The Guild Capitol: Chapter Two

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"Now we can find something for kids." Dawn said and moved to look around the place.

Ellie grinned up at Matt. "Well this went well. New mom presents, and window shopping for lingerie! What do we do now?" She had been keeping an eye on him just in case. She hadn't seen him take a thing!

Matt shrugged. "I dunno, I have itchy fingers." He admitted. It was HARD not to pick things up and forget to put them down again. Bah. It was only the fear of what sort of punishments this place might dish out that made him think twice. And the last time he got arrested was still pretty fresh in his memory. Oops.
"you need any accessories for the festival? "

Ellie patted Matt's shoulder. "I'm good on accessories I think. I have this necklace with spike rainbow plastic beads that would look great with my dress," she said. She was probably joking, right? "We could go back to Vestia and see the baby dragons."

Matt laughed. "Can't keep you away from little baby dragons for long can I?"

"They're too cute," Ellie said with a smile.

A shopkeeper came over. "Uh, guys, I have something you might want to know."

"I gotta see them then." Matt looked at the shopkeeper. "What is it?"

"There's a," the shopkeeper seemed to be having trouble with something, "a creature that escaped from its enclosure and is on the loose. Looking at it can make you relive the moments you regret the most from your life." He tried to keep his face straight, this was serious after all, "It looks like a butterfly with mirrored wings. If you see it, look away as fast as you can. It can mesmerize you if you aren't careful."

Matt frowned. "Wait... " he tried to process that. "A butterfly? like.. this big?" He gestured with his hands. "That can mesmerize people?" He looked incredulous.

"Yes," the shopkeeper said. "I'm aware it sounds dumb, but it's still a problem. Don't look at it, and you should be okay."

Ellie was snickering. Oh man, that was funny.

"okay.. don't look at the butterflies... sure." Matt shook his head. "Thanks man." He looked to Ellie and tried to keep a straight face. "This place is mental."

"Let's uh... go home and... not look at butterflies?" Ellie said. "I guess. Umm."

"Yeah, we can look at dragons instead." Matt agreed.

Ellie lead the way out of the store once they had purchased the dragon ornaments, and they headed lazily back in the direction of Vestia. Maybe they'd run into Swarm or someone.

Swarm did indeed catch up to them just before they went through the portal to asteroid manifest.

"Hey guys." Matt waved to the small swarm of insects.

"Summons, we have a summons!" "Looking for plant mages" "help with terriforming an asteroid." "Inquisitors thought you might want to join them." They babbled.

"Oh hey Swarm!" Ellie listened to their babble for a moment, "Aren't all the plant mages at the school?" She asked, then looked startled as Swarm continued, "Oh, they want me, as in ME? Dude, I've never terraformed an asteroid before, whoa."

Swarm nodded. "Group effort, they thought you might enjoy being involved. If you wish to go, must find Arya at Asteroid Manifest" They buzzed amongst themselves.

"Cool, you can go like.. help out and learn some new stuff maybe?" Matt suggested.

"That sounds so cool! Ohmygosh," Ellie went from confused to jumping up and down with excitement in about three seconds. "Lets drop off this stuff with Vestia, and then go find Arya. Wanna come terraform stuff, Matt?" Not that he could, but he could probably come along at least, she guessed.

Matt chuckled. "I'm not likely much help, but i'll come with you to find Arya at least." He really should go check on Thalia right?

Swarm forged ahead through the portal.

"Okay!" Ellie patted Matt's arm, thinking she saw that weird look in his eyes again. She headed through the portal after Swarm.

Matt followed. "You gotta tell me all about how awesome you were though okay?" He grinned to Ellie. "hey, why are they terriforming an asteroid anyway?"

"To give the foxes a home." Swarm answered. It was half the truth. No reason to worry everyone right? Besides, sometimes they liked knowing things others didn't.

"Oh I will. I'll brag so much you end up hating me," Ellie said jokingly. "They're giving the foxes special accommodations? Why don't we get special accommodations?"

Swarm shook their head. "they need to be put elsewhere." "Somewhere like home" "in case they lose their minds" "they might not" "we can hope."

"Oooh," Ellie nodded. "Crazy foxes, not good. Better to keep them from killing us all."

(To Asteroid Manifest?)

(yep, to manifest!)

Tala would leave the meeting and follow her nose to find Esk. He smelled of death. It should be easy.

Esk wasn't far away, he'd been heading toward Tala's location anyway.

Tala spotted Esk before too long. "They have heard my words and are preparing a relocation project," she told Esk.