THE MOMENT
"I regret that it is not an ideal situation...," Aries nodded with stern eyes. He took a moment to meet the gaze of each of the four adventurers. "However, the guild's professional reputation is in question. I must insist that you repay the bounty awarded to you for the Ice Wyrm." His statement was answered by four angry expressions, but they had enough sense to let their leader do the talking.
"You're joking," the knight armored in black steel replied. "You already shortchanged us on the bounty, and now you want us to give it all back?"
"When you joined, you were informed that the Void Guild was not associated with any other adventuring guilds. I remember the conversation clearly," he added, in case they forgot he was the one who enrolled them. "I allowed you to carry over your ranks, and I did explain that we do things in our own way here. What you're claiming as a deliberate error is simply a processing fee. We don't appreciate monster corpses being dragged in through the front door. Any monster processing must be done before claiming the bounty, or we'll do it for an extra charge," he said.
"Fine," the knight grumbled. That wasn't an argument he was going to win. "So what's this about returning the bounty? We paid your processing fee."
"Isn't it obvious?" Aries asked. "You tried to cheat us," he chuckled.
"What? How!?"
"It clearly wasn't dead, it woke up and began terrorizing the lobby; another good reason to discourage monster corpses," he grinned. "A different group ended up killing it; we'll be giving them the reward."
"Are you stupid?" the knight asked, and the rest of his group laughed. "That was clearly necromancy!"
"I-," Aries began to speak, then interrupted himself. His eyes blinked as he looked over the four seated, rugged adventurers. He'd registered them, and knew all their classes; but, they were also easy to identify just by their wardrobe choices. The human knight in dark armor, a goblin necromancer in black robes, an elven healer wearing white, and an elven thief wearing brown leather. The two elves were twin siblings, each with golden sunny hair. "I hadn't considered that," Aries nodded. "I'll launch an investigation immediately; however, I'd still like you to return the bounty as a show of good faith. If we discover necromancy at play, it will, of course, be returned to you. With interest," he said.
"Then, we'll just hold on to it, and you can give us the interest. There's no doubt that was necromancy," the knight grinned.
"We haven't even left my office yet," Aries shrugged. "I think I'll hold on to my doubts until we have something conclusive," he gestured at the top of his desk. "Please return the bounty," he said.
"It was us, genius," the knight sighed as he gestured at the short necromancer with his thumb.
"You used necromancy? You're claiming responsibility for resurrecting an Ice Wyrm on guild property?"
"It's my job to resurrect a monster any time our party gets shortchanged on its bounty," the goblin nodded and shrugged simultaneously.
"Job? ANY time?" Aries stood up, shaking his head. "Keep the bounty. Don't ever return to our guild, and you are forever barred from adventuring with ANY Void guild. I don't know how often this has happened, that it's become standard procedure. But you will not endanger innocent lives in our guild hall over some perceived slight. Please leave the premises, or you will be forcefully misplaced."
"I'd like to see you try-," The knight stepped forward, and blinked along the way. When he opened his eyes, Aries was no longer there. But at least his friends were with him.
"Where are we?" the necromancer asked as they all spun around trying to get their bearings. Except, there were no landmarks, and no light. It felt like they were outside, but the sky was velvety black with no stars. And an endless plain stretched out before them in all directions, black as night.
"No idea," the knight sighed as he chose a direction and started walking. It was obvious Aries had done this to them, and his only goal now was to get back and make his displeasure known.