A New Start

Mercury found herself in Clover quite often these days. Ever since she and Vandrad had met with Mythal and Serilda, with the two men working on building their long-lost-brothers relationship, the Rune Knight leaders made quite a bit of effort to invite the two independent mages to various gatherings to spend time with them. While Vandrad’s brother and his fiancee lived primarily in Era, Clover was where Serilda grew up and was where the lands of her family’s duchy were located, so whenever anything interesting was happening in Clover they made sure to reach out to Vandrad and Mercury to be a part of it. The last major gathering had been a city wide rave, a wild event that Mercury was really the only one out of the four that had been overeager to be there. Vandrad had grumbled most of the time, particularly in lieu of the pranks she had pulled on him during… but he’d gotten to beat the snot out of a wanna-be ruffian, so that had helped his mood considerably, and in the end it was a fun memory for all.

But her exposure to Serilda had opened her knowledge a bit more about the town of Clover itself, which served as the annual meeting place for all the legal guild masters. She had been curious about the hall for a number of reasons, and had thus elected to visit. While the main hall itself wasn’t open to the public, or even mages from other guilds not fully acknowledged nor fully condemned by the Magic Council, there was a section of the building that advertised itself as a center for wizards to come and learn more about some of the guilds in and around Fiore. There was a lot of resources and information available there in the form of pamphlets, business cards, and other various “impulse grab” forms of media. Surprisingly, not all of it was just about the legal guilds. There was actually some limited information available for some of the independent guilds as well, including Silver Wolf.

Curious, she plucked one of the brochures out of a holder on the wall and opened it up to see what was there. The information presented within seemed pretty accurate and straightforward, doing respectable justice to their mission to obtain, study, and preserve items of cultural and historical interest, both magical and mundane. Given that Silver Wolf didn’t wholly advertise their mechanisms to the public, there weren't any details present about some of the more in depth goings on of the guild, but it was enough to spark interest in any whose attraction lied in the same fields. While it didn’t have any pictures of anyone from the guild, it was at least up to date enough that it included Leona’s name as the guildmaster, as well as listing Mercury, Aspen, and Theo as the current aces. She smirked a little, amused to see her name in the document.

Slipping the item back inside the display, she turned and looked around a little, this time studying the people who were present. Some of them were present in small groups, going through the paperwork together and probably comparing the guilds they found interesting to see which ones appealed to them more. Others were doing the same thing by themselves, off in a corner with a handful of brochures, reading through them and trying to decide. Eventually, her gaze set on one such lone individual with a slip in his hands that looked like it was the Silver Wolf packet. He looked to be about her age, with long dark hair and tanned skin. Unlike the others, he was the only one with a single brochure before him, and he seemed pretty invested in reading it over and over.

Having never been a shy individual, Mercury wasted no time in strolling right up to the young man. “Silver Wolf, eh?” she asked, a small but friendly smile on her face. She had short lavender colored hair that swept to one side of her head, and bright emerald eyes that seemed to have a permanent glint of mischief in them. She had light skin and a small frame, standing just shy of five and a half feet. A pink, sleeveless shirt sat over top a black bra, with large gaps from the armpits that left her sides bare. One strap sat haphazardly off her shoulder, covering part of a series of gear shaped tattoos that ran up her left arm and onto her neck. Her legs were clad in a simple pair of worn looking jeans with a pair of black leather boots to top of her feet, and around her hips were a number of various leather pouches as well as a holstered oversized pistol. She smiled down at him where he sat, with all the confidence in the world of a woman that wasn’t in the least bit intimidated at approaching random strangers.

“You into all that sciency research and stuff?”

It seemed that this young man, whoever he was, was the type that wasn’t great at hiding his facial expressions around women he found attractive. Poor thing. That was always an unfortunate trait to have around Mercury, who took a great amount of delight in teasing people and pushing their buttons. He turned to look up at her and his eyes went wide in shock as though he were surprised by her approach. A moment later he was looking her over, taking in her tattoos and her weapon much like a lot of people did, though she didn’t miss the subtle flick in his gaze that betrayed he was having an interesting time trying to be respectful in where he set his sights. For her part, Mercury’s cool and confident demeanor didn’t change, and she simply let him have the moment he needed to process her approach, continuing to smirk playfully at him until he was able to find his voice.

