A soft knock at the door woke me up, and Mouse's voice floated into the room. We had taken up residence in the Guild leaders' old rooms. Mouse had taken over Stargazers residence, while Quin and I had moved into Sabre's old room. Hawk's room was converted into something a combination office and trophy room. Our chamber was divided into two distinct hemispheres with Quin's being neat and ordered, and mine being a pile of chaos. Quin's side of the room held a chest with our weapons and armour inside of it, an armoire of common clothes, and a long L shaped desk with neat stacks of parchment and a handful of ink pots. My side of the room was home to a collection of loose scrolls, a book shelf where a dozen tomes were piled with no rhyme nor reason, and a set of shelves holding some personal keepsakes. The shelves held a Legionnaires helmet from Wraiths army, a young Storm Serpent's skull, and Hawk's knife collection. In the years since returning to the Tower, I had replaced the old knife Hawk had given me with one forged by Quin, but I had added the old blade to the collection. Even after five years, it still felt strange living in the Guildmaster's quarters, but it was good to be home, even if home was a little different now. There was some kind of magic there, beyond the literal magic carved into the walls, you could burn this place down, you could tear it apart, you could blast it dust, but you couldn't stop it from feeling like home.

"Snip," said Mouse. "Quin. Wake up. The new apprentices are here."

I cracked an eye open with a groan, mind still fogged from the first good night's sleep I'd had in a long time. The bed was so warm and soft, and with Quin's arms around, I never wanted to leave.

"Five more minutes?" I answered.

"Snip, I will break down this door."

"He won't," said Quin with a yawn.

"I heard that," said Mouse. "And I will."

"I'm calling your bluff," said Quin. "Do it, break down the door, but remember what happened last time you busted in here."

Mouse was quiet.

"I can feel you blushing from here," said Quin with a chuckle. They threw off the covers and stood. Something in their shoulder let out a trio of sharp pops and they winced.

I sat up and put a hand on their back. "Are you all right?"

Quin nodded. "Yeah, shoulder just feels stiff today. Must be going to rain later."

"It is," said Mouse. "I'll meet you two down by the rubble gate."

Quin shook their head. "Can't believe I'm like an old farmer already. Storms comin' can feel it in my old bones. Gods, it's like I'm thirty going on eighty."

I planted a kiss on their cheek. "You I know I still love you no matter how old you feel."

They rubbed at the knotted mess of scar tissue that crisscrossed their right shoulder. "I know. And I love you too. I'm just not sure how good of a teacher I'll be without a working sword arm."

I stood and pointed to a purple bruise on my thigh. "You seem to be getting pretty god fighting left handed. Beat the hell out of me in sparring yesterday."

Quin was definitely not looking at the bruise.

"Focus," I said, snapping my fingers in front of their face. "I want to make a proper first impression on the apprentices." I threw open the armoire and the armour chest. "Does full armour send the wrong message?"

"I don't think so," said Quin. "We should probably look tough."

Quin and I helped each other into our armour and belted on our weapons. I left the room wearing a knee length hauberk made of drake scales, a forest green brigandine, and copper vambraces etched with spell runes from Quin's homeland. The Imperial short bow Quin had bought for me rode in its quiver on my left hip, and a short forward curving sword hung from my right. The Guild had it's issues, sure, but it made sure its Guildmaster's had the best gear.

Quin had replaced their simple plate with a suit of armour made of enchanted steel that was as dark as the midnight sky and studded with twinkling stars. Over the armour they donned a surcoat made of pale Storm Serpent hide, and belted on a longsword. We'd offered more than once, to get Quin a better weapon, but they insisted on wearing something cheap and simple. Something that could be easily replaced when they broke it.

I brushed a fluff of lint off their breastplate. "Hard to believe Mouse made this."

"Is it?" asked Quin. "He's always been the best wizard I know."

"That's not what I meant. He's just come a long way. Hard to imagine he was ever someone who said they would never amount to anything."

Quin opened the door. "We've all come a long way. Now, Guildmaster Parsnip, if you'll follow me, I believe we have some apprentices to meet."

"Lead the way, Guildmaster Quintain." We stepped out into the Tower and started the long climb down the stairs. If there was a downside to leading a Guild hall, it was the extra time it took to get anywhere. But I counted all the extra stairs as part of my morning drills.

"It stills feels a little strange, doesn't it?" I asked.

"What does?" said Quin. "The enchanted armour? The extra stairs? Or the leading the Guild?"

I shrugged. "All of it, I guess. Hell, five years ago I was the lowest zero, in the Tower. Now I'm runing it?"

Quin answered my shrug with a shrug of their own. "After everything we've done, I couldn't see it going any other way. You've earned this, Snip."

