by Pirateaba
“To feed Mrsha!”
“Oh, well then—”
“She can do that later, surely. And she’s been giving us orders all day!”
“Why’s that—”
“I’ve been trying to work with Safry and Maran, but they—”
“We haven’t been the ones letting that Gnoll run around—”
Safry was jabbing a finger at Lyon and Lyonette was trying to speak to Erin and butt Safry out of the conversation. Erin looked helplessly between the two and then raised her voice.
“Enough!”
The entire inn went silent. It felt as though someone had clapped a huge hand over Lyon’s mouth, knocking all the words she’d wanted to say back in. Erin looked around.
“Oops. Sorry everyone. I uh, may have used a Skill. [Crowd Control]. You know. Sorry about that.”
And then in the silence she turned back to Lyonette and Safry. And folded her arms. Lyonette gulped, because Erin was looking unusually peeved.
“Okay, what’s this about? Why is Lyonette giving orders so bad? Safry first.”
Was there a flash of triumph in Safry’s eyes? Did her speaking first mean she’d get more of say? Fear ruled hot anger and determination to be proven right in Lyonette’s bowels.
“Lyonette’s a lower level than we are. But she acts as if she’s in charge while you’re gone.”
Erin nodded.
“Right.”
She paused.
“So?”
Safry faltered.
“We’re higher level! Both Maran and I are twice Lyonette’s level—”
“Okay, I get it. And Lyonette?”
Erin turned to Lyonette, cutting Safry off. Lyonette suddenly felt afraid. She couldn’t just list off all the things Safry and Maran had done, not with everyone watching! But it was now or never. She took a deep breath, and steeled herself.
“Maran and Safry don’t listen to my orders. They prefer serving Humans, and take more breaks than they should. I don’t think I should be in charge—”
Something in Lyonette squeezed tightly on that last word. That wasn’t what she should say. No, that was what part of her wanted to say, but another part, a part of her that was royalty, rebelled.
“—Actually, I do think I should be in charge. I know what’s best, and I think Maran and Safry need to listen to what I say.”
Both Safry and Erin stared at Lyon, surprised by her statement. Lyon was surprised too, and worried, but another part of her knew she had spoken her mind, and spoken the truth as she saw it.
In the silence, all eyes fell on Erin. She seemed used to that, and took only a minute before nodding to herself.
“Okay, I’m resolving this. Safry, Maran, Ishkr, Drassi, and Lyonette, everyone listen up.”
All the staff looked at Erin, worry reflected in some measure across every face. Erin met their eyes and then turned.
“Lyonette? Uh…she’s in charge.”
Relief followed vindication followed vindictive joy in seconds. But Lyonette didn’t have time to smile before Maran burst out across the room.
“But we’re higher level. That’s not right!”
Erin turned towards Maran, and Lyon saw she was frowning.
“Higher level? So what? That might be how you people do things, but not where I come from. Lyonette ran this inn while I was away. She’s got more experience.”
“But she—she hasn’t worked half as long as a [Barmaid] as we have!”
Safry burst out, but Erin was unmoved. She pointed at the floor.
“Yeah, but Lyonette’s been working here longer. She knows what’s important, and I trust her. So…you and Maran listen to her now, okay? Problem solved!”
Erin smiled and clapped her hands together. No one else moved. Safry and Maran exchanged looks, and then Safry sighed.
“Okay. I quit.”
“What?”
Erin and Lyon stared at her, wide-eyed. Safry threw up her hands.
“I’m not dealing with Lyonette! She’s impossible and I—I deserve better treatment than this! I’ve worked at Agnes’ inn for over eight years, and I know my job better than some arrogant girl who thinks she can push me and Maran around.”
“That’s right. If Safry quits, I quit too!”
Maran spoke up. Lyonette felt the purest element of rage settle into her soul. She felt she could harness that fury into some kind of incredibly destructive spell, it was that fierce. She was the problem? She was pushing them around?
But what was worse than the two [Barmaid]’s stupid dramatic exit and accusations was that it worked on Erin. She looked worried and chased after Safry as the other woman walked towards the door, but not too fast that Erin couldn’t block her way.
