Helani takes one step inside the tavern and waits. The front hall is packed to the walls, smokey, and full of noise. One patron sees her standing by the door, whispers to another, who whispers to another, and then, all at once, it is none of that.
Everyone on the ground floor averts their eyes as they walk past the Saint, and runs once they make it outside. Those caught on the second floor shrink to the walls, as far from the balcony as possible, as if it helps to hide.
There are some in her family who would care that civilians made the effort. Helani keeps a separate ledger for them, should they ever aspire to power.
What a Saint cares about is rarely in the same room at the same time they are. Except now.
The only three people left in the hall don't leave their table, however two stand up to bow, because they're sober.
Quneaux, like most Deathsages in her sect, doesn't drink expect in meditation. Zuko, who is yet to offer his reasons, is at least consistent with them.
Helani coughs, and the girl slumped over the table raises her head, squints across the hall, and returns to her starting position.
"Hey, auntie," Ren says, words muffled through the table.
"Saint Helani," Quneaux says, standing as straight as the scythe on her back.
Zuko, a broad and heavy presence behind them, nods.
A quiet spirit, a spirit of death, and a royal full of spirits -- sitting in a bar. Helani pushes the irony aside for more important matters.
"I have a job for the three of you," she says, then turns to Zuko. "Well, four. I will need your friend as well."
Despite the beard, and a pair of eyes that scan the world from the trenches of a furrowed brow, he has a face still adjusting to its twenties. And he looks even younger when worried, which is to say most people confuse him for a grown man.
After a moment, he nods again. "Yes, Saint."
"Thank you," Helani says. "I do not ask without knowing the cost."
"You pay him well enough," Zuko says. The humour comes out quick, but rough at the edges.
Helani turns to leave, but not before throwing a cleansing pill into the crook of Ren's arm. Even with her back to the trio, she sees Quneaux squeeze Zuko's hand.
YOU ARE READING
Earthwitch
FantasyAnele is dying, but that's nothing new. As an Earthwitch with a shattered soul, she's spent most of her life trying not to, but lately, the void eating through her keeps growing. And now, she's caught the attention of something worse than death -- a...
