Dialysis Book: Part 2: Adventurer in Training: Interlude Moonstruck Inn

Structurally, I'm dividing this book into parts like I did with Fifth Era.  That's mainly to keep everything easy to reference, but it also allows me to put book ends on the parts sort of like Crabby.  So my vision here is that I'll have a Part that has an intro, an intermission and and ending, and those sections will be the only parts that shift out of first person.  Basically we'll see what Max and Shade are walking into.  How their actions have complicated it.  Then finally what the outcome was.  This is the intro to Part 2: Return to the Warren.  

Eggard stomped into the Moonstruck Inn furiously.  This was the only inn in Darven worthy of the name, and it was still a pathetic excuse much like everything else in the town.  The inn was two stories worth of disappointment located just off of the market square.

Too close to be quiet, but too far enough to be conveniently located.  Every part of the inn screamed this place was what a provincial yokel thought a 'nice' inn should be.  The wooden framework was tacky, not classical, and the ambiance was decidedly rural.  Even the attached tavern was substandard with only a dozen varieties of barley palatable table wine.

The innkeeper, a rotund halfling who was always annoyed, glared at him.

"She's in the back," he said impatiently.

Eggard considered calling the innkeeper out again, but decided better of it.  The yokel would be too inbred to even understand Eggard's entirely valid criticism of his establishment, and besides if the first two half hour speeches on how pathetic this place was didn't fix anything, the elf didn't see the point in a third.

He stomped past the stairs towards her room, hating that this is what he was reduced to. His temporary partner didn’t like climbing stairs, so she stuck both of them on the first floor, like dwarves.  It was the nicest room according to her, because the innkeeper was just next door so he could bring supplies if you pounded on the wall.

Eggard stopped for a moment, looking at his perfect face in the low quality mirror.  The mirror should have been lucky just to show his reflection.  Eggard was a tall, beautiful elven male.  The height of masculinity with his thin waist and arms.  He didn't have a scrap of fat or muscle on him, and why would he?  As an essence user he could augment all of his physical attributes far greater than any of the other 'mortal' races could.

Elves might have been the height of the mortal races, with essence abilities that were far greater than any of them, but that didn't matter as much in this day and age.  Now the other races had cores due to the system lords, and that meant they could cheat.

A thousand years ago, elves ran this world.  Now we were just one of many, and elves could only support two cores.  That meant in practical terms, the elves were weaker in many regards than the other races who could support three.

"Are you going to keep me waiting," asked a feminine voice.

Eggard tried not to grind his teeth as he opened the door and found his companion.  She too was an elf, but while he was nearly his race's idea of physical perfection, she was nearly repugnant.  Worse, she showed all of that off by wearing a nearly transparent silkspun garment, and her cleavage made him gag.

Savina was almost five and a half feet tall, his own height, but while he had not a scrap of excess flesh on him, she was almost obese despite her flat stomach.  All of her weight was in her grotesque rear and oversized breasts.   A typical elven maiden was nearly identical to the males, neither side featuring pronounced sexual characteristics of the lesser mortal races.  They were spiritually enlightened people who did not need such eye-catching features to understand each other’s worth.

Her chest was ample, her hips were wide, and her long blond hair was curled.  She was a mockery of everything his race idolized, and it bothered him deep down that some part of her called to him.

"You were late," she pouted, her thick, plump lips forming back into a seductive smile.  She was lounging on the oversized bed, tempting him.

"There was a fool at the ring, and I had to smuggle in the test," replied Eggard, pulling a box from his storage and opening it.  A small, sparking damaged lighting core flickered until he produced his dagger and tapped it.  The core split in half and turned into powder.

The core was a test.  Everyone knew the western gate rings were broken, and while they were only supposed to scan for the detestable fairies, sensory rings were known to scan for additional items on occasion.  He didn’t need to smuggle in a broken core, but what was located in the goblin warrens did need smuggling.

And he, unlike Savina, was cautious.  That was why he was still alive.

"Excellent," she said, smiling wickedly at him, which did not cause Eggard's blood to rise.  "We shall leave in the morning, I found the dungeon just outside of town."

"Finally, I thought the entrance was closed," said Eggard, sitting down without invitation as far from Savina as he could manage.

She frowned, then moved closer to him, "It was, but there was an entrance through a goblin warren.  The security was lax, so it should not be a problem to get in."

"Good, then we can find the treasure and return it as quickly as possible," said Eggard, finally happy that something was going right.  “I will leave for the Dominion on the airship, two days hence.”  If he missed that airship, there would be problems.  This town was the only place short of a city that had a route to the Dominion.

And cities were not nearly as negligent with their detector rings.

His companion sat patiently, running the problem through her cream filled head.  She was pondering something, and Eggard hated that she was one of the few elves that would still work with him.

All she had to do to get paid was to shut up and do what he told her to.  Savina was not content with everything going right though, she needed to screw it up.  She moved from the bed to sit next to him,  "Did you ever find out what the item was used for?"

She smelled like wildflowers and it took Eggard a moment to come to his senses and scoot away, before replying, "I did not ask, it was enough that the request came directly from my Lady."

"Oooh," said Savina.  "A System Lord is interested?"

Eggard swore to himself for revealing that.  Savina probably already knew, or at least thought she knew, but he just confirmed it.

"Yes," he said.  "It is part of her plan.  I shall be returning to her with it shortly."

"If the other system lords hear of this, there will be… conflict," Savina said consideringly.  That was an understatement.  There would be war, or another war, between system lords if his lady's plan was successful so it mattered little.  There was always war between the system lords ever since the damn fairies forgot their place.

And like usual, the elves were slowly getting pushed out.  Lady Domagal’s position was tenuous and she was growing more desperate by the day for any advantage.  If she fell, there were no other elven System Lords and that would be another setback for his people.

"It will be worth it, for all elves," said Eggard finally.  "Even reprobates such as yourself."

"You didn't say that the last time we met," she said, giggling.  Her voice was like bells.

"I was weak then, I am stronger now," replied Eggard.

She looked at him appraisingly, "Well, your ample strength is noted, but I don't think you'll find anything else to do in town and I brought some fine wine from Arden, unless you are in the mood for the quaint local variety?"

Eggard glared at the laughing Savina, before he stood up and locked the door.  He didn't want anyone to see what horrors he was about to endure.