Barogey Ushilgi was perched comfortably at the bar table of the Broom and Beer tavern. In his hands rested a toasted club sandwich, its layers of rotisserie chicken and spicy mayo gleaming invitingly. He was dressed in a blue-and-white striped button-up shirt, complemented by a green bow tie, all beneath a pair of well-worn blue coveralls. Round, silver-tinted glasses framed his face, while his head shone like a polished, greasy dome under the tavern's dim light. A neatly trimmed black chevron mustache adorned his upper lip, and with each deliberate bite of his sandwich, he paused to dab it clean with a handkerchief.
Around the tavern was a muddled gathering of people—mostly gnomes, along with a scattering of displaced refugees like Birdfolk and forest Elves. They had once lived in the forests lining the banks of the Kernel Strait. But when war broke out, the military forced the rural inhabitants to relocate downstream. Tabnoth, an island at the river's mouth, had once served as the trade hub of an ancient merfolk kingdom, long before it was swallowed by the ocean's rise.
As Barogey finished his sandwich, he heard footsteps descending the stairs.
"What a waste of time. So much for 'all-seeing psychic.' I could've gotten the same advice from a hairdresser," Dacarly huffed, her heels clacking against the steps. "I mean, seriously, the idea of hiring some rogue group of stateless mercenaries irks me," she added, flicking her blonde hair out of her face.
Most of what Dacarly said barely registered with Barogey—it wasn't anything he hadn't heard before. But the word stateless hit him like a punch to the gut. Barogey was, in fact, now stateless himself, and if he wanted any kind of future, he needed to escape Tabnoth and find a nation to call his own. The first place that came to mind was Vistor.
With that thought heavy in his mind, Barogey got up from his chair and waddled out of the barroom, trailing after Dacarly and her mother.
Dacarly first helped her mother into the carriage waiting outside before stepping into it.