Galus walked around the town and eventually found a small building with the words tavern on the stone door, he noticed a blind old man sitting in front of the door, a faded grey coat and frayed hardened leather chest armor many old glass beads decorated it but they too were faded.

Galus looked at the old man who was sitting in the snow, a long straight stick like Irina's next to him and a blindfold around his eyes. "How long have you been out here?"

The man answered without looking at him. "Two hours."

Galus shook his head. "Shit... Alright, let's get you warmed up."

He pried the door open and walked in leading the old man inside. He looked around it was dark and a bit cold, but he found a flint behind the bar that he can light the fireplace with, he saw in the dim light of the flame a statue of Miquella holding a stylized depiction of a branch with candle wicks on the ends of the branch, he realized with a shudder that it was likely a depiction of a bewitching branch, then he thought about it for half a second and realized that no, it's probably a depiction of the erd tree sapling that Miquella watered with his blood. He took a long stick and lit the end of the stick in the fire and lit the individual wicks. He noticed as he brought the flame nearer the end of the the last wick when he noticed the shining bead at the end of the wick, unalloyed gold, he noticed that the wicks weren't in the least bit burned, and the candle was not at all giving off heat. He lit the last wick and realized the reason, fire is a product of the fell god, the god of fire and destruction, unalloyed gold neutralized the influences of gods, so in other words, the fire didn't burn. To try and confirm his theory he put his finger into the fire, well, the fire spread to his fingers, and as soon as he separated his hand from the flame of the candle and he immediately felt that it started to burn, he blew it out and shook his hand wincing.

Galus turned to the old man who was sitting at the bar,

Galus walked behind the bar, it wasn't the cozy Lincoln log cabin that he made in his dream, but it was nice, the stone work was nice.

He looked at the bottle of blue liquid some kind of wine made of the blue rowa that grown in the frozen lands, the label said 'the river fairies lament'. He shook his head and shoved the glass across the bar to the old blind man who evidently had been a long time resident of the village, he caught the glass as it slid to a stop and took a drink.

Galus cleaned a glass and looked at him. "So, what's up with you?"

He did the Irina and looked in his direction but missed him entirely. "What?"

Galus sighed, setting the glass down, it was already clean anyways, part of him wondered if that was just something bartenders did to keep their hands busy on slow nights. "Name's Galus, what's yours?"

The old man grunted, "Ainsel."

A cog clicked into place in his head. "As in Ainsel river?"

The silence that followed the statement was so still that Galus felt his ears started to ring. And he nearly jumped out of his skin when the old man got up and slammed the door on his way out.

And as if on queue Lattena and her warband trotted in on their wolves reopening the door. He snapped out of it and said. "We celebrating the continuation of your species?"

She nodded taking a bottle from the shelf. "Here's the third generation."

He nodded, he didn't drink himself, he'd slipped down that slope before and it ended in him dying in a gas station, instead he just started making some erdleaf flower tea for himself hanging the iron pot over the fireplace and put some of the crushed erdleaf flower petals inside.

Irina followed them inside timidly. He counted the say... Thirteen albinaurics and one Lyrina, plus one Irina, that came into the tavern, so fifteen glasses in total. He started pouring glasses when he noticed a misbegotten looking at him, the same goofy looking permanent grin on his face. "What are you doing in my bar? It's closed!" It asked in a high pitched raspy voice.

Galus sighed. "Saw an old man sitting outside in the snow, he was out there for two hours, I thought he could use some warmth. We're also going to be having a party so I suppose if it's not trouble..." He dug in his bag taking out an amber disc nearly the size of a vinyl record, he watched as the misbegottens eyes bugged out like those creepy looking gold fish who evidently evolved without eye sockets, it was comical the way he bounced up and down like a toddler who just saw his parents bring them a new toy.

Galus raised it a few inches and raised his eyebrows, "I'd like to rent this building for the day, will that be a problem?"

The misbegotten shook his head. "Nope, no problem." The misbegotten finally snatched the disc from his hand and Galus nodded taking out a sixteenth glass. "I'll pour you something too, let's see what we've got here... Carian royal champagne, Redmane rum, Leyndell scotch, oh!" He took something off of the top shelf. "Magma wyrn whiskey."

