A Sister Land

Back in the inn, 6 was relaxing on the bed in his room. It wasn't the best, but for a village that hasn't even progressed beyond plain log cabins, it was luxurious. In all his travels, the bed was far from the least comfortable thing he would have to sleep on.

When he had to pay the innkeeper for his room, Trivrium had him put his hand in his pocket to receive the money he needed. He wondered how she got it.

Was it simply counterfeit money or did some poor worker come here to hold a job and receive the money in order for Trivrium to be able to pay for the living expenses of the adventurers who come here.

As he looked outside of his window that overlooked a significant portion of the village, he took note of the actions of the villagers he could see.

Although there were many who appeared to be working, tilling fields or repairing items, hardly anything actually got done. From the time he arrived in the village to the time he entered the inn, they had perhaps tilled 5 feet of soil. It was as if they had absolutely no energy for the tasks at hand.

The people of the village were truly listless.

Aside from the Cypius and Plono, the only other villagers he had seen thus far who seemed to be truly alive were the few children he saw relaying information, one man walking between the many houses of the village, and the innkeeper, and even the innkeeper seemed have his own circumstances. He had the air of regret about him, despite his attempts to maintain a composed and energetic exterior.

The emotional strength of Cypius' people was piss poor. The village almost felt as if it was already dying, turning into a ghost town despite the still present villagers.

6 made a note to ask Cypius about the man who seemed to be checking on the rest of the villagers before he left town.

He spent several hours feeling like a total weirdo for staring at strangers all day, not for the first time in his life.

The innkeeper was downstairs making breakfast the following morning. 6 had no dinner the night previously, as the innkeeper hadn't been expecting any guests and 6 failed to prepare any food for himself in advance.

A powerful aroma roused 6 from his deep slumber. It smelled like herbs and meat, warm food that would surely fill his aching stomach. In his mind, he was floating on the scent much like the cartoon characters of his homeworld were.

On the plane of reality, on the other hand, he was walking down the stairs of the inn haphazardly, his eyes barely open.

"I plead, open your eyes while you walk my stairs. I get little business, and I cannot allow my only customer to die right in front of my eyes. Breakfast is nearly ready, so take a seat. Carefully, I feel the need to add, else you may find a way to die doing something as simply as that as well."

"Hey, who told you I've died before?" 6 asked through a groggy morning voice, matching the appearance of a hardly conscious man pretending he is awake. "Was it the woman? The T one?"

"As you speak, I can slowly feel my former worries leaving me."

6 responded with a grunt as he sat down at the simple wooden table, across from the innkeeper. In front of him was a bowl full of something, and a wooden spoon.

"There's more stew on the counter." The innkeeper said, pointing over his back to the counter separating the kitchen from the rest of the small but quaint dining room. "Its made with wild ingredients gathered this morning or yesterday."

6 grunted once again, not caring if he was being rude.

The stew before him was the origin of the smell that woke 6. It was certainly different from the meals he typically prepared for himself, there was both flavor and care in the dish.

By the time 6's sleepy eyes fully opened, he had already drained his entire bowl.

"Cypius told me you were polite, albeit foolish, when the two of you spoke. Where is that demeanor now? Why is it that I get the boorish man who drinks stew like its wine, and Cypius gets yessir's and thank you's. Is it something about me? You could at least use your spoon, you know." the innkeeper stated while looking at 6 as if he were stupid. "You haven't even got any broth left for your bread. Honestly, children these days."

Whilst sloppily wiping his mouth on his sleeve, to the ire of the innkeeper watching him, 6 finally took notice of the bread near his bowl. With no hesitation, he immediately moved to stuff it in his mouth, aiming to eat it as quickly as he did the stew.

"Absolutely not! You put that bread down this instant or so help me i will commit Folrost's first murder." the innkeeper shouted. 6 froze with the bread halfway into his mouth, his attention split between the savory looking bread and the angry innkeeper. "You will not disgrace my hospitality and ruin my food like this. I do not care if you've had enough, you stand up, refill your damned bowl, and sit back down."

6 did not question him, as he was more worried about not getting food from him anymore than he was anything else. With his bowl now full and his seat retaken, he awaited the innkeeper's next words.

"Very good. Now pick up your spoon, which as you'll see on your right, I have provided for any non heathen customers, and you may have some stew."

