Asher Converse's Arc

Chapter 13 of 30

The coins came steady after that. Asher counted the till each night and turned the profit into things the room needed. He bought benches with solid legs. He bought a long table and iron brackets for the lanterns. The casks in the hidden cellar he left alone, sealed and stacked in the dark to be sold at a higher price at the bar later. Tucker leaned on the fresh bar and watched him work. The wavy hair fell past his shoulders. His gold chains caught the lantern light, the way they always did. He ran the bar for his share, and he knew how to make a room lean in. Asher had learned to keep one eye on him. Tucker admitted what he wanted without shame, and lately what he wanted had shifted toward Asher. "Place needs a name," Tucker said. "Men can't love a building with no name." Asher wiped a mug and set it on the shelf. He had chased this since the start: a rowdy house where wandering men and magic users met under one roof. A name made it real. "Elixir," he said. Tucker rolled the word around. "Elixir." He grinned. "Half these men will think it's a woman. The other half will think it's a cure." He tapped the bar. "Both come back." So Asher painted it over the door. He cut the letters careful and let them dry. By the time he finished, the crowd already called it by name. Elixir. Word moved through the Crossing the way spilled ale moves across a floor. Men came for the sound of it. Tucker poured two mugs and pushed one across. He did not drink his. He looked at Asher instead, and the look held. "You ever been with a lot of women?" Tucker asked. Asher set the mug down. He knew the question under the question. Tucker had shown his hand back in the corner room, and now he was pushing a chip forward to see the reaction. Asher did not owe him an answer, but a lie here would cost more than the truth. "A few," Asher said. His hand went to the gold chain at his throat. "Only that mattered." Tucker studied that. He nodded once and grinned, slow. He did not push again. He picked up his mug at last and drank. Something settled between them. He needed the man to run the bar, and Elixir needed a face behind the taps. The partnership held. Asher looked at the painted name over the door. The house had one now. Men would say it in the next town, and the next. Elixir was no longer a plan. It was a place, and it was open.