The Kobold's Bar- Chapter Two
"We are all just prisoners here, of our own device"
~The Eagles, Hotel California
A good day started with a good breakfast, right? That's something humans liked. Food before anything else. Crack the eggs, whisk the bowl, add some milk.
Maybe it wasn't fair to say that. Not all humans are the same. There are some good ones out there, right? Not all of them are trash. Some are kind. Some look past the race, so wouldn't it be better to do the same? Otherwise we're just as bad as the ones we say we hate. Kindness... Quill was kind. Butter the pan, wait for it to melt.
Focus on that. When the truth comes out, remember the kindness he showed. Show it in kind. That's how the world goes round after all. If we treat each other how we want to be treated, then we can start to break these old terrible habits. That's why he's here after all right? Pour on the eggs, pull the bread out of the oven.
If he was summoned here for that purpose, then he deserved that kindness. Truly and honestly. Where was the honey? Not in the lower cabinet... Not in the upper, what the hell?
Ah, right, already on the counter. Honey goes on the fresh bread after slicing, then another bit of butter to melt as well. That should be nice and sweet. If only there was something nice and savory to throw in the omelet to go with the tomatoes and bell peppers... Maybe a bit of that salted steak from the other night? Yeah, right there in the ice box. Pay for the expensive magical equipment and you save money in the long run.
Gek smiled as he chopped that steak and threw the bits into the omelet pan, the veggies already browned and sizzling as the eggs hardened around them. Gotta keep them nice and fluffy... The flip should be perfect to go for... Now!
It landed with a satisfying pop and sizzle. Now some cheese, fold it to melt. Salt and pepper, a little paprika for color! "Onto the plate you go." His smile grew to a grin as the plate of eggs went next to the small pan of bread. He followed it up by placing an orange slice next as a garnish and pouring a glass of grape juice he had squeezed prior. "Always put the effort in where you can..." He picked up his tray of food and kicked open the kitchen's door, walking down the hallway with a wide grin.
Today wasn't going to be so bad.
To say the bed was comfortable was to say the fountain of youth could sate a mildly parched throat. Quill found himself cradled in a sea of blankets and pillows that stretched a few meters around in every direction. He stretched his arms, only to meet more of its plush softness. Who was he to question such a wake up? Who was he to fight the call of the bedspread? It seemed to sing his voice in quiet serenade, asking him to stay longer. So he nestled himself into his covers, letting his eyes rest as he poured his thoughts over the day previous.
...
Off the blankets flew, and out of the bed was he. The room around him was laden with soft rugs and mild colors. Soft browns and gentle purples, all inlaid with a sparkling red that traced through every decoration, making the room sparkle dazzlingly. These strange red strings stitched to the carpet and draped rugs on the walls seemed to provide enough light to see, but not so much as to hurt a sleeping man's eyes. Quill spied a door behind a curtain of beads, a dresser, and what might be a closet.
He inspected his form, finding nothing but bare skin. Perhaps he could push his questions, but first the closet.
It pulled open easily, sliding along a well-oiled track to bend out of the way. Behind was a shirt hanging from a thin copper hanger. He grabbed it and the pair of pants next to it, slipping them on. Brown trousers and a white pull over. Common, but common was better than naked.
He was surprised how well they fit him, draping over his body comfortable but not too loose as to be baggy. He ran a hand through his black hair and winced. He retracted it and looked at a cut across his palm.
Right, the glass in the alley way. Then the kobold showed up... What was next, they exchanged names, and then the bath... Aw jeez. Well, Quill definitely had had worse lays. That wasn't important right now. Right now, he needed some answers. He adjusted himself properly, lamenting the loss of his saber once again. Quill continued to the door that he had no memory of. It was time to get answers.
He yanked it open, took a brave step forward- "Before you ask any questions, I need to ask a couple of my own." Only to feel his heart skip a beat and his life expectancy shave off a couple of months. Quill gripped his chest and his gaze turned to the small kobold waiting at the front door.
"Do you make a habit out of scaring groggy soldiers in the morning?" He took a deep breath, letting his heart settle back into its normal rhythm. The kobold smiled sheepishly at him and held a tray full of wonderful looking food up, almost in apology. "Alright, I like the way you bribe. But I still expect some answers." Quill let himself smile as he placed the tray on the ground between them and sat in the doorway of the bedroom.
