[Ciriodhul]

Music

“Come then, let’s be off to find you two that room. Important things should be handled promptly... sometimes”, Maruem said and went to the entrance to hold the door open for the unequally embarrassed pair of shaman and spirit. Ciriodhul followed while gently supporting Sola, so that she wouldn’t slide down underneath his robe to the floor. Of course this was quite unnecessary, since the spirit was able to fly, but he still felt it to be the right way to act. The way Maruem had uttered his last sentence made the shaman think. “What did he mean with ‘sometimes’?”, he thought and could not come up with an answer. Had his host once rushed some important thing, which had ended badly? Or had he gotten the wrong idea about his business with Sola he had mentioned? Whatever it was, Ciriodhul had the feeling that further inquiry would be rude. He had once been quite skilled at interpreting other people’s words, but his own mental state and his lack of knowledge about this world and the man, he was just passing, while he was holding the door open for him, severely limited his former ability.

Briefly after locking the door behind them, Maruem offered the key to Sola to ask her to keep watch of it. He explained that he wanted her and Ciriodhul to have it should they ever want to spend time in the greenhouse on their own. Naturally he had his own copy. “This is part of your home too now, after all.” It really was. Ciriodhul and his newfound companion were going to live here. After wandering the city for almost a week, he had found a home. When needed, the shaman was able to sleep almost everywhere and on anything, but now there was a place where he could truly mentally rest. While Sola took the beautifully engraved key, Ciriodhul could not hide how touched he was by Maruem’s gesture. Two tears rolled down his still blushing cheeks and he was somewhat glad his host had offered the key to Sola and not him. “Thank you. We will make sure to keep it safely stored and to use it wisely. As the housekeeper it is my duty to watch over the plants anyways. So don’t worry about that then.”

Next he followed his host downstairs, where Maruem took something resembling a small lantern out of his magic bag and put it inside an empty wall light, which blazed with new light shortly after. Since he had to put up a few more of these magic lights, he shortly gave Ciriodhul a few directions for the second floor of the building. There were thirteen bedrooms in total. Seven on their side and six around the corner. Additionally he would find a maintenance room for the waterwheel and a balcony around the corner as well. Then Maruem left him to explore and most likely choose one of the bedrooms. Ciriodhul didn’t hesitate long to open the closest door to the free-standing staircase’s bottom. He could clearly feel the water getting through his undershirt now. “How can such a small person soak up this much water?”, he thought and looked into the room. Without its own light source the room was only dimly lit. Partly by the magical light creeping in through the door from behind him and partly by the night sky shining in through a window directly opposite to the door. For former barracks the room was of generous size, slightly wider than deep and each wall long enough to fit about two beds one after another. However, there was only one single bed on the left wall, a wardrobe on the right wall and a desk with chair just under the window. The rest of the room was empty, ready to be furnished by the inhabitant’s desire. His gaze shifted towards the bed’s blanket, which seemed to be the only towel-like object in the room. He sat down on the bed while putting the blanket aside, before he carefully took Sola out of his robe. While her bare legs and arms were already dry by now, the white shirt and black skirt were still soaked with water. “I hope, you aren’t cold”, the shaman said to break the awkward silence in the room, before he had to accomplish the even more awkward task of drying the spirit’s clothes. Sola shook her head: “Your breast and heart is cosily warm.” He began to carefully rub her back with one side of the blanket, until he heard an uncomfortable moan. “Oh, sorry. Having wet cloth rubbed against your skin isn’t particularly pleasant, is it? Just bear with me, I’ll try speckling.” It was of no use, however. While Sola was clearly pleased that he was now pressing the blanket against her from all sides so that it would absorb at least some of the water inside her clothes, it didn’t have much of an effect. Her clothes were still wet and her white shirt still additionally transparent. After a while Sola became impatient and flew away from his right hand with the blanket right back into his robe’s collar and unto his breast. “It’s okay; it will dry on its own. Just keep me warm, okay?”, she said, for the first time with an embarrassed undertone. “Alright”, he replied without any other option to try. “Then let us choose a bedroom for ourselves. Maybe we’ll find a better solution later on.” He was pretty sure that Sola would have to take her clothes off for awhile sooner or later, but now was hardly the time for that.

