I wake up to a ray of sunlight upon my face, shining in through the boarded up window, illuminating the dancing motes of dust that occupy the air. I get off of the bed, and, ascertaining that my ring is still upon my finger, I sigh in relief at having survived another night.
[See! Now imagine if I had spent a gold coin or more to spend the night somewhere fancier, now wouldn't I feel stupid! Sure, there were times throughout the night that I thought I may die, what with the banging, screaming and stomping coming from outside the boarded window… and that one scream outside of my door as well. Well, I survived, and my costs were minimal, in the end it ended up being a good choice to stay here, through no part of my own. That said, I don't think I will brave this place again, nor will I pay the outlandish costs of the upper-class hotels, no, I have a much better idea: I will build a house of my own outside the city! While the land nearby is probably pretty pricey, with my speed it is no difficulty running ten miles between the city and whatever house I may build, I am sure I can find some territory to buy from the king for excessively cheap, and even cheaper if I promise to be his subject and pay taxes on it. Although that is perhaps a bit ambitious, perhaps I will have to stay here a few more nights… no, I mustn't do that, I have no guarantee of survival. Even if I don't own the land, I can always construct a house of dirt the way that I did the night before first entering the city. Even sleeping out in the open is better than sleeping here again. Well, I'd better get out of this place before something happens to me, just because it is day that does not mean that there is no threat of death in this place.]
I return the key to the front desk and make my way from the place; thankfully, I only need to take a couple turns down alleys to make my way towards a main street, far better than some of the most shady hotels which require navigating a veritable maze to get to and from.
My target destination is the guild hall, though not to take another job request just yet; no, I figure that it is about time that I find out where I can find a sorcerer to remove my name, and it seems to me that there would be no better place to find that out than the guild hall.
It is midmorning when I arrive, the rays of the sun shining into the plaza in front of the guild hall, illuminating its polished stone ground tiles and the grand buildings that occupy all sides of the opening, including the local guild headquarter.
I am not in much of a hurry at the moment, so I take a few minutes to admire the exquisite architecture of the guild hall, and the ever more magnificent murals and engravings that cover its grand marble walls. The engraving sof of great variety, depicting everythings from city life to fighting monsters to slaves tending a field with a master by the side, glaring scornfully in detail that the artists conveyed beautifully.
Of much greater interest is a large depiction, one of the largest in fact, and certainly among the most fantastical. A woman garbed in white robes, with a miniature sun in the place of her face and a radiant aura surrounding her, holds a sword in one hand and a bow in another; before her is a flame-wreathed dragon falling from the sky in a ball of fire, a gleaming arrow protruding from its chest, a sickly man with black pits for eyes lying in a pool of blood, trying to stop the blood flowing from his neck, and a reptilian looking man, seemingly half way between man and dragon, impaled upon the woman's sword, his dead face still trapped in the contortion of a viscous snarl.
I need not a caption to know what is being depicted here, though the depiction goes beyond any mere revisionism or falsehood to the much more benign symbolism. [A dragon, an evil man, and something in between, slain by a woman clad in radiant light? This can only be interpreted as the primary church triumphing over the Church of the Three Heroes. She even makes use of the sword and bow she gave humanity, and with the armor's transforming function, that robe may very well be that; no, it is almost certain that that was the intended interpretation. To the best of my knowledge, this scene never occurred; though quite old by this point, the church of the three heroes is still predated by the most recent intervention of Aenae upon this world, in fact, barring death from battle or some sinister force, those three dragons may well still be alive; after all, the king of the nation of dragons then remains king today, why should his trusted soldiers not also maintain their existence?]
Another image that takes up a large amount of space displays the creation of the world, something I honestly couldn't care less about; after all, the creator of this world has not influenced it even once since doing so, his existence is more a meaningless historical fact than anything else, he is infinitely unlikely to ever factor into my life, no matter how long I may live.
The last of the three most prominent images is devoted to the last deity worshiped by the church, the god of man. Unlike the other two cardinal gods, who had each been depicted in moments of triumph both factual and fictitious, the display of the god of man is one of great mourning, displaying a scene consisting of an immense sea of people crying up to the heavens where their creator, a wizened old man, is depicted with a black sword stuck into his heart by a shadowy man, the legendary and mysterious Reishvart, the dragon who seemingly holds a role of key import in every step of the fall of man.
