Darkness and Hellfire

Johny walked down the stairs into the somewhat rowdy dining area in the Celestial Dawn. He almost immediately noticed Isaac and Lenna talking with proprietor but unfortunately there weren't any open stools to be had at the bar so he found a table that was only half full and requested to join them. The nobleman, who could have easily been confused with a well off merchant, easily blended into the crowd of mid level adventurers and merchants, and the occasional staff member from the ducal house who either had just gotten off of duty or did not want to cook on their day off. From that position, near the middle but off to one side of the dining room, Johny witnessed a staple of adventuring and port towns. The act itself was not something that he nor anyone else would find strange, instead it was those involved that would strike a future historian as odd.

"Wexler is buying the next round!" Celeste bellowed out over the entire dining hall which got a round of cheers and mugs held high for refills or fresh orders.

"Celeste?" Isaac questioned. Her sudden statement was just as confusing as it was surprising. He did not think that she was the type of person to just spend someone else's money wantingly, and she had given them more gold as a wedding present than those present could drink in a night, so the entire event was really just more odd than anything.

"I don't know why you are here." She told Isaac. "I assume it is something to do with that older gentleman staying upstairs. But none of that matters right now. Right now, you need a stiff drink, then a smooth drink, or five, a good song, and some merriment to remind your soul that there is a whole world out there that isn't gray skies on a rainy day in a cemetery."

"Celeste, it's not that I don't agree," Lenna began. "but isn't that something that he should come to more naturally, or just, in a little while?"

"Nonsense." Celeste replied to Lenna and then returned her focus to Isaac. "I've known, I knew, Aria and Claus for as long as they were in the Innerworld. And I know that Claus would be dunking your head in a barrel of mead if he saw how worn out you look now. You look like you haven't slept in weeks but if you are going to be fighting in the arena then that means that you are physically and magically fine. Aria would probably be hovering around you, just out of reach, because as smart as she was, she was so freaking awkward when it came to emotional situations that she wouldn't know what to do."

"I… uh…" Was all that Isaac could stammer out.

"I once watched her almost have a mental breakdown because of a lost child who was crying in front of her for their mother." Celeste drove her point about Aria home with an example. "And Claus actually did do that to someone once, the man's wife had just divorced him and taken their children with her back to live with her family in Sapphirestone."

Isaac snorted a laugh as the mental image came to mind. Claus was more than big enough, and definitely was the kind of person to mean well, but was also a man of action over words. "Okay, okay Celeste, you win. Now what?" Isaac conceded.

Every time that Isaac had taken a sip of his drink, Celeste had been refilling it with whiskey. "He's going to be sick." Lenna warned Celeste.

"I'll switch back to elderberry juice soon." She told Lenna to placate her. It was the truth, Celeste did not want messes of that variety on or around her bar, and she had a pretty good read of what Isaac could and could not take. As far as Celeste was concerned, the worst case involved her getting Lenna to help neutralize some of the alcohol because she overestimated how much Isaac could handle.

"Why elderberry juice?" Isaac wondered. "It doesn't mesh well with the whiskey."

"Because elderberries remind adventurers of the worst days of their lives. They remind us of when we got our asses handed to us so badly that potions worth at least a copper tier bounty a piece had to be used. For a party like ours, each potion that we drank was equal to half of our cut of a silver tier bounty, for cheap ones that barely closed wounds." Celeste explained. "The few times that we really got stuck up shit creak without a paddle, we were drinking potions that cost five hundred gold a piece. Our platinum bounty payouts evaporated like water in the desert. Each one of them tasted like elderberries. Elderberries and amaranth flowers, elderberries and willow bark, elderberries and troll blood, and so on. This drink is one that was passed down to me by an old adventurer and now this old adventurer is passing it down to you."

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Isaac nodded and took another sip. He wasn't sure how many times he had done so which wasn't comforting. It was in front of him and he couldn't help but reach for it whenever his mouth was dry or he got a whiff of the elderberries. "So, what's this merriment that is supposed to be had?" He asked the woman who had taken them in all those months ago.

Celeste took a deep breath and stood up straight. Everyone who could see her paused as they waited for whatever announcement she was going to make. "Ohhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!" She bellowed loud enough that the neighbors probably clearly heard her. "Lift yer glasses high me friends and join us in our song!" Her song began in earnest.

