HOME | DD

Description
The End

They arrived at a narrow, run down house in a poor area. The thief stopped outside the door, glanced back at the vampire with a frown. ´Let me just... Stay here!` he said, opened the door and went in.
Ranloo waited, looking around. A narrow alley, full of waste and garbage, leaning houses, boarded up windows. Three youngsters stood some way off, talking and laughing. Sometimes they glanced his way. They wouldn't be able to see much of what he looked like in the dark, even if the sky was beginning to brighten. Ranloo was thankful for that. He didn't want more people to see him than necessary.
Nawar poked his head back out from the door and beckoned for him to enter. He hurried inside and was quickly led to a room. Nawar closed the door behind them.
The room was small, it didn't even have a proper bed, only a straw mattress, lying directly on the floor. A small rushlight flickered on a rickety table. There were no windows. Normally, Ranloo would see that as a good thing, but here he wasn't so sure. No escape. A prison. Memories threatened to overwhelm him, and he dug his nails into his hands to keep calm. The thief sat down on the mattress and studied the vampire in silence.
´Will this be safe during the day?` Ranloo asked, his face a mask, betraying nothing.
The thief shrugged. ´It's my room. Someone might come in, but they shouldn't,` he said.
´Who lives here with you?`
´My family. You better not hurt them!`
Ranloo smiled and shook his head, his hair flying around. He grabbed a few dirty, grey strands, looked at them and grimaced. ´I won't hurt them. Unless they wake me up during the day. That goes for you too!` he said and pointed at the young man.
Nawar tightened his mouth into a line.
´And I'd recommend you don't get help,` Ranloo warned. ´I wake up with a priest in here, I'm gonna tear that bastard apart. Then I'll come for you. Clear?`
The thief nodded, brows furrowed deeply.
´Now tell me. Something's not right and I need to clear this up before I sleep. The man in the thieves guild, he said the Iron Lock didn't exist. That he'd know if they did. He also said they had vanished a long time ago if they had ever been here.` He eyed the young man carefully as he spoke. Nawar looked steadily at him, his brown eyes unreadable. He had a better poker face than Sern had had, he thought with a stab of guilt in his heart. Taking a deep breath, he continued. ´I need to know. What year is it?`
Nawar cocked an eyebrow. ´You don't know?`
´Would I ask if I knew?` Ranloo retorted, instantly irritated.
´Uh, it's year twenty-three,` he replied.
Ranloo frowned. It didn't make sense. If he remembered correctly, he'd arrived at Jaris in year nineteen, century of the Dragonfly. Had it only been four years? Wait. Century. Dragonfly. He gasped, the room spun and his vision blurred.
The thief frowned and tilted his head. ´Are you all right?`
´What century is it?` he rasped.
´Century?`
´Yes, century! Tell me!` Ranloo yelled and stared at the young man.
He flinched back from the vampire. ´It's the wyvern,` he said carefully.
Ranloo couldn't breathe. Wyvern. Wrong century. He flopped down on the floor, startling the thief. Year twenty-three. Wyvern.
´Is the wyvern after the dragonfly?` he asked, his voice tight. He couldn't remember the way humans counted time.
´Yes, naturally,` Nawar replied with a shrug. ´Why?`
´One hundred and two years,` he mumbled in shock. ´I've lost a century.`
´What do you mean?` the thief asked.
Ranloo stared blankly at the young man. No wonder nobody had heard about the Iron Lock. It was too long ago. They were all gone. Even Pei and Diquarl. He wasn't sure if they had survived the battle, but he had hoped. It didn't even matter any more. They were all gone. The shock made him nauseous, his chest hurt. Everything and everyone he had known. Gone. He fell back to the floor and stared at the roof. It was spinning around. He had truly lost everything. He had nothing left. Nothing but his painful memories.
A blurry face appeared above him. A dark shadow. He couldn't focus on it.
´What happened?` Nawar asked carefully.
´I'm busy,` he replied faintly.
A strangled laugh escaped the thief before he stifled it. ´Busy? You're on the floor.`
´Yes,` he breathed. ´Very busy having my life flash in front of my eyes. You're ruining the moment.`
This time the young man didn't even try to conceal his laughter. ´Did you lose your mind entirely? What's up with the century?`
Ranloo frowned, irritated. He should just have found some abandoned place instead. This young man was too annoying. ´Shut up.`
´Answer me.`
´No!` He sat up and glared at the thief who hastily stepped away from him again. ´Shut up! I'm thinking! Leave me alone.` Then he lay back down again. He didn't care about the floor. He cared about a hundred years. How long had he been a prisoner? How long had he been in the forest, living like an animal? How in the abyss had he survived that long? He was dizzy, numbed by the shock. His thoughts were reeling, running amok. Had he been alive, he was sure he'd felt sick. He stared into the roof in silence, vaguely aware of the thief on the mattress a few feet away. But he didn't care. His life was ruined. Gone. He would have to build it up from the beginning again. Start anew. How? He didn't have the strength. He was too tired. His thoughts were getting sluggish and slow. He never noticed that he fell asleep.

