Chapter 9 - The Guild

There was an empty feeling as David walked away. Maybe it was because the adventure was over.

Rayne had finished what she had set out to do. Well, almost. Getting into the Explorer’s Guild was next on her list, but she couldn’t help but feel the finality of her first expedition. One filled with challenging, desperate moments, moments that she would remember for the rest of her life.

Because Rayne had proved herself through all of them. All those times her parents had doubted, all the times Rayne herself had doubted, all those doubts became worthless in the light of her victory. So Rayne began the weary hike out of the valley, with hope and the feeling of accomplishment pushing each snowy step.

Rayne didn’t get far, however, before she noticed something in the distance; after all, the Valley of Wyte was a quiet, dismal place, and anything out of the ordinary was easily noticed.

At first it was a shadowy speck in the sky, but as it began to take shape, Rayne’s eyes widened, because she’d seen it before—an Explorer dropship.

Groups of Explorers would often travel to different parts of the world, and since the technology was available, they flew in aircrafts that consisted of a large rectangular carrier, and from each corner of the carrier was a propeller that could rotate and spin, allowing the craft to hover and fly through even the most precarious places. It was dark gray, with a golden E in the middle of a symbolic compass painted on the side.

Rayne swallowed, her mouth dry. The Explorers. She wasn’t going to them, they were coming to her. She scrambled back up the mountain, reaching the highest point she could, and began waving her arms and yelling.

“Hey!” she yelled. “I’m over here!” To herself, she said, “Yes! This is amazing!”

The dropship grew closer, and its sound was deafening. The propellers blasted her with a powerful downforce of wind that tore snow off the mountain’s peak.

Rayne’s cloak whipped and cracked, and she had to brace herself before she fell over.

The ship hovered in the air, and then it began to spin in place before coming closer to the edge of the mountain. As it backed up, there was a hiss, and a ramp lowered until it touched the snow and stone.

No sooner had it opened than a dozen Explorers charged down the ramp, and each one of them fit into the stories she had been told. 

They were a mixture of places and times. One was dressed in full knight’s armor, and in their hands, raised and loaded, was an assault rifle. Another was dressed in a white button-up shirt and black pants with suspenders and brandished a battle-ax.

Rayne flinched at the sight of them as they bounded through the snow, straight toward her. They stormed past her and up into the dragon’s cave.

There was one, though, more so than any of the others, that caught her eye. He was a tall dark-skinned man with a salt-and-pepper buzz cut. His face was clean-shaven, and a long pink scar crept up his jaw. 

He was made of muscle and looked like he could snap her in half. He wore cargo pants tucked into tactical boots and a rough canvas jacket over his shoulders.

“You must be Maralyn Rayne,” he said, his voice clear even with the chopping of propellers. He walked over to her and reached out a thick, scarred hand.

“I am!” she yelled, but her voice felt distant even to her own ears. She shook his hand, and his brown eyes looked her up and down, examining.

“My name is Marcus Durane, Explorer First Class. Please come with me.” He gestured toward the ship, and Rayne followed him up the ramp. The inside was simple and warm. In the front were lockers that contained various weapons or utilities, and to either side of the ship was a row of seats facing each other.

“Gave your parents quite a scare,” Marcus said once they were inside. He took her to the front, next to the lockers, and gestured for her to sit. She tentatively slid her backpack off her shoulders and sat down.

“How’d they know I was gone?” Rayne asked, her eyes meeting Marcus’s. She held his gaze.

“Unexpected maintenance on one of the ferries they had chartered,” Marcus answered. “They decided to reschedule and, upon their return home, discovered their daughter was missing. They found your letter and called us.”

“I guess they were . . . upset.” Rayne tensed at the thought. Her feelings of accomplishment and pride faded at the thought of what her parents might think about her. The Explorers weren’t there to invite her into the guild; they were there because, as far as they knew, she was some stupid lost little girl.

“Quite,” Marcus answered with a shrug.

Boots tapped on metal, and Marcus turned his head in time to see one of the other Explorers racing back up the ramp.

“Dragon’s been contained, sir,” he shouted. “It was frozen in ice.”

“Understood,” Marcus said. “We have her. She’s fine. Gather everyone up. We need to go.”

“Copy that,” the Explorer said. “But we might want to get a couple historians out here. Got a lot of Alkanian artifacts.”

“Anything relating to the bakiri?” Marcus asked.

“There are banners,” Rayne answered. “Bakiri banners and Alkanian banners, two different factions. By the entrance you’ll find artifacts that I believe to be from the Breaking itself.”

Both Explorers looked at her. Marcus raised an eyebrow.

“Now how do you know all of that?” he asked.

“I’ve studied a lot,” she answered. “I’ve been researching the Breaking, accumulators, and dragon behavior, and I figured if there was a piece of the Oasis left, it would be here, in the dragon’s cave.”

Rayne reached into her pack and pulled out the journal, then flipped through the pages until she reached the last one. She turned the book around and held it out.

“This is what my grandfather left me,” she explained. “He was onto something. He had a theory about the Oasis and the Breaking, but he died before he could figure it out. So I came out here to finish what he started.”

Marcus was silent for a long moment, and he waved the other Explorer away to go retrieve the others. He took the journal and held it carefully, turning the pages as though they were made of gold leaf.

“Your grandfather was Marshall Rayne,” he said. He closed the book and offered it back to her. “I noticed the name, but you look nothing like him. Your family isn’t quite fond of Explorers, are they?”

Rayne took the journal and clutched it to her chest. “Not really, no.”

“Then why are you here? Why pursue your grandfather’s legacy?”

