Resolute

The old inn that served as the Delvers’s base of operations was within sight. Gloomwoods had been much faster with Kite by their side, but Chloe had hated being stuck in the dark again. Thankfully, Kite had just let her hold his tail the whole way, so she felt a little less lost.

“Home, sweet home,” Kite smiled. “Ready to turn in your mission?”

Piper nodded. “Let’s get it done. Where do we go?”

Kite kept moving. “Follow me, there’s like, a whole room. I’ll show you.”

They entered through the front door, drawing the brief attention of some patrons. Chloe scanned all the tables, but didn’t spot any familiar faces. Kite took an immediate left into a side room, leaving the cafeteria behind.

“This,” he said grandly, “is where the magic happens. Cobalt has this whole thing figured out, let me tell you…”

Chloe looked around the room, taking it all in. There were two pinboards hung on the opposite wall, plastered with requests that she couldn’t read. The one on the left was large, and seemed well organised, whereas the one to its right was smaller and more neglected. On the left hand side of the room was a desk, set up with a stack of blank request forms, and a pair of… dice? There was also a paper spike. The spike had a few sheets on it already. Next to the desk was a heavy looking chest.

“What’s the difference between the two boards?” Piper asked straight away. Chloe resisted the urge to roll her eyes. She was still taking everything so seriously, and it felt a bit much to her, but she didn’t want to upset her friend, so she went along with it.

“So,” Kite said, moving to the larger board, “this one is the main mission board. Cobalt organises the missions based on urgency and reward. High priority missions start at the left, getting less important as you move right. At the same time they’re arranged by difficulty, from top to bottom.”

Chloe thought it was a good system. “So we just pick the missions furthest left, as far down the board as our skill allows us, right?”

Kite nodded. “You get it! You should check a few more things like if your team has a good or bad match up against the dungeons, that’ll skew the difficulty sometimes. Always be prepared!”

“What’s an urgent mission?” Piper asked, already reading over some of the postings.

“Rescues, mostly,” Kite explained. “Pokémon who’ve gotten trapped in the dungeons, we gotta get them out asap, regardless of reward. They’re always top priority.”

Chloe thought back to her first day. “Cinnamon mentioned, uh, criminals?”

Kite nodded enthusiastically. “If there’s a real nasty piece of work lurking in a dungeon that’ll up the priority. Really, though, once you move away from those lost pokémon, it becomes more about the rewards offered. We gotta get our funding from somewhere, right? If a client is offering a juicy reward, they’ll get higher priority.”

Piper nodded along. “The other board?”

Kite laughed. “Oh, that thing? That’s the time waster board.”

Piper frowned. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“The missions there aren’t urgent at all, and offer no rewards. Lost items and escort missions, mostly,” he explained. “For no reward, they’re not really worth our time.”

“But they’re important to the pokémon who posted them, right?” Piper argued. “And if they have no reward, they’re probably desperate!”

“Well, yeah,” Kite shrugged, “but we gotta have our priorities in order. Once you grab a mission from the main board, it’s good practice to skim the time wasters. If any match the dungeon you’re already going to, you can get it done that way.”

“I guess…” Piper conceded. “I just think calling it a time waster board… I dunno.”

“A- Anyway!” Chloe felt uncomfortable, and wanted to change the subject. “How do we turn in our mission?”

“Glad you asked!” Kite grinned, moving to the desk. “This is where we file our completed missions. We just add our team name to the paperwork and stick it on the spike. Cobalt comes and sorts it all out every night.”

Team name. Right.

“We need a team name, Piper,” Chloe said.

“I know,” Piper growled. “Can you think of anything that isn’t dumb?”

“I’m drawing a complete blank,” Chloe admitted.

“Seriously? Nothing?” Piper said, annoyed. “Fine. How about Team… Team…”

“Oh! Team Poképals!” Kite chimed in. The girls stared at him. “Because you’re such good pals?”

“That sucks. You suck.”

“Agreed,” Chloe nodded. Come on Chloe, think! “What do we, uh, have in common?”

“I don’t know. Nothing?” Piper said, deep in thought. Oof. Was that true?

“Maybe Team Meanies,” Kite pouted. “Because you’re both kind of mean.”

Piper paused. “A little better,” she admitted.

“You’re going with Team Meanies?” Kite said, surprised.

“Obviously not,” she snapped, making Chloe giggle and Kite pout harder.