The red lizard sighed and nodded, his smile becoming even more apologetic. Quill ran his eyes down the kobold, his eye catching Gek's strange ensemble, starting with the chef's hat covering the little horns on the front of his face. It tied well with the chef's jacket and pants that the small monster wore. All of this effort towards professionalism was lost due to the bright green apron with a stitched-on cat face. "I really don't mean to keep you in the dark, and I promise to answer them after, but I need to explain a few things you know?"
Quill took a bite of the bread -still hot from the oven- so he wouldn't giggle at the kobold. "Well, please begin. I'm sure any enlightenment will be helpful at this point." He spoke around the food. He couldn't help it! He hadn't had something this good since he was stationed in that mountain town near the Northern boundaries.
"Right. I'm going to start with something a little strange, but everything I'm about to say needs to be heeded, okay?"
Quill frowned. "Cryptic much?"
Geek grimaced, cautiously swinging his gaze around the empty hallway before leaning forward conspiratorially. "Sorry. This subject is risky- even to just talk about. You will come to learn about somebody known as The Lady of Pain in time. The first thing you should know about her is that she is bad news. Don't worship her, don't fight her, don't go near her, don't even think about her if you can help it. Do you understand the words coming out of my mouth?" Gek's quiet words came out rushed and fearful, as if he didn't want the very room around him to hear. His eyes looked all around for the shadow of some sort of attacker. Quill wasn't sure why, but he felt his mouth parch and he swallowed a strange dry fear that replaced his earlier conviction for answers.
"Lady of-" He was cut off by the kobold's hand on his lips. Golden sclera stared deep into his smaller pools of blue as the kobold shook his head.
"In this city of Sigil, there is one who presides over all. There are none who know her name, nor where she began. She's known only as the Lady of Pain." There was a quiet fear in his voice and a cold bite to the words. Quill nodded solemnly, wetting his tongue once more with his grape juice. "She doesn't care about any under her, and if you see her coming you best get out of the way. Her very shadow will skin you alive if it passes over you. Your only chance of surviving her will be to ignore her existence and leaving any area where her name is frequently said."
It was that same look he had seen from soldiers who had traveled beyond the treacherous wastes and managed to return. That horror that is masked only by sorrow. "Your warning, though confusing, doesn't fall on deaf ears. I will heed it."
Gek visibly relaxed, color seeping back into his pale scales, giving them a deeper maroon. "G-good. Now for some more lighthearted questioning! What's your favorite food?"
It gave Quill whiplash how fast the other male was to turn the conversation around. He raised his voice, confusion apparent. "My fa-" He stopped his questioning at the kobold's big pleading eyes, giving a proper roll of his own. "Right then... Salmon, lemon soaked and smoked over hickory. Traditional seasonings. We have it every year with my homecoming."
The kobold grins and pulls out a notepad from a pocket inside of the green apron, taking to scribbling something quickly on the open page. "Great! And if you could have any physical item right now, what would it be?"
"These questions seem rather childish, Gek." He was quick to start tucking into his omelet.
"Just answer them?" Upon Quill's apprehension Gek only smiled excitedly, looking a touch silly with the way his tongue stuck out of his mouth and his beady pupils focused so hard on such a mundane answer.
Quill rolled his eyes, munching on his cheese filled eggs thoughtfully. "I suppose I'd want my rapier. I've known the weapon's company for so long that I feel wrong not to have it. Like being naked in a snowstorm, if that makes sense."
Gek laughed, a wonderful raspy sound that filled the space with a joyful mirth. "Oddly specific. Most people I know feel uncomfortable enough being naked in their own home."
Quill smiled at the small male's teasing, swallowing his toast to give him enough time to retort. "Coming from you. You're the first kobold I've met with enough decency to wear anything, let alone such well-fitting kitchen-wear." He gestured with his fork to the get up and stopping at the apron. The green clashed terribly with both the outfit and his red scales. It was almost cute in a way, if a bit derpy.
"I am no ordinary kobold. I'm even better." Gek spun, his apron trailing around in a neon green display for Quill before he stopped and posed, arms at his hips and chest out. "I'm a kobold with money." They shared another laugh at his antics. Finally the kobold sat down and one of his claws gripped that apron tightly, eyes fixed on Quill's hands tearing into his food. "So... Start asking your questions."
Quill relaxed some, finally pausing in his eating to speak rather than talk around his eggs. "How far away is Sigil from Faerûn?" Gek winced at how quickly the bush he wanted to beat around was set on fire.
"W-well, that's the big one isn't it. It's far Quill. Really far. So far that you might not believe the distance." He tapped his two pointer claws together with an anxious clicking and his foot dug into the wood planks beneath it, toes curling nervously.
