Mannus Nye was not one for celebrations - he had only visited Atara for Aeterna's Harvest to purchase out-of-season goods that could only be found in a big city during a celebration of mass importance. Instead, the only thing he had managed to retrieve was a sphere that could fit in his pocket and the knowledge of what it felt like to dig through vomit with his bare hands. It was an unsuccessful trip so far, to say the least.
The foreign tradesman had found himself in a bar called Sekiel's Hollow. It seemed to be one of the city's less reputable watering holes, but even backwater public houses were bustling with business on such an important holiday. Despite being a citizen under the empire of Xia, Mannus found himself lacking in much tangible knowledge about Aeterna's Harvest; it was a holiday explicitly for the people of Atara. In an effort to acquaint himself more closely with local culture, and hopefully net himself some likeability amongst the common folk of the city, he'd approach the bartender casually.
"What can I get fer' ya?" Despite the bartender's clean, crisp attire and well-kept beard, the voice that came from his mouth was harsh and difficult to understand. Regional accents were always a pain for Mannus.
"Uhm, do you have Weaver's Works? It usually comes in a sort of orange bottle." From his remarkably brief research, Mannus had heard that Weaver's Works was a popular brand of ale brewed locally in Atara that had begun to pop up in more and more bars across the Xia empire.
"O' course I have Weaver's Works, ye wonky-eyed plum. That'll be a dogger's fee, lad."
"A 'dogger's fee'...?" Mannus muttered under his breath, cursing his lack of knowledge and further despairing at how awkward the conversation he was having felt. "I'm not sure what you mean."
"Aeterna's sake man, a dogger's fee. A half-plute."
"Oh, a half-plute! Of course..." The customer's face lit up at the clarification, and Mannus hastily dug his hand into his back pocket to pull out a small, jagged coin that he put down on the bartop with an overenthusiastic amount of force.
"Yer not from here, are ye?" The man behind the bar would remark as he took the half-plute and stuffed it into a small linen sack which clinked with the addition of another coin. As he waited for a response, the barkeep leaned down, casually fumbling around beneath the bartop for a few moments. Bottles rattled against one another, the fragile tapping of glass against glass sending a shiver up Mannus' spine.
"No, I'm not." He kept his answer curt, before grabbing the lukewarm bottle of Weaver's Works that the bartender had sat on the bar's surface and taking a rough swig. It was as bitter as always. "I'm only here to buy some of the goods that you can only get up here during big celebrations. A friend of mine told me this 'Aeterna's Harvest' is a goldmine for interesting trinkets and rare ingredients."
"Well, you're not going to get anything from any of these good Ataran folk if ye don't know anything about their culture, lad. Way I see it is yer just another one of them tourists who come here ta' watch the festivities an' then fuck off when it's all done with. What's yer name, traveller?"
"It's Mannus. Mannus Nye." Mannus swallows thickly, his brow furrowing at the barkeep's comments, but as he went to rebut the claims made against him, he found that his defensive ammunition was lacking.
"Mannus, huh? Not heard a name like that fer a while. The name's Thee Sekiel, and out o' the goodness o' my heart, I'm gonna give ye a lesson on Aeterna's Harvest so ye don't look like a bumblin' idiot like you do right now," Thee clicks his fingers for a moment before continuing his speech. "So, as I assume ye know Atara is one of the more recent city's ta' have that rapid growth that we're seein' so frequently in the Xia empire recently. This is because o' the new king - I'm foggy on the details myself but it seems like King Bradley has some sort o' blessing from the goddess Aeterna that has brought just about everythin' that a society could need to function without him really doin' much more than just sittin' there and barking instructions at people."
Mannus wasn't sure how long this lecture was going to go on for, but he resigned himself to listening and simply slid another half-plute across the table - he was going to need another drink for this.
"Here ye go lad," A brief moment of respite was given as the bartender reached down for another bottle of ale, sliding it casually across the counter into Mannus' hand. "Anyway, it seems Aeterna is a pretty attention-seekin' deity, 'cause we hold this big celebration for her every year in honour of her contributions to helpin' Atara grow. Now whether that's what Aeterna wants is up fer question, I guess. King Bradley has always seemed to be a fan of throwin' extravagant shit. They're probably drinkin' and eating till their stomachs are full in the interior as we speak."
"Thanks for the lesson, Mr Sekiel - you've been a great help." Gulping down his drink, Mannus had heard enough of the lecture for now. The tepid ale was soon drained from its bottle. The customer gave a pleasant exhale after finishing the drink, then wiped away the leftover foam from around his lips before standing up and leaving.
The evening air was cool and forgiving against his skin - it gave him a few moments to reflect on the events of his day: his meeting with the strange drunkard and the legendary Maidknight, the odd object he found, and his meeting with a bartender with a penchant for teaching. His eyes looked up to the clouds. It seemed as though the sky was getting darker. And darker. What was that pain? Where was it coming from?
In that moment, Mannus Nye's world faded to black.