“I’m begging you, Miranda. Just turn me into an icicle. I’m afraid I’m going to sweat through my clothes again.”

  ? Miranda only offered a slight smirk. Instead of freezing him solid, she patted him on the shoulder in a pitying way, and a chill spread through his body. He shivered at the rather uncomfortable sensation, but still felt grateful. He’d already had to abandon his first choice of outfit due to his cold sweat, and if it happened again, he’d be left with his plain daily clothes for his date.

  ? “You sure you shouldn’t be asking me for money?” Miranda teased him, her smirk so broad it was reducing her eyes to slits. “She has quite the appetite, you know.”

  ? “Oh, I’m familiar. But I’ve prepared for that,” he replied, rubbing the wrist where his bracelet sat. “I made sure to save up this whole week. I’m ready for anything.”

  ? “So. Where are you taking our esteemed clerk?” This question came from Garf, who had found Grim waiting near the entrance fifteen minutes ago. Sensing the nervous air about him, the shameless flirts had decided to accompany him in his vigil.

  ? “We’re going to the Reed Cafe again,” Grim told them. At the slight frown from Miranda, he hurried to explain. “I suggested that fancy place in the Ward, but she didn’t like that idea.”

  ? “Well, of course,” Garf said, assuming a superior air. “Our dear Maven doesn’t like things too fancy.”

  ? “What a load of crap,” Miranda retorted, throwing a glare at her counterpart. “All women love to be spoiled.”

  ? “Nonsense.”

  ? “And what would you know about it?”

  ? “A true lady’s man such as myself knows the secrets to a woman’s mind. I don’t have to fool around with them to understand them.”

  ? Garf opened one eye and glanced at Miranda. “Crepes, spa day, and a greasy burger?”

  ? Miranda opened her mouth gleefully, then hesitated. Even Grim could see that he’d hit the nail on the head. “Whatever! You just know me because we work together! That doesn’t mean Grim should be taking Maven to some dump on the road!”

  ? “Excuse me, but the Reed Cafe is one of the best restaurants in the city!” Garf shot back. “Just because you play at bourgeois doesn’t mean the rest of us have to enable your fantasies. Maven’s a good girl with a proper sense of propriety.”

  ? “Propriety?” Miranda puffed up with indignation, and Grim subtly slid a few inches away, feeling the temperature in the air dropping rather rapidly. “I don’t want to hear that from a man-slut like you!”

  ? Garf ducked the chunk of ice she flung at his face, though the guild member who’d chosen that exact moment to come down the stairs wasn’t so lucky. Fully used to the antics of the guild by now and knowing what was coming, Grim quickly moved to stand beside the large doors to stand clear of the incoming brawl. Sure enough, the unfortunate guildmate rocketed back to their feet at once, and sent a billowing cloud of steam over both Miranda and Garf, who in turn screeched about their hair being messed up, and banded together to return fire.

  ? “Up to their usual nonsense, I see.”

  ? Grim nodded, then gave a small jump as Maven appeared out of thin air to stand beside him. He wouldn’t say he gawked, but he did take a moment to absorb the sight of her, and he couldn’t seem to tear his eyes away all that quickly. Maven had abandoned her usual thick, comfortable robes for a short dark green dress that ended just above her knees, with a thin white long-sleeve blouse over it. They matched the emerald stud she’d put in her left ear and the silver string that she’d braided into her hair. It all ended in a simple but elegant tail that left her long, slender neck exposed.

  ? “Ah, good. That’s the reaction I was expecting,” she said, both flushing and allowing a small smile to form on her face. “Let’s get out of here, yeah? Before one of them hits me and I have to start teaching them some manners.”

  ? He remembered vividly the last brawl that Maven had been caught up in. She’d used a nasty wind spell to send drunks crashing into each other as if she were besieging a castle. ‘Typhoon’ was a common nickname for her in the past few days. “R-Right. Best we get out of the way.”

  ? Despite the brawl rapidly growing behind them as they made their way outside, Grim distinctly heard a few well-wishes for their date, and more than one wolf-whistle. He pointedly ignored the fools, and Maven did likewise. It was a beautiful day in Ironmarsh, with light clouds that left plenty of blue sky and warm sunlight to bathe them as they walked down the dingy, cobbled streets toward Relvan’s Gate.

  ? He stole another glance at her as the gate came within sight, and felt his heart skip a beat. With the sun behind them as it was, her light brown hair shone, and the stud in her ear gleamed with a life of its own. Would it be weird for him to comment on that? Probably. He could at least tell her she looked good, right?

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  ? “You, uh… You look good.”

  ? “Thanks,” she replied, her smile broadening. There was no pink tinge to her cheeks, but she really did seem pleased by the compliment. “I have to say that coat fits you perfectly. You look like a noble thug.”

  ? A noble thug? Was that supposed to be a compliment? He caught the way she was smirking at him, and realized she was expecting him to question the term. Since he wanted nothing more than to make sure the day went her way, he willingly stepped on the trap. “What does that mean?”

  ? Her smirk widened slightly, and he knew his intuition had been right. However, rather than replying outright, she merely shrugged. “Oh, you know. That type of thing the nobles say with all their labels.”

