The first day was hell.

The sun beat down on my skin, cooking me alive while dirt scratched at my eyes, and my mind wandered about doing this mindless task.

“The next one’s coming down.” With those words, a pipe blocked out the sun, giving me a few seconds of respite. But eventually—

“Grab it now Gregoire!”

Jumping up, I grabbed the scorching hot metal and helped pull down. Pushing it into the nearby pipe it bounced back—

“A finger to the right!” Yelled the supervisor.

God have mercy—I was on the right. Shifting to the side, I grabbed the sharp edge of the pipe and pulled it towards me.

“Now push!”

They didn’t wait for me to let go. Pushing, I barely managed to let go of the thing before my fingers would have been crushed or cut off. This was more dangerous than going dungeon diving.

“Gregoire, you have to untie the chains.”

“Y…Yes.” I don’t know how, but I was on the ground. Thankfully, I didn’t need to get up for this part. Reaching up, I unbuckled the iron chains used to lower the pipes. “Done.”

The guys above pulled. The chain cling-clanged out from below the pipe back up to the surface.

At least we had a five-minute break in between lowering.

“Here, water.” Someone blocked out the sun.

“Thanks…” Wait. It was Richard? “How! What are you doing here?” It had only been four or five days since I’d left the village.

“Thank you,” he said.

“What do you mean thank you? How are you already here? You were drugged, no?”

“Only for a day.”

“Still, what are you doing here, why didn’t you go back to Bayeux?” I couldn’t tell him to his face that I didn’t want to see him.

“Apparently everyone there had been sold to pay for their debts. No one there had a place to go back to.”

“So, they took you guys in as labourers.”

“So it seems, but what are you doing toiling away here?” He asked.

“I…” Didn’t know what to say. “I’m just giving them a hand—”

“Everyone, get back into position!” Yelled the overseer. Tying the water skin around my waist, I went back to my post.

#

It was night, the sun had long set, and I was now sleeping in a bunk bed. The room was filled with twenty other labourers, nearly all snoring away. But even though I was just as beat as them, too many thoughts were clouding my mind.

Stepping out, I raised my arm to the sky and a minute later, Ligothe’s shadow passed in front of the moon. Diving down, he landed on my arm. “How are you doing?” I petted him. He was the only one here for me, but I couldn’t keep him with me. Having the other labourers know, I was a class holder would be too cruel.

To show flaunt something one would never touch… Perhaps that’s why I liked it in the dead-ends. I could only ever see what I could achieve, but now, everything seemed within reach. “Go back and rest,” I told Ligothe.

I couldn’t keep him with me tonight.

He let out a low squeak, begging to stay, but it wouldn’t do. “You can stay with me longer tomorrow, but for tonight go rest, you deserve it.”

Screeching goodbye, Ligothe flew away.

Waiting to see him off, I made my way down the main street. Even though it was nighttime, a few torches were kept lit on the main street and a few others were out taking strolls. A few bars were still open as well, so it wasn’t completely dead. But I wasn’t heading to places like that.

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Eventually, I passed a hole between two buildings, a dishevelled man slept there under ragged clothes. All dead-ends were the same. The same spirit, the same people, the same look, they were all home.

Making sure not to wake him up, I stepped over the homeless man and walked down the cramped side street.

Trash was pilled against the building’s walls, I turned left to follow it, then right, then right again. There I found myself in a street. The homes here were built of old wood, and no torches lit the street. One only had the moonlight to guide them.

I kept walking down this street until I found the only two-story building in this end of town. Peeping out of the wooden shades, candlelight soaked through the wood alongside the strong, yeasty smell of beer.

Pushing open the door, the waves of jeers and celebrations that couldn’t be heard outside exploded.

Every table was filled, and towers of booze overflowed. It would be hard to convince anyone that this was the dead-ends if they weren’t shown outside.

“Hey! A new guy’s here.” Yelled a jolly looking man sitting at a nearby table to the entrance. “Are you part of the new guys they brought from that slave ring!” He laughed and took a gulp from his mug. Smashing it on the table, he burped and whipped his lips. “So.” He burped again. “What’s your thing, we got beer here, up there?” He pointed to a stairway. “We got women, and down below, we got the devil.”

“Gambling?”

