Maren had never put much thought into how a mining enterprise would operate. If she’d ever given it a passing thought, she would have written it off as a bunch of burly, sweaty guys digging holes in the ground and occasionally risking their lives when noxious gases and cave-ins occurred. 

If ever she’d put more thought into it, she’d have suspected a lot of moving parts: machinery going to and fro, people lugging in their hauls, cleaners and mechanics working on equipment, cooks yelling for mealtime, and organizers looking over maps to route their next dig. All blanketed by an ever-present urgency of completing their work and filling their quota. 

Maybe it was due to Maren’s lack of sleep, but that last part was entirely missing. As she and Mav meandered through the settlement – passing the living quarters, bathhouse, mess hall, and crudely designed temple – the expressions most people wore were those of anxiety, concern, and frustration. 

“Wow,” Mav said as they turned a corner, leading directly into a fence. Mav pressed his face against it. “It’s like a hangar right before a big operation!” 

Through the fence, draglines, dozers, loaders, and more sat in a large yard. Despite the dozens of vehicles, only three people stood in the center having an animated conversation. Too far away to hear, however. 

“Something’s wrong,” Mav said, his grip tightening on the fence. 

Took you long enough. “You’d think more of those vehicles would be on the site by now. Or that, you know, more people would be working.” 

The lot wasn’t full – there were several open spots for other vehicles to park in – but that number paled in comparison to what should be out for work at the moment. 

“There’s no holiday today, right?” Mav said. 

“For once, no. If there were, there wouldn’t be nearly as many people out right now.” 

“We need to see what’s going on. Something could be really bad.” 

“Or there’s a logical explanation for this and we’re trying to find something that doesn’t exist. Either way, we should look into it.” 

The headquarters of the operation wasn’t difficult to find. Like many locations in which the boss resided, it was the largest structure in the center of the settlement. Its first floor’s interior was utilitarian: basically a large room with some tables to sit by and a desk near a stairwell. A small group surrounded the desk, not bothering to keep their voices down. 

“They look official,” Mav said. 

Maren nodded. The group consisted of two men and a woman standing opposite the receptionist, who sat at the desk. 

“... then what are we even doing out here?” a man on the right said. 

He was tall and skinny, with light brown skin and dark curly brown hair that looked oiled and stood on end unnaturally. 

“Assessing the situation,” the other man said. “Carefully.” 

This one was also tall, but portlier and with pale skin. His gut and massive white mustache made Maren think of an old sea captain, either gruff yet a big softy on the inside, or hellbent on seeking and destroying his prey. 

“Oh, may we help you?” the receptionist said, looking over the desk at Maren and Mav. 

“You don’t seem to be our employees,” the standing woman said. “Unless you’re very new or refuse to wear our uniform for whatever reason.” 

This woman was also pale and portly, yet very short. She also looked the eldest of the three, with many wrinkles lining her face. Her smile suggested she was like a stereotypical grandmother who wanted nothing more than to dote on her grandchildren with gifts and treats. The eyes her smile failed to reach, however, presented a woman who would shoot first and ask questions later if she found ‘hooligans’ lurking on her lawn. 

“We’re not your employees,” Maren said. “We’re members of a guild and were looking for work when we got here.” 

“Not our....” the mustachioed man began, blinking beady little eyes. “Then how did you get in here?” 

Mav thrust his thumb behind him. “The front door.” 

“Not here. Our campsite!” 

“The front gate.” 

All their faces, including the small receptionist’s, fell. 

“No one stopped you?” the skinny man said. 

“No one was there,” Maren said. 

The woman rolled her eyes and the tall man ran his hand through his hair – ah, so that was why his hair looked like that – all the while the mustachioed man slumped against the desk. 

“Do we not have any control here?” the mustachioed man said. 

“What’s going on?” Maren said. “Things feel off, here. Maybe we can help.” 

“What guild did you say you were from again?” the woman said. 

“She didn’t say yet,” Mav said. 

Everyone looked at him and his innocent, clueless face. 

“Apologies for him,” Maren said. “We’re an interim guild, not yet official, but that doesn’t mean we can’t help.” 

The three had a private huddle for a couple minutes, then beckoned them over. 

“Alright,” the mustachioed man said. “Where to start? My name’s Colton Colbert. I’m in charge of the whole operation. This is Julio Morales, our lead surveyor. And this is Theresa Neubauer, who runs our mechanics teams.” 

“Pleasure,” Maren said. 

“CC Corp has always been a small mining operation,” Colton began. “Always going from one site to the next. None of our deposits have been hugely profitable, but we’ve always made due.” 

“But this site’s different,” Julio said. “My crew’s been all over Mount Ergil and the readings don’t lie. There’s a huge supply of sphalerite and galena here. There’s bound to be more – maybe even silver if we’re lucky. Or something even more valuable.”

“You seem very certain about that,” Maren said. “Can your equipment tell every mineral that’s in the mountain?” 

Julio huffed. “Not ours – we don’t have the most up-to-date spatial viewing tech. But our readings are different here than they’d been anywhere else.” 

“How so?” 

“Some of the pictures we got... glowed.” 

“I take it that doesn’t normally happen.” 

“Which is why we rushed here as soon as possible,” Colton said. “This is the biggest operation we’ve ever undertaken. We pulled out all the stops for it. And...” 

