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“You’re standing in the doorway, mate.” A grumpy older demon shoves his way past me, and I am shaken out of my stupor.
I force myself to walk towards the bar.
“Two shots of amerinth, please. No ice.” The demon behind the bar is a matron, a female demon, and she looks at me with a raised eyebrow before sliding the purple liquid over to me.
“You look like you’ve been in the wars,” she tells me. The corner of her mouth lifts in a brash smile.
I knock back the sweet, burning liquid, not wanting to tell her how right she is. Instead of telling her that I have just come home from a literal war, I sit down at the bar and order another drink.
It is clear, after twenty minutes of talking to her, that the matron wants to take me home. She isn’t being subtle about it at all – matrons very rarely are subtle about sex.
But I don’t think I have the energy for it. In fact, after I have finished my meal that I also ordered at the bar, I am just about ready to get home.
Sarziroch’s sky is finally dark enough not to give me waking nightmares, though a tinge of red always remains in the sky at all times.
I leave the bar and continue walking away from the center of the city, taking the long route home and hoping that the cooler evening air will help to clear my head.
I weave in and out of the dark, tall buildings that look more like they sprang organically from the ground and not like they were actually built by demon hands.
It’s as though these rocks were here first and our ancestors just came and carved homes into them,I think to myself as I inhale deeply. The air is only slightly cooler, and it isn’t enough to stave off the effects of the amerinth, which I drank more of than I should have.
I look up at the sky, at the endless dark, at the red streaked through it, at the pinpricks of light, which could be stars but are more likely errant xaphan flying to New Solas.
“I’m here. In Ikoth. And I have no idea what to do with myself now that I am here.”
The urge to return home to the tiny fishing community in Bilgonith is stronger than ever, and I almost gasp out loud as something violent twists and uncurls in my chest.
It feels like a monster has taken residence in a cavity where my heart should be. But I know that it isn’t a monster. Just sadness.
“You cannot go home now,” I tell myself, my voice firm and stern. “But you can get used to being back in civilization. You can start living again.”
I decide to finally head home to my loft, which is a little way away from the center of Sarziroch.
Maybe a good night’s sleep will help. Not that I’ve been able to sleep since most of my unit was killed.
I shut my eyes and shake my head violently as images of the dead rise to the front of my mind.
“No, no, no! I don’t want to think about this now.”
My voice cracks on the last word, and I shake my head until the images disappear, and then I am suddenly rounding the corner to my loft which overlooks the ocean.
My hands are curled into fists, my heart is thudding painfully fast in my chest, and my eyes are wet as I climb the steps to my apartment.
The building that I live in is slightly newer than the rest of the buildings in Sarziroch, and it looks more like the buildings I saw in New Solas. It is still built with the same dark rock, but at least I don’t feel like I’m living in a stalagmite.
The passageway leading to my apartment is dark, and when I squint my eyes, I can see that the door to my apartment is open and is standing slightly ajar.
I slow down because I am quite sure that I left it closed, that I locked it before I left this morning.
It is after midnight already, and nothing good can come of this door being open.
I reach down for the knife that I keep holstered at my ankle, and I cannot help but wish for the armor I used to wear on the battlefield.
It could be anything,I tell myself as I walk silently down the passageway.It could just be a hungry thief, looking to feed their children for the night.
Or it could be a xaphan, coming for revenge.
I press my body against the wall as I come up to the door. A dim light glows from inside, and I peer around it.
