Finally we arrived at the tavern, uncreatively named The Tavern. Firion explained that the guy who established the tavern was horrible at coming up with names, so he decided to just name it The Tavern. As it turns out no one had ever named their tavern “The Tavern“ before (at least the officially registered taverns) so the name was free.
Anyways the tavern named The Tavern was a dimly lit but cozy looking place. From the door the bar and other foodstuffs were to the left, whilst the stairs to the bedrooms were to the right, leaving a large space open for relaxing, dining, and talking. (assuming that one could do those things while taking part in or trying to avoid the various fights and or arguments that were going on at the time.)
“Let’s find someplace where we can lay low.“ I whispered to Firion.
“I would if there was a place where we could lay low, but I’m not so sure about that. Although there’s one table for two in the right corner of the room, probably the best we could hope for here.“
We awkwardly tiptoed around the bar fights and various other drunken misadventures until we made it to our table, dimly lit by the few swaying lanterns hanging from the ceiling and the crackling fireplace at the center back wall.
I had just sat down as I began to Glitch out, luckily I changed into an average blond girl with cream skin, as opposed to a more unusual look. Unfortunately however, someone saw me.
Unsteadily standing up from his chair and table a wasted patreon pointed at me and said “Wait, hey, that girl over there just changed her appearance!“
Several others glanced at me before staring back at the man who’d just made the unrealistic claim. Most people went right back to what they were doing, some telling him that his beer’s making him delusional.
However, the man was persistent. “I swear what I saw was the real truth! It looked kinda fuzzy and distorted while she did it like a, like, a glitch!“
This got people’s attention. Almost everyone in the whole inn gathered around to look at me, murmuring and passing theories about who and what I was.
Lore Building Commission Break
As glazed over in Chapter One, glitches and people who studied and learned how to control them are shunned and feared by everyone from simple farmers to great war heroes. That’s because glitches are part of the supernatural spectrum. Being supernatural, there’s obviously very little we know about glitches except for that they distort time and space and in order for the average person to create a glitch they need to speak a magical chant called a “ code “. Each code consists of a bunch of numbers and letters arranged in seemingly random orders. About once a hundred years someone would find a way to use codes to invade and conquer the lands, and over those years they would write down the codes that worked and what they did and keep track of codes that didn’t work. On the black market there were hundreds of loose parchments with codes and their effects scrawled on them, some of these codes worked, but most were just fake. But for the few who managed to obtain a great quantity of codes and strived to create codes of their own, they had enough power to create the empires of their dreams…
Until some unnamed military force happened to cross paths with them and brought them to an end, although they didn't do anything about the various evil dictatorships that didn't use glitches but still were in large positions of power. But the locals didn't mind; they just celebrated and gave said unnamed military force a metric ton of food, tools, gear, weapons, and money as a thank you gift. The military force was just glad to get those supplies and that people knew how bad using glitches was and how it could give really bad people power. Although, one thing they didn't say was that, well, they wouldn't like it if I told you. However, they're still totally legit and not sketchy. Also they have nothing to do with the current ongoing plot of this book series, I don't know why I put them in this part.
Small Time Skip!!!!!
“Okay, alright, there may have been some intentions to remain incognito, but that was just because we didn’t want to create a scene. I swear we have no other agendas then that.” Firion said, as he tried to quell the situation before anyone got ideas.
Standing up out of his chair someone shouted. “There’s no one here left for you to swindle, Firion. It’s about time you and you fake heroics leave. For good.” The crowd cheered in agreeance.
He was a Mandarin Dwarf.
“Yeah! I’m still waiting to get my investment back on that bounty I sent you to collect!” Someone yelled.
Another person said. “You always seem to find a way to cheat a deal you make. You got robbed and your supplies got lost, the contact was assassinated, always a different story. By now we all know that you just run off with your pay as soon as you get it. You do just enough to get paid then you high tail it to another place and do it all over again!”
“When have I ever done that?” Firion inquired, putting his hands up in a confused manner.
“Every year to all of the people you can find that need some dirty work done for them!” A tall woman wearing the armor of the Knight’s Army Guild.
“Multiple times a month.” Another said.
“Who did I do a job for last month?” Firion asked.
The Mandarin Dwarf spoke directly to Firion. “This charade is over. We’re done being betrayed by your greedy tricks and your heroic fasade! It’s time to-”
Standing up out of her chair Ashla wasted no time to bring out a rarely used luad and grabbing voice along with a firm stance to make her presence known.
“You wouldn’t know one thing about Firion, he’s a better man than all of you combined! He saved my life and is the only person who was ever nice to me! And yet he’s being insulted by a bunch of drunken nobodies!”
The Dwarf laughed. “Ha! This man is hardly a hero of any sort! He’s a murderer who takes cash! He does just enough to get paid then he leaves with the job half assed. As soon as he gets what he wants from you he’ll cut and run!” He scoffed. “I can attest to that!”
“You’ll be the one cut and running if yo-” Firion put his hand on Ashla’s as she was taking out her stake out her staff, his eyes full of regret.
Calming down Ashla said, “Look there was one time Firion left his team to die so he could escape, but that was YEARS ago, and he’s regretted it ever since. So can you just give him one chance?”
The crowd changed from anger to laughter, like someone clearly misinformed was telling a recount of an event. Of all the people in the world, there wasn’t a single person who had treated her like a normal human being, god forbid a friend. Yet, these people had the audacity to treat him like a murderer?!
Leaning in, Ashla whispered to Firion. “Let’s go somewhere where we’re not being accused of being a scumbag by a bunch of drunks!”
Firion said nothing, with the eyes of someone who’d made past sins that, like a snowstorm piled on and on slowly entrapped him. The storm made his morals a blurry haze, his only hope was in continuing the trail he was following, for it was the only thing he knew would take him somewhere.
Firion took a long sigh, and then put his hand on Ashla’s shoulder.
“They’re right. Everything they said is right.” Firion’s tone silenced Ashla.
Taking his hand slowly away from Ashla, Firion walked over to the far wall of the tavern. His presence was felt throughout the room, and his posture teemed with determination. The presence was so potent that even the most close minded detestent of Firion thought against interrupting the proceedings.
Firion looked about the seedy tavern, finally deciding on what he was going to do.
(Thanks for reading this chapter everyone! Please favorite and leave a review on this chapter. We've learned more about Firion's mercenary life and things seem to be heating up in The Tavern! What will happen next? Stay tuned to find out!)