He stammered for a moment before confirming that he was, indeed, looking into the Silver Wolf guild. It seemed his reservation was that he preferred hands on studies, being out in the field, and wasn’t sure which branch would fit him best or if he could be a part of more than one. He was smart enough, despite his momentary awkwardness, to recognize that she had approached him for a reason and asked if she had any information that might shed light on what he was looking into. “I know a little,” she told him playfully, her grin widening at his own as he finally managed to smile. Offering him a hand to shake, the woman introduced herself. “Mercury Arseneault. I’m an ace for Silver Wolf, in charge of the Scholar department. Mind if I take a seat?”

Presuming he didn’t protest her joining him, she’d plop her ass down in the chair across from him. Leaning back comfortably, she set one of her legs up on the surface of the table and crossed her other one over it, her boots hanging respectfully off the side so she could recline without getting the table grimy or shoving her feet in the man’s face. Her hands went behind her head and she told him, “You shouldn’t really worry too much about that. The various branches have their own focus, but at the end of the day we’re all guildmates and we do what we can to help each other out. Picking a branch doesn’t keep you from being involved with the work of any of the other branches; it just means that, should something needful or pressing comes up in your field, that’s where your attention should be prioritized. I spend as much time out in the field as I do down in the labs. It just comes down to where your interests lie the heaviest.”

She waved a beckoning hand to him. “What else you got for me?” Mercury asked him, opening herself up for any other questions he might have.

The young man was utterly flabbergasted when Mercury introduced herself, and even as she took a seat and started getting into the branch information, she could already recognize the starry look in his eyes. It was one she’d seen in a lot of other new recruits before, those who were truly inquisitive scientists at heart and wanted nothing more than to pour themselves right into the field. He was bound to have more questions, which was why she had opened the floor up for him to cast them her way.

Mercury was expecting a lot more inquiries, but even she was unprepared for the vomit of words that the dark haired man deposited at her feet. He asked an easy half a million questions all within the same breath, causing Mercury to blink lightly at him with a surprised but entertained look. Only after he got all his questions out did he stop to realize that he hadn’t returned the gesture of introducing himself and proceeding to do so, providing Mercury with the name of Damian Beckett, from Desierto. “Desierto?” she asked him with interest. “I’ve been there before. Took a job in the area a few months back, and it was quite the experience. Pretty big climate difference from where the guild is located up in the mountains. It’s a pleasure to meet you, Damian. Hope you’re not intimidated by the snow and cold.”

She cast a teasing grin at him, then continued on to answer his other questions. “So, Silver Wolf differs from other guilds in the sense that there’s a lot more people at the guildhall at any given point in time than there usually are at other guilds. This is because we have a side business that attracts a lot of guests and patrons. See, the guildhall was built on top of a series of natural hot springs up in the Phoenix Mountains. We built around them so we could utilize them, creating our own personal spa and bathhouse that is open to non-members. There’s also a restaurant and an entire wing with guest rooms for people to rent. Since we want to be as responsible with this business as possible, we ensure that we have a branch of members dedicated to keeping the hall and its occupants, both guests and packmates, safe and secure. Plus, it’s not unheard of to run into the odd group of vulcans up in the mountains, and they can be quite pesky and destructive if left to their own devices.

“Defender duties really don’t come up all too often. As an independent guild, we mostly try to keep to ourselves without getting on anyone’s bad side, so we don’t really have any enemies which is how we prefer things. There are also precautions set in place that deter ill intentioned persons from even being able to reach the guildhall. If anyone is trying to find our building or any of our members for hostile reasons, they’ll simply wind up lost in the woods and ice. So there’s not a whole lot of external threats. However, shit still happens. Experimenting can be dangerous and oftentimes some of us put our lives and bodies on the line in the name of science.” The mischievous glint in her eyes spoke to how often she herself had been guilty of that. “The defenders protect us, even from ourselves sometimes. But in general it’s not something that comes up on a daily or even weekly basis, and as such wouldn’t interfere too much with your duties if you went with one of the other two branches.