The misbegotten paled at the look of the whiskey. "I've seen most belch after a single glass of that."

Galus smiled. "Good, that either means it's the good stuff... or that it's so old it's turned to poison, or as aristocrats put it's 'perfectly aged'." He said the last part in a mock British accent and mimicked adjusting a monocle.

The misbegotten clearly didn't get it.

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

Galus sighed, if anyone else was in this damn world then he swore to God he'd find them if only to have somebody who got his jokes.

Lattena was waving him over so he set the glasses on a tray and carefully carried them over to the table. "Alright alright alright, drinks are all on me, so get sloppy drunk because tomorrow I'm going to go check out the Haligtree."

He set the glasses down and then he heard the whistling of the tea pot over the fireplace. He turned to go grab a glass for himself when he found the the misbegotten holding a sort of China set on a tray and putting it on the table Galus nodded his thanks, using an iron firepower to unhook the tea kettle and set it next to the porcelain cup. "Alrighty then, let's celebrate!"

And so the night passed by with sloppy drunken celebration.

----------------

Ainsel listened to their revelry from outside on the street corner, he walked down the road he felt the familiar chill as the sun slowly descended toward the sea.

He was all but sure that the only ones who even knew about Ainsel river anymore was the nox who lived there. He sat down and took a sip of water from his hip flask. The flask glowed a crystal blue before a small glowing sprite came from the flask and flitted around him. "Well? What is it?" A feminine voice asked from the sprite.

The blind man looked toward it. "You need something Siofra?"

The little thing bobbed anxiously. "Listen, I need you elsewhere, Ainsel river is... Is... It's not good you'll need to see for yourself."

The old man grunted. "Alright, but it better be important."

And so they walked off again, some of the grey in his clothes dusted off by the wind to reveal a dim blue.

--------------

Galus smiled dumbly, he apparently looked away from his cup for a second and someone put a few drops of the magma wyrm into his tea and now everything was funny, he laughed at even the dumbest jokes and nodded along to things that were completely asinine, the events that lead up to it were a blur, but he was being all but pushed out the door everyone chanting. "Trial! Trial! Trial! Trial!"

They walked down the streets and over to the large official looking building and into it's courtyard, gargoyles holding a book and an ornate stone circle the same as the evergaol's except a lot larger. He pressed his hand to the circle and everything vanished.

It was dark here, much like the game, difference came when he realized that his alcoholic stupor seemed to vanish as soon as he came in here, and he realized he was in an evergaol, with black knife assassins... He felt a chill when he remembered what made these ones even scarier. They were invisible because of their damn cloaks.

He looked around and sighed, he started forward, he knew how to beat the trial, light the candles get out, the black knives are completely optional.

So he started running, he could take the rooftops in fact he'd have to eventually, but the easiest one to get to was on the ground, he took off his gauntlet revealing the tattoo of Saint Trina, his plan was to run by them as fast as inhumanly possible, and spray the statue with flames of slumber lighting the candles in the process.

He rushed along the rode, he heard something crack to his right and hit the ground feeling the wind brush in his face, it was one of those bastards, he pressed his hands to the damn road and leapt up to his feet. Summoning a pair of discs and using them as warfans. He ran turned a corner he saw a statue of Miquella, he blazed the shit out of the branch candle and the statue the wicks were more than lit enough, he drug his hand across the place rode and onto the railing toward the drop, they wouldn't be following him that way, and he circled back to where he started and leapt over the gap using his his discus' as stepping stone to get onto the roof top, he ran along it, his discs trailing behind him. An arrow struck him in the shoulder plate and he gritted his teeth, and increased the size of the discus and put them in front of him to shield himself from the volley. He recognized the albinauric, Piggy, she spoke. "Didn't think we wouldn't get in on the fun."

He sprayed some of the sleep mist at them as he passed them by, they collapsed unconscious. "Hope it was worth it!" He called over his shoulder as he ran away.

Galus leapt off of the edge and stepped onto discus as he shifted it into place and he flew up to the next tower and sprayed it with the violet flames. They burned and lit the candles with the sweet smelling fire.

