War of Serenity

"It's called the moss troll problem," Tsubasa said. Before him was a large saucepan, within which a mixture of sugar and various other things were heating up and turning brown. He wore an apron that said 'Chef 2.0' and seemed to be watching the saucepan carefully.

He'd started cooking after a short break from doing really anything. Tsubasa had become a stronger mage than he had ever anticipated much more quickly than he had thought possible, thanks largely to the tutelage of people like Miss Mercury and his occasional run-ins with the hot people, Lady Serilda and Mister Mythal. It took him some time to come to terms with that and think about his responsibility that would come with the rapid rise in rank, relative to his position upon entering the guild. It would come with more responsibility, even if he never became an ace like Miss Mercury. He shook his head of the thought and brought himself back to the here and now.

On top of the refrigerator just behind him, Ahab sat listening to him talk. He was also pressing buttons on a game system. The fact that it was roughly half his size made the erratic movements especially hilarious. "What's wrong with moss trolls?" He asked.

"Well nothing by themselves," He continued, "But imagine you're writing a fantasy book. You add moss trolls to the book. Now, because of that, the world of your book has moss. Because otherwise where did the moss trolls get their names?"

Ahab shifted position and started using one of his legs to move a control stick, "What kind of place doesn't have moss?"

"A place that can't have moss trolls, I guess." Tsubasa shrugged, "I'm not sure where it came from I just know it makes it easy to fall down rabbit holes when you're creating things. You gotta rewind all the way to the beginning of the thing that you made. So like, you use a bicycle in your story. Someone might be asking about where that bicycle came from. Who made the concept of a bicycle?"

"Who cares. Some guy." Ahab said, "The real question is who made this stupid game which is dumb and I hate it." He pounded on the game system which did practically nothing, as his tiny fists weren't strong enough to damage it.

"Come on dude don't break my stuff," Tsu said nonchalantly. He reached into the fridge to pull out a cold glass of water he'd prepared for this exact act. He set it next to the saucepan and poured a small amount of the brownish sauce into the cold water.

"I hate people who focus on things like that in a story anyway," Ahab said, restarting the game in the middle of a battle, like a champ. "Like, you're really looking for accuracy in this world where people have no magic but like, all kinds of gears on their hats instead?" He grumbled  "What are you making anyway?"

"Taffy," Tsubasa said, balling up the sugar in the water, to ensure it was the correct temperature to continue the next step. His voice was quieter now as he began to focus more intently on his task. Soon he would grow silent with concentration and forget that he was mid-conversation. "I'm gonna make it a bunch of fun colors. I'll call it Laughy Taffy."

——

"I still don't understand why you brought me this," Said one of the clerks. He wore thick glasses and in previous interactions, he'd had a very strong attitude that seemed to heavily imply that he would be better off being anywhere except where he was. He had something more important to do and it wasn't this. Yet at this moment, he was enjoying a piece of Tsubasa's taffy with a heavily softened expression. Hours had passed and the young man had gone specifically to find this guild clerk, as he had some rough patches in the past with him.

"Come on, man, my squirrel messed up your glasses and you ignored me lying there dying. We've both made mistakes. Eat the taffy." Tsubasa replaced the lid on the box and slid it under his arm.

"Well, yes, thank you," The clerk said. There was a heavily awkward silence that hung in the air before the clerk procured a letter. "It's fortunate that you found me at any rate, because this is for you," He passed a small orange envelope to Tsubasa, which the young man quickly opened up. There was a tonal shift in their attitude as the clerk summarized the letter for Tsubasa. Tsu had a reading difficulty that he was not proud of at all, and it seemed this clerk had picked up on it. Now, unlike previous occasions, he seemed more willing to lend a hand.

"It's a request for help keeping two disagreeing gangs from becoming a full on turf war." The clerk explained, "They've asked for a talented mage and it's been passed on to you. Apparently there will be a small coalition of mages from different guilds, so you won't be alone, but this one could become a serious problem if all of you aren't careful." After a moment he added, "It's a big responsibility. Someone must think you're ready for it."

Tsubasa blinked at the paper. He was reading it and taking in what the clerk was saying at the same time. The two were matching up appropriately, assuring the young man that he wasn't being mocked or tricked. He closed his eyes and shook his head slightly, as though trying to get his thoughts correct. This was exactly what he had been thinking about previously, and it seemed the perfect opportunity for him to decide whether he was ready for higher ranked missions or not.

Less than ten minutes later, he and Ahab were riding the Mach 15 on their way to the location indicated on the letter, a small valley tucked away just south of the area of dispute, the ironically named Serene Cliff.

Tsubasa stared now at the drawings he'd etched into the ground. It seemed to be a rough approximation of the area around them, scaled down and roughly resembling a battle map. The instructions had specifically stated that no one was to be killed here, but during his studies he'd learned that it only took one person to start a battle and that some gangs and even armies weren't above using tactics like sneaking into another group's camp and pretending to be them in order to start the fight. He saw no honor or pride in something like that, but knew that some people would do whatever they needed to in order to win. Therefore, as he waited, he'd been mapping out strategies in case it came to a large scale battle.

He had been there for a little while when he was joined by another mage who made it up the cliff, though seemingly not by flying. Waving over a greeting, Tsubasa stood up. Here came a man who was absolutely no nonsense, and Tsu could tell from his general demeanor. In that he had a General demeanor. He cleared his throat and attempted to look a little taller, remembering that he was no longer just going on little errands or under the full guidance of Miss Mercury.

"Yeah," He said. "While I was flying here I got an update that two more will be joining us. We should wait for them until we start getting into the nitty gritty of it but—" There was a light humming noise, not unlike those that would occasionally echo around his lab area, which grabbed his attention mid-sentence. "Oh hey, speak of the new people."

Here were two more that appeared on the scene, quite literally, as though they had been turned on like a light. They looked to Tsubasa almost like a funhouse mirror version of the Hot People, those who he'd met on two of his previous more outrageous journeys. They were very attractive and well mannered, just like his allies, but to his journeyman's they eye lacked that regal wild streak that permeated the other two. It was possible that he was projecting a little bit due to the self-perceived severity of the mission at hand.

"Hey, okay, cool," He said once everyone had arrived and mostly gathered around, "So we're all here now. Uh. I think they wanted people from different guilds to show an impartiality in the process? So we're mostly from different… guilds. My name's Tsubasa, Tsubasa Kageyama. You might… you might know the Kageyama Shrine just east of Talonia. That's me. My family, I mean. Us. This is Ahab." He gestured to the light green flying squirrel which was tucked into the hood of his jacket. The squirrel waved. "I made taffy." He handed out a roughly six centimeter sized piece of wrapped taffy to each of his new teammates. Each one was individually colored and appropriately soft to the touch. Should anyone try them, they would find that they were actually really, really good.