“Well,” Gray started, “this is the first time I’ve seen that happen before, so I’d say…no.”

  Ash flexed his fingers a few times as he stared at the back of his hand, wondering if that meant he could summon that slab again too. However try as he might, nothing came to him, not even the gun he hadn’t managed to shoot a second time yet.

  “What about Forin, or Vandal? They’ve been doing this for a long time, haven’t they?”

  Gray crossed his arms as he quietly hummed to himself in thought. “Forin’s probably your best bet since Vandal won’t be back for another few days. You’re welcome to tag along while I give him my report,” he gave him a knowing smile, “and you can back me up on how I definitely didn’t lose track of our precious new recruit on his first, somewhat unoffical dive.”

  -/- -/- -/-

  As Ash and Gray approached the front entrance of the office he finally got a chance to take in how the front of the place looked now that they weren’t in a hurry. Two windows covered with black curtains on the inside flanked a set of two muted forest green double doors. In front of one of the windows was a signboard listing several drink specials written in differently colored chalk, and operating hours showing that the bar was open on weekend nights.

  “What’s this?” Ash stopped in front of the signboard, inspecting the times and drink names. “The bar stuff wasn’t just for show?”

  “Just on the weekends, but with how few customers we get it’s basically more of a hobby than a business.” Gray walked over to look over the names, double checking for any spelling mistakes. “We probably get more regulars than Gatsby’s, but that’s not saying much.”

  “Who runs the bar?”

  “None other than yours truly.” Gray placed a hand on his chest. “Dying didn’t revoke my bartending license, and having a business in the building that deals with living customers helps the place blend in.” Gray walked over to the door and the mark on the back of his hand shined for a brief moment as he pulled the entrance open. The bell above the inside of the door rang out, announcing his arrival, and Ash followed behind him as Gray graciously held the door open for him.

  “Ren ran the bar before I got here, but he let me take over since it was something I already had experience with.” Gray smiled again as the door slowly shut behind Ash. “Which by the way, our regular count shot up from 3 to a whopping 6 when I got behind the counter.”

  “A 100% increase? Pretty impressive.” Ash smiled back at him. They walked down the entry hall and could already hear booming laughter from around the corner that Ash immediately recognized as Abbey. A second voice was wrapped up in the mix, sounding a little quieter and raspy.

  “Sounds like the celebration started without you.” Gray rounded the corner with Ash not far behind as they saw Abbey mid punch directly into Ren’s shoulder.

  “You’re gonna knock me off my stool if you keep throwing those haymakers around.” Ren brought a weathered looking hand up to rub his shoulder through his plain, light blue dress shirt.

  “Oh you’ll be fine! It’s just a little jab!” Abbey transitioned from a punch to a light slap on shoulder instead that made the stool he was sitting on quietly creak with stress. Out of the corner of her eye she saw both Gray and Ash, so her lock-on immediately switched targets. “Hey! It’s about time!” Abbey leaped off of the stool she was sitting on, a familiar brown bottle already held tightly in her right hand. “Now that we’re all here we can start celebrating!”

  Ren gently spun around on his seat and gave the newly arrived pair a small, and apologetic smile that emphasized the wrinkles around his mouth. “Appreciate the rescue,” he looked towards Ash specifically, “I probably didn’t make a great first impression passed out like that, but I’m Ren.”

  “So get this,” Abbey cut in with one hand on her hip, “this dumbass fell asleep in one of the diner booths and barely remembers anything about the soul stream.”

  “They’re more comfortable than they look,” Ren tried to cover for himself, “and caffeine always makes me want a nap.”

  “He actually managed to finish two cups of that sludge too,” Abbey’s face contorted as soon as she remembered the taste, so she quickly took a deep swig of the bottle firmly placed in her hand.

  Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

  “It’s an acquired taste.”

  “People only say that when the taste sucks!” Abbey turned back around in Ren’s direction, which immediately made him put his palms up in defense. A heavy sigh left her lips before Gray butted his way back into the conversation. “Sorry to cut Ash’s welcome party short again, but I still need to borrow him for my report.”

