Archive of Our Own

Inn keeping was a lucrative business in Kanterbury: there were rarely shortages of monsters around the cities, and with them came the treasure-hungry adventurers, and merchants who were willing to pay anything so as not to sleep with them. Amongst these establishments was one famous enough to be named after the country itself: The Kanterbury Inn, ran by an ordinary, completely normal, run off the mill village girl.

“Dear customer,” Loraine said, donning her best smile. “Can you please spit out our other customer before I kindly give you a hand?”

“Sir, if you have to barf please do it somewhere else. Otherwise I might just have to put it back to where it came from.”

“You don’t have enough to cover your bill? Well ma’am, you shouldve thought about that before saying that all drinks were on you. Twice.”

Sometimes the hard part about being an innkeeper was figuring out who was drunk and who was plain stupid.

Thankfully for her, it was a Wednesday night: the bar closed much earlier than normal, which also meant less property damage to deal with. Most of the residents in Heavenhold were already bunked up in their own rooms while the ones who were late to the housing queue had long since gone out to reach their respective residencies.

Save for one person.

Loraine looked towards the famed Guardian of Kanterbury, the soldier at the frontline in the fight against the Invaders, who had fallen asleep on top of an old couch with cheeks pink from alcohol. They were hugging onto their helmet with otherwise sprawled legs, golden blond hair a tangled mess. If it was anyone else who saw this scene instead of Loraine, they might’ve even commented on the innocence of that dumb grin on their face.

A quiet drunk; One of the least troublesome ones to deal with, if you didn’t include the work it took to get them to pay. But don’t be fooled by their appearance. Most of Loraine’s recent headaches had started thanks to this very person.

The innkeeper carried away the last set of plates and mugs to be washed to the sink. She grabbed a towel before wiping off all the spilled alcohol from the table they had come from. Her movements were methodical and precise from years of experience, and even faster than what experience could bring. After washing the towel in a bucket of water, it was the next table’s turn. However, unlike the one before, this table bore a singed surface from a short-lived fight between that poor excuse of a blacksmith and an even poorer excuse of a goddess. Loraine made a small mental note to add its replacement cost to both of their tabs.

With the last of the tables done, Loraine stacked the chairs to one corner of the room before sweeping the floor of various kinds of trash: broken glass, splintered wood, a few teeth here and there…

It’ll all be worth it, she repeated to herself for probably the hundredth time. Only a matter of time before the princess and the guardian save what little was left of their country. Plus, Loraine’s business has been the most successful it has ever been since the inn’s anchor on Heavenhold. Many of the recruited help was either rich or had enough pocket change to drown their worries with spirits. A far cry from some of the dead weeks her inn had to bare through in Kanterbury. It almost made the Invader threat look favorable.

It’d be even better if this knight of ours didn’t bring in so many-

When Loraine turned to throw away some of the trash, she was met with a pair of drowsy blue eyes staring at her.

“Oh, you’re awake!”

Loraine’s face quickly donned that all too natural smile before the other party fully came to their senses. “And I thought I’d have shake you up a little. About time you got up.”

The knight, with the dramatics of having slept for a hundred years, slowly raised their torso with the help of a propped elbow. They rubbed their eyes and face. It barely seemed to do anything.

“Morning... Lord Smiley face…”

“Hm, I think I put my bat right around-”

That seemed to wake them up a little. “Hih!” They yelped and reclined back to the couch, away from her. “N-Never mind! Sorry about that…”

The knight looked sideways, then squinted at the clock on the wall with puffy eyes. “Wait. Is it… night time?”

“Two in the morning actually.” Loraine replied. “The little princess and the others retired to their rooms long ago. About time a certain someone did the same, don’t you think?”

“Eugh.” The guardian belched what was probably the contents of their dinner and the four drinks they had downed, contaminating the one meter radius of air around them. They looked at Loraine as if the meaning behind her words were taking a while to register. Then they promptly threw themselves back onto the couch.

“Alright, goodnight.”

This is the guardian of Kanterbury Loraine. You can’t kill them yet.

“Dear. Customer.” Loraine said now through gritted teeth. “You have a room upstairs. Look, either you carry yourself up to it OR you’ll get to learn what happens to drunkards who sleep past closing time.”