They took a glance in one bedroom after another and pretty much got the same picture in all of them. All were furnished with a single bed, desk and wardrobe and all were pretty much of the same size. Some had their window and door in different places. Some had a different arrangement of their furnishing. And some were deeper than wide instead of wider than deep. But all in all, Ciriodhul didn’t find any reason to choose one over another based on their interior. The last bedroom they entered was right next to the first one in the corner right behind the stairs. In this room the bed was at the right wall in the far right corner and the wardrobe shared the same wall as the door exactly to the shaman’s right side, while the desk stood in the far left corner of the room. Ciriodhul went directly to the window to confirm a hunch he had. When looking down he was able to see the street coming from Romalia and even the last step of the stairs leading up to the entrance of the building. “Perfect. A room pretty much in the centre of the floor and with a view down on this building’s guests. What do you think, Sola? I think, this is the most fitting bedroom for the housekeeper of this building”, he proclaimed proudly. “I don’t mind. It got a bed to take a nap in and a roommate to be petted by.” With her approval, Ciriodhul memorized the number on the door and fetched the fitting key from the nightstand: A silvery one, whose head formed an intertwined Roman one in the centre of a circle of further intertwined ornaments. Just when he safely put the key into his magic bag, he heard steps coming up from the first floor, so he went back to the stairs to meet Maruem.

“I set up a bit of a surprise for you and Ms.Sola while you were picking a room. If you follow the trail of lights downstairs there's a bath waiting for you. There are a handful of clean towels on a shelf in the corner for you as well for when you're finished in there”, he said while still standing on the stairs, before he quickly turned around and vanished into the first floor again without giving Ciriodhul much time to respond. Not that that would have been necessary. The shaman simply decided to accept his host’s hospitality. He just had to make sure to not forget to thank Maruem later. “It appears, that we might get your clothes dry after all, Sola”, he said with a slight smile on his face. Maruem made it very hard to not immediately feel at home and even though Ciriodhul’s sadness had not faded away, it was suppressed behind a coziness he had not felt for a long time. He went down the stairs and found his way to the bathroom by following the lights to the end of a smaller corridor leading into the direction of the maintenance room and the backmost bedrooms on the second floor. He closed the door behind him and immediately went for the shelf in the corner, where he found the aforementioned towels. He spread one of them on top of the shelf and sat Sola on top of it. “You should get rid of these wet clothes for now. We are taking a bath anyways. When your wrap them in this towel they might be dry, when you are finished”, he told her and turned towards the door to leave her alone. “Don’t you mean, when we are finished?” He could almost hear Sola’s head tilt to the side. He gazed back over his shoulder, only to watch her taking her skirt off. He quickly looked back at the door. “So you want to take a bath together”, he said more calmly than he probably should have. “Isn’t that more fun?”, she replied; again without any hint of shame. “I guess so”, he said and slowly began undressing himself as well. What did he know to turn her request down? She was obviously comfortable with having him around in this sort of situation and he still had no clue how the bond between a shaman and his spirit was supposed to work. When he was done undressing he slowly submerged his body into the warm water of one of the bathtubs inside the floor. It was a great feeling after having had few opportunities to wash himself for the last week. He could feel the warmth of the water trickling into his body and his muscles relax. Only a short moment later Sola joined him, but had no other choice but to swim in front of him. Her legs were unable to reach to the bottom. “Get on my knee”, Ciriodhul told her, while putting his right leg up, so that his knee was only slightly submerged and so that it formed a suitable bathing seat for his companion. Sola didn’t wait for him to say it twice and settled down on his knee almost immediately while still facing him. Dangling her feet in the water in front of her she started speaking: “It’s strange. For a master you are really kind. I answered your call to do your bidding and yet you always ask me what I want. I have never heard of such a master before.” Ciriodhul was taken aback at being called a master for a moment. On second thought this made sense, though. In the game Gaia Reborn Sola would not have been much more than a familiar under the limited control of the player and the game files. Hence the player would have been a master from the spirit’s perspective. “Well, I am a bit different. Maybe we are all a bit different now. Did you follow my call voluntarily?” Ciriodhul jumped at the opportunity of holding conversation, while simultaneously distracting himself from Sola’s nakedness, which was still awkward for him. Strangely he had no issue with being naked himself in front of her. “Yes and no. Our souls are entangled. I had no other choice but to voluntarily follow your call to this realm of existence.”, she replied, still joyfully dangling her feet in the water. “Hm, which probably means you are unable to leave my side, correct?” Figuring out as much rules about their relation to each other as possible as soon as possible was probably a good idea. She nodded. “I won’t be able to lastingly leave you, and I won’t have a choice but to voluntarily follow your call, whenever you may summon me again.” Although her words sounded sad to him, Sola seemed to be even more joyful than before. He was probably judging her situation from the perspective of his old freedom-centric world. For the remaining time of their bath he drifted into thought. While letting him summon her seemed to be a voluntary decision, being desummoned seemed to be the exact opposite from what he had determined earlier in the greenhouse. This only made sense if a supposed entanglement of their souls really existed. Both of them being together would be like a rule of this world then. Therefore desummoning her would only needlessly hurt the spirit. It was a good thing he had promised her to decide about the summon and desummon herself. She was clearly affected more by it than he was or was she? Maybe the entanglement of their souls was affecting him in the exact same way now. But why had he decided to desummon her on the day of the apocalypse then? His head began to hurt. Nothing of what he was thinking about was important. The only important thing was that she was by his side now and that she wanted to stay by his side. “Let’s get out of here before we dehydrate”, he said after a while and helped Sola out of the bathtub before getting out himself. He gently dried Sola with a second towel, before he dried his own body. Although he had to touch every part of her naked body to properly do that, neither of them was particularly embarrassed this time around. In the meantime Sola’s clothes had dried up nicely, so that both of them were able to properly dress themselves.