"But what does a Guildmaster even do?"

"The same thing we've been doing. Kick ass. Slay evil. Make the world a better place."

We hit the ground floor and I took a moment to steady myself. That black cliff of anxiety and dread still loomed over it, it probably always would, but it didn't feel like something that was about to fall in on me anymore. It was there, but I could rest a hand on it, acknowledge it, and trust that it wouldn't crush it if I turned away.

I walked to the double doors at the front of the room, threw them open and stepped out into the morning sunlight. Golden rays slanted down through a smattering of dark clouds. Dew drops on the grass reflected the morning light, glittering like diamonds and golden gemstones on the lawn. We walked across the grounds in silence, and joined Mouse at the outer edge of the ruined wall that ringed the Tower.

Two wagons filled with wide eyed young apprentices pulled up to the wall and rolled to a stop.

I stepped forward, head held high. "Welcome!" I called out. "For generations, the Guild has stood as shield between chaos and the common folk. A Hero trades in everything they have, their titles, their past, even their name to become something greater. Each and every one of you is capable of so many great things. Even if it doesn't feel like it right now. Great things are ahead for you. I know they are." I gestured to the Tower behind me. After centuries of being a place for misfits, a nameless tower where nothing happened, Tower Four had earned a named. "Welcome to Dragonspire. This place will be your home from now on. I'll be your Guildmaster, and I am thrilled to work with all of you."

Quin leaned down and whispered to me. "Good job."

The apprentices filed past us and Mouse and Quin ushured them to the training fields.

All of them except one. A lone apprentice sat at the back of one of the wagons. He was a small boy with round cheeks and narrow shoulders. If he was a day older than ten I'd eat my helmet. His hands were clasped in his lap and he was staring down at his feet.

"Hi, " I said. "Anything I can help with?"

He answered with a shrug.

I climbed up into the wagon and sat next to him. "What's your name?"

"I suppose I don't really have one anymore, do I?" He paused and let out a long sigh. "The other kids have been calling me Potato because I'm not good at anything."

I reached out and shook his hand. "Please to meet you Potato, you can call me Parsnip. When I came to the Guild I wasn't really good at anything either."

He pulled his hand away. "You're just saying that."

"Come on," I said, pointing towards the Dragonspire. "Let me show you around."

"I don't know. Maybe this was all a mistake. I'm no Hero."

"I can't tell you if this was a mistake or not, only you can decide that, but I'd like you to at least try. You might surprise yourself."

"I don't think I will. I'm pretty terrible."

"I don't believe you. Give me one day, and I bet I can change your mind."

He gave me a look that was some mix of displeasure, annoyance, and pain. "Fine. One day."

I helped him out of the cart and we walked through the ruined walls together. I started playing tour guide and offered up some history about the tower as we walked.

Eventually we came to the training square where Quin was handily beating the tar out of three apprentices at once.

Potato blanched and his mouth fell open in shock. "Now, I'm definitely thinking this was a mistake."

I put a hand on his shoulder. "Quin is my best friend. They look scary in their armour but you'll never meet a gentler soul, I swear." I pulled a pair of wooden swords from one of the many racks spaced around the square and handed one to Potato. "Come at me. Let me see what we're working with."

He picked up the sword and held it away from himself like it was about to turn into a snake and bite his face off at any moment. "I don't really know how to fight," he said.

"We can fix that," I said, rolling my own sword through a quick flourish. "Every Guildsperson needs to know how to fight. Whether you're spending your days in the libraries or in the field hunting Ogres, everyone fights."

I threw a quick slash at his weapon. The wooden blades clacked together and Potato's sword went spinning across the lawn.

"Well," I said. "Lesson one, keep a good, firm grip."

I walked to rack and fetched him another practice sword.

He took it with a groan and held the blade a little tighter this time.

"Good," I said. "Now take a swing."

He cocked his arm back and swung like he was trying to hammer an iron gate down. There was a lot I could have done. A quick thrust while he was pulling back, a counter attack after the inevitable overswing, a quick cut to the wrist as his sword came down. Instead, I simply took a step back and Potato hit nothing but air.

He growled in frustration. "See? I'm no good at this."

I slapped my blade into his, knocking it to one side. He tried bring his sword back around in front of him, but I slapped it aside again.

"Would you stop that?" he snarled. "I'm not a sword fighter."

I shot him a devil's grin and kept knocking his sword around.

Just as I hoped, he lost his patience and took another swing. There was some heat to this one, and the wooden sword whistled towards my head. I planted my feet and caught his blade on mine. He withdrew and struck again and our swords danced back and forth in a series of sharp snaps and cracks.

