‘You don’t even know the Garrison Commander?’

Nodding her head towards the waiter, another cup of purified water with a small amount of spirits mixed in for flavour was put in front of Carissa. She raised the cup towards her now best friend Glauglau, or Glau as she had requested to be called.

In between them lay an encrusted wooden table, thick with salt. The room around them busy as voices inside the drinking hole chatted easily, the air tasted wet to the lips of Carissa. Even here she wouldn’t escape the presence of the humidity in the air.

Wooden floors and walls, decorated with seashells and skeletons of various sea creatures littered the inside of the small tavern. Glau had brought both of them there using several side alley routes and despite being lost Carissa was enjoying the moment of frivolity where she was in a mock chase with the gate guards.

Oddly there had still been no prompts from the ocean gateway system, not a single one. Lost in her own thoughts she barely noticed that Glau had already responded to her question.

‘No, blessed one. I don’t even know the colour of their hair. Not even down below. We have no ac-quittance. I lied, it worked. The guard was humiliated as per your request blessed.’

Carissa took a deep drink of the purified water, it tasted fresh, far more than anything that the survivors had been provided with during their starter initiations.The fights that broke out over a resource essential to living seemed a past away now.

More than a few of those inflatable boats had sank when disagreements had broken out, the survivors either trying to build their own flotation devices or swim to other boats, hoping for a literal life-line. In comparison the people in this place had an easy time of it, they drank to how much they could afford and lived inside a secure location.

‘This water, it tastes pretty good. What do you call it?’

‘Rain piss.’

Almost spitting out, Carissa stared at the so-called priestess opposite her. She had retrieved her robe and recovered her body, the only parts of her skin showing was her hands, face and feet. Her head had been covered once more, but not a bad idea when you had just caused an altercation for gate guards who had once been players.

‘Rain piss?’

‘Yes Lady Carissa.’

‘I know that you have a sharp side to you Glauglau but it’s a pretty strong name for a drink. Who calls it rain piss?’

‘The gods named it themselves blessed one, I heard a tale that one of the original foreign players said that rain was the gods relieving themselves. The god of this settlement heard it and then dictated that all drinks in the city would be called rain piss. Please call me Glau blessed one, I am here to support and serve you during your time in the city.’

Noting that Glauglau, sorry, Glau, didn’t have a cup in front of her she decided to signal the waiter to get her a drink.

‘I don’t have a great deal of money or barter for trade so I’m not sure how much a drink costs but I should have enough to buy you a cup or two of rain piss. How does that sound?’

Glau raised her head from the depths of her hood and folding her legs placed her hands on her lap. She spoke sweetly with a kindly tone. The clothing that Glauglau wore had shifted, it’s colours more diminished when they had entered their present drinking hole. The shine of scales replaced with a duller sheen, her hands and feet remained bare with the same tint of blue.

‘Blessed one. Do you really think that any normal person is going to want to drink something called rain piss? Only newly arrived players choose it. The gods only let them to drink the holy water.’

Glau looked towards the waiter standing to take her order. He held out a menu carved onto a strong semi-transparent rectangular piece of plastic which gave a few items and listed prices beneath. Under snacks Carissa noted a particular delicacy which she would enjoy trying.

‘I’ll take a purified glass of number six. Eyeballs as well please. Another glass of your finest rain piss please for the player here.’

Stretching out in the remains of her black watertight skin suit Carissa smiled back at the waiter, he was cute in a rough way. Not handsome but more worn down by the age of time and the oceans to a pure type of plainness. She held out her now empty cup and he took it from her hand onto a tray.

‘Mixed eyeballs for me as well thanks. A bowl of them, she’s paying.’

She would need to tread a little more carefully here, the guards at the gate had called Glau a religious nut and then an NPC. Her experience with them had ranged from undead pirates, to fake rescuers and crazy old loners living inside lighthouses. None of them had been friendly or approachable, as it was she was sure that they were either partial constructs or altered to fit the setting.

‘Glau, be clear with me. Why do you keep calling me blessed one and then tell me that you’re here to provide assistance for me? The guards called you an en-pee-cee. Also, why isn’t the Ocean Gateway system operating right now?’

