It was a slow day in K.O. Koffee. There had been a lot of those after the disaster and no one had yet come up with a epic name for it. No little title to put on the front of the book to be written. Not many people would probably ever know anyway about the real fight that day, just the little magic flinging ghouls ripping into the town.

They knew Clarke had written something as his fingers moved in the air but they never knew what except that the world had not ended in never-existence. They'd spent an hour trying to pry him out, anything to break into the pod but whatever it was made of had been sealed tight and proofed against anything they could do alone.

Eventually a new group had shown up, a team of black armored knights that had quickly spoken to Twinty in hushed tones none of the others could hear. They'd been quickly escorted from the scene, pushed outside the city and had their wounds treated in infuriating silence. No matter what they asked or pleaded or begged or screamed they received no answers until they were deposited on the street.

Twinty had all but disappeared from their lives and no amount of snooping had turned him up.

A month had passed and none of them had really gotten to say goodbye. The least they'd managed was to collect together a book, passages written by three different handwriting styles in the only way they thought Clarke might appreciate, and place it at a saved seat in the corner booth of the coffee shop.

Alouella came out of the back room and eased around the equipment strewn around haphazardly behind the counter, a new coffee machine in the works. A smaller one, nothing evil inside it, did the coffee making duties until the big one was ready, gurgling hot water through crushed beans. She kissed Gwen on the head and ruffled her hair as she served the last customer in line.

“Will you be okay without me for a while?”

She asked again. Alouella had been asking that a lot to the point that Gwen thought she either really wanted to be stopped or wanted her to come along.

This novel is published on a different platform. Support the original author by finding the official source.

“Yeah, it's fine. There are some things I need to do alone too.”

“You'll have to until I get back.”

Gwen looked at her and the little blush the elf made went all the way up to her ears.

“Was that a sex joke? Wow, I need to write that down, what is today?”

Alouella slapped her arm and grabbed a slice of jerky when she saw the next customer come in, his presence filling up the room like a lunch rush. Behind him came Bartholomew, sticking his head through the door and Alouella pushed it back out with the jerky in his beak.

“Hey girls! Gwen, make me a couple sandwiches and anything that can last a while if you can. I'm leaving on a trip.”

Wade looked extra excited that day. He'd been coming by a lot in the morning for his meals but otherwise they hadn't seen him. He'd taken a number of extra shifts at guard work for the extra jangle in his coin pouch.

“Anywhere special?”

She asked and took the coins he counted out on the counter. He made a noise like he couldn't decide.

“Well, no, but you won't be seeing me around for a while. A long while. And I want that taste of home if you don't mind. Roads a hard place without something to look forward to.”

He looked over at the saved seat for only a second and then back, forcing a big smile on on his face.

“So look for me in the scribe papers.”

“Doing something big?”

Alouella asked.

“Uh...I don't wanna say. There are some things I want to set right and then maybe I can do something big. So...well, take care of yourselves, okay?”

“Yeah, you too.”

She made up the last of his sandwiches and gave him a big hug before he rode away on Bartholomew.

“I guess I'd better go too. No use waiting.”

Alouella said. Gwen hugged her a little longer than she had Wade, kissed her as she walked the other way down the road to a carriage waiting for passengers.

An empty cafe.

She cleaned up, preparing a few things for lunch that would last, her eyes sometimes falling on the seat where Clarke had sat the only time he'd stopped in.

“Got something in my eye.”

She muttered to herself and brushed the heel of her hand over it. There was the padlock under the counter.

And there was the door.

“There's too much adventure out there for me to let them have it all.”

The door rattled as she tugged on the padlock to make sure it stuck and she set off down the road, gloves at her sides and a sack on her back.

“Let's see what else the world can show me.”

The hustle and bustle of the city continued, put back together a bit at a time, scribes going in and out of the scribe society across the street, people walking by the now empty cafe.

The store was quiet.