Not shortly after both of them made their way out of the bath together and went into the kitchen, where Ciriodhul expected to find his host again. However, instead of the guild leader he only found two freshly made cheese sandwiches with bacon on the counter. One of them of normal size and one of them clearly sized down for Sola. Apparently Maruem had made dinner for them. Ciriodhul took the sandwiches and went into the big dining hall next to the kitchen. He sat down at one of the long tables and waited. And while he waited for his host to reappear and Sola started on eating her own sandwich, he weirdly started to miss the bread of his home country. Until now he hadn’t really felt homesick at all. And now that a very American and very delicious smelling bacon cheese sandwich sat on the table in front of him, he was reminded of the smell of oven-warm sour-dough bread, which filled his home country’s bakeries. “Maybe I should bake some bread on my own, when I finally unlock Housekeeping Aptitude. Oh, and pretzels. I should definitely bake some pretzels. What to use as lye, though?”, he thought to himself; not only being homesick for the first time he had entered this world but also making plans for the future for the first time.

“Sorry for leaving, I had to contact a friend quick, how was the food?” Maruem’s voice came from the kitchen. Had he expected them to eat there? “We are here”, he shouted towards the kitchen. “In the dining room. At least I believe it is the dining room.” Ciriodhul paused and waited for Maruem to find him. “The food was great!”, Sola said, before the shaman could continue and playfully threw her arms up in the air while kneeling on the table. “I’ve waited for you to start eating. I thought we would have dinner together. And now that you are here I realize that you must have already eaten. Sorry to make you think I would despise your food. It really looks and smells delicious”, Ciriodhul said abashed and immediately took a big bite out of the sandwich, which was already cold by now, but nonetheless as delicious as he had expected. “Thank you for the bath by the way. It was especially great for Sola. She took a swim in the greenhouse’s pond and needed some warmth. Oh, and we chose a room to live in. It’s the one right above the entrance. That way I’ll know, when we have guests, and I can immediately respond.” He took another bite out of the sandwich. “So, when you have already eaten. Is there something else you want to do or talk about this evening? I have the feeling there is much to discuss, although I don’t really know what exactly.”

---

Word Count: 2814
Total Word Count: 10861
Tags: Maruem
Note: Finally, that took quite a long time to write. XD

[Maruem]

His head peaked around the corner of the door looking into the kitchen to find the plates of food gone, but no one in sight. Almost immediately he heard his new housemate's reply calling to him from the dining hall. Maruem stepped through the kitchen and entered the dining hall through the conjoining doorway. He turned to face the source of the voice and found a rather content looking Sola praising his cooking, her plate seemingly licked clean by the little familiar.

