As they got close to the city they passed more and more people. Luke had never thought of himself as nervous in crowds, but he realized he’d never truly been in a crowd before. At least not like they were when they walked through the city gates.

  Sure, he’d been to the city once before, but his dad had taken him. And they’d arrived on a boat. So they’d gone from no crowds to sudden crowds and fairly quickly back to no crowds.

  Now, with the number of people around steadily growing, Luke's anxiety was rising.

  Maki and Maeve didn’t seem to notice the crowd at all. They were used to the city; this was familiar territory for them. Cali had stared wide-eyed at everything until Maki told her doing that made her a target for thieves. Now she was walking arms linked with Maeve, only looking at the things her cousin pointed out.

  They went through an open market near the gates to a wide, store-lined street, then around a park towards the biggest building Luke had ever seen. As they drew closer, Maki’s older brother appeared, coming around the park from the other direction. Maki called out as Maeve waved, and they started walking faster. Luke and Cali followed, Luke wishing they could talk in an empty area of the park rather than a busy street corner.

  Mas saw them and paused, making the woman whose hand he was holding stop and look around. They waited as the group got closer, then Mas let go and stepped to pull Cali forwards.

  “Cali, here, this is Lara, my girlfriend,” he said quickly. “Lara, this is my cousin, Cali. And that’s her friend Luke. They are two normal people who I am not ashamed to know or admit I’m related to.”

  Cali beamed. “Nice to meet you!”

  “Nice to meet you, too,” Lara said, a smile growing on her face as she glanced back at Mas. “And the two behind you making funny faces?”

  The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

  Mas gave a dramatic sigh. “Those would be my siblings.”

  Maeve shouldered Mas aside and held out a hand. “Hi, I’m Maeve, so nice to meet you! Cali and I are going to a spa this afternoon, would you like to join us?”

  Mas shoved himself back. “Great idea, but damn, we’re just too busy learning how to save lives, no time to-”

  “You know, I would absolutely love to join you,” Lara told Maeve, giggling slightly.

  “No, no you wouldn’t,” Mas said flatly.

  Lara looked at him. “Wasn’t I just complaining that my claws are being worn ragged? Getting them properly filed down at a spa is exactly what I need! And I’m sure you can cover for me being absent today, right? Like I did for you last week?”

  Maeve took her hand and looked at her fingers. “Oh, girl, we need to get you in there asap. Cali, change of plans, we’re going to Risa’s after the spa. Come on.” She linked arms with Lara and they started walking away.

  Before Mas could protest, Maki threw his arm over his shoulders.

  “Sooo, Mas, mind if Luke and I crash at your place for a night?”

  “What? I mean, if you want to sleep on the floor go ahead, but-”

  “Cool, thanks!”

  Mas glared, catching his brother’s wrist before Maki got too far. “But what are you doing here? What are Cali and Luke doing here? Why did you sneak off in the middle of the night? Seriously, dude, Mom was freaking out.”

  “We’re going to the Traveler’s Guild,” Luke explained. “We’ll see what needs done where, and head out.”

  “We left without telling anyone because if we did, Mom would have us stay to prepare, then Dad would come up with a reason to not go, then Aunt Nikki would demand a going-away party, then Cali would need to stay just a little longer for some animal reason, and three years from now we’d still be there,” Maki added.

  Mas released Maki to scratch an ear, sighing.

  “I told my parents,” Luke added.

  “The four of you are joining the Guild together?” Mas asked.

  “Yep!” Maki said.

  Mas thought it over, then nodded. “You’ve got a decent set of skills. They’ll probably send you to see if the head of merchants needs anything delivered over land. Although I have no idea what they’ll ask an Arithmetician to do.”

  “Oh, you didn’t hear?” Maki asked. “When she graduated, Maeve was asked if she wanted to advance to Auditor or Banker class, and she took Auditor.”

  “She did?” Luke asked, just before Mas could ask the same.

  “Yeah. I told her not to, duh, but she said the perks were good.”

  Mas shrugged. “Well, I hope you’re ready for the exciting life of finding corrupt politicians.”

  Luke started to have doubts about joining this adventure.