18 Termination

The driver pulled off to the side and let out the two riders wearing business apparel. The shorter female carried a bag full of papers while the taller male only put his hands in his pockets. The female looked at the bustling city with lots of curiosity and wonder, but she then frowned when she noticed something very odd about the city's atmosphere.

"Why does everything seem so dismal? Even the weather seems gloomy."

"Wake up Flowerpot. They just heard that over ten people were killed during an event last week. I don't think you'd be so cheerful either." Grumbled the man as he scratched at his unkept facial hair. He walked into the building with very little patience for his coworker.

She only responded with silence. She was not aware a small city like this one was not big on casualties. More densely populated areas were prone to deaths on a weekly basis, she didn't even think about the vast difference.

She also hated that everyone in the guild office called her 'Flowerpot.' It made her feel like they were calling her ditsy or too feminine for the type of work she was doing.

She ended up just holding back her tongue and followed the male into the medical center.

In the main lobby, she caught up and saw the nurse stationed at the desk was already handing over a tiny crystal to the male while making a distinct face of agitation.

'How the hell did he offend the front desk so quickly?' She thought while following her partner to the magic lift. 'This is not gonna be a good day, I can tell already.' She grumbled in her mind.

*****

Galahad currently sitting upright and was reading the dungeon guidelines book that everyone who registered for the dungeons would receive. It was one of the three books books on the shelf, the other two were an old children's book and an odd romance novel between a sylph and its summoner. He chose the most interesting of his options.

He was currently reading over the benefits in medical treatment for adventurers when another nurse came over with a pinging noise coming off the green orb that rested on the sleeve of her uniform. Galahad watched from his bed, the nurse was briefing Pavell about something just out of earshot.

Nurse Pavell nodded in agreement and opened the door to allow the male and female enter shortly after. As they entered the room, Galahad could easily identify the dynamic between them. The young female in a gray suit was clearly a fresh face in work force of the guild, her curious expression was as an obvious tell when looking about the room with her brand new red tablet in hand.

Meanwhile the slightly older gentleman next to her was the complete opposite. His pitch black hair was slicked back in a lazy effort of upkeep and his black suit was not anywhere near as new or pristine. The atmosphere he radiated was that of a nobleman forced into doing volunteer working, wanting to be anywhere else but there.

There was a strangest thing about the man that had entered, his presence almost seemed familiar to Galahad. Not enough to specifically call out in an instant, but when he stared at him, he understood there was some kind of recognition deep inside his mind.

"Which one's the count's daughter." He spouted very unheartedly while looking quickly around the room for whichever female was gonna end this sooner.

The nurses kept their smiles and directed them to Venora's bed, though many eyes stared holes into the back of the man's head as he passed. The younger female moved quickly behind him, giving a quick and quiet apology to the nurses.

When they arrived to Venora's bed, the nurse shut the curtains and walked off to the next patient that needed assistance. The bed curtains were enchanted to mute noises whenever they were closed so confidential conversations were never spilled in or out.

Galahad leaned up from his bed and grabbed Nurse Pavell's attention. "Who are they supposed to be?" He asked.

Pavell leaned in and spoke in a hush tone. "They are probably from the Guild's main headquarters in the Etherite Kingdom. I only ever see suits come in when the guild wants to interrogate injured criminals or talk with key witnesses."

"Criminals? Are they assuming Venora and I were guilty of something?" He asked in concern for being in more pain than he already was in.

Pavell chuckled for a moment and continued. "I seriously doubt they came here to interrogate. They most likely came to here to see what you have to say about the incident. Do you feel comfortable telling anyone about it yet?"

Galahad nodded and put down the book. He was fine talking about the incident, but he didn't want false hope to spread about his team still being alive. He realized he actually felt a little too fine about the whole ordeal. Nothing was causing his heart to race anymore, not even when he saw the destruction that was burned along his body. He couldn't understand why his whole range of emotions felt like it was being suppressed.

"I'm glad to hear it. Talking will help you more than you might think." She walked off after giving him a small smile of encouragement.

Less than twenty minutes passed before the curtain unfurled. The male was holding the red tablet and scrolling through some information Galahad assumed was the medical reports. He didn't stop looking at the tablet, he just walked through the room with no regard to his surroundings or his partner still talking with Venora.

Before Galahad could introduce himself, the man yanked the curtain shut. He looked up from the tablet to see Galahad completely before beginning the conversation. If the wounds disgusted him, he showed no indication that they did. So far, everyone that took a glance at Galahad, they would occasionally flinch or try not to look at them, Galahad understood why they did.

With a clearly irritated toned, the man spoke with haste. "Look kid, your body was trashed to the point that the doctors believe you could be suppressed down to level five at best. Both teams were slaughtered in the dungeon; I suggest cutting your losses and see where else you could find work. Either way, the guild no longer sees you as a viable contract and will dissolve your employment immediately. All you need to do right now is tell us what happened, and then we can go on our merry way."

The whole statement was so blunt and uninterrupted, Galahad didn't fully register the impact of this words. He stared blankly at the man as if he would yell "Sike!" and laugh at Galahad's reaction.

Before Galahad could say anything, he was interrupted once again. The younger female came huffing in with a quick step to her pace.

"Yeesh." She said at the other. "Can't you wait a few seconds, we were both assigned to this job you know."

She turned and then saw Galahad. She didn't flinch either, but her eyelids did flicker for a moment. It was clear that she did not pick up on the words her partner spoke, instead she introduced the two of them to Galahad.

"Sorry about my colleague, he's always ready to end his work as quickly as possible. I can probably start by explaining who we are and why we are here." She said while approaching for a handshake.

"I'm Neita Lilgrey and this brooding man is Malex Astrom. We are with the guild's incident department. Can we ask you a few questions about what happened?"