“What about Team Bossy?” Chloe goaded.

Piper snorted. “Okay, how about Team Selfish?”

“Team Rude Ass!”

“Team Weakling!”

“Team ‘Oh We’ll Just Talk About This Later’?”

“Hah!” Piper burst into snickering laughter, which got Chloe giggling too. Kite watched on, baffled.

“So are you two like… friends now?” he asked awkwardly, rubbing his antenna. “Because you’re being really mean to each other but also laughing and I don’t understand.”

Chloe looked at Piper, and Piper looked back at her. Piper tilted her head and shrugged. Chloe felt her heartbeat. What did that even mean?

“That’s just how Team Meanies rolls,” Piper said eventually.

“S- So you are going with Team Meanies?” Kite asked.

“No!” Piper shouted. Chloe barely contained her laughter. “Okay, okay,” Piper continued, “Chloe, how about, uh…”

She stopped. Up until then she’d been looking at Chloe, but now she looked away. “Team, uh… Gloves.”

“Gloves?” Chloe repeated, confused.

“Yeah, because, uh. We both look like we have gloves, right?” Piper said, lifting her paw while staring at the ground.

“You want to be Team Gloves,” Chloe stated. “For real? I’d prefer Team Meanies.”

“You think of something, then…” Piper grumbled.

Chloe frowned. Piper was behaving strangely all of a sudden. “Are you sure you don’t have an idea?” Chloe probed.

Piper continued to stare at the ground. Kite took a step away from the two of them, giving them space.

“Uh.” Piper said. She didn’t look up from the ground. “Well. Uh.”

Chloe moved closer to her. “I won’t judge,” she said. “Did you have an idea?”

“Uh.” Piper said. “I guess I thought of something I kind of like, but it sounds really pretentious, so I dunno…”

Chloe couldn’t help but smirk, earning her a dirty look from Piper. Hey, at least she’d stopped staring at the ground. “Sorry, it’s just that you made me remember something…”

Piper cocked her head, so Chloe kept talking, feeling her face heat up slightly. “I’m just saying, I can’t really talk about pretentious words when I called Deeps sanctimonious-”

“You called him what?” Piper interrupted.

Chloe’s face got hotter. “I- We were arguing and I got really mad and that word came out of my mouth for some reason, okay?” she spluttered. “Don’t tell anyone else. I only told you so you’d feel better about your idea.”

“Okay, okay,” Piper snickered, before getting more serious again. “Okay then. Does, uh. Team- Team Resolute sound too stupid?”

Chloe barely stopped her face from cringing. She wasn’t sold on the idea at all. To her it made them sound super serious, like they were more than they actually were. She wasn’t even sure if she was resolute in the first place. But Piper was their self appointed leader, so… “Definitely a little pretentious, but I like it. It sounds cool,” she lied.

Piper looked away again, hiding her face. “It’s not too, I dunno, serious? Deeps said his team name was Team Jelly.”

“It depends what we want our team to be,” Chloe reasoned, with herself as much as Piper. “If you want to take this team seriously then a more serious name makes sense, right?”

Piper nodded slowly. Chloe had one more question. “Why ‘resolute’?”

Piper glanced at Kite. “It just sounds cool,” she mumbled. Chloe took the hint. Team ‘talk about this later’ indeed.

“Agreed,” she said. “Kite, we’re Team Resolute!”

“Team Resolute!” Kite repeated with a grin. “I like it, sounds awesome! Now, let’s get you officially registered, and turn this mission in.”

“Show me how,” Piper asked.

Kite brought them to the table, taking the mission flier from his satchel. “Alright, we just stick your team name in the space here, and spike the flier. Cobalt said she’ll sort out the rewards and stuff on a nightly basis.”

Chloe watched with interest as Kite picked up the cubes, and used them to stamp out some footprint characters on the flier. Each side of each cube had a different footprint, and Kite handled the cubes quickly and efficiently.

“That’s how you all write with these shapes, then?” she asked. Piper and Kite looked at her quizzically. “What, you forgot that I can’t read these things?”

“Ohhh, true!” Kite said with a snap of his fingers. “You gotta learn this, Chloe. Maybe Piper can teach you?”

“Me?” Piper said. “Can’t Feathers or Cinnamon do it? They’re the smart ones.”