"Not a sword fighter, eh?" I said with a smile.

He threw the training sword down. "I'm not. I'm not much of anything."

I put the blades back on the rack and led Potato to the quiet grove far away from the training square. I took a deep breath of the sweet smell of spruce mixed with wildflowers. By some miracle, this place hadn't only survived the fire five years ago, but seemed to thrive because of it.

I pulled out two chairs and brushed the needles off of one the tables in the grove. "What makes you say that?" I asked.

Potato sat heavily and folded his arms in front of himself. "I don't know. It's true, I guess."

"If it's so true, then why are you here? How come you wanted to join the Guild?"

"I, um, I don't know."

"I don't think I believe that. I'm a little bit of an oddball myself. I was a Guild Foundling. My master, Hawk, found me in a vegetable patch, and that was it. I've been a Guild member ever since. But other than weirdo's like me, most everyone has a reason for choosing this life. You pretty much have to because, let's face it, you'd have to be fully insane to take up the Hero's life just for fun. Only madmen and fools could do what we do."

"Your master found you in a vegetable garden?"

I nodded. "Sure did. It's why they call me Parsnip. I didn't really have much choice in joining the guild, but I don't think I'd have it any other way."

Potato was quiet for a long while. He sat staring off into the middle distance, and old pain danced behind his rich brown eyes. "I guess I feel like I don't have much choice either."

I reached across the table and took his hand in mine. "I'm here to listen if you're feeling up to telling the story."

He took a deep shaky breath. "Okay. I'm here because I don't feel like anywhere else to go. These ... these horrible things attacked my village when I was just small. Like dead men who were still walking."

A flashfire of anger boiled through me. Wraith.

"They ruined everything. Hurt a lot of people. I couldn't do anything to stop it, or help." Tears glistened at the corners of his eyes. "And we ran for what felt like forever. Moved in with my uncle, but there was something wrong with him." He paused and tapped the center of his chest. "Something wrong in here. We couldn't fix it, and he just got madder and madder each day. And then Mama got sick. And she left us too. And now there's just nothing. I can't stay there. I can't sit and be nothing anymore. I want to be better. I want to be better for Mama where ever she is."

The flames of anger searing the inside of my chest cooled to embers. This boy was too young to know so much hurt. He was too young to have his life destroyed by Wraith. Gods, if I could pull Wraith out of whatever pit he was burning in now, I would kill him and send him to hell all over again.

I stood and started leading Potato towards the Dragonspire. "Come on," I said. "I think I have something that might help."

I brought him into the tower and up the winding staircase to a landing that I had called home for twenty years. I pushed open the door to my old room and led the boy inside.

"This used to be my room," I said. It hadn't changed all that much in the intervening years. There were a few extra crates of junk stored here, but my shelves full of trinkets, and my drawings still covered the walls. I sat Potato down at the writing desk and opened my old diary. "And this was my diary when I was your age." I fipped through until I found a record of a bad day, a day where I felt like I wasn't enough. It wasn't hard. There had been more bad days than good ones back then.

"And this," I said, pulling an older journal out of a drawer. "Was my master's diary." I flipped through Hawk's journal until I found the corresponding entry.

Potato read both entries, tracing one finger over the page and moving his lips silently as he read. It took him longer than I would have thought but eventually he looked up at me, studying me with fresh eyes.

"This was really you?" he asked.

"It sure was. I didn't have many kind things to say about myself back then, did I?"

He shook his head. "No, but your master liked you."

"She always believed in me no matter what. She always had better things to say about me than I did. I don't know exactly what you've been through, or what afterlife your Mama found, but I know she is proud of you wherever she is. I know she thinks you're more than enough, even if you don't. I think you're enough, even you don't. It takes an unbelievable amount of strength to come to the Guild all on your own. I know there's a Hero in you somewhere, no matter what the other kids say. All you have to do is let me find it."

The boy grit his teeth and looked up at me with iron clad determination. "Okay. How do we start?"

I sat down on my old bed. "It's not hard. The first step is letting me know what you like. What do you like learning about? For me, it was animals. Especially drakes."

His brow wrinkled in thought. "Flowers. When Mama was sick she taught me all about flowers that made her feel better. I love flowers."

I stood and opened my old chest, digging through the strata of my long years as an apprentice until I found my first herblore book. I put the tome on the writing desk. "That's a good place to start. So, what do you say? I can teach you everything you want to know. Do you want to start an adventure with me? Or do you want to leave this chapter unread, and return to a normal life."

"I want to be a Hero."

I ruffled his hair, beaming. "Welcome to the Guild. I know we're going to do great things together."