Suzette awoke, at first disoriented to be waking up in a strange bed. Seeing the bandages on her arms reminded her of the events earlier in the day. She needed to get moving and see what the hell is going on.

She was only wearing bandages and a nightgown. Her own clothes had been hauled off to the wash, but she spied a pile of clothes on a chair with her shoes nearby. Thick cotton paints, and a simple tunic were laid out. She blessed Adrianna for leaving her clothes that were easy to put on. As she was dressing, her hostess came in the door with a loaf of bread and some tea.

"I know you're in a hurry, but eat something and drink the tea. Then take this potion to finish the healing. It won't work as well unless you get some food in you to help things along."

Munching the thick slices of fresh bread, Suzette mumbled "Hasssomthinghappned?"

Adrianna looked like a worried mother trying to project calm and utterly failing. "Maybe, not sure. Ozzy and Aliester went over to the Tavern, but they haven't come back yet. And it's a pretty good guess my daughter went with them. "

"Went with them to the basement?"

"No, into the dungeon that's now in the tavern’s sub-basement. I went over while you slept. There's a note there for you.

Suzette downed the potion and grabbed another piece of bread. "Right. I'm heading over. Is Derek over there?"

"Oh, he's over there all right. When did he start drinking heavily before noon?"

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Derek was sort of sitting at a table. There were a couple empty flagons, and an open bottle of Hykernian brandy on the table. He was stacking up six shot glasses and pouring brandy into a seventh.

Great, something else to figure out. But not right now. Suzette ran down the stairs and then into the sub-basement. Sure enough, there was a staircase leading down to what looked like your classic dungeon door. A note was pinned to it.

"Aliester says the dungeon is about to burst from too much mana or mobs or something. That's a bad thing. The two of us are going into to kill a few rats. Be back in a bit. -Ozzy"

No mention of Zephyr. So, she wasn't with them when they went in. Of course, she might have already gone in. Would she? Of course she would she would have. Daddy was an adventurer once and she's definitely a Daddy's Girl. Best to assume Zephyr went in and was with them. Rushing in on her own wouldn't help. This all started when she had to fight one rat-kin on her own, a dungeon of them was beyond her. Meanwhile, time to figure out what is up with her boss trying to drain the stock of booze.

Derek was still there. Another dirty shot glass had joined the pile, and he had just poured another. Suzette picked up the shot glass of brandy and knocked it back down her throat, and took away the bottle from him. "More of this won't fix the problem. What's going on? "

Derek looked at her. He was seriously lacking in sleep and had a couple days growth of beard. Come to think of it, he'd been a little rough around the edges yesterday when she came in for the night shift. "Rats!!.... Stupid rats. I hate rats. And I hate Billy. And contracts. Give me back my bottle."

Underneath the empty beer flagons lay a stained, two-page contract with the ACME logo on it. She cleaned up the table. Wiped beer off the contract, and took a look. "This is the contract you signed when you sold Billy half the tavern?"

Derek nodded. "Never should have done it. Worse off now than I was."

"Why are you worse off than you were? What happened Derek?"

Derek pounded his fist on the table for emphasis. "Rats happened. That damned quest every day telling me I had rats in the tavern. Evelyn won’t set foot in the place with rats in the basement. And that was before the big ones showed up."

Suzette sighed. She put two shot glasses out. She put a few drops in Derek's and refilled hers, then corked the bottle. "Ok, right don't you start at the beginning and tell me the whole story."

Encouraged by the token offering of brandy, Derek told his story. Evelyn was the daughter of a tavern keeper over in Dalesford, about 30 miles south of Sedgewick. Derek had grown up there and wanted to court her, but her father refused until he showed he could run a tavern on his own. Tavern keeping was hard work and he needed a son-in-law to take over the family business.

Derek has sold everything he had and bought a rundown tavern here in Sedgewick. Most of the profits went to paying off the loan, but he was free and clear after five years. He asked again to marry her, and hoped they could make a life here in Sedgewick. But someone else was also after his sweet Evelyn. As well and she was torn between them. Her daddy was more pragmatic. Whoever came up with a dowry of 500 gold got Evelyn and was heir to the family tavern.

“And when Billy came round to see if you were interested in selling, you asked for 500 gold? " Suzette was scanning the contract looking for the trap she knew was in here.

"Yep, we dickered a bit. Billy needed a tavern to feed his workers. I needed gold. I asked for 2000, he offered 500 for half. We eventually settled on that and I rode down to Daylesford and paid her dowry. The money will go into the tavern there. In a way, it will come back to me eventually. Or would have.”