“Hold on Safry, let’s talk about this.”
“Either Lyonette stops or—”
“Okay, okay, let’s talk about this. Why don’t you take a break and—”
“Go ahead and leave. It’s for the best.”
Someone spoke up across the room. Heads turned as Ryoka appeared at a table, as if by magic. The watching guests murmured as she stood up and strode over to where everyone else was standing. As far as the inn’s patrons were concerned, the current tableau had turned into a better piece of live theatre than an actual play.
“Ryoka? Where did you come from? I’ve been looking for you all over!”
Ryoka pointed at an empty chair and a table that had somehow remained empty despite the full room.
“I asked Pisces to put his [Invisibility] spell over me. I’ve been hanging around here all day.”
Ryoka rubbed at her backside.
“It was a pain in the ass, and I kept having to deal with assholes trying to sit on me, but I saw what I needed to. Lyonette’s not the problem, Erin. Those two are.”
She jerked a thumb at Safry and Maran. The two [Barmaids] looked suddenly apprehensive.
“We didn’t—”
Ryoka rode right over them. She seemed to be enjoying the moment, in the way only the detective unveiling the mystery at the end of a case, or a judge handing down a sentence could be.
“I watched everything, Erin. Safry and Maran brought in humans so they wouldn’t have to serve Drakes and Gnolls as often, they can’t tell non-Humans apart, neither of them will go get water, and they take breaks when things aren’t busy. Oh, and they’ve been grade-A assholes towards Lyonette all day.”
Lyonette’s jaw dropped. She hadn’t expected this! But it was a relief to hear Ryoka say all of that. More than a relief.
Erin stared at Ryoka. Her eyes slid sideways to Safry and Maran, who were both looking uneasy. Erin thought, and then looked at Ryoka.
“Okay, they’re in the wrong. But—”
“Safry pushed Mrsha.”
It was just a little detail, slipped in. Erin was still formulating her next word when it hit her ears and reached her brain. She stopped.
“What?”
“I didn’t—”
Safry backed up as Ryoka turned to her. Ryoka was grinning, but it wasn’t really a grin, more like a rictus of bad feeling.
“Right, it was just a little push. And you were angry. Well, I’m just a little angry. So how about that?”
Ryoka cracked her knuckles, and Safry backed up fast. The Runner eyed her and Maran and nodded to the door.
“If you leave now, I won’t get a chance to break something. Go ahead and stay, I dare you. We’re in Liscor, and I bet Zel wouldn’t bat an eye if I broke your nose for bullying Mrsha.”
“I—”
“Okay! Stop!”
Erin grabbed Ryoka’s shirt and pulled the girl back. Ryoka nearly fell backwards as Erin dragged her away. Erin got between Ryoka and looked at Safry and Maran.
“No one’s beating up anyone. But I’ve heard enough. Safry, Maran, I don’t like to say it, but I believe Ryoka and Lyonette. So you’re both fired. Get out of my inn.”
The two [Barmaids] looked horrified. Lyonette suspected neither had been serious when
quitting before, and now they protested loudly.
“You can’t just fire us!”
“I did. Just now.”
Erin crossed her arms, looking uneasy, but also deeply upset. Safry glared at her, turning her ire over the entire situation into unrighteous fury.
“You can’t take away our jobs!”
“You just quit.”
“What are we supposed to do without jobs? Agnes won’t have us back! You owe us pay if you’re going to fire us. The Guild says—”
“I’m not paying you for today. Lyonette says you were miserable, and you pushed Mrsha so just—just go away! I paid you yesterday, so be happy you got that!”
Erin was clearly unhappy, but she stood her ground as the two protested. Ryoka kept trying to edge around her, and Erin was busy pushing her back. Maybe that was why Safry and Maran took a stand.
“We refuse to leave! This isn’t fair! You promised us paying jobs, and now you’re taking them from us! You told us we’d be working in an inn, not hauling water and avoiding monsters, or dealing with [Necromancers], or Ants—”
None of it was true. Some of it was true. It didn’t matter. Because while Ryoka had lost her temper, Lyonette had blown her lid, and Safry and Maran had been furious, it was when Erin got angry that things got scary.
