The Gallery

A mini story by S.E.Estes
Part 2

She almost reached the door but turned back. Leine was disgusted with herself. "Face it, you're afraid." she told herself. The warrior in her fought back, "You're taking a big step, you need a moment to collect yourself." The warrior always won, it was why she was there. She spotted a dark place across the street and decided to wait a minute, she knew she could pull herself together. "Before the day is over, I'm going in."

As she crossed the street to hide she noticed something in the window of the building by her temporary haven. Brightness, color incongruous to the mercenary neighborhood drew her to the building. In the window were two amazing paintings, they belonged in a museum or wall of wealth not in the window of a bar in one of the most dangerous neighborhoods on Trader's Hand. Curiosity took her to the door, she wanted to see inside but she wasn't a merc yet and wasn't welcome in merc bars unless she was ready to sign a rookie contract. Even if she was ready she was going to sign on at the Dark Star, the best independent merc bar on Trader's Hand. She turned back to look at the famed bar promising herself to go in soon. She was about to go to the dark area to wait when she sotted the sign over the door where she stood, "Gallery." Her curiosity re-awoke and she decided it wouldn't hurt to take a quick peek in the door, she had to see what it looked like inside.

Leine expected to see hard people drinking in a bar, instead she saw art. The objects called to her, the colors drew her in. She looked around, wondering at how many works there were and wondering at finding them in a what must have been an old merc bar. The wooden floors showed ruts from years of scraping chairs, the wooden beams were scarred from fights and smoky from the great fireplace that still carried a fire. The enormous bar, which appeared to have its original stools, held vid brochures of numerous artist exhibits laid out to catch the eye. There were five wings off the main room and they were all filled with works. Leine wasn't ready for the Dark Star yet, the gallery was warm and inviting, so she decided to look at some of the art. There was so much and she didn't want to take the time to wander around so she went over to the bar and looked at the brochures. One that caught her attention was of Le Ro Ni, a merc, she sat down to watch it.

Her hard little smile didn't reach her wild warrior eyes. Leine wondered if her eyes would ever look like that, her life had been so tame before her decision to become a merc. "I am Le Ro Ni." she introduced herself, "Once I was a warrior, now I'm an artist, perhaps they are one in the same. It's my honor to say I fought on Zarral during the Thrall Wars and it's my fortune that I survived, multitudes didn't, slave and free. I didn't get out unscathed and my mercenary days ended. In soltitude I sought for a new purpose for my life, a reason to wake up, a reason to live. I thought a lot about the Thrall Wars and saw a lot of the vids, one day I decided I'd try to show what the wars were really like." A map of the gallery came up with Le Ro Ni's exhibit highlighted. The news vids of the Thrall Wars were what drew Leine to the merc life, she was intrigued to see what war looked like from the eyes of someone who fought there.

When she drew near she was captivated. A huge rock was cut to look like a cross-section of a world, the top was a region in the foothills of a mountain range that curved around the stone. Above it hung a sign, "Drea Crescent, Zarral". Steps led up to a bench that went around the rock so the top could be viewed. Cut out of the stone were figures in a vast battle scene, she sat down on the bench absorbed in tiny detail.

Part 2