I woke up on a bed in an unfamiliar room. Instead of the one bed I had been expecting, there were two, and the floor was covered with papers, containing drawings by a child. The artist quickly became apparent, sitting in a corner across the room, working on her next masterpiece.

“Riala?” I said sleepily.

Her head shot up and around to look at me. “Tomar!” She then jumped to her feet, ran over to the bed and tackled me into a hug. “Are you better?”

Looking around the room again, I assumed I was in the girls’ home. I didn’t know why that was, nor why Riala appeared to be watching over me. “What am I doing here?” I asked her.

The girl let go of me and explained that they had found me at the water source. They had brought me here because of the state I was in, worrying that I wouldn’t be able to properly take care of myself.

“You didn’t say anything. And you looked sad,” she said with worry.

My memory returned. “Mom is dead...”

What had happened? All I remembered was that the beast attacked us. Mother had protected me... and she was killed. Everything after that was a blur. How I got home, to the water source, or here, I didn’t know.

“Hey, Miles—” I started, still drowsy, but quickly stopped.

The girl cocked her head and looked at me curiously. “Miles?”

“Sorry. Riala, I mean. How long have I been here?”

She looked into the air, deep in thought, before responding. “Six days.”

Apparently I had been here for almost a week. She told me that I had been unresponsive, but that I did what I was asked to do. I had even carried the washing tub to the water square for her once, as usual. This morning was the first time I had said anything, which is why she was so happy.

I looked down at myself and saw that I was wearing fresh clothes. The girls must’ve even gone to our house to get some. “Thank you, Riala,” I said in a quiet voice, garnering me a bright smile from the girl.

She led me to the kitchen and sat me down for breakfast. I felt a little guilty at how used she appeared to the routine. Zara would be at work at this time of day and if Riala had looked after me, she would be used to leading me like this at every point after this many days. As she prepared to put a spoon into my hand, I took it and smiled at her “I got it.”

She sat down beside me as I ate, watching over me like a hawk.

If I had been here for six days, I had missed my first day at work. You were usually allowed to take time off for important reasons, but I didn’t know what their reaction to not turning up at all would be.

I wasn’t sure what to do from here on out. Mother was dead, and after six days, her body would’ve already been cremated. Was I supposed to just go on? Continue my life? First things first, I would have to get out of the girls’ hair.

As soon as I was done with breakfast, I thanked Riala again and told her I would go home now, but she was having none of it. Determination in her eyes, she said “Sis told me to watch you!”

Defeated, I stayed, helping the girl with her chores until Zara came home for lunch. She was happy to see me up and about as well.

“You can stay a little longer if you want,” she said. “Riala likes having someone around.”

I had never had the impression that Zara was a big fan of me, but after having lost both her parents herself, she must’ve understood what was going on inside me. Still, I couldn’t stay here forever and I said my goodbyes to them after dinner, before I headed home.

‘Welcome back,’ Miles said on the way.

“Hey,” I responded. “I don’t remember what happened...”

‘Maybe that’s for the better. You were in a bad place.’

When my house came into view, I suddenly stopped and swallowed hard. Mother wouldn’t be there. Never again. I was all alone now.

“I think I still am in a bad place,” I said quietly.

Entering the house, there was the door to my room on the right, and the door to my parents’ bedroom on the left. I went straight into my room and shut the door behind me. As I looked around, I noticed that the suit I had ordered was here, hanging over a chair.

“Did Zara get it?” I asked, confused.

‘No, you did.’

“Really?”

‘Yea, before the girls found you. You weren’t responsive, walking around like a zombie.’

“What’s a zombie?”

‘Doesn’t matter. Just know that it’s good to talk to you again.’

I started cleaning up the house a little, avoiding even a glance at the door to my mother’s room, when there was a knock on the door. On the other side stood a guard, who seemed surprised to see me.

“Oh, Mr. Remor. We’ve been looking for you,” he said. “My condolences on the death of your mother. I’m sorry to come to you at such a time, but do you have a moment? We have some follow-up questions on what happened that morning.”

We sat down and the guard asked me several questions, most of which I either avoided answering or didn’t remember the answer to. I pretended that Mother and I had just been on a walk when the beast attacked us. Regarding anything that happened after, I told him the truth. It was all a blur; I didn’t remember any details.

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The guard had probably not given his speeches for the first time and he appeared to sympathize with my situation. After a few minutes, he left the house, with very little new information.

“Miles. I don’t want to know all the details, but did we kill the beast?”

‘We crippled it, the guards did the rest. You did good,’ Miles said with compassion and encouragement.

“Okay...” I said and continued on with my day. I would have to go to the office and clear up my job situation. After putting on my new suit for the first time, I was looking at myself in the mirror. It felt weird, but not uncomfortable. I wonder what Mother would’ve said...

‘You look good, Tomar.’

That... probably...

***

“Captain Lera,” a guard said, spotting his superior across the hall.

“Jara! Any news?”

“Yes, sir,” Jara said while giving a salute. “I finally encountered Mr. Remor at his residence. Apparently he spent the last few days recovering at a neighbor’s house.”

The boy had been unresponsive and appeared mentally broken when the guards had found him that morning. It was no surprise that he had needed a few days. Though the captain had still been surprised that they failed to locate him.

“Did he have anything to add?”

“Unfortunately not, sir.”

