Episode 5: The Guilded Age

  Chapter 4

  "Wait, weren't you complaining about guild corruption a few days ago?" Jane asked at the Lucky Lockup the next day.

  Lunch was on Daria, of course, and she'd ordered the best the cornerclub had to offer: hot scrib pie and boiled ornada eggs, along with some rare coffee brewed from beans shipped in from Elsweyr's humid coasts.

  "I only have a problem with corruption when I'm not benefiting from it," Daria said. The croon of a silt strider from the port briefly drowned out the noise of conversation.

  "As a fellow beneficiary," Jane said, holding up a slice of pie, "I'm okay with that!"

  Seeing her friend eat a good meal assuaged Daria's uncertainty a bit. She knew she wasn't the first person to help a guild associate cheat. But the nature of the report bothered her. Guild security wasn't something she wanted to interfere with.

  "Jane, have you ever heard of someone named Johanna? Over in Labor Town?" Daria hadn't mentioned the notes on which she'd based her report.

  Jane's eyes took on a searching look. "Nope, don't think so," she said around a mouthful of sweetened insect bits.

  "Hm, okay. Just wondering."

  "Labor Town's a big place. I only know my part of it."

  They wiled away the rest of the drizzly Loredas afternoon in shops and plazas. Daria bought a big green beetle-shell hat of the same type she'd seen the locals wear to keep their heads dry during rainstorms. The new headgear proved its worth as the light sprinkles turned to rain during her walk home. The next day passed quietly but nervously in the Morgendorffer house, with Daria and Quinn both helping out at their mother's office.

  What would happen if someone higher up in the guild found out? Daria wondered as she sorted papers. The Mages Guild was an Imperial institution bound by law and custom. Still, she'd heard the occasional rumor of people within the guild simply disappearing. It used to be easy to dismiss such thoughts, but such tales no longer seemed far-fetched.

  Morndas afternoon brought her back to the guild office, her mouth dry and her heart pounding as she passed through the door and walked down the ramp. She eased up a bit once she saw Hetheria looking relaxed and glamorous at her desk. Maybe this sort of thing happened all the time. Then again, she didn't have Hetheria's background. Coming from a noble family offered the kind of leeway that a Morgendorffer would never get.

  "Well?" Daria said, once she reached Hetheria's desk.

  "Oh, hey."

  Daria stiffened, bracing herself for bad news.

  "Athrys liked the report." She lowered her head. "And she doesn't suspect a thing," she whispered.

  "Great." Daria didn't let herself relax, though. Something in Hetheria's eyes hinted at deeper calculations.

  "And she has a job for you."

  "Wait, for me? Doesn't Athrys think that you wrote the report?"

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  "She told me to let you do it since you've shown up for all your volunteer sessions."

  "All two of them?" Either Athrys was the softest touch in the history of the guild, or Hetheria was up to something. Daria decided to play along for a bit longer.

  "Uh, yeah."

  "And consistent with me being a volunteer, I suppose I can't get Athrys to pay me for this."

  "You'll get some fresh air, at least. Fresh as it gets here, anyway," Hetheria said, making a face. "Anyway, your job is actually to go to Johanna's place with this."

  Hetheria picked a tin ring up from her desk and held it out to Daria, who took it. Faint curvilinear marks gleamed on the surface.

  "What is it?" Daria asked, squinting to try and glean some hint as to the ring's purpose.

  "We're extending Johanna a formal invitation! You know, so she can practice her magic legally."

  "Aren't invitations usually written on paper? How does a cheap ring communicate that? There's something you're not telling me."

  "Okay, so it's not an invitation." Hetheria's jaw clenched for a moment. "There's an enchantment on that ring that will tell us how much residual magic is in Johanna's house. Not conclusive, but helps us build a case. Just go to her home while wearing the ring, then twist it to the right to activate the enchantment. We'll get the information we need, and no one will be the wiser."

  Daria shook her head. "You've got to be kidding me. Hetheria, I barely know magic. I can only cast five spells, none of them reliably. And the guild wants me to spy on a wizard? Forget it. Let me talk to Athrys."

  Hetheria gasped and waved her hands, making shushing noises, her eyes wide and frantic.

  "Don't talk to Athrys."

  "Why?"

  "Just don't."

  "You're making me want to talk to her even more," Daria countered.

  "No! It's—okay, I'll admit it. I didn't think this through. She wanted me to spy on Johanna. Look, I don't want to get involved with any of this crazy magic stuff. I just joined the guild to coast my way to a sinecure!"

  Scowling, Daria stepped back. "No. I won't. Do your own dirty work."

  Hetheria's lips turned up in a hard smile. "Look, Daria. I tried to be nice about this. But I've come too far to risk it all. If you don't do this, I'll tell Athrys that you wrote the report."

  "And you'd get in trouble, too."

  "Sure. Except my family owns a nice, big chunk of Cyrodiil and is a generous donor to the Mages Guild. Your family, well, doesn't and isn't. So at worst, I might get a lecture. You, on the other hand, will be expelled from the guild and probably charged with a crime. Yeah, that's right: the guild is government-chartered, so by counterfeiting that report, you lied to the Empire!"

  Daria's mind raced. Was that true? Mom talked about low-level corruption going on in guilds all the time. Usually, it was stuff they handled in-house, if at all. Most guilds kept secrets they didn't want the authorities knowing about, so it was rare that they'd report problems to anyone outside. Yet all that suddenly seemed very abstract. And she couldn't ask Mom about this without revealing herself as a cheater.

  She'd been played. And now this spoiled child of privilege held Daria's future in her hands. None of Daria's intellect or wit mattered compared to Hetheria's connections.

  "Look, I am sorry," Hetheria said. "I didn't think Athrys would move so quickly. But it's not a big deal. All you have to do is stick your hand through a window and activate the ring. She'll never know. Johanna might not even be a wizard—wouldn't be the first time the guild's screwed up on something like that."

  Daria couldn't think of a response. She stretched out her right hand and pressed it against the wall, leaning against it for support so that she didn't fall onto her knees.

  "Come on, it's not that bad," Hetheria said, sounding a bit guilty. "I'm usually a nice person. It's just that things got kind of weird, and well, I have to look out for myself."

  "How nice of you." Daria drew in her breath. She wasn't going to waste time being afraid. If she'd gotten stuck with this, so be it.

  She pushed off from the wall and stood up straight, forcing her features back to sphinx-like placidity. "Since I'm doing personal work for you again, shouldn't you at least pay me for it?" That ought to keep her on the defensive, at least.

  Hetheria looked disgusted. "I would've paid if you'd done what I asked when I asked. You made me threaten you, and I don't appreciate that. Athrys needs it done today, so get going. I'm going to hide out at a cornerclub. Meet me back here when you're done. The notes from yesterday have the directions to Johanna's place."

  Musical Closer -