  “I owe you another one then,” Ren spoke up as he retrieved a small rocks glass with an amber liquid in it from the counter. “I only planned on reporting the soul stream spot, but got pulled into that mess before I knew it. Haven’t had anything like that happen in a while.” He took a small sip from his glass and closed his eyes as he savored the taste.

  “You’ve had it happen before?” Ash spoke up this time, unable to hide his curiosity.

  “Not in this town,” he let out a small laugh as he cradled his glass with both hands. “Sure gave me a fright, but the inside of the stream was a pretty average Broolhaven sight. Normally if you get pulled into the waters like that what’s waiting for you down there isn’t pretty.” He took another sip that was more of a gulp this time with a satisfied sigh right after, a smile on his lips.

  “Is that you trying to sound cool and mysterious in front of the new guy?” Abbey sat back down on the stool beside him as Ren’s smile very quickly flipped upside down. “That’s not gonna work when he already knows you as the geezer who fell asleep after some shitty coffee.”

  “I was trying to go for the experienced sage kind of vibe,” Ren sat his glass down as he turned to properly face Abbey, “You know, like the bartender you can always count on for nuggets of wisdom.”

  Gray quickly whispered to Ash. “That vibe was why he ran it before I did.”

  “I don’t think he bought it.” Abbey grinned as she gently waved around her now empty bottle. “But if you wanna bartend still you can grab me another bottle.”

  “You two can workshop the sage act while I take our new recruit in for his first report.” Gray told them as he already started walking towards the other end of the room. Ash wondered for a moment if he should ask for a beer to bring with him, but he decided against it as he gave Abbey and Ren a small nod as he followed his chaperone.

  -/- -/- -/-

  Gray gave the door marked with the large “A” three knocks and then a small tap of the pet door with the tip of his shoe. It only took a few seconds after that for him to hear a metallic click from the other side of the door and the telltale slide of the door’s chain lock. With the door unlocked, he easily walked inside, leaving it open for Ash to follow as they both entered the dark, bookshelf lined room.

  Forin, and the rest of the room, were still only illuminated by the blue light coming off of his monitor. As the pair walked in, Forin didn’t bother to look up from his work, until he saw Ash close and relock the door and chain behind him.

  “Thank you,” Forin said right before a few coughs hit the inside of his mask. His eyes flicked back down to his monitor, but suddenly he looked back towards Ash as his typing suddenly stopped.

  “Your soul grew already,” Forin’s gaze seemed to bore deeply into Ash’s body, past his physical form and down to the core beneath. “What happened out there?” This time Forin looked to Gray, who already had a hand up, ready to defend himself.

  “Before you get worked up, let me at least give you the short version, and then we can unpack it from there, alright?” Gray asked, almost pleading.

  Forin nodded, giving him the floor to continue, but his eyes kept drifting back over towards Ash.

  “Ren dozed off in a soul stream, we scooped him back up, and even managed to send off the soul that made it in the process.” Gray counted with his fingers for each detail.

  “While the unregistered Diver,” Forin’s gaze remained on Ash, “waited outside?”

  “Not exactly,” Gray walked a little closer to Forin’s desk and rested a hand on it, “there were a few complications where small, really really small, protocol breaches were required.” Gray looked off to the side as he fingers drummed on the desk once one after the other. “Breaches that maybe, and I want to stress just maybe, resulted in an unregistered Diver being the one to make final contact with the soul inside.”

  Forin leaned back in his chair as he closed his eyes, replacing the current deafening silence in the room with the creaking of his seat.

  “So all in all I’d say it was a job well done. A job that probably doesn’t need to go into the official books, right?”

  Ash didn’t bother to say anything yet, but he was really wishing that he did decide to take that beer with him.

  Forin sighed as a burst of flame flashed beside him, revealing the dark arm that Ash had seen grab a book before. The new shadowy limb stretched its way across the room, past where Ash was standing, to latch onto the back of a chair. It picked up the seat with ease before it slammed it down, legs first, into the floor in front of his desk, followed by another chair with a loud thump against the ground.

  “Both of you,” Forin’s eyes opened again as he looked between the two of them, “take a seat.”