* * * * *

A sound made Ranloo sit upright, eyes wide. He was in a small, dark room. For a short while he stared around, panic rising like a wave, strangling him. It took a few minutes before he noticed the wooden walls. Not stone. It was empty, but had a lingering smell of a young man. The thief. Ranloo stood and went to the door. He heard sounds in the small house.
Carefully he opened the door and sneaked out. He needed to go out hunting. He passed by the kitchen just as a short, slim, and stern looking woman came out from the doorway.
She gasped and took a step back as she saw him, her dark eyes widening. ´What are you doing here?` she asked sharply, wrinkled her small nose and looked the elf up and down.
Ranloo tensed, almost charged. Then he remembered his promise not to hurt the thief's family. ´Uh...` he said. To Ranloo's surprise, she turned on her heels and went back into the kitchen, her skirts fluttering around her.
´Nawar! What is that thing doing here?` she yelled. ´Get it out!`
Ranloo stared after her. It? Did she mean him? He had never been called an it before. Confused, he heard her stomp further into the kitchen, heard a slap followed by a groan.
´Get up, lazy boy! Get that thing out out of here!`
´What thing?` Nawar complained.
´That thing!` The woman reappeared, pulling her son by the ear and pointed towards Ranloo.
Their eyes met, and for a few seconds they stared at each other in stunned silence.
´Yes, mother,` the thief grumbled and rubbed his ear as she let him go. She crossed her arms and tapped her foot on the floor. The thief took a deep breath, then hurried past the vampire and beckoned for him to follow.
´And don't bring it back in again!` his mother called behind them.
´It?` Ranloo asked, too surprised to be angry.
Nawar grimaced and vanished out the door. Ranloo followed him while considering biting the young man, hunger pulling at him. They stopped outside.
Nawar rubbed his neck with a hand and sighed, eyeing the vampire warily. ´Sorry about that,` he mumbled.
Ranloo snorted and shook his head. ´Whatever.` He sniffed the air, wrinkled his nose at the smell of the city and started down the alley.
´Where are you going?` Nawar asked behind him.
´Hunting,` he replied and smiled to himself as he heard the thief gasp. He almost turned back, but checked himself. Not a good idea to hurt his helper. He sniggered. Involuntary helper. He started to run.

When he came back to the house, he jumped up onto the flat roof and sat down, his legs dangling over the edge. The city was different, but the view from above was almost the same. He looked up at the stars glittering between patches of clouds, racing each other across the sky. A century, he thought. A hundred years had vanished. Gone, drowned out in pain, loneliness and misery. His friends were gone. His family was most likely still in the Elven kingdom, but he couldn't see them, and his children probably barely remembered him. They'd be adults now. He closed his eyes at the sudden heartache, could almost feel their hugs, like ghosts around him. He sighed. What a mess everything had become. How lonely he had become.
He began humming an elven song, swinging his legs over the edge, pondering his fate. Some time later he heard scraping sounds and panting behind him. He quieted and looked around. Nawar was climbing up over the edge of the roof, his face red from the exertion. He stood up and brushed himself off before looking up and meeting the elf's amber gaze.
´Nice song you were singing. What was it?` the young man asked and flicked his hair back with a quick motion.
Ranloo turned away from him again, not overly interested in conversation. ´An elven song about the stars,` he said. ´What do you want?`
´Well,` Nawar fidgeted nervously. ´I wonder how long you're staying.`
Ranloo snickered. ´I thought your mother said to get it out?`
He heard the thief shuffling about. ´Well, yes, but I didn't think you'd listen to her.`
´I don't,` he said and looked over his shoulder.
Nawar swallowed and bit his lower lip.
´I will stay until I find something better. If you want me to leave, you can help me,` Ranloo continued.
´I thought...`
´What?`
´You look like...` the thief hesitated.
Ranloo sighed. ´I know what I look like.`
´You need a bath and new clothes,` Nawar blurted out quickly and took a step back, as if expecting the vampire to attack him.
Ranloo arched an eyebrow. ´Yes?`
´There's a public bath not too far from here.` He looked at the vampire, a tense air about him. He smelled of fear.
Ranloo smiled, and he took another step back. ´Calm down, I won't harm you. I promised,` he said and stood up. ´Where's the bath? Show me.`
The thief nodded, went back to the edge of the roof and began climbing down. Ranloo jumped and landed with a soft thump in the alley. He heard the thief gasp and glanced up. The young man was halfway down, staring at him.
´How can you just jump down like that?` he asked when he came down.
Ranloo grinned. ´I'm a vampire,` he stated.
Nawar opened his mouth as if to say something, then he closed it again and went down the street, shaking his head.

