Dance of the Gods

The carriage rolled on towards the inn. The streets were empty at this hour, only a few stragglers and criminals remained outside. Within the carriage Veronica and Suze were in the middle of a conversation.

"Just how rich are you and your family are exactly?" Asked Veronica with a small smile, at which Suze just chuckled.

"Not as rich as you think that's for sure! We have been doing this for a long time, but even then we don't have much cash on hand. After what I spent today we have enough to buy the ingredients for the dancer ritual, and that's about it."

This came as a bit of a shock to Veronica, but Suze soon elaborated.

"Oh, but don't think we are poor. It's just that our money is kept in the form of items and ingredients. Also everyone that we house and hide, will give us loads of cash. There aren't many places where these people can stay hidden, which makes us a monopoly in these parts of the sea!"

Slowly Veronica nodded understanding her hidden meaning. "So you are a shop as well as an inn! The ingredients and items are sold by you to the pirates and outlaws you house!"

*Laughter* "What a scheme you and your family runs! The people you house can't really attend these kinds of gatherings, so you buy up items and sell at inflated prices to your customers!... That's a genius idea!"

On Suze's face a bit of embarrassed smile appeared, it sounded a bit ingenuine if you said it out loud. But in this world if you tried doing good things without getting payed, you would either wind up on the streets or dead. So instead of feeling ashamed Suze just smiled at Veronica.

"I do think getting you involved in this will be my greatest investment yet!... Also I wanted to talk to you about your salary. I think 3 gelt a week might be too small for you, let's increase it to 10 for now, and when you ascend change it to 25."

Veronica was stumped by this, yeah she joked around a few times that she wasn't getting nearly enough pay, but she wasn't serious about it!

'25 gelt?! What would I even buy from so much money?... And weekly!...'

It took her a few minutes to calm down enough and gain back the ability to talk.

"I... Are you sure?... I-isn't that a bit too much?..."

*Chuckle* "Oh, Veronica you still have so much to learn... Never try to bring your payment down, heck you should've tried to negotiate an even higher salary!... But all jokes aside, since with the knowledge of the supernatural world you will be in much more danger, it's only correct if you get paid accordingly."

Hearing her reasoning made the whole increased salary bittersweet. It was nice to get more money, but if her payment rose that high it meant the danger would grow just as much.

Throughout the rest of the journey they stayed silent, each preoccupied with their own thoughts. The carriage rolled on and they soon entered the Harbor District where the inn was located.

After about fifteen more minutes, they both got off of it and walked towards the entrance. Behind them the carriage was already turning and moving away.

They walked to the entrance and as Suze was about to open it, the door burst outward. From inside the building shouts came and an older man was thrown out through the open doorway.

The man's face was red as a ripe tomato and he smelled heavily from booze. With a lot of groaning and moaning he slowly rose from the ground. His face was a bit dirty and his hair black, but what disturbed Veronica the most were his eyes.

They were very a deep dark brown and bloodshot, they were constantly flicking from one place to the other. Without even the need for him to say a word Veronica already knew this person was insane.

When his eyes landed on her face, it focused for a second and they widened from surprise. Gradually a large grin spread on his face, he had even shown his few yellowish-black teeth.

He took a step closer to Veronica, then whispered to her, "The time reckoning is approaching little girl. Are you ready? With your arrival every piece has been placed on the board!" *Mad laughter* "Count your shadows, you seem to have one too many!"

What he said felt like a lunatic's insane ravings, but it still sent a shiver down her spine. Steadily with a scared expression she turned and looked at her shadow, but there was only one.

When she turned back towards the insane person, he was already gone. There wasn't even a single trace of him left.

"Veronica are you planning to come inside?" Shouted Suze from within the inn.

The feeling of being watched came from everywhere, so she quickly entered and locked the door behind herself. Taking a few deep breaths and closing her eyes, the creepy sensation slowly dissipated.

With her regained sense of control Veronica went to find Suze. Down in the basement she was currently packing away the Material Box within a large safe full of other boxes and items.

Noticing her entrance Suze turned around and looked at Veronica with raised eyebrows.

"Who was that old man?" She asked with a bit of tremble in her voice. What he said still caused a bit of fear to appear in her heart.

Suze just shrugged and turned back to continue making space. "That was non other than Drunk McLean. He's our regular mad drunkard, an addict who keeps coming here, then drinks so much that his insanity starts bothering the other patrons, then gets thrown out."

She finally found a spot for the box, then closed the safe and turned back towards Veronica.

"He is harmless, just annoying. You better get used to him, he comes nearly every week!"

Learning this made Veronica very confused. "But if he is so troublesome, why do you keep letting him inside?"

Suze chuckled with self-deprecation. "You think we let him inside?! No-no-no, he just finds his way in! Like some pest or a rat, every time he appears from somewhere and we have to throw him out!"

Veronica's mood improved a bit, the fact that this strange old man could cause that much ruckus was quite funny. With a bit calmer emotions she went to her room to sleep, but she soon realized that it wouldn't be as easy this time.

No matter how hard she tried the blissful world of dreams kept eluding her. It took her a good hour to finally go to sleep, but that wasn't calm either.

...

She woke up in a strange and dirty street. In the air she could feel the sadness and desperation, it didn't take long to figure out where she was... In the Dirt District.

Looking down she got surprised. Her clothing was the same as everyone else's, but her breasts were much larger. Only then did she notice the different body she was currently possessing, it was a woman's but a much curvier ones.

She was walking down the street, but then suddenly stopped and laughed to herself.

'Looks like a worm is trying to get glimpses of me! Hmm... Strange I can't seem to locate you... Well, if I can't hunt and kill you mental torment will suffice!'

Veronica heard the beautiful voice of the woman inside her head, it reminded her of some other memory with a large fireplace, but it quickly went away.

The dream world around her began to change, and she woke up at some other place. It felt like a cold dungeon of sorts, she was standing in the middle of a corridor with nothing but a torch in her hand.

The walls of the structure were made of stone with large cracks running through them. The ground was covered in a layer of dust and large cobwebs were everywhere. This place was old, much older than anything Veronica had seen before.

Suddenly from behind her a loud screeching sound was coming her way. It ignited every danger sensor in her brain, and she immediately began running.

The corridor seemed endless, no matter how far she ran there were no side passages, or any real changes in the architecture. The noise was gradually closing in from, but even when she increased her speed, it made no difference.

With an erratic breathing and teary face she finally stopped, or more like tripped. Her clumsiness caused her to fall. Behind her the creature was only a few meters away, she didn't even try to stand or crawl away, just closed her eyes and waited for her death.

There was a loud scream hatred and the sound of a large blade cutting through air...

Then there was only silence...

It took her a long time to make her terror go away, slowly she opened one eye and was pleasantly surprised to find herself on a familiar street near large lamppost. In front of her the unfathomable theater stood.

Veronica didn't know how, but the feeling the theater gave her this time was worry. Like it was worried about her, it felt strangely warm and caring. On her face a small smile spread.

The theater saved her from the monster in the tunnel, or at least that's what she believed. She nodded towards the theater's windows and said, "Thank you for saving me!"

Above the double door there were two larger windows which had lights coming out of them. Suddenly the light in the right window went out for a second, then turned back on.

'Am I going mad, or did this building just wink at me...'

While feeling weirded out by this encounter, she began to concentrate and made herself wake up.