Ciriodhul's plate, on the other hand was seemingly untouched. Maruem scarcely even had time to wonder if the food was simply not to the shaman's liking before the robed man began to explain. Upon hearing that his guest had waited to eat together, Maruem felt a bit of guilt at leaving to handle his own personal business. With a mouth now partially full of cooled grilled cheese sandwich, the shaman thanked Maruem for setting the bath and explained why Sola had been wet in the first place, apparently having had taken a dip in the pool of chilly water at the center of the greenhouse.

With little more than a pause to breath he was on to sharing about the room he had decided on living in. As he began to explain his reasoning it made perfect sense, looking back it was the obvious choice for a housekeeper. Living right above the door with a full view of any guests who come to the door was a perfect spot for someone who's task was to serve and care for the home. Another bite and he expressed that he felt like there was plenty for them to continue conversing about after Maruem had eaten, though he was not sure entirely what it was himself.

Maruem sat down on the bench across from Sola and Ciriodhul and thought for a brief moment before speaking. "To be honest, I was, and still am a bit too excited for food. It was so heart warming to see how touched you were at the prospect of having a home to call your own. I kind of got a bit too excited and let that wonderment get the best of me. Instead of being a more proper host and walking with you for a better tour of the house I left you to your own devices. I wanted to make you feel at home as quickly as possible, but I could have achieved that through less distant means. You need not worry, i did not think that you despise my cooking, and even if you did I couldn't blame you. I'm not a chef, this world treats my cooking as lesser than a chefs. I'm just glad that I could get by making something as simple as a grilled cheese and it being to your satisfaction."

He paused briefly and then thought back about a previous offer he had made. "Truth be told I offered you two a fresh cut of boar meat, but I felt like it may be wiser to save that for a big family curry night or stew! What do you two think of that?" He beamed at them, the prospect of growing his family enough to all share in a night of good food and friendship an extremely enticing one. "Maybe we'll have a professional chef by then and they'll make something truly special."

Maruem tried to imagine what their chef may look like. Maybe a lithe man like the nervous one who had been at the tavern with them the day prior? Or maybe a nice young Zaria lady who used her third eye for even more precise cooking. It would probably be preferable that it were not a Nozgor, Maruem was not particularly invested in the idea of eating food with his friends blood in it. He was getting distracted hopping down deeper into a rabbit hole and he needed to catch himself.

"Ciriodhul, Sola, I need to thank the two of you, from the bottom of my heart. I have aspirations with Astra, but although my title says I'm 'The Eclipse' I don't feel the badassery that such a title should impose. I'm used to playing characters who are strong and capable, but had someone to follow, someone to help raise to the top. I hope the two of you can still thive and live happily with, and being led by someone who is admittedly a bit of an airhead at times." He finished the last sentence with a light tap of his knuckle to the side of his head and a silly face.

"I'll be relying on you to help Astra grow and keep Gaia safe. Astra, as far as I know, means 'to the stars through adversity'. There will be much we'll have to overcome, but that doesn't mean that any of us will have to go it alone. My dream is to grow Astra to be a home where we can overcome any adversity we face together, and rise over the crest to the other side stronger and closer than we were before."

Word Count: 850
Total Word Count: 11000+850=11850
Tags: Ciriodhul

[Ciriodhul]

After Maruem had come into the dining room and listened to what Ciriodhul had to say, he sat down at the opposite side of the table directly in front of them. Then he told them, that he was still too excited to eat, after all that had happened today, and that Ciriodhul’s open emotions over finding a place to call home had made him overeager to make these emotions a reality. In the process he had been more distant than he had wanted to be. Something the shaman hadn’t minded at all. He was glad, when Maruem said that he didn’t need to worry about him thinking that he didn’t like the sandwich and that Maruem wouldn’t blame him anyways. After all cooking was bound to the crafting class chef now and food being cooked by someone, who wasn’t a chef, tasted inferior by nature. Still eating the sandwich Ciriodhul could not really confirm this truth, however. Maybe the circumstances made it taste better than it should, but it still seemed to be the best dinner he had eaten in this world yet. In the following brief pause the shaman tried to chime in and almost choked on the hastily swallowed bite: “Don’t worry, you have achieved everything you set out to do.”

