“Why won’t you listen to me?! It’s the end of the fucking world and no one cares!”

Marie sighed and glanced up from the drink she was pouring. Her usual dinners – too many to count and all without anything to do – crowded the tables on one side of her inn, still eating the dinner she had prepared: chicken noodle soup, a city favorite. Despite their thin frames and ragged faces, many sipped only the smallest of spoonfuls; wolfing down their dinner would only make the meal end sooner, a fate that seemed worse than death these days. Especially after the most recent ration cut.

So consumed were they by their meals that many in the crowd refused to spare a glance at Gerald – soup already finished and shoved to the side – standing on one of Marie’s good tables, spouting about the apocalypse like a skeleton on a street corner. But what was new?

“We’re all going to die if we don’t do something! Can’t any of you see that?!” The flicking lights of the lanterns cast long shadows over Gerald’s already ragged face. “This place is doomed! Doomed!”

“Gerald!” Harold’s thin face shot up from his bowl. “Can you just let us eat in peace for once?”

“How are you at peace?! The world is –”

“Gerald, enough, please!” Alma shouted, closer towards the bar; her children looked as worn-out as the deep lines that were etched across her face. “Not when the children are around, please. They go through enough as it is.”

“They should know too!” Gerald yelled. “Everyone should – it’s the fucking end of the world!”

“Gerald…” Gath said over the groans that rose like a thick fog around him. “We’re always open to different perspectives, truly we are. But…you’ve been telling us the same stuff every night. Can we…skip it this time?”

“Skip it?!” Gerald sputtered. “I keep bringing it up because no one listens to me! Just her me out –”

“We have been!” Jamieson slammed his hands on his table, soup bowl rattling. “Every fucking night we listen to you! It’s been weeks! Fuck!” He gestured towards the front of the inn, a scarecrow with an arm extended. “You wanna preach about doom?! Do it on the streetcorner where no one can hear you!”

Shouts of agreement were hurled at Gerald, his hands clenching into fists as his head whipped around, meeting every angry gaze that was shot his way. Each time he tried to speak, more shouts arose from the weary crowd, only furthering the furrow of his brows and the trembling of his hands.

Marie chewed her lip and turned to stuff the whisky bottle back into the rack behind her; unruly behavior was never allowed in her establishment, and normally she was more than happy to throw the perpetrators out herself. But she hadn’t the energy tonight, as painful as it was to admit. The day had been long, and her stomach still felt empty, despite eating only an hour ago. Though her patrons always persuaded Marie to eat her fill, she was tightening her belt just as they were, her long skirt slipping down constantly. Vorn shared her plight, his already slim frame growing slimer by the day; his clothes had been tailored twice in the past month and still they looked a little too big on him. His dark skin still looked immaculate, however, probably because he was an elf, the bastard.

“Should we…” Vorn asked, accepting his whisky while studying the slow forming mob. “Should we do something?”

“I will.” Marie muttered, wiping her hands on her apron. “I’d had enough of him anyways. Been too easy on him.”

“I couldn’t blame you.” Vorn sipped from his glass as Jamieson began to shout again. “Hasn’t been too bad until now. You want me to do it though? You look exhausted.”

A retort rose to her lips, only to die away as Marie sighed and rubbed her face; she was exhausted, there wasn’t a way around that. Months of the same weary routine and dwindling food stores had all but snuffed the flame that normally burned bright within her. It didn’t help that everyone fed off her energy; she hadn’t seen a smile in weeks.

“No, I’ll handle him.” She said. “Needs to be me.”

“Afraid I’d mess it up?”

“No…” Marie watched as Gath leapt to his feet, thin arms trying to block the barrage of insults now hurled at Gerald. “They need a strong hand, not severed ones.”

“I’m offended you’d think I’d hurt them.”

“I’m offended you think I don’t know you well enough.”

Vorn stared at Marie over his glass and offered her the worst smile she’d ever seen; she rolled her eyes and looked away, unable to halt her own grin from creeping up her cheeks. It faded as the Gerald yelled something, fueling the flames of rage that now roared through the crowd.

“What in the Nine Hells did he say?” She asked.

“I didn’t hear.” Vorn’s eyes widened. “You don’t think he knows –”

Gerald’s voice rang out over the crowd – a dull knife through the cacophony – as he shouted as loud as his tired lungs would allow:

“Waterdeep blew up! It’s fucking gone!”

Silence descended upon the weary crowd like a hammer to the anvil; many flinched violently, stepping back from Gerald as though he’d threatened them. The once scorned speaker was equally shocked, his own eyes wide as everyone regarded him with unprecedented attention.