Quill put his plate down and squared his shoulders, his eyes narrowing at the kobold squirming in his seat. "How far?"
Gek cringed at Quill's sharp tone. He had to remember kindness. To be kind is to be honest. "Sigil is located in the center of the universe. We currently reside far from your world."
The small lizard hissed as he brought his gin and tonic back up to the lump on his cheek. That punch had hurt.
While honesty may have been important, perhaps dropping such a sentence like that wasn't the best starter.
Now Quill was gone, doing who knows what. Not that Gek hadn't tried to stop him. But some time on the streets of Sigil would likely do everything the kobold needed to get Quill to listen. He'd be back, Gek was sure of it.
He looked to the door across from his seat in the dining area. He really needed to be able to open the bar again. Seeing it empty for so many nights was just wrong. He took another sip from his makeshift ice pack as he listened to the magically created music wafting through the air. The Spanish guitar never ceased to play such fun and beautiful tunes.
"To share this space again... What an interesting decision for the city to make, so long after your prayer." The seat across the table from himself filled with the old and withered form of an ancient dragonborn, black scales sagging and dull from the winds of time. His sunken eyes held a spark of intelligence as he regarded the kobold with a soft sense of mischief.
"I never wanted my prayers to be answered at the expense of somebody's wellbeing. You of all people should know that." Gek turned a pointed annoyance to his drop in guest. "Why are you even here right now?"
The faint scent of old dried flowers wafted through the warm air from the wizened old lizard. Flesh seemed to hang from his bones as he regarded Gek with a slowly sinking smile. His eyes held that same warmth, but it provided sadness, now that his frown belied his grief. "Always to the point. Gek, are we not friends? While my company with you today is sought with reason, I do still wish to converse with you every so often. I never know how you're doing these days."
The kobold winced at his words, sighing heavily and looking back to the door, wishing it would open. "I apologize, Ivar. I forget sometimes that you are not what you once were." His gaze flicked back to the old creature.
He shook his head, holding up a claw, thin and bony. "I forgive you, but I will always ask that you remember that I am better."
Gek smirked at him. "Wasn't your hubris what got you into that situation in the first place? Sure, it's 'I am better' today, but tomorrow, I'm fighting a dracolich." The black scaled visage near him didn't seem so amused, regarding Gek with an annoyance of his own.
"You will never let me hold pride again, will you?" It came out phrased as a statement more than a question. Gek looked apologetically to the floor, his response coming after another long draw from his gin.
"Not even a little bit. You are not better than anyone, Ivar. Never again."
The silence was screaming through the walls, loud and uncomfortable. The only sound was the gentle clink of the ice in Gek's near empty glass as he held it to his bruised face.
Finally, after near a minute of such discomfort, Ivar spoke. "Well, as I said. I had a reason for coming." He reached in his cloak, shuffling cloth against cloth before pulling out a letter, sealed with an unmarked bit of wax, and placed it on the table between them. "I found it. Sorry it took so long."
Gek looked to it and back to his guest. "Is that from him?" His frown deepened at the dragonborn's nod. He took the letter and gently inspected it. It was yellowed with age, holding a bent corner. "Dragons don't lose anything, Ivar. Why did you wait to give me this? Why wait so many years?"
Now it was the elderly lizard's turn to seem almost apologetic, though his voice held harsh conviction. "Just open it."
He had learned everything he needed about the where. The kobold had told him the honest truth. Which only served to fuel more questions into the why and how. He had shown his mark to only the first he questioned, and didn't do so again after the dwarf fearfully threw his coin purse at his feet and ran. It was all a big circle at the center of the universe. Sigil, the city of doors. Known by many as The Cage.
And he was stuck, at least until he could find a key.
Key is such a mundane term, it had taken him hours to realize that when they said key, it meant some sort of way to open a magic door. Sigil had many doors and many keys. And the door as well, where was that?
The city was like a maze. Everywhere he went, every alley, every road, it all connected in the worst ways.
Left and left again, down a dirty path between roads, out past beggars and tramps to release into the crowd once again. He had to find anything that could help him, and he needed to remember the map he was creating. As confusing as the streets were he was able to keep retracing his steps of the paths he took. If Gek's bar was his base, then the area around it would be his scout.
The streets were set up to be packed with merchants. Every building a business, every road covered with stalls hawking their various wares. And variety seemed to be what this strange city at the center held. The further he traveled out, the more he saw being sold. From common items like weapons and jewelry to demons trapped inside magic mirrors, roaring angrily at any who observed their captivity.
