Tavern

“Do we all agree?”
A council of seventeen professors from all around the country gathered, sitting in front of a young man. He was all polished up in a black suit, hair combed back and thoroughly shaved. Usually, he did not cut himself when he shaved. But on that morning? He could have put plasters all around his neck. He threw away the razor afterwards, saying it was too old, but he knew that it was from him shaking from nervousness. Thinking about the situation though, he had all right to.

“Can I really not get a second chance?” He looked at the professor the piece of paper laid in front of. That man sighed, clicked his ballpoint pen and signed. Then he moved the paper to the next professor. One by one the professors signed the piece of paper. The young man could only follow their hands with his dead eyes.

The last professor put down her signature on the paper.

“That was the last one,” she said and snapped her finger. “Secretary, guide him to the door. We are done here.”

“Of course. Please follow me out, Mr… What was it again?”

“My name bears no relevance anymore.”

He left the building. The brightness of the sun blinded him, but he cared so little that he just slogged himself to the train, following down the road straight to his apartment. He sat down at the computer, opening his mail. That was, what he always did. Usually, he listened to the news while doing so, the sunlight reflection annoying him in the monitor. But this time, there were no sounds but the electric, static fizz, no light beside a dim white from the monitor, as the curtains have not been opened for days.

They rejected it. Not like he would not have known that this will happen. But to go as far as to disqualify from applying again? It was his doctoral thesis. All his efforts combusted into nothing. There was no academic history book, no book about archaeology that he has not read. At first it was out of excitement. The idea to become an archaeologist. To go on adventures. Just to find out about reality from those books.

He glanced over to the corner of the table, a pile of white paper stapled together with a fat line of text: ‘Doctoral Thesis: Why it is important for Museums to return Artifacts’. For him it was solely a basis for future change, filled with references to previous academic works. But they portrayed it as a purely subjective interpretation, which to their perspective did not match the scientific purpose. Of course, that reason was enough to disqualify from reapplying again and to fly in seventeen different professors. Surely. He knew that it was how museums operated in the past. There was no word in his thesis blaming them. To him, it was more important that stolen artifacts were returned to their rightful place. Which was the reason for him changing the path of his life. From wanting to go on adventures, to leading a museum as its director. To be able to change the world a little bit by himself. But the result?
He wiped the manuscript off the table into the trashcan and fell into his bed. He looked at the shelf that was filled with books, spanning over the whole wall. All the history books he read, all the archaeologist’s diaries. His gaze went over all the rows of books, halting on the last one, in the farthest bottom corner. He pushed himself up, rolled over the bed and sat down in front of the shelf, pulling out the book. It was so heavy that he hunched over wheezingly. He dusted off the cover. Encyclopaedia of fossils. He opened it, revealing the first page. It contained a picture of a fossil, with descriptions attached to arrows pointing to different parts. When has been the last time that he looked at it? Probably on the last day before his studies. He flipped through the next pages. Second page. Third one. The fourth, the fifth, the sixth. But on the next one already, the yellowish tint of the paper was its only content. He closed the book again. It was heavy. Heavy, but empty. He dropped onto the bed again, a single tear rolling down.

“I should have just went on the adventures that I was excited about. I should have been selfish.”

His eyes closed.

‘Oh, lost soul. I will guide you. You can leave it all behind now. As you have abandoned your name, I will bestow you with a new one. From now on, you shall be called Aurelis. Achieve what you desire. Emerge, Primordial Sin of Selfishness!’

The next morning, he woke up by a penetrating ray of sunlight. Did he forget to close the curtains? Aurelis heard loud noises, clanking of metals and bumping of wheels and by far the loudest? Voices. People were talking loudly, some people even shouting, even though he lived in a usually quiet neighbourhood. The streets between the rows of houses were so slim, there was no possible way for even a car to fit through. He stood up, causing the floor to creak loudly. Aurelis looked to the ground. It was composed of rough wooden tiles which bent upwards. They were barely holding together. Walking over it barefoot would probably have left him with splinters every step. Then he noticed that even his clothes changed. From the suit that he fell asleep in, to what looked like the most standard brown linen shirt and pants combination. He really wanted to look into a mirror as soon as he found one. But a more important question arose. Where was he?

Aurelis looked out of the window, which was quartered by a rugged wooden frame. A stoney street pathed its way towards the horizon, providing space to merchants and their wooden stalls. The street was filled with people, mostly buying fresh foods, but also jewellery and… Weapons? He looked at a merchant that seemed to have a sword that was enshrouded by a purple tainted mist, some armour that glowed and many other things. His eyes lit up. Besides fossils, medieval weaponry has been one of the main drivers of his excitement for archaeology. Whether he could study those weapons? But there was no way for him to purchase them first. Before his thought has passed, a small sack made from cloth fell out of a small portal into his hand, revealing 20 golden coins. Was that really a portal?! Could he just get a hold of anything he thought of? He focussed on the image of the weapons, squeezing all his facial muscles. Nothing happened. No matter what he tried to imagine, no portal opened, nothing dropped into his hand. What were to happen, if he recalled the image of the goldsack? A portal opened under the sack, leaving no trace of it. Aurelis figured that it must have been something like an item box or a storage. He wanted to find out how much space it had. But there were other things with a higher priority to check off first. Aurelis looked around the room. It was kept very simply and looked worn down. If it was some kind of motel, surely the owners could tell him more about this place.

