^^ Guild Master Asmara ^^

— Assam —

"You're serious? She killed a Greater Demon with one attack? And you didn't see what she did?!?" Mother asked incredulously, staring at me across the large ebony-wood desk we sat at.

I hung my head in a downtrodden bow, apologizing for the third time this meeting, only an hour in. I'd had to wait three hours to get access to the upper floor, then three more to get into the Captain's Hall, and finally two and a half to get in here, and an hour in I had nothing left to say except- "I'm sorry, Guild Master."

She growled, standing and facing the window, her chair scraping the stone floor violently. "I don't need apologies, Hunter Assam... you did better than you could've been expected to, against a Greater Demon. You survived. Most don't... what I need is to know how she did it... such a skill could be..." She didn't need to finish, as I knew her point; such a magic could turn the tide, and allow us to visit the Western Continent, populated by nothing but Demonic Beasts, with it's rich, powerful Elixir Ingredients and Spices. We could kill Dragons before they destroyed entire cities. We could stop Greater Demons who proclaimed themselves Demon Lords and took over entire cities, stealing the souls of everyone within. Not even the Dragon Continent compared in terms of Danger.

"I didn't see it, whatever it was... it was loud, though. Like an alchemy explosion, but I saw no fire. That's all I can remember." I shook my head, sighing deeply.

"Mm... I suppose I could just ask her... what was this part of the report about her growing Blood Wood Trees? That can't be right, Blood Wood Trees don't grow on this continent." She turned over a portion of my report, and hummed curiously as she read further. "And so you said, as well... if she's found a way to do so-, Ah, and now I see why I should read every part of the report before I comment... if she wants to sell these to the Carpenter's Guild, with us as intermediaries, I don't mind, but the Hunters' Guild has to remain Impartial here, I'm sure you understand?"

"Yes, Guild Master." I bowed my head, as I was expected to do.

"Good. Now that's done, and we've some time to talk privately; did you sleep in her bed last night?" She sat on the desk casually, grinning down at me as I blushed.

"No! We slept in separate rooms, thank you very much!!! I barely know her!!!" I snapped, rubbing the blush away furiously.

"Ahhh, that's no excuse! She's a bear of a woman, but she seems tender and kind, you'll not find a better first experience with a woman-"

"I'm not going to entertain this topic, mother!!! Now drop it!!!" I demanded, standing up to my diminutive height and glaring at her.

She raised an eyebrow at me, humming deeply in her chest. "Oh? And my daughter displays her balls, finally... took you long enough, even if they are fragile little things made of more Glass than steel." She smirked and patted my cheek casually, sitting back down and kicking her feet up on her desk. "Now! Are you going to stick around at her little estate? If so, I can have the two of you Hunt the wood to the north? Good bonding activity, Hunting... camping, huddling together in a sleeping roll for warmth, bathing together in the woods, all that fun stuff?" She wiggled her eyebrows at me as I groaned and started towards the door.

"Send me where you want, Guild Master, but stay the hell out of my personal matters if all you can think about is sex!" I snapped over my shoulder, throwing her door open and stomping out.

"Just as annoying as always?" The receptionist for the Captain's Hall chuckled as I slammed the door behind me.

"As always, she can't help but be rude." I grumbled, setting my report on his desk. "I imagine you'll actually read this, whereas she skims them and moves on?"

"Well she is very busy, so yes, I'll be the one who actually reads the reports, as always. Your pay for the slaying of a Greater Demon, by the way, is 125 gold coins; it would've been 500, but you essentially contracted a witch, and she received her own reward worth 375 gold coins already. Try not to spend it too quickly!" He tossed a small sack of gold at me, making me flinch and catch it before it smacked into my skull; gold was heavy, and even one coin could hurt like hell, when thrown by someone with a Hunter's Strength.

The sack weighed itself in my hand, and I sighed, trying to refuse. "I didn't even wound it..."

"Then give the money to your new Lady Friend, I don't care, the money has been dispensed and therefore is not my problem anymore!" He waved at me dismissively, calling the next person in with a soft bell in the hall. "Regardless, you took part in the hunt and saved most of the people in the market. Take your reward and scoot, Hunter Assam!"

I tucked the bag into my new armor, shaking my head. "Alright, fine... I'll be back in a bit, I-"

The doors swung open harshly, interrupting me, and in strode Zenobia, dressed for a fight in fitted leather pants and a jacket over a cotton blouse, with all the dignity and confidence of a swaggering pirate queen aboard her the defeated decks of her enemies' ship. "Ah, Assam! That door lead to the Guild Master's office? I was told to go right up and see her!" She grinned casually, pinching my cheek and laughing at my reflexive blush; she'd stood too close to me, so our height difference meant I was basically pressed to her bosoms, (which were quite visible, due to her open-collared blouse and lack of a corset or brassiere,) and from the smirk on her face, she knew it.

"I-Ye-Yes, the- yes! That's the guild-master's office!!!" I stuttered, stepping back and bumping into the receptionists desk, freezing in place when her eyes flashed predatorily; my moving away from her seemed the trigger, so I stayed still as she leaned closer and kissed my cheek.

