Requiem
Noah made it back to the Knight’s Sheath, which was fortunately undamaged. As expected, there were people inside, but the doors were locked. “Lucius, let me in!” Noah hollered as he banged on the door.
“Who’s there?” he heard from the other side.
“It’s Noah. I know I’m technically still banned, but would you mind? The city’s nightlife has gotten a little too rowdy for me.”
“You aren’t going to start anything, are you? You don’t have anyone chasing you?”
“No, I just need a place to wait this out.”
The doors opened and Lucius hustled him inside. The parlor was full of anxious clients and prostitutes, all waiting for that first rock or torch to come smashing through a window or an axe swung at the door. Should they stay and hide or go out and try to escape the city? A handful had already left to rush back home to their families and there was no telling if they made it.
“You look terrible,” Lucius said before barricading the doors. Noah’s clothes were burned, torn, and bloodstained, and he was covered in thinly-closed wounds.
“Busy night. You still pouring drinks?”
Noah took a seat at the bar. Cyrilo was already sitting there, all dressed up in an evening dress and jewelry. It was getting close to midnight, so she had regressed to her early twenties. She was a feast for the eyes after a hard fight, eclipsing the other working girls.
“Remember what I said to Bella about pets tracking blood on my floor?” she cawed while looking him up and down in disdain.
“Colbrand is burning. A dirty floor is the least of your problems.” Lucius passed him a glass of spirits and he took a deep drink. “It’s pretty crazy out there. This may be the end of your city.”
“We have survived worse,” said Lucius. “You should have been here the summer when Colbrand was infested with slimes. It was so bad that many people assumed it to be a curse. I woke up in the middle of the night on more than one occasion because they would climb into my mouth while I slept and try to eat my tongue.”
“Around thirty years ago, the city was buried by a snowstorm that lasted an entire week,” said Cyrilo. “We got more than twenty feet of snow and had to dig tunnels to get around. People froze, starved, and suffocated, but you should have seen the view from my room.”
“Oh, remember that plague of boils?”
Cyrilo shuddered. “Ugh, don’t remind me. Everyone was walking around, oozing puss and looking like rotting meat.”
“Well, it looks like I might not be able to enter the academy after all, but after hearing you two talk, maybe it’s a good idea for me not to stick around.” Noah looked over to the empty stage. “I was hoping to hear Daniel play tonight.”
“Last I checked on him, he was sleeping like the dead,” said Cyrilo.
“Too bad. I think everyone here could use the distraction.” Noah was about to take another drink, but stopped. “Is he awake?”
“He might be, go check,” said Lucius.
Noah emptied the glass and went into the back room while casting both of his spells. Daniel was still on his cot, at least sitting up and munching on an apple. “You’re looking better.”
“I suppose so.”
Noah handed him his guitar. “Good enough to play?”
“On stage? No way. I feel like a blown truck tire left on the side of the highway.”
Noah handed him a healing potion. “Drink this.”
“Are you sure I should drink more of these? I’ve had a lot of these today and Lucius said…”
“You choose now to worry about what you put in your body? Just trust me on this.” Daniel shrugged and drank the potion. It seemed to return the strength to his body, but he groaned from nausea. These things were a double-edged sword. “And this too.” Daniel took the mana potion with lethargic reluctance and immediately grimaced.
“Holy shit, ugh! That’s like drinking orange juice after brushing my teeth. Is this what you adventurers really put up with in the field? Imagine all the poor schmucks who died with that aftertaste left in their mouths.”
“How do you feel?”
“At the moment, not very appreciative, but yeah, I suppose I’m a bit better.”
“Perfect. Come on, let’s go.” He led Daniel with his guitar out into the parlor. “Cyrilo, would you mind helping me with something?”
“Wait, that’s not… What the hell?!” Seeing her in her younger form, Daniel looked like his brain had just blown a fuse.
“What can I do for you?”
“I know you have a thing for jewelry, but do you have any enhancement gems?”
“Why? Are you planning on going out there and fighting everyone yourself?”
“They’re not for me.” He pointed to Daniel. “They’re for him.”
“What?” they both asked.
“We need to attach every jewel you have to his guitar to boost his magic.”
“Dude, I can’t use magic. And can we back up a bit and go over why she looks like this?”
“You can, you just don’t know it.”
“And what will that achieve?” Cyrilo asked.
“Do you really want me to tell you, or do you want to see it for yourself?”
