The morning sun had barely risen over Solmyra’s orange tiled rooftops when Lily and Samuel arrived at the guild. The hall was already alive with noise, boots striking stone, clerks calling names, and the restless scratching of quills as contracts were signed.
Samuel shifted his pack. “I’ll be in Theron’s office. He’ll want my report.”
Lily tapped her badge. “I’m supposed to wait for Captain Barnes.”
“Aye.” He nudged her shoulder before heading upstairs.
Left alone, Lily stood tall by the front desk. She felt people staring, heard the whispers in the busy guild hall. But she stayed put, looking ahead, waiting for the man who would decide her place.
One hour passed. Then two.
Lily’s patience began to wither.
I did everything right. Came early, stood ready, and he can’t even show up?
Her fingers curled into tight knots as a muffled groan of irritation escaped her. She turned to Margarette, who was sorting parchments behind the desk. “Have you seen Captain Barnes this morning?”
Margarette didn't look up from her work, although she paused for a fraction of a second. She offered a weary, knowing half-smile to the desk, clearly having seen Lily's balled fists out of the corner of her eye.
"Not today," Margarette replied, finally meeting Lily's gaze with a look that urged patience. "He's elusive, coming and going as he pleases. Don't let it rattle you. Darian tests people his way."
“He’ll find I don’t rattle easily,” Lily whispered, trying to keep her cool.
By the third hour, Lily had enough. Why was she still waiting for him? Refusing to be sidelined, she left the hall to look for him.
Darian was not at the training yard, not in the record rooms, not anywhere in the hall. Everyone she asked gave the same answer. They had seen him earlier, possibly in the barracks, so try the eastern quarter. Every lead went nowhere, as if he enjoyed disappearing.
Her temper flared, carefully held in check. “If this is how he treats women like ghosts to be looked through? Fine. I'll make sure I'm a presence he can't possibly ignore.”
Finally, in the far courtyard by the outer wall, she saw them. There were eight people, with Darian sitting in the shade of a stone pillar, quietly addressing his squad. She recognized five of them from the previous day. Men who spied at her during her assessment.
But not all of them were strangers. She saw two familiar faces, Jaro and Teren, the freckled twins she had met during the walk with Margarette. They grinned when they saw her, waving quickly, their boyish excitement very different from the serious older hunters.
One of the men noticed her and elbowed the one beside him. Murmurs and smirks flashed before being masked.
Darian didn’t turn.
She knew he was aware of her. Still, he let her stand there, watching and waiting, until the silence became uncomfortable.
Lily approached them. “Captain Barnes, you were supposed to meet me.”
The men glanced around at each other, some with suppressed grins, anticipating what their captain would say. None spoke, content to watch the exchange and see how their captain would respond.
Darian didn’t lift his focus even she was already in his side. Instead, he continued the meeting to his men.
“That’s how… w-we handle it next time,” he continued despite the tension threading through it. “No rushing. You held your ground, k-kept formation, and came back breathing. That’s a job done right.”
Lily scoffed. If this was how her captain chose to see her or not see her at all, she wondered whether joining his squad had been a mistake. Too late to turn back now.
The unit felt the tension stretching until it felt brittle.
Then, a yapping laugh broke the silence. A strange, funny sound that seemed to needle at her nerves. The rest of the squad followed, their chuckles rippling through the air while their captain continued to stare at nothing, pretending she was invisible.
“Lily!” Jaro called, waving.
“Told you she’d be with us. I knew it,” Teren said to his brother.
They ran over. The twins' excitement buffered the Captain's coldness, allowing her a brief moment to breathe
“Oh no, you two?” Lily teased with playful, mock-dismay.
The twins beamed, letting out a pair of synchronized, goofy snickers. They seemed utterly unbothered by her jab.
“Been here nearly three months,” Jaro boasted.
“Probation nearly done,” Teren added slyly. “You’ll have to catch up.”
One bald guy leaned back on his spear, looking at her. “So this is the one? Doesn’t look much like a hunter to me.”
From the side, a chattering yip erupted, “Kk-eekh-eekh-eeeekh!” sounding more like a wild animal than a man.
