Whispering Verse

Sweeping the coins and banknotes under the counter, the bartender looked around casually. Seeing that no one was paying attention, he opened the bar cover to let the two people in. Then, he pushed open the back door that was almost integrated with the wall from the bar. When the two were about to enter, they each received a mask:

"You know the rules here. Watch out for your fellow newcomers."

"clear."

Miss Princes said softly.

There is also a tavern behind the wall. Except for the lack of conspicuous doors and windows, the decoration, tables and chairs are almost exactly the same as outside, except that the space is slightly smaller and there are fewer customers.

Miss Princes introduced this place on the way here. The back of the Seven Broomsticks Tavern is specially used to entertain ring magicians, and can only be entered by introductions from acquaintances. Compared with the relatively simple functions of Old John's Pawn Shop, Black Raven Library and Mr. Cowps' Night Shop, the Seven Broomsticks Bar has extremely rich functions.

The trade of magician casting materials, the exchange of books and knowledge, the sale of relics and even the gathering of magicians can all be realized here.

There are of course similar places in Torbesk, but they are not particularly safe. Compared with the Pearl of the North, only in Coldwater Port, which has a relatively strong atmosphere of freedom, can such a large gathering of ring warlocks exist.

The "freedom" here refers not only to the relatively loose municipal management of the dock area in Coldwater Port City, but also to the chaos in the dock area. As the most important port on the west coast of the Old World heading to the New World, Coldwater Port is completely different from Torbesk.

The owner behind this tavern is a local 9th ​​level warlock. Although Miss Princes couldn't tell the other party's name, the high-level warlock was enough to intimidate people who dared to cause trouble here, so if Shade wanted to have a fixed trading channel in Coldwater Port City, this tavern would be quite good.

Most of the ring wizards in the tavern wore robes or relatively loose coats, and they gathered in twos and threes to sit at the table and chat in low voices. There is also a bar here, with three men standing behind it. Two of them were ordinary people, wearing bartender uniforms and cleaning glasses. The other was a bald man in a sailor's shirt with anchors tattooed on both arms. He was a ring wizard.

Miss Princes brought Shade to the bar:

“I brought in new people and he wanted to be a regular here.”

"One pound."

The brawny bartender said, looking up at Shade who was wearing a mask.

It is another new expense, but this money cannot be saved. So after Xia De paid, he received a crimson coin. The coin is an ordinary item, used as a token of entry here. It is about two-thirds the size of a one-pound alloy coin. There is no pattern printed on the front and back.

With this coin, Shade can enter and leave the ring warlock gathering place behind the bar at will. Although the cost is a bit expensive, he thinks it is worth it.

"What's the news today?"

Shade was checking the coin, and the blonde girl with ruby ​​earrings knocked on the bar table and asked.

The bald man in a sailor shirt shook his head and answered in standard Delarian common language. His job is probably boring, so he talks weakly:

"Still old news, that sage-level relic has made people panic, and now everyone is worried that they will accidentally touch the curse. The church is still looking for the deep-sea mermaid who can use firearms, but it is said that there is no progress. The other party seems to be directly related to the evil god Relevance.”

Shade took a moment to react and realized that the "deep sea mermaid" refers to him.

"Speaking of which, have you heard how many mermaid statues the church has recycled now?"

This is what the bartender asked Miss Princess.

"As of yesterday, the information I received was about 13, but the total number of statues in that batch was 20. I still remember hearing a few days ago that the church has discovered at least 30 people infected with the curse."

"Your information is out of date."

The bartender shook his head:

"The number of recovered statues is 15, and the number of unlucky guys who were cursed is 72. The remaining five statues are missing. Now even we are prohibited from trading statue-like items. Who knows if there will be some madman after being infected by the curse. , thinking about infecting more people, we can force everyone to find a way to break the curse."

The bartender said, and then carefully looked at the two people's outfits, as if they were worried that there was a statue hidden under their clothes, and then suddenly took it out to give him a surprise:

"Last week we were here laughing at the misfortune of Tobesk's ring warlocks. Unexpectedly, it would be our turn soon. But let me tell you, it's good that there is something on Tobesk's side, otherwise Cold Water Port wouldn't be Has it become the unluckiest city in Delrayon this summer?”

He said with some gloating, and then poured two glasses of ice water and pushed them to the two of them. Just like the "72 people" news just now, this glass of ice water is free of charge, so it seems that the 1 shilling admission fee is still worth it.

"This kind of sage-level relic cannot have only one characteristic: curse. If we don't find a way to solve this problem immediately, something big will happen in the future."

Shade also joined in the conversation, not wanting to talk about how unlucky Tobesk's ring wizards were.

"Who says it isn't? But there is very little information about the relics. Even the Zhengshen Church couldn't find a way to deal with it for a while, so they could only contain the statues as much as possible."

"However, I heard that the sage-level relic [Mermaid's Dream] is related to a ritual called 'Sea Return', and the church is working in this direction."

Miss Princes said unexpectedly, and the bartender frowned slightly:

"Are you sure? I remember 'Sea Return' is a local folk song from Coldwater Harbor."

"I just heard it mentioned by others, and the church should know about it."

The blonde girl said, knowing that Shade didn't know the local folk songs, she hummed softly:

"The mermaid's song floats over the harbor,

Even the bleeding pirate ships lowered their sails.

The red ocean surges,

The beautiful girl went to the deep sea. "

Although she was just humming, Miss Prince's singing voice was extremely pleasant. She must have received professional training in music theory.

As for this nursery rhyme, it sounds like people describing the scene where mermaids appear and confuse pirates. It is not surprising that similar nursery rhymes appear in such a seaport city. But this reminded Shade of what he saw about the "pirates" in Flamel's safe house this morning.

The bartender sighed:

"Oh, I would rather believe that this is really a clue to solving the curse. However, no matter how bad things are, there should be no evil like Tobesk."

He paused suddenly, then raised his hand and slapped himself:

"Bah, bah, bah!"

He vomited several times into the bar in a very unhygienic manner, and then explained:

"People at sea believe that dangerous things must not be mentioned casually. The more dangerous things are mentioned, the more likely those dangerous things will happen."

"Ridiculous superstition."

Miss Princes laughed indifferently, but Shade appreciated this view very much.