There is something ancient and instinctive about the impulse to gather.
Long before anyone thought to write it down, human beings built fires in the dark and pulled each other close around them. The fire meant warmth, yes, and light, and protection from whatever waited beyond its reach. But it also meant something deeper and soul-significant. It meant: you are not alone.
In A World Reborn, there are three taverns of note: The Dragon’s Lair in Druth Cael, kept by Asrin Moore, which stood at the edge of the known world in the First Age. The second is The Tavern at Map’s Edge in Kairavija, kept by Marleigh l’Mer, which stands at, well, the edge of the map, in the First Age of Kairavija in the Second Age of Druth Cael. Both of these places exist at the boundary between the familiar and the unknown. And the third is the Duduck Inn, also in Druth Cael—designed by the Fíochmhuime, Breeshay, and run by its reluctant Proprietor, Merrick Goodwill. All three of them have a Proprietor who will not let you call them anything formal. All three of them will feed you before they ask you a single question. And all three of them provide a gathering place for wanderers, travelers, friends, and soon-to-be friends.
Asrin says something early in the book that I have thought about a great deal since I wrote it. He is talking to a young man who has arrived at The Dragon’s Lair without entirely understanding why, and he says, "Travelers who come here are not lost. They are searching. Searching for a truth, a glimpse of the unknown, acceptance. There are many things travelers seek.”
I wrote that line and then sat with it for a while. Because I think that is the truest thing I understand about what a tavern actually is, in fiction and in life. It is not a place you go when you are lost. It is a place you go when you are searching, and you need somewhere to set down the weight of the search for a little while. You need a counter to lean on. You need a warm mug. You need someone to look at you without asking you to explain yourself first.
All of my taverns do this. They are not simply settings. They are characters in their own right, and they reflect their Proprietors completely. The Dragon’s Lair smells of fermenting experiments and woodsmoke and the particular warmth of a man who has been keeping the fire lit for a very long time. The Tavern at Map’s Edge smells of roasting meat and fresh bread, and when Donovan first arrives there, exhausted and grieving and not entirely sure why his feet brought him to this particular door, those smells wrap around him like something he has not felt in a long time. The text calls it the familiarity of home. It is the first moment in the book where home is not a place he has lost. It is a place he has found without looking for it. The Duduck smells of cask ales and echoes with laughter. It is in the heart of Ithrynvael, capital city of Druth Cael, and although horrors have happened there, the people come together to support and sustain each other.
That is what found family is, I think. It is not the family you were given. It is the one that forms around a shared fire and stays.
The Tavern at Map’s Edge becomes that for the characters who gather there. Warriors and wanderers and healers and strangers who are, over the course of the story, slowly becoming something else. Something chosen. When Marleigh sends them off into the world, she does not say farewell. She says, "You will always have a hearth and a bed here. Please remember this, and do not hesitate to return to me.” It is the most Proprietor thing she ever says, and it is also the most human. Come back. You belong here. The door is always open.
I want to be honest about why I built it this way.
I grew up understanding, on some deep and wordless level, that belonging was conditional. That the people and places that felt like safety could be taken away, or could simply stop feeling safe, without warning. I think a lot of people understand that. I think it is more common than anyone likes to admit. And I think it is why the fantasy of the tavern, of the found family gathered around the fire, is so persistent and so powerful. We keep writing it because we keep needing it. Because somewhere inside us is a person who walked in out of the cold, sat down, was handed something warm, and was not asked to explain or justify or perform, and we have been trying to find our way back to that moment ever since. It was the title and theme of my poetry collection. It became the driving arc behind A World Reborn and The Hearthlight Cycle, at large.
The door is open. The fire is lit. The only thing missing is you. Please, come in.
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