If I had known back then that my time with Aunt Corli would be my last time around any relatives ever I might have spent more time soaking up the attention (well if I also knew back then I'd effectively be immortal I might also let some stuff go a lot sooner then I eventually did). As it was it was nice being with people who actually cared about me. I don't recall a lot of the trip back from the wild to where Corli and her guild were headquartered out of. I do remember one of the hunters killing something that looked awful, but tasted fantastic, and that we kept moving southwest the whole time. Eventually we made Ronewrath territory (this was prior to the divide being built, so you could only really tell you were in Ronewrath lands by more settlements and less crazy wilderness).
It's important to note that Ronewrath did not take kindly to slavery. Which is weird because Ronewrath was a royalty based government with money being the major thing that advanced your rank (where as The Red Hand it was money and magical ability, back then you picked your poison if you were poor nowadays its all just money, which is uhhh shit not much better, but I have money WOO IN YOUR FACE POOR PEOPLE!). So if anyone should have been all about slavery it was Ronewrath, but they abolished it. I heard it had something to do with a royal winding up someones legal slave at some point, but honestly thats all speculation no one really knows. Why its important to note that slavery was not well liked is that even if the Red Hand wanted to do something to Aunt Corli for freeing me, they'd have to cross into Ronewrath territory to do it and even back then they feared the Ronewrath's technology (they didn't yet have guns, but their cannons, crossbows, and explosives were enough to put the fear into the magic users of the Red Hand). Not that anyone would have, I mean she murdered shorty, told the guards she'd cut their balls off and use them for a necklace if they told anyone about what happened and I was just some lower class slave of some rich little jerk, not exactly a war in the brewing.
Anyway thats all background nonesense (perhaps thats what I should call this journal, background nonesense). The guild was run by my Aunt Corli Montrose (a last name I would have taken had I not already made up the superior Lorentino one) she was their leader, helping her keep the group running, fed, and in general health was her partner Sal Rubiesca. Underneath those two was a ragtag group of males (which was funny the two highest members were women but they never hired any more, I once asked my Aunt about this and she smiled and said she didn't want any competition) about a dozen all told, they came and went (membership in a hunters guild is not exactly exlcusive, you come you do work that they get off their name and if you want you leave). The only real static member of the males was Linsk, a soft spoken quiet guy who trained all new members. If people thought his soft spoken ways was a sign of weakness a stiff shot to the solar plexus was all it took for you to pay attention (I'll admit I mocked his voice and paid the price). The guild worked out of a what I was told was an abandoned inn, but looked like it had once been a whore house (I mean how many inns have spots for someone to sit in a closet?).
I arrived a malnourished flailing slave who couldn't read, write, or fight worth a damn (ignoring my fire attack on the beast I was very poor at everything). Aunt Corli and Linsk worked on my fighting and survival (I kept the magic to myself, she was family, but you never know someones reaction to that), Sal the blessed woman helped me with everything else. Sal treated me like I was one of her kids (of which she had two that I saw a couple times, much like my aunt Sal was in her later part of life), she was shorter then me (most women are honestly) and a lot less bulky then Aunt Corli with a lot better temper (my aunt if you couldn't guess was a bit of a hot head, I guess it runs in the family), her skin was the color of someone who didn't know outside work aside from simple gardening, the only real ugly thing about Sal was her missing eye. She didn't wear a patch or hide it (left side). I was told by my Aunt that Sal lost it to her one and only husband, he was not a very nice person and thought she looked at him funny once, so he took her eye out with a fork. Sal responded in kind by poisoning him over the years until he died of "natural" causes, with the inheritance she and Aunt Corli set up the hunters guild and have been happily partners ever since. If there was any leftover malice in Sal, I never saw it.
It would be six months after I arrived before I was ready for my first job. Something I'll write about tomorrow, I feel ill today. Must have been someone I ate (ha necromancer humor, but seriously I did something today that I'll end up writing about years later, but I think its effecting me more then I lead on). Till tomorrow my little journal.
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