Ophelia kicked us out.

  I didn’t really blame her for it. We showed up and things started to get weird. Messages from the gods weren’t exactly common, apparently. It was one thing to believe, but to know was another matter. There was a good chance the woman hadn’t even been a believer before then, just someone doing their job.

  “Hey Deacon.” I said as hit the bottom of the stairs.

  “Yes Dani?” He responded, a little more stress in his voice than usual.

  “How many people actually believe the gods are real?” I asked like we were discussing what we were going to get to eat.

  There was a heavy silence between us as we walked, which served as a strange mirror to the general mood of the people coming and going from the dressing rooms we were passing. The occasional cheer could be heard as we walked, louder than when we had come in. We even had to get out of the way as a person rolled a rack full of costumes past.

  Deacon didn’t answer until we got outside. We loitered next to the employee entrance, and he pulled a cigarette from a jacket pocket and lit it with shaky hands using a match. After a couple puffs, he closed his eyes and leaned back against the wall. I waited for him, not wanting to grab one of my own and feeling like it wasn’t a good time to ask for one of his.

  Which was why I was surprised when he handed his over to me and pulled another out for himself. I raised an eyebrow at him, but shrugged and just stared up at a sky a little darker than it was when we went inside. With a sigh, he shook his head. “Dani, when it comes to gods…” There was another pause.

  “You don’t really think about them?” I prompted.

  He snapped his fingers, “Right! Exactly.” Deacon grimaced, “Though I’d have preferred to think about it in a more poetic manner. It feels crass just saying it like that.”

  I puffed on the cigarette and stared up at the sky. “Like how nobody talks about how the sky is fake?”

  “Yes exa-” He paused before snapping his head up. Then he turned to look at me, “What the fuck?!”

  I nodded, “I noticed it my first week at the manor.”

  Deacon ran his hand through his hair, knocking the hat askew as he started to slide down the wall. I was surprised nothing got singed, since he was still holding the cigarette. “How? When?!”

  I shrugged and kept looking, “No idea. There’s a lot of things that I just take note of but ignore. Like with the river.”

  “Don’t tell me. It’s supposed to be pink and heal people?” He said, sarcastically.

  I blinked, considering the idea. My pause cause Deacon to turn to look at me with the most serious gaze I’d ever seen from him. “Dani. Tell me the rivers aren’t supposed to be pink and heal people.”

  I shrugged, “No clue. Probably shouldn’t kill people who go swimming though.”

  I did not appreciate how relieved his sigh sounded. Looking over at him, he was puffing on his cigarette again, taking a more relaxed posture, with one leg out and one knee raised to rest his elbow on. He was deep in thought, so I let him be.

  We stayed like that and I watched the people pass by on the street nearby. I could hear the sounds of music and laughter all around, mixed with the occasional scream of joy coming from the theater behind us. The fact that we can hear that out here is incredible. Just how loud are they cheering in there?

  “Dani.” Deacon broke the silence.

  “Yea?” I said, returning my attention to him. I made sure to put the embers out and flicked the cigarette butt into a small pile that had formed along the wall.

  “What are your plans? After saving that guy and checking out the dungeons?” He asked.

  The question seemed pretty random, but I considered it. “Depends on what we find out. Maybe look into some of this other stuff. Probably travel.”

  “Travel?” He looked up at me.

  I shrugged, “It’s not something I’ve thought a lot about. It seems kind of pointless to plan past diving the dungeons when I don’t know what I’ll find in there.”

  This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

  “Why would that be pointless?” Deacon asked, tossing his finished cigarette next to where I’d tossed mine. Then he stood up and put his hat back on his head. “You need goals for after the job is done.”

  “What about you? Plan to work as my guard for the rest of your life?” I raised an eyebrow as I looked him up and down. “Or do you have something else you want to do?”

  Deacon took a few moments to think about it. “I wasn’t planning to, no…” He hesitated before adding, “I was thinking maybe five or so years and then seeing how I felt.”

  “If we’re alive in five months, I’ll be grateful.” I responded. “The way I’m attracting attention feels dangerous for my health.”

  “No shit.” He started towards where the street met the path to the employee entrance. “Only two more days until my hand should be back, so that’ll help.”

