Over the last few months of 1850, Raven’s Loft did begin to get quite a reputation there in their ever-growing city by the sea. One thing it came to be known as was the saloon with the fewest number of casualties on a nightly basis. Not to say that there weren’t still plenty. New customers who hadn’t yet had the chance to be properly conditioned by Claire’s ‘special drinks’ arrived each day in search of their fortunes in gold; and being the most popular watering hole in town, these new men passed through its doors quite frequently. And there were flare ups between the regular customers and the new customers often enough that blood was shed on occasion; yet it was still less often than at any other such establishment in the city.

Another reputation that Claire’s business had attained was also most likely highly responsible for its very popularity. Word quickly spread that any woman working there not only had less pregnancies, diseases and consequences caused by such; but also that they suffered less violence of any kind than women working at any other establishment in the city. Word also made it around that these women were treated much more humanely in Claire’s employ than at any other male-run saloon in the city. And due to this reputation, Claire was quickly the one employer they sought after leaving much harsher working conditions at other similar businesses. Of course, the way these women all flocked to leave their other positions in exchange for one at The Loft did tend to make the place much more popular with customers, as well as much more hated by other saloon owners and brothel keepers.

Another problem resulting from Claire’s new policy towards the drinks she served was in her continually chilly relationship with Sebastian, who was nearly thirty now. He hadn’t called her on any more of her extramarital relations over the last three centuries again, but he did seem to avoid her and her drinks any time he could. After closing down for the night and preparing to head back home, Claire locked her office and heard a floorboard in his quarters squeak to inform her that he was once again having a difficult time getting to sleep.

She sighed slightly as she moved to knock upon his door, “trouble sleeping again?” she called through it.

“Aren’t you heading out?” he called back in a near mumble which she still managed to make out, as well as the wariness that had permeated his voice any of the few times he had spoken to her since she had adopted her new policy toward controlling those volatile men that frequented the place each night.

“A drink may help you sleep” she offered innocently, only realizing a moment later that that statement was likely to be taken wrongly, considering his cool disposition in the months since discovering what she planned to do to each bottle of alcohol in the place.

“No thank you” Sebastian returned with obvious bitterness.

Claire sighed heavily at the tone as she pushed his door open, yet remained standing outside, “afraid to drink here anymore, are you?” she couldn’t help asking as she watched where he had stopped his incessant pacing in response to her cracking the door to peer in at him.

Sebastian just shook his head back at her, “let’s just say I’m beginning to understand why certain… people” he decided on, “have such a problem with people like you."

Claire raised her brow at that, “meaning men in general? Other saloon owners? Or are we talking about some other people and some other trait other than me being a woman running a business?”

Sebastian scoffed as he looked away, his distrust and fear obvious, “better get home before the sun comes up, shouldn’t you?” he retorted bitterly as he refused to look back her way.

“I’m sensing you disapprove of the way in which I’ve run the business lately” Claire stated tiresomely. Another scoff as he continued to look away. Claire sighed again then before continuing, “I let you have your whores, didn’t I? And now we have lots more than even the ones you hired. I’d say that’s a win for you” she began as he continued to stubbornly refuse to look her way. Claire then added, “and I’ve kept them all safe and unfettered by unwanted children. And I’ve made this place the least bloody in the entire city. Which of those things has you so angry and distrustful, Sebastian?” she asked pointedly.

“Least bloody?” he mumbled with a bitter sarcasm.

Claire shook her head at that, “yes, I’ve shed my own blood on a weekly basis; every time a new shipment of alcohol comes in from my husband’s merchants. But I’d say that the results are worth it to make this place as successful as it is and more safe than most any other in the city” she argued.

“Safe for whom?” Sebastian complained as he moved toward the window to stare out at the nighttime sky above the various other business and merchant tents that had sprung up all around Claire’s saloon in recent years.

“For just about everybody” Claire retorted.

Sebastian answered in a mutter, “everybody who doesn’t want their own free will.”

Claire glared back at that statement, “so you think that what I’m doing is worse than what was happening here every night before I began adding my specific type of behavior modification to the drinks?”

“I’m thinking that mind controlling a whole fucking town is probably the type of thing that…” he just let his voice trail off as he continued to stare out the window with a shake of his head.