Lily got confused, her head tilting as she glanced towards the source of the noise. She got thrown off by the sound was so bizarre it broke her concentration. For a second, she just stared, wondering if some wild fox had somehow snuck into the courtyard.
"Women don't usually take to huntin’," the man with that strange cackle added. "More hearths and looms than knives and bows".
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She barely had time to process the comment until a tall, handsome hunter with piercing jade-green eyes and a confident swagger moved closer. His crossbow rested on his shoulder, his burnished gold hair tied at back.
“Not all women,” he said smoothly. “She’s got spirit and looks to match. Don’t worry, darling, stick close to me and you’ll never need to draw that sword of yours.”
The group groaned and said in unison. “Finn…”
Another man with a face that looked as though it had been carved into a permanent, angry mask loosened a guttural thrum. His features were carrying those deep lines of a person who had never allowed a single smile throughout his entire life. At his hip, a spiked whipchain hung in heavy loops, its hooked ends glinting like iron fangs.
"You lot are fools," he rasped, husky and coarse. "She won't last a week." He looked at Lily with judgment, and his chains rattled in metallic sound as he moved.
That wiry man smirked, spinning a knife between his scarred fingers. “Give it a day. She's the first woman Darian has ever accepted. Either he's lost his mind, or somethin’ miraculous changed him." His chest hitched as he dissolved into a series of rhythmic yips again, “Eekh-eeekkh!”
Darian said nothing, his silence only encouraging the squad’s amusement.
Before it could build further, the bald guy stood up. “Alright, that’s enough.”
The oldest of the group. He was barrel-chested and thick-set, with a dense, weathered frame that made him look as immovable as an oak. His entirely hairless in his head, brow, and lashes were as smooth as polished stone. Lily stared too long with his skin lacking even the faint shadow of eyebrows, he looked like a marble statue.
She quickly masked her surprise and curiosity, refusing to let any rudeness to show. Despite his unusual appearance, his steady eyes and serene, brotherly air suggested a professional calm the others lacked.
He came forward, placing himself between her and the restless squad. “Behave,” he commanded. "She's one of us now. Sorry for their rudeness.”
Finally, one who isn't a fool, Lily thought.
“I am Garric. Ranked B hunter. Sergeant, when our Captain isn’t about… which, as you see, happens more often than not. Think of me as the poor soul trying to keep this pack in order.”
He moved back, his wide chest expanding as he drew a deep breath. He pressed two fingers against his lips and let out an ear-splitting whistle. The sound made the men snap to attention and quickly line up in military fashion.
There was a flurry of snapping leather and clinking mail as they shouldered their weapons. They fell into a rigid, shoulder-to-shoulder row directly in front of their new member. In seconds, the chaotic group of hunters transformed into a wall of stone-faced discipline.
Garric surveyed the line, his smooth, hairless brow twitching with a firm, demanding nod. “Now, introduce yourselves properly.”
One by one, they broke rank to present themselves:
The good looking hunter took one step forward with a click of his heels. "I’m Finnor, call me Finn. Ranked B. I can see well than any hawk on the Peninsula. You can depend on me as long as you here with me, milady." He declared, though he couldn't resist ruining the formal posture with a wink.
Lily held back a sigh. One look told her everything. He was clearly going to be a nuisance.
The man with grumpy face marched forward, his movements stiff as if he were performing this ritual against his own will. "Kellen. Ranked C. Slow me down and I'll drag you myself," he warned.
The next followed. Instead of a crisp march, this guy gave out with a lazy, swaying gait, a fox-like smirk forming on his lips. "Rowan. Ranked C. If you find yourself trippin' over thin air, or if somethin' suddenly goes missin' or explodes in your pack... it wasn't me. Probably…"
He punctuated his ‘formal’ introduction by playfully tossing and catching a small dagger in his palm. Lily squinted as the hilt looked incredibly familiar to hers. Her hand flew to her boot where she normally kept her backup blade, and it was gone.
"How did you—?"
Rowan's smirk widened into a full-blown grin. "Finders keepers. 'Tis a poor hunter who leaves her treasures for the takin'."
