Chapter 43 - Tavernspot / Interlude - Tanyan / Lesser Demon Access (Patreon)

Here's the chapters! Get them here or read below!

Also, there is an author's note at the end explaining about last week, and.. things. Not really required reading really.

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Chapter 43 – Tavernspot

The conclave district and the Mercenary district's differences didn’t become apparent until after she’d ventured several blocks away from the gate. The main avenue was still well lit, and others were walking by, but the guards and soldiers stationed regularly disappeared. The side streets were definitely off-limits, and she could see why. They were poorly lit and looked like people had littered them full of junk and trash for the most part. A few larger side streets looked somewhat well maintained, but they were definitely in the ‘Oh god someone is following me and it is dark category.’

Elburn, Lieutenant Anton’s nephew, had given her several pointers and suggestions on what to do along with Henri despite the objections of a few of the other guards who seemed intent on persecuting her for being a demon. Luckily, they either didn’t have the authority, or her two benefactors' social pull was more than enough because they ended up silenced and grumbling in the background.

While there was no curfew in the Mercenary district, it was still on the verge of ‘night’ and most business would be done with until the next day. That included the Artificer that she needed to find. Hanging out at the gate with the guards until the next day was unfortunately not an option, they’d be relieved at some point, and there was no assurance the next set of guards would be amicable toward her.

Not needing sleep or any food or anything was undoubtedly something that improved her situation, though. She had considered staying at the gate until Elburn left anyway, but the guards had a different suggestion.

So she was looking for a lively inn or pub along the main avenue where she could wait. They had assured her she wouldn’t actually need to buy anything, so not having any coin wasn’t a problem. It wasn’t uncommon for people to stay in a tavern's public room while waiting for others. If someone gave her issues about it, they told her she could just leave and head to the next one.

Elania was beginning to question the existence of such places, however. She had traveled quite a bit further down the main avenue than she thought she would have to, and just as she was about to stop and consider turning back, a bit of laughing caught her ear. She pressed forward around the corner, and there was a giant tavern set right in the center of the street and dividing the main path into a V. The extra people milling about certainly had them standing out compared to the relatively empty streets. One of them even had an ‘outdoor’ area, which she supposed made a lot of sense when there wasn’t a risk of rain or bad weather in the city.

She homed in on that one almost immediately. The outdoor tables weren’t all full, and she could tell it was a lot less noisy as she got closer, further solidifying her choice.

She slid her backpack off and in front of her seat to keep it safe from a quick snatch and grab. That was something she’d learned from her dad. He was always giving her safety tips like that, trying to keep her safe, and she wished she had taken him up on the karate lessons now.

Settling in for a long wait, Elania began to study the other patrons visible to her. She noticed that many of them were lower level, much lower than she had seen at Waystation Four and the checkpoint. People were a broad mix; the lowest was even lower than her! He was a young man, maybe even a teenager, and was only level thirty-three. The rest were around forty to seventy, with a few nearing one-hundred.

That’s when she noticed someone staring at her near the door. A slightly portly man, but he had some leather armor and looked dangerous. Elania immediately used [Identify] on him.

[Bouncer – Human – Lvl 245]

That made sense; from what Henri and Elburn had said, every place would need its own security in the district. He was not as high level as some she had seen, but she realized that made a bit of sense. The people in the Waystation had been those who lived out in the Dark fighting and killing things all the time. She was already almost level 50, just from a few weeks of travel, and had fought multiple monsters and even several demons.

But levels weren't the best judge of strength though, even if it was the most visible, Elania knew that very well. She might not know Karate, and she was still low level, comparatively, but she’d killed and fought things much higher than her and won with her special ‘demon’ abilities.

She took a deep breath and smiled and waved at the man, but his frown seemed only to crease harder. Maybe she had stared at him too long, or she wasn’t supposed to acknowledge him, or the obvious: she was a demon. Oh well. She looked away and tried to pretend to be interested in something else.

Which wasn’t hard, because she was interested in a lot of what she saw. The architecture here was different from the conclave district, but no less made out of stone. There was very little evidence of any wood, which was what she would have expected everything to be made out of, except they were deep underground, so it made sense. Using what was available and easiest to access was just what people did.

Elania was lost in thought, considering the differences between the carved stone buildings and the rough brick and gritty look of the Mercenary district, when someone coughed near her to get her attention.

A young man looked at her expectantly, although the little notepad and pen for writing down orders was missing. The world had paper, but maybe it was too expensive to waste on taking orders.

“What can I get you?”

“I’m fine for now, just waiting for a friend to show up.”

That elicited a frown, and Elania had expected that no matter what Henri or Elburn had said, but they shrugged and began to ignore her. She predicted that she'd have gotten a different response if the place had been packed completely full. The interruption had her watching the interplay of people rather than the buildings.