“That what?” Claire pressed, not letting him out of the sentence that easily.

“That makes people like my sister’s kind all think you’re so evil” he forced himself to finish as he looked back at her with anger as well as fear.

“So it’s evil for me to do anything I can to keep the mortals around me much safer than they’d be in this hellish city otherwise?” she retorted with her own anger and hurt.

“You’re taking away their free will!” Sebastian shot back, allowing his voice to rise only slightly.

“And they were doing so much fucking good when they still had it, weren’t they?” Claire returned with the same anger as she turned on her heel and left him behind with a slam of the door to his room.

When Claire arrived at the saloon the next night, she still was greeted by lustful looks from just about every person in the place; though they kept their tongues and hands in check a lot better than they had before partaking of her special drinks. As she moved toward the bar that Sebastian stood behind, he cast a dark look as she stepped around it to a place next to him.

As he began to move away in the direction of the stairs, Claire’s voice stopped him, “we’re pretty crowded and I didn’t bring one of Sean’s people tonight. Could use your continued help here at the bar.”

Sebastian sighed heavily, though didn’t turn his eyes back to her, “do I have a choice?”

Claire mirrored his sigh, more sadness than anger in it after a day had passed since their unpleasant conversation the previous night. “I’m asking you, not making you” she told him pointedly.

“That’s new” he mumbled. Though he didn’t make another move for the stairs, he also refused to look back her way.

Claire sighed again as she forced a smile and served another few drinks to her customers before turning back to Sebastian when she got another moment, “and happy 30th” she told him with that remaining sadness. As he offered no response other than another scoff as he grudgingly served the customers at his end of the bar, Claire had to speak again when she moved back toward him later in the night, “so, thirteen years you’ve been working here now, huh?”

Sebastian shook his head as he leaned back against the shelves filled with all those special bottles of alcohol, his arms crossed over his chest in annoyance. “Did some part of our conversation last night make you think that I’d be happy to indulge in idle chatter with you tonight?”

Claire sighed once more as she leaned back next to him, her eyes carefully watching the crowd as they always did. “So, do you want to leave?” she finally asked after taking a moment to serve another few drinks, trying to ignore the disapproval on Sebastian’s face every time a glass was filled.

“Leave as in go upstairs?” he responded as he finally turned a skeptical look back down to her.

“You’ve probably saved up a fair amount in the thirteen years since I gave you a job and home” she couldn’t help adding pointedly, “since your days of begging” she added that final comment before moving on, “especially in just the last two years since all this gold fever started and changed the business so thoroughly. If you wanted to, I’m sure you’d finally have the means to get your own place. I’m also certain Sean would give you a good price on the lumber and such.”

“You’re firing me?” Sebastian asked as several emotions briefly crossed through his aura then.

“No, I’m asking you if working here, with the way I run the place now; if it makes you so unhappy that you want to move on” she told him in an even tone as she continued to watch his aura.

“So, you’re firing me?” he repeated more loudly.

Claire couldn’t help a slight chuckle, “no, I’m asking you if you really are so unhappy here now that you want to leave” she insisted again.

But before Sebastian could even decide on his true feelings about her question, another customer arrived, slamming the doors open angrily as he did. He was a gray-haired man who looked to be in his fifties though well fed and in seemingly good health despite the robust stomach below his well-tailored suit. His angry eyes immediately scanned the room, coming to rest on the two of them standing there behind the bar watching him warily, considering his obvious discontent.

He angrily pushed several others out of his way as he deliberately moved to the bar, centering a furious look on the two of them, “you the one runnin this place?” he barked the words on his approach.

Seeing the obvious anger permeating his aura, Claire swallowed hard, “what can I do for you sir?” she asked as she and Sebastian both stepped forward from where they had still been leaning back on the shelf.

“I wasn’t talkin to you bitch! And you let your whores run bar with you?” he asked Sebastian angrily as he turned his cold gaze on him.

Before Sebastian could respond, Claire retorted forcefully, “I’m not a whore sir, and what can I do for you?” she repeated as she centered her own cold look on the man.

“If you ain’t a whore, then I’m the goddamned king of England” he spat back at her.

