Downtown Druid

Dantes woke up on the floor. He’d moved there at some point during the night when he’d found the bed too soft to sleep on. He took a deep breath and took in his surroundings. Light coming in through the windows, the sleeping forms of an orc and a dwarf softly snoring in his bed, and Jacopo less than a foot from his face loudly chewing some leftover sweetmeats.

“Been awake long?” he asked, not out loud since he didn’t want to wake Alessa and Tieara, rather through the connection they shared.

“Several hours. I didn’t need the same rest you did.”

Dantes stood and stretched. He was sore, but his spirits were high, his stomach was full, and he’d enjoyed a satisfaction he’d last experienced with Mercedes more than five years before.

“Been eating the whole time?”

Jacopo shrugged. “Much of it. The food is much better up here. The sights and smells are different too. The light though…” Jacopo squinted as he looked out the window. “It will be much harder to hide.”

Dantes nodded. “Don’t worry, if we’re doing any sneaking it will still be at night for the most part.”

Dantes walked over to where he’d placed his pack and pulled out the graverobbed clothes he’d purchased the previous day, slipping them on. They were a good fit, one of the benefits of being so average in size was that most of the clothes he stole or bought tended to fit him fairly well.

He looked over at the soiled clothes from the last day, his eyes lingering on his coat. He had shivs, random coins, spider fangs, stolen baubles, seeds from his garden, and Televor’s finger inside of it. The coat had served him well for the entire time he was in prison, but now it was soiled beyond belief and riddled in holes of all kinds, including several which he could tell were from Jacopo’s bored gnawing. He’d need a new coat at the very least. The dagger he’d taken from the elves was in rough shape as well, but not so bad a blacksmith couldn’t repair it, or a Dantes himself with a whetstone and some time.

On top of new equipment he’d need to figure out a new source of favor from the god of rat’s and the god of roaches. He looked at his arm. Some additional favor had trickled into to both of them, likely from the garden and the orcish corpses he’d left in his wake, but now that he wasn’t the one granting permission to use the garden, he wasn’t sure if he’d continue receiving favor when they found themselves some rotting fruit on the ground to eat. He also was disappointed his dream had been of the strange figures again rather than a meeting with the god of bats.

He grabbed one of the sweetmeats on the plate, then a piece of cheese, then two crackers before putting the whole thing in his mouth to chew. He reached out his senses, seeing how far he could send them. He could feel rat’s sleeping in the dark recesses of alleyways and inside walls, roaches, silverfish, pigeons and crows on the roofs surrounding him, weed’s valiantly fighting to grow through concrete and cobblestone, small pots of flowers near death or strong and thriving depending on who was caring for them, and at the very edge of his senses he could feel a small shipment of fish from the dock with several of them clinging to life as the suffocated beneath the corpses of their fellows.

He almost choked on his food as the information flooded him, and began coughing until he was able to drink some water to finish choking it down. He heard stirring front he bed and looked over to see Tiera and Alessa yawning and stretching languidly.

Dantes took another sip of water to clear his throat.

“Sorry about that, didn’t mean to wake you.”

Tieara brushed her long curly hair from her face and scratched her head. “S’alright. We shouldn’t have slept in so much anyway. Madame gets pissy if we miss breakfast.” She slid off the bed and began searching for her clothes. She was a dwarf, and so stood more than a foot shorter than Dantes, but was a bit broader. Dantes watched her move around appreciatively.

Alessa began to sit up too, and began coughing.

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Dantes poured a second glass of water and brought it to her.

She took it gratefully, and cleared her throat. She was an orc and had her dark hair loose, but it was cut short, not even reaching her shoulders. Her tusks made a kind of clinking sound as they touched the edges of the glass. She was very slender for an orc, and quite elegant, with bright orange eyes that always seemed half-lidded.

“Thank you,” she said as she put the glass down.

“No worries,” said Dantes, moving over to his makeshift pack, he found his coins and counted them out. Then moved over to Tieara who was taking her time adjusting her blouse. He held out four silver to her.

“I’m not sure what the rate is, but this should cover it.”

