Becoming Monsters is the creation of AiLovesToGrow, setting used with permission.

  This idea comes from Amethyst Dragonfly.

  Quiverbow, Domochevsky’s character, appears again here. Another man gave me permission to cameo here. Talonaxe Armory, a foam weapon aficionado and videographer, also appears in this chapter.

  —

  Chapter 24: It Is Time

  “So, why are we out here again?” Abbey’s tone was skeptical.

  “I need to work, so I came out to catch the evening crowd. You wanted to come with me, and since your folks decided they wanted to sleep in their RV we’re not losing time with them. Our commute is about sixty seconds, so it’s all good!”

  The two of them were seated behind a table in the free tent. Justin had id out his prices and rexed, seeing the crowds come and go. The Guild Hall really took all kinds, and many people who were nocturnal by Css and Race demands (like your average, non-sparkly Vampire, for example) or just by preference preferred to do their Delving after the sun set. Even in that tent, there were four people offering services besides Justin, to several customers who were either starting or ending their days.

  Abbey shook her head. “That’s not what I meant. You’ve known how to use that sharpening block for less than three hours. The day’s been long and busy, tomorrow will be as well, and I know you have homework and reading that’s on the back burner for this.”

  Justin ran the glowing dagger in his hand across the whetstone two more times and looked down the edge to judge its sharpness. Testing it on his hair would be hazardous without knowing what else was on it. “Yeah, homework is kind of the point.” He set the knife on a paper he’d written the customer’s name on, carefully making sure that it was out of reach of casual customers. “I’m on freence rules until I can finish my college final, which is also my apprentice project, which is also going to be my example for all the random things I can do outside of Quiverbow’s shop. Problem being that I’m about two or three hundred dolrs worth of materials short of swinging it, so I need to get on that. Plus a certain dragon we need to reassure.”

  “I have a job, you know. It is covering for us for now. You don’t have to go try to flex just because Dad believes you should be the man of the house and provide for me. It’s a different generation thing.” Abbey leaned back in her chair, crossing her arms.

  “I know, love, and that’s why we can reliably eat for the next little while.” He paused as the owner of the knife, a Human cd in leather armor, dropped by to pay for the service and retrieve his weapon. “Thing is, I have no idea what is going to be needed day by day. Gotta be ready for anything. So, unless I’m ahead of the materials I’m going to use in the next day or two, I have to work on that. I’m not right now, so there we go.” He looked in his pouch. “Two more customers and I can get a Gold piece, which will let me get started on the real stuff.”

  “Since you aren’t taking a hint, Justin, I’ll be clearer: you need to pack up so that we can get home and rest. You still have school in the morning, I still have the bank to go to, and at the rate you’re getting customers it will be midnight before you get your goal. Using the bachelors in business admin here, your offering isn’t too remarkable if you’re not using magic for it, so while it looks like this is still better than your old job it isn’t getting anywhere in a hurry. You need to use your time wisely, love.”

  Justin looked at the ck of a line in front of him. Then, he looked at the fact that he didn’t have any completed jobs waiting for their owners, either. He sighed, a rather frustrated kind of thing this time. “You know, I’d be a lot more annoyed if you weren’t both the love of my life and a hundred percent correct. Tomorrow’s, what, Wednesday?”

  “September third, yes. You have two csses, including the css where you will turn in the literature homework you did over the weekend.” The corner of Abbey's lips quirked up into a bit of a smirk.

  “Good thing I’m ahead on that one.” He began to put away his tools.

  Abbey shook her head. “No, you were ahead. Now you’re just on target. I’m serious, love, you have some enforced ‘focus on school’ time coming your way between the regur homework and our mana pools.”

  Justin picked up his bag, stood, and offered Abbey a hand. “Alright, you win. Any time I’m out here, I’ll make sure to have my school work with me for when I don’t have an unending stream of customers.” The st was said with more than a bit of self-deprecation.

  “I know that’s the best I’m getting for now, so I’ll take it.” Abbey took the proffered help standing. Not because she needed it, but because she liked it more when she could feel Justin. The two of them didn’t take long to get back home to their own bed, and cuddles commenced very shortly thereafter. Both had long days, and sleep came quickly for Justin.

  Abbey noticed something else, too, rather shallowly. Justin had been easy on the eyes to begin with. A couple of months ago, he’d been the cute surfer-boy barista she’d been debating whether to ask out. Now? The exercise and hard work he had been putting in was paying off. She could feel the muscle in the bicep she was using as her pillow, in the chest she was cuddled against. It was nice. Really, really nice. With that thought, she snuggled in again and finally fell asleep.

