Chapter 4: An Infernal Comedy

Dante was born to a loving mother with little means and a father she always claimed died in the last war. Dante had heard the rumours - that he was the bastard of the local lord. Heard them and dismissed them, he was content to believe his mother’s story.

Growing up, he was regarded as a good if naive boy, he wasn’t, he just chose to see the best in people. It was what his mother had taught him after all.

He had always shown an interest in music so when it came time for him to apprentice or study, his mother insisted he join the Bard’s college. Fearing that she wouldn’t have enough to feed herself, he agreed - so long as he could be permitted to work at the local tavern.

The Inn keep was a grumpy man at the best of times. Dante understood, it was a very busy tavern of course he was stressed.

He understood when he was short on his pay, the old man had a family to feed after all.

He understood when the other serving staff insisted he cleaned the latrines and dealt with the more rowdy customers, no one wanted to do those jobs so if he did it he could help the others and maybe they’d want to befriend him. Perhaps he was naive.

He understood when he ended up working the longest hours, always preparing before the day shift and cleaning in the nights. Even though it meant he was never awake enough for his classes and didn't have the time to practise.

The others were also studying, mainly with the banker's guild and he would never wish for anyone's money to be mishandled, their explanation made sense.

One day the lord came down from his manor to drink and eat with his knights. The man had the same shiny brown hair and blue eyes as he. For the first time in his life, Dante was tempted. The lord's hog was sitting on the side, freshly roasted, he could take it to him and meet him face to face.

He quelled the temptation, he smelled of human effluent after cleaning the latrines.

Barry, another of the staff, was supposed to be the only one serving the lord, he was the son of a wealthy merchant and had the correct attire. Besides, the lord was a busy man and he rarely got the time to relax with his knights; Dante would only get in the way of that.

At the end of the night the boss berated Barry for taking too long to serve the lord and he pointed the finger at Dante. He was beaten so badly that he dared not return home for two days as he did not wish to scare his mother.

His pay was also docked, but he understood.

As it turned out, he had very little talent with the lute and even less with lyrics, his words were never embellished and he could never lie.

In need of extra money Dante started spending his day off in the town square, busking. His tunes were awful but the songs always had a positive outlook, only ever knowing this town he wrote about local characters and strictly events he had witnessed personally.

The music combined with his cheery disposition made people believe he was mocking them, which only made his act more successful. The crowd would jeer and laugh in equal measure. More and more would show up each week until it became a local tradition.

One day, when Dante was running low on material, Barry approached him with his entrepreneurial might on full display. He was selling clothes with Dante’s best lines embroidered upon them. He asked Dante to write a song about his father’s main competition. He was offered gold in exchange. He was sorely tempted but he restrained his desires. Dante had never met the man, the Banker never went to the tavern so he would have no stories to tell about him.

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Soon after, he ran out of songs about the locals and turned his focus towards the beauty found in nature. To the townsfolk this meant he now only played bad songs.

People came to him asking for refunds for the merchandise Barry had sold under his name. The stitching was awful and the material itchy. He did his best to give what he could to the aggrieved people but he had very little. Soon he was chased from the square and banned from playing.

Not long after, his mother fell ill, they needed all their money for her treatment but it still wasn’t enough. He had to drop out of the Bard’s college. Her illness got so severe she was too weak to feed herself.

One night, while working at the tavern, some rough looking men invited him over to their table to offer him a deal. They knew he needed money and only wanted a small favour in return. The men said he should stand watch at an alley beside the bank. When he asked why; they only laughed, but when he pressed they confirmed they intended to rob the bank.

Dante was more tempted than he had ever been before but still he had to refuse. His mother believed that people should do all that they can to help others, stealing from the bank would hurt the whole town. He wouldn’t tell anyone about their plan as they had tried to help him.

After work that day a sack was put over his head and he was knocked out. He awoke on the floor in an alley, guards were swarming and men screaming. The next thing he knew he had been arrested as an accessory to robbery. Dante’s trial was swift. He had written a song about the Judge’s exploits at the tavern. A patron had overheard his conversation with the thugs and said he agreed to their plan. None of the other men had been caught so the town needed a scapegoat. He was sentenced to three years in the mines.

Dante spent his time trying to help the other inmates and just ended up their lackey. When he was released, he returned home. In his mothers bed lay a bone thin corpse.

Since she had birthed out of wedlock she was always an outcast.

No one had visited her, she had died sick, starving, and alone.

For the first time he could no longer see the best in this town, but still he held to his mothers values. He would do his best to help others, just not here.

He left the same day with nothing but his lute, for the frontier.

There was constant danger near the Wilds so he hoped to bring a smile to those people, as he once had at home, with his music.

He was still a terrible bard with little Charisma, he soon went hungry.

One day he found a man alone, lying in the road. Dante rushed to his aid, turning him on his side and seeing if he was still breathing. As he did so a jingle came from a full purse on the man’s waist. Dante’s rumbling stomach tempted him to take it but this man's life came first.

He was indeed alive, if barely, and moving him had awoken the man. In a weak voice he begged that Dante take his coin. He told the young man that his family, who lived in the next town, were wicked. They would only waste it. Also the dying man told him that there was a conspiracy against him, that the squirrels were involved and a thousand other strange things.

Still, Dante listened attentively to every word as the man grew weaker and weaker. Waiting until the man slipped into the night, he carried his remains to the next town, hoping it might bring closure to his family.

He was stopped at the gate by two guards. Seeing all too well where this would go, he gently rested the man down on the ground before running off into the night.

It wasn’t until he entered a fort village on the farthest edge of the frontier that Dante realised he still had the man’s purse. Entering the small tavern there he bought some gruel, with his own meagre savings and resolved to use the money to help as many people as he could.

Dante asked at the bar if there was anyone in dire need of money. Many of the patrons looked eager but changed their tunes as the most beautiful woman Dante had ever seen approached him.

She was barely dressed in red frills which contrasted her porcelain skin. She pouted and clung to his arm as she explained that she was being threatened by some scary men who demanded she pay a debt she didn’t owe.

She asked if a big strong man, such as himself, could possibly help her. Her touch sent shivers down his spine and her breath in his ear sent them back up again. He was tempted in a whole new way. With great reluctance, he asked that she remove herself from him. Her face blushed in anger disguised as embarrassment. The woman was surprised when Dante still agreed to help her.

Following the now icy woman through the darker places in the slums, she indicated two men at the end of a dead-end road.

As soon as he entered the alley two other burly men appeared behind them, she dropped the act and told Dante that she had intended to rob him. However since he had offended her beauty he must die, taking a knife from one of the men, quicker than Dante could blink she stabbed him straight through the heart.

Looking upon her twisted grin he knew he should pity the woman but something in him seethed. Falling to the ground, screams rang out all around the fort. The last thing he saw was a wave of zombies attacking his killers and for once he gave into the temptation and smiled as they were torn apart before him.

And thus ends Dante Ghibellines, a name that, with his last breath, he took from his father.