Ch. 28 Meetings And More

The meeting with Galrin was over pretty quick after that, with most of the details ironed out, so I corralled my team and we left the meeting, then headed downstairs and saw Sean waiting for me. He had 3 other teams with him, with their leaders standing directly behind him. "Odellin, these are the 3 teams I chose. If you want to peruse their files I can send them to your phone." I shook my head "I'll trust your judgement on this one. My head hurts from going through 2 different meetings and reviewing about 150 files already."

He chuckled and clapped my shoulder. "Well let me introduce you." He pulled me over to a hulk of a man who was about 6 and a half feet tall. He looked like a walking mountain if I was being honest, but had wrinkles on his face that gave away his jolly nature. His hair was cut short and black, although his roots were blonde. He smiled as he shook my hand, which was almost crushed by the time he was done. "Well met Herald Odellin. I am Gunther Ross of the Brute Force Guild." I chuckled at the name, but then when I saw the team behind him, it began to make sense. They were all built like mountains, although slightly smaller than him.

They had matching gray armor with brown fists on their chests and backs. All of them used melee weapons, but I noticed a few with gems in the pommels of theirs, so I labeled them as the supports and magic users. "Welcome to the expedition team, we leave in a week." He nodded and stood there as I was ushered to the next one.

This man was as tall as me, but did have a bit more muscle than me, not over much though. He had a serious expression on his face, with none of the wrinkles Gunther had. He wore a robe with black and yellow stripes all throughout it. His hair was long and pulled back into a ponytail, with white streaks through his brown mane. I shook his hand and he nodded "Well met Herald Odellin, I am Johnathon Beckley of the Deadly Cobras Guild." I nodded to him and noticed that he had twin blades at his side. 5 others on his team had the same, but 2 had shields and short swords, while another 2 had guns and daggers. It was an okay mix, but it wasn't easily identifiable who was the support or caster there.

Sean led me to the last group with was comprised of all women. The woman in front definitely looked like what you would picture an Amazonian would look like. She had coverage on her metal armor all over, but if the outline in it fit her form, she was definitely a contender for Ms. Olympia. She had the sides of her head shaved and a long braid going down the middle of her head to halfway down her back. Her eyes though had a mothering look to them, which I wouldn't attribute to her look.

She smiled as she shook my hand, being gentle "I am Jolene Kinsey of the Amazon Nation Guild." I nodded to her and she smirked "Yes we are an all woman guild, it wasn't supposed to start like that, but with the name Amazons we had to stick with it." Then she leaned forward "But we do like men, especially strong ones like you." My eyes widened, then she chuckled so I just shook my head laughing to myself "I'll keep that in mind." Then I winked at her which made her blush a bit.

Sean walked over to his team and shook my hand, which just made me chuckle "I am Sean Reinhart of the Blue Dragon Guild, well met Herald Odellin." I rolled my eyes at him and he grinned wide.

"Alright folks, so here's what's going to happen. In a week's time we will all be taking a portal to the Dwarven homeworld and live among them for 1 year. I want to see all of you back here next Wednesday at approximately 1PM. That is when I will be speaking with all of the teams coming with mine. So I want all of you to get your affairs in order and be ready to leave by then. Once we meet up with the other teams from around the world on Wednesday, we will be discussing in more detail what this move means."

They all nodded and headed out after giving me a salute. Once they were gone I sighed and sagged a bit in my posture, the exhaustion of the day catching up with me. Felicia chuckled as she came up behind me to catch me if I fell, which I almost did if I'm being honest. "You did pretty good today, I wouldn't have been able to navigate that minefield." I nodded and sighed, then stood back up straight and turned to everyone on the team.

"Well we leave in a week, so I will be spending most of my time trying to get my affairs in order and doing some training. I'll see you all then, oh and if you need anything don't call." They all laughed at that and I grinned, then they headed out. I sagged into one of the benches in the lobby and looked around, there were still a bunch of people walking around, but I had gotten quite a few stares and whispered words about me from the Breakers in the lobby which I mostly ignored.

Jonas came out of one of the side entrances and approached me, followed by the Heads of the other branches. "Odellin, did everything go well?" I nodded "Yep, we have it set that everyone will be going through a Rift into the Dwarven homeworld next Wednesday at 1PM. I know I said I wanted the teams in Ohio within the day, but if they need to get their affairs in order, then I will give them leeway. If they aren't here by then though, we leave without them." I said to the Heads, looking serious. They all agreed, although Vanessa looked like she was eating something sour when she did.

"Awesome, well we have the Press Conference set for 3PM." I looked at my phone and nodded, it would be 20 minutes from now. "I'll be ready, but if you'll all excuse me I need to be alone for a bit." And without waiting I stood up and walked into one of the conference rooms. Bella was right behind me as I began shutting the blinds and blocking everything out so nobody could see what was happening inside.