6 took his time with the stew this time. Luckily, he was still hungry, so he wouldn't have to force himself to eat. He took his spoon and dipped it into the stew, bringing it up to his mouth and blowing on it to cool it down slightly. He then placed it into his mouth, chewing the savory meat and vegetables and enjoying it. He had to admit, it tasted even better like this.

"There you go. Taking the time to chew your food is basic etiquette, no matter how hungry you are. Now as you eat, you may decide you want some bread as well. Now when this time comes, you have two options. You may either pick up the bread, dip it into your broth, and then take a bite out of it, or, and I prefer this one for both flavor and etiquette, you may tear off smaller pieces of the bread, and in turn dip these into the broth and eat them whole." As he said this, the innkeeper demonstrated what he meant.

He tore off a shred of bread, dipping as much of it as he could into the broth without putting his fingers into it. "The longer you put it into the broth, the more saturated it will become."

6 began mimicking him, tearing off a similar piece of bread and putting it into his own broth.

"The trick is to not leave it in your broth for so long that it begins to fall apart. I personally prefer to dip it several times until it has reached the point that I prefer it at, rather than leave it submerged for the entirety of the time." The innkeeper pulled his bread out of his broth after dipping it several times as he said this. "Then you may stuff it in your mouth as you planned to do before, but this time you will get the full flavor of the dish from it."

6 mimicked the actions of the innkeeper, dipping his bread several times until he believed it was enough, before placing the entire piece of his bread into his mouth. It felt as though the bread was melting on his tongue, allowing the broth it was saturated with to spill throughout his mouth. It was one of the things he had ever tasted, and unlike before, he slowly took his time, savoring each bite of the bread and the stew.

"Now, I see a true man."

6 wanted to retort with a sarcastic comeback, but considering the man prepared such an amazing meal for him for breakfast, he decided against doing so.

"Thank you for the meal, sir."

"So now you become the man Cypius spoke of. I suppose I should avoid you whilst there is hunger in your belly or sleep in your eyes. Very well, ask what you may, I shall answer to my fullest capabilities."

"Did Cypius mention why I'm here? Not in the inn specifically, but in the village." 6 asked.

"Of course he did, daft child. Get on with business, yes I see all the strangers in the village, yes I hear a lot of things, yes I have information to share with you. So on and so forth, I'm really not one much for small talk. Say what is important and be on with you."

6 wiped his hands and mouth, this time with the napkin provided, and then wiped the rest of the sleep out of his eyes.

"I will apologize in advance if any of my questions are harsh or rude."

The innkeeper scoffed at his words.

"The rudest thing you can do is waste my time, which you are currently doing. On with it."

"Alright alright. You look younger than Cypius but my god you act so much older."

"No lunch."

"Woah woah woah lets not take it that far, sir. Okay, okay. How many people came through town in the months preceding the appearance of the spiders."

"Through town? Nearly a hundred in the 3 months leading up to it. But there may have been people who came to our lands but did not enter town. Cypius would know more about anyone like that."

"And out of those people, were there any that stood out? Especially ones that seemed to have their own world. A group of people who refused to interact with others, an individual who never spoke, anything suspicious at all?"

"No, people like that have certainly been here before, but none even within the last year. Honestly out of the 100, only 20 or so were unfamiliar faces. Many of which were from our sister land, Erver."

"Your sister land? What do you mean by that?"

"A sister land. Gods, do I have to explain that?" the innkeeper grimaced at the thought of guiding the clueless 6 through something he considered common knowledge..

"Fraid you do, buddy, fraid you do."

"A sister land, as in a land connected to ours from conception. Gods, like two siblings, they're related, but they aren't one entity. They are closely intertwined and basically inseparable."

6 nodded his head, pretending to understand what the innkeeper meant.

"So your lands are adjacent to each other?"

"That is the case for many sister lands, but not all. You can be sister lands and be located hundreds of miles apart from each other." The innkeeper said. He thought it was painfully obvious that 6 had no clue what he meant, and he clearly did not care to find out.

"How much do you know about the state of things there? Would you know if anything out of the ordinary took place in Erver?" 6 asked, hoping to be able to gather more information about the area, and potentially find another place to investigate before he entered the nest.

"Aye, I would. Before you get ahead of yourself here, that line of questioning won't help you." the innkeeper said with a smile that was filled with guilt and pain.

After a brief silence once 6 noticed the emotions on the innkeeper's face, he asked why.

"Did something happen?" 6 said.

"Our sister land was the one attacked by the spiders. Everyone who lived there is dead."