Corvayne sighed in disappointment as the figure he had hoped to get information out of slithered away. There were some points that would help them, but more and more he felt like he was drowning in too many facts and factors and threats and problems.

“We didn't get a simple thing to focus on.” Lady Blood Claw pouted as she sat at the bar. In the washed out green lights Corvayne could see little ripples in the gray color she was trying to keep as her skin tone.

A friendly fellow wiping a cup came up to them, and Corvayne sat as the man nodded. “You two look like you could use a drink.”

Corvayne shrugged. “Only one please, and not too strong. I make bad decisions when I drink.”

Lady Blood Claw hadn't ordered, as far as he saw, but already had a large bottle she was paying for. “Coward.”

The bar keep poured him a red cup. “Don't listen to her. Knowing your limit is better than finding it, when it comes to drinking.”

Corvayne started reaching for his purse but the man put a hand up. “This one's on the house. Though, someone told me you fellows were prime to do some work, too.”

Seeing the amusement on the man's face, Corvayne felt himself smiling too. He took his cup and lifted it, moving it over to tap LBC's bottle. “To bad questions, and answers we cannot afford.”

“To sending the two worst speakers to do all the speaking.” Lady Blood Claw said before throwing back her first glass.

Corvayne thought about it. “Yeah. Where's Grunt when you need him.”

It was the hardest he'd seen Lady Blood Claw laugh that he could remember. She elbowed him playfully, then poured herself another cup. Corvayne set his own empty glass down, and pushed it to the barkeep. “My thanks. So, tell me what we owe the creepy dust spirit.”

“Three quests. First: Build a temple to Lythandies near the black spire you made. Out of any durable materials.”

Corvayne saw something wispy appear before him then fade away. Perhaps a system window he couldn't focus on? It seemed like he could get help from Mosh at least with that.

“Second, create a shrine to Gygax out of living wood in the Stillwater Tribe's temple.”

Corvayne frowned a little. That would mean one at Hari's home town? In other words, ask Hari.

“Third, at both shrines present a strawberry dragon heart. So, you'll need two. You can find the dragons at any 13th floor with suppressive strawberry jam.”

Corvayne frowned. “Right, I should have asked him that, why is there magic dispelling jam?”

The Barkeep smiles. “Well, what I figure is the Tower floors are made up of key words, and the tower takes a bunch of ideas and stirs them together, sometimes giving you nonsense word soup with things that were built outside of it. The jelly thing was a head-scratcher to a lot of folks, but there are places where someone sealed away things with a power to create fountains of jam. Mostly just dangerous monsters and garbage, but a few gems in the rough if you're willing to roll up your sleeves and get dirty.”

Lady Blood Claw slammed her bottle on the table. “So we have to do construction AND a fetch quest?”

The Barkeeper shrugged. “Perhaps talking or sneaking for the elves. Many folks will look at a problem and approach it in their own way.”

Corvayne frowned. “How could we use stealth? We can't shape wood, can we? I need to ask Mosh about both those requests.”

Lady Blood Claw grunted. “After we do all three...”

The Barkeeper smiled and tapped his head before he went back to cleaning his glasses. “I'll know. So don't sweat the small stuff! You folks come back and there will be a little bit of leftovers in the budget for you past what quests the three gods are swapping. I don't really do the books outside of my little keep.” The man spread his hands out to show off his bar.

Corvayne thought about it. He didn't really get the point of this favor exchange, but perhaps Mosh might have a clue as a priest of Lythandies. Or Undine. He hoped Mosh didn't mind the workout he was about to get. Well, the goblin usually was a good sport for pretty much anything.

“I want to report back to Wick now. Lady, are you finished with your drink?”

“It wasn't strong enough to do much for me. I am.”

With a thought they shifted to the table. No one was there, so Lady Blood Claw motioned with her head. “Inn then, either they have a room or you can stake a claim first.” She didn't really wait for him to agree and started walking off, but Corvayne jogged to keep up.

Stepping away from the green wood table, they only had to go through a pair of seats before they arrived at a green wood arch out to what looked like a patio under a fabric awning. Corvayne saw that one side was open, granting him a view of a city made from curled blue buildings, sort of like twisted horns decked with lights rising out of a moon lit desert. It looked like it was miles away and they were viewing it from hundreds of feet above the dunes. Turning, Corvayne could see trees with an opening to an open air courtyard. The space smelled of sawdust with a hint of crushed herbs, all sides wrapped in warmly lit lanterns. Completing a circle, Corvayne saw there was a bar opposite the railing with the view.

Lady Blood Claw actually smiled for a moment, then noticed Corvayne was looking and shifted from pink to gray. “It's trying too hard to be cozy.” She said with too much conviction.