“Hmph… Very well, follow me.”
“Darling!”
“Not now!”
She brought them up to her room and retrieved a jewelry box from her study. She opened it up to reveal several enhancement gems, cut and uncut, small and large, each one like the gem on Noah’s ring. Daniel stood in the corner as the fifth wheel while Noah and Cyrilo began sticking the gems onto his guitar with some makeshift glue.
Noah handed it back to him. “Come on, up to the roof.”
“Over here.” Cyrilo brought them back into the bedroom and revealed a small door behind her folding screen. “I had this installed during that storm I told you about.”
They had to crouch to get through it and stepped out onto a level portion of the building’s roof. It wasn’t a balcony, so much as a perch. Up above the city, they could see the width and breadth of the destruction and hear the screaming and fighting down below. The air was thick with smoke, but this couldn’t be done anywhere else. The Knight’s Sheath was one of the tallest buildings in the whole city.
“Now what?” Daniel asked.
“Play. Pick any song and start playing.”
“Why?”
“Don’t worry about why, just put that new guitar through its paces. You wanted a stage, well I’ve given you the best one in Colbrand.”
“I don’t get it. Wait, is this like the band from ‘Titanic’? The city is burning and you want me to do a bit?”
“Actually, I was thinking that a picture from this angle would be a great album cover if you ever got famous.”
“Nah, too death metal. Seriously, what am I doing here?”
“You’re just here make some music. Choose a song that you know you can play, whether it’s your favorite, important, or easy, and put everything you have into it. If you want a reason to live, then for now, live for this very moment, where you christen your new guitar and new life. If you want a reason to die, then let this be your swan song, the culmination of everything you’ve experienced and a soul’s worth of emotion. The choice is yours to make, just start playing.”
Daniel appeared more than a little uncertain as he looked out across the burning city, but he put the strap over his neck and shivered. There they were; the feel and smell of the wood, the sharpness of the strings against his calloused fingers, and the weight hanging from his shoulder, all sensations he had dearly missed. It did not feel like his old guitar, but it felt right, it felt true, as if he wasn’t holding it, so much as it had snapped into place.
He closed his eyes and forced out all of the surrounding noises as he ran through his musical archive. What should he play to this city, gripped by madness? What rhythm would reach the expectation Noah was setting? A christening or a swan song, nothing felt right, worthy of the moment. That’s right, he had faced this problem on the beach. No song gave him the peace he needed, so he made up one of his own. How did it go again?
Using a coin as a pick, he began to play. His fingers were steady, almost machine-like, but there was passion in the cords that only a human could create. Noah didn’t recognize the song, couldn’t predict the notes and didn’t know the timing, but something told him that Daniel was playing it perfectly. Watching him, it was like all the damage that Rita and potions had been unable to fix was being mended on its own, but more important was his mana, shrouding him and radiating from his guitar. Originally only visible to Noah when his own magic was active, it was now fully visible and shaping itself according to the rhythm as it spread.
Noah felt the mana hit him and Cyrilo, felt it saturate his body. The melody was playing through him, imprinting itself onto his thoughts and energy. He felt himself being hypnotized and didn’t resist. Daniel picked up the intensity, playing multiple rhythms at once in a display that not even Noah had seen before. There were no lyrics, not that it needed them. They would only be a distraction. As he continued to play, his mana spread farther and farther across the city as if carried by the wind. It was acting as a medium for the sound and carrying it farther than it ever could have naturally gone. It hit everyone with the same volume and clarity and they too found themselves enwrapped.
Throughout the city, fights were stopped as all spells came undone or were outright blocked. All of the mana was adhering to Daniel’s rhythm, unable to be shaped into anything else. Everyone’s magic was being snuffed out, and so too was the will to fight. No matter what side of the law they were on, knights and revelers, they lowered their weapons and stood like statues, transfixed. It was emotion—literal, palpable emotion, carried by the music and entering their minds, forcing all thoughts and feelings onto the same wavelength.
“What in the world is this?” Cyrilo asked. She was looking at her hands, watching as her skin flipped back and forth from young to wrinkled.
“The power of music, an overwhelming force of communication and feeling, shaping minds and allowing people to understand each other, and for Daniel, a means of drowning out the world. You said before that magic was fickle, depending on the will of the user, well this is Daniel’s magic. When I felt it for the first time, it caused ripples in my magic, not unlike paladin spells, and that was with just a broken old guitar. I figured he would be powerful with a new one, but this… this exceeded my expectations.”