With a bright smile he made his way out of the room, following the corridor down the stairs. He ended up in a huge open room filled with worn-down tables and chairs. The walls had cracks everywhere. On one side there was a bar pulling along the wall, barely broad enough to fit in one man. At least the giant middle-aged man that was standing behind it. A long, bushy moustache contrasted his bald head. He talked to a young woman, probably in her early twenties. She wore a green dress over a white shirt, with its collar lying flat around her neck. Her blonde long hair rounded up her look. Besides them, the room was empty. Aurelis was confused at first, but then he realized that he must be in a motel that also ran a tavern. Then they noticed him.

“Good morning,” Aurelis said and sat down at the counter.

“Good morning,” they both replied hesitantly, exchanging glances with each other.

“Do you also serve breakfast?” Aurelis thought of a gold coin, which dropped directly onto the counter.

Both seemingly stopped breathing for a second.

“Of course we serve breakfast, dear guest. Just one moment please.” The man diced some green spherical vegetables which Aurelis has never seen before. “My name is Segard, I forgot to introduce myself. I am the owner of the tavern. That girl over there is Lumina. She is our server.”

“I actually have a double name, but the combination of them does not sound as beautiful. That’s why everybody just calls me by the second one, Lumina,” she said.

Those were quite some unusual names, Aurelis thought. And what parents gave their child a double name that doesn’t sound good? Not that it was the weirdest thing about that world so far. “My name is...” He hesitated for a moment. Should he just say his old name? Then the voice rang again in his ears. “Aurelis,” he said. He cleared his throat. It took him some time to realize, but did he sound higher pitched?

Segard grabbed what looked like three eggs of different sizes held together by some kind of crystalline stone, broke them open and poured the yolks into the pan. Aurelis tried to loom over the bar to see inside the pan, as he wanted to see whether the yolks looked differently from the ones he knew. Only then he realized that he was quite a bit smaller than before, having to lean over so far to see something. Was he still himself? Not that he was able to change anything about it anyways. Maybe he could find out more about where he was at least? “Can I ask you guys about this place?”

“You mean this city, boy?”

Lumina sighed. “Asking the obvious, as always. He won’t be from outside the borders.”

“That is what I consider conversing, dear. But thank you for reminding me.”

Outside the borders? That sounded even more interesting than what could await him inside of them. “May I ask what there is, outside the borders?”

“You don’t know? What an interesting fellow you are, boy. We call it the empty plane. Even though it is not quite empty.”

“Then why is it called that way?”

Segard sighed.

Lumina took over the word. “Humans are at war with the demis. They live outside of the borders. There aren’t as many anymore as there were before, because… Well.” She looked over to Segard.

The handle of the pan cracked in Segards hand. Aurelis held his breath and shrieked back. “Oh dear, didn’t mean for that to happen. I am sorry, boy.” Segard slid the prepared plate with scrambled eggs over to Aurelis. “Eat up. That is the best stuff we have here.”

Aurelis nodded only. What strength did this man have? Granted, he had arms thrice as thick as he himself had. Aurelis breathed out again. Either way, he felt like stopping to ask questions was the smartest thing to do for now. Aurelis loaded up the fork and dug in. His eyes lit up. “This is fantastic, Segard!” He felt like his vitals were rising, as if he gained energy. Not marginally but multiplied by a lot, in comparison to what Aurelis was used to.

“Forgive me, boy. You don’t need to hold back your questions. It is just not my favourite topic,” Segard said. Then he nodded over to Lumina. “Lumina loves to talk about it though.”

Aurelis nodded. He appreciated Segard. While it made the big man uncomfortable, he still wanted Aurelis to get his questions answered. But what had happened that a man like Segard did not want to talk about?

“To sum up, the human king decided that basically everything outside of the humans’ walls is considered an enemy. That also includes demons,” Lumina said.

Aurelis almost choked on his food. He coughed and pounded his chest. Demons? There were demons out there? Segard quickly handed him a glass of water which Aurelis downed immediately. “There are demons walking around outside, just like that?”

Lumina laughed. “Demons are not walking around outside. Well, mostly. They prefer to live in dungeons, but some of them leave them to find something to eat. The noble seven make sure though that no demons come close to the kingdom.”

The noble seven? Demons and dungeons and weapons that were glowing? Aurelis shivered from excitement. That sounded like it was more than worth to find out more about the world.

Aurelis finished the plate and thanked them. “I will be back tonight. I want to visit all the markets for now!”

Segard waved at him, smiling again. “See you later, boy! I will cook you the Segard-Special when you are back!”

Aurelis laughed. “That sounds amazing!” he said and left.

“Huh? Back tonight? Wait. Did he sleep in one of our rooms last night?! Segard, we are no inn," Lumina asked. "Right?"

"His pay was enough to cover our whole debt, so for him we are. We got to make sure he sleeps well. He can have my room. I will sleep on the ground behind the bar. Knows nothing, though, that boy. While having this amount of money to throw around? Quite odd, our ball of joy." He finished cleaning the pan. “Close the tavern for today, dear. I need some time for myself.”

“It still hurts you, doesn’t it? Thinking about what happened back then.”

Segard sighed. “It will never stop hurting, dear.”