The odd pair decided the elf needed better clothes before going to the bath and went around looking for a suitable person to rob. When they found a middle aged man of about the right size, Ranloo knocked him unconscious and stole his clothes. Nawar stared. It had taken no more than a minute. They hurried to the bath and Ranloo broke down the door to the big building. The thief was astonished at his strength. They went in and found the baths.
Ranloo had never been to a public bath before. He stood staring at the many pools for a few minutes before undressing and getting in. Nawar hastily turned around and soon left the room, looking for things to steal.
Ranloo enjoyed the clean water and lay soaking for a long time. He avoided looking down at his thin body more than he had to. He hated what his long, self-imposed exile had done to him. But he thought he looked a little better already.
´Hey! Here,` Nawar called to him suddenly and something splashed into the water beside him. Ranloo wiped water out of his eyes and glared at the thief. ´Soap,` he excused himself, before vanishing again.
Ranloo looked into the water and spotted a bar of soap floating there, smelling sweetly of herbs and oils.

Almost an hour later the elf got out of the bath, annoyed. He had tried washing off all the dirt for a long time. But he couldn't seem to get his hair clean. He went about looking for a comb and towels, leaving wet tracks behind him. Nawar found him some time later, naked but for a towel thrown over his shoulder, in front of a mirror, glaring at his reflection.
´What's wrong?` he asked and tried to avert his eyes as much as possible.
Ranloo huffed. ´My hair,` he grumbled.
´What about it?`
´It's grey!` he suddenly raised his voice and the thief started.
´I know,` he said carefully.
Ranloo whipped around and glared at him.
Nawar didn't know where to look and ended up staring at the wall awkwardly.
Ranloo blinked, then realized what the problem was and grinned. ´Am I embarrassing you?` he asked innocently.
Nawar swallowed, shook his head and blushed.
The elf barked a laugh and turned back to the mirror, wrapping the towel around his waist. His smile faded. His hair wasn't black anymore. It had a dark, slate grey colour. He had managed to comb it out after much struggle. It was perfectly shiny and clean, but grey. Maybe it would revert back to black when he had healed properly, he thought. Annoyed he went to the clothes he had placed on a bench. He dropped the towel to the floor and dressed. They fit fairly well. He didn't like to wear other people's clothes, but at least these were better quality than the peasant's had been. They left the bath shortly after.

As they walked around, a thought struck the elf. He hadn't seen any city guards since he'd come back to Jaris.
´Where are the city guards?` he asked.
Nawar watched the elf with his unreadable, dark eyes. ´City guards? You mean the militia?` he asked.
Ranloo gave him an uncomprehending gaze. ´There's no city guard?` he tried again.
The thief shrugged. ´Not really. There's people who guard the streets at night, but no proper knights or anything,` he said.
´Why?` Ranloo asked, remembering the countless times he'd run into the guards in the past.
´I'm not sure. I think the repairs of the wall and the rebuilding of the castle have something to do with it.`
´So, the king removed the guards to be able to afford rebuilding things?` he mused quietly. ´How convenient,` he laughed, and got a confused look from the thief.

Things were looking better already. Apart from the fact that everyone you knew is dead or gone, he thought. He batted the thought aside, ignored the crushing pain. He'd carve a place for himself here, force the city to accept him as a part of it. That was his current goal. He would find a place to live, get new friends, a new purpose. He had come to stay and nothing would get in his way. Jaris would be his home.
This city had created him, it was going to suffer his presence!