“We can’t even begin digging,” Theresa said. “Where we want to dig into the mountain is not even half a mile to the south. Yet my vehicles end up demolished every time we take them out.” 

“That’s a lot of big, durable, and expensive equipment out there,” Maren said. “And it simply got destroyed?” 

“None of our drivers saw what did it,” Colton said. “But they claim the land and trees moved, and that the wind lifted our machinery into the air.” 

“Wielders,” Maren mumbled. “Likely eco-terrorists. Powerful ones, too.” 

“You don’t say?” Julio said. 

“Actually, I do.” Maren gave him a small smile. 

“Why didn’t you guys set up closer to the mountain?” Mav said. 

“Now we’re asking the real questions,” Julio said, throwing a glare at Colton. 

“We’re here to mine what we need, not level the whole damn mountain,” Colton said, tone short, as if he was tired of answering this. “And if eco-terrorists are to blame for our grievances, then leveling all those trees between us and the dig-site would only make them angrier, wouldn’t it?” 

“Have you contacted the Peace Keepers?” Maren asked. 

Julio scoffed. “And let them kick us out of here, all to let their buddies from Gale Corp or Mitsui Mining take the profit once they’ve handled the punks?” 

“The Peace Keepers wouldn’t do that to you,” Mav said. 

“And here I thought you had a brain in there,” Julio said. “Don’t you know anything about the Peace Keepers?” 

“Julio,” Theresa said, voice low and dangerous. 

Mav’s mouth worked, but he said nothing. He looked down, as if ashamed. Maren thought he’d defend the Peace Keepers more, but she wouldn’t complain that he was keeping his mouth closed. 

“As you can see, we’re also Wielders,” Maren said. “We could apprehend your assailants, then you can continue your business.” 

“Start, is more like it,” Julio said. 

“Which would be good,” Colton said. “We have more employees and their families to feed than ever before, and so many newcomers who left their old lives behind to work for us.” 

“Not to mention all my people in the hospital from the attacks,” Theresa said. “Insurance premiums might rise because of it.” 

Colton placed his palm on his forehead. “If this doesn’t get resolved soon, this will hurt a lot of good people.” 

“Don’t worry,” Mav said, punching his palm. “We’ll handle this.” 

“Hold on,” Maren said. “We’ll take the job, but we have to talk about payment, first.” 

“A little bold of you, not being an official guild yet,” Julio said. 

“We can’t charge official guild rates, but by law we have to get paid for the work we do. It also helps us when we eventually become a legitimate guild.” 

“Great. Then do the job and we’ll pay you.” 

“Enough, Julio.” Colton sounded worn out. “She’s not asking for anything unreasonable. However, if eco-terrorists are involved, this will be a big job that will cost a lot of credits. We’ve already spent most of the money taken out on our last loan. It may be more credits than we afford.” 

“That doesn’t matter at –” Mav began. 

“Mav!” Maren said. 

“What? They need help.” 

“And we need payment. I already told you, we can’t afford to do a job without getting some form of compensation.” 

She held his dark stare. It seemed more thoughts than he was used to crowded his noggin, but eventually the gears ceased spinning and he settled his eyes into a glare. 

Had Maren the will to care, she might have found it frightening. 

“We can spare three hundred credits,” Colton said after conferring with the receptionist. “Also, free room and board until this situation is resolved. Does that seem fair?” 

“That sounds perfect,” Maren said, taking out her size-changing tablet. 

Mav stormed out of the building after the transfer had finished. Maren found him nearly a block down the road, leaning against a building and tapping his foot. Twenty feet ahead of him, families walked in and out of the mess hall. 

“Satisfied?” Mav asked, an edge to his voice. 

“Not until you actually listen to me,” Maren said. 

“These people need our help.” 

“And we’re going to help them.” 

“But only if we get paid.” 

Maren let out a strangled groan, allowing her frustrations to surface. “We need money, Mav!” 

“We have enough!” 

“For now! What do you think will happen if we keep doing work for free? Eventually, we’ll run out.” 

“If we’re running low, then we can charge people who can afford it.” 

“What do you mean by ‘afford’? Because Colton can afford our rate, that woman in Linick could have as well, and so could that hunter on the road!” 

“But they were average citizens. They didn’t look that rich.” 

“So I guess when our funds are depleted, we’ll be lucky enough to find obscenely rich clients who just so happen to have a job for us that they’ll definitely overpay us for.” 

“That’s not what I’m saying.” 

“It sounds like you are.” 

Mav left the wall and stood before her, a fire in his eyes like the one she’d seen in Sekko Research’s basement. “Look at these people, Maren. They need help. They need us.” 

“Shift gears after losing an argument. Classy.” 

Mav shook his head. “Well, we got paid, didn’t we? Shouldn’t we get going, boss?” 

“Am I the boss? Because it seems you’re making all the decisions around here.” 

Mav turned away, looking back at the people entering the mess hall. “I just want to help people.” 

“And we will.” Maren began reaching for his elbow, but she pulled her hand back. Why should she try to comfort him? He was completely in the wrong! “But first I want to do a bit of research. Figure out if there are any known terrorists or eco-terrorists in the vicinity. Shouldn’t take more than fifteen minutes.” 

Mav deflated. “Alright.”