Most of the patrons were men, although there were a few larger mixed groups at some bigger tables. The open construction and lack of a front door and wide-open windows made it easy to see into the building. Of course, they didn’t really need doors or windows. If there was never any bad weather and the place was open all day and night, when would it need to close them?

When the waiter went to re-enter the tavern after taking the orders of a few others outside, he paused and whispered something to the bouncer, who just seemed to glare at her even harder.

‘Maybe I should find another place to wait.’

Still, maybe it would be best to wait here as long as she could before moving on. It didn’t seem that things were going to be as easy as the guardsmen had led her to believe. Their plan would probably have been fine for them, but she was definitely seen in a less favorable light than a guard, which considering where she was at, wasn't a very comforting thought.

Nearby, two blue eyes were shining brightly with interest at the newcomer. It wasn’t often that new demons arrived, much less one that wasn’t bound to a master.

Interlude - Tanyan

The circular chamber was poorly lit. Tanyan couldn’t help but think that was by design, to better intimidate those who came to stand before the Council. There were no light crystals, only a few braziers tactically placed behind columns that created a dim flickering across the old stonework. He had given his report to the Proctor and then waited in his cubicle for what felt like days but had likely only been a few hours. Then he had been summoned.

The treatment wasn’t regular, but nothing about their expedition had been normal. As he had walked from his room toward the council building, many of the younger members had stared, and the customary greetings from his peers had been absent, a near-unanimous shunning that had his nerves on edge.

Upon arrival to the waiting chamber, he had started to smile upon seeing Taniel, but he silenced it when he saw Marcus waiting impatiently on a bench. They were arguing with each other.

“This is all your fault.” The quiet condemnation in Taniel’s voice was met by the mercenary's angry scowl.

Before Tanyan could figure out what was stirring, Proctor Harlsand emerged from the shadows.

“Silence. You have all been summoned to answer the questions of the Council.”

Marcus had his objection, however.

“Bastards, I’ve been waiting for hours. I’ll have my pay for delivering the moss to ye.”

Proctor Harland smiled but didn’t answer him, instead gesturing for them to enter the chamber.

Tanyan had to hide a grin from forming. Marcus had grown more abrasive and troublesome after they had left Elania in the district square. His insistence on being paid only growing stronger when he realized there might be issues taken up with his behavior.

Tanyan had stressed just how much Marcus had put in jeopardy the mission to collect the Glow-Moss with his obsession on replacing his demon with Elania and his fumbled attempt at framing her for theft and the consequent fallout of causing Saren's death.

Marcus let out an angry tssk, at his demand being ignored again, and moved into the chamber. Taniel stood and followed, and Tanyan moved to join them under Harlsand’s untelling expression.

Tanyan had spared no detail of just how close everything was to literally going up in flames and how it was squarely Marcus’ fault. Somehow, he hoped the elders would punish the man, and he doubted that Taniel had spared the mercenary his scorn and anger while being questioned.

With both their testimonies spearing the man, he hoped that the reprimand and punishment he’d receive would be fitting.

As soon as Tanyan crossed the threshold, he felt the temperature drop. He’d only been before the Council once before, for the ceremony that had raised him from apprentice to full member, and it was just as unnerving as it had been then.

It didn’t help that the Council hardly ever showed themselves to the Conclave, remaining completely aloof and apart and only communicating via their chosen Proctors from the main Conclave body. It had been thirty years since the newest Proctor had been chosen, and rumor was that the Council had achieved near immortality by reaching the pinnacle of their classes.

The door to the chamber clanged shut as the three of them reached the center of the chamber, the only part of the room that seemed to remain lit.

Proctor Harland moved to stand before them. “Journeyman Taniel, Journeyman Tanyan, Mercenary Marcus, you have been called to answer the questions of the Council for your actions regarding the Glow-Moss expedition.”

“Journeyman Tanyan, explain the details of the contract you made with the demon called ‘Elania’ and why you thought it was necessary to violate one of the core tenants of the order?”

Tanyan swallowed and began to speak, realizing this was going to be an inquisition.

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Tanyan swallowed and slid down the wall to sit on the bench provided. They had grilled him first, without mercy, and he was sure Marcus had laughed at one point. The mercenary had obviously brought up the suggestion that he had ‘relations’ with Elania because a great deal of the questions had revolved around that. It was as if they were searching for a reason he had felt the need to help her.

In the end, the punishment had been heavy. Not just for him, but Taniel as well. The Council's displeasure was well conveyed by the Proctor, although the way the misty darkness billowed in the room, Tanyan swore he could sense the disappointment of the Council forming around them.

Their failings had been clearly laid out before them.

Taniel sat down heavily beside him, without a word. They had both been stripped of their journeyman rank temporarily, and Taniel had been ordered to a long list of menial tasks that would keep him busy doing useless things for months. That was almost a normal punishment, Tanyan thought, compared to his own.

“I have answered yer bloody questions, I want my payment, now!”

