“I killed your husband.” Of course I did. I killed a lot of people. Only I didn’t kill her husband. I just set off the events that killed her husband. This is my first victim confrontation.
“He wasn’t really my husband, but he was the father of my boy. My boy looks a lot like him…is just as daft as his father as well. But you…you started the events that killed him.” She turns around at this point and begins to walk towards a large set of doors in the far wall.
“Follow me…and don’t talk. I am half-way to killing you outright. Only I don’t want to be that person.” I follow her to the doors and she pulls out a key from around her neck.
The doors are thick. The are smaller than the village gate doors, but just as thick. They slide smoothly to the side and catch a whiff of unclean bodies and other unsavory smells.
The stairs led down to a landing and a very large room. I can feel the essence work here. This is probably the safest room in the entire area. The walls are thicker than the doors. Fresh water being the only path in…and its a small stream.
“This is where most of the survivors in the village lived for a month. I can’t get the smell out of the stone. I even hired some of the crafters to work another layer of stone in, it doesn’t help. The good news is that many of the people who were living in the village were transported out of it before the shattering occurred. It was only a small group of 72 that had to live here.”
“Most were the guards. Once you shattered the essence floor…that is what they are calling it now…most of our abilities were broken. I couldn’t transport a gnat.”
“30 or so guards died in the first wave of beasts…My boy friend as well. The fool thought he could close the gate by hand…so did the others. To his credit it was a good idea. The town was still intact. We just couldn’t do work essence. Most of the senior guard were dead by that point. The earth boar tore them apart…along with most of the village. Dam fool rammed his head into the wall until it fell. But the fool did manage to close the dam gate…not that it mattered much with a hole in the wall.”
“I will say its a good thing you didn’t come back right away. I would have killed you on sight. Your sister told me the story a few years ago…right before my boy went for his tuning. I don’t think she ever told anyone else…she was drunk. Your brothers had come begging for money again.” I am getting the feeling my brothers are a lot more troublesome then they were before.
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“‘All I want to do is live my life’ she kept saying. Here she is, the most versatile Parity we have in the city and she feels like she can’t live her life.”
“But, I would have killed you regardless of your sister…but, when I saw my boy…seven years of age, like you…running down the street screaming that he was going to be just like mom…it broke. The anger is there. I feel it. I know they killed your father…all the guards know. Your sister makes sure to tell them who killed her father. To her credit, she doesn’t explain why. All of this pain because of a spoiled princess. But I am not driven by it. When I think of my son, killing someone with essence because he just doesn’t understand…doesn’t know the world. Maybe I don’t even understand anymore. I can’t keep the hatred anymore. The anger is there…below.”
“Soooo…here is my point, you can stay here for two weeks. After that…you have to find your own place. Seeing you everyday might just bring back memories I have successfully buried. Understand?”
I didn’t say anything during the entire monologue. There wasn’t a need. The tears were running down my face and the strength I had gathered with my previous light hearted laughter was gone.
Kneeling on the ground, I bore into my soul to remember this place and the seventy people who stayed here for weeks because I had lost control.
I felt a gentle hand on my head. “Don’t worry so much boy. You were just a kid…maybe I thought you would be arrogant…drunk on power. I am sorry I came down so hard.”
I think we both cried a bit…twenty minutes, forty minutes…I am not certain.
As I came back to my surroundings, I pulled on the essence of the area…finding weaknesses and rebuilt this room. I turned the water into a gentle fountain. The walls I turned to stone, bright white. On the far wall, I put a small engraving…”To the those that have fallen”
“Mom…I have the bread…MOM!….where are you? Hey you down there again…where do you want me to put the bread?”
“Dammit he is just as big an idiot as his father. PUT IT IN THE KITCHEN YOU IDIOT!”
“OK.” The young boys voice echoed down the tunnel ramp and danced around the room. I suppose I didn’t realize it, but I had worked some permanent sound features into the room. The effect was a little eerie, like multiple voices were saying the same thing with a slight delay.
I suppose it doesn’t matter, but the look in the Innkeepers eye made me think differently.
“What did you do?”
“Ah, I don’t know…sometimes my emotions work on my surroundings without conscious thought. Sorry, but it is kinda nice after you get used to it. It reminds me a little of speaking with the essence.” The last statement got me a look from the Innkeeper.
“I am Harry. I am the cause of so many problems of the world, but I am trying to do better.” She looked at me again. This time it wasn’t the pity of a crying man, or the anger towards a killer. No, this time there was a bit of fear…of what she now understood about me.
“Two weeks. One gold. Meals are separate, but everything costs the same…so 1 bronze a meal.
“Deal. Now I hear you have some fresh bread…do you have any meat to go with that bread?”
“Yes. Follow me.” With quicken steps, she leads me back up and into the dinning area.