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Lina had just finished her tutor's lessons for the day when a faint white glow from her desk caught her eye. It was the amulet Captain Hasstorn gave her after the interview for Cloak. Quickly the girl dug through the drawers looking for the envelop she got with it. "Please tell me I still have it in here." Old homework and silly battle plan drawings flew everywhere until she finally found it.

"Oh thank Naga. Okay so white glow... White glow..." She muttered as she scanned the instruction page. "If your amulet is glowing a faint white light it means Derrin's got a mission for you and you should check Cloak HQ ASAP." The young taguel could hardly contain her excitement. After rushing to her closet, Lina pulled out her custom magenta cloak, her uniform for the group. It was crisp and clean, ready for this very day.

A few poses in the mirror later Lina was almost ready to go. Supplies were crucial so the girl packed a tiny notepad, pencil, small snacks, the amulet, and her ever important beaststone in a cute, little satchel.

"Mama, Daddy, I'm going to a Girls' Club event! Don't wait up," she shouted loud enough to echo through their home. Hopefully her parents would buy the excuse. Normally Lina felt at least a little bad about lying, but this was necessary evil. There's no way she could tell them she joined a mercenary group, even if they weren't her real parents.

Trotting down the cobblestone roads, the girl made her way to Cloak Headquarters. "You've got this, Lina. It's your very first mission. Don't screw it up. Act cool and everything will be all right." A little self pep talk never hurt anybody.

At last she arrived. After slowly opening the door, Lina entered the lobby with her chest puffed out. Looks like the captain was casually waiting for the members to show up. Wait... She's the first one here? The eager recruit glanced around the room. Just Captain Hasstorn and his secretary were there. "I really hope this makes a good impression," she thought to herself.

Approaching Derrin, Lina pulled out her glowing amulet and began to speak. "Reporting for duty, sir."

Was that the right thing to say? Should she have said "You rang?" Oh man, that would have sounded a lot cooler. Unfortunately the moment passed. So much for a good one-liner.

The war had finally settled to a close, and while there were still a lot of repairs going on, it was a time to replenish weapons as well. Enailios was spending a majority of his time in his forge working away to keep the guild stocked up. He was even discounting the prices since they were getting them in bulk and supplying his materials. The only cost was for his labor to get these finished for them. A smile was constantly on his face since this was the work he was wanting to keep on doing.

"I could get used to these times of peace." He said to himself, humming away as his hammer continued to work on the sword he was working on. When he was sure it'd gotten enough work, he moved it over to the fire where the metal could start heating up, running a hand over his forehead. It was a good thing heat did not bother him too much, or else he couldn't keep himself in the oven.

"This should be the last of the blades though. Then I'll just have some more weapons to be handling." There were still some axes that had to get worked on, though at least those were personal commissions for some people. When he got the blade out from the fire, he cooled it off in the water, then tested it once more. It would handle well like it was now, setting it off to the side.

It was then that he noticed that his amulet was flashing white. Well if there was something going on with Cloak, then it was a good thing he reached a spot to stop. Moving over to the door, he flipped the sign to say closed, and then made his way to the back room where at least he could clean the sweat off of him. He proceeded to get better clothes on than his smithing attire, taking off for the HQ after that.

"Well, at least it's something else." He said to himself. The first person he saw when he got into the lobby was Derrin himself, sitting reading a book like usual. There was a younger girl that he'd seen around town, and a taller male who seemed to be a mage. "Some fresh members here. This should do Cloak some good." He added, moving closer to Derrin, and then casually patting his shoulder. "So, what's the scoop?"

Derrin didn't even glance up from his town when Lina entered, he just grunted and pointed at one of the other chairs in the waiting room opposite of him, waiting for the others to show up. He hated having to repeat himself. They hadn't waited particularly long before the door opened and in walked a man who was familiar only in passing to Derrin. The mage glanced up from his book only to swiftly glance back down and slink slightly in his seat as he recognized the family resemblance between the pair, her father calling out Lina's lie.

He really didn't want to get involved in any family drama and so set about trying to make himself as unnoticeable as possible, bracing for how his own family had worked would be a tidal wave of threats and punishments. His secretary meanwhile continued to chew her gum and leaned both her elbows on the desk, waiting expectantly.

It was then that Enalios walked in the beautiful b*****d. Derrin could almost kiss him, he didn't even give Enalios the usual "why am I being touched?" glare when the blacksmith patted his shoulder. Instead, he used the situation to break the tension by standing up, setting his book down and coughing politely to get the groups attention.

