Section 3: Dawn Tavern

Annan was the third employee at the Dawn Tavern.

Aside from its owner, Faster, and Martin, Evelyn was the tavern's longest-serving employee. Martin said she had already been there when he arrived. She was a freckled young woman about Annan's age, still a little shy, and handled the counter and served drinks.

Martin had a knack for messing everything up, so his only jobs were clearing tables after customers left and sneaking bites of their leftovers. When Annan warned him not to do the latter in front of Mr. Faster, Martin even got possessive over the food.

As the newcomer, Annan did the same work as Evelyn—just the serving-drinks part. Usually, though, he helped Martin clear tables. The customers preferred the tavern's only girl to Annan.

Mr. Faster occasionally pitched in when they were busy. Most of the time, he stood by the counter with a slender sword at his hip and his arms folded, like a hired guard. His eyes half closed, he listened to the tavern's bustle and the bard's stale old stories.

The tavern had few customers. Even at the liveliest, noisiest hour of the night, it could fill only half its seats.

After all, Pinglin Town was a remote frontier town on the edge of a forest, with a population of only two or three thousand. The poor could not afford beer that cost several copper coins a mug, while the rich turned up their noses at a place full of rough folk. Only drunks and adventurers looking for information spent hours here.

And one bard.

Annan liked him, not only because his never-ending chatter helped Annan learn words, but also because of his wondrous tales. Most of the time, though, Annan could not follow the bard's lilting speech or elaborate descriptions.

Then there were the stories full of dirty jokes, slang, and curses.

The saying that learning a language began with swear words seemed to be true.

"...And then the sorcerer 'took care of' that sexy lizardwoman in the woods." As the drinkers chuckled, Annan learned that words could have more than one meaning.

The bard said Mr. Faster was a warrior whose professional rank had reached Elite, someone who had no business being in a little place like Pinglin Town. He had tried countless times to pry into Faster's past, but had never succeeded.

Annan had yet to see Mr. Faster fight. Many townspeople had heard from the bard that he was "a warrior whose professional rank had reached Elite," so no thief was foolish enough to give him a reason to.

In fact, Mr. Faster was friendly and not all that strict. Sometimes he even made jokes between men. They rarely landed, earning little more than an eye roll from Evelyn—Annan did not understand them, and neither did Martin.

In his spare moments, Annan did much the same as Mr. Faster: he listened to the bard's stories and watched the customers who looked like adventurers.

Unfortunately, no elves or mages visited the tavern. As for races like orcs and dwarves... even if humans were not particularly hostile to outsiders, they were unlikely to come to remote Pinglin Town.

As the bard's stories unfolded, a fantastical and uncanny world took shape before Annan: swords and magic, gods and dragons, evil gods and corruption, demons and the abyss.

Sometimes the stories also made him feel that this world was not so safe. A tide of rats had engulfed a southern city, cultists had sacrificed a seaside town, greenskins had occupied a country, and a surge of monsters had overrun a mountain pass.

"Annan."

Mr. Faster's call pulled Annan out of the story. He pushed a glass of fruit juice toward him and pointed to a dark corner of the tavern. "Take this drink to the lady in the corner."

Annan glanced at the figure sitting alone in the shadows. "Mr. Faster, my Common isn't very good..."

That was, in fact, the sentence he could say most fluently.

"It's all right. Just say 'yes' and you'll get through most situations." Mr. Faster gave Annan an encouraging pat on the shoulder.

Annan picked up the glass and went to the table as instructed.

The woman was beautiful, with a high nose and striking features. She wore a long dress patterned with rose-red flowers, and her thick hair fell in waves. The fair skin of her arms above the dress and her calves below it gleamed softly. She carried herself with an elegance utterly out of place in the shabby tavern.

Annan set down the glass and was about to leave when she asked, "I haven't seen you before."

"Yes."

"You're not from around here?"

"Yes."

Annan thought she talked a little too much. She thought he was a little dull. "Can't you say anything besides that?"

"Yes."

The woman, who had seemed bored, now studied Annan with interest. Her gaze passed over his night-black, tousled hair and paused on his unnaturally grayish face. "Boy, have you never experienced the pleasures of being a man?"

Something felt wrong to Annan. He looked back toward the counter.

Mr. Faster was watching him encouragingly. He nodded.

"Yes..."

"Then would you like to 'take care of' me?"

"Ye...?"

Annan understood that one. Realizing she was teasing him, he returned to the counter, a little embarrassed.

Evelyn shot the boss, who had been enjoying the show, a sharp look. Mr. Faster did not mind. He raised his glass to the woman, whom he seemed to know.

"How come you get to talk to a woman that long? When I go over, they just tell me to get lost..." Martin came over, grumbling.

"Why do you think Mr. Faster hired me?" Annan replied.

Martin's expression turned strange. No... surely he isn't thinking that. But Annan's Common was not good enough for a complicated explanation.

Near midnight, the beautiful woman with the drink had left, and the remaining customers were ready for some quiet. Faster gestured to the bard, who finished his story and began to play the lute in his arms.

Mr. Faster went to the back to rest. Martin took his place beside a wooden post, one eye on one side of the room and the other on the other, watching every corner of the tavern.

"How do you do that?"

Annan stared in amazement at the clever Martin, whose left eye looked left while his right eye looked right.

"Why do you think Mr. Faster hired me?"

At midnight, the tavern's last two customers staggered out, leaning on each other. Evelyn turned the sign on the door to CLOSED.

Annan's first day at work had gone fairly well. He had even been lucky enough to get an untouched slice of pumpkin pie.

When they returned to Aunt Susan's house, the light in Aunt Susan and Uncle Holin's bedroom went out only after they were home.

Martin climbed into bed. Soon, he was snoring.

Annan took off his coat and laid it beside the bed. Full of hopes for this world of magic, he drifted into a satisfied sleep.

He dreamed of a vast, boundless void where four glowing points of light floated before him.

The green glow radiated life and kindness; the purple released fervent emotion and joy; the red was filled with courage and resolve; and the blue radiated wisdom and honesty.

The four orbs circled Annan, spreading their warmth. But a pure black glow suddenly appeared and drove them away, then burst into golden light—Annan woke to sunlight on his cheek.