The tavern Mairek stepped into was by far the dingiest place in the whole of Central Talisi. Where other buildings boasted blocks of chiseled stone, crafted to show Talisi heritage, the tavern was crafted entirely of wood. Rotting, creaking wood whose color made one think of a bog. And Mairek hesitated as he took several steps into the tavern, each step answered by the creaking of the floorboards in warning of immediate collapse if he continued on his chosen path. The smell wafting through the cramped room was one of wangi, vomit, sweaty unwashed bodies and stale ale.

  The inhabitants of the tavern were no doubt the bottom barrel of the Talisi society. Hideous whores with tattered gowns long out of fashion stood perched along the wooden tavern walls in various poses aimed at ensnaring the eye of the revelers. The revelers themselves were fixed around the dozen or so tables whose painted color had faded to a dull grey, heads dipped into mugs of ale. Some had vomited and passed out on the tables, breath bubbling upon their vomit. One man had passed out on the floor of the tavern, the stench coming off him was proof that he'd soiled himself.

  The barman stood at the far end, at the counter, brown apron that was once white hang loosely over his bony frame. Mairek made his way to him and his bodyguards followed.

  "I dare say when I suggested you use your abilities to enjoy yourself, I did not have this in mind." Afur said.

  "There's no pleasure here, or enjoyment or ecstasy." Sagal added.

  "There's probably cock rot, brew poisoning, the runny shits and skin disease." Lam said.

  "I dare say, this is quite an odd place. Mairek." Tok said while deftly stepping over another man sprawled on the tavern floor.

  "It's here." Mairek said as he approached the barman. "I saw the spark here."

  "Spark?" Lam asked.

  "What will you have?" The barman asked Mairek, his eyes turning to the men cresting around him.

  "What's there to have?" Mairek asked.

  The barkeep spat into a mug of ale and started wiping it with a cloth that was just as dirty as his apron. "The cheap stuff costs a single bronze gorrent, the expensive stuff costs three bronze gorrents."

  "What would a gold vigon get me?" Mairek asked. Every head turned to him, the whores, the revelers, even those who'd passed out lifted themselves at the word 'gold vigon.'

  The barman gave a toothy grin, revealing rotting teeth the hue of his apron. "By the Gods, with a gold vigon you'll have all the ale in the tavern, all the whores and my arse served to you on a platter." And he winked at Mairek.

  Afur shoved Lam forward. "He might pay quite a hefty fee for your arse, Mr. Barkeep Sir." Lam's hand twitched, nearly reaching for the pommel of his sword.

  Mairek pressed on. "Is there anything of interest that will happen within this tavern?"

  "What do you mean?" The barkeep cocked a questioning brow above a pupil void of white.

  Mairek struggled to explain what he'd seen. A beginning and an end with the same intensity, same feeling of intense emotion throughout, an emotion akin to... Passion. "You know, something special."

  "Aye. I understand." The barman said with a toothy grin. He turned to the whores lining the tavern. "Hey Jemima! This here lad wants the special thing."

  Jemima, a woman with a bust half Mairek's weight stepped free of the wall. A dress she must have been gifted as a child was cut low over her crotch and Mairek heard Afur whisper. "She's beautiful."

  "The special treatment? That'll cost him a silver lesos." Jemima said, a voice quite husky from wangi.

  "What is the special treatment?" Mairek ventured.

  "I will shit on you as we fuck." Jemima said.

  Sagal started laughing. "Yeah Mairek, that's the special treatment."

  The whore moved forward. "You're a little young though, been a while since youth was beneath me. I can do it for half the fee." Mairek swallowed and struggled not to bolt.

  Tok decidedly came to Mairek's rescue. Turning to the barman he said. "We'll have the good ale, five jugs please." From a porch Mairek hadn't seen, Tok took out a silver lesos and handed it to the barman who accepted it with trembling hands as if he held something holy.

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  They were ushered to an empty table at the center of the room, far from the whores on either side who were eyeing them as vultures would dying prey. Afur settled down and took the jug placed before him by a scantily dressed waitress who had a mole the size of a rat on her left cheek.

  Afur lowered his jug of ale, beard dripping the brown liquid onto the table. Afur peered at the jug with beady eyes, contemplating. Mairek raised the ale jug to his lips, holding it with both hands and topping his head back. It tasted just as it looked, like horse piss. He struggled not to wretch lest he shame himself before the men who took easily to the drink.

  "Tok."Afur started.

  "No." Tok said.

  "But you haven't even heard—"

  "I said no."

  "She's the one, Tok, would you rob me of the pleasure of an eternity of love?"

  "I'm not paying to get you shat on by a whore."

  Afur leaned back in his rickety chair, a look of disappointment etched on his face. Mairek looked over at Lam and found his jug half empty, he did not recall seeing him drink. He took several gulps of the ale so as not to be outdone. That's when he felt the warm fuzz spread over him. Everything started moving so slow and there was a sheen of light blue color wrapped over everything.

  "Mairek," Lam started, swirling the ale in the jug. "Why did you bring us here?"

  "I've come here because time dictates there would be an event." Mairek answered.

  "What's the event?"

  "I don't know."

