“Okay,” Sammy said. “So. I’m sure you’ve heard a lot about the guilds, and it’s my job to clear things up. What do you think of them?”

  Sammy had guided Natalie out of the rge entry hall, where freshmen didates had been swarming the various tables ready to be greeted by guild officials. It seemed Natalie had skipped the lihrough an odd, if fortunate, series of events. And she was getting a full tour, rather than the casual, ed discussions she’d been hearing back at the hall.

  “What do I think of them?”

  “Like, in general.” She shrugged. “Your perception.”

  Natalie thought about it. Well, Harper had beey frank, so her appraisal robably the right ohey’re pces to socialize and train with people who fill a simir role to you, practically speaking. But … they’re basically frats, besides that. Or sororities. Whatever the co-ed term is. Party houses,” she finally nded on.

  Sammy gave her an amused look. “If this was an official tour, this is where I’d tell you no. That you’re wrong. And on the record … I did.” She wihen took a stern voice. “The guilds are professional anizations, and we don’t throw parties, we throw ‘school pride’ events.”

  “The getting hammered part is tal.”

  “Officially, yes,” Sammy said, grinning. “But no, really. Even if we have lots of members join who only care about … our less professional side, that doesn’t mean we don’t have anything to offer.”

  They’d been walking through a wide hallway, and now Sammy veered them to the left, through a set of open double doors.

  “For example!” she said cheerfully. “The library. Holy, it might be the most prehensive colle of books in the try, for our specifiiche. Delving entary, bat styles, css and role duties, anything you could imagine when it es to tanking. And plenty of general advice, encyclopedias, and so on, too.”

  Natalie blinked around at the shelves piled with tomes of miseous size and color. Like the rest of the guild, the room was in good order: , anized, and well-lit … though the iron-bar windows were a bit out-of-theme with the interior.

  Like Sammy said, it was a staggering colleany times rger than what could be found back at a town like Tinford, so Natalie was more impressed than the average Te newer.

  “Though, if I’m being ho,” Sammy said, “the library doesn’t see much use. Probably more than the fighter’s guild does, but our sort tends to be a hands-on type. Still, the amount of insight in these pages could st lifetimes. I really ought to get in here more often …”

  The words piqued Natalie’s i, because, she realized, if there ce she could find information on padin csses—how exactly patrons worked, if they ‘worked’ at all—it would be here. Or if not here, the’s main library, or one of the uild libraries. But the tank’s guild, a certain possibility.

  Not that it was high on her list of priorities, but having somewhere to start was nice.

  “How do you find what you need?” Natalie asked, walking up and iing the shelf. A Study of Armor Durability and Maintenance, one dark-blue spine read. The oo that was, The Meics of Defensive Equipment: Form, Fun, Design.

  “We follow the same decimal system the rest of campus does. Though … sometimes things get mispced. You might have to do some hunting if you’re looking for something specific.”

  “Decimal system?”

  Sammy tapped the bottom of a book spine, drawing Natalie’s eyes to a series of numbers scrawled on a white slip. “There’s a catalog at the front desk, if you want to hunt manually. But it’d be easier to ask Nelle or Fay. Those are our librarians.”

  “Two? For this whole mess?”

  “Te handles most of the iory stuff. Nelle and Fay just deal with … our half of responsibilities.” She shrugged, as if she didn’t kly what that entailed.

  “Do you have to be a member? To cheything out?”

  “To eve in here, actually,” Sammy firmed. “We’re open for freshmen, today, and the few days, but after that, members only.”

  She wasn’t surprised. H information had been a way of life for the guilds, ba the day. Less so in the me, but irely gone. Knowledge ower, as the sayi. Why share with the petition?

  “Which actually segues to the main point,” Sammy said. “Membership, and what you get.”

  Natalie nodded, promptio tinue.

  “There’s actually two tiers,” Sammy said. “Everyone on campus has to align with a guild, but most people, it’s a superficial retionship.”

  “So, members in name only,” Natalie said. “Then, there’s full members. Like you. People who work for the guild?” She smirked. “The frat-ssh-sorority members.”

  Sammy, like before when Natalie’d called the guild that, seemed amused. “You really shouldn’t call us that. Especially if you join. We have an act to keep up.”

  Natalie snorted.

  “But yeah,” Sammy said. “Full members. Being aligned—‘half members’—means you get access to the training rooms, library, and other basic utilities, but being a full member is … well, a job, but with bes. Depending on your position in the guild, you could get a room,” she gestured above them, toward the ceiling, where Natalie could guess the bedrooms were, “a token stipend, access to the treasury, and … well, a bunch of other stuff.”

  “Treasury?”

  “A unal one,” Sammy said. “I guess it’s not even the first day for you guys, so you haven’t gotteeour. You’ll o rent out a treasury room, assuming you don’t want to sell everything the moment you get it. If you’re a full member of the guild, you store stuff in ours.” She hesitated. “Though, if you’re st a bunch of junk, some of the upper years would probably get annoyed. Even if lenty of space.” She shrugged.

  “Huh,” Natalie said. It sounded useful, even if she didn’t know she was sold to bee a full member. She already knew she’d probably align with the tank’s guild, but further? She didn’t know. “And what’s it take to get in?”

  “There’s a few things. Minimum academic standards, your job responsibilities, whatever they are, and stuff like this.”

  “This?”

  “Event days. Showing the newbies around, or … whatever else is going on, where the guilds need a presence.”

  “And how often’s that happen?”

  “Not super, but not rare, either. Every few weeks? But you don’t o go to every o doesn’t cut into your time too bad. Te wants us delving, first and foremost. But it’s not a free ride, either. It’s work.”

  Natalie hummed in sideration. “Doesn’t sound awful, I guess.”

  “It’s not.” She shrugged. “But I’m biased. I picked it, didn’t I?” She gave a sheepish smile. “And, there’s a few extra bes. Being on the ground floor for … whatever’s going on, be nice.”

  “The parties,” Natalie said.

  Sammy nodded. “Like I said, it’s poor form to say it out loud, but it’s half the reason most of us join up.” She gave Natalie a pointed look. “It be hard to get alcohol onto campus, you know. Security looks x, but it’s really not. So …” She raised her eyebrows, emphasizing the point, though Natalie just found it funny how she was tiptoeing.

  “And you’re at the parties, often?” Natalie asked.

  Sammy grinned. “Oh, here and there. Everyone needs a break on a while.”

  “When’s the ?” Then, even more forwardly, “The you’ll be at, I mean.”

  Sammy just gave her an amused look. “I see through you, freshman. You’re just trying to get out of the barracks for a night.” She quirked a teasing eyebrow. “But I suppose I’m feeling benevolent. There’s oomorrow, and maybe I’ll give you a pce to stay, if things turn out.”

  Natalie grinned. She liked the sound of that.

  “Sounds like a pn.” She wased just because her css was encing this. Sammy was cute, friendly, and holy, a good e to have, sidering her p the guild. Natalie’d gotten lucky, being guided her way by that blond boy.

  “Anyway,” Sammy said, c slightly at the bluntness of the exge. “Let’s keep the toing.”

  “You said there’s training rooms?”

  “Sure. Let’s go check them out.”