He gently smiled at his host only to have the smile answered by a joyful beam on Maruem’s face and the following words: “Truth be told: I offered you two a fresh cut of boar meat, but I felt like it may be wiser to save that for a big family curry night or stew! What do you two think of that? Maybe we’ll have a professional chef by then and they’ll make something truly special.” Not long after he had finished his last sentence, his mind visibly drifted off into imagination. Maruem’s eyes were directed at his guests but still looked past them. It was as if his imagination projected outwards and turned his eyes from a camera into a screen. Ciriodhul was able to observe himself, Maruem and Sola in them. They were surrounded by a whole group of different and yet kind people, all having fun, joking with each other and sharing a warm steaming curry. “This would be great”, the shaman replied at last, again shedding one single tear of joy at the thought. “And it also gives me the time to make myself useful enough to properly deserve it!”

After another brief pause, both of them used to further indulge into their imaginations, while Sola watched them confused and then almost motherly, Maruem continued. For whatever reason, he began by genuinely thanking both of his current guests. Apparently he was still insecure in his self-imposed position of a leader. Although he was used to playing strong characters, he had never been the one standing at the top. Instead he described himself as an occasional airhead and followed it up with a silly gesture to emphasize his point. He followed it up by placing his trust into Ciriodhul and Sola to help him make Astra grow and keep the world safe: “Astra, as far as I know, means 'to the stars through adversity'. There will be much we'll have to overcome, but that doesn't mean that any of us will have to go it alone. My dream is to grow Astra to be a home where we can overcome any adversity we face together, and rise over the crest to the other side stronger and closer than we were before.”, Maruem finished at the same time Ciriodhul finally finished the sandwich.

“I am rather being led by a man who knows how to support others and knows of his own weaknesses than being led by a man who has only known others following him and doesn’t know when to ask for help. We are adventurers now; all of us have different strengths. We do not need strong leaders; we need kind and self-aware ones. Leaders that make decisions through their followers not for them”, Ciriodhul replied, before he briefly paused. He was quick to over rationalize a situation and as quick to lose himself in his own theories about them. It was true that he didn’t doubt Maruem’s capabilities as a leader, though. “What I want to say with that is that you can rely on me, Sola and most likely all that will join your ... our guild in the future. We will all be there to support and inform your decisions to the best of our capabilities. So don’t worry. It is exactly as you said: We will overcome any adversity together. As long as this stays your dream and as long as you can communicate it in this uplifting way I am sure you will be a good guild leader.” Immediately after his reply had ended, he nervously scratched the back of his head. Although his developed insecurities and sadness made it hard for him to socially interact and convey his emotions in an adequate way, he was still the old Frowin of his high school years: always sharing his own somewhat logical opinions on matters way above his head without being asked to and without being entitled to it. In the end he had most likely even less experience with good leadership than Maruem.

“Speaking of leadership and your dream to grow Astra to a home: I would be honored if you would accept the following request of mine”, he said and opened the player’s menu by a quick thought of it in his mind. He navigated to his skills, then the skills of his talent. One press into the air and a window popped up in front of his host: Ciriodhul has offered you his Undying Servitude. Do you accept the activation of this skill? Yes. No. See more.

“Don’t be afraid. This is simply the basic skill of a housekeeper. I’d like to assign you as my master. I’ll be able to watch your status at all times and later on I should be able to directly teleport to you I think, although I haven’t learned that skill just yet. Anyways, when you accept, you will be stuck as my master for at least a week. That’s how long the cooldown is. So I could understand why you wouldn’t want to already accept it. Maybe I offered it too quickly.” Ciriodhul was unable to stop talking, while the man in front of him made his decision. Although it was only a mere skill, having been incorporated into the game to enhance the flavor of roleplaying, it had become a serious contract now. At least that was how the housekeeper felt about it.

---

Word Count: 1115
Total Word Count: 11976
Tags: Maruem

[Maruem]

Maruem did not need to wait long for his courteous guest to speak up and respond to his lofty ambitions. The new guild member was quick to shed a different perspective on Maruem than he had held of himself. As Ciriodhul began to point out his perspective, Maruem was given the opportunity to reevaluate and realize that his experience as a follower did not have to be a weakness. He knew how to support others, he knew where his weaknesses lie and who he may need to help fill those gaps, he knew when he should ask for help instead of standing against barriers blind to his own ineptitude.

