Phony Potions

Chapter 16.5

( Chapter 16 was huge, so here is part two. ) 

The next morning, I had simply awoken in my room with hazy memories of how I'd gotten there. Perhaps one of the workers of the hotel had carried me. I did remember lots of little tidbits about actual Assistant life, and as I did my morning routine, ran through those thoughts again and again until they were locked into my memories forever. None of these included Mallow, and as my hungry stomach demanded attention, she was pushed even further from my thoughts. I descended the incredibly long staircase to find food.

Instead of resisting the wave of partying, this time I went out and enjoyed it all fully. It was actually kind of liberating to not have Mallow around to think about. Sometime during a breakfast consisting of gooey, salty, and unusual carnival food on a stick, I realized that people were for once seeing me. Usually they saw Mallow and then me second, if at all. The masses of confused, craned necks, the involuntary wincing away, all of that was gone. I actually made eye contact with a pretty woman just as I was tossing away the stick my meal had been on. She smiled back at me.

I'd been avoiding the ladies both out of respect for Mallow, and since ladies had been avoiding me out of terror of Mallow. So, it really couldn't be expected that I would pass up such an amazing opportunity to work my wiles. And, my attention being totally consumed by charming, cajoling, and ultimately convincing this pretty lady that sleeping with me was a great idea, I lost track of time. It was an all-day endeavor, involving getting to know her, than taking her on a date through the town, letting her show me her favorite spots and being a good enough listener to repeat what she said but in different words later so that she would think that we were a great match.

It wasn't until my woven tale of tragedy and lost riches became unspooled in the post-coitus pillow talk that I even realized night had fallen. I had, while in a relaxed state with the woman in my arms, embellished the backstory I had constructed specifically to exploit her personal biases and preferences too much. She raised an earlier contradicting point. If this had been a sale, I could have wormed out of it. I could have covered effectively. But... I was so content, that the effort seemed not worth the potential reward of staying on her good side. I'd only be in town another day or two. I could weather her ire.

It was when I admitted it was all made up, and laughed, that she got angry. She thought I was laughing at her, which wasn't true at all. I did like her, in a shallow manner. I was laughing at myself for making such a basic mistake, getting caught in an easily avoidable contradiction. But... again, it didn't matter much either way, did it?

As she gathered up her clothes, she yelled at me. It reminded me of something. And that exact moment is when I remembered Mallow had spent the previous evening yelling at me for spending the money on the orange, from which I had no chance to defend myself and explain that I hadn't spent it. I tried to remember what had happened to the orange.

I sat up several minutes after the door had safely slammed shut. First, I checked my pack. The orange was quickly getting past edible quality, but would probably be good for another day or two. I peeled off one more sliver and slipped it between my lips. It tasted sweet, but the skin was drier and wrinkled. I slid my slippers onto my feet, then realized I hadn't yet put on my pants. It was really too much bother to try and go all the way to the dungeons this late at night. I kicked my slippers back off. It'd be a waste to not to bask in the pleasure of this moment.

The next morning, free from the relaxing effects of a whole day's worth of party drinking, I felt a pang of regret along with the pang of a headache. Last night I had considered it Mallow's own dumb fault she was in the dungeon. And it was. But I did lots of dumb stuff myself, yesterday's incidents included, and Mallow had never punished me on purpose.