She shook her head, her curls bouncing a bit at the gesture. “No need. The madame told us it was on the house since yer a friend of hers and a guest.”

Dantes shook his head. “I know, this is just for you and your time. You don’t have to pay any of it up to her.”

Tieara shrugged, and slipped the coins into her pocket.

He then walked over to Alessa and handed her some coins as well.

“Why?” she asked simply.

“My mom was a whore. I always pay whores what they deserve. I know it's a hard job.”

She coughed again, still clearing her throat. “I’m actually a singer, I’m just working here until I find better work.”

Dantes smiled. “Well, we’ll call this payment for being able to hear your vocal exercises last night. Fake or not, they were quite pleasant.”

Tieara and Alessa both chuckled at that, and Alessa took the coins that he’d offered, though she had to put them on the small side table since she hadn’t gotten dressed yet.

“Now, what was that about breakfast?”

…

As Dantes walked downstairs making light conversation with Tieara and Alessa he smelled cooking meat and his mouth began to water. Cheese, crackers, sweetmeats and wine were a welcome treat, but a fully cooked meal… The thought of it nearly brought a tear to his eye.

The bottom floor of the Vivacious Vixen had transformed in the daylight. The pink curtains that had been lining the walls were all drawn to reveal the plain worn wood behind them. There were two tables lined up, each seating nearly ten people. Dantes saw Decker and Sera, and then he saw Zilly walk from the kitchen behind the bar carrying a plate of heavy sausage, and another of roast pigeon. There was already bread and jam on the bar, as well as plates and forks stacked to the side, like a buffet.

Dantes looked around, but didn’t see Vera, and so went to the bar to get himself a plate. He could feel Jacopo’s hunger in his right pocket as well, a mirror and an amplifier of his own. He noticed some stares in his direction from a few of the ladies, but he didn’t bother introducing himself. In places like the Vixen, everyone would know everything everyone else knew about him by the time he sat down. With his plate stacked high, he moved to sit in an empty space next to Decker and across from Sera, where he began tucking in with abandon, only pausing to either drink, or pass small pieces of sausage to Jacopo in his pocket.

“I thought for a moment you might be a third mate after seeing you in clean clothes and freshly bathed, but you definitely eat more like a cabin boy,” said Sera.

Dantes smiled. “I’m a captain actually, got a crew of thousands and a ship faster than the breeze. Food on it is shit though, so it’s nice to have a good meal for a change.”

“I don’t believe you’re a captain."

“You shouldn’t, it’s a lie. A very obvious one. It’s okay, I made simple observations when I was child too.”

Sera blushed slightly, she wasn’t as good at taking insults as she was giving them, but Dantes had been raised by a whore and sometimes a sailor, so he was quite adept at both.

“You were close though. I’m just a deckhand.”

The lie let her regain a bit of composure and solidified his backstory.

“Does Vera not typically eat breakfast with you?”

“Normally she does, but she’s off to get a priest for our monthly cleansings.”

Dantes nodded. The best whorehouses were able to hire a priest on a routine basis to cleanse anything the girls may have picked up. The Vixen seemed to be thriving under Vera.

“She asked me to tell you to wait to head out until she got back,” said Decker, his voice a soothing baritone.

“Thanks for passing that along, and for the wine recommendation. It was great, you must have a very refined sense of taste.” Dantes was just buttering him up, and being obvious about doing so, but Decker smiled and nodded anyway.

“That being said, I won’t be waiting for her. Let her know I’ll be back by noon though, particularly if Zilly is cooking lunch as well.” He shot a wink to her which she returned with a nod, but no change in expression.

She was wearing blue trousers and a red shirt this time, and her muddy blonde hair was in an orderly bun on her head. He made a note to himself to try and make her laugh, something told him it would be worth the effort.

He stood up and went back up to his room, gathering his things into a bag. He scooted the bed to the side and pried a floorboard up with his knife. In that compartment he hid everything he was planning on leaving there. The Vixen was a nice enough, but a whorehouse was still not a good place to leave valuables laying around. He’d get some new clothes and equipment, and see what he and Jacopo could learn about what was happening in the city.

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