"We are adventurers now; all of us have different strengths. We do not need strong leaders; we need kind and self-aware ones. Leaders that make decisions through their followers not for them” His guest spoke to him with an earnestness and confidence behind the word that almost caught Maruem off guard with how he had previously perceived the shaman as a bit more passive or timid. Clearly there was still much to be learned about his new guildmate.

Maruem considered the man's words while he sat in a brief silence. He thought to himself about how his role had changed now that he had a class and talents, with limited abilities. Of course he would have weaknesses that needed filling, even outside of his own mental and physical capabilities. Gaia offered him and his fellow players a chance to allow themselves to let weaknesses be a strength rather than a weakness, building mutually beneficial relationships and supporting fellow adventurers as their strengths were needed.

"We do not need strong leaders; we need kind and self-aware ones." Maruem replayed the statement in his mind. In this ancient futuristic fantasy world, it seemed like a given that the strong led and the weak followed, but maybe he was not the only one who did not think that needed to be the case anymore. It was perhaps a little ironic that his goal was building a guild with a high level of military strength as an protective and balancing force in the world. He had no intention of fighting wars, but in a world where monsters were a constant threat and where inequity and greed were almost certainly still pervasive, having a guild for the people, defenders of the weak, was something he had to be able to justify. Ideally Astra would never need to raise a finger, it's very presence a deterrent of evil and malice.

Ciriodhul clarified his stance in saying that he, and likely all future members of their guild would stand together and support each other. He finished by nervously scratching the back of his head and seemed apprehensive about the offer he made following the motion.

“Speaking of leadership and your dream to grow Astra to a home: I would be honored if you would accept the following request of mine” the shaman spoke somewhat tensely before he began to motion with his hand in the air, a movement pattern that was quite familiar to Maruem by now. Ciriodhul was likely navigating his menus to a particular skill of his. A single pressing motion into the air later and before his face on his own menu, a window popped up containing a message personalized for it's sender. "Ciriodhul has offered you his Undying Servitude. Do you accept the activation of this skill? Yes. No. See more."

To call it unexpected was a bit of an understatement. Maruem had known this kind fellow for all of a few hours at most and he was already getting undying servitude offered to himself? It seemed a bit hasty, but the Shaman explained himself. “Don’t be afraid. This is simply the basic skill of a housekeeper. I’d like to assign you as my master. I’ll be able to watch your status at all times and later on I should be able to directly teleport to you I think, although I haven’t learned that skill just yet. Anyways, when you accept, you will be stuck as my master for at least a week. That’s how long the cooldown is. So I could understand why you wouldn’t want to already accept it. Maybe I offered it too quickly.”

Maruem looked at the windowed notification on his user interface for a moment, contemplating in silence with his chin resting in the palm of his hand, supporting it on the table with his elbow. It was not something to be taken lightly. A skill he had had little experience with in the past was now a serious contract, and he treated it as such with his silent contemplation.

Just when the silence began to get uncomfortable, he thought a little longer, and after a few more moments of pouring over it in his head he cleared his throat. "Friend Ciriodhul. I feel I may have to as that you delay your offer for the time being. I would like to sleep on this, and I feel it may be best you do so as well. This is too serious a contract for me to take up so soon. It is truly touching that you would offer this to me, and it is because of this that I do not want to take the offer lightly." He paused momentarily before continuing on.

"I... admittedly I'm not too keen on the idea of being anyone's 'Master' either. I've been supporting other people to positions of power long enough to know that for me personally, being on either end of the master - student/servant dynamic is not nearly as comfortable as being partners or friends. If I need to take on the role of a fatherly type for the guild, i can do that, but I don't really want anyone calling me 'Master'. I understand that historically a housekeeper has been subservient to the master of the house and referred to them as such. Astra is unconventional, it's the rebellious teen of Gaia. You live here now, you are as much this home's master as I. Now as for the title of topics... err, topic of titles." Maruem paused.