Daniel was putting everything he had into this song, letting his every thought and emotion pour out and be transmitted to those who heard it. All the pain he had carried throughout his life, he used the strings to scatter it into the air like ashes from an urn. The voices of anger, disappointment, and despair that haunted his thoughts, they weren’t simply drowned out, they had gone silent. The beautiful quiet, it brought tears of relief to his eyes, tears that poured without end. His mana, untrained and unrefined, was burning out dangerously fast, not that he cared or even felt it. He didn’t want to stop playing, no matter what it cost. If the song required his mana, he’d give up his mana. If it required blood, he’d give it blood. If it required his life, then he would die fulfilled.
Over in the destroyed dungeon, Gradius and Tarnas faced each other, the two of them beaten, bloody, and having lost most of their armor. Once more, Gradius raised his axe with a monstrous roar and Tarnas prepared to attack, but both men stopped as the music reached them. In their exhausted state, they both fell under its spell, and Gradius, despite the rage that had flowed through him just moments ago, dropped his axe. Around them, the surging flames and holy magic flickered out of existence.
“This magic, I’ve never felt anything like this,” said Tarnas. “Hey, where are you going?”
Gradius was climbing up a mountain of rubble and reached the top of one of the perimeter walls, now looking over the city. His breaths were deep, letting him taste the smoke in the air, smell the blood that had been shed. For so long, that’s all that had been in his mind, fire and blood, his thoughts burning in his persistent rage as if his brain was an angry sun. To look upon the city was like looking upon his own soul, but now, the anger was fading, every muscle unclenching as new emotions sparked within his gray matter. The fires within him were extinguished, letting him see and think clearly. To protect Colbrand and its citizens without violence, he was starting to understand what Tarnas meant. Seeing this charred and bloody city, he wanted to save it, heal it, fix it, as well as his own soul.
Finally, Daniel’s hands stopped and the music faded out. He had reached the end of his strength and his body would not let him play anymore. Besides, the job was done, the violence had come to an end. Everyone had lost the will to fight, and the criminals who didn’t peacefully surrender simply ran off without being pursued. As his magic dissipated, a ripple moved through the city. All of the flames started in the chaos were being pulled into the air and shooting across the sky like ribbons of light. The burning buildings simply went out as the flames were channeled away like water flowing down a slope. All of the flames flew towards the destroyed dungeon, where they gathered in Gradius’s hand and disappeared. With both the violence and fires extinguished, peace could now settle. True, the night was far from over, as there were still plenty of people injured, missing, and dead, all who needed tending to, but the worst had passed, and slowly, the smoke cleared.
“How do you feel?” Noah asked. Looking at Daniel, he almost expected him to crumble into dust.
“You know I’m a fucked-up mess of a person, don’t you?”
“Yeah.”
“You said that people can change. It wasn’t easy, but it could happen. Did you really mean that?”
“I did.”
“I don’t know if I’ve changed or if I’m any better, but I feel like… maybe I will be someday. I have a long way to go, but for the first time in my life, I feel like I’m heading in the right direction. I think I’m ready to start looking, to start living.” He turned to Noah. “By the way, I never properly thanked you for the guitar.” He then closed his eyes and collapsed, and Noah caught him before he could fall of the roof.
“You should probably get Lucius. I’ve spent enough time today carrying this guy and can barely stand.”
“You can just lay him out in my room. He’s earned it a comfortable night’s sleep on a real bed, and I suppose I can reinstate your evening privileges with Bella. After all, I can’t mistreat the two most interesting customers I’ve ever had.”
“In this city, that’s really saying something.”
It was a struggle for Noah to get Daniel back inside, mainly because he was fighting his own exhaustion, but he managed to drop him on the bed. He left the guitar with Cyrilo so she could reclaim her gems and bid her goodnight. He made his way towards Bella’s room, blessed with a rare happiness. The effects of Daniel’s music, they were like a drug, a drug for Noah’s soul. Magic truly was incredible. Of the myriad of worlds he visited across more than a hundred lifetimes, this strange Earth was close to being his favorite. Besides, he could feel them, the answers, finally within his reach, when all other means of achieving his goal had proved futile. He felt it in his gut, that this was the final world. The final life he would be forced to live. He just had to wait a little longer, and in time, he would finally know peace. However, until then, this world also offered him amusement, and he planned to enjoy it as much as he could. Besides, he still had the knight academy to look forward to.