He flew over to the next tower and nearly ran head first into a gushing flame of destined death. He veered it off course and then dodged another volley of arrows, he saw the shy looking albinauric, crawl behind a wall, evidently that was her two cents to play and she spent it. Blocked a second barrage from ponytail and he finally stepped onto the final tower, he grinned, at least until he felt somebody grip his throat with sharp clawed gauntlets. His grin fell like an anvil was tied to the corners of his lips. Muscle memory kicked in and he brought his arm up and over the assassins arms and brought his forearm down until the back of his hand was at the bottom of the assassins other arm and stepped back and struck the palm of his hand that was entangled with the assassins. This had the effect of throwing the assassins grip off and they stumbled back, he the proceeded to sidekick her off of the tower, and their cloak fell off.

He blocked the entry way up with a discus and it blocked the ladder way. He lit the tip of his finger and lit each wick individually. As his finger approached the last remaining wick an arrow snuffed out the flame. He lit it again and it happened again. He looked outside and found Lattena with another arrow knocked. He smiled and she smiled back. And then he blasted the living shit out of that final statue with a Torrent of magenta flames, try snuffing that out.

As the whole sapling was lit ablaze Galus knelt down in front of it, maybe he should get drunk more often this was alot of fun.

He walked out of the evergaol, as the albinaurics summoned him and the rest of them out. Either they didn't summon back the black knives or... They were out here and they've been out here the entire time watching him. He didn't know why but that made him shudder, perhaps something as ethereal as death so heavily concentrated into something as mundane as a metal alloy had a way of igniting his senses and raising his hairs to needle points.

The nine albinaurics who greeted them clapped and it was enough to wake up even piggy. Lattena patted him on the back. "Galus, most people don't even survive the first shrine."

Galus smiled. "Yeah, probably because they don't have a fucking torch to light it with, they have to click rocks together to get fire."

Piggy groaned. "Well... There was one time a fire monk tried the trial, he managed to get to the final shrine but got his throat cut."

Galus sat down stretching. "I think I'd like to practice with the guitar, anyone shall we go back to the tavern?"

A couple of them nodded, but Lattena winced. "You're horrible at the guitar, you plan to break this one too?" Irina chuckled, when had she gotten here.

Galus sighed. "Maybe you're right, but I need something to do while on the rode, I cannot stand the dead silence, I have a disability that when it's too quiet my ears start ringing like a bell, I used to listen to a lot of music before I came here, classical, rock, etcetera, so I thought I'd try and write a few songs."

Lattena smiled. "Rock? Classical? What are you talking about."

Galus shook his head. "It's something in my land we call Genre, Rock is a lot harder and has faster paced rhythm, classical is likely what you'd see here, with loots and flutes and other such a stuff."

Lattena got onto Lobo, and they started back to the tavern, their little Entourage following them inside. "So, what did you think?"

Galus nodded. "The trial was a lot of fun in my opinion, though I'm not usually one to run around playing death games. Why didn't you use your wolves while you were in there?"

One of the albinaurics laughed, he saw it was pony tail. "We wanted to give you a fair chance."

Galus walked inside into the tavern. "Fair chance? I can fly, I'm not the one who needed a handicap." He pointed at them. "And whoever thought it was a good idea to our that shit into my tea, you just started something you aren't prepared to finish, so come on, up you step."

None other than shy girl crawled forward. "That... Was me."

Galus sighed. "Better prepare, you just started a prank war."

She blinked and made to speak but Galus held up a hand, and spoke first. "We will do this 'after' I save lord Miquella."

She closed her mouth and they looked at eachother. "What?" He asked.

She looked at him. "That's a sore subject sir, sorry, the reason the town looks like someone ran a stampede through it is because a large black omen killed... Many of us, most of us as it were, there are only fifteen of us, the only reason he got to Miquella is because we ran away before we could be killed."

Galus gave his beard a brushing with his fingers as he absorbed the information. "There used to be more of you?"

She nodded. "Yeah..."

Galus sighed. "I don't blame you, that situation was FUBAR, you were fighting a damn shard bearer, and a tough one at that, you're not useful to me or Miquella as a corpse."

She wiped an eye and smiled meekly. "Thank you."

Galus put a hand on her shoulder. "Hey uh, you got something on your..." Soon as she looked down he brought his finger he was pointing up over her nose and chuckled. "I'm gonna find a place to sleep. See you tomorrow morning."