Day 30 (S17)

The next morning, Rina and Neely were the first two awake and went to the inn's restaurant for breakfast.
Kin, and Aurelius got up, and Alice joined them and they all went to eat, as well.
"Oh, you have Neely with you?" kin asked as they entered the restaurant.
"Yeah," Alice started, "Rina hired her to be our secretary."
"I'll work real hard, I promise!" Neely said to Kin.
"Great!" Kin responded, "Here's the information on our finances," Kin then pulled out random bits of paper with unsorted amounts written all over them from his bag and pockets.
"Oh, ok, um... I'll get to work on this right away," Neely responded as she put the crinkled papers in her pocket.
"Let's also go shopping and get you a bag and some folders today" Rina suggested.
"We need to take care of our own business today," Alice said, "we don't just have time for random shopping."
"I'll just go on my own then," Neely said, "I won't be in your way!"
Neely then hopped down from her chair and left on her own shopping trip.
"Meet us back here tonight!" Rina yelled after her.
"We need to go change the party name first thing," Kin said, "I don't want to hesitate on that any longer."
"Agreed," said Alice, "let's go talk to Marcus and the Vorovni Adventuring Guild."

The left for the adventuring guild, and on the way they saw a group of roofers working on a building. One of the men fell from the roof, many boards fell on top of him, and some boards hurt another worker, as well.
There was a commotion of people who began to gather and get the boards off the men. In the corner of Kin's eye, he could see a cloaked figure between two buildings healing the man who fell.
Healing magic was strictly prohibited in Asmery, except by the Church of Luminus. Anyone caught using healing magic here could be in political trouble.
The person quickly turned and disappeared in the shadow of the buildings, and Kin followed.
Rina saw Kin rush off, so she followed him.

Alice and Aurelius ran over to the men to see what was going on.
"How did this happen?" Alice asked the man who was clearly the main construction worker.
"Uh, we don't know yet, yet just happened" he answered.
"Why didn't you have any ropes holding the men onto the roof?" Aurelius asked, "Or any other safety precautions?"
"Uhh... I don't-"
Alice cut him off, "Don't you care about the safety of your guys? Seems like something that should be reported to your superior to me."
"Please, Ma'am," he said, "I really don't want any trouble. Look at them! They're fine! They're up and walking and everything!"
"Uh huh," Alice started, "Listen, I won't tell anyone... if you can make it worth my while."
"For both of us," Aurelius added.
"Whadda ya want from me?!" he asked angrily, "It's not like you can prove negligence here!"
The people in the small crowed that gathered started whispering to each other.
"Look... All I got is 45 gold and a handful of silver and copper," he said desperately.
Alice continued to look at him with her arms crossed.
"I can... owe you a renovation?" he suggested.
"That with the 45 gold will do just fine," Alice said.
The man handed her the gold, so she and Aurelius shooed off the crowd.

Kin continued to follow the figure down the alley, Rina following close behind him.
The person turned around to face Kin, "What do you want with me?" their soft voice asked, their face still shrouded.
"I don't want anything," Kin said, "and I'm not going to tell anyone about your healing of that man. I just wanted to meet you."
The person pulled down their hood to reveal a beautiful woman with blonde hair, and her eyes were covered by a white veil.
"Have you been walking around unable to see this whole time?" Rina asked as she caught up with them.
"Oh!" the woman said, "My people and I see with more than just our eyes."
"Who are your people?" Kin asked her.
"We call ourselves the Eyeless Cult," she said, "but we are not as evil as the Church of Luminus claims us to be."
"Can you see?" Rina asked, "Or are you actually blind?"
The woman lifted her veil to show two beautiful blue eyes, "My eyes work just fine," she giggled.
"What's your name?" Kin asked.
"Madryn," she answered, "I can see you are a follower of Oara?"
"Yes," he answered, "Who do you follow?"
"We follow the all seeing one," she said, "and I am on my way to a very important meeting of our people to the north."
She then looked at Rina, "You may want to explore the beauty of the light of our people."
Rina smiled and quietly scoffed, "I appreciate you thinking of me, but I've already got a place for my soul to go. I don't need another."
the blindfolded woman smiled, "Suit yourself," she said as she laid a hand on Kin's shoulder and gave him inspiration for future use.
He then laid his hand on her shoulder and gave her Protection from good and evil.
She then continued north, Kin and Rina did not follow.
"We should go back to the others and see what they're up to" Kin said.
Once again, Rina followed.

Rina and Kin got back to Alice and Aurelius just as they were dispersing the crowd.
"Everything ok?" Kin asked.
"Oh yeah," Alice said, "I just scored us a free build job and 45 gold."
"What? How?" asked Rina.
"I just made sure he would take extra precaution in the future" she said.
"Did you... Did you blackmail that poor man?" Rina scolded.
"What's the big deal?" Alice asked, "We got money, his employees will be safer from now on, everyone's happy."
Rina rolled her eyes and they all continued toward the adventuring guild.