Her body language firmed up and Carissa saw the blue tinted face of Glau tense up as she took a breath and released it from the side of her mouth.

‘Lady Carissa, do you know there are several types of people who live in this world? I know what you call en-pee-sees. They are artificial things, broken people who gave up. Even worse than those ex-players at the entrance guardhouse. They can work and make their own choices, as you saw from the one with the softness below. The Gateway System…is relaxed when new players enter their first city. I would not question the rules of the Ocean Lords.’

‘Fine, you don’t need to explain further. Tell me then. I’m expecting this to be a standard scripted encounter as designed by a playwright, you turn up, rescue me and then I’m expected to follow to your temple and be given a quest or a mission by your head priest. Then the temple of your god asks for my allegiance or gifts me an item of value. Burned irrelevant missions.’

The waiter had turned up with one tall glass filled with a deep green-blue liquid and an eyeball of a sea creature skewered onto a stick reaching out of the top. He placed it onto the wooden table before a medium sized wooden bowl clunked down onto the surface.

Filled with eyeballs of various shapes and sizes, a few Carissa recognised as belonging to fish, one from an octopus but mostly she was unsure. None human though, so she hadn’t entered a cannibal bar by mistake. She ought to ask Glau to bare her teeth to see if they had been sharpened to points. Always a tell-tale sign according to the stories, also best not to accept any snacks from her.

Carissa needed to make sure that her protein came form purer sources. Human or otherwise. Diseased meat and blood wouldn’t help her healing process.

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‘Blessed one, try an eyeball. They’re nutritious and you need sufficient time to recover from your ordeals in the early trials.’

Smiling back, Carissa grabbed a handful of eyeballs from the bowl popping one into her mouth and letting it pop under her own sharpened teeth feeling the juice and water flow down into her stomach. She was pained, her body needed more than this to regain her drained energy reserves. Another reason to be on her guard.

‘Glau, I need meat. Protein, not only drinks but these are a decent appetizer.’ said Carissa.

Sipping from her drink, Glau used the eyeball on the stick to stir up the bluish liquid as it shifted in colour to a deeper red. She paused before she answered Carissa.

‘Mmm. Certainly blessed one, you have questions and want answers but I need something from you first. I have freely given you help, taken you to a place of respite and shown my own patience towards you. A trial of sorts, and you’ll face no threats nor additional quests. Why, you’ll even get your taste of meat, fresh from the waters of the world.’

Nodding her head Carissa took another handful of eyeballs from the bowl, this time she had grabbed a far larger one. Judging from the flat retina and shape this one had come from an octopus.

She took a deep bite from her, this time baring her own genetically altered teeth towards Glau. Her mouth opened wide and she swallowed the eyeball whole, letting it drop into her stomach.

‘Meat. Protein. Anything fresh would do in a pinch.’ said Carissa.

Barely paying attention to whether her words would be paid attention to inside the drinking hole, Carissa opened both her palms and took two large handfuls of the eyes, nearly emptying the wooden bowl and taking further bites until they were finished.

She licked her hands clean and took a deep swill from her drink, finally paying attention to the flavour. In a way it could have passed for a kind of piss, slightly acidic but with a content of alcohol.

‘And I have told you that a small trial is required blessed one to ensure that you are who I have been told. Or are you another player who will quit and work in a worthless job within this city until they die of old age and become chum for the water feeding tanks?’

Baring her teeth, Carissa placed her hands on the table and stood up. Her bag of possessions jangled around her hips. In this new world she had learned to protect herself and part of that came from being wary of new situations. Either face the challenge or walk away and starve. If this Glau proved to be an enemy then she’d act accordingly.

‘I’m not going to to bed with you. Yeah, I’m stressed and seriously in need of relief but I need food, rest and sleep. After that you can ask me. Or you can give me your trial after. Give me a break already, I need to release some tension inside my form. And Matthias, I need to find him.’

Underneath her hood the priestess smiled showing Carissa rows of sharp teeth.

‘Ah, you see blessed one. You have your immediate needs met, for release and protein await you. Please tell me, do you prefer the taste of shark or octopus flesh? They have snacks and some meals provided here yes but I thought you would prefer it a little fresher.’ said Carissa.