Taniel looked up in surprise, never having expected shouting coming out of the council chamber. How could anyone disrespect the elders or dare to make demands of them?

There was no shouted reply; rather, a body flew through the open council chamber doors and thudded into the marbled wall in front of Taniel and Tanyan with a heavy thud. Marcus fell and hit the floor with a second thump before groaning, but he recovered quickly and cursed, gracefully bringing himself back onto his feet.

Except Proctor Harland suddenly appeared and slammed a fist into the mercenary’s stomach. It was a dispassionate blow without any trace of emotion, but Tanyan could see the shockwave roll through Marcus’ body and the anger and rage crumpled out of him even as he spilled onto the floor.

“The Council is obviously displeased with your outburst, Mercenary. You’ll be paid as agreed, but you’ll follow the requirements the Council has stipulated as well, or you’ll face more than a complaint by the Conclave to the Guild.”

It took a moment for Marcus to recover from the blow, but the Proctor waited silently and without any apparent impatience. Tanyan found himself holding his breath when the mercenary did fully come to; it appeared he was about to draw a weapon and attack from the floor. Understanding of just how outmatched seemed to prevail, however.

“What’dya want me to do to the girl?”

“The Council requires you to find her, and watch her. Report back to us her activities. She is an anomaly that can’t be allowed to disrupt our plans. Do this and you'll get the rest of your payment.”

The Proctor opened his hand and loose coins spilled from his palm to clatter on Marcus' head and the floor before the impassionate monk turned and re-entered the council chambers, the doors slamming shut without anyone touching them.

Tanyan felt the tension die, but knowing he’d likely see more of Marcus in the future didn’t put him at ease, especially with the hateful glare the man was directed toward the closed chamber.

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Author Note

Hello everyone!

Sorr if this rambles a bit. I just wanted to leave a note explaining a little and it turned out into a big ramble, so I put it at the end.

I'm sorry for missing the releases last week, things have been really hard lately. After Christmas, the water pipes burst and basically flooded everything so cleaning up and fixing the tile and drying things up was just the start of it. The water started on the second floor, basically filled everything up then overflowed down the staircase (and through every little tiny crack you can imagine, spraying the downstairs in random places and who knows how much through the walls) and flooded the ground floor too... before finding an exit through the HVAC vents in the floor and out through the front door.

Now, we thought it was mostly over, but Friday the furnace stopped working and started making a loud high pitched sound -- blow motor fried. Going to guess the water going down into the basement and increasing the moisture down there did it in or something, but a replacement motor wasn't in attendance and it has been getting down to about 20 degrees every night. So we had to find 'alternative' heating any way we could. House isn't conductive to good insulation either as it is a pretty old place. Was supposed to have it fixed today when the part came in, but that didn't work out as the fitting was only 3 legged and we needed a four-legged one, but hopefully, the repair guy will be over tomorrow with one that fits.

That is just what happened last week. The whole holiday season has been pretty hard on me and my dad this year. My mother, grandfather, and grandmother all passed away last year and this was our first Christmas without them. It doesn't help that we were all pretty close and we were all living together (we knew my grandparents were going to go soon, so we were all living together to cut costs and take care of them) but my mother passed away suddenly and without much warning and was a really hard blow to my dad, causing him to actually have a heart attack on the spot. (Crazy thing that yes can actually happen) Luckily, he was able to pull through, although his long term health has been really damaged by it.

I'm not meaning for any of this to really be an excuse as to missing the release date for the story last week, just an explanation of what has been going on. I didn't post an update when I missed monday's post because I figured I would release Chapter 43 and the interlude wed and a separate post explaining wouldn't be needed. Then I missed that and figured I would post 43 / Interlude / 44 Friday along with a short explanation. Well that got blown out of the water.

We still don't have 44 today, but I really just wanted to post an update no matter what with what I had ready. At this point rather than keep trying to scramble to get to where we are *supposed* to be, I think it will be best to just continue on the regular release schedule. So that is what we are going to do.

I know there was some worry and alarm from a few people, but I don't intend to stop writing the story or go on hiatus at this point. I really just have been swamped from all the stuff going on IRL.

Actually, things for the story, other than my slower than expected writing speed are really looking good. I have a friend who is a professional editor that I've made a deal with to turn the first part of the webnovel into an actual book. I've actually written a lot with this person before, doing a lot of roleplay, etc and they are going to help co-author it. So it won't just be a copy paste of the webnovel into novel format, but have expanded scenes, changed pacing, and above all an expansion of content, clarified things, and really just be way more polished than the webnovel which has basically been a rough draft.

So I have been working with them on that while also continuing the web-novel. If the book does well then we'll likely do the same thing with a second book following the web-novel. I don't actually know when it will be ready, but so far progress on that has been coming along pretty fast. I actually am finding all kinds of things from that process that help me understand the characters better and will carry on through the next chapters of the story.