asleep.”

“No, we—” Sprout was smacked in the back of their head for their troubles.

“I forgive you,” Flare said with a yawn, “I was asleep too.”

Splash let out a small laugh.

“What happened?” she asked again.

“You used,” Splash began.

“A lot of power,” Sprite finished.

“You were cold when you arrived,” Spark said.

“So Elva brought you here to recover,” Sprout ended, “Heated the bed and gave you an electric blanket.”

Flare nodded, she barely remembered what happened to make her use that much energy. It was all a haze of feelings.

“Finally awake, are we?” Puerile asked at the door, “Good, if you stayed unconscious, these four would have me grounded permanently.”

She knew Puerile was heavily involved in the incident that made her use so much power, but she remembered little else.

Her confusion must have been obvious because Puerile’s expression turned annoyed.

“Unland does this to dreamers sometimes, even when they’re physically visiting. It’s all a hazy memory that will come rushing back to you next time you visit, then disappear again once you’re here. It may have been the stress, or you’re just primed to forget.”

“So she’s forgotten everything?” Sprite asked.

“She’ll have glimmers of what happened, feelings she doesn’t have an explanation for, but none of it tangible.”

“Great,” Spark said, “We’ll have to explain how recombining is dangerous for us again.”

“Because your elements combine and sometimes make you powerless,” Flare answered, pausing as she realized she never learned that.

“Or we won’t,” Sprout said.

“Good.” Spark insisted in an angry tone that Flare didn’t completely believe for some reason.

“Is everyone safe?” Flare asked, sure that was the mission—it was usually the mission.

“Well the tourists are planning to visit Vecira, and the rest of us are in the Guild, so safe is a relative term,” Splash answered, “But no one’s incapacitated anymore.”

“Who was incapacitated?” Flare immediately smacked herself in the forehead at the question, “Please don’t answer that.”

“You were, dummy,” Spark said.

Puerile took his moment of solitude, closed his eyes, and opened them in his territory.

His teammates wouldn’t have been surprised by it. It looked like a decrepit, isolated cabin, but he hated pristine things. Everything worked as much as he wanted, and let him stay alone. The place stayed abandoned save for him. He hated the idea of keeping a puppet; after how Anise viewed him, he couldn’t carry that pain forward, not yet.

As none of his creation lived, he had to come and prove the place still inhabited so other lords wouldn’t absorb it into their own territories. For all Puerile knew, one of them could be making an attempt at the moment.

The stairs creaked differently than normal, setting him on edge. He moved to the kitchen, pulling a rusted knife out of the drawer. It would slice as well as one that had been sharpened.

He quietly moved to the side of the stairs where anyone coming down wouldn’t notice. It was likely a dreamer who drifted to the place, in which case frightening them would be just as things were meant to be done. If it was another Pan, then he definitely had to defend his territory.

He spotted a foot reaching the bottom and swung, nicking them in the arm as they moved to the other side of the stairs.

It was most likely a Pan, their skin looked black with a hint of blue, with white dots on their cheeks like freckles.

“Just because I’m rarely around doesn’t mean this place is available,” he warned as he planned another hit.

“Then you shouldn’t have given me a key,” an older, but still recognizable voice said.

He knew he’d changed himself after leaving Anise’s territory, but for some reason he thought Berry would look the same, at most a few years older.

He dropped the knife.

“You truly are a nightmare lord,” she said, holding a hand to her chest as she moved fully into view.

“You didn’t want to believe it?” he asked, insulted. He certainly wasn’t going to make rainbows and candy lands after escaping.

“No desire involved, I just… You always brought me so much hope, even when you showed up again, I assumed you’d be a hero.”

“There was only one person I ever wanted to save,” he admitted

She looked at the floor, then picked up the knife, cleaned the rust off with a slide of her hand, and placed it back in the drawer. That was a reminder why she couldn’t stay. She didn’t belong in nightmares.

She stood in the kitchen, watching him. They were taking stock of each other, trying to figure out what they wanted now that they were free.

Speaking of.

“I thought it would be years before you left. What happened?”

“Anise had a lock on the door,” she said, “I didn’t notice it.”

“You didn’t escape, then.”

She shook her head.

He pitied her: of course she hadn’t left until she was forced out.

“And you’ve been staying here the past week?” he asked, remembering how long it was since their adventure.

“Three days,” she said.

“What are you going to do now?”

She looked around.

“I don’t want territory,” she said, “I have no desire to be a lord like you and Anise are, none of the creativity.”

“You look well enough,” he said.

She smiled.

“I think I’ll wander.”

“Then this place will be open to you whenever you want a safe place to be.”

She closed the gap between them, pulling him into a hug.

“Thank you, Laran.”

He kissed her on the forehead.

“I will protect you any time you ask for me.”