I think I went catatonic for a bit. You know, where you're aware and awake but just kind of staring and thoughts don't seem to stay in your head long enough to be a thing?

I'm not sure how long I just stood and stared at the front door. I willed myself to wake up from the nightmare I'd found myself in, but nothing seemed to listen. I didn't know if it was my subconscious fucking with me, or if Duncan really just left. And there was really no way for me to check. We'd cleaned this place so good that there wasn't dirt and dust still all over the floor, so there wouldn't be any footprints.

I was aware I could have stalked him through the streets. Followed him out of town to make sure he really left, and then snuck out myself. But that didn't seem like a good idea. I couldn't remember why. Something about armor?

Mel woke up at some point, and seemed pretty irritated at me. But I couldn't move. Or acknowledge her. I didn't even really hear what she said. Something about me being an asshole, obviously, and she stomped out the front door after a while.

Would she come back?

Did I care?

Eventually I found the will to move. It started with a few fingers wiggling. Then my toes. And then the rest of my body seemed to come on board all at once, like I lurched out of slumber. I felt like a mechanical being that had just been refueled. My brain was empty, full of lightning bursts of pain, and it felt like I had somehow slept for six years and stayed up for a millennia.

I wanted a nap, a good, hot meal, and someone to tell me everything was going to be alright.

But it wasn't going to be alright.

Somehow I'd made my situation worse. It would have been smarter to go back with Duncan to Kinon, I realized now. Like, how stupid could I be? He was either going to get a lot of money out of me every week, or he was going to drag my ass back to Kinon anyway. I should have just given up. Gone with him and tried to figure out the details later.

But I wasn't a quitter. I mean, I wanted to be a quitter. There was a very large part of me that wanted to run screaming through the streets until I made it out of town, and then just keep going down the road until I either collapsed from exhaustion or found a place that had never heard of Kinon. Or Duncan. But I wasn't going to do that. And if I wasn't going to quit, I needed to fucking shape up and get my ass in gear.

I focused on shaking out my limbs. Every bit of me felt like it was experiencing pins and needles. I guess that's what happens when you stand in one place for a few hours. Or minutes. I'm still not sure how long it had been.

I moved around the dining area of the eatery, moving my arms and fingers and toes and legs. I sped up as I felt more in control of myself, and eventually started doing half-jogging laps around the small building. Moving made my body feel a tiny bit better, and it made my brain snap out of its funk.

There weren't many options available, and all of them sucked. But I had to continue moving forward or else it was all for nothing.

As soon as I was feeling normal again, I stopped jogging and started working on the building. There were still a few tasks I had on my imaginary checklist, and I worked to get them finished before Derrick the building inspector showed up.

Mel made it back before the inspector showed up. She asked a lot of questions about my earlier state, and all I told her was that I had received some bad news about a friend in Kinon. It freaked her out a bit, because she worried that Duncan would find me. I assured her, as calmly as I could, that it would be impossible. I'd worried about that too, but the person who found me was an old friend, I lied. We were closer than anything, and so he knew how to track me down.

My lies didn't sate her much. And they made me feel like shit. But it was all I could do. I didn't want to tell her the truth, just yet. Not until I figured out if we were going to be able to make it in this new reality.

Eventually, Mel shared with me the breakfast she went to fetch. It was some baked pastry thing with ham inside. Damn tasty, and I wondered what type of buffs I could have it give. When I asked Mel how she was paying for things, she smiled at me and told me to not worry about it.

I hoped she wasn't stealing. That would get us in trouble faster than Duncan showing up.

Derrick arrived sometime between Mel returning and when I figured it would be about mid day. He was immediately grumpy, which I came to realize was about his normal state.

"Liam, for some reason, wanted me to bring you this." Derrick held out a small woven bag, which seemed to have a collection of goods in it. A few toiletries, which was thoughtful, and then a frying pan and a pot. They looked old - likely from their own kitchen - but they were still in great shape. "I think he's fond of you and your tenacity, although I wish he weren't. It's going to make my life a lot harder when I have to tell him that you didn't pass inspection."

"Oh. Are we not going to pass?"

Derrick made a tsking sound and rubbed at his eyes. "I don't know yet. I haven't looked around the building, remember? But I can tell you that I've inspected buildings owned by Roger Phelps before, and they rarely make it the first time."

"I've done a lot of work, though." I opened the menu for the building and shared the history with him. The last few days were filled with various upgrades, and many of them were actually pretty decent quality, at least considering I wasn't a builder.

"I see," he said, and he didn't sound impressed. "Well, let me go around and have a look. I'll let you know if I have any questions."

I let him do his thing. Part of me was sure I could follow him around and he wouldn't mind too much, but he wasn't exactly the happiest person in the world. And I would ask a lot of questions and likely piss him off a bunch.

So, instead, I went outside.

The front area of the eatery wasn't anything great to look at. The dirt had been freshly turned, thanks to our recent construction, but that's all it was. Dirt. No grass or shrubbery grew, and there wasn't a flower within sight of the building. I wondered what I could do about that. With some more lumber, I could make planting pots. Maybe line the front wall with them? If I planted something there it would require maintenance, both to keep the plants growing and healthy, but also to keep vermin from sneaking in the front door.

I could also put a floor out here. Maybe something just like inside - a timber covering to hide the dirt. It would require cleaning, but it might keep the dirt out of the inside of the building, where it could lower my chances of cooking a good meal. Cleanliness was super important for meal quality, and my environment would impact my score.

Damn. I really wish I had another sixty gold or so. Just enough to get some more building materials, and then something to supply myself with cooking ingredients. I hadn't even thought of how I was going to pay for stuff like that.

I realized, after a moment, that I had no idea where Mel was. The pixie had vanished the second the building inspector showed up. I assumed she just reverted back to her winged form, but usually she dove right under my collar. And she wasn't there now.

Was she following the inspector around? Hopefully she was just observing, and wasn't bothering him.

I started to go inside to look at her, when the door opened and Derrick came out.

"You aren't passing inspection," he said in a firm tone.

"I don't know why, but I'm not surprised."

He looked confused for a moment, almost as if he wanted to laugh at that but wasn't sure why. "There's a lot of things wrong with the building. I commend your attempts to repair it, but there needs to be more done. Especially for the roof. Additionally, you have rats in your cellar. Not only is that unhygienic, but for an eatery its downright obscene." A prompt opened in front of me.

Derrick Frauen has shared with you the task list Inspection: Repairs List. Do you accept?

I mentally agreed to the share and looked over the list.

Fucking hell.

There were things on this list I'd never thought of. Support beams? A need for bedrooms because Mel and I couldn't sleep in the kitchen? And we needed pipes for both incoming and outgoing water, as well as ventilation in the kitchen. The bit about the roof was there, as well as a nasty little note about the rats.

I thought of how much the repairs we'd done so far cost us, and winced.

"Yeah," Derrick said, patting me awkwardly on the shoulder. "Sorry about this, mate. But you need to get those repairs done before I can let you open up."

"Fuck."