Around these three murals, the rest of the painted portion of the walls is based, countless small paintings surrounding three circles of equal size; though, with Aenae in the center of the three, it is easy to tell who is most respected.
That such depictions would be on a guild hall, a building representing an organization spread across the whole of the world, encompassing multiple religions, is rather surprising; then, I remember that each country has its own independent guild branch for the most part, even Aren and the draconic kingdom, and that, despite the guilds often working together, they are, in the end, different organizations; that a guild hall in a human nation nominally dominated by the church would display these three gods so important to humanity should be no real surprise.
My analysis finished, I move to enter the hall. The secretary, this one different from the one whom I had encountered on my first two visits, directs me to a small board along one of the walls, a board much less popular than the ones; he explains that this is where advertisers are allowed to advertise products specifically aimed at adventurers, products vetted by the guild to ensure safety.
On this board, there are surprisingly few options. While no one specifically offers a name change service, as such services aren't in high enough demand to only market to adventurers and have high potential for legal trouble, there is a solid handful of necromancers offering "generic services," a phrase primarily referring to curse removal but also involving name changes and enslavement rituals.
The issue is that this handful is whittled down extremely quickly when I filter by those advertising at least transcendental level necromancy abilities. I am a bit confused when I first read this, as necromancy is a derivative of straight magic and thus doesn't have skill levels, but my confusion is lifted when I notice that one of the sellers advertising grandmaster level necromancy has put a disclaimer saying that this is an approximation, an attempt to describe his ability in something with terminology that most people understand. I supposed that this is rather understandable; if someone claims to be a genius sorcerer of great power and experience, it doesn't clearly state their power as well as saying that they would be a master level necromancer if such a skill actually existed.
For my needs, there are only two sorcerers that are sufficient, one in town and one out of town; neither lists their price, each stating that one musty go to them to get a quote; however, considering their power, one can assume that the price will not be cheap, the question is, is one hundred gold enough? I get a feeling that it won't be, though the idea that an entire village's budget/ noble's possessions would be insufficient to buy a single short service from a sorcerer seems downright absurd. Enough money to live comfortably for a lifetime might not be enough to cover the cost of one service, how absurd.
Well, there's not really much point in doing anything until I receive a quote from each of them, the one in the city first, I suppose.
The map collection that I had taken from the governor actually included a rather detailed map of the city, my careful perusal of it under the mid-morning sun is sufficient to provide me with a path to my destination, an unlabeled building near the center of the city that I must find by looking through street names.
The walk itself is quite tiresome as I somehow manage to get lost several times over even with a map, seemingly due to the map having imperfect accuracy, so I must often double back upon my route in search of another way around a blockage that had been previously unmarked on my map, whether from laziness on the part of the map maker or due to the buildings or fences being new, I am unsure.
Still, after about an hour of navigation I find my way to a stately house that must have cost a truly extravagant amount to be able to place in the middle of the city. I'd think it belonged to some regional lord or something and that I had marked the wrong place on the map were it not for a small sign on the front of the building declaring the business name "Sorcerous Solutions." Honestly, a pretty good name if you ask me.
I keep getting stares from the passersby, nobles all, perhaps due to my unkempt appearance and shoddy clothing; however, what should I care? While I may perhaps care a bit more if this were any other country, considering that the nobility in this country is incomparably strong when placed beside the nobility of the western human nations, the amount I care has risen in size from that of an electron to that of an atom; a truly massive increase, to be sure, but still a small amount overall.
Why care at all? Well, if I offend someone enough by my very presence that they see fit to challenge me to a duel, against this nation's frontier nobility my loss would be quite possible. Compare that to the nobility of those aforementioned nations, I could crush them by the dozens with absolute ease. But again, I doubt these nobles would want to duel me anyway, and they'd have a pretty poor excuse to do so if they did, I could likely just decline to no hit to anything but my honor. And who cares if he suffers damage to something that he does not and has no plans to possess?
Still, as much as I enjoy making those around me uncomfortable, I see not much point in it; while I don't mind the disdain from others, it is not as though I revel in it either - if anything, I'm merely indifferent.
I walk up the front steps onto the raised and covered porch before knocking on the door.