  Next morning was a bit slower than the st couple. Abbey woke up in time to actually join Justin on his workout. Since she was there, and since he really didn’t like jogging in the sand, they went swimming. It should be noted, despite improvements, Justin was not keeping up with his Mariner fiancee. Then again, by the looks of it she wasn’t exactly using her Css very hard. Breakfast, coffee, and a kiss ter Justin was heading up to the dorm room portal. Abbey had enough time to grab almost two breaths before Todd came charging out of the guest room, his whole crew in tow, and all of them were on full scramble to get ready themselves. “Whoah, what’s going on?”

  Todd, head in the fridge as he pulled out quick food, responded. “Sorry about the rush, just got word from the hospital that something weird happened. It got the only Paramedic-certified Delver on staff sent into the Seattle Dungeon on a rescue mission with escort. That sounds an awful lot like something we’re here to keep an eye on.” He grabbed a loaf of bread, dashed over to the toaster, and started feeding slices through it. Wasting no time, he grabbed ptes and knives while Ghata got other things from the fridge.

  Song saw that there wasn’t a pce she could slip in to help, so she took over expnations. “Whenever things like that happen, it means something big has gone wrong, so we need to get information. It also usually means all hands on deck for the crew back at the facilities, so Ghata and I are going to help get set up and possibly pitch in if a rush occurs.”

  Abbey shook her hands at the nervous tingles she felt. “If it’s going down in the Dungeon, I’m going to be needed at Camp Administration ter. Okay, looks like I’m going to be busy this morning getting ahead of what I need to do at work, but I can tell them I’m getting information from my next job after that. You all know how to get out, I need to run.”

  “I’ve got home base if anyone needs anything!” May’s voice was almost lost in the chaos, but Abbey appreciated it. Having someone to call for backup was always good, and it was always easy to forget something in the rush. Out one door, out another, bus stop, bank, and time for the crowds.

  A gray Cat Beastfolk came by the coin line to deposit what looked like the haul from a recent run, along with a couple of team members. After him was a brown-haired Human guy in a blue-trimmed bck robe and gsses, then a half-cybernetic Corgi woman. It was easy to lock in, to just feel the flow, but once the initial rush was done she couldn’t slow down. Three section supervisors eventually gave her the name of the person she’d need to train up for her position. Tyler was decent, but not up to her standards. Also not nearly as easily trained as Justin, but to be fair she was kind of cheating on that one.

  Seriously, he’s mine and I’m his by the power of not one, but TWO wishes? I need to look that up, ask around, but I’ve never even heard of anyone doing that before. Not that it’s anything more than academic at this point, what’s done is done and it’s not like I’m objecting.

  Miles away and stuck in a cssroom, Justin was bored. He was here so that he could pass, but legitimately found it hard to care about what was in front of him. The readings were an obstacle, the quiz an annoyance, when he knew what he needed to do for the next three or four steps of his life after that. To be honest, it was pretty much ONLY the thought of Abbey that kept him from dropping the whole thing and focusing on other things in his life. Both her pride if he finished and her disappointment if he didn’t. With that to drive him, though? He could make it through.

  He was also definitely thankful when it was over for the day, though.

  Lunch, one more css, and he was off back home. A couple of texts ter and he found out that nobody but May was still there, Abbey’s parents off doing something unreted and Abbey herself still stuck training someone. True to his word, he made sure to check his notes to get the right book for his down time studies before he jogged over to Camp.

  And Camp was… solemn. Something had gone terribly wrong down in the Dungeon, but nobody wanted to talk about it. Justin didn’t know what, but he could tell one thing: The rgest and most powerful guild around, Golden Age, didn’t seem to be around as much as in days past. There was talk, though. The guy set up next to him, a Human Wizard in brown robes with a faint Southern accent, was offering shots of a magic spell he said was the equivalent of four shots of espresso without the jitters. “It’s a good way to use my spare mana, anyway, but you know, I almost never get Delve teams taking me up on it.”

  Justin looked up from the notes he was taking. “Really? I’d have thought they’d be your main customers by a mile.”

  “Nah, that was what I thought when I first started, but honestly it’s your buddies here on Crafters Row. I might get one or two Delvers in a week. The Crafters make sure I never run out of customers.”

  “Huh.” Justin flipped a few pages in his notebook and titled the page. “Any of them say why?”

  The other man shrugged, robes rustling. “Honestly, it’s not that big a shock when you think about it. Y’all are in the business of turning raw materials into lethal force, the Delvers are in the business of turning lethal force into raw materials, and there’s a lot more of them than there are of you.”

  Justin paused for a moment to take a customer, this one an Orc with a dagger at least three times rger than the kitchen knives at home. “And I guess that expins why I’m not seeing any Shapers out here besides myself.” He started carefully sharpening the bde, which was more like a short sword for him.