He reached Bella’s door and gave a knock. “Hey Bella, it’s—”
The door flung open to reveal the eager bunny girl, naked and beautiful with a bottle of wine in her hand and a lustful smile on her face. Drinking and sex were the traditional revels after a victorious battle in this world.
‘When in Rome…’
----------
Knight’s Day, it started early, though technically, it didn’t start at all. The festivities were put on hold, and since midnight, everyone in the military with skills to contribute had been recruited to help rebuild the city and tend to the people, but no matter how long or how hard they worked, it seemed like little progress was being made. The sun was merciless in exposing the damage wrought by the violence and flames. What should have been sounds of merriment were instead the hammering of nails and the hauling of supplies and rubble. Since the dungeon had been destroyed, arrests were replaced with savage beatings for anyone who caused trouble. Luckily, few people were in the mood for disruptions. Perhaps it was a leftover effect from Daniel’s magic or everyone simply being too tired to rock the boat.
Dawn found Adwith Tarnas eating breakfast in the town square. It was just a sandwich and some ale, but after fighting Gradius and spending all night dealing with the damage to the city, his stomach was roaring like a grizzly bear. Two of the three fountains in front of him were broken, but one was still working. This area had been one of the first to receive repairs, so while everyone was busy tending to other city districts, he could get some time to himself and recoup some of his strength, or so he thought. Halfway through his meal, he looked over and scowled at the sight of the familiar black cloak and white mask.
“You’ll never get a better chance to kill me, not that you even could.”
Tarnas was unarmored, unarmed, and exhausted in every sense of the word, but the Harajin before him would never be foolish enough to try anything against him.
“I’m not here for anything like that,” Grond said. He openly approached Adwith and came to a stop in front of him. A sheathed blade was revealed, but there wasn’t so much as flinch, for rather than pointed at him, it was presented. “This is the knight sword that stranger was carrying. He said the peace accord never existed and the sword belonged to a knight who died of unrelated circumstances. I got it from him and I’m simply returning it to where it belongs.”
“In exchange for…”
“Nothing. An alliance between my clan and your nation, a preposterous idea, but that may change in the future. This action hasn’t been sanctioned by my superiors. I may even receive punishment for it. However, after everything that has happened, I want one decent thing to come from all this. Whether this belongs with the knight’s family, in his grave, or in the hands of his successor, I simply wish to make things right, if only in the smallest regard.”
Adwith got to his feet, towering over Grond, and accepted the sword. “I thank you for this, both personally and on behalf of the kingdom of Uther and the Knight Order. May the gods smile upon you.” Grond didn’t say anything, simply bowed his head and turned to leave. “Just one thing…” Grond stopped. “You said you got this from the stranger. How, might I ask?”
“It was traded,” he said with his back to Adwith.
“So you didn’t kill him?”
“Tried and failed.”
“Then he’s still in this city. What do you know about him?”
Grond finally turned to him. “All I know is that we made the mistake of antagonizing him and lost four members. I suggest you keep that in mind.”
----------
Yet another early rise, unwelcome as always. After all these busy nights, Noah was looking forward to the steady sleep schedule of military life. He got dressed while Bella snored and left the Knight’s Sheath in search of sustenance and to survey the damage. Devastation, it was a sight he had witnessed so many times before, cities nearly being destroyed by war or natural disaster, but never had the process been so entertaining.
Many food vendors had been targeted by the homeless the night before, so the pickings were slim, but he managed to gather up enough fruits, bread, and meat to fill him up nicely. Since coming to Colbrand, he had gotten used to eating all of his meals in the street. Unfortunately, even when the market was in peak condition, he was unable to find the coffee he so craved. After eating, he bought some new clothes to replace his battle-ravaged outfit. Clothes and weapons, he did not think he’d be going through them so quickly. The knight sword had been a useful backup and saved his life in the dungeon crab, but now that he was entering the academy, he no longer needed it. Besides, even if Grond really did give it back to the knight order, its existence was no threat to him. He had made sure of that.
----------
“So, it really was the fungal cure all along?” Holmes asked as he applied the ointment to his wounded arm. At the moment, the infirmary was filled with wounded knights and soldiers, so he had to talk loud over the groans of pain.