“…that.” Vorn breathed. “He knows about that. Want me –”

“Get Joel and Christy.” Marie hissed. “Right now.”

Vorn nodded, downed his drink in a single gulp, and hopped off the barstool. As he rounded the bar, Marie snatched his glass from the counter and took a towel to it, her eyes never leaving Gerald’s shocked expression.

How in the hells did he know about that? It didn’t matter that it was blatantly false, no one should have known what happened in Waterdeep. Marie had made sure of it.

She bit her lip as the Gerald found his tongue; there wouldn’t be a point in stopping him now. It would only make everything appear worse. She’d have to make a lesson out of it instead.

“I-I had to make sure, but there was an explosion in the city!” Gerald yelled. “Massive white light just-just detonated the whole place! It’s gone, off the map!”

Gasps ripped through the crowd; many had shot up from their chairs, color drained from their faces.

“And it’s gotten worse!” Gerald continued. “It’s-it’s like a pre-precru – it’s like a warning! Everything else has gone to shit since and none of us knew!”

“Like what?!” Vae yelled from the corner.

“Everything!” Gerald threw his hands up. “Everything Vae! They ransacked the Goldenfields, razed it!” More gasps rose from the crowd. “It’s all gone, all the food on the coast! Gone! It –”

“That’s absurd!” Gath yelled, moving towards Gerald. “Why would the giants raze it? Last time they just took the food!”

“Why are they doing anything?!” Gerald pointed a finger towards the older man. “You think it’s just the Hill Giants doing it?! Every other one is getting in on it too, Waterdeep was just the start!”

Marie squeezed her eyes shut as shouting filled the room again; how much had that damn caravan told him? Or was it somewhere else that’d he’d gotten that from? She didn’t doubt that Mercutio had let something slip, but why to only one person? Way he even the source in the first place?

She braced herself against the bar and leaned forward as Gath shouted down everyone; no, it would have made perfect sense to tell one person. All you’d need is one voice to spark something horrible, and if anyone could do that, it was Gerald. Damn that man.

“They’re all doing it!” Gerald didn’t wait for anyone to calm down. “The-the stone giants are destroying places at random, not even taking anything! Just wiping places off the map! A-and there’ve been those blue ones on the coasts doing raids and even the red – the-the fire giants are out raiding places too! And it’s moving up the coast! Everything that’s happening, it’s-it’s creeping up towards us! The giants are going to attack us!”

Screams of horror drowned out Marie slamming her hands on the bar. She reached down and yanked out a dagger she kept hidden under the shelves; when she popped back up, panic seizing her inn in a stranglehold, Vorn reappeared with Joel and Christy, all three standing slightly behind her counter. The two off duty guards stared at the mob with wide eyes, hands pawing at their belts, while Vorn shot her a glance.

“Joel, Christy, get ready.” Marie raised her voice over the cacophony. “Vorn, you know what to do if something happens.”

Vorn nodded; Joel and Christy looked at the crowd, back to her, then back to the crowd. Christy opened her mouth to speak, only to snap it shut as Gerald proclaimed perhaps the stupidest call to action that Marie had heard since she’d first stepped foot into Mirabar:

“W-we have to go to the Middle!” Gerald shouted. “Go in and take everything they’ve got! Food, supplies, water, everything! We take it, and we get the fuck out of here before the giants come! Fuck them!”

Screams and shouts of horror blended into a storm of frenzied agreement, every man and woman on their feet, emptying their lungs of air.

“We’ll take it all and head over to Luskan! Closet place, we’ll be safer there! We’ll have a chance for food, better shelter, everything will be better! But we have to take everything from the Middle! Everything! Leave nothing behind! Fuck them, what have they done for us?! And they can’t fight us! Not if all of us – all of us go together! We outnumber them 50 to 1! And we’ll do it tonight! Tonight!” Roars of approval rang out. “Call everyone up! Get everyone down here! We’ll –”

Marie flung the dagger; it sailed in a perfect line over the unsuspecting heads of the crowd and buried itself up to the hilt in Gerald’s stomach.

Silence once again smashed into the crowd as the deranged speaker jerked and looked down at the blade, blood already dripping down. A heartbeat later, his body went limp, and he tumbled to the floor with a horrible crash.

Everyone’s heads flipped around in unison, a field of white, wide eyes; no one spoke as Marie hopped onto the bar, sliding around so that her legs rested on one of the barstools.

