By the time she walked through the doors of the inn, she had blinked away the remnants of her tears and hoped her face had not reddened enough to give her away. Drovas was sweeping nearby the entrance and gave her his customary glower. She had tried a couple of times to apologize to him but he wouldn't hear it, the dunmer seeming absolutely determined to think the worst of her. Though it made her uncomfortable that she could not get through to him, she realized that he was one of those people that just wanted to be angry. She was thankful at least that- to her knowledge- he had a measure of honor was keeping the story to himself.

Geldis saw her approaching with the tray of empty cups. "Well, how did it go?"

"Everyone loved it. Your brew is a hit!" she replied as she slid the tray toward him on the bar.

"Ah, wonderful. Now to see if anyone will come and buy it. Sometimes I wonder why I try with the way this town is dying." He moved to pick up the tray to begin cleaning the cups, but before he could step away Vanya stopped him.

"About that, there was an interesting woman I met who said you won't accept any more of her money?"

"Bralsa?" Geldis gave her an exasperated expression. "Look, I watched her go from richer than Councilor Morvayn to begging for septims for her next drink. I couldn't allow it to go on."

"Why did she run out?"

"The same reason as all of us," Geldis sighed. "The ebony mine here used to bring the town a lot of wealth. When the mine dried up, Bralsa and many others had nothing to do for a living. Most people left, but the few who stayed behind have been struggling. It's not only that she was starting to beg my other customers to buy her drinks that made me turn her out, I just couldn't bear to watch her fall apart anymore."

"Wow. How long has the mine been closed?"

"Something like...twenty years? Maybe more," Geldis shrugged.

"Twenty? Twenty years. I'm sorry, Geldis, how old are you?" Admittedly she would be a terrible judge of age for dunmer, but twenty years seemed a long time for him to just shrug it off. Fortunately, he did not seem to think the question rude.

"I was one hundred- ninety one when Red Mountain erupted, so that puts me at..." Geldis made a face as his mind worked some calculations. "Three hundred- eighty-seven."

Vanya gaped. "Three hundred... thr- what?" she stuttered in disbelief. This world kept getting crazier, she couldn't keep up. She felt absolutely infantile at twenty-six.

"Vanya, I must say that you bewilder me just a much as I bewilder you. You must be from a very far away land."

She simply nodded her head. "Yeah."

"How is it you came to be here?" he asked.

She picked at a grain line in the wooden counter. "I wish I knew."

Geldis mercifully did not press for more. "I can assure you that most living here are wishing to be somewhere else as well. The only reason myself and any other dunmer are on this island is because of that smoking mountain out there. You're not alone in your misery." He chuckled as Vanya looked up at him. "That's supposed to make you feel better, by the way."

She smiled as she quipped, "Misery loves company."

At that, he laughed. "Yes, yes! I may have to see if Councilor Morvayn will get that engraved on the Bulwark."

Vanya could not help laughing along with him. Geldis picked up the tray to head to the kitchen but again stopped. "Oh, here is your pay." He pulled a small bag from his pocket and slid it across the counter.

"Thank you." Vanya was relieved, feeling the weight of the gold in her hand. She had a few more days. She sat sipping tea at the bar as Geldis and Drovas served the few residents who stopped in for lunch. Geldis had left the teapot on the counter for her so she could refill if she liked. She wondered what it would be like to live for three hundred years. Could she live that long, now that she was here? The subject was on her mind through the lunch hour until the tavern cleared out and Geldis settled himself in his usual spot leaning on the counter. She filled her cup once more.

"Geldis?"

"Hmm?"

"Can you tell me about Red Mountain? You were there when it happened?"

"Yes, I was a young mer then," he said with a smirk. He picked up a mug and filled it part way with Sujamma, taking a sip."There are not many occasions to tell the story, everyone but young children know it. And you may have noticed there are not many children here." He leaned in with a conspiratorial smile, "Perhaps there will be soon if Captain Veleth can finally wrest Dreyla from her father, but you didn't hear that from me." Vanya's eyes widened at the bit of gossip.

Geldis continued, "As for me, I was raised in a place called Fort Pelagiad, it was an imperial settlement between Vivec and Balmora. My mother owned a tavern there, and though I never knew my father personally she gave me his name instead of hers. I remember the eruption as if it happened yesterday. I was smoking in the storeroom, shirking my duties, when I felt the floor shake. Soon a deafening thunderclap got me on my feet and I ran outside to see what was happening. The sky was nearly black with smoke, fireballs falling all over though thankfully not quite reaching our settlement. I found my mother and we were trying to secure our property when a great rift tore right through the center of the fort. Dropping everything, we ran with only the clothes on our backs to get away from the destruction. Some of my friends fell into the chasm, I saw them..." He had a faraway look in his eye for a moment before coming back to the present. "We were lucky to escape but the air was toxic, we could scarcely breathe and my mother fell ill. She passed on not long after." He looked down into his cup. "Her name was Drelasa."

Vanya shook her head sympathetically. "I'm so sorry. That sounds horrible."

"It was a hard time for all of us. I scraped by with a group of survivors. Vivec had been obliterated, Balmora was in worse shape than Pelagiad. We didn't know where to go but soon the Redoran guard showed up and aided us. Some stayed to rebuild but I left with a convoy to Blacklight. I stayed there for a short time until House Redoran gained control of Solstheim. I was on the first boat out. I opened this place up and have been here ever since."

"That's incredible." Vanya was in awe at the hardship so many of these people had obviously been through.

"I can only hope to do my mother's memory proud. This is the only thing I know." He gestured to the tavern. "I'm not sure what I'll do if the town is abandoned."


That night Vanya thought long and hard about what her choices really were. Ten septims a night was getting awfully expensive and there was hardly any work to be done that paid enough to live on that didn't require skill in combat. She could afford maybe four more days and then, what?

As her eyes grew heavy she decided that she'd go see Bralsa tomorrow.