Eli sat on the couch in an inn he vaguely remembered, one of his earlier memories was coming here with his ma and pa for a small get away from the farm. The owner of the inn has closed for the day to prevent people from crowding them, but when they recognized the shaggy head of blonde hair on his head they let him in.

He felt bad about abandoning Andromeda like he did, but all those people around him, all talking to him, it was too much. He almost had the heart to turn around before he heard the crack of thunder. He had heard from his pa that mages were an ornery bunch and that it wasn’t wise to walk into trouble like that.

He wandered around town for a bit, any shred of confidence he had was shot and he barely had the heart to speak up to ask for directions from anybody he passed by. He would just stammer until either the person walked away or he left out of shame.

That lead to him finding this inn, having pity taken on him, then sitting down.

Eli heard a key jiggle in the front door of the inn, a man walked through and wiped his brow. He almost didn’t notice Eli sitting there on the couch until he dropped his hat and went to pick it up.

“Ay kid, what’re you doing in here? It’s closed.” The man said.

“Oh, leave him, that’s Boreus’ kid. I let him rest cause it’s a madhouse out there.” The man who let Eli in said from behind the counter.

“Boreus ay? I’ve heard that name before. You’re lot are the ones who grow the barley right?” The man said.

Eli nodded weakly and avoided the man’s gaze as he walked over and sat in one of the nearby chairs.

“Not very talkative, are ya?” He said.

Eli shook his head, leading to the man sighing.

“Look kid, you aren’t going to get anywhere if you avoid people.” The man said.

Eli didn’t know what to say, so he stayed quiet.

“Oi!” The man barked. This spooked Eli and he looked up at the man.

“Finally, look a man in the eyes or you'll find them looking down on you. Now, your family does the barley right?” The man said.

“Y-yes!” Eli said. He was startled and intimidated by the man’s insistence.

“Ay, good on ya, that bread kept me plenty full before.” He said.

The man was rugged and weathered. Mid 40’s at least and had a scar on his temple that cut into his hair. He looked like the very picture of a mercenary, or even a bandit. But he didn’t seem to carry himself that way, he just looked it.

“What’s your name?” The man asked.

“Elias, Elias Boreas, my friends call me Eli.” Eli said. He tried to sound calm and collected, but it didn’t come out perfectly.

“I take it that not many people call you Eli then.” The man said. Eli felt his heart drop, the trick his ma taught him failed on its second try.

“No, they don’t…” Eli said. He looked down again.

“Oi, keep your chin up, it was a little ribbing. What’s got you so down? I’ve seen dead men more lively.” The man said.

Eli wanted to say why, but between hearing dead people mentioned a moment ago and his own issues he couldn’t get the words to come out.

The man sat quietly staring at Eli, then he snapped suddenly and chuckled.

“It’s a girl, ain’t it!” He said suddenly. Eli felt his stomach do a flip and practically popped out of this seat.

“What!?” Eli yelled. His sudden mood shift suddenly surprised even himself.

“Got it in one.” The man said with a smug smile.

“No, you didn’t!” He said. The man perked a brow at the assertion.

“Mopy eyes, slumped on a couch, jumpy, you either just had your heart broken or broke someone’s heart kid, which is it?” The man said.

Eli couldn’t believe what he was hearing. He didn’t do anything of the sort!

“Look, I walked into town with this girl I met on the road over, we were together for a few hours at most, then we got swamped by people and I ran off.” Eli said. He didn’t want to get wrapped up in any more rumors or hearsay, that is what made him run off in the first place. The man smiled and stared at him with a deathly glare, but his smile made the whole expression strange.

“It’s been a long while since a man has spoken to me like that kid, I like that fire in your eye. Normally my group gives people with that fire a job.” The man said. Eli was tired of the conversation by this point and was just annoyed.

“Whatever it is, I’m not interested. I don’t even wanna be here today.” Eli said.

“Sad to hear that, my people don’t need to go to the draft, special exceptions and all that.” The man said. Eli didn’t want to admit it, but that caught his attention.

This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

“But what can I say, not everyone is cut out for that line of work. Some people are just liable to run away at the first sign of trouble.” The man said.

Eli felt his eye twitch. Was he trying to start a fight? He felt a pang of anger in the back of his skull.

“Just leave me alone, I don’t want to deal with any trouble.” Eli said. The man signed again and stood from his seat.

“Never mind then, guess I barked up the wrong tree.” The man said. He walked over to the counter and placed something down in front of the owner, whispered something in their ear, then left out the front door.

