#magic guilds

Night was rapidly descending on the dirt road she was walking on. It seeped into the wind and clouds and sky bringing with it a gurgling of thunder from the far off mountains of the West. ‘great, just what i needed, rain of all things’ Lucy thought to herself.

She had just narrowly escaped the hunter’s raids on her last job. She had no clue who tipped off the kingdom’s guards but in they had come, brandishing their shiny new issue guns and bayonets; all so proud of their murdering and all too quick to prove themselves to the crown. Lucy had tried to fight but there was little she could do, she had led the fox right into the hen house and she could only run from the coop. There had been no saving the other wizards, she would have only died if she had stayed longer.

Lucy shook her head, forcing the gruesome images from her mind. She set her sights on the approaching town, she could see the lights in the familiar windows. Rain started pouring from the sky, hard and loud, puddling in the dirt dips of the road. She splashed her way down the mud slicks. 'All roads lead to home’ she thought to herself, ‘or rome, but whatever’

It had been 3 days of hard traveling, dodging guards and the king’s spies, but she had made it back to the little town she had hidden away to. Her home had long since been a magic town, long before any kingdom’s decree that magic was outlawed. And since the guards had come it had stayed that way to those who knew where to look. To the naked eye it was full of normal humans, a sleepy farm town, but underneath the exterior was a network of magic users, of wizards and black markets. The human facade was quickly built up and the guards had left, their job seemingly done. But the wizards knew the truth- they protected each other from the witch hunt in the large cities. There were no rats in Crocus.

Lucy made her way through the town, pulling her large black cloak closer over her head, trying to keep the rain from soaking her further. It was futile, she knew, she was already a giant piece of wet fabric, her hands were shriveled with the moisture and the rain showed no signs of letting up. It blurred her vision and made everything smell like wet dog.

From the darkness she could see the bright red neon sign of the only bar in the town- the safest of the wizard havens the city had. She could see it was a slow night from the lack of people in the windows, but there was something that called to her. All she wanted was to go home but she found herself walking through the heavy wood doors set in a brick wall, lightening and thunder cracked in the sky behind her as she entered.

Inside the bar the lights were too bright and the air was too thick but it was familiar to Lucy and she wouldn’t have it any other way. A petite girl was behind the bar, Lucy had been here many times but she couldn’t ever remember the dark hair’d girl’s name and now they were too familiar with each other she wouldn’t dare ask. She was human, nothing special. The girl looked up from cleaning the glasses, “Welcome to- Lucy!” She ran over to the soaked figure in the doorway as she pulled her hood off, blonde hair spilled from it. “Oh god, what are you doing in the rain? And you’re hurt! What happened?” She helped Lucy to an open stool one of many in the establishment.

Lucy shook her head, looking down at her hands. The bartender brought her a drink, something yellow and hazy in a small glass. Lucy downed it. “I was on a job and someone tipped them off about me.” She knew she didn’t have to say who, the girl would know. "They came in the middle of the night and broke the door down, they didn’t even ask questions, just started killing people. I tried to fight but there were too many of them and I didn’t have enough magic, I had to run away. I’m such a coward.” she sniffled, her head in her hands, tears tumbling from her blue eyes.