Chapter 274: Chapter Two Hundred Seventy Five

After we left the casino, Abel and Mel brought us deeper into  Doomtown. In the inner reaches of the city, the lights weren't quite as  red, bleached out by streetlamps glowing a blinding white. I noticed as  we walked that the place seemed much more relaxed here. Not completely  safe, but at the very least people seemed less likely to jump and kill  us. I was so surprised by the shift in atmosphere I had to bring it up.  "What's the deal with this place? It seems so much quieter and more  restful than the rest of the town."

Abel chuckled. "This  is Sunshine boulevard. It's...not exactly a neutral zone, but open  conflict is discouraged. Be careful of eating anything you didn't see  prepared in front of you, but you're not likely to get stabbed from  behind. Even the outsiders probably won't start anything direct here. Of  course, there are stealthier methods of killing and those are still  more than possible, but there's far less benefit to that unless you  build a rep for it over time. This is one of the few places where it's  safe to sleep down here."

That was something I'd been  wondering about. "So we're staying down here for the whole two weeks?  Admittedly walking back up those damn tunnels every night sounds  annoying. Do you guys have some old friend around here we can stay with  or something?" I gestured behind me to where Sloane was leading the  Beast Lord crew. "Because I'll be honest, I don't think we're going to  fit in someone's spare room."

"Not at all." Said Mel. "We  don't really know anyone who hangs out in places like Sunshine  Boulevard. We DO know of a pretty reputable inn around here though. Even  we need somewhere to sleep. We never spent enough time here to get to  know the owners or anything, but the Blue Robin Tavern has rooms for  rent and is pretty much the closest thing to guaranteed safety in  Doomtown."

The dark stone buildings were the same design  as the rest of the town as we walked, but the change in lighting made  them seem much different. The red lighting had given the buildings a  squat, devilish appearance, but in the much lighter (albeit still pink  tinged) light from the mixed streetlights and overhead illumination of  the city, the stone seemed sturdy and reliable, and all the buildings  seemed just a bit taller, even if I knew they weren't.

What  was more, as we walked down Sunshine Boulevard I could see bright green  ivy climbing up the stone walls, artfully spread across the outside of  the buildings in beautiful patterns that I was positive weren't natural.  Callie smiled happily at the relaxing view and leaned against me,  seemingly losing herself in the laid back atmosphere. Despite that I  could feel just a bit of tension in her shoulder where it pressed  against my side. She might seem relaxed but she was smarter than to let  her guard down completely here.

After walking for about  twenty minutes we stopped at a building that looked similar to but not  exactly like the others. It was made of the same black stone, and had  the same ivy, but it was much larger than any of the nearby structures.  At two stories and twice as wide the Blue Robin Inn (there was a sign  above the front door) stood out starkly from everything around it. The  owners had clearly put a lot of time and effort into building it up.

Abel  clicked his tongue. "Ugh. It's all boring and idyllic. I forgot how  lame this place was. Aside from someone trying to slip me shadeviper  venom in a glass of beer once I've never had any fun at this place. They  even cook the food right in front of you so people don't have to worry  as much."

Patting him on the shoulder, Mel said gently.  "Yes, but most people like that sweetie. Besides, don't pretend you  never enjoy any downtime, you ran that sausage cart for years, are you  telling me you got regular assassination attempts on you during that  whole time?"

"Well no." Complained Abel. "But that's not  the same. This is Doomtown. It's like going to an amusement park and not  getting on the rides. Attempted murder is part of the fun. I'm not here  for a peaceful meal and a nice rest." He sighed. "Still, I guess the  kids could use the break." He turned to us. "Plus this place is a great  location to farm intel. People come from all over Doomtown to stay here,  so it's got a good cross section of potential sources."

Callie  perked up a bit at that, but I was pretty ambivalent. I was getting  bored with constantly trying to squeeze information out of everyone. I  knew it was important, but it just didn't really amuse me much. "Do they  have anything interesting to do here?" I knew fighting was a no go, but  there had to be SOME form of entertainment.

"Of course."  Mel said reassuringly. "Don't listen to him. Even I'm not as battle  crazy as he is. There are a bunch of things to do. They even have a  special pool table that weights your stats a lot like our obstacle  course. Beating more powerful Ascendants is always fun. You can bet on  the outcomes but you don't have to."

That DID sound like  fun actually. I had enjoyed playing pool sometimes as a mortal, though I  hadn't been in ages. It made me think of Benny. His dad and grandfather  both played when they were young and he was kind of raised to it. I  went with him and his father a few times and I'd really enjoyed it.  "Sounds like a blast. I'll give it a try when we get in there." I  glanced at Callie. "Want to try a game?"