  I followed next to him and we started to walk through the district. “I was going to talk with you about that. Do you think we could make another attempt at getting Melvin after you’ve had a few days to readjust?”

  Deacon hummed in thought. “Maybe. I’m not sure how much I’ll need to relearn, but it should just take some practice. We’ll do some trips out and see how things go first.”

  “Sounds reasonable.” I nodded as I looked around at the people still roaming the streets, even as it starts to get dark.

  After a few minutes of walking, we stopped at an intersection to watch a band performing. I looked around and saw the occasional waitress coming out of the nearby bars to sell drinks and snack food. Despite the upbeat nature of the string music matched with some drums someone had brought there, the mood was subdued.

  I wondered about it for a while, but gave up. Instead, I walked up to some woman and tapped them on the arm. In the dim light, I couldn’t see her face, but could absolutely smell her breath. “What’s the performance for?”

  “Huh?” She looked confused, then a spark must have occurred from her thoughts striking each other, “Oh! The singer announced it when they started… dead girl or something found near the river. Another of those awful murders…”

  She tried to take a swig from a mug, but it was empty. I left her to gaze into the empty mug and frowned as I started off towards one of the bars. Deacon followed after I tugged on his sleeve to get his attention. We ordered drinks and found a spot to lean against a wall with a view of the window outside.

  “This is the worst kind of wake.” Deacon said, looking out the window. “But, I’ve seen worse.”

  I looked around the bar and there were people talking and drinking, but it didn’t look that different from the few other times I’d been to a tavern. “What do you mean?”

  Deacon took a swig from his mug and used it to buy time as he thought of an answer. Or he’d had a long day and was getting hammered. It has been a long day… I stared into my own mug, swirling the mead around in a little circle inside as I waited for him to speak.

  He raised the mug to his lips like he was going to take another swig to stall, but my glare stopped him. “Fine. Fine.” He sighed. “You hear the song?”

  They were still going, the rhythm trying to maintain a cheery tune, but something was out of sync. Like they weren’t playing music, but just… keeping busy. “It sounds like they’re not really into it.”

  The bard nodded, “I don’t know what happened, but I’m guessing they knew whoever it was.”

  “Someone said the body was found by the river.” I took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “I didn’t think the city was small enough we’d run into that again.”

  “There’s not a lot of murder in the city. The system makes it pretty hard to do anything within the walls.” Deacon replied, “Not my area of expertise, but I’ll bet there are probably traits for people who take Guard classes.

  “Wait… but…” I paused to consider what he said. Then a conversation from not too long ago played in my head. “But… there aren’t a lot of people taking Guard classes…”

  Deacon shrugged, “Enough do.” He tilted his head slightly as he looked at me, “Why? Thinking of poking your nose into this?”

  I shook my head, “No, just… can’t help but empathize with them.”

  “Not surprising.” He took another, longer pull from his mug. With a satisfied sigh as the mug went back down, he tapped me on the shoulder, “You’ve already got problems on your plate. You should probably take care of that before piling on more.”

  I held out my barely touched mug to Deacon, who took it graciously. “You’re right. I’m still curious.”

  “Be curious, then.” He said, “Just… maybe not tonight?” When I looked at him with confusion, he frowned at me. “You hit me with at least two or three world shaking revelations at the same time.”

  Giving him a once over, he didn’t look too much different from normal. “Should we just head home then?”

  “Gods above and below, I was hoping you’d ask.” Deacon said, finishing the mead. Stepping away from the wall, he headed for the door. “If we’re lucky, maybe Elayne and them will be back too.”

  I went to catch up and felt someone grab onto my wrist. “Hey pretty girl! Why don’t you and I-”

  There was a crunch, followed by a crash as the man who had grabbed me was sent backwards into another group. I hadn’t thought I’d hit him that hard, but the people he’d bumped into fell over into a table and some chairs. Something broke, they all fell on the ground.

  I was out the door before the shouting started. A peak through the window as I moved to catch up with Deacon showed the people the guy had crashed into starting to kick at the man on the ground. I brought up one of my newest traits when I was finally next to my bodyguard.

  Monstrous Force

  Each of your blows comes with more kinetic energy than a person of your size should be capable of. For the purposes of combat, your blows connect with Strength divided by 10 more kilograms of force. (3kg)

  I decided turning it off might be for the best. For now.

  Oops.