A Reunion of Souls
Frost 11th, 123rd Year, A.o.S.
Frost 11th, 123rd Year, A.o.S.
I remember... I remember hanging on. Clutching onto hope against hope. That maybe... someday we would all be together again.
Sunlight had only started to bleed through some of the windows to illuminate the darkened reaches of the lobby. A new day had risen and with it the promise of another potentially productive day, though, the lights of the tavern were yet alight as the doors remained locked. Signs of the early morning risers were prevalent outside, the chirps of birds the first to reach the ears of those who had already started their day. And yet, even as the tapsters remained unmanned behind the bar, a lonely figure perhaps lingered there in spirit as he sat on the stool.
To think there were so many memories here. So much that took place with this tavern as the center of it all... He swirled the amber contents of his mug in thought as he reflected on everything, melancholic to the reality and perceptions which time had bled into this place. I guess deep down I still hope. Somewhere inside I still hold on. Though a heavy weight rested in his lips the lone memory could only smile, his deep blue eyes brought up to fondly gaze behind the empty bar.
Then there came a click at the door, the first sign of life as it approached the bar, and the hallmark of another passage of time to come. One day... maybe soon. He started to reason as the lone figure pulled his head to peer past his shoulder. Sure enough, with the door unlocked and opened, the first guest who had arrived today was none other than the bar owner himself. Rien.
Surely within the next hour the rest of his staff crew would arrive to work their shift, and before anyone else in the city would know it, the smell of cooked dumplings and other breakfast foods would start to fill the lobby of the tavern. We will be together again...
As the thoughts died in their resounding echo a glass switch had been pressed near the doorway, activating the glowing runes that would turn on all the other devices connected to the network. Every runecrafted instrument that emitted light would slowly produce a warm and welcoming glow, and then the lobby of High Hopes gradually grew illuminated to reveal nobody within. Rien had been the first to arrive, after all, though he would not be the only one within the tavern within the next hour.
...
The market-filled street bustled with activity now that He had awoken and departed from his familial home. A very strange dichotomy existed within Lykos as of now, and to a degree, he could only wonder and observe the reasons as to why that remained as such. Some of them were very obvious given the nature of his current existence, he was practically a singular soul whose current identity remained at the forefront. Or so he wanted to believe. What remained as a concept of the soul to Him remained perplexed, and to a degree, the Lupine Draegir had grown to feel that it was much more complex than what he perceived.
Regardless, He was aware of Himself enough to understand the control he possessed, but with that in mind, the echoes of his restored past just never seemed to cease. Rickter as he was before had much going on in his life, much that he had been cut away from, and now that it all came racing back it created a sense of a rift deep within Lykos. The immediate family he'd reconnected with through Telion evoked so much emotion, that it took nearly the entire night for the Draegir to process everything he felt. Literally everything.
From the resounding impressions Rickter held onto just before his identity had been stripped away, to the confusion born deep in His own heart now that those connections had been restored. And this is just the first day... The wolf sighed as He gazed further ahead down the Plaza, the memory of a very popular place quick to resurface as Lykos recalled his own particular first time visiting there. The High Hopes Tavern. There was something about it that was ever so quaint the last time he visited, then again, it was with his own fresh eyes and not with the mindset that his previous iteration carried.
Strange how that worked... How new a place could feel to one who saw it for the first time, when in truth it had been such a resounding constant throughout his prior life. The new and the familiar. Another dichotomy. Would such a principle also remain the constant within Lykos, or would the underlying suspicions he clung to dearly ring true in the end? Having been awoken by the servants of his familial home and spent the morning talking with Telion, she'd came to the conclusion that perhaps a bit of time spent reminiscing with His self could help.
Just a casual venture through parts of the city might help, and while she offered to accompany Him, the Lupine Draegir humbly declined with the reasoning that the twins would need her soon anyway. Besides, it wasn't like he would be going away again anytime soon. Not after the hell Rickter had endured just to hopefully return...
Nevertheless, the jaunt around Kalzasi led Lykos to bee line here, and sure enough the smell of the food enticed him just as the market stalls of the Plaza had. The High Hopes. A familiarly melancholic smile turned his lips a little as he felt the memories bubble within. The many nights Rickter spent here among friends, or doing a round of fisticuffs within the ring that Rien had set up in the lobby. Well, let's see what happens if I check in with folks here. Lykos did have quite a few places he'd need to do that with after all, just so that the people who knew Rickter before could be assured that he still lived... in a way.
Thus when He drew close to the doorway Lykos reached for the handle, and gave it a gentle twist to loose the knob and push the structure ajar. Funnily enough he felt warmth welcome him from the chill of the air outside, although, the Lupine Draegir was never cold in the slightest due to his sole Domain. Entering the premises his senses were immediately welcomed with not just the heat of the hearth, but the vibrance of laughter and conversation, and the tantalizing smell of those breakfast dumplings they always served.
A crowd had already filled the tavern seats throughout the tables and bar, but there still remained plenty of room for sitting depending on where one went. For Lykos his path was pretty clear, and while he thought little of the way he'd dressed, the sight of the familiar six foot and four inch Rathari did not seem lost on the present company. "Well if it isn't our long lost local!" A familiar redhead chirped the barmaid approached him, quick to greet Lykos with a quick gaze at his attire. Wearing only his leather pants and fur-padded vestment, it was understandable that some might question whether he was ever really cold or not.
But of course, that flicker of appraisal followed with a generous smile as Margo welcomed him. "How are you doing, Ricky?"