The guard repeated what Tomar had told him earlier, but the captain wasn’t convinced. Assuming the beast hadn’t committed suicide, which was unlikely, something had killed it. And the only witness was Tomar. Either he had been the one to kill the beast or he knew who it was. Seeing how the guards hadn’t found any evidence of someone else having been there, he was leaning towards the boy being the one. Even if that appeared just as unlikely as the beast killing itself.

The captain dismissed the guard and fell into thought. He kept coming back to the unusual wound on the beast. It had been very narrow and deep. An autopsy revealed that something had pierced several internal organs and the beast’s spine. It had been paralyzed and would’ve died in time, even if the guards hadn’t arrived when they did. No weapon known to him would cause this type of damage. Not to mention that they hadn’t found any weapons but a small knife.

He went back to his desk and started composing a report for the king. The two of them had been friends since childhood and he knew that King Hertar was also investigating the boy. The information that Tomar was back home would be of interest to him, even if they still didn’t know what exactly had happened.

***

“You’re starting right now,” a middle-aged man told me shortly after I had arrived at the Stoner Agency, an office on the second floor of a building on the eastern side of town.

“Right now? But—” I started, but was immediately cut off by my new boss.

“I know, I’ve heard what happened. My condolences. But you’ve had your grieving period, and we’re in dire need for more hands.”

Behind the man I saw a girl furiously working on some papers, a stressed expression on her face. I was a few days late, and even though there were more than three desks here, this was apparently the entire team. While I was missing, they had to pick up the slack.

“Let’s get started. I’m Borus, that’s Mirya,” he said, pointing at the girl. “Mirya, Tomar. Tomar, Mirya.”

I lightly waved my hand at her. She opened her mouth to say something, but was immediately cut off by Borus. “Now that we all know each other, get acquainted with your new job.”

He pushed me to a desk, sat me down, and pointed at a tower of files on it. “You have until the end of the day to familiarize yourself with everything. Tomorrow you start for real.”

“O-okay,” I stammered.

Borus rushed off, while I was still trying to process what was happening. From the desk next to mine came a meek voice. “He’s been stressed all week, but he’s actually nice. I think,” Mirya said. “Nice to meet you.”

“You too,” I said in response, while Mirya had already gone back to work. I looked around the office before my eyes fell back on the pile of papers on my desk. I took the first file and skimmed through it. It was full of diagrams and statistics, none of which I understood. Looking at the next file, I saw more things I had never seen before, but Miles kept pointing out what I was looking at.

‘Bill of delivery, order form, profit and loss account, ...’

I had heard that your first week at your new job could be a little overwhelming. You’ve had your Calling, so your boss would expect you to be an expert in your field. All that remained was to get you acquainted with your new work environment as quickly as possible. Borus appeared especially expectant on quick results. However, this assumed that the worker actually knew what they were doing. Me on the other hand, I didn’t even recognize most of the things in these files.

Slowly working my way through the pile, I looked at every paper, diagram, and form, so Miles could get an overview. He often commented with a “hmhm” or “okay”, but was otherwise silent until I had gone through all the files. This had taken two whole hours, while Mirya was still working furiously and Borus was nowhere to be seen.

“So?” I said quietly, so Mirya wouldn’t hear me.

‘It’s about what I expected,’ he said. ‘Full honesty, I’ve never actually done this kind of work myself, but I know the theory. We should be fine.’

“...”

This was the first time Miles had ever mentioned never having done this kind of work. The entire time I had assumed he knew exactly what he was doing, but if that wasn’t the case, we might actually not be fine at all.

“Are you sure you can do this job?” I asked while looking at the papers again.

‘Let’s give it a try. The worst that can happen is that they see you as inept,’ Miles said.

“The worst that can happen is that they kill me when they realize I don’t have an actual Calling!” I snapped at him while keeping my voice low. I thought Mirya might’ve heard, but she was focused entirely on the work before her.

‘We won’t do that bad. Ask her what she’s doing.’

From that moment forward, I essentially acted as Miles’ puppet, saying what he asked me to say and doing what he asked me to do. He coordinated with Mirya on what she was currently working on and what needed to be done, before going to work “himself.”

About an hour after we had started, Borus finally came back. He looked surprised when he saw me working on something, instead of just acquainting myself with the files he had left me. He came over to my desk and took some of the papers to look them over.

“Not bad,” he said, nodding. “If you got done this much on your first day, I’m truly looking forward to working with you.”

With a pleased expression on his face he walked over to an empty desk and started working on something himself. “They finally sent me two decent workers,” I heard him murmur.

It was already the early evening when Borus announced that we would stop for today. “Good job, Mirya, Tomar. Tomorrow will be another long day until we’re all caught up. After that, you will work from five till ten.”

He talked to us about his plans for a few more minutes before finally letting us go home. I was happy to hear that my work-times would be relatively moderate. We were only three people, but Borus repeatedly pointed out that just because you got a Calling, and you knew what you’re doing, didn’t mean you were good at doing it efficiently. He had actually sent people back to the Job Agency more than once, because they didn’t meet his standards. As far as I knew, that was rather unusual. Seeing Borus today, however, I believed it.

Mirya and I walked across the main square when she pointed at a house in the south-west. “I live over there. See you tomorrow.”

“See you,” I said before we went our separate ways.

A few minutes passed as I was walking down the main street and my head started to clear a little. For the past four hours I had been so busy that I didn’t really think about anything. If work is going to be like that every day, the moderate work times won’t help much, I thought with a smile on my face. But at least it was a distraction.