  “Here I thought that’s why you were out here with a sharpening block instead of using your powers.” The Wizard took a customer of his own, and with a brief incantation sent the man on his way. Justin recognized him as one of Quiverbow’s apprentices; apparently the man had a point about the breakneck pace the Crafters were working to keep.

  Justin’s phone pinged. Abbey, asking for him to come to the main building. It sounded urgent. “Hey, I just finished sharpening this but I’m being called to the admin hall. Dude’s already paid, mind making sure the guy gets it when he swings back by?”

  The man gave a thumbs up. “Orc with one chipped tusk and an Uprising badge, right? Easy enough, you take care, and I hope to see you around.”

  “You, too. Name’s Justin, trying to get into Quiverbow’s pce as an apprentice.”

  “I’m Lee, with Borealis. Junior pool for now, but hoping to change that in time to participate in the whole ritual thing they’re trying to get together for the Expo. Hope whatever it is doesn’t hurt too bad, getting called up there never ends well.”

  There was a LOT to unpack there, but no time to ask more questions to do it. With a wave to Lee and the others in the tent, Justin got moving. It wasn’t smart to go running at a full sprint across the Camp, no matter the temptation. The consequences of a crash could range from “enough embarrassment to hurt your chances at selling things in the future” to “potentially lethal” depending on who or what you crashed into. Thankfully, he’d been jogging enough recently to get a good pace going all the way to the admin. He had to slow down significantly once he got close, though. The area was practically swarming with people. He could see one particur azure community pilr directing traffic with frantic speed. Abbey gestured for him to come over without ever stopping her stream of directions.

  “Justin! Good, I’ll expin ter, but I need you to take this party over to Quiverbow. They’re talking about major commissions, enough to get admin involved, but we kind of have our hands full right now.”

  “What the heck happened?” Justin was looking at the group of five. They were dressed pinly, not wearing armor or carrying noticeable weapons, but something was off. They were all Humans, for one, and pure statistics around here made that wildly improbable. Their “pin clothes” were also strangely uniform, white shirts and blue jeans with dark belts.

  Abbey looked around. “No time, a Delve went wrong.” She picked out the next group and started getting their information. This bunch, she sent inside to one of the people there.

  Those four words, “a Delve went wrong,” were ones that drove fear directly into the hearts of anyone even vaguely associated with the Camp. Every Delver knew that they risked life and limb underground. That isn’t what those words meant. It meant that something happened outside of what could be expined or defended against, and as a result people died. Justin shook his head. There would be time for that ter. “Right this way, gentlemen, let’s get out of the crowd.”

  “Thank you.” They walked quickly, and it took some effort to stay in front of them. “I hear Quiverbow is quite the character. Anything we need to know about her before we start making deals?”

  “She’s the best, and knows she’s the best. Don’t insult her or try to lowball, every minute she’s spending with you is one that she isn’t pnning or executing one of her creations.” Justin thought for a second about what that might mean for his own existence at the moment. All in all, he found it encouraging. If she was willing to hear him out, to advise him, to consider him a possible apprentice? It meant that he was worth what he just said her time was valued at.

  “I truly wish that sentence described fewer people I had to deal with.” The man who seemed to be in charge was a clean-cut sort of guy. His blonde hair was cropped close, and like the rest of his people he seemed to be keeping an eye out on everything at once. Not exactly rare for visitors on its own, there was a lot to see around here that you really couldn’t anywhere else. Thing is, they were definitely not just taking in the sights. They were focusing too hard for that.

  No time to finish that line of thought, they arrived. “Please wait in front of the shop. I’ll let Quiverbow know you’re here. She doesn’t waste time, so it should be quick.”

  At their acknowledgement, Justin ducked inside. The noise of the workshop section of the pce was becoming more familiar every time he came here. As usual, the boss was easy to find. She was everywhere in the shop, directing work and solving problems, charging components and checking their fit. No surprise, then, when mere seconds ter she called out from across the shop. “Back already? That was unexpected.”

  “I’m still gathering materials, ma’am. You have visitors up front, admin says they are here to make rger arrangements with you.”

  Quiverbow’s face didn’t twitch, but that in itself was telling. She was a very animated kind of person. That momentary freeze spoke volumes. “That was also quicker than I had anticipated. Everyone! You have five minutes to find a pce to pause your project and get out of the workshop. We will resume work in two hours.”

  The noise had been significant. It became unbelievable as she stepped through the door to the front counter. Inside of a minute, it died down. Either this was something that happened a lot, or they were just good at making sure they could pause. One of the others, a Dwarf in a wide-brimmed hat with one of the shop’s infamous rifles slung across his back, made sure to take Justin aside. “Been seeing you a lot, and Quiverbow keeps talking about someone trying out for the st apprentice slot. I’m assuming that’s you?”

