After the celebrations at the Otter, Enseth escorted his new friends to their respective resting places.
"Sleep well, my friend.", he wished to each of them. When the last one closed his door, he looked around him, searching with his headtorch... No more little friend to escort. A long and profound silence settled. He was alone in the dark, all the city was sleeping.
"No one requires my services anymore..."
Then, Enseth wandered in Daggerford's streets without any precise purpose. But passing by the River Shining Inn & Tavern, he saw some light inside. As he was staring at the tavern sign, a weird idea emerged in his mind and Enseth pushed the door. A man with a white sleep cap, a key ring and a candle in hand was obviously closing the inn for the night.
"Hello, innkeeper. I don't believe we've met. Enseth, Model Number Seven, designed and... "
"Stop there! We are closed! Can't you see? And turn off that light, you're blinding me!", shouted the man.
"Ho! I'm sorry, you are perfectly correct, Sir. Please excuse me. Now, I'm here to establish a room rental agreement between you and me, without any time limit clause if it suit you.", said Enseth with his monotonic voice.
"A what?"
"Do you want me to repeat, Sir?"
"No! Get out of here, you..." As he came closer, the man stayed flabbergasted wen he enlightened the Shield Guardian. "By my gammy leg ... We... We... We don"t serve... golem here!"
"I prefer the term "Animated Person" myself."
"Whatever, we are full. So, no way."
"There are exactly seven ways.", replied Enseth pointing his finger toward the key wall, where seven keys were hanging.
"Hum, yeah, you're right, but those are for the... you known... In case of the Council of Guilds has an unscheduled meeting, now be gone!"
"I found that answer fade and unconvincing."
"Maybe. Listen, I can't accept you here, our establishment is a very high standing place. Its fame dates back from ages, even before the ducal castle construction. Please go, someone might see you!"
"I can decry this story as being false but I don't want to tarnish your reputation."
"Look, our prices are far too high for your purse, I can assure you. Now, leave.", said the man starting to panic.
"As you can't determine my current financial status, your statement does not compute."
"GET OUT!", yelled the innkeeper while pushing the Shield Guardian out of his tavern.
"It's going to go 100% failure", announced calmly Enseth as he didn't moved at all.
"Ok, we have made a bad start here." The man stopped pushing the construct. He thought for a moment then said "Wait, I got it... We serve living beings only, here."
"Why?"
"Because, it's like that. It's a ... a tradition."
"Why?"
"I don't know why, but you can't stay here!"
"Why?"
"Because you SCARE people, that's why!"
Those words hit Enseth like no Hobgoblins could ever hit him. And, lost in his calculations, he let the man push him back on the street, slam the door and lock the locks. He was alone in the dark, again.
His steps led him to the ducal castle where, seeing the Shield Guardian, the sentinels opened a gate.
"Hey, look who's there. Clanky is back home. Haha."
Enseth erased from his memory the simulation in which he slammed the guard against the wall and pursued his way to his power station in his Master's laboratory.
Four hours later.
"Boot sequence initiated - All Stations: Online."
As a conclusion of a long calculation Enseth said,
"Not enough data". It didn't took long before he found what he was looking for in the library.
Enseth read the book.
Depression:
- A sunken place or hollow on a surface.
"Nope."
- A region of cyclonic weather.
"Nope"
- Feelings of severe despondency or rejection.
Lowering the book , he thought,
"Feelings..."
Enseth kept reading.
- Treatment of choice: Get a dog.
"Now this I can do."
Immediately, Enseth started searching the lab. On the table, a pile of strange components was gathered, metallic gears and plates, a beholder eye, a wisp in a bottle, gems, lenses and some various crystals. Then Enseth began the assembly as if he was following an already known schematic plan. After some times, the thing was ready. It looked like a metallic sphere with a single "eye".
"ORB1, boot up."
The drone's eye lighted up and he raised in the air. The sphere stayed there for a moment, hovering on the table and making funny noises and other bleeps.
Enseth would have smiled if only he could have done so.
"What about a nice game of chess, ORB1?"
"Bleep!"
[SBLOCK=ORB1]

[/SBLOCK]