“Well they’re mentors to other teams,” Kite said, “and I’m not gonna do it, so…”

“Wait, why not?” Chloe asked.

Kite rubbed his antenna absent-mindedly. “Sounds boring. Not what I signed up for, y’know?”

“Well it’s not what I signed up for either…” Piper grumbled. Kite just laughed.

“Anyway!” he said, “Team name here, spike the flier. Oh! And if it was a fetch quest like we had, you have to put the item in the chest here.”

Piper nodded, then looked at Chloe.

Oh right, she had the bag.

Chloe flew to the chest, heaving its heavy lid open. The chest was pretty empty, containing just a few labelled sacks. She couldn’t read the labels, so she ignored them, tossing the sitrus berry into the chest and closing the lid once more.

“So we’re done?” she asked.

Kite shook his head. “Nearly! We should grab a mission for tomorrow while we’re here. Why don’t you two pick one out? No harder than D rank for now, second layer from the top!”

Piper nodded. She eyed the time waster board for a moment, before sighing and moving to the main board to browse. Chloe watched her reading the fliers closely, serious look all over her face. It was kind of cute, the way she moved her eyes from mission to mission, taking in every detail.

“There aren’t any rescue missions,” she stated after some time.

Kite shrugged. “We try and deal with those as they come. There are probably more further down the board, since the others have to prep a whole bunch before going into the more dangerous dungeons.”

“Okay,” Piper said. “Well these are all fetch quests so I guess we’ll… go find this bibarel’s backpack on Spiral Hill?”

“Sure!” Kite grinned. “Spiral Hill’s a good choice, you’ll be fine there. All our notes on known dungeons are up in the library, if you wanted to read about them.”

Piper snatched the flier from the board, and began reading the details aloud. “’I lost my backpack on Spiral Hill, somewhere on the seventh or eighth floor. One thousand poké reward for its safe return.’ Seems pretty good.”

“Keep that flier safe,” Kite said. “We don’t make copies, so if you lose it then the client will never get the help they need. That mission is your responsibility now.”

Piper nodded, handing the flier to Chloe. She stashed it safely in her backpack. Frontpack?

Piper then made to move towards the time waster board, before Kite spoke up. “Leave that one for now. You’re new, focus on one mission at a time.”

Piper looked up at him in frustration. “But-”

“No buts!” Kite wagged a finger. Piper looked like she wanted to argue, before sighing and shrugging. “Good good! Spiral Hill’s up past Goldenleaf, so let’s meet there tomorrow just after the break of dawn,” Kite decided. “I’ll show you the town, where to get your supplies and stuff. Oh, your reward for today’s mission will be in the chest tomorrow morning too, make sure you bring it! See ya!”

With that, Kite flew out of the room, leaving the girls suddenly alone. Piper looked at Chloe, and Chloe looked at Piper.

Say something before the silence gets awkward, Chloe!

“Uh, want to go get something to eat?” she asked. “You should come join me and my friends at our table.”

“No,” Piper said.

Chloe sighed. “Come on, Piper, you must be starving! You can’t keep relying on me or Deeps to just bring you food.”

“I’ll be okay,” Piper said uncomfortably.

Chloe didn’t drop it. “Why don’t you want to eat with us? It’ll be fun, I bet you’ll really like Shucu-”

“I won’t eat in the same room as Spiral,” Piper forced. Chloe opened her mouth to protest, but Piper cut her off. “I just won’t. I’d rather eat alone.”

Chloe had another idea. “Go wait at the bandstand then. I’ll get my friends to come eat out there from now on, away from Spiral. Deal?”

“Uh.” Piper looked torn, but Chloe knew she had no other arguments. “Yeah, okay,” Piper agreed. “I’ll go wait there. Bring me some food.”

With that, the two left the mission room, Piper heading straight to the back entrance. Chloe let her go, and went to get her friends.

---

She found her friends at their usual table. Deeps and Celes were half way through their meals, while Shucu and Meteor were already finished. They must have finished their duties at different times. She approached the table with a wave.

“Hey!” she greeted them. Deeps and Celes waved, and Meteor smiled.

“Heyyyyy girl!” Shucu was the quickest to talk, jumping up and down enthusiastically. “You’re back really late did you have a fun day was Piper mean?”

Chloe cringed. Right. She hadn’t explained Piper to everyone yet. She swallowed. Ugh, how should she do this?

