Part 4

Back at the counter upstairs, the Innkeeper was smiling as she returned to her spot at the counter. “"You give Hamlin the message?”" he asked her.

 “"Of course I will have. He knew the time will have eventually come.”" she said in her sing-song voice, having become once more unstuck in time. “"The time and date was going to have been set long before you began to ask. Why question?”"

 “"Some of us experience time linearly, Eigen.”" he indignantly replied. 

 “"One thing I will need to know, why name it ‘'The Hissing Lobster’Lobster'?”" Eigengrau asked, looking at him quizzically.

"Why not?" he replied with a laugh. "Middle of the woods, it's perfect."

Eigengrau shook her head. "I disapprove."

"You want to know why I play Innkeeper though, right?" Vaust continued as he cleaned out the mugs quite badly. "It's because of you."

"What do I have to do with it."

"You can't leave Karand, and all of us are friends... mostly." Vaust explained as he spit in a mug and wiped the dirt out. "I got sick of us never having a good place to meet, huddling in disused buildings or borrowed rooms. In here, this is my domain, which means it's subject to my whims."

"To be young." Eigengrau smiled. The youngest God is the most practical one. Of course.