“As far as the scholar branch goes, we’re the ones who get to have the most fun in my opinion. We’re the ones that get to play with all the fun treasures that the hunters bring back. We analyse things, testing them for their functions and capabilities, and compile the research together to add to our expansive library. We do a lot of organizing, categorizing, deconstructing and reconstructing, experimenting with what we know to see if we can improve upon what’s already been established. In essence, we’re the tinkerers of the guild.”

So far she had yet to miss a single one of his questions, despite how quickly he had churned them out at her. Mercury processed, retained, and retrieved information much quicker than the average human. This was primarily because, as much as she looked human, she wasn’t. One would never be able to tell by looking at her that she had wires for muscles, oil for blood, metal for bones. Her brain operated as, and essentially was, a computer. However, her alien genetic makeup was unlike anything that existed on Earthland. She was a race that was both wholly cybernetic and wholly organic, which meant that unless someone cut her open and exposed her innards, she was completely indistinguishable from any other human wandering the planet.

Which was exactly how she liked it.

“There’s nothing magical about what I do,” she told him simply. It wasn’t a complete lie, though it also wasn’t the complete truth. Mercury did in fact have magic but it was a relatively new development, and one that had quickly become a closely guarded secret for her. There was only one person that knew she had real magic, and it had taken him months of constant exposure to learn what she really was. But at the end of the day, her magic really only heightened skills she already had. “There are items with magical properties that I use from time to time, but I’m basically little more than an engineer.”

Taking Mercy out of its holster, she offered the overly large pistol to him hilt first. He would be able to surmise by looking at it that it was an extremely advanced, almost futuristic, piece of technology that gave off no magical aura. There were unmarked buttons along the handle that hinted at multiple functions the weapon likely had that he could reasonably assume allowed the weapon to discharge different types of ammunition. “That’s all science,” Mercury said with a small smirk. And in this case, she truly wasn’t bending the truth. She’d crafted Mercy long before coming to Earthland and discovering the existence of magic, so the pistol truly was an honest creation of her own hands. “What about you? What kind of magic or other talents do you have that you’d make use of with Silver Wolf?”

Mercury wasn’t at all worried or concerned about Damian discharging the weapon. Even if he tried, he wouldn’t be able to. The surface of the gun was biologically coded to her unique fingerprints and DNA, meaning that it would only fire or perform any of its functions for her and her alone. If anyone else were to attempt to use it, it would revert to its current setting and lock its safeties on. Thus, the young man was perfectly safe to handle the pistol at his preferred comfort, and she took it back as casually as it had been handed to him. He asked no questions about it, but Mercury could imagine based on the short interaction with him thus far that he was likely either being polite in not trying to ask too much, or simply was distracted by her own question about his abilities.

He gave her a somewhat goofy but confident grin, drawing her interest. As she watched, his skin began to glow a strange purple green color. The aura lasted for only a moment or two before fading, and nothing appeared to have happened. At least, until a tail resembling that of a scorpion lifted itself up from behind his back, threatening to drip a single drop of poison onto the table. “Ooooo…” she said, humming with appreciation as the extra limb faded out of existence. His magic, he explained, was called Insect Takeover. Mercury was well aware of takeover magic by this point, though she’d yet to witness such abilities up close like this before now. And according to him, he’d earned it himself by allowing himself to be stung by scorpions and other bugs, which meant that like many of the other scholars in Silver Wolf he was quite adept and willing to put the adventures and desires of science before himself.

She grinned back at him. “That’s a pretty nifty skill set you got there, I won’t lie. I’d be curious to see what other tricks you’ve got at some point. But yes, Damian, I actually do think that you’d fit in quite well with our little guild. So what do you say? Want to come join the pack? All we’d have to do is get you up the mountain, go over a couple quick expectations that we hold our members to, get you stamped, and you’d be all set. Depending on what affairs you have to get in order, we could get you set up and official before the day is even over.”