“I had a good day, I’ll tell you about it in a sec, but I have an idea. We should eat at the bandstand from now on.”

Celes’s eyes sparkled. “Oh, oh, the bandstand! Because, it is a special place to us?”

“Y-yeah,” Chloe nodded. “A-And, uh, I want to introduce Piper to it, and t- to all of you, too.”

Deeps smiled, and Celes looked surprised. Shucu gasped dramatically. “You dooooo?” she said. “I thought you were mortal enemies and hated each other because of how stubborn she is for no reason?”

Chloe sucked in air. She glanced at Deeps for help, but he just shrugged at her. Ugh.

“It was a- a misunderstanding,” she began. Shucu was hanging on her every word. How should she put this? She was still ashamed of what she’d done, and she wanted to be vague, but Deeps was right there. “It- I was actually being a huge jerk without realising it,” she stuttered. “She was, uh, pretty much justified, I guess. But we worked it out.”

Shucu had practically climbed onto the table now, leaning towards Chloe. “Are you suuuure because I still remember the way she tried to totally slander you in that first big meeting we all had together was that justified?”

“Well…” Chloe was floundering. “I mean, maybe she was taking it a little far but sort of? Maybe?”

Celes chimed in. “But she told, told everyone that you are human, even, even though you did not want that, that!” she argued. “That was way, way too far, don’t, don’t you think?”

Chloe felt her face heating up. Why couldn’t they just listen to her? “It would have been too far, but at the time she didn’t actually know I wanted it to be a secret, so I don’t think-”

“You, you keep trying to justify her actions, actions, Chloe,” Celes cut her off disapprovingly.

Chloe was really frustrated now. “But you don’t know the whole story,” she insisted.

“Then tell us,” Shucu said devilishly.

“I- you don’t need all the details,” Chloe said. “We talked it all out in private and we both apologised for the crappy things we did, okay? Can’t you just-”

Celes was unconvinced. “But, it must not have been, been proportional? You were so upset, upset at her before, so-”

“It was proportional, okay?” Chloe shouted. What was so hard for these two? Couldn’t they just listen to her?

“U- Um…” Meteor spoke up. “I don’t think it’s fair to force Chloe to talk about this,” he said quietly, staring at the ground and playing with his claws nervously.

“But I wanna hear this juicy gossip!” Shucu purred, not taking her huge eyes off Chloe. “We’re your friends we won’t judge! I could tell you about some bad stuff I did if you-”

“Just drop it, Frills,” Deeps sighed. “Big guy’s right, lay off her.”

“I still, still think it is a, a big change of heart,” Celes mused, “but if, if Chloe says it is all okay, then I believe her.”

“Okay fiiiine,” Shucu conceded. She jumped up from the table without warning. “What are we waiting for then let’s go to the bandstand!”

“Wait!” Chloe called, but it was too late. Shucu had rushed off ahead of everyone else. Damn it, she didn’t want Shucu to get to Piper first! “D-Deeps, can you grab food for me and Piper?”

“Uh, sure, Spots,” he said, shrugging. “I guess I’m just the waiter around here.”

“Uh huh!” Chloe called back, taking off after Shucu.

---

Shucu was fast, but Chloe had the flight advantage. She quickly caught up to the helioptile, following her through the back door and to the bandstand where Piper was waiting. Shucu spoke before Chloe could get a word in.

“Heyyyy Piper! Nice to meet you I’m Shucu and Chloe said you’re cool now?”

“Shucu-” Chloe began to intervene, but couldn’t find the words. Why did she have to embarrass her like this?

Piper looked overwhelmed – the two of them had shown up almost without warning. Her eyes were wide and surprised. She opened her mouth, then closed it, like she wasn’t sure what to say. At that moment, Celes and Meteor caught up with them, joining them on the bandstand.

It was a good diversion. “This is Meteor, and Celes,” Chloe introduced her friends. Meteor smiled politely and gave her a small wave. Celes spoke.

“Hello, hello!” she smiled. “Chloe wanted us, us to be friends, now that you’ve settled, settled all of your differences!”

Piper had recovered, and shot Chloe a glare. “Settled our differences, huh?”

“I literally told them everything you did to me was justified, okay?” Chloe rolled her eyes.

Piper just shrugged. She looked uncomfortable, and Chloe started to wonder if this was such a good idea after all. She moved to Piper’s side, landing on the wooden boards beside her. Piper didn’t look at her – she was staring off into the distance somewhere. She should say something before things got really awkward.