“I’m… not a drunkarf…” The knight yawned. They were back to cuddling that rusty helmet of theirs while burying their face deep into the cushions. “And I’m nshot sleefin… I’ll… I’m just keeping you company… till you finish…”

Their chest rose and fell slowly and their voice became a mere mumble, too quiet for even Loraine to hear.

“…who do you think you’re fooling?”

Loraine had half a mind to throw them out of the building and see how they’d like sleeping on the cold hard ground. And she had done that very thing in the past, thinking it would teach them a lesson. However, to her chagrin and perhaps to no one’s surprise, the knight had simply slept like a baby across the damp grass.

So, since Loraine did have some time before closing the inn and certainly no patient left to deal with a nuisance, today, she decided to let them be. Peace over war. Until she she was done with the inn, at the very least.

It didn’t take long for the floor to be clean of many of the bigger debris. The trash bin next to the door was now full, and with all of the tables wiped and chairs stacked, the inn looked almost as tidy as it did in the morning. That is, if you didn’t count the spilled drinks and the small shards of glass stuck to the ground. The planks shone with a caramel hue with the candlelight, though Loraine hardly needed to see it in order to feel the stickiness under her shoes.

What a mess… Loraine wondered if enforcing some additional rules around here would make some of her customers more civilized. Let’s see, double their bill with each broken glass? Though, hadn’t a previous copy tried that one once? The men kept breaking each others mugs in order to tick their friends off, and it had turned into a big fight at the end of it. It was a memory that didn’t go away with each iteration, no matter how much she tried.

Grabbing her trusty mop left leaning against the counter and finding a much better use for that bucket of water than as a wake up call, Loraine started to scrub the floor clean as best as she could. Some spots came off after a single swipe, while others took considerable force to scrape off from the ground. All the while, the clock on the wall continued to tick.

The only sound to be heard was that ticking. Other than the presence of an annoyance, it was a peaceful, quiet night. Even through the open window there was no breeze to sway the curtains. Still, the night air and the fragrance of grass had not trouble making their way through it, filling the entire building.

Loraine silently took in the moment. The end of a day could be exhausting, but she certainly didn’t hate this side of being an innkeeper. It was a precious moment when she had the whole building to herself, where time seemed to slow down to a more agreeable pace.

No more shouts, no more of that noise from the surrounding shops. No more snores from the knight’s side.

“Loraine?”

Sigh.

Still awake.

“What is it?”

The knight laid still, back turned against her. They didn’t say anything. If it wasn’t her trust in her hearing, Loraine could’ve even thought she imagined it.

“Is there something in our Guardian’s mind?” Loraine probed again while wiping under one of the tables. Fabric rustled. The knight shifted in place, but otherwise remained quiet. They did look up when a shadow fell on them though.

It was Loraine, whose smile had twisted into something way scarier.

“Spit it out already will you?”

“Uhhh….”

Drowsy eyes suddenly wide open, the knight gave her a nervous smile. “…what’s on tomorrow’s menu? Agh!”

Loraine flicked their forehead as they let out a surprised cry. The knight’s hands closed around the area to protect it from a second attack. “What… What was that for?!”

“For wasting my time.” Loraine placed her hands on her hips, suddenly tired. “Look, if you’re going to make me play guessing games then just be a good little drunk and pass out.”

“But I’m not drunk…” the knight’s hands lingered on their forehead as they mumbled again, this time with a pout.

“Again, who do you think you’re fooling…”

The pink on their cheeks still stayed at their rightful place, only slightly dimmer than just a few hours ago. It might take them a while yet to sober up. The innkeeper sighed and grabbed back her mop to continue the work while annoyed that she had even bothered. Sadly, next to being a treasure-trove of troubles, the knight was also terrible at following orders.

“…what are you doing?”

Their voice was still low and slurred, but much more clear now that they were lying facing outwards.

“Cleaning, as you can see. Don’t tell me all that alcohol fried your brain.”

“It didn’t…” they stopped to think. “…I think… But, isn’t it late…? Why are you still cleaning…?”

There was a time when customers would bet on how long it took Loraine to tidy up the place. It had never been longer than 20 minutes before.

“It was simply a busy night.” She replied nonchalantly. “Quite the rowdy band of heroes you brought, hm? It wouldn’t hurt you to choose a few with some table manners.”

