Burning Today Options

[Olen]

Some of you probably remember my last piece, Yesterday's Shadow and that it had a rather unsatisfying ending. I spent the summer rectifying this and now have a sizeable sequel/ completion to it which is itself now finished. It would probably be better to read Yesterday's Shadow before this as it would make more sense, however you should get by without it. If anyone wants I'll put a synopsis here, though Yesterday's Shadow isn't very long so you could just read it here (enough plugs yet?)

Anyway without further ado:

Burning Today

Prologue

Dervas wore boots while he worked. Shoes didn't last long in the decaying mixture of blood, vomit, drink and drugs which floored The Black Guar. The dark man had finally passed out and for the first time Dervas dared look at him. A worn man with a broken soul. Who are you? The Black Guar didn't get passing trade – the mixture of pushers, heavies and racketeers who made up most of his patronage didn't appreciate strangers. In the first hour the man, who now lay face down on the table, had knocked two out cold and broken another's arm. They left him alone after that and he them. Dervas wiped the remains of a line of sugar off the bar and nodded to the bouncer who went to move the man to his room.

Someone knocked at the door. Dervas ignored it. They knocked again, for longer this time. He cursed and went to tell whoever it was where to go. It was late an he didn't need any more trade. He pushed open the door, a curse dancing on his tongue. A sack crashed to the ground, gold clinked within. A Breton in black clothes stood in the doorway.

“What's his tab?” There was no need to ask whose.

“Sixty.”

The Breton showed no surprise, and counted out the gold. “Listen,” his tone offered pain if Dervas didn't, “You keep giving that guy drinks, drugs, whores, whatever he asks for okay? For him happy hour doesn't end, tabs never have to be paid. Push as much as you can into him. Don't worry - I'll be round a couple of nights a week to pay you. That sack,” he kicked disdainfully at the one he'd just dropped, “Contains a thousand drakes, payment enough I'd say. If he asks don't tell him, just give him more drink. Understand?”

Dervas nodded, his mouth was dry.

The man disappeared into the night.

Dervas walked back into the bar. He looked towards the dark man's room. Who are you? he thought again, And what have I gotten into?

[Olen]

Hmm, missed that, but it's sorted now. Along with another hamster on page two. I'm guessing I posted the wrong version for chapter three as the way I wrote this was how I thought it should be then worked on that one. It then gets censored and sometimes toned down for posting (which also explains occasionally clumsy dialogue) so presumably I posted the original there...

@Remko, yea I fail to include his name often, it's there somewhere near the beginning but to save you looking through it's Firen.

@haute, good effort in catching up theres a fair bit of it posted now. I'm glad you like him and like the atmosphere, I was going for the 'realistic' option which more or less implies dark and gritty, I think the original concept which spawned the character and both stories was how messed up and/or unpleasant anyone who joined the fighters guild would be.

@mALX, no idea what ETN means in this context but glad you like it.

@SubRosa, cheers for pointing those out, unfortunately the rude word filter here is a bit crazy and I tend to miss them (and it has a different definition of which words are rude than I do). I try to avoid using things like "[censored]" (I typed that as is) because they do bad things to the flow. Again glad you're liking it.

Cheers for the comments, I'll put up another part either this evening or tomorrow.