  Justin nodded. “I’m gathering materials for the project now.”

  “That’s what I like to hear. Name’s James, but I go by Talonaxe. Journeyman Enchanter on the Delver track, I’m the unofficial weapons tester and official head of the apprentices here. If you come up with an idea, I’m probably going to be the one putting my glorious beard on the line underground to check if it’s worth it.”

  Justin gulped. “Uh, my first one for the whole apprentice thing is going to be an artistic piece. A gss sword.”

  Talonaxe grinned under his (admittedly glorious) beard. “Then I won’t be swinging it, good to know. You need any help on materials? I have some spares and know where to find others.”

  Justin shrugged. “Just have to get Gold together, and I’m not going to ask you for that. Unless you have some powdered cobalt dyes?”

  “I don’t, but I can ask around. Any particur reason?”

  Justin thought for a moment, “it shouldn’t affect the function, no, but it reminds me of my fiancée and it’ll look better with the gold.”

  “You do you, then. Let’s get out of here before time’s up, I’m going to test this guy,” he patted the rifle on his back. “If you feel the need for some ballistic therapy, swing by the practice targets.”

  “I’m headed to find Abbey, but thanks for the offer.”

  “Blue color, name of Abbey… oh, the new girl at admin? No kidding, you’re engaged to her? You have to share that story sometime, word is the Marshal picked her for the job personally.” Talonaxe was leading Justin out as they talked. The first piece of the trip would be in the same direction anyway.

  “From what she says, he did. Bit more complicated than that, though, and since she got swarmed under she asked for help. What the heck happened? Nobody wants to talk about it, but everyone’s acting like someone died.”

  Talonaxe paused, head held down. “Word is that two did, and a couple more might never go underground again. Golden Age got themselves crushed on a training run. Easy stuff, you know? Except, not this time. Some giant demon bsted ten of their guys in the Labyrinth, then came out the front gate and did the same thing to their rescue squad. Shield Against Shadows was there, and it’s a good thing that they were. They're specialists in that kind of enemy.” He shook his head, one hand steadying his hat in the breeze. “By the time word got back to the rest of us what happened, it was over. Don’t go to the medical tents unless you absolutely have to, they’re going to be packed for a while.”

  “I see. Thank you for that, it all makes a lot of sense now.” Justin looked around. To the left was the main Hall. To the right, the path to the practice targets, which were nearby the medical tents. “Looks like this is where we split off. Anything I can do to… I dunno, make things easier around here?”

  Talonaxe shook his head. “We just keep doing what we do. This pce has to keep running, and without us it won’t. When they decide to go back to their runs in a day or two they’re going to need what we do. Goes double if those guys chatting with Quiverbow have a big order to pce, we’re going to be busy. Think of it as a chance to catch up.”

  Justin thought of his pocket full of Silver coins, along with his mana bar. “Actually, one thing. If you have a Gold on you, I have some Silver to trade for it. Need the Gold for my project, and the main exchange is probably going to be busy. I only have enough for one right now.”

  Talonaxe did some mental math. “That doesn’t slice evenly. Tell you what, give me what you’ve got and I’ll give you two, make up the difference ter. It’s not like you’ll be hard to find unless you want to run away from the apprenticeship and take Abbey with you.”

  “Thanks a ton!” They exchanged coins. “This should let me get way ahead of things.”

  “Get me your schematics sometime, I’ll look it over before you sink too much time and gold into it. Until then, just make sure to have fun with it.” He nodded, the brim of the hat emphasizing the motion, and turned towards his destination.

  Justin turned the other way and got jogging, off towards where he knew Abbey still stood. The crowd was thankfully much smaller, the frantic pace of things having scked off. As he walked up, another woman walked out and said something to Abbey. Though they were too far away to be able to hear, Abbey’s body nguage was clear. Her shoulders sagged with relief, and she turned to walk away from the building. Straight into Justin’s arms. “Let’s get home. I think I’m done for today.”

  Justin was practically holding her up, she’d driven herself nearly to exhaustion. Perhaps not physical, though she was certainly worn out. More emotional fatigue. She’d had a densely busy morning, and then her afternoon was handling tragedy that she was in no way prepared for, despite only being vaguely adjacent to it. She didn’t know any of the victims. She only had to deal with those who did. It was more than enough.

  He carefully helped her get home, sat her down at the kitchen table, and figured that some funny stories about the guy who had to come to the tent he was working on for a counter-curse to something that caused his feet to stick to one another only to find out that it was just his shoeces that got tied together by an unknown prankster. Her parents showed back up and decided to help with dinner once they saw the kind of (failure-bound) pn Justin had thought up for it, and the four of them ate together. It helped. Tomorrow could be its own day. Tonight, they could just exist.