Chapter 6: The Greyhaven Wardens' Office

"Nathan! How come you look so spaced out?"

"How I look is none of your business, okay?!"

Nathan shot a glance at Wren, who'd flagged him down, and his tone was pretty brusque. He didn't have anything against her personally—he was just in a foul mood. Anyone who tried small talk with him right then would've gotten the same treatment.

Wren took no offense—she stuck out her tongue a little, and a bit of a coaxing smile crept onto her face as she said brightly, "Now that you've awakened bloodborn blood, you really ought to get chartered at the Greyhaven Wardens' Office ASAP, and get your bloodline species tested while you're at it—it'll do wonders for your growth down the line. Out of classmate solidarity, I could serve as your mentor." Wren was acting nothing like her usual self—totally unlike the composed girl from that morning too—downright bubbly and playful. Plain looks or not, there was a real spark of youthful charm in the flicker and glance of her eyes.

Nathan didn't register any of that. He asked, puzzled, "What the heck even is the Greyhaven Wardens' Office? Do I really have to register? How do they test bloodlines? And what's a mentor?"

All these novel terms—the Greyhaven Wardens' Office, bloodborn charter, mentors—had Nathan genuinely curious, and the questions came out rapid-fire.

Wren gave a light laugh. "The Greyhaven Wardens' Office is one of the Concord's direct subordinate bodies—the Three Chanceries and Seventeen Guilds. Its jurisdiction covers all bloodborn-related affairs across two boroughs and four counties, including Greyhaven—basically like the Greyhaven city government's functions with the territory stretched twenty times bigger. The Concord's bloodborn charter is like a burgher's letters, a guild token, and a surety bond all rolled into one: with it you count as a bloodborn with standing; without a sigil ring, you're just wild. The Concord doesn't force anyone to register, but a bloodborn without a card can be killed or captured at will by human magi—kidnapped to be someone's pet, or straight-up slain in the name of 'vanquishing bloodborn and evil,' and the Concord can't interfere. It's a protection measure for bloodborn. The strong ones may not need it much, but a weak or newly awakened bloodborn who skips the sigil ring can really easily end up dead for no reason at all."

"As for mentors..."

Wren blinked and took her time with it: "Basically a referral agent plus a guarantor, plus part of the job of teaching newborn bloodborn the ropes. The Concord compensates mentors for it. For example, I've been wanting to level up my sigil ring lately, and mentoring is exactly how you earn merit with the Concord."

Nathan huffed, indignant: "It's not like I've done anything wrong. Why would human magi want to grab me or kill me?"

Wren snorted a laugh. "When humans slaughter pigs, cattle, sheep, chickens, dogs, rabbits, every kind of living thing... is that because those creatures did something wrong? It's just because humans sit at the very top of Earth's food chain! Same logic: the big powerful bloodborn have eaten plenty of humans too, and the human magi can't do a thing about them. The Concord is strong enough to cut a deal with the human magi to protect chartered bloodborn. Bloodborn organizations in other countries aren't as strong as ours, so even their members still get hunted down by their own countries' magi. This kind of thing doesn't run on reasons. It runs on who's got the muscle."

This text was taken from NovelPhoenix. Help the author by reading the original version there.

Nathan had no comeback. Apart from the black light wall-phasing trick, he had zero combat skills. As a rookie bloodborn fresh into "the business," he genuinely feared running into some "slay-the-bloodborn" type and getting offed casually.

With her pitching it this hard, Nathan actually found himself wanting that bloodborn charter. He hesitated a beat. "But we're in class right now—when are we supposed to go get a sigil ring?"

Wren grinned like a little fox. "No problem! The Greyhaven Wardens' Office is open twenty-four seven, holidays included. We'll just swing by after school."

Nathan thought it over and nodded. "I'm counting on you, then."

The girl who was friendly with Isolde had the ghost of a smile at the corner of her mouth, but she tucked it away fast and buckled down for next period. She was a ferociously hardworking girl—one who squeezed a hundred percent out of every single class.

She studied her textbook for a while, and when she happened to glance out the window, her expression turned abruptly serious: she saw Nathan chatting with a girl—and looking pretty cozy about it, too.

She was tight with Isolde, and by extension she knew Nathan—Isolde's tireless pursuer—inside and out. Nathan never, ever interacted with girls. And that Wren from their class was no social butterfly either—she barely spoke to anyone. But the closeness radiating off those two as they talked was obviously beyond classmates, and it baffled her.

She schemed darkly to herself: "Isolde is that gorgeous, and Nathan's already falling for someone else? And for Wren, who's so plain! I have to tell Isolde that Nathan is a total two-timing player, before she falls for his act!"

Nathan had no idea his chat with Wren was about to get twisted all out of shape, or that someone was going to run and tattle on him.

By the time Nathan wrapped up with Wren, the bell was ringing. He ambled back to the classroom and dropped into his seat, but the air felt heavy. He glanced sideways and caught Isolde's best friend staring at him with a strange look on her face, and his stomach sank a little. He wracked his brain but couldn't figure out how he'd offended her, and muttered inwardly: "Probably just my imagination. She only glanced over a couple times..."

After talking himself down for a bit, the Commonwealth teacher walked in, and he dropped the whole thing and focused on the lecture.

Isolde didn't show in the morning; she didn't show in the afternoon either—she was a no-show the whole day. Nathan was actually pretty worried, even though he knew Isolde did events like this all the time and this wasn't the first time.

He'd never felt that way before, but somehow it suddenly dawned on him that his world and Isolde's were drifting pretty far apart.

Every time his eyes landed on Isolde's empty seat, Nathan sighed—quietly, faintly... every single time.

...

If Isolde had come to class, Nathan would probably have wavered—every day after school, he'd thick-skinnedly tag along walking Isolde home. But with Isolde absent, he was spared any further agonizing, and after last period he met up with Wren outside the school gates.

Instead of taking him straight to the Greyhaven Wardens' Office, Wren grabbed him and steered him to a hotel near the school, which left Nathan completely baffled.

Nathan didn't know that right as he and Wren met up outside the gates, Isolde's close friend happened to be passing by and clocked the two of them together. She frowned slightly, even more puzzled than before. And when Nathan and Wren walked into a hotel—of all places—she nearly went into shock, quick-drawing her phone and sneakily snapping several shots of the two of them heading inside.