Lightless Twin Souls | ONC 2023 ✔

Chapter 1 - Vagrant Soul

When a foreign man with several people in suits accompanying him settled in the town three days ago, JD passed it off as any other elixir business that would leave after a week of advertising and selling their goods. Besides, it wasn't as if elixirs were a rarity in Abarly. They'd know better than to do business in this small, humble town.

But as JD opened the blinds of his room, he immediately took off to shower and prepare to present himself to a bundle of people crowding at the front of the inn he stayed. Of course, he wasn't as proficient or well-known to be the one these townspeople gathered for, but the expressions of glee on their faces didn't sit right with JD.

Fixing his watch and cuffs as he strode down the stairs from the hallways, an allusive sensation loitered in the air. The more JD got close to the inn's main floor, the more his nose picked up the sweet but poisonous scent of something dangerous to the human mind.

It might be magic.

Once he stepped out to the main floor, the barrage of laughter, cheers, and arguments here and there took off in his sense of hearing. The ground employees rushed about the tables taking and bringing orders, while the ones behind the counters had sweat pouring over their exposed skin to their soaked clothes due to the heat of their fire magic.

JD slid his hands into his pockets and walked across the bundle of people, successfully dodging the arguments between customers and the running waiters and waitresses on the floor. Eventually, he reached the side of the bar and leaned his upper body past the counters for a peek. Right there, the bartender was on all fours on the floorboards, grunting, agitated.

"Busy morning you guys got here," JD spoke, and the bartender jumped in surprise.

He sighed out loud. "Tell me about it."

"What's up?" JD placed his hands on the counter and used them to lean closer. "Something lost?"

"There's no more whiskey."

JD turned his head briefly to the customers in the bar and the patrons from the other half of the main floor. They all had empty bottles on their tables or in their hands, and even the standing and walking customers held a shot glass.

He scoffed, eyes dropping back to the empty bottles and a half-finished shot glass behind the bartender, "Gee, I wonder why."

"Shut up, St. Michael."

JD rolled his eyes and leaned his back on the counters, "Don't call me that."

"Oh yes, yes, of course! We would love to!" The innkeeper chirped as a man of small stature handed them a clipboard with a pen.

"Take your time reading through them, madam." The man smiled, the expression in his eyes unknown due to the sunglasses over them. But his smile grew as the innkeeper briefly gazed at the contract, taking the pen and immediately signing them.

They chuckled. "I'm sure Zalden means no harm. After all, I'd be a fool if I'd take much of a minute to reconsider!"

"You flatter me."

"It's a well-deserved one!"

"You got vodka?" JD asked, his eyes squinting at the innkeeper by the entrance. They had a massive grin on their face, the same as many other customers, as they shook hands with a short and plump man in a bald fade haircut and black suit.

"Just get in here to see for yourself." The bartender invited, sitting down and emptying his shot glass in one go. "Ugh."

JD focused his strength on his arms and flung himself to the other side of the counters, landing with a soft thud beside the bartender.