“I don’t know if I can do this,” I said, staring down at my plate. I wasn’t exactly sure what I was looking at, but it looked suspiciously like a pile of boiled grubs mixed with vegetables. It smelled strangely cheesy, which did little to improve my appetite.

  “Oh my god,” Tabby said. “This is disgusting.” She put a hand to her mouth as she tried to swallow her own dish, comprised of some mysterious gelatinous meat.

  “Mine’s good,” Kitz said as he devoured a mushy eggplant dish.

  “This might be a little too local for my taste,” Delen said as he jabbed at a hunk of meat with his fork. It was a little spongy, but it looked better than what I was having.

  “John,” Ersabet said calmly. “Please ask V if this is some sort of practical joke.” She had taken a few bites of her meal already, but she didn’t look happy about it.

  “You tell that blue witch that this is exactly what she requested,” Val said. “She wanted to eat local, and according to the lore, this is the oldest restaurant in Nessa. It’s been operated by the same bloodline for over three hundred years! It doesn’t get any more local than this!”

  “You did ask for local,” I said. “This is the oldest restaurant in Nessa.” I cringed as I smiled at Ersabet, bracing for a verbal assault.

  She sniffed in frustration, and I saw a twitch in her eye, but Tabby spoke up before Ersabet could reply. “With food like this, I find it hard to believe they could stay open for a month, let alone years.” She gestured at my plate. “What even is that? Bugs?”

  “Grubs, I think.”

  “Those are not grubs,” Val said. “Even I’m not so cruel as to let you order grubs.”

  What am I eating then?

  “Those are silkworm pupae, and this dish is considered a delicacy by many.”

  I pushed my plate away.

  “Oh, come now,” Val said. “It’s better than Tabby’s meal. She’s eating the inner lining of a camel’s hump. It’s like 90% fat.”

  My chair scraped the sandy floor as I stood. “V has offered to make amends by leading us to the nearest bar. We’ll find something to eat on the way.”

  ***

  “I hear music!” Tabby said as she bounced on her toes. “Come on.”

  She dragged us through a growing crowd toward the music. Someone bumped into me, and my drink sloshed, spilling a little of my spiced liquor on my freshly washed shirt. We were all wonderfully tipsy by this point, so I didn’t mind the mess.

  Even little Kitz had an unusually calm smile on his face. I knew Ersabet had been sneaking him sips of her drink behind my back. If this were the real world, I’d have put a stop to it, but considering our current circumstances, I pretended not to notice.

  This part of Nessa was bursting with life despite the late hour. People filled the street, laughing and dancing to the music. The right side of my body warmed, and the dark street flashed with light as a firebreather spat a ball of fire into the air. He took another swig from a bottle and spat it onto his flamestick, igniting another spectacular fireball. The crowd gasped and cheered at the display.

  A trio of beautiful women danced past me. As they spun and gyrated to the music, their silky, colored dresses flashed from the firelight.

  Tabby found a place where the crowd thinned and twirled to the music, spilling half of her drink on Delen.

  “Be careful,” he said. “I just had these washed!”

  I snorted to myself. It was just a little booze. No big deal.

  “Oh, shut up, you grump,” Tabby said. She reached out and snagged him by the wrist. “Dance with me.”

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  Her eager smile broke Delen instantly, and he let her pull him away. Against all odds, Delen quickly found his rhythm. He spun Tabby around as she giggled with delight. Not wanting to be left out of the fun, Kitz rushed forward and joined in, stomping his feet alongside them.

  “If you ask me to dance with you, I will cut off your toes,” Ersabet said.

  I tipped my drink back, finishing it off. “Better sharpen your knife then.” I grabbed her by the hand and tried to pull her out onto the dance floor, but her feet remained firmly planted.

  “I can’t dance with you, John.”

  “Sure, you can,” I said. “You’re a Dalari. You’re naturally graceful. Just pretend it’s a fight.”

  “You misunderstand,” she said. “Allow me to rephrase. I can’t be seen dancing with you.”

  “Oh,” I said quietly. “Why?”

  “We aren’t the only players here. If another Dalari saw me acting in such a familiar way toward an NPC, it could be misinterpreted and lead to confrontation, which we do not need.”

  I frowned. “This is about that Dalari we watched fight earlier, isn’t it?”

  “You noticed then? Perhaps you are more observant than I had thought.”

  I shrugged.

  “Fine. Yes, I know him, and we did not part on good terms. It would be best to avoid him.”

  “That’s all I get?” I clucked my tongue. “And I had thought we had turned a new leaf.”

