“Alright, well that was fun.” Joe said as he got up to leave.

  “Actually,” Zoe said. “Could I come with you? It’s been a lot of system stuff lately so it could be fun to slow down and work at your inn for a bit, if that’s alright?"

  Joe shrugged. “If you want to, I don’t see why not.”

  “Maybe I can sleep on the kitchen floor again?” Zoe asked, looking up at Joe, begging with her eyes.

  Joe laughed. “I don’t think so.”

  Emma laughed. “So we’ll be staying in Foizo for a bit then?”

  “Yeah, why not? It’ll be fun. I’m not in a rush to get any more levels now, since I’m not keeping this class anyway. So stick around here and relax for a bit. We’ll have to get back to the capital soon. Or I do, anyway. Damn rental contract and all.” Zoe whined.

  Emma chuckled. “Sure. I think the cats will enjoy staying here again for a few days, anyway.”

  Joe nodded towards the door. “Well come stop by whenever you want then. You’re both free to help out, but I’m not paying you. You’re both more than rich enough now.”

  Zoe followed him out. “See ya later Emma. Make sure you give the cats lots of extra love for me.”

  “Always!” Emma called back. “Whenever I find them, that is.”

  Zoe followed Joe back to his inn and made her way behind the counter as Joe got to work checking on the rooms and getting the kitchen back in order for the next day of service. She looked around at all the empty tables, the scratches in the walls and scrapes on the floors where people dragged their chairs.

  “Not busy at this time, I guess?” Zoe called back to the kitchen behind her.

  Joe shook his head. “Not so much at the moment, no. Sometimes, if something’s going on. But most of the people staying here right now are either here for Flester’s Might or to explore Foizo during the day. We’ll get a few people coming back in the next hour, and the morning will be very busy. You gonna be around all night?"

  Zoe nodded, then when she realized Joe couldn’t see her, leaned through the kitchen door to answer. “Yeah, I’ll be around. Maybe a day or two, I just think it’ll be fun to meet some people, enjoy life a little bit. Get away from the constant dark dungeon diving for a few days.”

  “Great. Then I’ll leave the front to you.” He handed a golden ring to Zoe. “Food’s in here if anybody wants something. Either the stew you had earlier, or roast ryz with some mixed veggies and brul. 15 copper if they’re not staying at the inn, free if they are. I’ll get tomorrow’s breakfast prepped before I go, if you could watch it and make sure nothing goes wrong. I’ll get caught up on some of my council work, if you don’t mind?" Joe asked.

  “That’s fine, yeah. I could use some more cooking levels, anyway. Gotta work towards the hundred thousand feat somehow, right?" Zoe smiled.

  Joe laughed. “Yeah. Death by a million, cuts right?"

  “Or dices, in this case?" Zoe asked.

  Joe chuckled. “Sure.”

  “How do I know if they’re staying at the inn or not, by the way?” Zoe asked.

  Joe paused stirring the large bubbling pot and scrunched his face. “Ah, don’t worry about it. Free food. If they ask how much it is, just tell them the price. If they don’t, let em have it.”

  “Sure.” Zoe chuckled. “Sounds fine to me.”

  Zoe listened to the rattling of kitchen utensils as Joe continued prepping the following morning breakfast — a big pot of some bubbling soup filled with fresh herbs and colourful produce, and bubbling with foamy scum he kept scraping off the surface. The smell of fresh brul wafted from the kitchen and filled the inn as he pulled loaf after loaf out of the ovens in between scrambling what seemed like a never ending supply of eggs.

  When things settled down, he headed up the stairs to his own room and Zoe took over the kitchen duties. There wasn’t much left after Joe had handled everything. A bit of chopping for the salads people would be eating in the morning, and a few more boules of dough to put into the oven and then into the enchanted cupboards for storage.

  About an hour later, people started filtering in to the inn. The first was a young man with deep green eyes and short red hair, wearing a well fitted dark brown gown that reached just below his knees. He walked up to the bar and sat on the stool, looking up at Zoe.

  “Hey.” He said. “You’re new.”

  Zoe nodded. “I’m one of Joe’s friends, helping out for a couple days.”

  “Where’s Sue?” He asked.