Once that was done I sagged into a chair and began to cry. All the frustration I had built up inside of me as well as the fear of not seeing my family ever again when I was in that last Rift bubbled out. Bella laid on the table, with a paw on my head as I laid it down. 'I know the pain you feel my human. I wish I could take it from you, just know that I'm here.'

I cried like that for about 10 minutes, feeling a huge weight lift off my shoulders as the last of the tears came. Then I sat up and wiped my eyes, grabbing a small rag from the satchel and cleaning myself up. Once that was done I stood and walked out, chin up and looking as if nothing was wrong, while I was still torn up inside.

If I had a choice, I knew I didn't want to be the Herald. It was so much responsibility on my shoulders and it wasn't going to get any easier from here. But I was the Herald, so I'd have to make do, because I wasn't going to get myself killed to alleviate this burden. I walked over to the Guild Base and through the doors into the Guild itself. Once there I went up to our exchange counter and began unloading all the supplies that weren't needed or that I had no idea what they did from the Satchel. There was a lot in there and Jeff was watching in amazement as the small pile became a small hill on his desk.

"How much can I get for all of this?" I asked and he chuckled, sliding everything through the scanner into different bins. It took about ten minutes to sort through everything, with the total coming up to almost 130,000 dollars. "Where did you get this haul?" he asked and I chuffed "Honestly, it was hard earned with flesh and blood." He gave me an inquisitive look and I smirked "A Troll Shaman had this Satchel. Then I emptied out their storage into it." He nodded and laughed as I slid my badge over the reader for the funds to transfer.

Once that was done it was time to attend the Press Conference, something I wasn't looking forward to, but needing to be done. Bella was by my side as we exited the Guild office, then headed out the front doors to the clicking of cameras and a lot of chattering. There had to be somewhere around 100 different reporters with cameras and a bunch more regular people in the crowd. Once I walked out to stand by Jonas, who was still on the steps and not behind the podium, everyone quieted down.

He looked at me and I nodded, so he walked up to the podium. "Ladies and Gentlemen, thank you for waiting. As most of you know I am Jonas Buckland, Head of the Ohio Branch of the IRBA. Behind me are some of the most prominent heads of the IRBA from across the world." He introduced all of them one at a time, with a lot of camera flashes as they came forward. "Now as for why we're all here, I'll let the man himself talk to you. Herald of the Human Race, Odellin Hundai."

I groaned internally and really wished I had prepped more, but most of what I was good at was shooting from the hip, so I just rolled with it. I stepped up to a very boisterous crowd, with a lot more cameras flashing. I let it go on for a minute as I tried to work out what I would say in my head. My hands shook and my heart was racing, until Bella nuzzled my leg, then I calmed down just a bit. I held both of my hands up and waved the crowd into silence. "Hello everyone, I am Odellin Hundai, Herald of the Human Race."

"When I became a Herald, I was shocked if I'm being honest. It wasn't something I wanted or expected, heck when it happened I was filled with visions of the first of the Dwarven Heralds. It happened right after the Dwarven Rift opened." And as they listened I explained what was said by the Council member I had met. I went on to explain the Perks I had that came with being a Herald, except for Devourer, nobody else will know that one other than those truly close to me.

I also went into detail about what was discussed between the Heads lined up behind me and the Dwarven Herald, as far as what was going to happen in the near future. They were all silent and listened, then once I was done I opened up the floor for questions. "Mr. Hundai, how is your family taking this transition to the Dwarven Homeworld?" I grinned at that "I went home expecting my wife to kill me." I got a couple of laughs out of that "But she actually was for the idea, saying she would love to go there and mingle with the Dwarves. Honestly she has been my rock through so much of this. She's the best thing that's ever happened to me and I couldn't ask for more from her."

"Mr. Herald, how do you feel now that you've come to terms with being a Herald?" I shrugged "It's strange, not in a bad way per say, but just strange. I guess I'm getting used to it, but still trying to work through what it actually means. I'm just playing it by ear for the moment and working towards putting my best foot forward." He nodded and jotted all of that down as another spoke up.

"Are you worried that you're going to be targeted on the Dwarven Homeworld?" I shook my head "No, Galrin and I have spoken about this. Herald's are treated well in all of the Homeworlds of the different ally races. Mainly because without a Herald, according to Galrin, Rifts to that race's Homeworld can't be opened until the Council chooses another. That could take years or even decades."

The questions kept coming and I answered them to the best of my abilities, then one in particular was really hard to answer. "Mr. Herald, if you knew before you became a Breaker that all this responsibility would be put on your shoulders, would you still do it?" Everyone got silent at that point and I thought about it really hard. I was quiet for a few minutes, trying to come up with an answer.