"Hey! Give that back!" Lily demanded, reaching forward.
He tossed the dagger once again, but before he could catch, the man next in his line snatched it.
Rowan opened his mouth to protest, but that person shot him a look that made prankster whimpered. His mischievousness vanished instantly as he shrank back, clearly knowing better than to challenge the strength hidden behind that calm exterior.
The young man turned to Lily and offered her the dagger, hilt-first, with a kind hand.
"Rank C, Brennar. Nice meeting you."
Lily was momentarily struck by his appearance. At first glance, his delicate features and the neat, short curly hair that framed his face might have led someone to mistake him for a woman. He was dressed with such meticulous neatness, with a soft rose-colored scarf tucked into his clean tunic, that Lily felt self-conscious. She became acutely aware of the dust on her own gear and the stray hairs escaping her braid. Compared to his pristine appearance, she felt less like a woman than he did. She quickly smoothed her tunic, trying to hide the sudden urge to look presentable in front of someone so polished.
As she took her blade back, she noticed the massive weapon strapped to his back which defied his gentle, almost feminine grace. It was a heavy hammer-axe: one side a stone-breaking mallet and the other a sharp blade meant to cut bones. It looked far too heavy for someone of his build, yet he carried it with an effortless ease.
“I prefer peace,” he added in a soft-spoken manner, “but Rosethorn rarely lets me.”
Lily eyed the brutal weapon.
Rosethorn? The name hardly fit the weapon’s savage appearance, she thought.
The quiet moment didn't last long. Jaro and Teren practically tumbled forward, their heavy boots clattering against the stone as they tried to mimic the serious posture of the older hunters.
"And you already know us!" Teren beamed, nearly tripping over his own feet in his haste to stand at attention.
"The greatest duo in the Peninsula," Jaro added, puffing out his chest and ignoring the fact that his cloak was snagged on his brother's belt. "Still on probation but we’re destined for greatness.”
The twins' sheer clumsiness was the perfect antidote to Lily's self-consciousness. Looking at their mismatched armor and lopsided grins, she felt the tension in her own shoulders finally gone.
She then stood up straighter to match their energy with a focus of her own. “I’m Lily Holloway. I’ve trained as a hunter since I was a kid. I’m skilled with blades, but I can also track and scout. I don’t scare easily, and I don’t give up. So if you’re wondering if I’ll keep up, don’t.”
Recognition and surprise flashed across the group at her last name.
“Holloway?” Rowan whistled low.
“You mean… Samuel Holloway’s daughter?” Finn asked, eyebrows rose.
“I’ll be damned,” Kellen muttered. “Didn’t think the old swordmaster had kin.”
“You all know him?” Lily wondered.
“Every man knows him,” Kellen said gruffly, though respect edged his words. “Half this city still talks about him. Before the castle took him as a combat instructor, he cleared the Smoldering Caves of raiders by himself, brought out three prisoners alive.”
“Aye, and don't be forgettin' the duel,” Rowan chimed in, eyes alight. “Heliosa’s tournament, twenty years past. Your old man fought six men back-to-back and never tasted the dirt. Won the day with his cursed sword.”
Even Garric allowed a subtle smile. “When the northern walls fell, it was Samuel who rallied the militia. Held the gate with twenty against a hundred. If not for him, Solmyra would’ve burned. He’s more than a teacher, Holloway. He was truly a legend.”
Strange warmth unfurled within Lily’s pride. She’d always known her father’s name mattered, but now, hearing the legends from these men’s words, that legacy felt heavier, more real. She found herself standing taller, trying to carry his name with the same quiet strength.
Everyone fell quiet with respect, but then Garric spoke up. “Alright, enough stories. We have work tonight.” He tapped the contract. “Harbor. Night shift. You watch, you listen, and you don’t use your weapons unless told. No showing off, just pay attention and stay calm.”
He looked at Lily. “Skill and self-control. That’s what we want. Do your job, and no one will doubt you. Fail, and you’ll be known as the hunter who couldn’t even watch a dock.”
Lily lifted her chin, resolute. “I will not fail.”
👥 First impressions of Lily’s new squad?