"Thank you, cutie... I'll be out in a bit, so wait for me, okay? Good-... Hmm... what do I call you, I wonder... what do you prefer: Good Girl, Good Boy, Cutie, Baby Doll?" She appeared thoughtful, smoothing my hair back slowly and meticulously.

"I-Uhm?!? I'm not sure what you mean? I'm clearly a woman!" I protested, then paused again when her golden eyes seemed to pin me to the wall when I raised my voice. "Uhm... I prefer to be addressed as a Woman, not a Girl?"

She smiled, and kissed my other cheek. "Understood, Cutie. Don't run off just yet, we've business to handle..." she grinned and patted my hip roughly, turning and striding directly into my mother's office without knocking. "Guild Master! I hear you want to see me? I've a few questions of my own about the laws of this world's Mercantile Forums,-" the door closed, activating the silence spell on the office, and I didn't hear any more.

After a few quiet minutes, the receptionist chuckled. "Well she's a tiger, isn't she? And look at you, little Doe, all frozen stiff! Good for you, that's a rare find!" He patted my back, pushing me off the desk I'd reflexively sat upon when she'd cornered me.

I cleared my throat and walked downstairs, past all the irritated hunters that she had skipped to get an immediate audience with the Guild Master, and sat down heavily at the bar. "Some lemon water, if you would? And whatever can be scrounged for food at whatever time it is? I haven't eaten since I went upstairs." I asked the barkeep tiredly, rubbing my temples and trying to relax.

"Comin' right up, dear!" She laughed, then hummed at me as the cooks in the back began gathering some food and drink for me. "You know, I like your hair that way; makes you look more mature, I think. Takes attention away from your cheeks and towards your ears and hair."

I glanced in the mirror at the back of the bar, and frowned at the reveal; my hair had been slicked back in a leafed pattern, when Zenobia had messed with it, and it had stayed that way, apparently. I ruffled it back down quickly, accepting the platter of meats and cheeses and the tankard of lemon water with a quiet nod. I really preferred when people didn't pay attention to me at all, so appearing more mature would be nothing but a hassle for me. She appeared a bit put-down from my seeming dismissal of what she'd intended as a compliment, but I didn't really know how to explain that I didn't like to be noticed without drawing more attention, so I stayed silent.

"Hunter Assam! I've got some new hunting requests from the Capital, you want first pick? You're a big-time Hunter now, yeah? These'd be nothin', aye?" One of the other hunters grinned down at me facetiously, slapping down a contract for three Greater Lust Demons and a baby dragon, all to the east of here, in the mountain villages and miners' camps thousands of feet above the valley floor.

"I'm not powerful enough to hunt a Lesser Demon, what gave you the idea I'd be able to kill a Greater, much less 3? And a Baby Dragon? Not Possible for me, not with fifty years more training. Ask the Dragon Slayers if they'd like that contract." I shook my head, returning to my meal and attempting to degrade myself enough that he'd get bored or satisfied and leave.

"Huh?!? Didn't you kill a greater demon just yesterday, Assam?!? You lose your nerve already after one fight with a bigger enemy?!?" He faked confusion, and several other hunters murmured softly, confused by the accusation. They had no way of knowing, having not been here yesterday, what he was talking about.

"I did not kill the greater demon. I tracked what I thought was a Lesser Spirit, and it turned out to be leading me around by the nose, hiding its true power. Mage Zenobia killed the creature, not me. I'm still only a Fledgeling of the Hunt." I shook my head, and slid the contracts away from me, towards him.

"That's not how I remember it, Assam! Are you calling me a liar?" He growled, leaning closer and gripping my collar.

"Oh? And who is this, touching my Cutie?" A growling, oily voice, reminiscent of the Greater Demon, spoke up behind us suddenly, and we both turned to view the woman looming over us, both hands gripping the bar on either side of us, trapping us inside her arms. After a few tense moments, she turned her golden gaze to the confused Hunter, and hummed casually. "I don't remember you from yesterday... but I so rarely remember the faceless masses that pass by me without challenge... be assured that I know your face now, little boy. Off with you, before I remember your scent, too." She slowly removed one of her arms from the bar, allowing the trembling man to slip away from her, before snatching the bounty pages from his hands. "What's this here... some Succubi and a Dragonling? 125 gold each... 500 gold total? Hmm... what say you, Assam?" The savage tone disappeared like it had never existed, and she kissed my cheek sweetly while placing the bounties in front of me.

"I-... I'm not going with you to hunt a Dragon, no matter how powerful you are. The Lust Demons... I might be useful as Bait?" I answered slowly, unnerved by her confidence. "Regardless, I don't think it's wise to try to hunt all four of them all at once... you just got here, after all."

She nodded slowly, reading the bounties in more detail, and then grinned. "Nah, I think I'll hunt down all four! I'll keep you safe, cutie, don't you worry about a thing!" She smoothed my hair back mischievously while I protested weakly, barely mumbling at her. "No, what you should worry about, cutie, is that I told you to wait for me." She lowered her voice, her lips very nearly against my ear and her breath washing down my neck and chest, inside my stretched collar.