“That’s right,” said Elyot. “That stranger said we should wait a day before giving it to you, but I’m thinking that wasn’t for our benefit. Perhaps it was a secret code to the Harajin, perhaps he was just putting us on a wild goose chase. Either way, the tests all confirmed that this’ll fix you two up in a matter of days, so you can rest easy.”
“But that just means that you didn’t have to do the tests in the first place. You should have just given us the cure in the first place,” Frigga whined.
“I swear, all you two have done is complain. Maybe I should give your beds to some other patients and let you see how good you have it.”
The two wisely shut their mouths and a messenger entered the infirmary. “Sir Elyot, your presence is requested in the war room.”
“What now?”
He made the long walk to the palace and entered the war room, where Sir Tarnas and Sir Berholm were waiting. On the table between them, the knight’s sword was laid out with its handle disassembled. “I take it this is the infamous blade?”
“Indeed. It was handed to me by one of the Harajin as an act of unsanctioned diplomacy,” said Tarnas. “However, its condition is problematic.”
Elyot’s eyes fell to the runes, or rather, their absence. The symbols had been chiseled away, leaving only a couple points and corners, but not enough to determine what was originally inscribed.
“He scraped off the runes? Why would he…” He glanced at the exposed tang of the sword. “The names of the maker and knight, they’ve been erased too. Son of a bitch.”
“The blacksmiths have confirmed that this is a genuine knight sword,” said Tarnas, “but with both the runes and the names missing, we have no way to find out who this belonged to. According to the Harajin, it was traded from the man in Town Square and belonged to a knight who died outside of this mess,” said Tarnas. “It wouldn’t be the first sword taken from a dead knight out in the countryside, but after all we’ve recovered, this is the first one that can’t be traced back to the owner or maker. If this really did belong to a knight in the field, we need to know.”
“Since we can’t trace it through normal means, we’re hoping your alchemy might give us the answers we need. I recall you saying once that you could restore burnt parchment,” Berholm added.
“I can only do it if I have all the ashes and they’re still warm. I can’t restore the in***********ion or runes without the original removed material. There might be some blood I can test, see what kinds of monsters it’s been used to kill.”
“The handle was loose when we got it,” said Berholm. “The stranger and the Harajin, one or both of them opened it up, and recently. Whoever it was had the sense to look for ways it could be identified, and I believe they allowed it to return to us only because they were sure it wouldn’t lead anywhere. It’s probably been cleaned. You’ll be lucky to find human blood on it.”
“We have to find out which knight this came from, it’s starting to take this personally. I almost feel a bit called out,” said Tarnas with his arms crossed.
“You know me, I love a challenge. I’ll be busy at the academy, but I’ll see what I can do. Anyway, I’m surprised Lady Zodiac isn’t here.”
Tarnas and Berholm exchanged a glance.
----------
The morning breeze blew through the open windows of the throne room, with the hanging curtains flapping between the stationed guards. All eyes were on Valia Zodiac, prostrating in the center of the room. She had stood in these chambers countless times throughout the decades, earning looks of admiration from all around her, but now, on her knees with her forehead pressed to the carpeted floor, she was looked at with distrust and disdain. The coldest gaze came from the king, situated on his throne with lavish robes and rings on each finger. After the chaos from the previous night, he was up to his eyes in paperwork and a hundred situations all demanding his attention like a room of petulant children. He was flanked by his advisors and other palace staff, likewise emotionally and physically exhausted.
“Lady Zodiac, I trust you know why I have called you are here,” the king grumbled. It looked like he had aged ten years since the previous morning.
“Yes, Your Highness. You have news regarding my brother, but under the circumstances, I fear the nature of it.”
“The ruins of the dungeon were examined, and all the locks that were collected show the same damage. They were cut, the steel shackles sliced through like soft butter. According to recaptured prisoners, they were all destroyed almost simultaneously. Several reported a fast-moving streak of light moving around the dungeon and severing them. The breakout was a diversion to draw every soldier and knight away from the castle. The true target was the royal vault. The skeleton crew guarding it were attacked, and the few that survived named their killer with their dying breath. Valon, he raided the vault and disappeared with every Enochian artifact.”
Valia raised her head, a look of shock on her face with a lump in her throat the size of a boulder. “Your Highness, you know Valon. He has proved his loyalty to you and your forefathers. The guards must have been mistaken, perhaps deceived through a disguise or magic. He’s the perfect scapegoat to pin it on.”
