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Chapter Seven: Family Ties

Rain, Xora, and Neri sat at the booth and watched the band on the stage, who were just finishing their last song of the night. Xora had her sandalled feet kicked up on the edge of the table and a beer in one hand, Rain was sitting back sipping a hot mug of tea. Neri sat across from them with a flagon of mead.

"They weren't too bad," said Xora, "Rain, did you said that Regis Spitfire recommended this place?"

"No, this one was me," said Neri, "I first heard about it when I came to Estraya from a group of traveling merchants in a wagon train."

"I've lived here my whole life here I can't believe I never found this bar," said Xora, looking up at the high ceilings and the wood beams from which a dozen candles in glass holders hung at various lengths.

Neri counted out some silver and copper and placed it on the edge of the table, under his hand. He waved for the waiter.

"Why do you do that?" Rain asked, nodding to Neri's hand covering the coins.

"Isn't it obvious?" Neri seemed surprised that Rain would even ask, "sometimes people come around and just swipe them off the table when you're not watching."

"What? That's terrible..." Rain said, frowning.

"Weren't you wanted for highway robbery?" laughed Neri.

"Yeah, but we never did things like that..."

"It doesn't sound like you were very good thieves," commented Xora, downing her drink.

"We weren't just petty thieves," said Rain, staring into his tea, "we were trying to do more than that. We only robbed Lady Argus's tax wagons, not the poor farmers that could hardly afford to pay the taxes in the first place."

"But wasn't that all the farmers' money anyway?" asked Neri, "or did you give it back to them?"

Rain frowned.

"No, we put it back into the economy. Lady Argus just spent it in other Zones. That's why the area was getting so poor on the first place. There was more money going out than coming in."

"I get it," said Xora, "it's more about fighting against Lady Argus than sticking up for the farmers."

"No, we were still helping the farmers," insisted Rain.

"Are there a lot of cool places like this out in the Desert Zone?" asked Neri.

A waiter finally came by. Neri relinquished the coins under his hand.

"Not really, most of the towns are fairly small, they usually only have one inn. There are a couple larger cities that have some more bars and such, but nothing as expansive as Estraya. I feel like we could go to a new place every night and never see them all."

"So wait, you robbed all of those tax wagons and never even had anywhere worth spending all that money?" asked Xora cocking an eyebrow at him. Neri shot her a look.

"The fun we got was out of the experience," said Rain, "you could ride for miles, and see no one, you could camp out under the stars or explore the ridges and canyons out on the edge of the desert."

"You had no water, no luxuries, and probably spent the whole time squatting in a cave or sleeping in the bushes? That sounds terrible, Rain," retorted Xora.

"We didn't squat in a cave," said Rain, "we lived in a giant glass tower from the Elder world."

Xora looked up at him and smiled. The blue squares on her face rippled in color.

"You trying to see if I'm lying with those magic eyes of yours?" said Rain with a half grin.

"Maybe," she said, pulling her feet off the table and sitting up. Neri laughed and shook his head.