The Innkeeper

Chapter 2072: Queen of War & Conquest

"You know, this is quite unlike you," said Nulli as she poured herself a drink, watching everything happening around her. She did not pry into the secret or protected areas of the tavern, but her gaze did not shy away from all the public areas.

She was not looking for secrets, or even some gossip. She was just observing, taking in this anomalous event inside the fabled Primordial Garden that had remained inaccessible for so many for so long.

"Oh really?" Eclipse asked, looking at Nulli curiously. "What’s different?"

The only one even remotely close to the two of them was Little Crusty, but that turtle was lost in his own world, studying all the flowers that had been brought into the garden. All of them were entirely unique, created just for the occasion, or especially rare. With Nulli by her side, even Wu Kong could not act like a clown, so the two of them talked freely.

"Letting so many inside your garden. Aren’t you afraid they’ll ruin something?" Nulli asked.

Eclipse sighed, and shook her head.

"The garden is already ruined. The addition of a new realm messed up all the synergy and Feng Shui of the place, so I’ll need to start again. I’m just treating this tea party as a small vacation before I get back to work, not to mention I was quite curious about the Innkeeper. He’s nurturing an interesting human. If the human doesn’t end up dying, then he’ll grow up to be a real unique character I tell you."

Nulli raised an eyebrow out of curiosity, and then took a sip of her drink. Normally, Nulli would just play back time and watch Eclipse’s interactions with the human, but they had an audience, so she would wait until everyone left.

"How are things going on your end?" Eclipse asked.

Nulli shrugged.

"There’s a new war starting, and everyone is tense about it, but besides that well enough I suppose," Nulli answered. "I paid the Dungeon Master’s keep a visit. He’s nearly done with his current campaign and is getting ready to start a new game soon - should I put down your name?"

Eclipse smirked at her friend.

"You know well enough that I would need to leave this realm for that. It’s not time for that yet," she said.

Nulli shrugged, as if saying she tried. It couldn’t be helped, Eclipse was worse than the worst introvert - she hadn’t left her realm in forever!

"Besides that, there’s another Nexus event coming up," Nulli continued as her gaze fell upon Mary, who was followed by a crowd wherever she went. "I would have said that it’ll appear in about a century or so, but with all the deaths from the war that number might get pushed back. Who can say for sure? A Nexus event is basically impossible to predict."

Eclipse nodded, as if agreeing.

"Yeah, destiny is a real messed up thing. I always preferred karma myself," Eclipse said.

Nulli rolled her eyes at Eclipse.

"Let me think... what else is going on?" Nulli continued. "There’s signs of a new Broken Cycle in the Folklore realm, so that’ll be interesting. Oh, and there’s been an uninterrupted Energy Wave near the Void end. If that keeps up, we’re on for a new record."

Eclipse was finally surprised to hear something, taken aback by Nulli’s words.

"Wait, how long has the current wave been going on?" she asked, sitting up from her chair.

Nulli took another sip as she looked through the flow of time to the beginning of the wave.

"Approximately 901 years," she stated. "We haven’t had waves like that in ages."

Eclipse frowned, not nearly as excited as Nulli.

"You’re right, and you’re wrong. It’s not that we haven’t had a wave that big in ages. It’s that we haven’t had a wave that big in Ages! Since the end of the Primordial Age, to be exact. Have there been any signs of universal instability?"

Nulli paused, once more looking through the flow of time.

"Signs? I can’t see any. Doesn’t mean they don’t exist. What are you thinking?"

Eclipse didn’t answer immediately, instead taking some time to think.

"Theoretically, an influx of energy into the universe is not a bad thing. It’s a very good thing, in fact. But with Abaddon growing on the universal boundary, and the things sealed in the Primary realm, the slightest anomaly can cause issues. There was a Primal in here, right? I might just need to talk to him about monitoring the universal boundary."

Nulli shrugged.

"You know this wouldn’t be a concern if you just, you know, do the thing," Nulli said. Yet her words only made Eclipse sigh.

"You too, Nulli? You know full well that I can’t just ’do the thing’. Not yet anyway," said Eclipse, sounding troubled.

"No, not ’me too’," Nulli clarified. "I was just saying it could resolve your problems. I don’t really care either way. I can just step into the future at the point the universe matures any time I want. It makes no real difference to me."

Eclipse realized that she had mistaken Nulli’s intentions, but that didn’t relieve her. The universal boundary...

"It seems we have a guest," Nulli said, looking towards the tavern. From the entrance emerged Mary with an annoyingly persistent entourage of Dao Lords who wanted to take a moment of her time to continue their discussion. Unfortunately, she was uninterested in delivering specific answers, so there was only one thing she could do.

Lex had asked her to inform Eclipse that he would pay a flower on her behalf. Maybe going up to the Primordial Queen would scare her followers off. Unfortunately, her plan failed, mainly because the other Dao Lords wanted to see the interaction between Mary and Eclipse.

The rumors regarding Eclipse and the Innkeeper may have accidentally made the rounds, so now, as far as everyone was concerned, this would be an interesting exchange.

"It’s an honor to meet you, Primordial Queen," Mary said with a soft head bow, acknowledging a far superior being openly. "You as well, Primordial Nullith."

Before Eclipse could respond, Nulli walked up to Mary with an extra glass in hand.

"The honor will be mine if you share a drink with me," Nulli said teasingly, before winking at Mary. Her actions, though simple, gave all the Dao Lords pause.

What was going on? This wasn’t on the script. Was the Primordial Nullith flirting with the Midnight Tactician, Queen of War and Conquest?

That... may have been a new nickname Mary randomly earned by overly enthusiastic Dao Lords in an attempt to flatter her and get more advice from her. It had not worked, but the nickname stuck.