Alice gathered the elf bodies by the fire and drank their blood. The process took all night. I couldn’t sleep. Neither could El. Nessy, however, slept just fine.

  When Alice finished, she walked over. She held the sword that had been heated and a key that she had found.

  “Hey, Charlie,” she whispered. She unhooked my chains with the key.

  “Hey,” I laughed.

  She touched her hair self-consciously and turned to Nessy. She shook Nessy gently to wake her.

  Nessy rubbed her eyes and looked up. “Alice,” she smiled. “You crazy vampire witch.”

  Alice motioned towards El. “Who’s she?”

  “Leave her cuffed,” Nessy said mid-yawn.

  “She saved our lives,” I said.

  Nessy scoffed. “She saved those rovers from me.”

  Alice glanced between two two of us with the key held up.

  “Free her,” I said.

  Nessy glanced at me then nodded at Alice. Alice unlocked El’s chains. El was silent and expressionless.

  “Got a map for me?” Nessy asked Alice.

  Alice smiled and walked back over to the now extinguished fire to dig through her backpack. She pulled out a piece of paper and brought it to Nessy.

  Nessy eyed it over and nodded. “Where are we?”

  Alice grabbed one of the sheets back and drew a small X with the label “Midnight Snack”.

  Nessy gilded her fingernail around on the map. “We need a fighter.”

  “Did you see her last night?” I said to Nessy, motioning to Alice.

  “Mmhm,” said Nessy. “But we need a reliable fighter.”

  “A decent meal would be nice,” Alice added.

  “And a night not on the ground,” I added.

  “What is your intention with me?” asked El.

  Nessy looked over and shrugged.

  “Is there a place we can take you?” I asked.

  “Not that I can't take myself.”

  “You’re free to go,” said Nessy. “Free roam.”

  El looked away, towards the sunrise.

  “Here,” Nessy tapped the map. “A good night’s rest and a decent chance of finding a fighter. An big ol’ orc if we’re lucky.”

  El glanced over at the map and then turned back again to face the sunrise.

  “Nothing along this path?” Nessy asked Alice, pointing to a narrow pass between us and an orc city.

  Alice shook her head.

  “Why free city?” asked El.

  Nessy quickly rolled up the map. “None of your business.”

  “You should know something if you’re headed that way.”

  Nessy scoffed. “Let’s go,” she motioned to Alice and me.

  “There are rovers in the shadelands,” El called ahead to us.

  “So what?” called back Nessy.

  “Something isn’t right there.”

  “Is anything ever right in the shadelands?”

  “It’s the green tower.”

  Nessy stopped. Alice and I slowed and turned around.

  “What?” I whispered to Nessy.

  Nessy’s eyes were closed.

  I glanced over at El. “What is the green tower?”

  “A portal,” said El. She walked over closer to us.

  “What about it?” Nessy asked, her back still to El.

  “Zalmora,” said El. “She’s been scouting it from the other side.”

  “How do you know that?” asked Nessy.

  “We have rovers in the darklands.”

  “Since when?” Nessy scoffed.

  “Since Zalmora.”

  “Hold on,” I said. “Can someone explain this green tower to me?”

  “I’ll explain,” said Alice. “There’s two ways to and from the darklands. The first is the underground sea. The second is the green tower of the shadelands.”

  “The underground sea has a few ports, one troll, one dwarf, but all are deep underground with emergency protections in place should they need to be sealed off.”

  “What about the green tower?” I asked.

  “The green tower is guarded by a sky drake,” said Alice.

  “The fear though is that Zalmora may have found a way to defeat it,” said El.

  Nessy scoffed. “It’s a sky drake.”

  “She attacked it two days ago,” said El.

  “What?” said Nessy.

  El nodded. “Her skeleton army. Over one million. The sky drake easily destroyed them all.”

  “She’s experimenting,” said Nessy.

  El nodded. “Yes.”

  “Let’s go,” said Nessy. She resumed walking.

  “Come?” I asked El.

  “Free city isn’t far,” added Alice with a smile.