Mrsha was tangled around Erin, Ryoka was fighting to get towards one of the [Barmaids]. They were shrieking at her, and Lyonette saw the world start to shimmer around Erin.
Something changed. The air became hot, and turmoil leaked into the room, grabbing at the hearts of those within. The floor shook as the inn rumbled, and the oppressive menace seeped upwards, grabbing, clutching—
“Leave.”
Erin Solstice was a thing that stood in the dark hallways of fury, watching, waiting, arms folded. Mrsha was a beast of claws and teeth that reached out to engulf and consume.
It was an illusion, but it still frightened Lyonette. And she wasn’t the target. The [Inn’s Aura] Skill sent Safry and Maran running screaming towards the door. They vanished into Octavia’s shop with a crash of broken glass and the [Alchemist] shouting and the air of menace faded.
And then it was over. The room cleared, and Erin turned around, looking embarrassed. She found half of her patronage on the floor, the other half frozen with hands on swords. Her cheeks went red, and then she looked at Lyon.
“Why did all that happen, Lyon? I thought you said things were good.”
Lyon had no reply. Now that the two were gone, shame and regret was the menu of the day. She choked on a reply.
“I—”
“It wasn’t her fault, Miss Erin.”
Drassi peeked out from under a table and crawled out. She looked at Lyon.
“Lyon was doing her job, but the other two were…well, they thought they could do less. They just didn’t work as hard as she did, and it was obvious they weren’t at home with our kind.”
“Or ours. One Gnoll is fine, but six is too many, no?”
Ishkr came over, hair slowly settling back down all over his body. Mrsha still looked poofed up to twice her size. Erin sighed, looking helplessly at the floor.
“But they were so nice. I worked with Maran and Safry and I never had a problem once!”
“I guess they were a bit like Agnes. Good, but not great. Nice, but not adaptable. Flawed.”
Ryoka shrugged when Erin glared at her. Erin sighed and muttered as she kicked at the ground.
“Why are things so hard? When Toren was here I never had to worry about him working. Now I hire friends and it turns out they were bad all along.”
When Toren was here. Lyon heard a ringing sound. She didn’t realize she was striding up to Erin before she was shouting in her face.
“Toren? He was horrible!”
“Wha?”
Erin blinked, caught off-guard by the sudden anger. The crowd ducked back down as the shouting entered overtime.
“Toren was a nightmare! He was the worst!”
“He wasn’t that bad—he was good before he abandoned me and went crazy.”
“No!”
Lyonette screamed the word in Erin’s face, shouting for the first time in…it was all the pent up emotions, all the things she’d wanted to say spilling out at the wrong time in the wrong place.
“He wasn’t ever good! He was always a monster! He’d push me into Shield Spider nests, make me run for miles without rest, hit me, abandon me in the middle of nowhere for hours…he was your skeleton, but you never controlled him! At all!”
Erin was staring at Lyonette, and slowly the girl realized she was screaming at her employer. She went white, but kept speaking. The words had to be said.
“You never noticed. You never believed me. That was my fault. But you don’t listen to me, or trust me. Even now.”
She looked into Erin’s eyes. The girl stared back shocked, hurt, and guilty. It was everything Lyonette had wanted to say. Everything. Now it was over. Lyonette turned, and ran out of the inn.
—-
Pawn walked through the corridors of his Hive in a daze. He felt confused, despairing, lost.
He’d made a huge mistake. The biggest. No one was better off now that he and his Soldiers weren’t on the front lines. The Antinium were still dying. His people were still dying.
The only difference was that Pawn was safe from it all. Safe, to play with faith and lead his Soldiers around as if nothing was happening.
Pawn stormed into the empty barracks where he slept. He hurled the thurible into his cubicle and hit the Antinium sleeping there. A Worker jerked awake. He was sleeping in Pawn’s spot.
Of course. A second shift. Pawn hurried over.
