Returning to the tavern, Miss Nia purchased drinks from the mechanical tubes. Abe pressed his lips against the cold metal and felt a rush of strength as deathly energy poured into him. The effect was greater on Nia, who was weakened in this place. She shuddered and moaned as energy flowed into her veins, immediately remedying her cough.
The effects were enjoyable for Abe, but they seemed intoxicating for Miss Nia. After inhaling several more times, she rented a private room for them to continue enjoying the concentrated energy.
A machine like the ones at the bar sat at its center, and red cushioned sofas wrapped around it.
Kicking off her heels, Nia lay on the sofa and directed Abe to follow. As he sat, she rested her feet across his lap and leaned back with the tube in an intoxicated state as she continued to inhale.
She told stories of her time in service to the late Umbrial Vampir, her sire and tutor. She explained how she was the youngest and weakest of her sisters. She told how they had fought as soldiers in his army when the only vampire to have ever been crowned king, their namesake and Umbrial’s sire, Vampir, died. It was an indecisive war in which none of the great vampires could get ahead. That war resulted in the council, which divided power over Acheron and the vampire-ruled domains. And then she fell asleep rambling about her sisters.
Abe's eyes trailed her soft skin as she drifted off. He didn’t even know vampires slept until now. There was something so out of character about it. There was a sense of vulnerability he had never seen in her before.
Gently, he reached over and removed the ruby from her hand and placed it to his lips. Taking deep breaths, he filled his lungs. He might not have needed the extra deathly energy as much as she did, but he still enjoyed the feeling it proved. And after several more intoxicating breaths, he leaned back against the sofa and drifted off.
When he awoke, she was gone. Stretching, Abe climbed to his feet and left the private booth. As expected, she was upstairs, and when he returned to the room, she ordered him to wait in his quarters.
Appearing from her room a moment later, Miss Nia raised an arm and waited for Abe to loop his own through.
“You’re learning, but so can dogs.”
“About last night,” Abe said.
“Keep that to yourself.”
“But-”
“Abraham.”
He groaned and bit his tongue.
“Do you want me to buy a lead for you and have you walk on fall fours.”
“No,” he shook his head.
“Then listen when I speak.”
“Apologies.”
“No need to get formal,” she patted his arm as they left the tavern.
Passing through the underground tunnels, they stepped out into the streets of Lantern proper. At ground level, the city was even more remarkable.
Everything caught Abe’s eyes as Nia pulled him along. The rows of houses and ground-level buildings were mostly timber with rice paper walls, occasionally separated by a steel structure. But above them, the giant towers that climbed into the sky across Lantern looked like something out of a sci-fi flick with their impossibly tall size and mushroom-like tops. And perhaps even more amazingly was the starry sky and swirling colors of the Vale above.
“Dreamers are creative; I’ll give them that,” Nia said as they walked through the cobbled streets lined by paper lanterns. “The stories I’ve heard of their domains are even more impressive.”
“Have you ever visited one?”
Miss Nia softly chuckled, “No. That is no easy task for the undead. To visit or invade a dreamer domain would require an awfully large amount of deathly energy. I can’t imagine anything being worth that kind of effort.”
“So, do the two sides of death and dreams keep to themselves?”
“For the most part. There are, of course, exceptions, like the Chairman and his cat. But they are rare. Look, over there,” she pointed to a four-story rice wall building with several bent chimneys climbing from its crooked tiles roofs.
“What is it?”
“An exception.”
Abe’s brow perked.
“A bathhouse and restaurant for the dead, run by dreamers. Quite an impressive place, you should visit if you get the chance.”
“You’ve been?”
“A long time ago. Don’t go getting any ideas. I don’t need to remind you of your place, do I?”
“No, it’s just that I was. No, never mind.”
Pulling him deeper into the streets of Lantern, they entered the crowds. People of all shapes, sizes, and colors bustled through the busy streets. Abe stopped in his tracks as a broad purple man passed but then redirected his attention in the other direction as a walking mushroom followed by a lion and goatman passed.
Gaze swinging from side to side, Abe pulled himself closer to Nia but released a moment later when he realized how tight he was pressed against her.