  El nodded. “To free city.”

  The valley was shaded and quite cold. As we grew closer to free city, where I had been promised some comfort, I grew weak and tired, and quite anxious.

  The terrain turned from tundra to jungle over the course of our walk. The path became fine polished brick and I could see the outline of a magnificent city up ahead. Most striking were the fliers.

  “Wyverns,” Alice whispered to me.

  I squinted. They moved in pairs and appeared to be mounted. “Are there orcs atop them?” I asked.

  “Yes,” she whispered. “Oh I do love the orcs.”

  “Oh?”

  “Very much so. They are fond of vampires, you know. Perhaps the only race, save for the undead, that is rather agreeable to our kind.”

  “I’m impressed already by what I can see.”

  “It is the third largest city in the world, outside of Redrock,” she whispered. “By far the most cultured. A free city, open to all. And I mean all.”

  “An experiment,” Nessy chimed in. “Seems to have worked, so far.”

  “It doesn’t hurt that the city is located right in the middle of a major trade hub,” said El.

  “One that used to belong to the high elf,” said Nessy. She flung a smirk at El.

  “A different time,” El said.

  Ahead was a red brick wall, nearly as tall as the Black Sheep Wall. There were two heavily armored orc guards on either side. The outer orcs wielded halberdiers and the inner orcs wielded a short sword and shield.

  It wasn’t until we were within spitting distance that I noticed orc archers stationed atop the wall. They each had on fashionable spectacles that glistened gold. About a school bus gap between each one, with about half as many walking the wall and looking inward.

  Unlike the reception at Edith, this gate was drawn open. The guards said nothing as we walked past them and into the city. Once inside, we were immediately bombarded by street merchants. One was a sharply dressed orc selling bottled incantations. I found the bottles alluring but wasn't sure what they were.

  Then there was a lizard-like woman offering a free map of the city, which I gladly accepted. I suspect she was affiliated with Carn Hoodwinks, as half of the parchment was dedicated to celebrating the success of his conglomerate’s fifth centennial. Another clue was only his establishments were marked on the map. It had many markings.

  Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.

  Then there was a rather charming goblin peddling pudding encased in rye. He had a line at least fifty long.

  I quickly learned this was a side entrance to a rather large market square. As we curved around the main street towards the city center, I saw what looked like the main entrance, which had a large flow of traffic entering and leaving the city. From the very brief glimpse I had, the road was much wider than that which we entered, but similarly paved with smooth red brick.

  We continued walking, led by Nessy, towards a calmer more intimate part of the city, although still a marketplace of sorts. It was a large, wide tunnel, perhaps carved out by the orcs. The floor, walls, and ceiling were all the same copper colored stone, with a very appealing uneven but smooth finish that I couldn’t help but run my fingers along.

  Above us was another floor of perhaps shops or houses, and what looked like a third floor above that. The tunnel was in effect a cavern outright, as it was about as wide as my gym at school.

  We entered a tavern just as a group of orcs were leaving.

  “Now look at that,” an ugly orc grunted. “A high elf, dark elf, high man, and a vampire walk into a bar…”

  The orcs laughed.

  “Sounds like a party,” another orc said.

  “You just need a dwarf and goblin,” the ugly orc said.

  “She killed our dwarf,” Nessy eyed El.

  The orcs got quiet.

  “We’re hiring!” whispered Alice with a fanged grin.

  Nessy ushered us inside.

  The tavern was enormous, like an indoor stadium or mall food court that gobbled up its own mall. There had to be at least a thousand people inside.

  The stone ceiling twirled upwards into a spiral dome with a hole in the center. Beneath the center hole was a roaring bonfire. There were five walls and each had a drink bar with a seating area, each with its own apparent theme and color.

  We entered from the green side. There were many elves and halflings here. Nessy led us through the crowd across the entire tavern to the red side counter. She led us around in circles for a time, then eventually we stopped at a table with a goblin and two orcs. The goblin was writing something.

  “Need a fighter,” said Nessy.

  The goblin looked up and eyed us over briefly then shifted his eyes back to his parchment. “Budget?”