It was time to double back again. Can't lose base. It would take some time to properly map out the maze around him, and he had to be sure he could keep his head wrapped around it. Back down the dirty alley, ignore the vagrants. Right, right again... The road was familiar, as it should be.
The bar should be a left turn three alleys down. Quill weaved between the large crowd of hustling creatures, going to and from their busy places, most completely ignoring the man who had set his gaze forward. Look like a tourist, and you'll be hustled like one.
Third alley, left turn. Out on the other side... There's the bar. Time to start again. The weathered gray stone spun around him as he took another path, heading down the alley he had woken up in the day prior, in between the bar and the building next to it. There was another exit on the other side. Another right to go behind the building. A left down a back alley strewn with broken glass from a long forgotten bottle, each piece dusty and dull in the drab light shining from whatever system lit this strange world during 'peak.' A word he had picked up from his earlier questioning of anybody who would talk to him.
Another left, no more people down this way. It was almost humorous how Quill could find a back alley within another.
He looked around this alley some. It served no real purpose. Not even a trash can behind a building. Just an empty path between a confusing ghetto of market buildings.
Quill swallowed and leaned against a wall. He couldn't panic. Panicking would not solve this. There was a way back right? A way out of this city.
The name he had been told echoed in his head. _The Cage. _
Stop it. Get out of your head. "I'm not done yet." He took a deep breath, but it hitched in his throat when he heard a shuffling behind himself. He spun around ready to fight, but was caught off guard by the fist colliding with his jaw.
Down he went, head hitting the wall behind him before slamming again on the ground. "Yeah you are." Spots swirled in his vision as a foot slammed into his rib cage, stopping his breathing. This was bad.
Quill tried to roll away but found another form ready for him, their boot shoving into his neck. He tumbled forward into another fist before something cold and sharp pressed against his back.
Gek stood up with sudden haste, back arching and claw flying to his side. His drink flew forward before shattering on the ground, glass and ice scattering wetly across. He grit his teeth and fell to his knees.
"Gek!?" Ivar was already at the kobold's side, claw holding the smaller lizard's chest to help him balance. "What's wrong?" The old saurian could only look on in worry as Gek slumped in his grip, heaving out a breath of air.
He stood up, moving out of his grip and began picking up the pieces of his shattered drink, placing them on the table. He was silent, his gaze hardened. With deliberate movements he continued to clean up his mess, not even wincing as blood ran from his palms from a shard of glass pressing into it. Finally, with the mess gone, leaving only the gin forgotten. He climbed back into his chair.
"Quill is about to die." He looked up at Ivar, who's eyes only widened further in understanding of his words.
"But he-"
"I know." Gek nodded to the back of the bar, not looking for any answer as he started towards the rear exit.
It hurt. It hurt bad.
It would have been much better to have let the mugger stab him where he originally intended. It would have hurt still, but then he would have been able to take the advantage.
Hindsight is always 20/20.
Quill swallowed thickly, holding his side tightly. He crawled towards the exit, climbing over the body of one of the attackers. He tried to call out, but couldn't get enough air into his lungs without the horrid pain increasing tenfold. His breath was shallow and his head was light. He had to get help.
Nobody was here. He had gone down the first place without visible people he had seen. Was he truly this stupid? Was this where he would die?
He fell forward, his face scraping against the ground. Something warm and wet pooled beneath his now throbbing forehead, red seeping into his sight.
This was it. He didn't have a team. He didn't have backup. He didn't even have a partner. Yet he explored unknown territory. The most rookie mistake killed him.
He wanted to scream in agony. He wanted to yell for help. He wanted to be able to make any sound loud enough to escape the darkness closing on his thoughts, but only a gurgling hiss escaped his throat as his lungs filled with blood. Tears blurred his vision, and he reached forward. This couldn't be happening. Not like this. Not in some Godforsaken hole in the center of the universe. It was getting cold.
He thought of his father and mother, likely still expecting his letter from the post. He thought of his brother, running the shop back home. They'd never know how he died. They'd never be able to even have his body. He couldn't die where they wouldn't be able to bury him.
He slammed a hand to the ground, but a cold numbness was all he could feel from it. A darkness began encroaching on his blurred vision. It was cold here, in Sigil. So cold.
He won his last fight. A bunch of muggers lay dead in an alley. And he would join them soon. His bitterness was consumed by the numb chill surrounding him, replacing it with an empty loneliness. He was dying alone. Even his attackers had him.
So cold.
So... Cold...
So...
...