The Guild of St Hermes

The Guild of St Hermes has its headquarters in a rather run-down area of Tradgardstadt. The shabby door onto the grubby street prepares no one for the glories (albeit faded and tatty around the edges) that lie within. The fresco paintings of a winged messenger flying over the Duchy of Tradgardland dominate the main room. Executed in the very best Baroque style by a fashionable, if disreputable, painter of unknown origins this visual display hammers home for all to see just how self important the guild members are- at least in their own eyes…
Many felt it was somewhat strange,ney heretical ,to have a pagan god as a patron saint but the Guild Master and members just accepted it as a sign of continuity and of the divine nature of their work. The Guild were responsible for all licensed message carriers, be they on foot, horse or even boat. They held a monopoly with regard to the breeding, maintaining and usage of carrier pigeons not to mention the ill –fated attempt to organise carrier hares some years ago…
Today Johannes, Guild Master for the past twenty years, surveyed the daily reports from Sunday – each written in immaculate writing in the large bound ledgers chained in the Hall of Scribes. He cast his eyes over the trite and the banal (every message carried was copied even if it pertained only to socks, sealing wax or endearments from one lover to another) and his eyes stopped upon a message delivered by pigeon from Scotland. He read it with more interest than was officially approved of. His eyes widened as he read on…