  “25 copper”

  The goblin stopped writing and glanced up, but only for a moment.

  “We deal in daily rates here.”

  “I know that.”

  “I can't help you.”

  “What's the starting rate?”

  “Two.”

  “Two… silver, for an orc?”

  “Goblin.”

  Nessy stormed off and we followed. She led us to the red-side bar. There were a lot of orcs here, with a mix of everything else. I saw my first cat-like creature here. He was sitting at the bar looking right back at me. I hate people watchers. Though I guess there wasn’t a time I thought that without being one myself.

  This place was crawling with orcs. I could see why Nessy wanted one as a fighter. They’re big, strong, they move like a butter knife, and something about them just seems… fun.

  Nessy flagged down a bartender. It was a dark elf. He sighed, hung his head, and reluctantly made his way over.

  “A sneg,” said Nessy.

  The bartender nodded. “Good to see you too.” He turned around and began fixing the drink.

  “They have blood?” Alice asked Nessy.

  “Not at red bar.”

  The bartender moved swiftly. He was good. In the time it took for Nessy’s drink to pour, his other hand fixed at least two other drinks and sent them sliding. He slid Nessy’s drink over while taking another’s order. Nessy’s was a creamy gold drink. Looked like pee.

  El was surveying the room. I couldn’t read her face all that well. She noticed me looking at her.

  “How you feeling?” I asked.

  She nodded with a polite smile. “It’s setting in.”

  “What is?”

  “How screwed I am.”

  “I know the feeling. You’ll figure it out.”

  She nodded.

  “Actually,” said Nessy, still speaking to Alice, “want a tectonic? Has an irony taste.”

  Alice smiled and nodded.

  “Hey,” Nessy summoned the bartender back over. “What's the word from Redrock?” said Nessy.

  “The source of my eternal misery.”

  “Heh,” Nessy nodded with her business grin. “You know they have bars there you could mope at.”

  “And miss seeing you? What do you want?”

  “Gotta ask?”

  “I can’t predict your moods.”

  “I'm in the mood for information.”

  The bartender nodded. “Well I'm always in the mood to serve my patrons.”

  There was shouting behind us at a table. A couple of orcs fighting over a female dwarf by the look of it.

  The bartender bit his lip and glanced over at the other bartender nearby, then back at Nessy. “I do have something.”

  “Good, I'll take a tectonic.”

  The bartender chuckled. “That’ll buy you a riddle.”

  “What'll buy me out of your torture?”

  “A chromatic cocktail.”

  “That good huh?”

  “Our relations are that bad.”

  “Jerk,” Nessy said.

  The bartender smiled and walked off. I again glanced at El. Her eyes were darting around 90 miles a minute. But she had an aura grace about her. I became convinced she was seeing way more in this room than I was.

  “I need to think,” Nessy said to us. She led us to a nearby table, still in the red area.

  I took a seat and once again reveled in the pleasure of that simple comfort. What does it say about me, that I nearly get chills of joy from sitting? I was exhausted. As fascinating as this place was, I just wanted to sleep.

  “Who is he?” Alice whispered to Nessy.

  “A snarky informant. And an ex.”

  I turned to Nessy. “Can you grab a room? I’m tired.”

  “One drink before?” Alice whispered with a devilish grin.

  “Have this one.” Nessy handed Alice the creamy golden drink then turned to me. “Nap here. We leave tomorrow so we need to find a fighter tonight.”

  “Why here?” asked El. “The best fighters are at the arena.”

  “Wrong,” said Nessy. “And anyway, we can't afford those.”

  “What can we afford?”

  The shouting nearby continued. One orc body slammed the other and guards quickly came and hauled them both away.

  “Nothing,” said Nessy, her eyes trained on the guards hauling away the drunk orcs. She turned back to the table they had come from. A third guard was chatting with the girl they had been with.

  “You are buying a room right?” I asked.

  “With what money? Her friends,” she glared at El, “took my bag.”

  “I was arrested too. Defending you.”

  I groaned and laid my head down on the table.

