Dom Topper's Arc

Chapter 1 of 3

Dom Topper had one gold coin left, and he meant to turn it into a legend. He wanted the whole city of Despairia to speak his name. Not as a con man. As a great adventurer, brave and deep and worth remembering. So far, the city only knew his face. Women blushed. Men bought him drinks. He smiled and took what they offered, and every night he went to bed no closer to greatness. Tonight he stood outside a refined men's bathhouse, its arched windows glowing with colored glass. A crowd of men in towels waited by the doors. They pressed forward, all wanting the same thing: a turn in the private rooms hidden beyond. Dom heard the rumor whispered down the line. Someone inside kept a pair of glowing salamanders, sleek and marked with strange light. Whoever tamed them, the story went, would earn a true adventurer's name. Dom did not wait in line. He never did. He caught the eye of the doorman, flashed the grin that always worked, and slipped past the crowd. Behind him, men groaned. "That's cheating," one shouted. Dom only winked. Inside, steam curled through quiet halls. A woman in a keeper's robe blocked the last door. She held a lantern and studied his face without softening. "You're the one they talk about," she said. "The pretty stranger with no past." "They talk. I deliver," Dom said. He leaned close and gave her the smile. She did not blush. "Charm opens my door once," she said. "It won't hold the salamanders. Nothing false can touch them. They only come to a true heart." She stepped aside anyway, curious to watch him fail. The private room glowed. Two salamanders rested on a warm stone, their bodies shimmering green and violet. Dom knelt and reached out with practiced ease, the same hand that had opened every door in Despairia. The salamanders hissed and scattered. Their light snapped off like a snuffed candle. Dom lunged again. He knocked the lantern. The room went dark, and he heard the two creatures vanish into a hidden passage in the wall. When the keeper relit the lantern, the stone sat empty. "You lost them," she said. "They'll tell that story now. The famous face who chased the salamanders into the dark." Dom stood in the empty room, his one coin gone to the door fee, his grin useless for the first time. The charm had carried him past the line. It had failed the moment something real was asked. He finally understood the cost. A pretty face got him in. It could never get him what he wanted. "Where do they go?" he asked. The keeper pointed at the black passage. "Into the grove where they were born. The trees glow like they do. No liar comes back out." Dom looked at the dark opening. For the first time, he chose the hard door. He stepped into the passage after them.