“You betcha, there’s some good players here so be careful, I wouldn’t go unless you already filled your stomach. Gotta work if you wanna play, but you can’t work if you play first. Tis hard to get that through to some people tho. So, what’s your deal?”

I didn’t like these places. They weren’t like me. I never enjoyed them too much. They’d know I wasn’t fit for a place like this if I just went in like this. “I’ll take a beer.” I put out a few coppers down.

“A drinker.” The man chuckled, “a bit stiff too, well makes sense you seem like the type to loosen up just enough after a couple mugs. Hey Jerry! This one wants a drink too.”

“Won’t ya calm down a bit, there’s too many new guys here with coins to spend? I can only do so much.”

Looking over to the bartender, he had red hair, just like the man I was sitting next too, and their eyes looked the same. “Are you brothers?” I asked.

“We sure are. Twins, but not perfect twins or whatever. I saw some perfect twins, it’s freaky how much they look the same. It couldn’t be us tho. That guy likes to fuck goats and you can see it.”

“Fuck off Bart, here new guy.” He waved me over. “Come get your beers and scram if you’re going to believe that fucker. He says that because goats won’t even fuck him. Trust me, he’s tried.”

“Now, close that yap—”

There was too much screaming going on, getting up, I ran over to the bar. I couldn’t be sober in a place like this. Chugging half of it down, I barely tasted anything, this was as good as water. I don’t know why I was expecting anything better than a place like this.

“Ay!” Exclaimed the bartender. “Don’t make that face. It ain’t my fault that two barrel full of poor suckers like you rolled into town on the same day. I wouldn’t have enough if I didn’t mix in some water.”

“Then don’t sell it.”

“Ah!” Jerry stopped scrubbing down cups.

“And let everyone go thirsty. Let me tell ya, it’s better that everyone takes a sip then if half take a gulp, I’ll tell ya that much.”

“Whatever.” I downed the rest of the mug and motioned for more. “And I’m not paying more for a refill.”

“Screw off.” The bartender ripped the mug from my hands and filled it up halfway. “And that’s all you’re getting. Oy, Bart, you got his coins?”

“I sure do.”

He handed me my drink. “Here and know that ain’t how you introduce yourself to the only bar in town.”

Taking a sip of my drink, I left after returning his stare. Now that I had some in my system, I headed downstairs.

There, things were a bit different. Instead of the boisterousness above, here things were solemn, quiet, the loudest thing being the dice rolling on the wooden tables.

“Hey, are you going to buy chips?” There was a man dressed in an all-grey tunic behind a tall stand. Standing guard next to him was a large adventurer in nice leather armour.

“I’m not planning on playing. I’m just looking for someone.”

“Unfortunately, you can’t enter without playing, but you can always wait upstairs.”

That wouldn’t do, looking over I tried to find Richard’s head, but with them all seated and lost in the cards and dice—

“Wait outside.” The guard stepped in front of me.

“Fine, I’ll play, now move.” I pulled out three silvers as proof.

“That’s good,” said the clerk, “but we do things slightly differently in the capital.”

“Do I have to pay an entree fee?”

“No, you have to buy chips.” He pulled out five coloured circles. “Each has a value; half copper is yellow, white is a copper, red is five coppers, green is a silver, and a black is a gold.”

What was all this complication, “Why not just use coins?”

“That’s not for me to decide but management.”

Why was he talking like this was a big thing? This place was probably run by a little group like the Triste gang, they seemed to want to act all fancy. I guess that’s what happens when you live in the capital. Even criminals and the poor like to be a bit pretentious. “Here, just give me the equivalent for three silvers.”

The man took the coins, quickly inspecting their authenticity before handing me a box filled with two lines of yellow chips, one of the white chips, and a single red chip. “You said yellow is half a copper, white is one, and red is five, right?” I asked counting my chips to make sure I hadn’t been scammed.

“Yes, and if you leave the room with the chips, you cannot come back to claim your coins.”

It didn’t seem like I had been scammed, but most of the people here didn’t know how to count too well so I doubted they didn’t sometimes skim off the top. Anyhow, I entered the casino.

All the tables were pretty much filled. I didn’t recognize most of these games, but there seemed to be little parchments at the edge of every table with the instructions, but again. Why would they have that, no one here knew how to read well enough to make anything of it?

But before I could ask myself any more questions, I spotted him.

“Richard!”