He blushed a little at his mistaken speech. "In formal settings, I suppose I could give in to being called "The Eclipse" or "Maruem: The Eclipse", but outside of such settings something casual would be preferred. I don't much care what the members decide to call me, whether it be Maruem, or Pops, or Dude. I just want them to find their place here, and that goes for you as well. Find the name for you you like and use it, just so long as it isn't something rank based I'll accept most nicknames gladly." He smiled at the housekeeper, before trying and failing to stifle a yawn, instead giving in and covering his wide open maw with his hand.

"I'll tell you one more thing Ciriodhul, and then I think it best I be off to bed, I've an early morning ahead of me after all. In the coming weeks, I wager this place will be a lot noisier and brighter. Don't forget where it is you've come from, and what ditches you had to crawl out of to get here. Don't remember them to let them tear away at you, but instead to remember that overcoming them led you to where you are now, and where you'll be able to reach in the future. The strength of a person lies not in what causes them to fall, but in how they choose to rise from it. The fact you and I are here today is a testament to that."

"Now." He said firmly but with a positive tone, as he stood to his feet and thrust his palms against the edge of the table. "With that I believe it's just about time to bid the two of you a gorgeous evening. You did good work today Ciriodhul, Sola" He said to the two of them with a nod of the head to each respectively. "Do not forget that. Welcome to your new home. I'll see you two in the morning. If you're not tired feel free to wander around a bit more, but don't stay up too late." Maruem said with a wink to the two as he stepped to the threshold of the door to the common area by the front door. "Good night." he said finally, before stepping out of the room and into the dimly lit common area which housed the stairs up to his room. While he was usually a bit more of a night owl, today had been plenty eventful for him, and Maruem had much to mull over as he would be drifting off to sleep, so he felt it was time for bed.

He made his way up the first flight of stairs to the bedroom floor, then up the next onto the roof. /he walked in the opposite direction from the greenhouse, toward the tower that stood as the guild master's quarters. A door at the end of the long walkway of roof led to the second floor of the library. He clambered up one or two more sets of stairs before arriving in the grand room that was his office, it's long overhanging window giving a beautiful view of the entire complex below. Off in the distance, the moon lit expanse of wild lands on the other side of the Aniene River was lush and gorgeous. Maruem turned a corner into his lonely bedroom and sat down on the edge of his large bed. "Good work today Maruem, lets make tomorrow even better." He thought to himself, before drifting off, not even bothering to check if Kat had responded in any way to his message. It had been a long day, and another one was sure to follow soon enough.

Word Count: 1650
Total Word Count: 11850+1650=13500
Tags: Ciriodhul
Notes: And with that I believe the thread is on its last cycle, I look forward to seeing how Ciriods part of this story goes :3

[Ciriodhul]

Although Maruem openly told Ciriodhul about his very good reasons to not accept his Undying Servitude just yet, the shaman was caught off guard and had difficulties hiding his confused disappointment. This gesture was meant to mark a thank you to Maruem and a new beginning for himself. Formally becoming a housekeeper would have eased his anxieties over not having a proper role in this new world. His host turning said offer down was painfully reminding him of the reality of his situation. He had only known the man in front of him for maybe a few hours now. Not too long ago he had been wandering the streets without a destination and without any hope for his future. Both of them hadn’t even properly started working on the greenhouse. Of course Maruem wouldn’t accept to be his master yet, albeit only in name. Ciriodhul grew silent and let Maruem speak, while he tried to regain his composure. Sola seemed to notice his inner turmoil and exchanged a confused and worried look with him between listening to their future guild master.

Maruem went on about the matter of relationships and how he was uncomfortable in the role of a master and that he preferred partner- and friendships. He was also uncomfortable being called by a formal title opting for this Astra’s stand-in for guild leader, which he most likely named himself, when he had created the guild. Right, a lot of people thought about the whole ordeal in this way. Ciriodhul didn’t disagree. In his mind the bond between a housekeeper and his master was ideally a strong partner- or even friendship. He wouldn’t want to serve under any person that didn’t see it in a similar way. And yet he was wary at this notion. For him being a master was less a matter of a relationship’s nature and more a matter of taking responsibility. Any organization needed some form of hierarchy, some way to efficiently make decisions. In a guild that role naturally fell upon the guild’s leader. In this context ‘master’ or ‘leader’ was merely a title standing for the role of decision-making, not a title symbolizing some sort of social status or uneven relationship. Did his disapproval of formal titles mean that Maruem was still uncomfortable at the prospect of having to make decisions, which affected a whole group of people? The shaman could not blame him. After all he himself was even more uncomfortable with this idea. That didn’t change the fact that they would have to find a way to efficiently make decisions, though. Crisis and battle was after all not a time for argument.