  She sighed. “He was part of the group I was traveling with before they abandoned me.”

  “He’s the one you told the truth to, isn’t he?”

  “Yes. I had thought we shared similar sympathies. One night, I told him how I really felt about the games and how they have degraded our culture. He disagreed.”

  “Avoid at all costs,” I said. “Got it.”

  We lapsed into silence and watched our friends dance until they were red in the face. Huffing and puffing, they rejoined us, and we meandered through the lively street. I located some more booze, bought everyone a round, except for Kitz, who had to settle for watered-down ale, and we found a relatively quiet place to sit near a grouping of limestone blocks. They were huge and perfectly square. I couldn’t tell if they were here for artistic purposes or were waiting to be used in construction. Some of them were small enough to sit on, and I plopped down on the nearest one. Kitz pointed excitedly at one of the larger stones, and Ersabet lifted him up, placing him atop it. He sat on the edge, legs dangling off, grinning from ear to ear.

  “This is nice,” Tabby said. “We should do this more often.”

  “Get drunk?” I asked.

  “No, dummy. Hang out. Have fun. You all are so serious all the time.”

  “Blame John. I was fun before I met him,” Delen said.

  Ersabet laughed. “Your definition of fun was tinkering alone in your basement with your toys.”

  “Let’s not forget that one of my toys saved your life,” Delen said as he jabbed a finger toward Ersabet.

  “My, my. This is news to me. Story time!” Tabby said, leaning forward.

  Delen grinned and took a drink. “When we were fleeing Danver, we were stopped by a powerful Kurskin. He was there for John, but he was going to kill us all the same. This Kurskin threw something at Ersabet, and she collapsed to the ground, unconscious. Then, John and the Kurskin fought, bare-knuckle. Our man held his own for a while, but the Kurskin was just too strong for him to overcome. All seemed lost, and the Kurskin grabbed his sword, so that he could give John an honorable death, but when the Kurskin swung, he missed! It was a miracle, and one John took advantage of. He stabbed the Kurskin in the neck with a dagger, but even that didn’t stop the beast.

  “He pounced on John and began choking him to death, so I pulled out this.” Delen produced his taser, or, as he likes to call it, the accumulator, and triggered it. An arc of blue electricity jumped across the metal barbs, and it crackled loudly, but only for a brief moment. “I jabbed it into the Kurskin, and it might as well have been a bolt of lightning. He seized up and fell to the ground, defeated.”

  “And then I finished him off!” Kitz said excitedly. “I stabbed him like twenty times.”

  I held in laughter as Tabby’s mouth hung open in shock. Sometimes laughing is the only way to bring light to something so dark.

  “You did not save my life,” Ersabet said, crossing her arms. “You saved John’s.”

  “That Kurskin would have killed you once he finished John off,” Delen argued.

  “From what it sounds like,” Ersabet said. “That Kurskin was already near death. Odds are it would have died the moment it killed John, thus posing no threat to me.”

  “Oh, that Kurskin had more than enough strength left,” Delen said. He pointed his thumb at his chest. “I was conscious during the event, unlike you. I know what I saw. He would have crushed your pretty face in if not for me.”

  “Sooo,” Tabby said slowly. “What I’m getting out of this story is that Delen has the hots for Ersabet.”

  Delen blushed furiously. “That is objectively false,” he protested.

  “Perception is fundamentally subjective,” Ersabet said. “You said I had a pretty face. Did you misspeak?” She was scowling, but I could see the laughter bubbling in her eyes.

  “What? No,” he said, squirming. “I’m sure you’re quite the looker among your people, but I’m not…never mind. It’s just an expression. I didn’t mean anything by it.”

  “Leave the poor guy alone,” I said, saving him from further embarrassment. “And for the record, Ersabet is super-hot. That’s an objective fact. Sadly for her, I’m already married. Plus, she’s taller than me, and I’m not really into the whole bald thing.”

  “You would have me prancing around in a wig then?” Ersabet said with mock offense.

  I winked at her. “I’d be down to try it out if you are.”

  Ersabet grunted in disgust. “I think we’ve taken this joke far enough.” She stood up and swayed a little before finding her footing. “We’ve all had more than enough merriment for one night. We should get some rest. Tomorrow’s a big day.”

  “Ahh, do we have to?” Tabby said. She reached out and held Ersabet’s hand. “We’re having so much fun! One more drink, Bet. Then bed. I promise.”

  Ersabet sighed. “I guess one more drink won’t hurt.”