Ember Wind: Starlight City

Change of Seats

The beeping continued for several minutes forcing everyone in the room to remain silent. Then Creoft punched the now useless orb. The black sphere shattered into a thousand particles and poofed into the void. "Shit!" Creoft cursed. "That was our only chance to make contact."

Hagtard lowered his head, "At least we did make some contact. Someone knows we live and our progress or lack thereof."

"Lack thereof is more accurate," Creoft replied. "They probably thought we were miles ahead, like zone fifteen."

Then she raised her voice above them. Storm quickly forced Creoft's attention. "And how many zones did you and your dev make?"

"Twenty to be exact. All of them have bosses that we have to kill to progress."

"If the past four bosses haven't been evidence enough of our inevitable demise, I'm sure the next sixteen will."

"It's not over till the last player dies or we all escape. We still have plenty of people left under our banners to keep us running."

"Is that before or after you send them all to their deaths."

"Befo- preferably neither. Death is inevitable in this place. You cannot escape it, instead we must fight and win. You said it yourself, Storm. We must keep forward momentum if we are to retain whatever loyalty there is within our guilds and the general public."

"You're operating under the assumption that the general public actually cares about returning to reality. Think about it Creoft. You're audience is mostly edgy teenagers who would much rather do drugs than live a normal life."

"Ouch... that hurt. It's not my fault they were attracted to it. I made this game for adults, legally at least. If it got attention from the younger kids, then such is life."

"And guess what, many of those kids are dead."

"Not by my hand. You can't just turn this around like I planned this. I never did, who in their right mind would?"

"Who said you were in your right mind?"

"Storm, I hate you. I really do."

"Thank you, I tried."
The doors swung wide and two more people entered the meeting hall. Storm groaned in frustration and Creoft stood to greet the two with open arms. "Tang! Falcher! It's good to see you two up and about again."

"No thanks to you for leaving me to drag his ass through the knee deep snow of Ashua." Falcher scoffed.

"I'll buy you a beer later. Anyways-"

"Ahem." Storm cleared her throat in a very loud and obnoxious way. "Creoft, how many people are in your guild?"

"Why does that matter?"

"Just tell me."

"Less than two hundred as of last week."

"Didn't you and Janik make a rule about conserving guild strength?"

"What are you talking about?"

"Rule twelve of the Council of Protectors. In the event of population deficiency, the smaller guild is required to merge into a larger guild to boost their strength and promote unity."

"What are you saying?"

"As a fighter guild, the Guardian's active population, those who actively attend the practices, is dangerously low making you an ineffective guild."

"Now hold a minute-"

"Nein!" Storm interjected. "Your rules are law and not even you can break or delete them, so says rule thirteen."

"Storm..." Creoft growled.

"Grow up Creoft. Your days as guildmaster are over, either merge with Flugel der Freiheit or remove yourself and your guild from council."

"You and what power?"

"The power of a thousand man guild. Now step down or I will make you."

"With what?"

She snapped her fingers the guards equipped their green tabards with the golden wheat plastered to the front as well as their weapons."The men under my command."

"You're using brute force to shut me down? What for?"

"You're a useless leader, face it. You can't make strategy plans for shit and you do too much on your own. Too casual for something of this sort. I'm relieving you of your duty and this council of a weak leader."

Tangurple equipped his sword and shield but Creoft shook his head. "Damn you, Storm. Alright, you win. I, Creoft, hereby relinquish command of the Council of Protectors and give administrative power over to AG_Storm of Flugel Der Freiheit."

Tangurple and Falcher stood in silence, overwhelmed with shock. They were baffled, silenced by the sudden willingness displayed by Creoft. Albeit, the conditions present would make anyone give in but Creoft, at least to Tangurple, always seemed unbending. Maybe everyone had a breaking point.

Creoft huffed and about-faced. He walked out of the great hall with his middle finger in the air, slamming the doors behind him.

Later that day, Tangurple rediscovered Creoft in the guild's newest addition, a liquor cabinet. Tangurple pushed the door aside and stepped into the room. It was small, bland and relatively empty minus the wall sized cabinet and an old couch. Creoft was already submerged in a long and heavy gulp of some big whiskey bottle. He pulled it away and swallowed hard, making noises of disgust. He looked over to Tangurple. "It doesn't taste as good as it looks. Oh god I need to fix the flavor profiling of this shit..." he groaned.

"Cro? You got a minute?" tangurple asked.

Being semi-drunk, Creoft nodded. "Of course buddy, whatcha need?"

"What became of night?"
Creoft's eyes widened. "Well... ask Falcher."

"Falcher told me to talk to you."

"My ass..."

"What" Tangurple rolled his eyes, "forget it, you're too drunk to function. I'll ask you tomorrow if I remember."

Creoft stood up and wobbled, "I may be drunk, but my speech and mind are still solid damnit!"

"I highly doubt that."

"I may not walk straight anymore but I can still hold conversation. See? Now your lady friend, she dead."

"I had a feeling. Falcher kind of hinted at it with his reluctance. How'd she go down?"

Creoft hesitated a moment. In his head, the two routes played their infinite possibilities. The two options were truth or lie and neither had favorable outcomes. Creoft pondered both for the split second he had but his mind planned the full course of it even faster. "She was lost during combat. Died by one of Judas' abilities." It was enough to satisfy Tangurple's curiosity for the moment. He nodded and lowered his head. "I failed as a guardian then. At least she was avenged."

"Don't beat yourself up over it," Creoft replied. "She's one of many-"

Tangurple glared at him, then sighed heavily. "Probably but even so... I'll leave you to your sulking then. I... I'm gonna go"

"You don't want a drink?"

"It tastes like piss or cough syrup, I'm good." Tangurple, with a quick jump, skip and hop, he was out the door and a good distance away from Creoft. "I think I need to go see what's next. Just keep swimming... maybe walking would be better." he mumbled.