As FeeTwix hands more shots to the barbarians and druids in the back, Hiccup again climbs the bar stool and quickly speaks to Cid. The bartender nods, points to the private room in the back, and returns to pouring shots.
“Good to go,” the goblin tells Ryuk once he rejoins him. “Keep your toast short, Liz. We got places to go and people to interrogate.”
Zaena raises her shot glass and cries out in a throaty, melodic trill. Her throat turns red as she continues to warble. A quick glance around and Ryuk sees that several of the burlier men in the bar now openly shed tears. He looks to Hiccup to find him holding his hand over his heart. The Thulean continues for just a moment longer, stops, and bows.
“Takha bae bitakh novlaa rakh Aya Bortaetae;
Huborakha, Polonkhya, Hutamae Dulekh.”
The goblin says without looking away. “It’s an ode to the three floating continents of Tritania.”
Zaena raises her shot glass to her lips and before she throws it back she cries, “Aye! Aye! Aye!” in a high pitched voice.
“Aye! Aye! Aye!” Everyone tosses back their shot, including Ryuk who is so swept up in the strangely magical moment that he doesn’t see Hiccup’s patsy slide off his barstool and crack his noggin on the floor.
Everyone cheers at the sight of the fallen man and as quickly as it started, the drinking game known as Boaster Toaster is over.
Chapter 18: A tendril of white magic
Zaena and Ryuk exit Barfly’s, both a bit tipsy. The Mitherfickers have the info they need, mostly through Hiccup’s ingenious yet pricy strategy of interrogating the drunk by offering him an off-world bottle of Jack Daniel’s.
It’s the Hour of the Pig, and the moon is hardly visible tonight. A slight moisture in the air signals an overnight shower to come, the vibrant buzz a sign that nightlife has begun. The streets of Bar Row are crowded with revelers of all classes, their universal struggle with dipsomania playing out in a few of the more absonant tipplers, most of whom are NPCs.
“You sure they’ll be all right?” Zaena asks.
Ryuk pulls his black hood over his head and shields his eyes. “Hiccup said that the bards were just paid. In my country, payday is one of the more popular days for drinking; many lose enough money that they are forced to borrow from EZ-PWNED payday loan sharks to make it to the next payday.”
Zaena snickers. “It doesn’t sound too different from here in that regard.”
“It really isn’t. I told myself I’d trust Hiccup, so we’ll see if that’s a mistake or not. What we have to do is … a lot more challenging.”
He feels something land on his shoulder. He turns to see Zaena a few meters away.
Known as ‘konoshlo’ in Thulean, he slowly removes her ghost limb, feeling for the first time that the end of the limb is very similar to a bird’s talon. Why do they call them limbs when they clearly have talons? It shrinks away before he can examine it any longer.
“How do they work anyway?” Ryuk has never been to clear on the Thulean’s ghost limbs aside from their origins.
“You really don’t know?” she stares at him suspiciously for a moment. “Come here, I’ll show you.”
As he approaches, she turns her back to him. They are still in the alley that leads to Barfly’s and he can see the Croc the doorman watching them from his stool next to the door.
“Are you sure?”
“Touch them.”
The chainmail armor on her back has two slits woven into it. Jutting out of the two slits are two small stumps that are completely invisible.
“Interesting,” he says as his hand cross moves across the relatively smooth surface. The stump on the left comes to life, forming three talons as it extends out of her back.
“And they can go three times the length of your body?”
Her short bob of orange hair bounces as she nods.
“What about their strength?”
They land onto Ryuk’s shoulder and lift him about a meter into the air.
“Whoa!” They quickly drop him back to the ground. “Very, um, interesting.”
“They can get in the way sometimes,” Zaena admits as she takes the lead, “but only if I let them.”
The two exit the alley and follow the horseshoe all the way to the end of the Bar Row. Avoiding drunks, thugs, muggers, stragglers, and thieves is the name of the game, and they do so by moving quickly, keeping their heads up and their weapons at the ready. Ryuk still hasn’t used his marble gun in battle, but he has a feeling this will come very soon.
He first had the idea back in the bar, when they were again rehashing tonight’s plan over another round of fermented dragon’s milk, this one courtesy of the house after Hiccup forked over a quarter of their net worth for the off-world bottle of Jack.
Rescue Tamana tonight, was his thought, and now, as they move towards the Guild District, Ryuk feels emboldened by the idea, no matter how dangerous it may be and regardless of the fact that the alcohol has lowered his inhibitions and boosted his courage.
We need to do this tonight.
It is the only way forward, and even though his plan is no more elaborate than ‘rescue Tamana,’ it feels like the right thing to do. He just needs to figure out how to propose it to Zaena.
“There’s the back entrance for the Guild District,” Zaena says, after they’ve made their way down the long and winding road that leads to the trees on the city’s perimeter. “Hiccup said that the Mondegreen Hostel is along the Bonsor River, east of the back entrance.”
With his hood over his head, Ryuk suddenly feels bigger and more intimidating than he has ever felt before. Even his dream armor goes around it, allowing for the hood to peek out of the top. Which reminds him – if FeeTwix and Hiccup can actually come out ahead tonight, he’ll need to get a helm, as much as he hates wearing them. Or he could just keep to the back, and let his guildmates man the frontlines.
Maybe I’ll just do that after all, a slingshot is supposed to be used with some range.
Zaena’s ghost limb brushes against his shoulder. “Something’s on your mind, isn’t it?”
“That’s a pretty accurate way to put it.” He stops in front of a guildhall with a door that opens to the street. A pair of bracket-mounted crystal balls glow with thaumaturgic energy, illuminating the guild’s nameplate. “The drorikh is clouding my thoughts.”
“Tell me anyway, what are you thinking about?”
“If I tell you, will you promise to actually consider it before telling me ‘no’?”
She chuckles. “Yeah, of course. Any time the quietest one in any group speaks, I tend to listen more carefully. It’s something my tutor always said to do. What’s up? What’s on your mind?” She settles her orange slit eyes on him.
Ryuk bites his lip for a moment and feels the confidence spread through him as he says, “You and I will rescue Tamana tonight, alone.”
(0)__(0)
Ryuk sits down onto his bed and takes out the three magazines he still needs to load with marbles. The four-story Mondegreen Hostel is run by an immiNPC named Jim. Their room is on the first floor, a secret room with an entrance through a bookcase in the lobby. The hostel was otherwise full, and Jim offered it to them at the low, low price of double.
He presses black marbles into the magazine, watching as Zaena equips a few blades and lays them out on her bed.
“We should tell them.” A belt studded with small sheaths forms around her waist and she loads it with throwing knives. “It’s the right thing to do.”
“If we tell them, FeeTwix and Hiccup will rush over here and join us. I’m not saying we don’t need them, but we will completely lose the element of surprise with those two around. Look – I’m a former ninja and you’re an assassin; who better to infiltrate a guildhall? Think about it.”