“Actually he was much more attractive” Claire couldn’t resist with a bitter smirk.

The man scoffed with disbelief, “you let your pussy mouth off like that?” he asked Sebastian roughly.

“She’s not a whore” Sebastian finally got a word in as his own tone darkened in response to this man’s manner as well.

“They all are” the man scoffed as he cast another look over Claire’s tiny frame in the tight corset, “the point is, your place has been stealin all my business and all my whores; as well as stealin ‘em from every other saloon and brothel owner in town. Not that I give two shits about them others, but none of us upstanding businessmen are none too pleased with that turn o’ events!” he continued speaking to Sebastian only.

Sebastian took a deep breath before responding, “don’t see how you can come in here blamin us for public opinion” he returned, trying very hard to ignore the fact that he knew quite well that there was a very specific and slightly unethical reason for much of their success.

That was when one of the regulars standing nearby interrupted the loud conversation, “fuck off back to your own place old man” the customer told him with a bit of a drunken slur.

That was when the older man glared back and pulled a gun from his hip, firing it straight into the other man’s head. Ignoring the startled looks all around him as the others began moving away to give him a wide berth, he continued “now, as I was sayin” he continued to the two behind the bar, “I want my whores and my customers back by tomorrow evenin or there’ll be more bullets for you and your pretty lil’ piece o’ tail!” he finished angrily as he pushed his way through the crowd who easily moved back as he huffily left.

Staring daggers after him, Claire had to use every bit of willpower to not rush forward to make the man pay dearly for the life he had taken. She more than wanted to do just that, but had to force herself to remember the mortals surrounding her. It was true that most of them were bound, but there were still a few among them who were newer to the establishment and not fully bound yet after all. Therefore, her overwhelming desire to show the man exactly what kind of a mistake he had just made had to be put in check for the sake of the Masquerade; distasteful as she found it to let him leave without giving him a very forceful lesson about the error of his ways.

“And why didn’t you stop him?” Sebastian asked her accusingly.

“Stop him?” Claire returned, her anger at their last visitor sharpening her tone, “I knew he was angry. But not every angry man blows another one’s brains out” she told him pointedly as a few of the other customers moved to drag the dead man outside.

“Oh like you didn’t know what he was planning to do just by looking at him?” Sebastian asked her in the same accusatory whisper.

“No, I didn’t” Claire stated plainly.

“Please, I’ve seen Sean repeat every single thing I was thinking before the words ever crossed my lips” he told her in the same perturbed but quiet tone.

“I’m not Sean” Claire growled back up at him. She then added, “and if you actually give a damn about men getting killed for no reason other than harsh words exchanged between them; then I’d say you ought to rethink my way of doing things. Because without it, there’d be a hell of a lot more blood and brains to clean up.”

Sebastian scoffed as he looked away again before speaking, “according to that asshole, he’ll be comin back tomorrow with more bullets for the two of us.”

“So he said” Claire stated in continued annoyance. She then looked back up at Sebastian, “this brings me back to my earlier question.”

“What question would that be?” Sebastian asked, only casting the briefest glance her way.

“Do you plan on being here when he comes back?” Claire asked him again as he turned to get a mop and bucket.

“Honestly, when you first proposed it, I didn’t know what I thought about the idea of leaving here after thirteen years” he began as he leaned upon the mop with a sigh.

“Has your opinion now been changed by our very unhappy competition?” Claire asked in the same even tone.

“He said that if he doesn’t get his customers and whores back he’d have a bullet for both of us” Sebastian repeated the threat, “and I think we both know that these folks ain’t never gonna go anywhere but here, for some reason” he added with a bit of bitterness, “which means Tobin there’ll be back with a gun pointed at both me and you; and I somehow doubt I’d be comin out of that situation any more alive than that man they just dragged out” he then leaned down to whisper in her ear, “but you’d do just fine on the other end of a bullet, wouldn’t you?”

Claire sighed in concession, knowing he was right, “so you are leaving then?”

“I think it may just be time” Sebastian sighed with defeat as he moved to begin scrubbing that stain from the floor before heading upstairs to pack his things; hoping that the next stain wouldn’t made by his own blood after all.