“S- So we did our first proper mission today,” she announced.

Shucu gasped. “Oh wow where was it what was the mission?”

Chloe smiled at her friends’ reactions. “It was in Gloomwoods. Did you know that place is totally dark?”

“I did NOT know that no tell me more!” Shucu gasped. This helioptile was the perfect audience. Chloe was about to dive into the story when Deeps finally arrived. He looked irritated.

“Hey girls and dinosaur. Sorry I’m late.” he said sourly.

“What, held you up?” Celes asked.

Instead of speaking, Deeps just tossed a brown paper bag towards Chloe and Piper. Chloe picked up the bag, throwing Deeps a questioning look.

“Don’t be mad,” Deeps said. “Az said she’s banned picking up freebies for other ‘mon. I tried to argue with her, but all she gave me…”

Chloe looked into the bag and groaned. “These are just pecha berries, aren’t they?”

“I said don’t be mad,” Deeps shrugged.

Worse, there were only two berries in the bag. She took one of the pink, heart shaped berries and handed it to Piper, who hadn’t been paying attention. She nudged the nickit, causing her to jerk her head around. When she saw the berry, she just looked at Chloe.

“Dinner,” Chloe explained.

Piper looked disgusted. “Seriously? I mean, I guess it’s better than porridge.”

Shucu and Deeps laughed, and Piper blushed. She snatched the berry and took a bite, removing herself from the conversation.

“A- anyway,” Chloe continued, leaving her berry in the bag for now. “Gloomwoods, right?”

Chloe told her friends how she’d tackled the dungeon alongside Piper, using the Sunny Orb on the first floor, but having to follow behind Piper for the rest of the dungeon. She told them how Piper had to do most of the fighting, but that she’d taken out a yanmega using a blast seed on the last floor. She loved how her friends were hanging on her every word, Shucu oohing and ahing in all the right places. Piper had been eating her berry the whole time, one small bite at a time.

“Kind of wild how Kite didn’t know about the orb thing,” Deeps commented at the end of the story.

“Well he’s just so awesome that he doesn’t even need orbs so how would he know?” Shucu jumped to the flygon’s defence immediately. Then, she raised her hand. “I have a question how come you didn’t like grab Piper’s tail or something and just followed her around?”

Chloe sensed Piper tense up beside her. She should cover for her, right? “Well it, uh, it was only a few floors so I wanted to… practice moving around in the dark on my own. In case we got separated.”

Nailed it.

“I guess anything, anything could happen in, in a dungeon,” Celes pondered. “If Piper fell into a large, large hole, if you were holding her, her tail, you would both, both have died, instead of just Piper.”

Chloe pointed a glove at Celes. “Yes. That as well.”

“Gee, thanks, partner,” Piper muttered. Shucu and Deeps laughed again, and Chloe thought she saw a hint of a smile before the nickit took another small bite of her berry.

“So, did you settle on a team name yet, Frills?” Deeps asked, changing the subject.

Shucu scratched her chin. “Hmmmmm. Well Team Royal keeps getting stuck in my head because you keep calling Meteor King but I ALSO still like Team Sunshine so I dunno what do you think Meteor?”

“I- I-” the tyrantrum stuttered, suddenly on the spot. “I think Team Royal sounds, um, a bit more professional, but Team Sunshine is bright like you s- so-”

“Like meee?” Shucu rushed to her partner, scrambling up his tail to her perch upon his crown. “Awww Meteor that’s so nice! I want to go with Sunshine then!”

“O- Okay, Shucu!”

Chloe felt triumphant. “I suggested that to them,” she whispered to Piper. The nickit had finished her berry, and was following the conversation quietly. She didn’t react to Chloe’s whisper.

“We’re still Team Jelly. Jelly Team,” Deeps said, tentacles waving lazily in the gentle breeze.

Celes looked unimpressed. “I still think, think that’s silly.”

Deeps crossed his arms. “Well your ideas aren’t anything, Pudding.”

Celes looked cross, now. “Team Circle. Team Triangle. Team, Team Oval. What is, is wrong with these ideas?”

“They’re just shapes. You’re saying shapes.” Deeps shook his head.

“And what, what is wrong with a shape?”

“It just isn’t anything, you know?”