“I don't think you need to look cool here.” Corvayne strode up to an Innkeeper, who looked very similar to the barkeep except with a wood pipe in hand rather than a cup. “Can I get a room?”

“Sure. You get what you pay for. Do you want to invite someone to your room?”

“Hari and Wick...” Corvayne said and dug in his ring for a pair of gold coins.

“A kingly sum. I'll arrange a room you'll like and let them know when they come.” The Inn Keeper clapped his hands then pulled a gold key out. “Third floor. Enjoy.”

Corvayne took it. “Is uh, Nyx alright?”

“He found a room with another traveler. Such things are common here.” The Innkeeper had a small smile on his face.

“Oh. Good for him. Seru won't be too happy though. I guess what happens at the inn...”

The man behind the desk nodded. “What happens at the Inn, happens everywhere all at once and never.”

Lady Blood Claw dropped five silvers. “Rolls off the tongue. Give me a room. Alone. With a hot bath.”

“Well within your means my lady.” He gave her an ornate silver key. Corvayne put a hand on her shoulder. “We'll leave when everyone's rested.”

She met his eyes. “If I didn't know better I'd have sworn you were looking forward to staying here.”

Corvayne didn't bother to confirm that, instead taking the key and heading up a flight of steps to his room. It was a spacious chamber, with a hard stone floor smoothed by ages of use and covered with simple patterned rugs. Even through his boots he could feel how nice the mix of hard and soft was. The chamber had tan desert stone walls with lively carved wood, shaped to form windows and gathering like roots into a bed easily large enough for three people to sleep like Hari did without disturbing each-other.

A small fireplace gave most of the light to the suite, casting shadows on the shaped wood tables and couches arranged around a table, probably for reclining while dining. A well lit alcove led to the bathing room, composed of dark stones and tiles all layered with something that glittered in magical candle light. A faint smell of rain and the forest contrasted what Corvayne felt was a sort of desert theme to the room. It was almost odd to him that it made him happy, as it didn't resemble even the larger homes of The Watchers. It was all a style he didn't know but made him feel as if he was home.

He drew a hot bath and took his clothes off, setting the Jam Jammies into his ring of storage, and feeling almost criminal relief as he freed his feet from the boots of running, then soaked himself in steaming water. He wasn't sure where the drain was, only that new fresh steaming water flowed into the tub and just as quickly left. A silver statue of a woman holding a blue jewel, a brass burning ifrit with a red one, and a quartz wizard holding a rain cloud suggested controls. He made the water lukewarm by placing his hand on the blue gem, then used the ifrit to bring it up to near scalding and sighed in relief. He didn't mind camping out to deal with the spoiled princess, but he missed being warm. Even in his little warehouse loft in Cascadia he could have set the temperature.

He was enjoying never-ending steam when he heard the door into the room open and an enthusiastic Hari chattering about how perfect the room was.

“I'm in here.” He said to avoid startling them. Wick stuck her head in, looked at the ornate settings, then at him.

“Nice fuck-pad.”

Corvayne let himself slip in up to his neck, heat causing knots in his shoulders to start unwinding. “For that to happen, Wick, you would need to convince me to exit the bathtub or enter it yourself.”

She looked like she was thinking about it, then waved her hand. “I'll let Hari deal with you. I'm more interested in seeing how soft the bed is.”

He saw a hint of worry cross her face, but figured they'd talk later about what she and Hari had been after. He wasn't that surprised that Hari was already pulling off her living dress and coming over to hop in. He was surprised to see Wick follow her in, unding her hair. The most surprising thing of all was that both them decided to just soak.

Which meant, of course, when they fell asleep he had to haul them out of the bath and over over to the bed before he got to pass out on what felt like a cloud.

He saw the eyes again. There was a field of stars before him, then they opened to even more stars weighted with liquid gold, staring at him with a marble sculpted face that was both familiar and alien to him as it looked like moving stone. Then she was next to him, the starry eyed girl. Her dress was flairs of orange with hair that glimmered like the sun on water. Little railroad earrings dangled from her ears, either tiny or thousands of miles wide, Corvayne couldn't tell.

They were sitting on a rock wall, watching people build something at a fork between two rivers.

“You're back....”

The girl turned. “I'm sorry. Keep going. Even when you want to quit. I'm looking for you too. Keep looking for me.”

Corvayne looked at her, and saw behind her dusk, and Nel'Ferral's three moons forming a triangle.

Then the diamond moon opened a huge black eye with a glowing yellow line, looking right at him.

He woke in a dark room with Hari on one side and Wick on the other, and took a deep breath. The details of the dream didn't fade as fast as they had before. Still, there was something else he had forgotten to do to...

Oh yeah. “Hmmm.... I'll distribute my points tomorrow.” He flipped the pillow to it's cool side and feel back asleep.