  “Alice,” said Nessy, “go back to that same bartender and order a chromatic. Tell him to bring it to this table.”

  Alice’s eyes flared and she grinned wickedly.

  “Hey,” El placed her hand on the table firmly, stood up, and faced Nessy. Her face was heart stop serious. “What are you doing?”

  “Intuiting.”

  “You could hire a gladiator for a week for the cost of that drink.”

  “They make you pay upfront there.”

  “Okay,” El lifted off the table and stepped away, screeching her chair.

  “Leaving so soon?” Nessy mocked.

  “I won’t be party to theft, or whatever this is.”

  “We are of party.”

  “Cute.”

  “It isn’t a crime to be in debt.”

  “Enjoy your debt. I’m going north.”

  “We are going north.”

  “Are you? Because I’d say prison is more likely.”

  “Oh, this is too perfect,” Nessy sat back and shook her head with a smile. She pointed to El. “This perfectly encapsulates it. Our whole history. Right here. Do you see i?”

  El glared at Nessy.

  “The high elf has a vision,” said Nessy. “The dark elf has a plan.”

  “Is that what you call it?”

  “And my plan entails drinks, a warm bed, and a fighter.”

  “Your plan entails risks and crimes,” said El.

  I glanced over at the bar. Alice had gotten the bartender’s attention. He shot a glance our way then smirked and turned to work on the drink. I couldn’t quite get a good look at it, but he used half the bottles in the joint on the thing, and ignored all other customers.

  The girl at the table near us, where the two orcs had been fighting, was now crying. The guards had left her. She was holding a piece of paper they had left her with.

  After about ten minutes, the bartender walked over with a bright, shimmering drink. A few nearby patrons turned to look as he walked. He carefully placed it on the table in front of Alice.

  It was a red drink that scattered light like waveform glitter. Sun catcher in liquid form. Alice gently picked up the glass and examined it from various angles. Suddenly it was green.

  “Woah,” I uttered. I glanced at Nessy and then the drink turned blue. I blinked and it turned purple. “What?”

  Nessy laughed. Alice smiled and did a little rock-n-roll nod with her head. Every time I looked away and back, it changed colors.

  Alice pinched the tip of the fancy straw and placed it on the counter then chugged the drink in an instant.

  A few in the crowd gasped. Then there was applause.

  Alice startled and blushed, then placed the empty glass down on the table and took an awkward seated bow.

  “How was it?” the bartender asked proudly, while plopping down in a chair at our table.

  Alice smiled. “I—”

  “Great.” He turned to Nessy. “The dwarves sent a delegation to Redrock. Three days ago. Didn't go well.”

  “Were they attacked at the gate?”

  “Okay, not that bad.”

  “So why?”

  “Darklands wars heating up. Dwarves are desperate. An of course, the goblins like ‘em that way.”

  Nessy nodded. “So they’re pressing down harder now?”

  The bartender nodded.

  “That explains ol baldy over there,” she turned to face the red side of the tavern. “He’s mercing out to the RRC.”

  “Oh the goblins got ‘em all.”

  “Sorry,” I said. “RRC?”

  “He’s new here.”

  “I envy that,” said the bartender.

  “Redrock Cartel. What they don’t own, they control,” Nessy explained. She turned back to the bartender. “The mercs all stationed at lower bellows?”

  “Not a one. Deeper.”

  “Can you find me a fighter?”

  “Ain’t a one left, Nessy. Look, I don’t know your quest, but my advice is to drop it. Get as far away as you can from here.”

  “We’re headed to Redrock.”

  “That’s literally the one place worse than here.”

  “That’s why I need a fighter.”

  “You need an army.”

  “I’ll take one.”

  “Okay.” The bartender stood. “Hope that helped.”

  “That’s all you got?”

  “Yeah, that’s it. Life-saving intel and advice.”

  “What’s the room rate?”

  “Probably five copper.”

  “Probably? Add it to my bill.”

  “They changed it. Go to the blue counter.”

  “They have the worst drinks.”

  “Yes. You closing out here?”

