‘Perhaps Gantry wasn’t too far off…’ Kre thought to himself glumly. ‘Maybe I really should just make a run for the woods. I’m sure I could make a living in another town or even head up to the Jayde Line, talk to Mom and Dad, and get lost amongst all of the soldiers there.’
The more he thought about it, the better of an idea it sounded. He had taken a single step backwards without even realizing it. As his mind started to resolve itself to the idea that fleeing was a good idea, he suddenly felt a massive pang of regret. It seemed to knife through his skull, from one temple to the other and bouncing everywhere in between like a sledgehammer.
‘Cooter,’ he reminded himself, once the pain subsided enough for him to think clearly. ‘Cooter deserves better than to be murdered and then forgotten.’
“I need to go to the Citadel,” he muttered through gritted teeth. “I owe Ser Ternyc that much, even if it costs me my own freedom.”
“Well, it’s stupid, but I guess it’s the right thing to do,” called out a familiar voice. “That fits you like a glove.”
Kre spun around and threw out his arm, clasping wrists with one of his oldest friends. “Landar! When did you get into town?”
“Just now,” his friend laughed. “I turned the corner just as you started to argue with yourself. Did you know that you still pantomime your inner thoughts? It’s always amusing.”
“Have you gone to see your mother?” Landar’s mother ran the local apothecary and was a highly valued member of the town. Her herbal remedies were used by townsfolk and their livestock alike, saving both from various sicknesses and healing their injuries.
Landar shook his head. “I swung by the house, but she wasn’t there. I assumed she’d be here at the Lodge.”
“But wait,” Kre asked curiously, “How in the world are you here? From here to Sandort is a two week walk.” While Noj had successfully left Mintas to pursue a career in the physically demanding guard force, Landar had been apprenticed to the City Archives for the last few months in a purely mentally strenuous occupation. The apprenticeship was supposed to last at least six months, after which he would have to make a trek around the region, chronicling any bits of history that could be found.
“I finished my apprenticeship early,” he smiled smugly. “No one’s ever completed their apprenticeship in such a short time before!”
Kre wondered if Landar’s sometimes annoying personality had anything to do with them getting rid of him early, but didn’t figure it was worth raising the point. Landar never saw that side of himself anyway, or if he did, he never let anything anyone else thought of him bother him at all.
As if proving Kre’s point, Landar ignored Kre’s shaking head and threw his arm around his friend’s shoulders. “I was actually headed here to see Mom before I started my journeyman trek. At the way station last night, a couple of the other travelers were talking about a double murder that happened right here in Mintas. Right away, I figured you had to be involved somehow, given your incredibly bad luck and tendency to get into trouble. And look! I was right, as usual.”
Kre was about to interject in his own defense, but Landar pulled him along and kept on talking. As usual. “I have to say that you must have put on a pretty pathetic defense if you couldn’t manage to clear yourself. If I had been two days sooner, I might have been able to stand in for your defense. That was always one of our dreams, remember? We used to talk about…”
Letting his friend drone on, Kre just smiled and felt better for the fact that his friends were here with him, even if they were a bit on the annoying side at times. That sense of elation faded quickly though, once he realized that he’d be leaving Mintas shortly to travel to the Citadel, where the real trial would start. He wouldn’t have a supportive community around him then.
“Hey, are your parents here? I’ve been meaning to tell your dad that I corrected some documents about the Plycuda ruins that he might be interested in. Didn’t he spend some time there in his younger days? I wonder if those were his mistakes I had to fix.”
Landar’s innocent and slightly self aggrandizing questions forced a deeply repressed emotion to bubble to the surface. During this very traumatic time in his life, his parents weren’t there. It was through no fault of their own but it still hurt nonetheless.