“I really should have read the contract more and thought about it, but I was in a hurry. The contract had some other stipulations. ACME wanted to make sure the tavern was a success, and we had to charge cash. Billy didn't want to run a tavern, he just wanted to make sure he had control of one. Part of the contract stipulates I’m responsible keeping the tavern profitable and have to run it.”

"You didn't charge cash? I mean, I do. Except for the regulars that you let run a tab."

Derek stared at his empty shot glass. "Yep, and that's a problem. See, in a small town, there isn't a lot of cash. A farmer has a lot of taters and carrots, not copper pieces. I need food for the tavern so the locals usually pay in food, hay, eggs, empty barrels or anything else I can use. I should have thought about that more. We agreed to a 'Simple profit arrangement'. ACME takes 20% and I keep the rest and pay the bills."

Suzette found that clause 'ACME will be paid a share of profits each month equal to 20% of the value of all food and beverages dispensed by the tavern. Payment to be in coin of the realm, regardless of how food and beverages were paid for.’

Suzette was trying to think about the taverns costs and coming to a bad conclusion based on how much non-cash business was done. "I take it that leaves you a bit cash poor?"

"Yep, and I could work that out, given time. Just need to make sure I take in enough cash sales to cover ACME’s cut. Running the tavern didn’t seem like a big deal. Evelyn and I could work here for five years, train a manager, and then head back to Daylesford. The contract says the tavern has to stay open, or I owe ACME the 500 gold back for breach of contract. But now she won't come."

Suzette was getting the picture. "Because of the rats?"

Derek let out a long sigh. "Oh, yes. Rats. She has a nasty fear of rats. And worse, her daddy got word of stuff going on up here. Daemons running around burning things, rats in the basement, adventurers coming in for quests. He's not going to let her move up here and marry a tavern keeper in a cursed village. Can't blame him really. I’m scared to death most days. Don’t even want to go down into my own basement."

"Shit. So, she's not coming. You're stuck here, daddy has the 500 gold already. He'll repay you...someday. Meanwhile the other guy also pays 500 and gets Evelyn. Your stuck here heart broken. And I get an alcoholic for a boss. Yep, this situation sucks. I need to go talk to Billy. "

Billy was at the end of the road by the creepy rune covered rocks. Vern was arguing with him. The new gal, Layla, was standing nearby looking bored. Her crew of workers had come into Sedgewick yesterday. They were milling around and didn't look happy.

At least there wasn’t dark mana leaking out of the ruins and down the road anymore. She saw that all the excess wood had been neatly piled up in a long line in front to the road and out to the tree line on either side. She could sense a large pool of dark mana behind it, held back like water in a damn. A ramp led up and over the four-foot-high pile of timbers.

"It's not going to work Vern, we already tried it with 5." Billy was pacing back and forth occasionally trying to look at the runestones.

Vern was adamant about his idea. "Well, maybe 7 will work. That's a magic number, I think. Layla, motivate your people. "

Layla had a talk and picked out seven of her workers. They lined up and, on her signal, ran up the ramp and sprinted for the city, trying to spread out. One by one, the huge standing stones lit up, and lightning arced down from the sky to incinerate the sprinters. Except the last. After six displays of thunder and lightning, one person was left running. He went about forty yards. Utterly surprised, he tossed his arms in the air shouting "I'm Alive! Yes!"

BOOM! The seventh stroke of lightning arrived.

Vern yelled at Billy "See, making headway. We just need more workers all at once."

Oh boy, Suzette did not want in the middle of this. She was not going to let anyone know about being able to see mana and her meagre knowledge of runes. Nope. Not her job. Which reminded her of why she was here.

"Mr. Billy, got a moment. Need to talk to you about this contract with Derek."

Billy looked at her, then put on a weak smile. "Sorry, Suzette. I'm busy with important stuff. Layla, explain it to her."

Layla was only happy to put the little witch in her place. "Did Derek send you up here? You have to quit letting men run your life honey. He's just using you as cannon fodder. He already came up here to talk once. And just like last time, the answer is no."

"He signed a contract. If he didn't like what it said, he should have gotten a better contract. You work for ACME deary, so just shut up and walk your little ass back down to the tavern. Derek can either keep doing the job he's supposed to do, default and face the consequences, or get some sucker to buy him out and take over. "

Suzette tried to be calm. "Look, I'm sure there must be something..."

Layla smiled. "STOP! Nothing you say matters. You want to help him? Just tell Derek to start renting you out by the hour. I know you love the attention, and he might as well get something for you shaking your ass in front of every man that comes in."

