Desecration Chapter119: A Place Filled With Bittersweet Memories

The day was surprisingly hot for spring. Sure, it was mid-March, but the chill wasn't supposed to leave these parts until we were well into the season rather than at the start. Mother nature seed to have fancied so rcy this year, gracing the forms of petty lives below with spring's embrace. People walked in lighter clothing for the first ti since snow ca to Anik, though not so light as to challenge nature.

The moods of all were rising at the prospect of sumr coming early, with a few outliers that were promptly ignored by society as their opinions on the matter was a steaming pile of—

Anyway.

Sumr was coming, much earlier than expected, and everyone found cause to be rry. Inviting family and friends to what peasants considered grand feasts, donating a copper or two to the hungry who otherwise would've been ignored.

Perhaps a blessing of the gods. Perhaps the happenstance of geothermic bullshit, or perhaps I was being too introspective so I didn't have to think the bad thoughts.

I walked to a parting crowd. Everyone heard of the ambush, and the coven obviously refused to take credit. and Xae had beco local celebrities.

Except instead of awe they saw us with fear.

Couldn't have picked a better ti to leave this place behind , since normal interaction was going to be practically impossible. One didn't kill two mages and cow of a third expecting to be seen as normal. I didn't feel like explaining that the two little hunters barely had anything to do with it, if only for them to stop looking at like I was about to rip out their eyes to see if I could replace mine.

Probably didn't help that I was going to a place I hadn't visited in months.

There wasn't a dividing line between polite civilization and the poverty of the slums. More like a spectrum that shifted the further south you went. Most travelers who hadn't been to the city before made the mistake of entering through the south gate, unless they looked proper enough that the guard would warn them to take the north gate.

I thought it was only proper that visitors saw the lowest rungs of poverty before exploring the rest. A shock to the system that'd linger in the back of their mind once they saw the wealth on offer.

Well, most people didn't give much of a shit, but I still stood by the principle of the thing.

The magistrate tried to nd this unfortunate advertisent of an otherwise prosperous city by making the road around the city particularly appealing so they'd go to any of the other gates. Though those who tried the east gate with the looks of a vagabond, or gods forbit, a peasant, were promptly directed elsewhere.

Didn't work much, but at least they tried?

Maybe if they put that effort into feeding the poor, than they wouldn't have to worry about image, but who was I to interfere in their managent of the city? I wasn't enough of a cunt to qualify.

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So there I stood, in a kind of okay part of the city? Closer to normal society than the rickety appearance further in, but a distinct downgrade.

I wasn't willing to go any further.

I sat on the side of the road, resting my back against a wall and staring up at the sky. I hadn't been this close since Riri and Gar were murdered. Avoided the place like a plague honestly. But there I was, sitting, contemplating, letting my mind jump between topics as it fancied.

Aira liked it when I grew out my curls, and so did I honestly.

Hid my ears well enough, though I only needed to to do that for one now. I had cut it a few days ago, short enough that it didn't even reach the shoulder. No particular reason for that, just felt like switching it up since so much had and was going to change anyway.

A few more weeks and it'd be a year since I bonded with the demon.

So many things happened in that ti, most of them pretty nice honestly. It was just that the magnitude of the fucked up shit had a way of overshadowing the good bits.

I t good people, and got to enjoy their company. Even if they were dead, that mory would always be there. For better and worse.

Perhaps their souls would go to one of the many heavens the gods controlled, perhaps they'd reincarnate into a new person entirely. It didn't matter, my ti with them was over, and all I could offer in their passing was that I wouldn't forget.

Convenient, considering it was pretty hard for elves to forget shit.

Like a certain old lady.

I let out a huff and lowered my eyes to stare up to the elderly woman in front of and her nauseatingly warm smile.

"What do you want?" I said.

The woman chuckled and made her way to sit beside despite the creak of her bones. "Just observing, as you seem to be doing with the sky," the woman said. "It's been a while since you last visited, I was beginning to worry that you'd forgotten the slums."

"I'd never dare forget," I whispered, and the woman nodded.

"Of course, precious daughter of the World. It saddens that all you'll have of this place is scars."

I looked back at the sky and humd. "Scars I inflicted upon myself."

"You're a fool if you truly believe that, what with all the evidence to the contrary," the old woman chided. "There are plenty of things to damn ourselves for, but this isn't one of them."

"Why do you care?"

She smiled. "That is the question, isn't it? You're no hero, and yet you've attracted attention, and there's plenty I could focus on besides a simple curiosity."

"So you are a god," I let out a sigh as my head pounded slightly from the unfamiliar Word. "I had a few theories after our first conversation, though I didn't think we'd have another."

"Would it matter if I was? Would you value my advice over a trusted friend's because it ca from the mouth of sothing divine? Wisdom doesn't co with power, child. Perhaps Mraringa and Tenrakon would disagree, but they would be wrong."

I stayed silent and looked at the sky. It was nice and cloudless, bright and blue. An errant thought entered my mind on if the gods could manipulate the weather, but it was promptly discarded.

"You didn't answer why you're here, talking to ," I said and went to look back to the woman, only to find nobody there.

I scoffed. How classic.

I looked longingly to my left, where plenty of mories were made between three fools escaping the world in each others company. It was nice, but it was in the past. Then I looked to my right, where eventually I'd find the hunters guild, a plethora of experiences shared with a ntor I didn't deserve.

Perhaps soday I would make new connections based off love and care, but for that mont I...wanted to believe that nothing would be able to match what I had lost.

Not in the way that I had it. It was foolish, but it felt like betrayed to even think of a future where I could make bonds as strong as I had, despite how little ti we spent together.

Just a little further down the street, and I'd make it to the shack they and so many others called ho. I took out the wood carving of Gar, rubbing it's cheek with my thumb. "What do I do now, friend?"

The carving didn't answer.

I gave a somber smile and tucked it back in my toga, getting up to walk back to my inn.