Stealing his attention back to the crowds, a group of robed figures walked by, their faces incomprehensible blurs like bad AI images—and the longer you looked at them the less they made sense.
“This place is insane. What even are all these people?” Abe shook his head as one image after another widened his eyes further.
“This is what the denizens of the Dreamscape look like. Weirdos, most of them. They wear a thousand faces.”
“I noticed that,” he said, turning to watch another strange figure while attached to her arm.
As flying ships passed overhead, dozens of humanoid bees flew up to greet it, returning with sacks over their shoulders; scenes like that were taking place across the busy cityscape.
Ahead was a domed building that stood a dozen or so stories high, towering over all but the steel mushrooms. Writing flashed across its dome, and lights shone into the sky all around it. Outside, a crowd gathered, making their way through red bollards.
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There were all kinds among the queue, including undead, living, and dreamers. And Abe tilted as he spotted several mordoks standing in line.
Humanoid animals in white tuxedos chauffeured the crowd toward the entrance.
Once again, he found himself struggling to pull his gaze away from the myriad of animals serving as assistants—spotting a giraffe man, a horse lady, and a fox within minutes of joining the slow-moving line.
“Monkey, boar, lizard, sheep,” he mumbled as he spotted the human-shaped animals. “I don’t even know what’s real anymore.”
“It all is,” Miss Nia said.
Archways guided them into a tiled foyer with chandeliers and spiraling staircases lined with the same animal-faced people in tuxedos.
As the room filled, the ushers waved their gloved hands and called numbers, leading the guests who raised their hands with the appropriate tickets to their tables.
A rather small woman with a chicken’s head called their number and waved a hand to make the ticket float above her head. The chicken girl noticed and rushed over, leading them through the crowd toward the top-level balconies, where more of the ushers stood on guard—armed with pistols and sabers at their sides.
Passing through red curtains, they entered the balcony. There were two chairs sitting beside a round table overlooking the stage and general seating below.
A moment later, the chicken girl returned with glasses of wine and an assorted charcuterie board.
Miss Nia lowered herself into her chair, sat cross-legged, leaned back, and clicked her fingers.
The attendant stopped as she was leaving and turned to her.
“Mortal blood, please,” she said, watching the stage and waving disinterestedly at the wine.
“I’m terribly sorry, Baroness. I just took what they gave me,” she bowed and scurried over to the table. “I will see to it that this is fixed immediately.”
“Wait,” Abe said, holding his glass.
“Oh, sorry,” she said, retracting her hands as she reached for the bottle.
“I’ll keep it for myself.”
“Of course,” she bowed again and exited.
“You still insist on drinking that stuff?” Miss Nia turned to him and tilted her head with a bent lip.
“Well, I haven’t exactly drunk it since that night, but…”
“Oh? That reminds me, I haven’t asked you how much you remember from your previous life, have I?”
Abe shook his head.
“Well?”
He sighed and brought the glass up to sip. It didn’t taste as he remembered. “I don’t remember much. I remember that night, but that’s about it, really. Memories, they’re all gone. But,” he stared off into the wine for a moment. “I know how to do things, you know? I don’t know how memory loss is meant to work, but I guess I didn’t imagine it would be quite like this.”
“It sounds normal to me.”
“What do you mean?”
“Do you think I am any different? We all lose our memories, and that is part of the journey. I would say I empathize with you, but I don’t. What we have is so much more than we could have ever dreamed of before. We have become masters of this power instead of fuel for it. Your previous life and its memories are gone. Dead. It is best—no—it is healthy to remind yourself of this. Trust me.”
“I guess,” he felt the recording device he had found in the manor in his pocket. He wanted to ask her about it, but he doubted anything positive would come of it.
“I might not convince you now, but you will come to see the truth of my words.”
“I hope so.”
Pushing back through the curtains, the chicken girl returned with a new wine bottle.
“Your blood, Baroness,” she said, curtsying as she placed it on the table.
“Away,” Nia waved and waited for her to disappear back behind the curtains before continuing. “You’ve seen a more relaxed side of me lately, Abraham, but don’t let it fool you. We have roles to play. Hold your head high, especially around the weak. To do otherwise gives the wrong impression,” she sneered.
“Sorry,” Abe straightened.