Eli sat back on the couch and clutched his head. This day was just one awful thing after another.

He wakes up and is handed a bag and a sandwich, then he gets told to hike his ass half away across the region to Salsi, he meets an ACTUAL MAGE and the first thing that comes out of his mouth was that she looked weird, once they get to town they aren’t there for 10 minutes before he gets ran off by a crowd, now he got talked down to like a child by a random stranger.

“Hey kid, come over ‘ere a minute.” The owner said. Eli slapped his knees and got up. When he came over, the owner looked disappointed.

“Why’d you get up?” He asked.

“Wha’dyou mean? You just told me to come up here.” Eli said.

“No, why did you come up here?” He asked.

The question just confused Eli even more. Why? He was asked, what did he mean?”

“Look kid, do you know who that man you spoke to a moment ago was?” He asked.

“No, should I?” Eli said.

“He’s a member of the local guild. He basically just gave you a gold ticket to join, and you threw it in his face.” The owner said.

“No he didn’t, he just rambled at me about fire and stuff like that.” Eli said. The owner gripped his forehead and groaned.

“Kid, if the man walked up and asked you if you wanted a job, would you have done it?” The owner asked.

“Probably, he said I could get out of the draft that way. I’d probably join as long as it was on the up and up.” Eli said.

“Then why did you just ignore him then?” The owner said.

“Ignore what?” Eli said. The owner threw his hands up in the air and walked away from the counter, then he returned and slammed his hands on the counter.

“Boy, is your head made of mud? Do you think everybody who walks up to you is gonna give you a simple question?” The owner said.

That was it, Eli wasn’t going to take one more random person yelling at him for stupid things. He turned around without a word, and stormed out the door.

He wasn’t going to deal with it anymore. All these stupid questions were just pushing him over the boiling point.

Yeah, if someone walked up to him and offered him a job, he’d jump on it. No questions asked. Well, some questions asked, but within reason there would be no questions. This felt like a constant problem. People always got on his case about something he just couldn’t put his finger on.

If someone asks you to do something, you do it. That’s what he was taught.

But sometimes he’d meet these weird people who just don’t, or even question why they would. What sense did that make? If someone asked you to do something, they must have a reason. Why else would you ask for something instead of doing it yourself?

It didn’t make sense to him.

He grew up his whole life like this. He had the things he needed to do, and if he couldn’t, he would ask for help. If someone else couldn’t do what they needed to do, they would ask for help.

It was that simple. Other people were a helping hand, not a shoulder to cry on. Why would anyone want someone to do something and just… not say it?

It made his mind spin. Why would people ignore such a simple idea?

Eli wandered through the streets, looking for something to distract him from his thoughts. He didn’t like putting that much thought into what he did, he just wanted a clear goal to follow. Once the crowds got to be too much for him, he rounded a corner into an alleyway.

There were no people here to confuse him with half speak and side talk, so he sat down on the ground and clutched his legs.

As he sat, he felt his mind feel… Strange…

His tho-thoughts started getting

…

harder to keep straight, s-something was wro-wrong.

Oh no, you are perfectly fine. Just let your mind wander.

T-There was a vvvoice innnn hissss h-heaaad, it was telling him to calm down. That if he just let his mind wander for a moment he might have peace. He just n… needed to let his mind wander, there was no reason for thought. Everything would be fine…

There was no reason to be worried, he was in good hands. He wanted to stand and move, just move and don’t think. Everything would be fine.

Wouldn’t it be wonderful if he could just be told what to do?

No complicated thoughts, no hard words. Just a peaceful existence.

Would it be wonderful to never have to think again?

Wouldn’t it be great?

Yes, it would . Just stand up and walk, just let your legs move freely. Ignore everything else. Just follow your heart. No hard thoughts, no complicated words.

You are perfectly fine.

Just let your mind wander.

Eli suddenly felt a hand on his shoulder. He looked up in a daze at the man from before. But he was different. It didn’t feel as though there was a man standing above him, but a beast. The way his eyes looked in the shadow of the alley was inhuman. His mind cast back to Andromeda, her eyes glowed in the shadow of her hood, but this wasn’t glowing, this was like his eyes were different all together.

“To your feet lad, you aren’t safe here.” The man said.

Eli stood up, his mind was still foggy but some instinct deep inside him told him that the man was right. They quickly left the alley.

It would be many years later that Eli learned what happened to him that day, and it would be many more before he could sleep soundly knowing it.