“A shape is a shape! And that, that is something!”

“Alright alright!” Deeps threw up his tentacles in defeat. “Can we at least be Team Hexagon?”

Celes looked thoughtful. “Why Hexagon, Deeps?”

“Why- Why Triangle?” Deeps was exasperated. Piper snickered, causing Shucu to burst out laughing too. Deeps was defeated. “Let’s pick that one back up later Celes. What about your team name, Sweeps?”

“Oooh Sweeps I like it,” Shucu said to herself from her perch.

Piper looked caught out, not expecting to have to contribute. “Well it’s uh, I don’t know if it’s that good, but we had to come up with it quickly because we needed one to submit our mission so don’t judge it too harshly-”

“Out with it Sweeps,” Deeps cut off her rambling. “We won’t judge. We’re Team Shapes over here so we can’t say a thing.”

“Oh!” Celes said fiercely. “That, that’s good, Deeps.”

“A- anyway,” Piper continued, nervously pawing the ground. “It’s- We’re Team Resolute.

Chloe held her body rigid, trying not to reveal anything with her face. It still sounded pretty dumb to her, and she was nervous to hear her friends’ opinions.

Deeps raised a tentacle in their direction. “Now that’s a team name.”

“Yeah!” Shucu called down to them. “I like how professional it sounds maybe we should go with Royal after all Meteor?”

“It- It’s really good, Piper!” the tyrantrum smiled down at them.

Piper was still pawing at the ground, but Chloe could sense the pride she was exuding. Maybe it wasn’t such a bad name after all, all her friends seemed to love it. She reached into the bag for her berry while her friends continued to compliment them.

“Why’d you all scratch Shucu and Chloe’s names in the wood?” Piper blurted. The conversation stopped, all eyes on the nickit. Chloe looked at the ground in front of Piper, the spot she’d been pawing, and sure enough, there were the words they’d scratched into the wood their first time they’d all come to the bandstand.

“Oh we were just making a memory!” Shucu said, waving her hand.

Piper frowned. “Why just you two then?”

Chloe smirked. “The others were too scared of property damage.”

“Hey, s’just not my style,” Deeps shrugged.

“Oh,” Piper said. “I just thought it might be a- a couples thing.”

“Deeps I TOLD you others would think it was a couples thing!” Shucu said, pointing at the frillish.

“B- but it’s not?” Piper asked.

Shucu pulled on her frills. “I mean Chloe is really cute but I prefer guys really and anyway I’m focusing on ADVENTURE right now if you know what I mean?”

“U-Uh. Yeah,” Piper stammered. “That’s, uh. That’s good.”

“Oh it is huh it’s good?” Shucu teased.

“A- Anyway, it’s getting late a- and I’m kind of tired. I think I’m gonna head to bed.” Piper said suddenly. Before anyone could get another word in, Piper bolted for the Guild. An awkward silence fell. Chloe felt embarrassed by how her friend had just run off like that. She hoped that Piper had had fun, but she honestly wasn’t sure.

Celes broke the silence. “Wow! After all the, the things you told us about, about her Chloe, I expected her to be a horrible pokémon, but she, she was actually okay!”

“Yeah you were really mean about her for no reason huh Chloe?” Shucu said. Chloe couldn’t tell if she was being teased or not, and she felt herself getting defensive.

“Look, I’m sorry, okay? I get it, I was horrible to her.”

“Aw geez sorry Chloe,” Shucu apologised quickly. “I was just teasing but I shouldn’t have gone there.”

Shoot, she was teasing. Now Chloe felt even more embarrassed.

“S’like you said, you moved past it, right?” Deeps consoled her. “She’s a really nice girl, right?”

“Yeah, she is,” Chloe agreed. “She’s really serious about the whole Delvers thing, it’s pretty cute.”

“Cute?” Shucu said, leaning over Meteor’s head.

Chloe felt her face redden. “Y-Yeah, I mean I guess.”

Shucu tilted her head at Chloe, but dropped it there.

“She wasn’t wrong, though. S’getting late, I’m gonna turn in.” Deeps said, stretching.

“Yes, yes,” Celes said before yawning exaggeratedly.

The group was in agreement, and headed back to the guild together, chatting as they did. Chloe wished she could talk to Piper about how that had gone, and if she liked her friend group, but that would have to wait until the morning. For now, it was time for everyone to get a good night’s sleep.