That’s not a threat. No one paid me to kill her. So I won’t. I’m merely illustrating my point.
You just want to find the Daughters? Then no. You come to Flag if you want someone dead. Not someone found.
People talking about you. Heard some interesting things. You just come from Barriga. That true? If so, you got out just in time. I just got back from Sval. Came across Princess Dusk when I was heading back, along with a few thousand of her soldiers. Heading towards Barriga. Looks like Sval’s going to war with ‘em.
I don’t know, I didn’t ask her. Dusk don’t hire mercs. They got enough soldiers. I don’t kill for the fun of it. Just for the gold. And there wasn’t any gold in it, so I didn’t stick around.
Like I said, I didn’t make conversation with any of ‘em. Just saw them heading toward Barriga. I’d be scared if I was them Barrigas. Svals don’t fuck around.
It makes you wonder though. If all them soldiers heading toward Barriga, who’s watching the Sval City castle? I wonder if there’s any still there. I wonder if there’s any money to be made, maybe in siege. Just talking out loud.
I didn’t come to the H and H to talk. I just came to drink, maybe find work. So if you don’t mind, if you’ll excuse me, I think I’ll do just that.
DOZEN CLOUD, MERCENARY You know why they call it the Heart to Heart? It’s just a story, but a pretty one at that, if you’d want to hear it.
My time ain’t free, if that’s what you’re talking about. You willing to show some shine?
You see that jar above the bar? You see what’s inside it? It is what it looks like. That’s the story of the Heart to Heart. It’s said that Slay Happy, Boss’s grandma, she’s the one that started this place. She’s the one that opened the Heart to Heart and built Aorta around it. It wasn’t called the Heart to Heart then, it was just some nameless pub. She had money from merc work, from some conflict or another, who can tell? Anyway, it’s said that Slay fell in love with a scientist from Cervello that was out in the field. A man named Dreamless who was studying out in the swamps. They met while she was out there killing slithers for poison. Poison is good money if you know how to mitigate the dangers of killing slithers.
Anyway, they met, they fucked, they fell in love, you know how the story goes. A story old as time. Star-crossed lovers who love in secret because their relationship is taboo. Dreamless’s people, well, they would never approve of him loving a merc. He was a proper gentleman, a scientist, a Cervello, working for the university. And Slay’s people would never approve of her loving someone like that. They’d call her weak. Slay was a merc, a killer, a ruthless hard-ass, born and bred in the forests and swamps of Coeur. The people who knew of their tryst said it would never last, it would never work out. And it didn’t.
Dreamless eventually ended things. Told Slay that while he loved her, he didn’t see a future with her and that he was heading back to Cervello. Broke her damn heart. Any other person, they’d mope and they’d cry and they’d get over it eventually. But Slay wasn’t any other person. She wasn’t normal. She was sick in the head and if Dreamless didn’t want to be with her in life, then he’d be with her in death.
The day before he was set to go back to Cervello, she raided the scientists’ camp. By herself. Killed two dozen men. Not too hard—they were all soft men and scientists at that—but still impressive because they had the numbers. She saved Dreamless for last. He begged her to let him go, to think of the time they spent together. He begged her to let him live. Said that if she did that, he’d stay, he’d stay forever and they could be together. But she still felt the hurt. She didn’t like that someone had the ability to hurt her. Not with a knife or a bow but with their words and deeds. So she didn’t let him go. She didn’t let him live.
She took a knife and opened his chest. Split his ribs and pried them open right quick and pulled out his still beating heart. Held it to her chest as she cried. It’s said that she said that that was the closest she had ever felt to Dreamless. Holding his disconnected heart against her bosom. She left the bodies to rot and brought the heart back to the pub.
Until the day she died she kept Dreamless’s heart at the pub in a jar filled with some liquid that kept it from rotting away. She got it from the scientists’ camp. It sat next to the liquor bottles above the bar, and if anyone asked about it, she’d tell them the story. About how she stole Dreamless’s heart. About true love.
When she died, she left some letters and she asked that her heart be removed as well. That she wanted her heart to be placed in the same jar above the bar, that she wanted the jar to stay there for as long as the Heart to Heart stays open. Their two hearts together forever. And that’s what Boss’s father Biter did. He took out the heart himself. Same way his mother took out Dreamless’s.
That’s why they call it the Heart to Heart. The story’s kinda sweet, ain’t it? Makes you misty eyed just thinking about it.
LOLLIPOP SICK, INTELLIGENCE BROKER I don’t like to get my hands dirty. But if you need to know something, I’m your man. I know everything there is to know. Anyone in Aorta can vouch for me. Don’t go spreading it around, but I found myself a Librarian. And with the Daughters going around killing all them Librarians, information is a hot commodity. For the right amount of gold, I can tell you anything you want to know.
You’re in luck; I don’t even need to consult my friend to tell you that. People been asking about her recently. Molotov’s currently in Cervello. She ransacked the Choir, killed most of the A Capella stationed there, and set up shop. Molotov’s making moves. There wasn’t no riot, I can tell you that. That was a stone-cold siege planned by Queen Molotov herself. She started the whole thing. That’s what my sources tell me anyway. The Librarian’s not the only one who feeds me information. I got ears everywhere. Anything else?
King Crimson is still at Spinal City castle proper. Heard he’s sick, but who knows if it’s a for real illness or if he was poisoned? Molotov’s not the only person making moves. Princess Dusk is on her way to raze Barriga. King Abstract and Queen Complex are missing. The Split’s shut down so that no one can pass. Shit’s about to go south real quick. Everyone’s preparing for war, and the reasons aren’t crystal clear but the motive is what the motive has always been: control. Whether that’s through land or neon or men, it’s all about the same thing. Control.
The Spire? Nah, never heard of it. I can find out for you though. For a fee.
Can’t for sure tell you where the Daughters are stationed, but it’s close. They come to Aorta sometimes when they need to know what I know. But no one for sure knows where they’re living at these days. Won’t even charge you for that seeing as how it’s something I don’t know. Guess I overplayed my hand earlier. I know more than most, but I guess I don’t know everything.
Hey, maybe you can help me out. Daughters hired me for info that not even my sources can help me with. You all just came from Barriga, right? Daughters are trying to find Prince Stoic. You know, from Anima? Last I heard he was almost in Barriga. Backdraft, specifically. Probably still there since the Split’s closed. You hear anything about that? Hey! Where are you going?