“Ah…” The knight’s voice died down a bit. From the hesitation she could tell they felt at least some guilt. “It’s… I’ll try to talk to them tomorrow…” they drawled. “But it kinda hard… when one of them is literally a goddess…”

“Right right, not that I expect much from you. Let’s hope the bill will be incentive enough. I certainly am looking forward to what a goddess can cough up.“

Or how she could make use of a goddess’s physical labor. She didn’t even bother to hide the eagerness in her voice. They needed a new boiler these days, didn’t they? “And anyways,” she added, with a bit more levity to her words. “If I had trouble with this much, I wouldn’t be an innkeeper now, would I?”

“I guess not…” The knight hugged their helmet close. Even if they noticed Loraine’s plans they didn’t comment on it. The eyes that followed the innkeeper were barely half open. Still, they attentively watched Loraine as she rewet the mop once more and wiped the corners of the blazing hearth powdered with ash. The sight of them was almost akin to a child.

A certain child, mind you. Sometimes Loraine couldn’t help but wonder if there was a secret blood relation between those two. Or perhaps putting two simpletons under the same roof tended to make them eerily similar in some ways.

“You know…” The knight opened their mouth again. “Why not… get help from some of the androids?” They muttered. “It’ll be easier with more hands on deck, right…?“

“My, so eager to be of help.” Loraine said with a dangerous, and perhaps an annoyed smirk. “But I can’t help that you’re all talk and no action! Or maybe, are these the words of a volunteer?”

“…it’s not that I wouldn’t…” The knight’s gaze suddenly ran away from hers.

“Right, morning training with captain! We wouldn’t want our dear guardian to get rusty now.” The hypocrite lying on the couch nodded, albeit weakly.

Loraine was not foreign to the late night perkiness of customers; Suddenly all too eager to talk about nothing and everything with the eloquence of a kindergartener after a tooth surgery. It could be fun to watch them mumble their way through an absurd story, but that was when she wasn’t the one replying to their nonsense. If they were to continue like this, Loraine’s wind down time would quickly turn into a babysitting gig.

The inkeeper stopped and hummed. Making a show of it, she tapped at her chin. “Hmm… would you believe me if I said the reason I do all this by myself, is to protect others from a terrible fate?”

They knight perked up, eyeing her with a suspicious curiosity. “…a terrible fate?”

Loraine’s smile grew. “Of course. Just imagine, what if someone touched or saw something that they never were suppose to? We might just never see them again after that.”

And there it was: the trademark snide, threatening remark went a long way in shutting up lost annoying customers. What she expected was that satisfying look of fear, or perhaps some sort of trepidation. Anything to keep them quiet really. To Loraine’s slight astonishment, however, the knight laughed.

They laughed .

“Like that pirate photo of yours!” They said. “You don’t have to be embarrassed about it…. The princess said she wants to see it again. Something about a… Caribbean mode?”

No sweets to that little snitch for a week.

“Why does the inn have that anyways?”

“Alright, if you don’t stay quiet then I’ll just have to make you.”

The knight continued to laugh as Loraine wiped the floor furiously. Oh, they won’t be laughing when she gets a hold of their breakfast tomorrow. And what was bad about a little artistic choice? Loraine was allowed that much, wasn’t she?!

The knight’s laughter slowly died down before Loraine truly found a new purpose for the bucket next to her. Their eyes were closed. They gave a small sigh before pressing their head deeper into the cushions.

Loraine thanked all the gods she didn’t believe for it. Some peace and quiet at last.

“Hmm… Loraine?”

Or maybe not.

“What. What is it this time.”

“Thanks… for looking after us…”

The mop stopped.

The knight’s breathing was steady and peaceful. The fire in the heart continued to crackled, filling the space where there once was a rhythmic sweeping.

When the mop started to move again, it was slower. More careful. It lingered at the corners of the room under the watchful yet distracted eyes of its owner.

“ What’s this all of a sudden?”

“ Sudden?” The knight mumbled. They stifled a yawn. “I mean… It can’t be easy to look after so many people… I couldn’t do it… always burning food and... If I was by myself… I wonder…”

Loraine dipped the mop back into the bucket. The water inside was now a murky brown. There was little left to clean of the floor. Little left of anything really. There was an unusual relief that came with that thought.

“…why did you… stay with us after that day anyways…?”

The knight’s eyes were closed, but she could tell it had little to do with their drowsiness.

“Could it be,” she asked. “That this what you wanted to ask before?”

Silence. Loraine got the mop out and wiped under one of the cupboards. “Should’ve know it’d be something dumb.”