  They each took another mouthful from the jugs of ale. Mairek looked fascinated as his eyes scanned the room, the blue concentric webs spreading over everything felt real. He reached out and touched the one spread over the table and was ensnared by the tale of time told. He found himself lost in the design of the table, seeing the shoot develop into a tree that would be cut for the wood to fashion the table. Seeing the carpenter who'd shaped the wood, from his birth until the moment when he set his hands on the table, putting hammer to nail. Observing the mining of the iron used to fashion the nails on the table—

  With difficulty, he withdrew his hand from the strand of blue upon the table. To reach for it with intent would be to summon the origin and conclusion of time, an endless spiral that might have him losing his mind, trapped in an endless continuation of moments. But to touch the threads with no intent resulted in nothing.

  "Gods, it's like he is in love with it." Lam said. Mairek raised his head and found everyone at the table staring at him.

  "You just wish he'd touch you like that, don't you Lam?" Afur said while pointing at Lam. Before Lam answered a young man with a cleanly shaved face and long white hair falling to his shoulders placed himself on the edge of the table, close to Lam, looking down at him as an urchin would a bit of cake.

  "I hear your interests lie the other way." The young lad started in a voice like pouring honey. "For ten bronze gorrents I can take you to *Tabrimas.*" He crossed his legs, enclosed in tight cream breeches with holes at the thighs. "Come on sssssugar." He dragged the letter with need.

  "I respect you, sir, and your sexual preference. But I am not gay, never have been gay, never will be... " Mairek turned his head from Lam and his detailed explanation about how there's been a terrible misunderstanding. He observed the solitary wooden door they'd crossed to enter the Gods forsaken tavern. If what was to happen would occur, then it's through that door that convergence would occur.

  How he wished the moment would come. The warmth from the drink was oddly pleasant, he'd been drunk before from his father's cask of fermented brew, but back then all he'd gotten from the experience was a thorough beating that soiled whatever feeling inebriation brought.

  How he wished the moment would occur. He wished he could spur time into action, for inaction threatened to fling him into boredom. I wish I could raise a hand and snap my fingers to bend time to my will. And he raised his hand, middle finger to thumb, observed the door into the tavern. And snapped.

  In the same instant a woman stepped in, dressed in baggy clothes akin to that of a man. A sight quite unfamiliar in Talisi where the line between the genders was quite clearly drawn. The blue sheen spread over everything was brilliant upon her, dazzling, iridescent. It touched on her brown coat, two sizes too large for her and Mairek saw that the original color of the cloth was beige. Her breeches were worn, torn at the knee revealing a patch of dark skin. Necklaces fashioned from wood and marked with runes on each bead dangled from her neck and collected over her moderate bust above a wine stained shirt. Her fingers had wooden rings tied to them and her hair, white as snow, framed her face in curly strands that would make a noble woman envious.

  But her face, heart shaped. Eyes the color of a field of grass beneath the sunlight. A pristine nose, not too sharp, not too flat. Lips that would have passed as small but their shape, as if curved by a master craftsman, rendered small the last thing one thought of as you observed her mouth.

  She walked like a lad who'd seen several wars, a bounce in her step. A lazy swing of the arm that spoke of confidence. When those within the tavern noticed her arrival, they lifted themselves free of their drunken haze, the whores pointed at her with smiles on their faces. The men raised their mugs and jugs of ale and the same word was repeated over and over. "Saive."

  Mairek's eyes stayed trained on her, watching as she passed each table. Slapping backs and patting shoulders. Exchanging a joke or two and giving a lilting laugh that the revelers reveled in. It was her, he had no doubt, she was the reason why he was here. But why?

  Mairek raised his hand, and snapped his fingers once more. She abruptly turned to him, looked directly at him as if the sound of the snap was a tag on her puppet strings. She made her way towards him, deftly maneuvering her way through the passed out men on the ground and the closely pressed tables. She came to a stop beside him, looked down at him. Mairek noticed a scar running down one side of her cheek, faded with time. He saw that her lip had been recently split, only now fully mended. The end of her hair on one side was stained brown, as if it had never seen a wash in three moons.

  "You have a face only a mother could love." Saive said and took a hold of the jug in Mairek's hand. She lifted it to her mouth and drunk like a sailor, emptying it all and as she drunk those in the tavern cheered. She brought down the jug hard upon the table, rewarded Mairek with a wink and walked with a sure stride towards the barman.

  "You're just going to allow her to take your drink like that?" Afur spoke, a slight slur to his words. "She must pay for it! Mairek, if not with money then with oral gratification."

  "Hush, Afur, this might be the moment Mairek was waiting for." Tok said, earning a laugh from the other bodyguards.

  Mairek observed as the woman received several bronze gorrents from the barman, she rewarded him with a toothy smile and made her way to the nearest table which she expertly climbed on top of. She then raised her hands for silence and it was given. Turning her head to survey her merry party, she spoke, voice carrying out into each corner of the room, touching the ceiling rafters and drawing Mairek in deeper than he thought possible.

  "You all know me!" She called out.

  "I don't!" Afur called back.

  "My name is Saive, out in these streets, I'm known as the Siren." She answered, pointedly facing Mairek's table.

  "My name is Afur, out in these streets they call me Afur, but my Ma' used to call me Piggy on account of the fact that I was born in a pigsty."

  "Best shut the fuck up Piggy before the butcher come calling." Saive said and was answered by cheers and laughter. Seeing Afur's silence, she continued. "This here is a song I came up with last night as this guy called Tutsie was eating me out from behind." The whores cheered. "Tutsie got a cock the size of a shrimp and a tongue the size of a Telinete rhino's." Laughter from the drunks. "I hope you like it, and if you don't?"

  "Tip the Siren a drink until she can sing no more!" They all answered in unison.

  And then she started singing, and the spark lit before Mairek's eyes and the blue sheen over everything... Exploded!

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