"Oh? All Four Contracts? Bold, I like it!" Mother interjected, sitting next to us, and for once I was happy for her arriving to bother me.

Zenobia, however, slowly glared at the woman and sat down between us. "Yes, well, I'll need a good bit of Capital to start my company and hire my workers, so I'll be taking these, with Assam as my guide, so I don't get lost. Are there any other, similar contracts in that area that I can peruse at my leisure?"

"In the Denning Mountains? Let's see; Busso!!! Fetch me all the contracts in the Denning Range!!!" She snapped her fingers at the man who'd been bothering me, sending him scurrying over to the job board to gather the contracts, despite the fact that they were only sixty feet away.

He returned with a glare at Zenobia's back, and handed mother the small stack of requests. "There's sixteen in the Denning Range, Guild Master, and four more just between here and there."

"Good, good. Now get lost, Busso, and don't harass your fellow hunters, or I'll have your rank kicked back down to G." She gave him an arch glare, and he skittered away swiftly, sitting at a table in the corner of the tavern, as far away from the bar as he could get. "Any of these meet your fancy?" She refocused, setting the pages in front of Zenobia.

A glance over them revealed to me a variety of jobs I felt comfortable handling, such as gathering poisonous herbs, Culling a climbing Wolf Population before winter to protect livestock, finding a few rare herbs on the icy mountain peaks, and slaying or relocating a Griffin that'd been building a nest a bit too close to a human settlement. Then there were the bigger ones, which I didn't even consider; hunting an Articulated Wyvern, cleaning out a nest of Crystal Spiders, and another Baby Dragon, a two-year-old contract that no one had completed yet. The Baby Dragon was likely the same as the new contract, which meant it had gone into hiding and re-emerged rather recently.

Zenobia hummed, apparently doing some math in her head as her lips moved silently, and then nodded. "A total of 22 contracts, 10 of which offer 10 silver, 5 offering 1 gold piece, and 7 offering significantly more, at 50 gold pieces each? Then the five offering 125 gold each... that's 625, 350, 5... then 100 silver? How many silver are in a gold piece?" She glanced at me, raising an eyebrow.

I frowned slowly. "... a Hundred? You aren't considering-"

"I'll take them all, provided I am given the proper amounts of time to complete each... they're all on the way, so I'd say two days each, with a few days to rest and relax and explore, so two months should do the lot, yes?" She grinned at the Guild Master, who, to her credit, managed to remain stoic, beyond one slowly raising eyebrow.

"Aye... I suppose that's... true? Are you sure?" She asked carefully.

"Is there a reason not to accept the contracts? Some penalty if they're not completed in time? Because if so, I'll simply do them at my own pace and then return when I'm done, would that work?" Zenobia seemed to reconsider a bit, but not all the way back to reasonable levels of arrogance.

"It's less a penalty, per se, so much as... losing face, and deduction of Rank? But you're not a member of the Guild, so that wouldn't bother you... Assam, however, would face severe penalties, if she failed a contract. The contracts are magical in nature, incapable of being tricked, and therefore no, you can't just 'do them at your own pace'; once you accept, the contract is final." Mother explained seriously, examining the larger woman between us.

"Ahhh... so if I complete a contract I haven't taken, say, killing this wyvern, I don't get the reward? Or I simply get the reward, but not the Prestige?" Zenobia rubbed her neck distractingly, drawing my gaze to the gorgeous skin until I shook myself and answered before the quickly-angered Guild Master.

"No, Zenobia; the Contracts are what confirms your reward; without one, you don't get paid at all. You got paid for the Greater Demon because I took the contract, and then subsidized your help in the completion, essentially splitting the reward with you. Speaking of!" I handed her the pouch of gold, careful not to let it clink and tell the room what was in it. "The other half of your reward." I explained to her confused expression.

"Isn't this yours?" She asked, eying me suspiciously.

"It's the monetary portion of the contract, that's all; it's yours, don't worry about it. Regardless! If you don't accept the contracts, you can't get paid, that's all there is to it. And, because you're not a member of the guild, it's technically me who would be accepting them, then hiring you, and giving you the lion's share of the rewards." I redirected the topic successfully, though her gaze said we'd speak more about it later as she tucked the gold away.

"Alright... I suppose I'll ask for six months then, just to be safe, and then if I get them done quicker it's no issue, right?" She asked mother, returning to the subject.

Mother frowned, but nodded slowly. "I suppose you're not wrong... still, it's quite risky, taking such high-level bounties in such quantities."

"No Balls, No Glory; a wise woman once said that. Let's go Hunting, Assam, how about it?" She grinned and kissed my cheek loudly, cuddling me to her chest once more; my reflexive, muffled affirmative slipped out before I could think better of it.

Mother chuckled, amused by the event most likely, and stacked all the contracts together, rolling them into one scroll. "Then let's get these Contracts Signed and continue with our work, hmm? Everyone look lively, now, you're not paid to laze about!!!" The room went abuzz like a kicked beehive at her shouting voice, and she laughed at the instant activity while I groaned and accepted my fate, making peace with my preeminent demise.