“There is no mistake. Because of him, both the wealth and military might of this nation has been decimated and Colbrand was nearly destroyed. A war’s worth of damage can be laid at his feet. Numerous witnesses have placed you in the city, helping to stem the violence, but no one can account for your whereabouts before the breakout.”
“Your Highness, you have my word, I had nothing to do with the events of last night.” she hissed.
“Your word has lost much of its meaning as of late and these crimes must be answered for. I don’t need to tell you how bad this looks.”
Valia slammed her fist on the ground and angry tears fell from her eyes. “Valon, why?”
----------
The knight academy was a walled-off campus situated in the northern outskirts of the city, where there was plenty of room for various training regiments and war simulations. Unfortunately, that meant it was a long walk for Noah and the other applicants, so they were none too pleased with the sign hanging over the wrought iron gate. Like the festival, enrollment day was postponed, as the faculty were assisting with the rebuilding process. It was a large crowd of young men and women, including some dwarves, many of which had taken part in the Red Revelries and even escaped the dungeon, as evidenced by their ripped clothes and the smell of blood. After the events of last night, Noah was in no place to judge anyone’s appearance.
‘Oh well, at least I can go back to bed.’
He returned to the Knight’s Sheath and spent most of the day in Bella’s room, enjoying intermittent naps with loud, raunchy sex in between. Towards the middle of the afternoon, other needs pulled him from Bella’s post-orgasmic trembling embrace, one them being the need for something larger than a washbasin to properly deal with the varnish of sweat, blood, and cum he had accumulated since yesterday.
He went down to the bar and found Lucius working the counter and Daniel nearby, rolling gonlief cigarettes. “Hey. Lucius, pour me something nice.”
“‘Sup,” Daniel replied.
“I’m a bit surprised you woke up today. How do you feel?” A glass slid across the counter and into his hand.
“I’m all right, for the most part. I have a lot of sore spots. I think I happened to wake up just when Cyrilo was thinking of kicking me out, you know? Like, she was in a good mood, but it was because I’d finally go away. Anyway, back to the old grind. So, what? No magic school?”
“Class is cancelled. I was planning on heading over to the bathhouse. Interested?”
“Water and I need little break from each other. Our relationship has been a bit… choppy… lately. I might try that olive oil thing the Greeks did.” He worked while talking, finishing cigarettes with machine-like speed and repetition.
“Huh, you really are good at that.”
“Years of practice. Anyway, tonight I go onstage.”
“Your audience will be a bit smaller than last night.”
“For now. Before long, the ‘Bard of Rock’ will be more famous around here than any knight. But speaking of last night… thank you. For everything.”
“Don’t worry about it. Have you decided on anything yet?”
“Well like I said, I’m going onstage tonight, and after that… I guess I’ll just have to take it one step at a time.”
Noah finished his drink and departed. He went down to the local bathhouse and scrubbed himself clean. A few errands and street-side dinner later, and he made his return the Knight’s Sheath, and what had originally been the dozen afternoon drinkers had turned into an evening mob, unlock any Noah had yet seen. It was not the girls the men were after, nor the drinks, nor even the gonlief, it was the strumming of ‘Starman’.
Daniel was sitting on a chair up on the stage, somehow playing not just the guitar chords, but mimicking the overlapping rhythms of the other instruments with just those six strings and the tapping of his feet. He was completely within his element, every movement and action was flawless. The enhancement gems had been removed, but even now, his guitar was projecting visible mana. It was just enough to thinly fill the vast parlor, now packed wall to wall with customers, all listening to Daniel. There was no telling if they actually understood the lyrics, but it didn’t seem to matter. Looking around, Noah spotted a large number of women in the crowd, and not just the working girls. The music was pulling everyone off the street to listen. All the doors and windows had to be opened because of the combined breathing and smoking of the spectators, and that just drew more customers.
Noah waded through the crowd the counter, where Lucius and Cyrilo were watching the concert with everything else. “Busy night, I see.”
“I haven’t seen this place so packed since… ever. This is incredible,” said Cyrilo.
“We’re gonna run out of booze at this rate.”
“Then it seems I got here just in time. Pour me a drink.”
Noah found an open seat among a group of adventurers and sat down with a sigh of bliss. A smoke, a drink, and some good music playing, then back up to Bella’s room. It was a nice night.
To be continued in book 3, coming same time next year! Thanks for reading! Tell me your thoughts!