  Zoe shrugged. “I have no idea. Haven’t talked to her in a few years, honestly. Hope she’s still doing alright.”

  “She’s doing great. Thought she’d be around today, but guess we’ve got you instead.” He said.

  “Guess so.” Zoe said. “Could I get you anything?"

  “Dinner? And a date?" He smirked.

  “I can do dinner. We’ve got stew or roast ryz today.” Zoe said.

  “I’ll take the roast.” He said.

  Zoe summoned a plate of roasted ryz, covered in a glossy light brown gravy with a pile of vegetables filling the rest of the plate and placed a chunk of brul next to it along with a fork and knife from below the counter. “Here you go. You been in Foizo for long?"

  He shrugged. “Couple weeks. You?"

  “Haven’t been around much lately, but I’ve lived here a while.” Zoe said.

  “Never seen you in the inn. You know Joe long?” He asked.

  “We met a few decades ago, at his inn back in Flester, when that was still a thing.” Zoe answered.

  His eyebrow rose. “Flester? You’re older than you look, lady.”

  Zoe chuckled. “I am. What brings you to Foizo, then?"

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  He shrugged and sighed. “Not much else to do around here these days. Figured Foizo would be a nice enough place to come and stay for a while.”

  “Has it been?" Zoe asked.

  “Sure, well enough. It’s an interesting town. Supported by the royals, but nobody here seems to embrace them. Feels like you’d all just get on with life if you stepped away from the kingdom like nothing happened.” He said.

  “Maybe. But maybe we wouldn’t.” Zoe said.

  “No way to know for sure, huh?" He sighed.

  A jingling of bells broke the conversation up as another person entered the inn. An older lady staggered in on a cane, her thin white hair wrapped around her quite large ears. “Evening to you.” She said in a wiry, frail voice.

  “Good evening.” Zoe said.

  “Oh my, you’re new here aren’t you?” She said, stumbling her way over to the bar.

  “I am. Just gonna be here for a few days. You need a room? Or something else?" Zoe asked.

  The woman summoned a pair of keys and waved them in front of her. “Already got a room, young missy. But some dinner might be nice.”

  The man Zoe was talking to chuckled. “She’s not so young."

  “Oh my, no?" The old woman smiled at Zoe.

  Zoe shook her head. “We’ve got stew or roast ryz, which would you like?"

  “Some stew would be nice.” She answered.

  Zoe summoned a bowl of the familiar looking white stew and placed it in front of the lady, pulling up a spoon from below the counter.

  “Thank you very much. The food here is always delightful.” She said.

  Zoe smiled. “I agree. Joe’s cooking is always a treat. Though, maybe I’m biased.”

  The woman laughed. “Maybe you are, dear.”

  Zoe leaned back against the wall, wiping down glasses with a dry rag she grabbed from the kitchen. Even if everything was more than clean enough thanks to the multitude of cleaning skills available at a moments notice, it gave her something to do with her hands.

  The young man and older women finished their meals and then headed up the stairs to their rooms, leaving Zoe alone in the room again. The sun had set, with the only lights being a few enchanted gems hanging from the walls that Zoe had made years prior for Joe.

  They weren’t enough, Zoe realized. They did the job and at least for Zoe were more than enough to keep things bright and cheerful. But they cast long uneven shadows across the floor as the chairs and tables obscured the light, and it made for a somewhat eerie atmosphere.

  Outside was still filled with activity, horses clopping down the gravel roads as they dragged carriages through the city. Hordes of people wandering to or from work. Groups chatting about their failed raids on Flester’s Might and what they could change.

  Zoe wasted away the hours wiping down countertops and glasses in between visits to the kitchen to scrape away the scum that rose to the surface of the bubbling pot of soup or pull out another loaf of brul from one of the ovens. It was a familiar, somewhat nostalgic routine that brought her back to her first days on Abyllan.

  The fearful, anxiety ridden days with just the slightest hint of excitement at the possibilities in front of her. What would she do differently, if she could go back in time, now? Would she change anything at all?

  That was always a question that bugged her, Zoe found. Life was good, now. Even if she had made mistakes, even if she had made stupid decisions and faced the consequences of them, the result was that she was happy, now. If she went back in time and fixed those mistakes, would she still be happy?