She shook her  head. "Nah. I want to ask around about some of the local players more.  You go ahead, we can meet up go get something to eat after." I shrugged.  That was fair. We spent a lot of time together but it wasn't like we  were attached at the hip. I could find someone else to play a game with.

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I  turned to Abel. "You down for a game of pool? If you're going to sit  around and sulk about not fighting anyway might as well enjoy yourself  while you're at it."

"That doesn't sound too bad." He  mused aloud. "I don't hate EVERYTHING about this place. The food and  drink is solid. You can even get Moontear Brandy here. Granted, it's  stupid expensive, but it's just about the best F-rank drink you can find  on Callus. I haven't had any in ages." He shot Mel a pleading glance.  "You think I could get the kid a glass of the good stuff? To celebrate  how far he's gotten in training."

Mel's voice as she  responded was icy. "No, Abel. You can not buy yourself and one of our  students a snifter of brandy that costs eight E-ranked chits per glass.  We'd have to clean out the whole pavilion. If it wasn't so expensive,  why do you think the Robin would still have that bottle after all these  years? You're the only person I've heard of crazy enough to buy a glass  of it."

"It's not like I didn't share." Sulked Abel. "I  let you have a sip didn't I?" Despite his tone, my brain was still  frozen on the price. I'd bought a fucking CAR that could FLY for less  than an F-ranked chit. In fact, I had very little understanding of what  Ascendant money was actually worth. I mean, I knew each level of chit  was worth ten times the lower levels, but I hadn't really seen much  about what that entailed.

I should probably get a better  grip on how the economy worked given my position of power in the  Pavilion. Sure, I had other people for that, but it wasn't like I would  always have people like Mel around. The prices for things as far as I'd  seen were pretty arbitrary, but a lot of that could be explained by  massive variance in quality of goods and materials. I'd have to look  into what a standard unit of currency even was. My massive windfalls and  quick jumps between ranks had kind of skewed my understanding of how  money worked.

Despite his obvious unhappiness Abel didn't  dwell on things. He strolled up to the Blue Robin's front in and rapped  on it a few times. The door opened to show a squat, dark skinned man  with broad shoulders and blonde hair, a permanent scowl etched on his  features. "Why are there so many of ye?" He said, in a thick accent that  reminded me quite a bit of Alden. "We don't have the rooms for ye each  to get one."

His steel grey eyes bored into us harshly, as  if we were offending him by even standing here when there were clearly  too many of us. Mel put up both hands placatingly. "Not a problem. We  only need..." She turned to look at us. "Four?" Sloane nodded,  unbothered by sharing a room with some of her initiates. We obviously  wouldn't stuff twelve people in a room together, but six was less of a  problem. "Yeah, we'll take four rooms. Do you have enough openings?"

The  scowling man narrowed his eyes like he thought she was trying to trick  her way past, but slowly turned his gaze to the side, clearly reading  something. "Aye." He said grudgingly. "We can accommodate ye for four  rooms. We're close to capacity, but we have that many rooms. I'll remind  ye that this is a neutral location and that troublemakers will be  punished. We have an F-ranker standing watch, so no funny business. We  have enough trouble with some of the outsiders here for that blasted  tournament."

We  all gave serious nods and the man stared hard at us for a minute before  stepping back, opening the door. Once we were inside Abel leaned in to  murmur to Mel. "Wow. This place is way less friendly than I remember.  Last time we were here they had a pixie at the door. She was much more  welcoming."

The  small, broad shouldered man spun and smacked a palm into the wall. "No  complaining! Or ye'll sleep on the street!" Abel shut up, but not  without a quiet snicker that I was sure the man had heard. Still, my  teacher wasn't wrong, this guy wasn't exactly a customer service elite.

Once  we were inside we split up. Abel and I headed for the pool table,  Callie and Mel for the bar, Sloane to figure out the distribution of  rooms for her crew. I was happy to see that they had a nice selection of  custom cues available to use, and all of them seemed incredibly sturdy  and well made. Sure enough though, as soon as we picked them up, we felt  ourselves become restricted, our bodies and minds slowing down to  nearly mortal levels. I knew our Impact would remain untouched, it took  more than some random table to suppress that stat, so we weren't in any  danger, this would just make the game more fair.

There  was a sign up sheet to one side of the table with some names I couldn't  read on it, and we wrote ours down. We were signed up for a game of  doubles since the place was so busy, single player games were scheduled  for later in the night. We wouldn't get to play against each other but  that was fine, this was mostly just for amusement and to kill time. When  we arrived at the table though, I froze in place, a familiar pair of  amber eyes meeting mine from across the surface. "Well." Said Wren, of  the Spear Legion. "This is certainly a quicker meeting than I was  expecting. Do you think this counts as a rematch?"

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