“…sorry to disappoint…”

“You’re forgiven. Now then, could you close the window next to you? It’s starting to get awfully chilly.”

The knight, for once, listened without saying anything. They rose slightly and fumbled around with the clasps of the window for what felt like an hour, with the skills of a child trying tie their shoelaces for the very first time. The night sky was partly obstructed by the reflection of the fire on the windows. The little sprinkle of lights beyond it were hardly visible from its glare. So was the candy shop the knight had built right next door, on behalf of a certain kid’s whining and surprisingly effective puppy eyes.

After they were done, instead of lying back, the knight stayed liked that for a while.

“Loraine,” they finally said. “Do you hate the Invaders?”

“Not particularly.” She answered honestly.

“And your inn can fly….”

“That’s right. Through I’d rather not do it too often. It takes an awful lot of fuel.”

“Then… why did you go that far to get the Champion’s Sword?” The knight’s voice was raspy. Confusion and hesitation, not just alcohol, slowed down their tongue. “Can’t you just… fly away from danger if you need to?”

Loraine wore back that smile of hers. Just when it had slipped off, she couldn’t remember.

“To protect others from a terrible fate?”

“…”

The knight’s mouth opened, then closed. While the sour look on their face clearly showed their dissatisfaction with that answer, their intoxicated brain seemed to have far more trouble grasping the meaning behind Loraine’s words than her possible intents.

“ My ‘motive’ is pretty simple.” Loraine decided to throw them a bone. “If Invaders were to be successful with their grand plan, I wouldn’t have any more customers. And it’s hard to run an inn without those.”

“But… staying with us after…”

“ Would you trust some snobby noble and their pet knight with a big task like saving the world? I certainly didn’t want all my efforts to go to waste.” Loraine looked   at their unsure expression. “Not everyone needs complex reasons to do what needs to be done.”

She cocked her head to the side. “You should know this better then anyone, right? Guardian ?”

To Loraine’s satisfaction, the question made the Guardian in question jolt.

“Wh-whaaat?” They laughed. “I don’t know what you’re...”

“Come now, it happens every time: A few drinks in and you suddenly talk more than you ever have in a single week, and then plop to the counter like a corpse.” Loraine placed a hand on her cheek with her most innocent smile. “Ah, how did it go again? That story where you got beat to a pulp by a forest troll?”

“Aaaaaaaaaa….”

The knights voice was muffled once again. This time it was because of a vain attempt in surpassing their whining under a pillow.

Loraine’s voice was dripping with sarcasm. “No need to get so embarrassed.” Revenge did indeed taste sweet.

“ To set the record straight, I didn’t get…!” The knight stopped, thinking back with even a deeper flush on their cheeks. “Uh… maybe there was a small bonk to the head…”

Loraine laughed. Amidst the crowd and ruckus of the inn, this was one snippet of a story that Loraine would’ve regretted to miss in all her time working as its keeper.

It was true that just like everyone, the knight could be talkative when they were drunk. But the topics of their slurred conversations would never be about themselves. Rather, they’d complain about the troubles they faced during a certain journey, or where they found those unusual yellow cubes this time around . Most often then not though, they’d ask about how the princess was doing.

Did she cause any trouble for anyone? Had she eaten dinner that day? What kind of adventures did she have this time? The last one was answered directly from the princess’s mouth itself, and it would be impossible to stop the kid once she started.

The knight’s head drooped down. They stared at the helmet on their lap. They slowly slid back onto the couch, though their eyes didn’t leave their focus. For a second, those blue pupils looked the clearest they’ve ever been the whole night.

“ It’s dumb, isn’t it…” they mumbled. “Getting clubbed by monsters, then deciding to become a Guardian.”

“ Simple reasons like that aren’t always bad.” Loraine replied after a final sweep. The floor was sparkling clean, as clean as it was that morning. “Everyone hates to lose. Pursuing power after a defeat is the natural course of this world.”

“ That sounds so cutthroat. I was 10. ”

“ Then what was the epiphany ten year old you had? That booboos hurt? Pointy metal stronger than wooden club? ”

A sigh. There came a crackle from inside the brick hearth. Maybe it was because of the closed window or the efforts of those last dying embers, but the inn was starting to become warmer and warmer. The knight continued, with a voice dipped deep in drowsiness.

