Chapter 27

“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 large entry hall, where freshmen candidates had been swarming the various tables ready to be greeted by guild officials. It seemed Natalie had skipped the line through an odd, if fortunate, series of events. And she was getting a full tour, rather than the casual, canned 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 been pretty frank, so her appraisal was probably the right one. “They’re places to socialize and train with people who fill a similar role to you, practically speaking. But ... they’re basically frats, besides that. Or sororities. Whatever the co-ed term is. Party houses,” she finally landed 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 winked, then took a stern voice. “The guilds are professional organizations, and we don’t throw parties, we throw ‘school pride’ events.”

“The getting hammered part is coincidental.”

“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. Honestly, it might be the most comprehensive collection of books in the country, for our specific niche. Delving commentary, combat styles, class and role duties, anything you could imagine when it comes to tanking. And plenty of general advice, encyclopedias, and so on, too.”

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

Like Sammy said, it was a staggering collection. Many times larger than what could be found back at a town like Tinford, so Natalie was more impressed than the average Tenet newcomer.

“Though, if I’m being honest,” 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 last lifetimes. I really ought to get in here more often...”

The words piqued Natalie’s interest, because, she realized, if there was a place she could find information on paladin classes—how exactly patrons worked, if they ‘worked’ at all—it would be here. Or if not here, then Tenet’s main library, or one of the other guild 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 inspecting the nearest shelf. A Study of Armor Durability and Maintenance, one dark-blue spine read. The one next to that was, The Mechanics of Defensive Equipment: Form, Function, Design.

“We follow the same decimal system the rest of campus does. Though ... sometimes things get misplaced. 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?”

“Tenet handles most of the inventory stuff. Nelle and Fay just deal with ... our half of responsibilities.” She shrugged, as if she didn’t know exactly what that entailed.

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

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

She wasn’t surprised. Hoarding information had been a way of life for the guilds, back in the day. Less so in the modern age, but not entirely gone. Knowledge was power, as the saying went. Why share with the competition?