“I am so sorry. Accept my deepest apologies, please—”
The Worker got up and bent to help Pawn pick up the thurible which was still somehow intact. He bowed to Pawn as Pawn tried to apologize and said one word.
“Individual Pawn.”
It was a word that crushed Pawn. The Worker was acknowledging his status. He, Pawn, was an Individual, someone of unique value to the Hive. A Worker’s life was dust compared to that. Pawn could have hurled the thurible into the Worker’s face, told him to leave the cubicle so Pawn could sleep, and the Worker would have done just that.
Because he didn’t matter. He might be sent to combat duty right after this, but Pawn was safe. Because he was special. Because Erin had talked to Klbkch. So his Soldiers would be safe. But the other Soldiers without paint would die.
Nothing was better. Pawn stumbled away, clutching the thurible.
He was useless. Worse than useless.
He was a coward.
—-
Ryoka found Lyonette sitting on a patch of cleared grass, about five minutes away from the inn. The Runner noticed that despite Lyonette being hunched over in a ball of misery in the snow, she’d still put two of the dried seed cores in the snow by her side.
She also looked up when she saw Ryoka approach, and then quickly looked away. It was all sensible, even in her grief. That was what Lyonette was, in a way. More sensible, more adult.
But still young.
And now she had no job. Lyonette didn’t raise her head when the crunching stopped and she sensed Ryoka standing next to her. She waited for the Runner to speak, but when Ryoka didn’t, Lyonette spoke up so the silence wouldn’t consume her.
“How did you know?”
“Mrsha and Ishkr showed me the way you’d gone. Gnoll noses are handy.”
Lyonette looked up. Her eyes were blurry and her nose was running horribly, so it was hard to see.
“Is Mrsha—”
“She’s back at the inn. Moore’s levitating her so she can’t run off.”
Slowly, Ryoka sat down next to Lyonette. She patted herself down for tissues, cursing over leaving her belt pouch in the inn. Lyonette just wiped her face on her sleeve, which was disgusting, but effective.
“I’m gone, aren’t I? Erin’s going to fire me.”
“No she’s not.
She’d never do that.”
“Really?”
“If she did, I’d have to kick her ass, or try, and Mrsha would bite her all over. You were right to shout at her back there. Okay, maybe you screamed a bit, but I think you deserved the chance.”
“I didn’t mean all of it. It’s just—”
Lyonette wiped at her eyes. Her tears were hot, but they froze so quickly in the cold. Ryoka silently pulled off her coat. She had a second one on, and Lyonette had run out in the cold. She winced when Lyonette buried her face in the soft fabric rather than put it on.
“Sounds like you really had it rough with Toren. I’m sorry. I didn’t know either, and I was there for part of it.”
“I thought—I thought he’d kill me if I told, sometimes. Other times I didn’t care, but no one listened. Because I always complained. When he was gone…at first I was the happiest I could ever be, until I realized Erin was gone too. And then you left…”
Guilt passed over Ryoka’s face like a shadow.
“Yeah.”
“But.”
Lyonette raised her face wretchedly. Her tears were drying up.
“I think I was happiest when Erin was gone. Really. I was. It sounds crazy, but after I started working—when I had to do everything myself, I started being happy. Because I was doing it all! I was actually keeping the inn running, and feeding Mrsha, and getting guests—I did it. All by myself.”
“Huh.”
Ryoka sat with Lyon in the snow as the other girl shivered and cried a bit.
“I did it. I got honey, I helped Pawn. I did it all. Then Erin came back and she did so much I couldn’t dream of! She had a magic door, magic food, she knows all these recipes, and she can cook…”
“But she wasn’t the one who got all the Gold-rank adventurers and Zel Shivertail to stay at your inn, right? She didn’t keep Mrsha happy. Neither did I.”
“I know it’s silly, but I just thought she’d trust me after that!”
Lyonette sobbed into her coat. Ryoka paused.
“She should have. But Erin…I don’t think it was about trust. She just did what she thought was best and, well, it backfired for once. Only it looks like you had to deal with it.”
“It’s not her fault!”
“It really is.”