To Rhial

53

Brenden

Drunken dreams usually never came to me, but one did. The same dream I'd been having. The one I couldn't make sense of.

"Yo B!" Desmond called out from the door to our bedroom. "Wanna head out? There's a show or a presentation or something today."

My eyes were struggling to focus on anything, or even to stay open at all. The world spun around me with every step while jarring pulses made sure I couldn't keep a single thought for more than five seconds. "Huh?"

Desmond took a sip from his flask and handed it to me with a smirk. "You're hungover as fuck, dude. Hydrate."

My parched mouth ached for water, so that flask was at my lips and upside down in a second until I reeled forward, coughing and choking. "This is..." I held my hand in front of my mouth. "This is booze, you dick!" I gagged, trying to hold myself back from making yet another mess on the floor.

Desmond snickered. "Yeah, it'll get rid of your hangover."

"I'm not trying to be drunk all day!"

"Then drink and ride it out."

"Desmond, when was the last time you were sober?"

"I wouldn't worry about it." Desmond looked down at me condescendingly. "We're rockstars, dude, it don't matter how much we drink."

"Answer the goddamn question."

"I don't feel like it." Desmond spun on his heel and sauntered in the direction he came from. "Let's fucking go, Brenden, I'm pretty sure it's gonna be starting soon."

I sighed. I didn't need to put him through an intervention. "Sure, whatever. What even is this show? Is it like a play or something?"

"I don't know, I just found out about it."

"Who told you?"

"I was just outside listening to random people's conversations."

"It's too early for your shit, Desmond."

"Gentlemen! Alex, Eddie!" Riviera's anxious voice called out to us from down the hall as she quickly knuckled toward us.

"What's the word, bird?" Desmond threw up finger guns toward Riviera.

Riviera grunted and sighed away her disdain, turning to me. "Alex, rather, Brenden, Lord Hallax has requested the two of you immediately attend the Court of Blood."

That certainly woke me up. "The Court of Blood? Huh?"

"The Amien Manor arena. Where combat is displayed for the city."

"Oh, yeah," Desmond said, "we were actually just going to that."

I followed his comment. "What exactly are we looking for, Riviera?"

"Lord Hallax instructed me to instruct you to attend and relay everything you witness to him."

I furrowed my brows in thought.

The instructions are way too broad. How am I supposed to know what to look for?

I shot an idea to Desmond. "Can we go find out what we need to, uh, find out?"

He shrugged. "Yeah, we should hit the big man up before we go."

Riviera chittered to herself and mozied past us. "Do as you wish." She nodded to me and continued down the hall. We turned the corner and approached the middle of Hallax Hall, to the throne room.

"Damn, what's her problem today?" Desmond was thinking out loud. "She's usually pretty nice."

"I don't think she liked when you called her a bird."