“First of all,” she said, smoothing out her skirt. “The fact that any of you think I’d host a coup in my inn is ridiculous. Second –”

“You killed him!” Vae screamed, backing into a table. “You cold –”

“Vae,” Marie said. “You’ve lost your meals for the next two weeks. Do not talk over me.”

The man blinked, mouth agape; not a soul said anything in his defense, many ducking their heads as the furious energy that had once fueled the budding mob vanished all at once, replaced by a visible sense of shame.

“I’m away of how harsh that is,” She continued, ignoring her own anger that burned in her chest. “and of course, your grandmother will still get her food. But I will only give you enough for her. If you want your share, come see me tomorrow morning and I’ll put you to work with my cook. Otherwise, find your food somewhere else.”

Vae nodded, eyes glistening, and looked away.

“Good. Now…” Marie sighed and folded her hands into her lap. “I apologize for that. Especially in front of the children.” She nodded at Alma, who looked away. “But I do not tolerate abject stupidity in my inn. I know we’ve been struggling for a while. It’s been three months on half rations, and everyone’s ready to break. I get it. But storming the Middle? Really?”

“I mean…” A voice rose from the back – Jase’s, a man she rarely saw. “If what Gerald said is true…”

“It’s not.” Marie said. “Well, parts of it. Do you all remember that caravan that came through a couple weeks back? Was pretty exciting since…no one ever stops by anymore?” A few nodded. “Well, they filled me in on what was going on and we’ve missed a lot. Yes, there was an explosion in Waterdeep a couple months back. No one knows what caused it. But the city didn’t get wiped off the map; in fact, if the head of that caravan was trustworthy, he said that the only thing destroyed in the city was a single house. How something like that happened, I haven’t a clue. But Waterdeep is fine. Everything else about the giants, however…that’s true. They’re not creeping up towards us, but the raids and razing, that’s all happening.”

A few gasps went up. Among them, a pained gurgle rose form the floorboards. Marie waved at Joel and Christy, who jogged through the crowd to where Gerald had fallen.

“And I will be honest with all of you…I paid the head of that caravan to not talk with any of you, which is why he was so standoffish.” Murmurs went up. “I did that not to be controlling, but to avoid something like this.” She waved vaguely in the air. “But it still happened. I don’t know where Gerald figured all this out from,” Marie’s gaze followed her two guards as they dragged Gerald’s limp and bloodied body towards the other side of the bar, leaving a trail of blood behind them. “but I’ll make sure to ask. Regardless of that, I want to dispel what Gerald said. We are not in a position to be invading our neighbors. All of you would get maimed at best, outright murdered at worst. Mercutio, as loath as I am to admit it, has done a wonderful job of uniting the Middle against us. The moment you all would try something, every capable person in that district would come in and sweep us out of Mirabar. And as horrible as this place is right now, would you rather be here, alive, or dead outside its walls?”

Silence followed her words; a few now stared at her, their eyes hard, faces contorted in various states of shock and anger. Of course, she knew that would be the case. As much as she preached it, Marie knew that her actions would look nothing short of a dictator, something she’d been adamantly against from the start. Many wouldn’t remember that now. But that was alright; as horrible as it was, the commoners of Mirabar were easy to distract and sway.

“Now…” Marie spoke slowly. “I do want to assure you all that Gerald isn’t the only one…thinking, if you want to call his plans that. Vorn and I have been thinking ahead on the problems we have in our little community, and the solutions we devised…aren’t pretty. But you all have the right to hear them.

“Again, I will be honest with all of you, my pantry is dwindling, but I feel as though you knew that with the ration cuts. While it will hold for awhile longer, if we continue at our current rate, we’ll be in the red very soon. Now, I know that Mercutio is able to purchase his food from somewhere, but insofar, my attempts at figuring that out have all turned up empty. I’ll give credit where it’s due, that weasel fuck is good at hiding his tracks. And if I can’t figure out where his food is coming from, well…we’ll have to look elsewhere. And while I may be short on food, the one thing I’m not lacking on at all is money. But I’ll be damned if I buy food from that weasel. And I’m sure a lot of you would agree with me.”

She held up a hand as another murmur rose, one split between nods and frustrated looks.

“But…” Marie said. “I know many of you probably don’t agree with me. I’m a proud woman, I’ve no shame in admitting that, but what’s pride in the face of starving? I’m sure many of you wouldn’t think twice about receiving his aid, and I cannot blame you if that’s the case. But if you’re proud like me and refuse his help…well, the only other option I can see is leaving Mirabar, as scary as that might sound. But…I’ve been thinking on that and… if any of you wish to leave Mirabar and strike out on your own, I will give you everything within my power to help you survive. That includes,” Marie began to count on her fingers. “food, camping supplies, weapons if we still have any, and coin.”