Calm left. It ran, and didn't look back.

"Oh, you have a spider on you. Heavens, a lot of them, let me brush those off. Eek! You must have a nest of them in your clothes."

Bugs began pouring out of Layla's clothes, as she screamed and danced around, swatting at them. Suzette stepped back, covering her mouth in horror. More and more insects poured out. Layla began taking off her clothes, stripping down until she was nearly naked. She was covered in insects, and kept slapping at her skin that was rapidly becoming covered in welts.

Everyone stared. No one knew what to say. Layla screamed in rage and started running back towards the village. Billy walked over to Suzette, eyeing the clothes strewn around and covered with creepy crawlies.

"Nest of insects?"

"Must have been. She should be more careful. That was really frightening."

Billy chose his next words carefully. "Look Suzette. I appreciate you trying to help Derek. I understand he's in some kind of bind. But just let him work it out. He'll figure out a way to make sure ACME gets it's promised cut. As long as that happens and the tavern feeds the workers, I'm happy. That contract can't be changed at this point. It's registered in the game, and at ACME HQ. Nothing I, or Vern, can do about it."

"You do a good job at the tavern. You're practically running it now. You have nothing to worry about, and your job is secure. Maybe avoid Layla though. "

Suzette nodded. Then she smiled, waved at what was left of the workers, and then at Vern. "Ok Billy. Thanks for trying. I'm going to go get lunch ready for everyone."

As she walked back, she re-read the contract again. Getting back to the tavern, she was happy to see Derek being forced to eat a sandwich by Granja.

"I have an idea, Derek. Sell me the tavern."

Derek took a second to think on that. "Sell you the tavern? But you don't have any money. I know none of you workers do."

Suzette laid out her points. "Doesn't matter. You want to leave, but can't unless someone else takes over the tavern. I can take it over. You run off to Daylesford and get married. If she prefers you to the other guy, your father-in-law will be happy to have you work that tavern until he retires."

"And you take my tavern here for free?"

Suzette shook her head. Nope. I won't cheat you. I'm here for 5 years already. I'll run the tavern, and pay you 10 gold a month, starting today. That's 600 gold over 5 years. I think that's fair considering you sold half for 500 and now it has a rat problem."

Granja walked back to the kitchen and came out with Betty while Derek considered. She brought a blank page torn from the back of a cookbook and a quill and ink. "She's offering you a good deal Derek. Go marry that little gal before she gets snatched up."

Derek made his decision. "You’re right. If someone writes out the deed of sale, I’ll sign it. My hands aren't too steady right now."

Derek was on his way in the next hour. Suzette sat down with Granja and Betty to talk about ways to run things better. Granja had been living in Sedgewick all her life and was eager to take on more of a challenge. Betty was happy to take over more of the cooking. Suzette insisted on working out a way to share profits if things went well.

They had just finished when the start of the evening crowd came in. The first was Sir Timothy with a following of a dozen adventurers. He saw Suzette and quick bow. “We have returned, fair maiden. Let’s start with a couple of rounds of Blud Dark.”

The other person was an older man wearing a dapper looking suit of grey cloth, and a white shirt. He took off his coat and derby hat and sat at the bar, looking at the kegs of ale. Suzette got to him after serving Timothy and his entourage. They emptied out a keg of Blud Dark fast. She really had to do some brewing and build up her stock.

The gentleman asked for a small flagon of each of the brews Derek had traditionally made himself. He made small comments, asked for the names of the ales or beers, and wrote in a small book. Eventually he asked for a small glass of Bludgeon Brew, and one of Blud Dark. He didn’t seem to be very drunk as he finished off the last of the beer.

Suzette asked him “Figuring out what you like? Need anything else.”

“It’s a hobby of mine, combined with my job. So many small taverns, each with their own distinctive brews. Quite enjoyable.”

“Glad you enjoy it. And the job?”

“Oh, not so enjoyable. I’m an inspector for Bludgeon Brew. It has a ‘distinctive’ taste that the company wants replicated both here in Genesis as well as in the other world. I’m happy to say your version is as bland and unappealing as it is supposed to be.”

“However, we need to talk about this ‘Blud Dark’. A nice flavor by the way. Quite dark, with a good head. It has some nice flavors in it that I’m not quite placing. But I quit like it.”

“But officially, we have a problem as you are guilty of several types of copyright infringement and have voided the agreement we have with this tavern, and tangentially with the ACME corporation. “