Half of the adventurers in the tavern stood up in a rush, chairs toppled and mugs were held high as they sang back the next line of the song. Their song went on to the people they wanted to toast to, about those they loved and missed and those they hated and never wanted to see again, about crushes and lovers, about alcohol and those who made it, about friends near and far and friends of every kind, about those waiting for them to come home, and finally to each other for joining in a dozen toasts for everything that they could think of. Each time they mentioned something new, mugs clashed and more was swallowed until by the end of the song, nearly every mug was empty. They were off time and even more off key but not a single adventurer or guardsman in the Celestial Dawn didn't participate.

It was a long tradition in the Celestial Dawn to sing that song when someone lost someone important to them and needed support. A few old sailors had started the song for Celeste when she first opened back up after her husband died and she had kept it going in their and his memory ever since. In recent days, the song had been sung far too many times. Over the last month, it had been belted out over the dining room on nine separate occasions.

True to her word, Celeste made sure that Isaac didn't wind up sick, even if he didn't remember much of what happened after the song. Lenna filled him in the following morning after he had used copious amounts of death flames to clear his pounding headache. She, Celeste, Isaac, and a few others had shared stories of Aria and Claus as well as what they knew about the rookies who had been with them.

Johny had also caught Lenna's attention and she handed the aura storage gem over to him as well as the Bottomless Bag with all of the platinum he would need to make the sword along with how much he had estimated that it would cost. If for some reason they overpaid, he would send the extra money back or hold onto it for them and if they underpaid then he assured Lenna that she could pay him the rest at her next convenience. She had mentioned that there was a chance that they would be in Heidenburg territory when the tournament was supposed to take place so he told her that they should stop by to check on the sword at that time. He wasn't sure if it would be done by then or not but he was hopeful. They had talked for a bit longer and then he had left.

Lenna and Shamesh then helped Isaac get back home with only moderate assistance and mild coaxing. The introduction of Shamesh to the rest of those in the dining room was a bit subdued due to the heavily impaired nature of most of the patrons but everyone made sure to give the 'pocket lich' a wide berth. Lenna wasn't sure who had made the comment about Shamesh being a 'pocket lich' but it seemed accurate enough that she felt the need to inform Isaac of the term being spoken. If it helped everyone get used to Shamesh, because they saw him as Isaac's new pocket monster, then that was fine. It would most likely also keep people from giving him too much trouble. Everyone knew how touchy Isaac was when it came to his stuff and people.

"Damn, I really don't remember any of that." Isaac told her while rubbing his head after Lenna had finished filling him in. "Whose idea was it to summon Shamesh?"

"Yours," Lenna replied. "when you decided that I was too frail and would crumple if you used me to help you walk." Lenna finished flatly.

Isaac took in a breath through his teeth. "Yikes… sorry about that." He said while scratching the back of his head.

Lenna just sighed and shook her head. "Don't worry, I think Celeste got the message my scowl attempted to convey." She added with a tight lipped frown directed directly at Isaac. Celeste would hopefully keep the fact that Lenna was injured to herself and the combination of the woman's intelligence and Lenna's scowl almost made that a certainty. Lenna's mild annoyance broke and her face softened. "Do you feel any better?" She asked her husband. She knew that he did, at least a little, just from what she felt through their strand of fate, but she really just wanted to hear it out of his own mouth. The feelings that were conveyed through their strand were only the soul deep ones and even then they were new to feeling each other through their bond. Isaac was a bit less new because he was used to Shamesh, but it was still new for him to feel Lenna's soul deep emotions.

Isaac thought about it for a long moment. "You know, I think I do, but part of me is saying that I shouldn't. That I need to stay in mourning because of how much they meant to me. But in my mind, I know that Celeste was right, about everything that she told me last night. Aria didn't end her message with; 'cry every night because I'm dead', she went out with a jib, a goodbye, and a flourish." Isaac answered. "In a way, they are still here. Both of them. We just won't be able to see them again. The ripples of what they have done, who they have met, and the things that they have said will continue to linger until everyone who ever met them has died off. I don't know if this is the right way to look at it or not, but by the time it is our time to go, and we take the last remnants of them with us, it won't be on us to carry their memories anymore. It'll be someone else's turn to carry ours."

"I don't think that there is a right and a wrong way to handle and process loss, Isaac." Lenna told him with a warm smile and a hand on his shoulder. "I'm just glad that I won't ever have to handle losing you."

"Me too." Isaac smirked. "And likewise."