The bar went quiet when she entered. It looked cleaner, but there were still good shadowy spots to talk with people about furtive requirements. Nikolette looked her up and down disapprovingly as she approached the bar. Irving slunk up beside her.

  “Lost yourself a good man. I can try to fill the gap,” said Irving.

  Flor looked over at him. She didn’t want to dress him down or insult him. Irving had been useful a few times and could be so again. She wanted to be harsh like she would have to someone acting so crass in the real world. But she was here to leverage people, not to burn allies.

  “Don’t get ahead of yourself, Irving. Alastair will be back before you know it. Don’t think you could fill his place, even though.”

  “He came in with a different woman,” said Irving.

  “Oh, did he?” Flor feigned outrage. “Maybe we should go hunt him down. Right now. Let’s go after him for being with another woman, because that’s worse than accepting that children have been kidnapped and taken to the keep for who knows what reason?”

  Irving floundered. Nikolette leaned forward and said, “You know he’s harmless, right? Irving?”

  Flor leaned against the bar. “Yeah, I just don’t want to be hit on right now. He should still be able to take a hint if he’s harmless.”

  “If I gather, he’s helped you in the past, just as I have. We can do so again?”

  Flor wanted to be direct. But Irving had always been planned as fodder for one of Alastair’s silly plans, not for anything so atypical as information or planning for what to do next. And Nikolette had always been a barkeep; while full of gossip, she wasn’t the sort to go gallivanting around. But something Kester had said about disposition stuck with her, and Flor thought that maybe the hint of coins, of which Flor knew that Nikolette was envious. She pulled out a single coin and placed it on the counter. She motioned Nikolette in closer.

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  “This is a token. We both know this single coin is worthless. But you and I also know that the Angry Onion is cleaner, sharper, than it was a few days ago, which is a direct result of the actions Alastair and I took.”

  Nikolette put her hand down for the coin, looking Flor in the eyes. “Yes, but you understand that there are costs associated with keeping a place cleaner, and nicer.”

  Flor kept her hand on the coin, even as Nikolette tried to pull it away. “I’m offering you this token for information. By itself, we know it amounts to nothing. But it could become something much greater if you allow it to.”

  “What is it you want?”

  “I want to know what I need to do next.”

  “I don’t know,” Nikolette said, releasing her grip on the coin.

  “Maybe you don’t know specifically, but maybe you know generally. Are you aware of the words persistent and perpetual?”

  Nikolette scoffed. “Every one of us with an ounce of smarts does. What’s it to you, though?”

  “Every other character I’ve met here with the smallest amount of persistence or perpetuity has had insight on how to proceed. I’m not convinced that you don’t, likewise, have some idea of how I’m supposed to move forward.”

  At this, Nikolette fully backed off. “I’m sure if I knew that I’d tell a friend.”

  “I haven’t made any friends here. So let me rephrase that. What can I do to become your friend?”

  “Are you saying you want us to put on princess dresses and eat mud pies and tea with stuffed animals while we talk about our dreams? Get real,” said Nikolette.

  “No, I’m saying I understand this is a game and that to get ahead I have to have information that isn’t otherwise available. You’re saying you’d give that information to a friend. I’m asking how to become your friend.”

  “No one has ever offered to be my friend before. So really I don’t know. I’d say help around that Onion, but I could pay someone for that.”

  “Is there something you need that you haven’t been able to get otherwise? Like, a fetch quest to get a special broom back, or something like that?”

  Nikolette thought about it, wiping the counter absentmindedly. “I’ve wanted a clock. The bar would look nice with a chrono behind it. Like the fancier joints. But I know they’re expensive.”

  “Is it okay if it runs a bit fast or slow?”

  “Doesn’t bother me, as long as it’s proper size to display.”

  Flor pulled out one of the slow chronos she had built earlier from loot pieces. “So this is too small?”

  Nikollete looked a bit shocked. “You carry that around in your pocket?”

  “Oddly, yes. Do you want it?”

  “I can’t display a pocket clock, can I? Get it a larger case, though…”