The alleyway has a beggar in it. He sees her cutting through and stands up. "You look exactly like my dead sister!" He goes to pat her cheeks, as though to check whether she also feels exactly like his dead sister. 

She snarls at him and tries to knock him out of the way to run off.

He is surprisingly strong and does not want to let her past until he's told her his several colourful anecdotes about his dead sister!

"My country is being invaded by a lunatic and I need to get to the mercenary's guild now you can tell me about it while you walk me there but if you get in my way I will do whatever I have to -"

- He backs off, cowed, and lets her past, still muttering. The rest of the alleyway is clear, although someone does dump a chamberpot out their window inches in front of her. 

Maybe someday Asmodeus will bring order and glory to these people too.

She tries to follow the directions she was given and stops more people to ask if she's getting close.

She get a couple of people in a row who are really useless at direction-giving, and also a small child tries to pickpocket her, but she eventually is close and the guild building is visible. 

Probably that's a normal amount of delay and inconvenience in a poorly-run country and she's reading too much into it because she's terrified for her family and country. 

She goes up to the guild building, looking for a customer's entrance or people to talk to or something.

People are going in and out of a door and one of them notices her staring. "You lost, lady?" 

"I need to hire some mercenaries urgently. Who do I talk to?"

"Well, come on in - can't help you myself, the Blueskies just got bought up for the next season, but I'll see who's around. What sort of mercenaries you looking for?" 

Just got bought up - maybe by one of her colleagues, she shouldn't immediately rush to bid higher. "I want to hire as many people as I can find who can Gate."

"Oh, you want Adepts?" He rubs his fingers together, leering slightly. "They'll want gold for that. But the Plaincats and the Riversnakes may be able to help you out there. Them mages don't like to hire out alone, though, they want their buddies watching their backs." 

"I have gold and we can pay for their support staff as well, of course. Who represents the, uh, Plaincats?"

"Captain Idara is in charge, but you'll want to talk to Mama Raine, she handles finding them gigs. She's usually in the taproom this time of day - this way." 

Mama Raine turns out to be a large - plump, too, but mostly just big-boned and tough-looking - with frizzy hair in an uncooperative knot and hairy forearms, dressed in men's trousers and a shirt with the sleeves rolled up, daggers at both hips. She's nursing a tankard of ale, playing dice and laughing uproariously with some men, but she seems sober enough when the man who led Ramira in interrupts her. 

"Yes, girl, wha'd'you want?" 

"I want to urgently hire some mages who can Gate and whatever support staff they require."

"Oh, girlie, it's Gates in particular you need?" Sigh. "Adept Ratek handed in his resignation today, his sweetie's papa is ill and he's decided to marry the girl tomorrow. I'll have to go roust up our Master mages and see whether they think they can handle those Gates for you." 

"Thank you," she says tensely. 

Mama Raine storms upstairs - the building seems to also have sleeping quarters - and shortly storms back downstairs. "The boys are out on the town, apparently, let's go find them." 

"All right. We could also - if the one who retired wants to help just for the next twelve hours we could pay very well just for that."

"You need a Gate in the next twelve hours? Where to, exactly?" Mama Raine forges out the front door at a fast pace, not waiting to see if Ramira is following. 

She is. "Some people invaded my country. We need to move a lot of soldiers so we can defend ourselves."

"Oh, you poor dear! What country? Is it far from here - you're gonna provide and pay for transport, yes...?" 

"It's called Cheliax. It's very far from here, it's on another world. We'll pay for and provide transport, we can travel between worlds fine, we just can't move large numbers of soldiers."

The woman looks kind of dubious. "Never heard of it, dearie." She does keep walking, though. 

They are inconvenienced by some street performers who seem to have gotten into a brawl with a different set of street performers who thought they had booked the same section of street to perform in.