Chapter ten

We went to a nearby inn where a dark elf attempted to deny us access because we weren't dark elves, in fact I believe his exact words were , "This is an upper class establishment, we don't cater to vermin or wild animals."

He continued to berate us for even considering getting inside his inn while being lower life forms, his favorite adjectives for us included dirty , stupid , ugly and inbred. His tongue was very sharp as he told us exactly why he was better than us and that we should be sterilized for the good of the nine realms, unfortunately for him my sword was sharper than his tongue, a fact he discovered when I decided to remove said body part. I passes over the dark elf as he rolled around on the ground chocking on his own blood and gave him a swift kick in the balls as I passed for good measure. The dark elf woman behind the counter was much more accommodating than the man and even gave us a room for free, how very considerate of her. She asked us how many beds we wanted in our room and I said one making Sol raise her eyebrow at me but she didn't say anything or try to correct me.

We entered our room and Sol immediately took off the cloak I had given her and dived into the bed. I on the other hand dragged a chair that was in the room to one of the corners and sat down. Sol's head emerged from beneath the covers and she said,

"Why are you sitting there, aren't you coming inside to get some sleep? It is getting pretty late."

I answered her question, "I can't sleep."

"Is it because you have nightmares ? Its alright, I have nightmares too sometimes. I'll help you go to sleep and I'll wake you up if you look like you are having a bad dream."

"You don't understand, I am physically unable to sleep, I haven't slept in over three years. Every night the hours slowly pass by and even when I close my eyes I am unable to escape the rigors of life and find some relief in the sweet embrace of dreams, Nott(god of night) denies me even that small reprieve. Every night I feel myself slip a little more into madness as I lose a piece of myself for I have discovered to my woe that without sleep the mind starts to break down a small piece at a time. It is one of the many things that the gods have taken from me , one of the many things I plan to make them pay dearly for. "

She got up from the bed and walked towards me. She sat on my lap and looked up at me with tears in her eyes, "I'm so sorry. I have been in so much pain and suffering that sometimes I forget that there are people who have been through much worse things than I have. I am sorry that you have to go through something that nobody should ever go through. I have seen a girl go insane because of a lack of sleep and it only took her two weeks to break, you are an amazing person to have stayed three years without giving into the madness."

I looked at her and smiled a sad smile, "Who says I haven't?"

* * *

The next morning I slowly carried Sol over to the bed, she had fallen asleep on my lap and I had let her stay there all night. It felt strange having a woman in my arms and not fucking her but it didn't feel bad, just strange. I gently placed her on the bed and covered her with the blanket but she still woke up which was just as well because there were a few things I needed to tell her. I warned her not to go out of the room and told her that I had some business to take care of today.

As I left the inn I made it clear to the clerk that if anything happened to Sol I would find her responsible. She vehemently assured me that she would make sure that Sol would be safe.

I walked out into the dim purple glow which was what passed for sunlight in Svatalfheim and headed towards the place that the tournament would be held today. The prince had managed to tell me the place and time of the tournament before he ran away with piss in his pants.

I approached a large white structure, the only white structure in this gloomy black city and the only reason it was white was because it was built entirely from bones. It was one of the landmarks of Svatalfheim, the aptly named Colosseum of Bones.

It was the tallest structure in Svatalfheim, even taller than the royal castle and every year it would get taller because every person that dies within the Colosseum donates their bones to make it larger.

And I was sure that before the day was out it would be a couple of inches taller.