“My mother taught me that my blood is worth something,” Rayne answered, and her eyes dipped down to the blood still staining her finger. “And there is nothing more worth my blood than being an Explorer. I know that now more than ever.”

“Fair enough.” Marcus nodded slightly. “I like that, Rayne. I like that determination. So tell me, what happened in the valley?”

Rayne took a deep breath and began to tell her story. She explained the weeks she’d spent planning, thinking. Then there was making her way through Volthum and hitching a ride with that grumpy old man. Then the cliff, and David, and—"

“Wait.” Marcus held up a hand. “You weren’t alone?”

“No . . . ?” Rayne said tentatively. “I assure you, I was just as surprised to find someone else out here. We made an alliance of sorts. He agreed to come with me and help distract the dragon if need be. Matter of fact, David was the one who froze the dragon.”

“Must have been dangerous.”

“It was.” Rayne nodded grimly. “I had hoped to sneak into the valley and get into the cavern while the dragon was gone, but that didn’t work so well.”

“I wasn’t talking about the dragon,” Marcus said with a gaze colder than the snow.

“I don’t . . .” Rayne shook her head. “I don’t understand.”

Marcus stepped over to one of the lockers. He fingered through what appeared to be a series of folders before pulling one out and offering it to her. Rayne took the file and thumbed it open. Inside were several pictures and typed pages.

Rayne had seen plenty of photographs and pictures in Old York, she’d seen them in magazines and books and even on the bright billboards throughout the city. But these pictures weren’t so clean and colorful.

They were black-and-white photos dated in one corner with small red letters. The first picture depicted an explosion, and most of it was blurry save for a single figure running away from the scene. The second was a donut shop in a city, and the next a sky ship from Seraphine Island.

“I . . .” Rayne kept flipping through the pictures. “I don’t know what I’m looking at.”

“Take another look,” Marcus said.

Rayne adjusted her glasses and squinted back at the first image. She analyzed the figure running away from the scene, and realization began to dawn on her. The figure was wearing a ball cap and a hoodie.

There he was again in the second photo, standing in line at the donut shop. The lightning bolt on his cap was obvious as he looked up at the camera, smiling as if he knew they were watching.

“It’s David. I’m not . . .” Her words were confused. “That’s him. That’s the boy I met in the valley.”

“Right.” Marcus nodded and pointed to a page behind the photographs. There was a close-up picture of David, and beside it was a stamp of red ink that said, “Highly Dangerous.”

“Dangerous?” She looked up at Marcus. “What do you mean?”

“David Echoe has been classified by the guild as a highly dangerous individual,” Marcus explained. “Anything that goes wrong—any type of disaster, any situation that threatens the world as we know it—he’s always there. Yesterday, we began receiving reports from farmers in Volthum who saw an airplane appear in a flash of light and crash into the valley. Then the daughter of a prominent Northern aristocrat and Eastern businessman went missing, purportedly headed to the valley as well. Strange, isn’t it, Miss Rayne?”

Rayne closed the folder and handed it back to Marcus. “Why are you telling me this?”

“I’m telling you this because I think there’s more than coincidence to this story.” Marcus glanced down to her backpack. “Now, show me what you came here for.”

Rayne followed his gaze, and a sick feeling twisted in her gut. She reached toward the small side pocket where she’d placed the spark and unzipped the pocket. There it was, her small handkerchief.

She pulled it out, fingers trembling, and began to unwrap the crystal. Only the spark was no longer there. In its place was a piece of a frozen donut.

“No.” Her voice was hoarse, and tears brimmed in her eyes. “No, no, no . . .”

She stood up and began pacing the ship as white-hot rage boiled in her chest.

“He stole it!” she hissed at Marcus. “He fayring stole it just . . . just minutes ago. Fayr, I was so stupid!”

Marcus’s eye twitched at her language, but he reached out with a steady hand and grabbed her shoulder. His grip was tight, and her vision was blurry as she looked up at him.

Behind them, the other Explorers marched up the ramp. The knight with the rifle saluted.

“Sir, area is secure. No sign of anyone else.”

“I suspected as much.” Marcus sighed and rubbed his eyes. 

“Things happen, kid. Happened to your grandfather a couple times too, once upon a time.”

“You knew my grandfather? Like, really knew him?” Rayne wiped away the tears trying to run down her cheeks and fought to keep a straight face.

“Once upon a time,” he repeated with a small smile. “That is, if anyone could really know him. You’re not like him, not quite, but I see him in you, little traits here and there.” Marcus looked Rayne up and down again. “You came all the way out here just to join the guild, huh?”

“Well, yes, but I figured even if you wouldn’t accept me into the guild, I would still have the piece of the Oasis, and I could study it, try to figure out what my grandfather was looking for,” she answered. “But I was hoping if I found it, then maybe you could help me figure that out.”

“We’ll do that, yes.” Marcus nodded, and that smile crossed his face again. “But it looks like we’ll have to get the crystal back, won’t we? Until we do, you’ll need to be trained, or else you’ll come back from every mission looking as beat up as you are now, and we can’t have that.”

“I understand, sir.” Rayne bowed her head. “I am so sor—” Her head shot up. “Wait. What are you saying?”

“I’m saying that it’s been a long, long time since I’ve met someone like you,” Marcus said. “I’m willing to give you a chance. You’re young, but I’ll vouch for you. You’re smart and determined, and with a little discipline, a little training, you might be all right. After all, you’ll need to be a good Explorer, because your adventure isn’t over, is it?”

“No,” Rayne said, that determination and excitement returning. “No, it isn’t.”