Galahad told them exactly what he told Venora a few nights before. He left out the black orb and the adventures encased in crystals once again. He would have said he was keeping it a secret from the guild because of the chances of his team being falsely assumed dead, but something inside him changed.

Galahad's mind was no longer containing the recently fearful dreams and he didn't feel the urge to release tears like before. He now felt an itch in the back of his mind, telling him not to say a word about these things. He had no idea why he felt that was changing so drastically.

All Galahad could think about during his story was how can he get back into the dungeon to get to his friends. He needed a guild contract or some other form of approval in order to get into the dungeons, it was one of many problems he needed to overcome before facing the Spriggan and the Blemmyae again.

"Great, we have the whole story from all the survivors, now we can head back." Interrupted Malex very loudly. "You'll be compensated with the agreed amount set in the contract and will be mailed to you in three to five weeks. Have a good day."

Without stopping for a moment, Malex showed the surface of the tablet to Galahad and the very shocked Neita. She had no idea that Malex was here with a termination of his contract, she believed they were there to collect information.

On the tablet, they watched as the contract Galahad signed years ago just dissolve from the screen. Galahad was no longer employed by the Etherite kingdom's guild. Malex turned away while pulling a tiny crystal out of the red crystal tablet and tossed it at Pavell without stopping to see if she even caught it.

Lilgrey began to turn away to go confront her partner about his abysmal attitude, but Galahad suddenly stopped her. She turned her head back to look at the man she felt pity for, and was shocked by his expression.

Galahad had brought his upper body upright and was focused very intently at her eyes. She didn't know what to do with the sudden change to him, just a moment ago he seemed so defeated when he laid in that bed, telling about his story.

'Where did this man get the energy to act in such a way? He must have lost his mind when the contract dissolved right in his face.'

She was so surprised that she didn't even realize he was asking a question.

"Wah-what? Im sorry, what were you asking?" Her mind short-circuited in thought for a moment and she didn't register what he had asked.

Galahad chuckled at her flustered response. "I was just wondering about your eyes. You wouldn't supposedly have a little bit of dryad in your blood. If you don't mind me asking." He quickly corrected at the end.

"Oh." That was the last thing Lilgrey expected him to ask. 'Not often does anyone notice the green tinge and even then, none of them even know that's a result of dryad in my family.'

"Y-you're right, technically my great grandmother was a dryad. It's rare for anyone to notice the slightly green tinge, then make the connection to dryads."

Galahad shook his head, "Its not that, you remind me of a dryad I used to know, both of you are very kind to people, regardless of your unfamiliarity. That kindness always seemed to show in her eyes. Well anyway, thank you for stopping by miss Lilgrey, you may want to catch up to your partner." His tone darkened when he said 'your partner.'

Galahad ended their conversation by pulling his hand back and laying back down on his bed.

'Why does he feel so familiar, I definitely would have remembered if I ever met that big of an asshat before. I just don't get it.' Galahad was contemplating Malex's familiarity so much, his eyebrows furrowed.

Lilgrey thought his change in expression was because her partner spoke so harshly towards him. 'Damn that asshole, why did he have to be so cruel to him, he's just young boy. How could anyone be so cruel?'

*****

Malex had stepped out of the building and pulled out a silver carton out of his pocket. It was an ornately engraved case that slid open to reveal over dozen thinly rolled plant grounds in white cigar paper. He took one out and put it in his mouth, then turned the case over.

On the bottom, a lifelike dragon-head was carved into the metalworking. When he brought the case up to the end of the cigar in his mouth, the head began moving. The little silver dragon-head rose a few inches out of the case and opened its jaws to produce a tiny red flame that ignited the end.

Malex inhaled a few puffs off the joint and a purple smoke blew out his nose and between his lips. The little dragon disappeared as he turned the case over and swapped it with the green Karmic plate from his pockets. He leaned against the medical center wall while staring at his plate and enjoying his smoke, appearing like a casual businessman simply taking a smoke break from his desk job.

Shortly after, Lilgrey stepped out of the building and grimaced even more at the sight of her partner smoking against the building. She experienced more than enough of her father smoking around the house growing up, and she always hated the smell they would leave in the room.

Despite that, she ignored the smell and marched straight over to him.

"What the hell was that?" She demanded.

"Come again?" He turned and puffed the words into her face.

She only shriveled her nose up even further. "That boy just lost everything, you had no right to just burn his contract."

Without changing his tone or intensity, he spoke very coldly. "The guild is not a charity organization built to help the weak, it's a business and must be run like one."

"So you terminate his contract? What about when he recovers?"

"I've seen dozens of men and women sitting in beds like that with far less damage. They didn't walk out of the medical centers anytime soon, and add that to the trauma of losing his little playmates. He's not gonna be useful so it's simply a waste of the kingdoms money, and your father would agree."

Lilgrey didn't want to agree with Malex, but she knew her father well enough that he couldn't care less about some small town dungeon runner that lost his friends. Any form of pity or sympathy from her father was as common as a unicorn joining her for an afternoon brunch.

She could only give Malex a sour face for his even more sour attitude.

"You know, those things are basically pumping poison gas in your lungs." Nodding at the purple smoke leaving his mouth.

He simply pointed his thumb over his shoulder, "When this shit makes me look like that kid up there, then I'll consider stopping." He put his Karmic plate away and walked off without checking if Lilgrey was even following him back to the carriages.

With no other choice of words left, she silently walked back to the carriages. She gave one look back at the medical center with a small knot in her stomach.

'Is every assignment going to be like this?' She thought to herself a small pain in her heart.

She wasn't much of a religious type, but she gave a small prayer to the Nine; hoping they will spare a little mercy for Galahad's future.