The Retired Abyss Innkeeper-Chapter 56: I Did Say Come Back and Tell Me About the Third Stop. The Sewers Also Need Looking At

Chapter 56: I Did Say Come Back and Tell Me About the Third Stop. The Sewers Also Need Looking At

The broth was still fine. And I still couldn’t account for the bowls.

I’d been moving tables for about an hour. That’s what my hands do when my head won’t sit still. The afternoon setup wasn’t wrong. Just outdated. It had been optimized for a roster that no longer existed, and with the second floor opening this week and at least five new guests who all had opinions about space, the current layout was starting to feel argumentative.

I shifted one table two feet east. Stared at it. Moved it back.

Then I wrote both positions down. No point committing early.

The broth was the real problem. I knew it. The tables weren’t helping. Either the broth is the problem, or the morning was.

I wasn’t prepared to blame the morning. It had been extraordinary in ways that had nothing to do with broth.

So I wrote lighter base, comparison batch, test on the list. Then I wiped the counter, because it needed wiping. Also because Brenne’s light remark was still unfinished on the lamp schedule. It had been sitting there since before Arveth showed up in the far wall, which I considered a reasonable cutoff point for unfinished work.

The north corridor continued to behave like a corridor. Voss came through the doorway, scanned the room in about two seconds, and said, "Road cleared finally."

He was already at table four. Same chair as always. The one facing the room. That was just where Voss went. I didn’t question it anymore.

Sera came down behind him. She did her usual sweep. Ceiling, fixtures, exits. Then she sat across from him.

"There’s bread," I said. "Cold cuts. The broth is there, but I’d call it a work in progress."

"Bread is fine," Voss said.

"Bread," Sera said.

I got the bread.

"Place was loud here," Voss said. Not complaining. "Heard most of it through the walls."

"It was a full morning," I said.

"The horned and the winged one," he said. "They local?"

"New guests," I said. "They’ll be on the second floor when it opens."

"And the old one with the symbols."

"Also new," I said. "He’s outside right now. Looking at the walls."

Voss nodded like that was entirely reasonable behavior for a guest. He’d learned not to ask the next question. He’d save it for later, write it down somewhere private.

I considered that progress.

I brought the bread over and set it down. 𝚏𝗿𝗲𝐞𝚠𝕖𝐛𝗻𝗼𝐯𝕖𝚕.𝚌𝗼𝗺

"You said you’d come back and tell me about the third stop," I said.

"It was everything the map said," he said, "and then more." He tore off a piece of bread. "First part was fine. Second part was why you don’t stop at the first part."

"That’s usually how stops past the second marker work," I said.

He pointed at me. "Exactly how it worked." He took a bite. "We got through it. Your guys were different out there."

"Were they."

"Everything else got harder to read the further in we went. Those two got easier." He kept eating, talking through it like this was normal conversation. "Like they were more themselves the further out from here. Clearest when it was worst."

"More present," Sera said, without looking up. That landed the way her corrections always did.

"More present," Voss said, completely unbothered. "And the three others."

I’d set the cloth down by then.

"There were three others at depth," he said. "Not what we ran into. They were in the field pressure the way solid ground is. Just there, but not waiting for us." He paused. Thought about it. "I’d have talked to them if we could’ve stopped. Would’ve been interesting."

"They weren’t waiting for us to act," Sera said. "They were waiting to see what we were."

There was a moment.

"Right," Voss said. "That." He tore more bread. "They were deciding something. Or confirming it."

He said it like he’d said everything else. Same tone as road conditions and traffic flow. He had a useful habit of translating incomprehensible things into route language and then continuing to eat.

I appreciated that in a traveler.

I was checking the schedule when Sera said, "You said ask you when I got back."

I put the schedule down.

"I did say that," I said.

"Third perimeter check," she said. "Eastern marker. Something ran a sweep on me. In layers, like it’s been doing that job for a very long time." Her hands were flat on the table. "It knew what I was looking for before I finished looking. The boundary condition was cleaner than anything I’ve seen in the field. And very old."

I finished the entry. Put the pencil down.

"Yes," I said. "Sounds like you got it right."

She looked at me.

"That’s not an explanation," she said.

"No," I said. "It’s a confirmation. You asked if you were right. I don’t think you needed the other one."

She held that for a second.

I picked up the cloth and went back to the counter. There was a ring forming from this morning. It needed dealing with. The bread was fine. The list was handled.

Behind me, she looked at the table. Then at me.

She didn’t push.

That was Sera deciding the answer was complete. She nodded moved on. She’s good at that.

"You’re sleeping alright," I said. Not really a question.

I could see her forearms from where I stood. The skin had that look. Like it had come back, but remembered not being there.

"Getting there," she said.

"Second season’s always cleaner than the first," I said. "In my experience."

Voss was on his second piece of bread. He was watching the Walker’s fog drift along the east corridor ceiling. The kind of attention you give a fire when you’ve decided it’s behaving itself.

He seemed satisfied it was.

I thought about the drainage while I wiped the counter. I’d been meaning to bring it up for weeks. The city’s runoff had been going through the eastern sewer channel since it floated. Torvel had surveyed the commercial routes. Vassara was passing through it. Neither of those counted as proper.

What I needed was someone to walk it properly. Check the walls. Check the integration. Figure out if it had settled or if it was the kind that surprises you later.

It was on the list. It had been on the list.

"I’ve been thinking," I said, mostly to the cloth, "about the eastern sewer channel. Drainage has been running through it since the city floated. Nobody’s walked the deep sections. There’s a dungeon dimension integrated into it from when we settled into the Abyss."

I wiped along the edge. "I need to know if the mortar’s holding. And whether the boundary between the dungeon and the channel is properly seated. Or if it’s going to need attention before I run the second floor’s drainage through it."

"There’s a dungeon in the sewer," Voss said.

"One main one," I said. "A few smaller ones."

"How do you get to it."

"Through the eastern channel entrance. I can draw what I have."

He was already leaning forward. That look again. A dungeon in a sewer was just a route problem to him. Newly available.

Sera said, "The boundary. Was it laid, or did it form when the city floated."

"I don’t know," I said. "That’s part of what I need checked."

Her right hand had opened on the table. Palm up. Fingers slightly spread.

She hadn’t noticed.

"I can draw you the section I have," I said again. "You’ll find the rest as you go."

"That’s the plan," Voss said.

Which was exactly what I’d told him before the last expedition. He returned it without irony.

I went to get the board.

[SYSTEM LOG]

Third perimeter check. Sera’s observation delivered verbally. Filed as accurate per keeper acknowledgment. Entry unchanged.

Eastern sewer channel structural survey. Proposed party confirmed interested. Route sketch pending. Dungeon integration boundary condition unassessed. Survey open.