  “No. Bring a round of tectonics.”

  He grabbed the empty glass and headed back to the bar.

  Nessy took a deep breath. “Okay.”

  “Okay what?” I said.

  “Alice,” said Nessy. “Until I say otherwise, play nice. You understand me?”

  Alice nodded, then started laughing. She was briefly interrupted by a hiccup, then resumed.

  “Guys,” Nessy addressed this group. “Take a breath. This next part is going to be a little rough.”

  “Nessy,” I said. “Share your plan with the committee.”

  “Violence. Just a bit. Blackmail. Some improvising. There’s more, but knowledge thereof may affect your performance.”

  I wouldn’t fault you for thinking Nessy was lacking in the motivational speaking department. A bar debt was no catastrophe. And yet her solution to that problem was about as chaotic as one could get.

  The thing is with Nessy, when she’s like this, any sane interpretation of her words is futile, and you’re liable to drive yourself to one of many incorrect conclusions. She’s insane. She has a death wish. She’s evil.

  To be honest, any of those conclusions ring true to me, even now. But that’s the point. Don’t trust the ring. Not with Nessy. That ring is you being cowled.

  You have to find her intent buried deep beneath. She’ll say ‘relax’ to rile you up, and to ‘get ready’ to remind you she’s driving.

  You just can’t take anything she says or does at face value. But, her every action is set with effect. She’s programming. It’s a lesson I continually had to relearn. Because hey, I’m a decent, rational, medium intelligence human. Nessy isn’t. She’s a machine saved by sin. Not the least of which is wrath.

  I should have seen it coming, in hindsight. I mean, she’s a dark elf. I was even one of the few on Earth nerdy enough to know better. But just the name alone is hint enough.

  You think skeletons, vampires, or fire demons are evil? No. They’re glitter stickers on Nessy’s backside. Dark elves are evil. Nessy was cut from that cloth. Now I’m not saying Nessy is evil. But. She’s acquainted. And, when she, on a whim, deems it prudent, she uses it.

  The round of tectonics arrived. It was a fiery red, bubbly drink with a thick, wavy mist oozing up from it. Looked like a shaken up, over-amped lava lamp. I glared at Nessy through the mist.

  “I don't like the sound of your plan,” I said.

  She leaned in. “You have a starring role.”

  I leaned in. “Now I like it less.”

  The mist brushed against my face. It was cool. I sat back and picked up the drink. The glass was ice cold.

  Nessy’s gaze was fixed on me. I eyed El. She was watching me too.

  “Promise no one gets hurt,” I said to Nessy.

  “Can't promise that.”

  “Seriously hurt.”

  “That I can do.”

  “Alright. Last round before bed,” said Nessy.

  “What bed?” I asked.

  “Don’t waste it,” Nessy said to El.

  “What is it?” asked El.

  “Who cares?” asked Alice.

  “Cheers, party animals,” said Nessy.

  It tasted like exploding cinnamon.

  Nessy was smiling. Nothing is more terrifying.

  “Nessy…” I said. “What are you up to?”

  “You know the main ingredient in that?” asked Nessy.

  Alice burped. “Don’t tell me.”

  “Ambrosia.”

  “Ah, no wonder,” said El. “It burns.”

  The bartender remerged. “How were those tectonics?”

  The table groaned.

  “Anything else before I close you out?”

  “Yeah,” said Nessy. “I never did thank you for those copies of Redrock bellows cache waypoints you gave me last year.”

  “Hey,” his face went white. “Okay, let me close you out.”

  “Those will come in real handy when I stand before the RRC later this week.”

  “Nessy,” he said. “What do you want? Stop.”

  “Oh I don’t want anything from you. Criminal.”

  “I’ll cover the bill. Just go.” He glanced at the rest of us with a plea for help in his eyes.

  “You’ll need to do better than that.” Nessy stood up and pushed him, hard. He fell onto the nearby table.

  “Nessy!” I yelled.

  Orc guards rushed over quicker than I expected. Before I knew it, I was handcuffed and whisked away.