(21 Days Left)

The Adventurers Guild of Acadia was an imposing institution of gothic arches, wood carvings, and marble columns that doubled as our Citadel-city’s bank. The guards positioned at the doors gave me snide glances as I stepped into the opulent hallway and headed to the teller desks. Mila had managed to give my face a bit of an aged look with the skin-burner wand, etching wrinkles into my eyes and mouth, but I wasn’t sure if I looked old enough to fool everyone who looked my way.

I’d used her back room to write up a note now held in my pocket and waited for a specific teller to free up.

The teller in question, dressed in a fancy blue vest, was also someone I knew. The name embossed on a silver tag featuring a stylized blue hammer-headed dragon wrapped around a banking wand was Bolsh Koper.

Bolsh was another orphan from my generation that had been sold to the Adventurers Guild as a teller, eight years my senior. Unlike Mila, Bolsh wasn’t a caring person. He was someone interested in wealth, focused on climbing the Guild ladder to reach greater heights at any cost to free himself by buying out his own contract. Bolsh didn’t give a damn about me or anyone really, but he cared about money. He needed a lot of money to dress well and kiss the asses of the Guild managers to move up the chain. Gold was hard to come by, even for someone who worked in a bank.

As I approached the booth, Bolsh tilted his head ever so slightly, examining my face. He didn’t recognize me right away. This was a good sign. Mila had changed enough of my face to throw off someone who had known me for six years. The teller’s confusion didn’t last long.

“Mer...” He opened his mouth, his eyes lighting up in recognition.

I slid the paper over to him. That shut him right up. Unfolding the paper, Bolsh read the text within and squinted at me.

“One moment, sir.” Bolsh smiled. The smile didn’t reach his eyes. “I’ll see if an office is available for a consultation.”

He turned around and checked.

“Follow me, sir,” he shot back at me. I followed him. Having reached one of the consultation offices, Bolsh shut the heavy wooden door and activated the confidentiality anti-scrying hexagrams over the office.

“Let me get this straight, Merv,” Bolsh began. “You want me to scan your heart, not your hand... to check if you have an existing account at the Guild?”

“Yes,” I said, nodding. “If I do, half of whatever is in the account will be yours. That’s the deal.”

“You’re sixteen and an orphan,” Bolsh said. “How could you possibly have an account?”

“I don’t have an account, Bol,” I shot back. “But the adventurer whose crystalline heart now sits in my chest most likely does.”

Bolsh sighed.

“This is highly irregular,” he added finally, readjusting his dark blue tie with a silver pin. “If you get caught and interrogated, my head is going to roll too.”

“Look, just check the account,” I said. “We won’t have to pull money out of it if it doesn’t even exist. If it exists, you can decide if half of the money in it is worth the gamble.”

Bolsh squinted at me, contemplating the situation. Finally, his greed won.

“Fine,” he said. “I’ll check.”

He went to the back of the room and procured a banking wand. Then he pointed it at my heart. “Define client matrix,” he said.

A flickering window projected itself onto the wall behind us.

Bolsh frowned.

“Try again. Aim it a bit more to the left,” I said. “Press harder into my skin.”

He aimed again, pushing the silver-blue wand hard into my chest and making me wince.

New lines flashed on the wall.

My heartbeat intensified. I had gambled and struck Mithril! I mentally listed the ranks in my head: Copper, Silver, Gold, Adamantite, Platinum, Mithril, Orichalcum, Titanium, Celestium, Eternium. Mithril was smack dab in the middle, which allowed for a whole lot of privileges. Alessii was practically a Noble Knight!

“That’s a girl’s name,” Bolsh pointed out, his mouth twitching.

“Maybe in Acadia,” I shrugged. “But out in the provinces they sometimes give female names to boys too.”

Bolsh sighed. I could see a glint of greed in his eyes. Thirty-five gold could buy him a lot of nice things.

“She was a Space mage. Those are quite rare,” he added. “I don’t think that the Basq Empire could lose a Space mage. Only Time mages are more valuable.”

“Well, they clearly did,” I said. “Maybe her gateway misfired and she ended up straight in a wyvern nest and couldn’t gate out in time. Can you withdraw everything from the account or not?”

“I can,” Bolsh said, drumming his fingers against the desk.

“Does anyone track withdrawals?” I added.

“No.” The teller shook his head. “As far as I know, withdrawals aren’t tracked. Acadian magitek banking engines aren’t designed to keep track of these things.”

“Does the database have faces or any other identifying characteristics?” I asked.

“It does not,” Bolsh responded thoughtfully. “One cannot possibly fool the banking wand. A crystalline heart outside of the human body is inert, dead. Even if you send mana flowing through it, without the connection to a human soul, it shouldn’t bloody display anything. By all accounts this is completely impossible. You’re not Alessii.”

“I am now,” I insisted, making my voice more feminine and high-pitched. “Thank you for giving me a new ID ring, noble teller. As compensation for your diligence and excellent performance, I’m rewarding you... forty gold!”

“Your girl voice is stupendously ridiculous,” Bolsh huffed. The forty gold was more than half. He bit the offer and walked to the magitek engine in the back of the room, pressing his palm against it.

“Enchantcraft a new ID ring for client,” he ordered.

I waited for the magitek device to spit out my new shiny Mithril ID ring.

“Here.” He handed the ring to me. “I’ve never seen you. You were never here. If you get caught, I will deny everything.”

“Obviously.” I nodded.

“Withdraw all funds,” Bolsh ordered, tapping his own ring against the secondary hexagram. “Press your ring to this rune... Miss Saint-Rian.”

I turned to the magitek engine, tapping the Mithril ring against the hexagram Bolsh was pointing at.

Stacks of shiny coins began to drop from the tube. I procured them from the slot, then counted out and handed forty gold coins to Bolsh. The gold vanished faster than I could blink.

“Don’t come back here,” Bolsh said. “Don’t even visit other Guilds. Someone might know this girl. It only takes one report to city Watch to lock you up forever.”

“I’m leaving Acadia.” I nodded. “Don’t worry.”

“Good.” The teller nodded. “Gate as far away as possible. Don’t use that Mithril ring unless you absolutely must. Someone might be looking for Miss Saint-Rian. Scratch that, they’re definitely looking. The Empire wouldn’t let a Space mage vanish into the abyss like a fart in the wind. Someone who can make gates is a national security issue.”

“Obviously,” I said, nodding. “I’m not an idiot. Also, I can’t make gates.”

Bolsh looked at me momentarily. He definitely mentally judged me as an idiot.

“Goodbye, Merv,” he said with a sigh, pointing at the door as I slid the coins into a leather pouch on my belt.

[Stats,] I thought as the lavish gold-plated double doorway of the Guild automatically pulled shut behind me. The menu had expanded considerably, integrating the information that the banking wand pulled from the crystalline heart.

There were a lot more System Errors than I would have liked, but then again, I was a “Doomed Mage,” so such things clearly resolved themselves given enough time.