I sat in Ceauli and Lin's living room for the second time.
It was that room, the one with the hard wooden ceiling and walls, with the stone-cold floor, the candle-lit backlights, the hundreds of crystallized monster parts in glass tubes. Ceauli and Lin sat across from each other, their arms firmly placed on that cold table as the light shining in through the window turned dark in the setting sun. I sat in the corner of the room, my arms crossed against my cloth-panted legs as they stared at each other.
This silence. The flickering orange against their faces, the soft outside noise of the city streets, as merchants carried their carts of merchandise back to their homes, and people finished up their shopping for the day.
The day... The day had finally come to an end. This silhouette of a requiem in their eyes, Chinin, Minda... They were both dead, both killed in an instant. Eaten up without a warning or a sign.
Lin sat up, his face nervous and sweating against the warm interior lights around him. His thoughts constantly flipping back and forth, pulling his head into a mindless and meaningless struggle.
He said softly while looking straight at me, "this is all his fault. We were perfectly fine until he showed up."
Ceauli replied back conflicted, "no brother, Hoefen didn't do anything. This was because of our arrogance. It's not his... It's not his fault."
I sat silently in the corner of the room as the two siblings talked it out.
"You're wrong... We only left to that Monster Gate to impress him. It was your idea Ceauli. Even though Minda hated him, even though Chinin hated him. They didn't hate you. We weren't going to go that day, and you wanted us to... It's all his..."
"Then what are you going to do Lin? Are you going to beat him up? Cast him out of the city? Because... Because I wont..."
"Do you really like him that much?! More than your friends who've you've been with for two years?"
Ceauli sat up, her face filled with silent anger as she finally pushed out all her feelings in one go.
"Their dead Lin! They died... There is nothing that we can do but move on-"
SLAM!
"Move on?! Are you crazy! Are you...! They... They were our friends..."
"I don't want to be mean, but we all knew it could happen any day. We risked our lives everyday. It was part of the job, they knew the risks..."
"And so did we! And we survived! No, I survived, you two... No... He..." Lin looked straight at me, "he killed them! He left us to die! It's all his fault! He killed them Ceauli! And if..."
"If what?!"
"If you... If you go with..." He tried to hold onto his hope for their love, but his newfound addiction to fate made it impossible for him to say it out loud, "this is your choice, sister! You go with him, or you go with me. You can't have both..."
---
Two days later.
I walked across the city in search of that Red Light Tavern Tusk told me about. He told me that it was next to a brothel and something else, but he wasn't very descriptive. So as I journeyed across the city I went from person to person asking if they knew the place.
"Excuse me, but do you know where the-"
I asked a tall suited fancy man, but without even glancing, he walked past, like I didn't even exist. I guess that's how people in this city act toward others they don't know. They're either too busy to notice them or are always focused on their destination that they don't care for the poor. This was the total opposite with Elisese, mainly because where I came from, the slums, everyone was always begging for money, or looking for work. So when I stopped someone in the streets to ask for directions, instead of walking away, more than not they would beg for cash and then tell me where to go.
Eventually, I stood alone in the streets of trade, faces, gazes. I felt naked without my grey cloak to hide my scratched-up, poor-looking, cloth shirt and pants. And I guess they could just tell that I was poor, they could tell that I was from the slums, it was probably in my nature. But that didn't stop me from trying to ask for directions. I went from person to person, from mothers, to fathers, to kids, to adults, to elderly, to the poor. And eventually, I found someone who knew exactly what I was talking about.
He pointed to the cobblestone street ahead.
"Head down Rose Road until you reach a small corner. There's a tucked away alleyway which will lead into the Red Zone."
"The Red Zone?" I asked back confused since Ceauli never mentioned that place when showing me the map of the city.
"Yeah, I would be wary of going in there alone, but if you already know about the Red Light Tavern you should be fine."
"Umm... Thanks."
The old man looked at me with soft sunken eyes and then smirked and waved away.
I turned around and followed his directions. I followed down Rose Road until I reached a small corner that led into a very inconspicuous alleyway. There was a metal sign with the words Red Zone carved into its plated frame. I walked across the cobwebbed walls as the sun beat down on my face.
"This place looks creepy..."
The walls along the arched alleyway were made out of an old rustic stoned brick. Wooden crates and planks were stacked alongside the dark turns as I followed down the path of uncertainty. As I crossed through arched doorways and mossy stone-bricked corners, I eventually reached a point of no return. An old rustic door with the words Red Zone carved out into it. I held in my breath, conjured up my courage, and pushed on.
I swung open the large rusted door and entered a cloaked cove of shops and streets. It was dark and deep within the city, with a singular large stoned walkway with dangling candle lights. There were people everywhere. People all along every side of every shop corner. But these people weren't just normal outside folk, they were different. Each one looked rough and scarred by something sinister. They would watch and stared at you as you passed, with eyes of judgment. They were people who when you asked them questions would respond immediately with grit and a frown.
They were people of dark nature, people with something to hide, and them being here made that hidden world visible to the naked eye.
I walked down the long stoned pathway. I walked through a cloth overhang of dark passageways and alleyways. There were shops with things I didn't understand, books and symbols not of the symbol of God, nor the symbol of any other religion. They were books of ancient dark text. Literature blocked out by the six kingdoms and brought here to be sold in an underground setting.
This place was for sure a black market. But in Elisese the black market was always some random guy with nicknacks and other random illegal fruits. But this place... It was larger than life, sprawling with men in tattoos, women with scars and stitches, half-naked to the moist warm underground air.
Eventually, after walking for five minutes through an anxiety trip of stares and grins, I reached the Red Zone Brothel. A place of naked woman and men, each trying to guide me inside their red line domains. But through pure focus and determination, I stormed past to the place next door.
It was a tall stone building of three levels. All across each floor were small windows that peered into a lit-up interior. On the outside stood a smoking man in all brown rags, and next to him was a bottle of his own piss. I quickly stepped past him to the old wooden front door that was labeled in dark red text, Red Light Tavern.
"This is the place."
I entered.