"Shouldn't we actually talk about what we want our new name to be?" Rina asked.
"Yeah, we should probably know that by the time we get there" Kin replied.
"What's something we all have in common?" Alice asked.
"We're all incredibly good looking" Aurelius said, giving a smug look.
Alice and Rina each raised an eyebrow.
"I am somewhat indifferent to the name," said Kin.
"Well, Kin, you and I are both bound to an ethereal entity" said Rina.
"And I'm bound to nature in a strange way," said Alice, "my parents always said that about me."
"And I'm bound to be trouble" Aurelius added.
"I think that's in, then," said Rina, "We are The Bound."
"I like it!" said Alice.
"Works for me," Kin and Aurelius agreed in unison.

They walked into the adventuring guild and a few more adventurers were in there, all of them smiled and waived at them.
They went straight to the back room where Marcus was sitting in his office.
"Ah, the... Sprite's Lights," Marcus greeted them, "How may I help you today?"
"We actually need to change our party name," Alice said.
"Got tired of the silly pretty name, eh?" Marcus laughed.
He got out the large book of adventuring party names and turned to the page their name was on. "Alright, what's it to be?"
"We have decided on 'The Bound'" said Rina.
Marcus looked up, confused, "Is that... some kind of bondage thing?"
"No," said Kin, "Just write it down, please."
"That will be 100 gold" Marcus said.
"100 gold?" Exclaimed Aurelius, "Isn't that kind of steep just to change a name?"
"We have a lot of documents to change," Marcus said, "These things take time. Time is money. You change it again, it will be 500 gold. Again is 1000."
"You want to pitch in that 45 you basically stole from that guy in the street, Alice?" Rina asked.
"Uh, no," Alice said, "This comes out of the party fund."
So Kin pulled the gold out of the party fund and paid Marcus. "We are also looking for some higher-end jobs," Kin added, "We need something big."
Marcus put the book away and pulled out another, smaller book. "A big job, eh? I got one big one for ya. All the fish in Greenwarf are disappearing."
"Missing Fish, huh? Seems like a lot of things are disappearing lately," Alice said.
"All the fish in Lightwash Lake are actually beginning to go missing, but Greenwarf is the most impacted. They are mainly a fishing town, after all."
"We will take the job!" said Aurelius.
"The job has been 'taken' by many," Marcus said, "Whoever gets it done gets the reward. 35 thousand gold."
"35 THOUSAND?!" they all said, surprised.
"35 thousand it a lot for 4 people," Marcus said, "but not so much for the mayor of Greenwarf."
"You know anything else about this job?" asked Rina.
"All I know is that it seems like something is eating all the fish that the people normally eat," he said, "There are large fish, there are tiny fish... but the medium fish are disappearing."
"Thanks, Marcus," said Kin, "We'll get out of your hair."
"What hair?" Rina joked, as Marcus actually didn't have any hair.
"Haha... get out of my office" he responded.
"We need to get this done within our 2 weeks of diplomatic immunity," Kin said as they were leaving, "and maybe smaller jobs along the way, too."
"We have 10 days left after today..." said Rina, "that's not long."
"Then we had better come up with a game plan," said Aurelius.
"Let's get back to the inn and meet Neely," said Rina, "we can talk more about it over dinner."

They all meet at the inn, and the group updated Kin on the quest they had taken the day before.
"Oh, so we have to teleport Everhelm then drop Lloyd off for his competition?" Kin echoed.
"Mayor Highwater of Vorovni hired us for Lloyd's Competition, so I'm sure it will be worth it financially," explained Rina, "I get the feeling the mayor would pay anything to get his son there - especially if he wins."
"There's no way he can win," said Aurelius, "thousands of people from all over sign up. He would be going against people who has fought in the army of the Church of Luminus, or maybe even Asmery's army. He's an amateur."
"Well, its just an escort mission," said Alice, "we don't need to ensure he wins."

"I think we should figure out what we want to do tomorrow," said Rina, "we kind of just left Castle Frey with little warning. We were planning to Gain Citizenship in Pennislovica somehow, and I would like to find out how to get property there."
"You really want to live there?" asked Kin.
"Yeah, I really do," Rina replied, "It feels like home to me, it's ancient. The people are ancient..."
"At the very least we would have a base," said Aurelius.
"And we need the protection of the Pennislovican government" Kin mentioned, "I'll use a sending to Francis to let him know we are coming back tomorrow. Maybe Sullivan Frey will have time to make time for us since we're on a schedule."
Kin said to Francis: "Kin and company are coming back to castle frey tomorrow. Need to meet with Sullivan ASAP."
His response: "Kin? Oh! Kin! Yes I think that will be possible! Babe! Hey Babe! Yeah, Kin, and, I think Alice, and Rina, and... Yeah Aurelius They..."
Kin relayed the reply to the party, "I don't think this guy knows how sending works."
"He's apparently new to being royalty," said Aurelius.
"I say we take that as a 'yes', and we head there tomorrow anyway," Rina suggested, "Neely? Have you ever been to Castle Frey?"
"Oh, uh, no. No I haven't. I've never left Vorovni."
"Are you excited to go?" Rina asked.
"Um... yes, yes I think so!"
"Good, let's all get some sleep and get an early start," Kin said.
They all then finished dinner and went to their rooms for the night.

Next: Day 31 (S17-18)