"Is this all we're getting then? That's good this will do. It feels like we've waited long enough." he nodded. "To answer your first question, no Lina as far as I know you're the only member of your family to submit a membership application, this includes your father. I'm assuming he's here to... freelance on this one? Am I correct Sir?" Derrin paused for a response and then continued on, "Well, regardless of whether you're here to make money, join up or to bring your daughter back home by the ear, we're short on time so I'm going to continue my briefing for anyone who does wish to hear it. Eliza."

The secretary (whose name had never been Charlotte) rolled her eyes, stood up and left the room. An awkward pause followed, Derrin standing stiffly at attention and making sure not to meet anyone's eyes. A few minutes passed before the secretary came back, pushing a corkboard with wheels that squeaked every centimeter of the way, it was filled with papers, maps and detailed life-like sketches done of people the group would find absolute strangers. Everything from the drawings to the broad clean handwriting was recognizable as being done in Derrin's hand, damned if his team would go on a mission uninformed. As it wheeled into place, Eliza struck a sarcastic pose, displaying the board like a game show host.

Derrin either didn't notice or pretended not to, producing an extendable pointer from inside his sleeve he gestured at the notes, drawings or places on the map he was talking about.

"This," he said tapping a drawing of a dark haired stone-faced man with blue eyes, "Is Lord Lestwire, a landowner near the outskirts of Learania, exactly on the spot where the borders of Estarcia and Sentria meet, a minor noble he raised troops to fight on our side in the war and while he and they participated in battles he won little glory or fame mostly going unnoticed."

He tapped another drawing, this time of a light haired plain looking man, "and this is Lord Chartill. An equally minor noble to Lestwire who owned land in around the same area. Chartill instead of sending troops to the front to assist fighting outside or deeper inside our borders opted to defend his own territory... and also Lestwire's territory. Which brings us to our problem, the two families are now feuding, some of Lestwire's lands were lost in the original invasion and were deemed." he glanced at Vince, ""Tactically inconsequential" and as such ignored in the counter-attack, Lestwire at the time agreed and sent his forces alongside the bulk of the army, most likely expecting when the war was done that they'd take his lands back. Chartill however petitioned and won the right to keep a small force back to defend his own lands and while we were all away at war took back Lestwire's territory for him."

Derrin paused for a moment so the implications could set in. "Now that the war is done, Chartill is claiming a portion of the lands he took back as his own, Lestwire obviously takes an issue to that and has been threatening retaliation. The land in question is far too small to bother taking this manner to the crown or the courts and both men would be ridiculed for wasting the crown's time and money, instead they're both on the borderline of a small territory skirmish which is something neither man wants to do as well as both their troops are weakened, exhausted and all in all enjoying their time not... well not being at war, there's no clear victory for either side no neither want to risk it in short. This is where we come in."

He shoved the end of the pointer back into its handle. "Earlier this morning I managed to sit both men down in my office to discuss options and plans. It... didn't go as smooth as I liked,"

Eliza snorted and Derrin shot her a glare.

"But, the both of them did agree to sit down to a diplomatic meeting in a neutral territory with Cloak mediating between them. We're being paid by both sides regardless of the outcome of the meeting, in addition, both sides are paying us a retainer to stay out of the fighting if talks fail and also attempting to slip us an additional bonus to that retainer under the table to join their side should fighting break out, which means the pay is quite generous."

He clapped his hands together and continued. "Now! Complications to the mission.
One: Turns out this territory feud goes back generations, started by their great times like a thousand grandfathers over a pig falling asleep under someone else's tree or something else equally ridiculous, information from whenever this started is mostly hearsay and hard to come by because nobody in their right mind gives a damn.
Two: They've split each other's blood before
Three: If fighting does break out so soon after the war, no matter how minor or inconsequential it is it might get blown out of proportion and made a bigger deal than it actually is.
Four: Both men technically have a legal right to claim the land, Lestwire because it was his first and Chartill because he's actually able to defend it.
Lastly: And this again might be hearsay, it's said that Chartill discovered something he's keeping secret for now that the Sentrians were doing on Lestwire's land. I've got what few ears to the ground we have looking out for more information on that."

He paused again. "And that concludes the briefing... in case you dozed off in the middle of it or didn't understand something the short version is this.
Two guys arguing over who owns what, want us to help them talk it out to prevent fighting. If fighting happens we pick a side and end it as quickly and with as little bloodshed as possible. I'm classing this mission as a low danger mission, however as any soldier knows things can drastically change at any moment so treat this, and every mission, as if it were high risk. Any questions?"