Still standing up, her body swaying slightly and this time she was aware that the presence of the other patrons inside the makeshift tavern were paying attention to her form. It seemed to her that true beauty was always appreciated even if it had terrible hair, a torn outfit and lacked sufficient energy. A comb. She wanted a comb for her hair. And a mirror, even a full makeover would be best.

‘You give me a comb, a place to clean myself up, change of clothes and a secure place to sleep that isn’t full of damp and water an I’ll jump into the ocean and catch you a fresh shark if you want.’ said Carissa.

‘We should head to the temple blessed one. This place, it’s not for fresh, young players such as yourself. They often head to the outskirts nearer the entrances to the city for fresh water and relief.’

‘And rain piss.’ added Carissa. ‘The stuff only us new players get to drink.’

‘Yes, Lady Carissa. The new players all drink rain piss without knowing it.’ replied Glauglau.

‘Give them a moment more to see my beauty. They like to look and this time we don’t need to humiliate them too much.’ said Carissa.

Several of the patrons in the bar stopped their conversations mid-sentence and turned to look at the woman that they identified as a new player standing up at her wooden table.

They were even more surprised when she climbed on top of it and stood spreading her arms out in a pose.

‘Take it all in. Closest you’re going to get, and believe me I look even better when I’m cleaned up a little. A shame that I’m taken for today by this lovely priestess standing here.’

The owner at the main bar in the drinking place raised his voice to shout out.

‘LADY! GET OFF THE TABLE! WE DON’T ACCEPT PLAYERS MESSING AROUND HERE! GET OFF MY BAR TABLE!’

‘Nah, ignore him! Nice dancing!’

Carissa failed to notice the priestess take a deep drink of her own tall glass of water, popping the eyeball on the stick into her mouth and enjoying the popping sensation it made before her own teeth. Glau knew that one of the risks that new players faced when they first entered a city like hers was that rain piss was a drink designed by the gods.

A trap was a trap was best set when the prey was unnoticing of the dangers. She had warned Carissa already that it was a drink provided by the gods and only permitted to players. Not that Glau had any wrong intentions for her, the woman was far too soft for her sexual tastes. She preferred her partners a little rougher and hard wearing, a night in her bed would damage the woman. Besides, she was a blessed one and she had been ordered by her god, one of the Ocean Lords, to find her, test her and bring her to the temple.

‘SHUT UP! I LIKE TO DANCE AND THIS TABLE IS MINE NOW! I PAID FOR DRINKS AND EVERYTHING! TELL THEM GLAU!’

The patrons inside the drinking hole who had been cheering on the gyrating Carissa ended their cheering almost immediately.

‘Did she just say Glau? As in Glauglau the heretic priestess?’

‘Nah, but she is nice at dancing. My husband would like to see me like that at home.’

‘Your worthless husband who fishes all day and catches nothing while you drink his profits?’

‘No, she did say Glau. I won’t stand for it. No heretics permitted in my city.’

Hearing her name spoken, Glau pulled on the hood of her robe tightly. She let the colours shift into algae green glint before she grabbed harshly onto the arm of Carissa, almost pulling her straight off the table.

‘Blessed one. We need to leave. Right now.’

‘Nooooo…..I’m having fun. They appreciate my beauty. I could always show them a little more and see if they like it.’

‘Get over here.’

Glau had tolerated the behaviour of this blessed one up to this point but she had needed to do to get her to first drink rain piss. Her own behaviour with the entrance gate guard had been genuine though. He had deserved being humiliated for leering at someone who had been through a severe ordeal to even survive to this point. All these players thought they were special in some way though, they would learn to understand the true nature of the gods who lived in the depths.

‘Heretics. I smell heretics and associates. Glauglau, where are you hiding little fake priestess, host to a fake god?’

A figure rose from a table further away in a back corner of the room. As they arched their back a cracking sound was heard like wooden boats breaking apart on rocks.

Glau took hold off the arm of the now inebriated and drugged Carissa and began to half-drag, half-pull her towards the entrance. She reached under her robes and threw a handful of polished shells with small writings to pay for the drinks and snacks.

‘Wasser. WASSER? Someone knows you Glau? HEY DO YOU KNOW MY NEW BEST FRIEND GLAU?’