  ? “I don’t know, actually. You see, I’m a commoner, so I wouldn’t know the superstitions and practices of the noble sort.”

  ? She nodded her acceptance of that, and they continued to walk together in silence. Only after a brief pause for her to idly watch Relvan’s statue did the full meaning of what she’d said sink in. “Wait. Are you a noble, Maven?”

  ? He’d heard that her mother was the Guildmaster of the largest Delving Guild in Ironmarsh, but had no idea that meant she wasn’t a commoner like him. When she nodded, he felt a cold hand clutch at his chart. He’d been so sure she was like him… Was she lying this entire time, toying with him as all nobles had?

  ? “I hope that’s not a problem,” she said, turning to face him. He knew by her tone that some of his pent-up anger had shown on his face. “I can’t control who my parents were, you know. And I like to think that I don’t act like some stuck-up nobling.”

  ? “O-Oh,” he said quickly, hoping he hid his emotions properly. “I didn’t mean-”

  ? “People like to talk a lot,” she continued, speaking right over him. “So I’m sure you heard about my mother, and how I came to be in the Cartographers. The same way that I know there’s more to your story than simply being a commoner from Beastwick.”

  ? When he finally had his emotions under enough control to meet her eyes, he saw that they were locked onto his face, her gaze steady and unblinking. This was a chance, he could tell. A chance to either tell the truth or lie. His answer was an important one, not for its contents, but for how she would regard him going forward. He cleared his throat uncomfortably, trying to figure out which option he’d choose.

  ? “There… is more to it than what I’ve shared with the others,” he said quietly, after a quick glance up and down the street to ensure nobody was close enough to overhear. “I’m just… not ready to share it yet. I haven’t even told Veyra all of it, though I’m sure she knows there’s more.”

  ? “Oh, you can guarantee it. Our Captain is a shrewd woman. Nothing gets past those eyes of hers.”

  ? That made him think of Veyra’s obvious bloodline, which she’d taken great pains to keep secret. Did Maven know what her abilities were, then? Veyra had claimed that only her lover and Commander Silas Revel knew, but even she couldn’t be absolutely sure about that.

  ? “She’s the reason I joined the Cartographer’s Guild,” Maven said quietly. “I bet you didn’t know that.”

  ? Grim shook his head, confirming her guess. At least they were past the awkward subject of his origin for the time being. She smiled again. “My mother wanted me to join the Lakeshore Craftsmen, or some other merchant guild. I’m pretty good at Alchemy, you see. But I wanted to join the Cartographers after meeting Veyra a few times. I don’t delve much, but my clerical work is important. And I have access to information that most of the city doesn’t.”?

  ? He wasn’t interested in trying to weigh the truth of what she said, but he had a feeling she wasn’t lying. She did seem to draw pleasure from her work, and the constant presence of thick tomes around her during meals clearly indicated her affinity with research.

  ? “I think you made the right choice,” he said, sensing that she expected some kind of response. “The others always talk about how good you are at your job.”

  ? Her smile widened, and she moved to stand beside him, ready to resume their walk. “I am good at what I do. I might even be equal with Minneson, but she’s my supervisor and has an A-Rank as a delver. I’ve still got a while to go before I can catch up to her.”

  ? He vividly remembered the stern, brown-haired woman with spectacles and stiff dark blue robes. She’d struck Grim as someone who would be at home in a library. He could easily imagine Maven looking up to someone like that as a mentor. It was the type of tutorship that he would have absolutely no interest in.

  ? “Did you know she’s Maxwell’s mother?”

  ? It took him a second to remember the head researcher of Blackrose Academy, and he blinked in surprise. “Really? But she doesn’t look old enough to have a son his age.”

  ? “Well, I don’t know all the details. But apparently, she had him pretty young. She’s also level seventeen, so she obviously won’t look her true age.”

  ? Level seventeen… Grim tried to imagine the power the woman held at such a high level, but couldn’t picture it. His highest frame of reference was the guildmates he knew, and Miranda was the strongest at level… thirteen? With the gulf that existed between him and his promiscuous friend, he could only fantasize about how far he had to go before he was as strong as the head clerk.

  ? “Damn,” he muttered, rubbing the back of his neck. “I had no idea she was so strong. Wait… If she’s so high-level, why isn’t she the Guildmaster?”

  ? Maven snorted. “Because she has no interest in it. She says that as long as she has a place to do her research, she’s happy. Though she was the Guildmaster for a few months before Orren was approved. He still doesn’t have the minimum level requirement to run a major guild yet, so he had to get special permission. She took over until he could, and she hated it. I was still in Blackrose at the time, so I’ve only heard the stories.”

  ? They fell silent then as they continued walking through the cleaner half of the city. Grim had gotten a lot of new information in a rather short amount of time, and his brain was trying to sort through it. He was sure it would, in time, change the way he viewed the guild and the city itself, but for now, he just wanted to make sure that this date was a rousing success. He had to make a good impression on Maven so that he could have another one. At the soonest available opportunity.

  ? “Well, here we are,” he said, as they approached the front of Reed Cafe. “Shall we have a nice lunch?”

  ? “Oh, yes, please!” She said eagerly. “I deliberately skipped breakfast because I was looking forward to this.”