Faebreaker

2.0: The Visitor

Erik stood deadpanning at the scene before him.

This can't be what success feels like.

Something shattered somewhere as the Twin Peaks' patrons clamored in a gigantic uproar, and rain pattered on the rooftop and windows. Since the establishment was located by a road running from the capitol, there were bound to be customers on a night like this. Although...these many bordered a bit on becoming unreal.

It was packed, truly. Lia swam between the patrons not unlike a fish in a barrel. She wore a modest dress colored white and with tears on it—which some of the crazier sorts yanked at in order to get her attention. Pouring away at multiple mugs in quick succession, Erik almost nodded in approval at the pace she satisfied every customer's needs. He almost wondered how she could breathe in the middle of all that filth, but Erik wasn't about to jump out from behind the safety of his counter to find out. It already smelled enough like piss, shit, and sweat where he stood anyway. He got the picture.

Erik sighed. Despite the chaos, father slept soundly upstairs, he knew. This was his usual routine nowadays. He rarely ever came out of his private room anymore, most likely praying his son would bring him a drink and bowl of stew to satisfy his appetite. Erik usually did, but sometimes he liked to wait, just to see how much patience his father had for staying in bed. Given it was over an hour past his mealtime this night, Erik figured he had a lot of it.

"Hanging in there?" he called out. The night would slow down soon. He could tell this not just by the hour and number of patrons, but by the general density of pipe smoke wafting across the room. Right now, it wasn't too bad. You could take a deep breath and still catch some actual air.

Lia glanced up, a weak smile arching across her face as she tripped over a stray cat that'd somehow found its way in. It yelped, and swerving between several tables, found its way up a windowsill. Finding her footing, Lia held up a pitcher, which seemed empty by the way she waved it around with ease. "Need more!"

Despite that ease, however, she lost her footing again, stumbling forward with it as she fell to the floor in what could only be complete exhaustion. The patrons burst out laughing, and one of them, who was dressed in some raggedy attire, came forward to help her up. Luckily, the pitcher remained unbroken, for which Erik was thankful.

With quite the crowd, he might need to get into the action after all—at least for a little bit. It was almost closing, but to let that poor girl suffer a moment more might be a sin against him at the time of retribution. "Go up and sleep," he said, waving her over to him. "I'll take over."

She giggled. "No, I'm quite all right actually! Just a little bit—" She let out a long yawn. "Tired."

He crossed his arms. "A little bit?"

"Yeah, just a little bit." She yawned again.

His face turned to stone. He wasn't having this, and by the smug grin she had, it appeared she could tell that as well.

"All right," she admitted. "Maybe more than just a little bit."

"Go sleep," Erik insisted. He didn't smile. "I can finish the night."

Lia nodded. "See you."

She made her way behind the counter with the pitcher still in hand, and Erik sighed to himself as the girl failed to return it. He snickered. She most certainly wasn't just a little bit tired, but rather, was quite ready to fall right asleep upon making contact with her bed.

However, when she reached the stairwell, someone came in through the front entrance that cast a spell of silence on the entire patronage. Lia stopped before she could raise a foot to begin her climb, looking behind her to see what had happened.