“You represent my house, remember. Our world is treacherous; never let the comforts that can be found within it fool you otherwise. Keeping the peasantry in line is just as important for the dead as it has ever been.”
“I get it,” Abe said, taking another mouthful of the wine—it was tasteless in his mouth.
“You don’t, but you will in time.”
Abe eyed her from the side, but as his gaze drifted down to her lips, he quickly redirected it toward the stage below.
“Personal strength can only take you so far,” she said, sipping the blood.
The heavy gold-laced red curtails that hid the stage began to draw back, and as it opened, Abe noticed the beastmen attendants beneath its shadow, pulling on ropes.
A moment later, the bestial attendants from behind the stage and others marched out, creating a fortified line between the stage and the audience. They were all armed.
“They carry a lot of weapons around here.”
“Of course,” Miss Nia said. “Lantern has no master; it would be foolish for anyone to be too confident here. And who knows what might be presented for sale. Undoubtedly, attendees here would risk their lives for the right prize. But don’t underestimate them, either. Those beastmen might only be E or even F tier, but this place has strong dream energy. They likely fight at a level considerably higher than what they are. Not only that, but the master of the auction house is an All Seeing Eye, from my understanding. Making him a powerful C-tier Dream entity.”
“But what chance would they have against someone like you?”
Miss Nia smiled, “It is never wise to overestimate yourself. Besides, not only would we be greatly outnumbered, but we would almost certainly create enemies for ourselves. Even the reavers we met yesterday, where do you think they sell the loot they come across? Attacking this place isn’t just making an enemy of the auction house itself, but whoever you steal from as well.”
“And yet people are still desperate enough to do it.”
“And that’s the second lesson. Never underestimate how desperate some can become. An evolution might be the difference between being a slave or a master, for example. And that is more than enough reason to risk your life for some.”
“That reminds me. Bazaarbus, who does he work for—is it you?”
“No. He is closer to a business partner. There are few creatures that can travel the tethers between the domains as he can. It is far better to work with someone like that than try to control them. Not that you could. He would never bow to anybody.”
“So, he travels to other domains like the valley and does business with them?”
“Like my barony? Yes, he is a merchant. Traveling is his trade. If you have the coin, it is always worth visiting that man. You can never know exactly where he might have been and what he might pick up. But be wary, he likes to give good deals to new customers. If you have already purchased something from him, you might find the next visit prohibitively more expensive.”
“I should have guessed,” Abe groaned.
“Ladies and gentlemen,” boomed a voice from center stage. “It is a pleasure to have you all here this fine day,” he continued, rolling around the middle of the stage on a unicycle. The man had a thick mustache and folds that rolled over his legs, jiggling as he rode.
Rolling back and forth, he balanced himself on the small bike. “Welcome to Lantern’s forty-eight thousandth and eighty-eighth auction. I shall be your host for the evening, the magnificent Grand Sigy!”
“Forty-eight thousandth and eighty-eighth, seriously?” Abe muttered.
“Blessed, we’re all so blessed to be here today,” Sigy said as a dim chatter of golf claps filled the room. “Because we have so many magnificent items for sale to commemorate this special event, we are pleased to announce that we will be placing for sale a special mysterious item from our very own treasure horde. On top of that, we are delighted that our little auction house here in Lantern has gained the attention of two vampires, one of which is a baroness and even an arch-lich. And that’s not all. We have even managed to attract a dream lord—Tilius, the Mad Lord of Mirrors. And,” he said, dazzling his fingers for the crowd. “An Archbishop from the Church of the Everliving. Making this event one of the grandest auctions to have ever been held in our little corner of the Astral Vale.”
“I didn’t realize this was some kind of special event,” back turned his gaze on Nia.
“Neither did I,” Miss Nia said, switching her legs. “What could be valuable enough to bring so much attention?”
“It isn’t the reason we came, is it?”
“No, not at all,” Nia slightly shook her head. “I figured an auction house in a backwater like this wouldn’t bring too much attention but still be good enough to find materials for a decent enough weapon.”
Abe’s brow arched. He wasn’t sure if he should be concerned or intrigued.
“No matter,” she continued. “The vampire isn’t Umbrial, and I don’t think an arch-lich has any time for our squabbling. Let’s just enjoy the auction.”