  Maybe those young, impulsive mistakes were necessary to bring her to where she was. If she waited even longer on getting her class, then maybe she would have died when Flester was attacked by the fire elemental. Joe would have, Zoe realized. If she weren’t around, and powerful enough to fend off the stray fire elementals that ravaged the city, then Joe and his patrons would have died a very painful, terror filled death.

  Foizo would never have been created. And who knows what would have happened to Emma. Would Zoe have even been able to find Emma again, even if she survived the fires herself?

  Zoe scoffed. Would Emma and her have even been as close as they were? Maybe, if things went well, Zoe would be better off, by some objective metric. More skills, more feats, more powerful class options available for her. But there was no guarantee of it. There was no guarantee of her being happy at all, let alone happier.

  It’s one of the things that made her love the time she spent with Sally every so often. Zoe could share her experience with the girl and save her from making the mistakes at all in the first place. She wouldn’t lose a future she loved, since that future hadn’t come yet, anyway.

  Maybe one day, Sally would far exceed what Zoe was capable of. Some day, hundreds if not thousands of years in the future, Zoe would be little more than a frail old lady asking for some stew compared to her. And that was okay, Zoe thought to herself. She didn’t need to be the strongest, she just needed to be happy.

  Zoe’s thoughts were interrupted by another person walking through the doors. A middle aged man with dark, graying hair and a rugged looking face with a nasty scar under his left eye. His well used leather armour almost seemed to squeak as he strutted up to the bar. He rapped his knuckles against the wooden surface a few times, scowling at Zoe.

  “Hello?” Zoe asked. “Can I help you?”

  The man scoffed. “What does a guy have to do for a drink around here?”

  Zoe laughed. “Ask for it? Like a normal person? I don’t know what you want, man.”

  “You dare talk back to me?" The man spat out.

  Zoe rolled her eyes. “Yeah. I do.”

  “Do you know who I am?” He scowled.

  “No, I don’t. And honestly, I’m pretty sure I don’t actually need to care here, either. You can leave.” Zoe said.

  The man scoffed. “Pour me a drink, wench.”

  “Get out, or I’m calling the guard.” Zoe scowled back.

  His eyes wandered above Zoe’s head before he clicked his tongue and stood up to leave. “Whatever.”

  Zoe shook her head in disbelief as he wandered out the door. It had been a very long time since she’d met somebody quite so rude, and it was a little bewildering. She didn’t catch his level, but he didn’t seem to want to throw down with her after he saw hers, so she doubted it was very impressive.

  Not that it made it any better to be rude if he was a higher level, but it just seemed so silly to be so confrontational when he didn’t even have the might to back it up. What did he expect to happen from it? Did he expect her to just suck it up and serve him a drink, for some reaosn?

  Joe came down an hour later and sighed as Zoe told him about the man. Apparently he’d stopped by a couple other times as well, though Joe had never seen him personally.

  “Does he just hate you for some reason? What’s his problem?" Zoe asked.

  “I don’t know. This is the third time I’ve heard about him. I think I’ll give the guards a visit tomorrow about it. Do you remember what he looked like?" Joe asked.

  Zoe nodded, and described the man to Joe.

  “Do you mind coming with me to the guardhouse tomorrow morning? They’d probably want to talk with you. I can see if Kenzie can swing by instead if you’d rather not though.” Joe asked.

  “Yeah, that’s fine. Screw that guy. What’s his problem? Why’s he gotta be so rude? That’s so annoying. I was in a good mood, and all of a sudden I’m just not now.” Zoe whined.

  Joe smiled. “Don’t worry about it too much. Just get back to relaxing a bit and enjoy yourself. Everything good in the kitchen?"

  “Yeah. I finished cooking all the boules you made, and the soup’s still simmering away. I think I’ll be the first to have a bowl t his morning if you don’t mind. It smells really good.” Zoe said.

  “When it’s done, sure. Be another couple hours for that, though.” Joe said.

  Zoe closed her eyes and took in a deep breath through her nose, enjoying the fresh smell of the soup. The warm, earthy tones mixing in with the bright herbal scents to form a delightful aroma that filled her with joy.

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