An unsuccessfully suppressed yawn coming from Maruem forced Ciriodhul out of his rambling thoughts. He had a tendency to start overthinking pretty much everything, when he didn’t want to deal with his own emotions. The truth was that Maruem had delayed the realization of Ciriodhul’s already made decision, which put him into a retarded state of doubt. The next thing Maruem had to say, before he stood up, wished him and Sola a good night and went off to bed, didn’t really help to put his mind at ease, either. He told him to remember everything he had to overcome to be here and how he had been able to rise from it. However, Ciriodhul had no idea what he had overcome nor did he have any idea on how he had made it here. He didn’t even know, whether he had already crawled out of the ditches Maruem had been speaking about. It was true that he had found a home now and that he had made the decision to do his best to deserve it. However, he still hadn’t done anything. He had been taken in by a new friend. None of this was due to his own actions. In fact the depressing emotions, which had plagued him the last few days, still lay buried inside of him, numbed but still very much there.

It took a very long time for Ciriodhul to get up from the bench, after he had mumbled a “Thank you. Have a good night as well.” back at Maruem. All the while Sola had patiently waited at his side without saying a word. He brought the plates with him into the kitchen and carefully washed them, before he put them back into the shelf they belonged. Meanwhile he took his time to accustom himself to the kitchen. It was almost as spacious as the dining room and featured a lot of potential cooking sites. Unsurprisingly it wasn’t very well equipped and supplied yet. And besides the boar meat Maruem had mentioned there wasn’t much to find inside of the neighboring pantry. Ciriodhul felt weird wandering the building on his own, while his host had already gone to sleep, but it was important to commit its layout, furnishings and equipment to memory as soon as possible, if he ever wanted to be the housekeeper of Astra. Opposite of the kitchen there was a rudimentarily equipped crafting workshop featuring a forge and an anvil among other things less iconic. Behind the stairs to the second floor was an open space, most likely meant for the main common room of the building. To its side was a small bar, further implicating that this space was mean to spend your time there. At its end to the left, Ciriodhul found a corridor leading to a sort of side building. From here you could enter the building’s courtyard, which was enveloped in darkness by now, through various openings in its left wall. The shaman decided to follow it, Sola sitting on his shoulder and occasionally trying to get a look at the shaman’s troubled face.

Ciriodhul was unable to believe his eyes, when he entered the side building’s interior. He was standing inside of a beautiful two-storied library. Almost in trance he reached out to a book in front of him and rested his hand on its spine without pulling it out. Shortly after he collapsed unto his knees; his legs giving in to the emotions overcoming him. Tears rolled all over both of his cheeks and dripped down on his robe. The startled spirit was now floating in the air at the same position she had previously been sitting on his shoulder in. “Ci-Cirio?”, Sola asked nervously and flew in front of his face. “This place means something to you, doesn’t it?”

“Yes”, he replied calmly, albeit the tears still rolled down his cheeks. “I have spent a lot of time here. Well, not here. But in another library. It was a very important place to me, filled with very important friends of mine.” He paused for a moment. “I have finally lost them now.” Then he began to cry properly: Sobbing, sniveling and all in all looking a complete mess. However, as messy as he looked as eased became his mind. When he finally stopped, he could feel Sola’s light-weighted body pressing on his breast. She must have slipped into his collar without him noticing. While he stood up, he gently petted her head and she began to purr. He felt the vibrations of her body right above his heart. “Let us go to bed as well. There is a lot of work waiting for us in the next few days. And I really do not want to give Maruem a reason to deny my offer of Undying Servitude a second time.”

“Oh, and one brief question: May I pet you a bit more later on? This is really comforting.” Sola replied with a reassuring purr.

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Word Count: 1271
Total Word Count: 13247
Tags: Maruem
Notes: Ending became a bit more wholesome than I had anticipated. <3