November 17th, 10pm

She couldn’t really put her finger on the reason, but she knew that business had been slow over the last few weeks. The decrease in incoming customers had been noticeable even with the bare eye, she didn’t need to count her profit to make sure of it. Not much had changed here on this side of the Docks, at least not as far as she knew. Sure, the City Watch had been more faithful about their duties lately but their activities had surged and fluctuated for as long as anyone could remember. It didn’t seem like it could be the reason for her customers to suddenly stop showing.

Of course, business was usually better when the City Watch was hidden under whatever stone they decided to crawl from under when they felt like it. When one ran an establishment like the Cup and Club such things were to be expected. Half her costumers were those who had run into trouble with the law a far few times. And while the City Watch never patrolled inside the tavern, people felt more at ease when they weren’t patrolling outside of it as well.

She knew this and had long since learned to fine tune her business to the finer aspects that came with the trade. But this was something else..

She sighed deeply, leaning over the counter and putting her head to rest on top of her folded hands. Tonight was so called ‘happy hour’ though there was very little to be happy about at the moment. It was the one night in the week when she lowered her prices and even on this night most of the tables were empty and the few people that were seated there seemed either to drunk or too careless to get another drink of off her hands. Neither kind was very good for business.

A small bell alerted her off the fact that the door was being opened and closed. She pulled herself up to her full height immediately while smoothing out the beige apron she was wearing. She placed one hand on top of the smoothly polished surface of her counter and lead in, just enough to appear seductive but not enough to seem pushy.

“’Eve, and welcome to the Cup. What can I do you for?”