Conversation erupted immediately, chatter tearing through the crowd faster than Marie had anticipated; she breathed a quick sigh of relief as everyone threw their thoughts to those who would listen, before waving a hand to grab their attention again.

“Hey!” Marie shouted above the din. “I’m not done!” She would never admit it, but there was a deep satisfaction in seeing everyone immediately fall quiet from her words. “In addition to all that, we must look towards the future for the people who plan on staying. The rest of us who can’t or don’t want to leave, including myself, will be stuck here. That means that we need to figure out a solution to our food problem, which probably doesn’t exist in Mirabar currently. So…I am willing to pay double the normal amount, and then some, if any of you would be willing to travel to the nearest settlement and see what you can buy from them. Non-perishables, of course, but everything helps. It would be risky, and to be honest, there’s a few here that I wouldn’t trust with the job. But for everyone else, if you want…you’d be making quite a bit of money and helping the rest of us back on our feet. So…”

She couldn’t help but grin as conversation flowed once again, the storm of words drowning out anything she could have said further. What was once a gathering of the sordid and starving Mirabar lower class had now evolved into a meeting of the future; of purpose finally unearthed after being buried beneath a mountain of despair. There were no differing opinions or arguments, but instead a collaboration previously unseen since the doors to the Undercity had been shut tight.

All because Gerald had somehow heard the news about Waterdeep. She’d have to thank him.

“How long have you had that one thought up?” Vorn asked, leaning against the bar. “I haven’t entertained any idea like that.”

“Just now.” Marie said. “Pull it out of my ass.”

“Who would have thought that telling them to leave would have been so effective.”

“Telling them that I’d pay them to leave. There’s a difference there, honey.”

“Right.” Vorn shot her a glance. “Are we able to afford all that?”

Marie shot her lovely husband a look back.

“Of course we’re able to afford it. Why would you ask that?”

“Well, I mean…just checking and all.”

“Dear, you’re the one who gets the payments from Jurden. You know better than I how much we have squirreled away. Did you spend it without me knowing?”

“Never.” Vorn shook his head but didn’t meet Marie’s eyes. “You know that. I…sorry, I always like to make sure. You know me.”

“I do. Didn’t mean to come off snippy.”

“Of course, of course. No offense taken.”

Vorn crossed his arms and watched as the rest of their patrons mingled about, the late hour utterly forgotten. Marie’s gaze lingered on her husband until she turned to watch the others with him.

How stupid did those two think she was?

A pained wheeze sounded from behind her; Marie twisted around and watched as Gerald, still supported by Joel and Christy, limped around the bar to stand in front of her. The dagger in his stomach had been removed, replaced now by – gods damnit – dish rages from the bar, tied in the perhaps the worse attempt at first aid she’d ever seen.

“M-Marie.” Gerald gasped, one hand clutching his stomach, the other gripping Joel’s shoulder. “I u-um…I wanted to…apologize for everything I said. I-it wasn’t my fault that –”

Joel elbowed him in the ribs, earning a pained gasp from the wounded man.

“It’s completely my fault for getting everyone worked up about things that weren’t true.” He sputtered, eyes screwed up. “I was h-hiding when you were talking to the caravan guy and thought I could twist things to get something that I wanted. I’m sorry.”

“You wanted a suicide mob against the Middle?” Marie asked.

“I…no I just wanted to feel like I was in charge or something…I feel so useless all the time, just taking food from you, and I thought –”

“That getting people killed would fix that?”

Gerald’s shoulders slumped, more so than they already were.

“Y-yeah.”

“Well, that was a fucking stupid idea, Gerald. You could have come worked for me, helped with giving out supplies and food. I would have paid you. My employees – the cook, the servers, the guards, and my lovely husband – all still make a wage. If you’d just ask, I’d have been happy to have you.”

“I-I know. I’m sorry M-Marie.”

“Don’t be sorry. Be better.”

Gerald flinched and hung his head. On other side of him, Joel and Brielle looked away, pained expressions on their faces.

Marie rolled her eyes and sighed; she had no problem just tossing the man out to the wolves, but Mirabar couldn’t afford leadership like that.

“Well,” She said. “I may have something you can do to make it up to me, now that I think about it.”

Gerald’s head shot up. “I’ll do it, anything! Whatever it is, I-I’ll be your man!”

“Perfect.” Marie grinned. “You said you hid when I was talking to the caravan? You must be pretty good at it then. Tell me…have you ever been to that shit-hole Mercutio calls a restaurant before?”