“ Me and my friend… we were playing near one of the riverbeds close to our town.” They slowly started. “We always went there to get away from our mom’s nagging... Cross to the other side, and we could make shapes and towers with the mud on the riverbed…

“And… that’s when the trolls showed up.” There was a distant look in the knight’s eyes. “I guess we were really into it… we didn’t notice till they were right on top of us…”

Trolls, although weak, once used to be one of the biggest threats to the life of villagers in Kanterbury. She knew this because the adventures at the time made their living mainly through extermination commissions, and often had to visit Loraine’s inn on their way to those monster dens. Depending on their numbers, these commissions could easily put some villages in big financial trouble.

“ We tried to run away…” the knight said. “But the river was bad; It was full of rain water from last night. There were always stories of kids drowning trying to cross it... Only way out was through the way we came, the old bridge a hundred meters away.”

“You made a run for it?”

“ I screamed. All of the trolls looked at me, and I told my friend to run. ”

“ I see.” Loraine dumped the bucket’s content to a nearby indoor plant’s pot. “ And then you got beat up to a pulp.”

The knight grumbled. “And I got beat up to a pulp…”

The details weren’t too far from what she imagined. Just the kind of thing they would do, no matter the age.

The knight smiled faintly. “Thanks to them the villagers came rushing and scared them off. You know, mom gave me a good trashing after that… It was the angriest I saw her. Didn’t help when I said I wanted to be a knight afterwards...”

Loraine shook her head. “Who can blame the poor woman? That’s quite the decision after a near death experience.”

“Heh… yeah, I knew… But its just that…” they paused. “…when I stood in front of the monsters…”

It was getting harder and harder to hear their voice.

“It was… the strongest I ever felt…” they said. “It sounds stupid… but even if they beat me up… till I couldn’t raise my arms… or all my teeth fell out…

“… as long as she got away safe…”

A small whisper.

“I knew that… I could stand up… against………….”

…

Silence.

The only the sound was of the fire cracking and the rhythmic breaths too quiet to make out.

The whole inn had fallen quiet, save for the sound of a the bucket placed next to the counter.

When Loraine turned back, she found the Guardian of Kanterbury already fast asleep.

breathing. Not breathing.

Flesh. Stone. Biofilm

When [it] reached out and placed a ______ [blanket]_____

Face. Yellow hair? A ||||metal|||| helmet on the xxgroundxx

Next to it, -limb-, five_ protrusions at the end

[It] had the same ones, [two] on each side))) [It] looked at them with [its] ____???????

———

“Asleep at last…”

Loraine unraveled a blanket from a nearby chair and draped it over the knight. The helmet was lying at the foot of the couch, fallen from their grasp.

Her hands hesitated a little before readjusting the cover. They lingered just above its edge, around the knight’s neck, and played with the rough fabric’s seams.

She knew that flesh which looked so similar to her own was so much more resilient. But in the end, it was all the more immaterial in its essence. Temporary. Unlike her body, once it was gone, it would cease to exist for good.

But isn’t that why you like them in the first place?

Death had hardly mattered to Loraine. Its pity was deserved only to all who lived with a short expiration date, to those who were bound to their own flesh and ignorant of it.

Being much more superior yet made to live amongst them. She once considered it a curse.

This inn has a secret: Never look up while you’re eating.

The shadows inside were growing longer.

Under their shade, the tables, the floor, the gray curtains- it was almost as if they were washed a sickly purple from an unseen disease. The walls creaked under the weight of its source, and they sang a melody that only its brethren could hear. The dimmed candles and the fireplace flickered, over and over and over, without the telltale sign of that chill on the skin.

In the blink of an eye, the welcoming and warm building transformed into something -A nest? A trap? -

To —home—

It’s only a matter of time.

The fair innkeeper knelt next to the soldier in a forest full of tableware. Her _hand_ reached out, and carefully cleared the blond locks from that ??????? face.

“ Stand up against anything?” It murmured to herself. “Right, you’re just that kind of person, aren’t you? Our foolish, brave knight.”

How many times had Loraine bandaged this head? How many more broken bones did she have to mend? How much more could a body be thrown into danger before the inevitable, inescapable happened?

How much longer till she found out?

“Oh my charming, simple knight.” [It] whispered. A rare, bitter kind of giddiness was building up inside the creature.

“I can’t wait to see how long you’ll last as her [hero].”