“Richard!” John shouted out to the triumvirate that was walking down one of the many hallways. All three turned around, but with a quick gesture and few calm words, the Horned Rat ensured them that this was okay, and they went on ahead without him. Seconds later John had caught up to him.“How good a timing of you,” spoke the Rat, “I would have co to visit you in that mansion of yours later today, but it seems I can skip that. Where is Nia?”
John, mouth already open to ask the exact sa question, furrowed his eyebrows in confusion. “So, she is not with you?”
“Once we were done with the subjugation of Scotland and told her I didn’t have anymore orders for her, she suddenly disappeared. I would like to say this is unprecedented, but you know Nia,” the Horned Rat let out a grumbling sigh; “I had hoped she would be with you. I seem to be wrong.”
“Why the sudden care?” John wondered; “Weren’t you saying that you got way better tools in your arsenal last ti?”
“Very funny, Newman,” Richard’s eyes focused on John with annoyance flickering in their crimson colour; “We both know that I have been wrong regarding her. She shouldn’t have been able to purposefully eliminate certain magic frequencies, and yet she is. A blank of that strength is rare; I won’t let her go quite as easily.”
‘Well, that was to be expected,’ John thought while trying not to be too happy about the Horned Rat admitting that he had been wrong about sothing. It could still be a ploy for sothing he wanted, a very complicated one at whose final goal John could only guess.
“If you don’t know where she is, I will have to go on and search for her,” the Horned Rat spoke. “We will see each other again soon enough.”
“Soon enough would be never again,” John jokingly berated the god as he also turned to leave.
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
When he t Lydia and everyone else at the feet of the massive entrance to the imperial palace, there was one extra person amongst them. Sol, wearing her typical golden plate that just radiated light constantly, was eting him with her gaze, which seed to constantly asure him to see if he was anything worth even looking at.
Suffice to say that John would much rather have dealt with Luna.
“There you finally are,” the sun goddess spoke in a busy tone; “I don’t have much ti. You are invited to et Romulus in the Obelisk park tomorrow 14 o’clock, together with anyone else you might want to string along. You know what it is about?”
“I do,” John nodded, this could only be about Romulus promise to tell him about Gaia if Maximillian survived this war. “Why that late?”
“To allow you to recuperate from the hangover you are about to get yourself into,” Sol answered and then handed him a card. It was the picture of a translucent female made from a golden liquid, bubbles rising throughout her body and causing her hair to have a foamy crown that was slightly angled to the right. John was pretty certain he was looking at a beer elental here. “Romulus had this place rented for you, as he can quickly reach it if there are…” Sol looked to Eliza, “…ergencies.”
“Understood,” John said and pocketed the card. They couldn’t go there quite yet, Lydia had to attend to another press conference and make calls with a lot of people. ‘Oh hey, I am debt free,’ he realized as he waited.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
“We are getting ya drunk tonight!” Rave announced as they tapped into the second circle of Abyssal Ro. “Finally, you are getting drunk with .”
“Why does that excite you so much?” Momo wanted to know. “It’s just alcohol.”
“’Cause I haven’t seen John when he is drunk yet and I want to see what that is like, maybe it will be funny,” Rave said and then sung a little song; “Oh, I just caaaan’t hiiiide it – I am soooo exciiiiteeeeed.”
“You are shit at singing, so shut the fuck up,” Eliza requested. “Where in this beautiful dumpster fire of a town are we going anyway?”
John was wondering that as well; Lydia had taken the lead upon seeing and then taking the card, which had no address on it weirdly enough.
“This,” the queen said and raised the card in question, “is a locator card. If you have one, it allows you to choose where you end up when opening certain doors. You ever encountered a free barrier?”
“Free as in ‘freely tumbling through space and attaching itself to other barriers’?” John asked. “In that case, yes, I once found the shop of Hers in a barrier.”
“Exactly like that, they cost billions to maintain so not a lot of people get themselves one. However, there is a certain kind of being that get to have theirs for basically free,” Lydia told him.
“Gods,” John didn’t need to guess. Who but these imnsely powerful beings based entirely on magical energy could hope to maintain sothing with that power requirent without a Fateweaver around?
“Yes, and as Ro is a location of extensive planning, Romulus included a headache inducing block,” Lydia told them as they turned a corner. It was a buzzing street crossing with door upon door set into one of four flat buildings that seed to be a single piece of dark stone without any rooms inside if the lack of windows was anything to go by.
John watched soone open a door and stare at the blank wall behind it. The man then closed the door, opened it again and stepped inside. The sa scene repeated elsewhere, so people trying several dozen tis and still just looking at a blank wall, whilst others stepped out of one door, walked across the street and went right into the next one without a problem.
“This is called the ‘Crocevia di fortuna’ or Crossroad of Fortune,” Lydia told them; “basically, it’s a place where people who are bored and have too much money gamble on ending up sowhere interesting. Luckily, we have a locator card so we can get where we want without a problem once.”
“And where will we end up when we go out again?” John had to ask, worried that these travelling dinsional places spewed them out sowhere in North Korea.
“You doubtlessly end up where you entered,” the queen stated. “Do no ask how it works, it just does. I don’t know everything.”
“Let’s just get wherever we are supposed to be right now!” Rave exclaid; “It is cold!” She nestled herself against her boyfriend as they headed for the closest door.
Lydia pressed the card against the door, where it disintegrated, before opening the door and stepping inside. Quickly following her, John and Rave entered the place of alcohol that was first and foremost described by the word charming.
The flooring was made from long, brown, wooden boards that ran parallel to the counter that stretched along almost all of the whole opposite wall. The uncovered part was a hole that led to a stairway which then ended at the toilets, as the universal male/female icons above it indicated.
Between the white and roughly plastered walls, on which countless photos and posters of people, bands and brands hung, stood several wooden tables with long benches, stools and chairs around them. The room was likely big enough for about 50 people, but right now, they were on their own. Probably because Romulus had booked the place for them. Although one of the shadows in the corners looked suspicious. So sort of bodyguard perhaps? Well, he was drinking shadowy beer and kept to himself so that didn’t really matter.
John noted two things. First was the, for the lack of a better term, beer sli behind the counter, who looked exactly like the one on the now destroyed card. Normally pubs like this had a wall full of different beverages as well as clearly visible beer pulls, this one had neither, which was a bit weird.
“Hello,” the alcohol sli greeted them in a cheery voice, “I am Lady Liquor, and you are in The Bubbly Wench, a shop I nad after myself. If you want anything alcoholic, let know and I will create it as soon as possible. Please drink lots, you will be my only custors tonight! Also are these two your friends? They said they were!”
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