Description
The End

They arrived at a narrow, run down house in a poor area. The thief stopped outside the door, glanced back at the vampire with a frown. ´Let me just... Stay here!` he said, opened the door and went in.
Ranloo waited, looking around. A narrow alley, full of waste and garbage, leaning houses, boarded up windows. Three youngsters stood some way off, talking and laughing. Sometimes they glanced his way. They wouldn't be able to see much of what he looked like in the dark, even if the sky was beginning to brighten. Ranloo was thankful for that. He didn't want more people to see him than necessary.
Nawar poked his head back out from the door and beckoned for him to enter. He hurried inside and was quickly led to a room. Nawar closed the door behind them.
The room was small, it didn't even have a proper bed, only a straw mattress, lying directly on the floor. A small rushlight flickered on a rickety table. There were no windows. Normally, Ranloo would see that as a good thing, but here he wasn't so sure. No escape. A prison. Memories threatened to overwhelm him, and he dug his nails into his hands to keep calm. The thief sat down on the mattress and studied the vampire in silence.
´Will this be safe during the day?` Ranloo asked, his face a mask, betraying nothing.
The thief shrugged. ´It's my room. Someone might come in, but they shouldn't,` he said.
´Who lives here with you?`
´My family. You better not hurt them!`
Ranloo smiled and shook his head, his hair flying around. He grabbed a few dirty, grey strands, looked at them and grimaced. ´I won't hurt them. Unless they wake me up during the day. That goes for you too!` he said and pointed at the young man.
Nawar tightened his mouth into a line.
´And I'd recommend you don't get help,` Ranloo warned. ´I wake up with a priest in here, I'm gonna tear that bastard apart. Then I'll come for you. Clear?`
The thief nodded, brows furrowed deeply.
´Now tell me. Something's not right and I need to clear this up before I sleep. The man in the thieves guild, he said the Iron Lock didn't exist. That he'd know if they did. He also said they had vanished a long time ago if they had ever been here.` He eyed the young man carefully as he spoke. Nawar looked steadily at him, his brown eyes unreadable. He had a better poker face than Sern had had, he thought with a stab of guilt in his heart. Taking a deep breath, he continued. ´I need to know. What year is it?`
Nawar cocked an eyebrow. ´You don't know?`
´Would I ask if I knew?` Ranloo retorted, instantly irritated.
´Uh, it's year twenty-three,` he replied.
Ranloo frowned. It didn't make sense. If he remembered correctly, he'd arrived at Jaris in year nineteen, century of the Dragonfly. Had it only been four years? Wait. Century. Dragonfly. He gasped, the room spun and his vision blurred.
The thief frowned and tilted his head. ´Are you all right?`
´What century is it?` he rasped.
´Century?`
´Yes, century! Tell me!` Ranloo yelled and stared at the young man.
He flinched back from the vampire. ´It's the wyvern,` he said carefully.
Ranloo couldn't breathe. Wyvern. Wrong century. He flopped down on the floor, startling the thief. Year twenty-three. Wyvern.
´Is the wyvern after the dragonfly?` he asked, his voice tight. He couldn't remember the way humans counted time.
´Yes, naturally,` Nawar replied with a shrug. ´Why?`
´One hundred and two years,` he mumbled in shock. ´I've lost a century.`
´What do you mean?` the thief asked.
Ranloo stared blankly at the young man. No wonder nobody had heard about the Iron Lock. It was too long ago. They were all gone. Even Pei and Diquarl. He wasn't sure if they had survived the battle, but he had hoped. It didn't even matter any more. They were all gone. The shock made him nauseous, his chest hurt. Everything and everyone he had known. Gone. He fell back to the floor and stared at the roof. It was spinning around. He had truly lost everything. He had nothing left. Nothing but his painful memories.
A blurry face appeared above him. A dark shadow. He couldn't focus on it.
´What happened?` Nawar asked carefully.
´I'm busy,` he replied faintly.
A strangled laugh escaped the thief before he stifled it. ´Busy? You're on the floor.`
´Yes,` he breathed. ´Very busy having my life flash in front of my eyes. You're ruining the moment.`
This time the young man didn't even try to conceal his laughter. ´Did you lose your mind entirely? What's up with the century?`
Ranloo frowned, irritated. He should just have found some abandoned place instead. This young man was too annoying. ´Shut up.`
´Answer me.`
´No!` He sat up and glared at the thief who hastily stepped away from him again. ´Shut up! I'm thinking! Leave me alone.` Then he lay back down again. He didn't care about the floor. He cared about a hundred years. How long had he been a prisoner? How long had he been in the forest, living like an animal? How in the abyss had he survived that long? He was dizzy, numbed by the shock. His thoughts were reeling, running amok. Had he been alive, he was sure he'd felt sick. He stared into the roof in silence, vaguely aware of the thief on the mattress a few feet away. But he didn't care. His life was ruined. Gone. He would have to build it up from the beginning again. Start anew. How? He didn't have the strength. He was too tired. His thoughts were getting sluggish and slow. He never noticed that he fell asleep.

* * * * *

A sound made Ranloo sit upright, eyes wide. He was in a small, dark room. For a short while he stared around, panic rising like a wave, strangling him. It took a few minutes before he noticed the wooden walls. Not stone. It was empty, but had a lingering smell of a young man. The thief. Ranloo stood and went to the door. He heard sounds in the small house.
Carefully he opened the door and sneaked out. He needed to go out hunting. He passed by the kitchen just as a short, slim, and stern looking woman came out from the doorway.
She gasped and took a step back as she saw him, her dark eyes widening. ´What are you doing here?` she asked sharply, wrinkled her small nose and looked the elf up and down.
Ranloo tensed, almost charged. Then he remembered his promise not to hurt the thief's family. ´Uh...` he said. To Ranloo's surprise, she turned on her heels and went back into the kitchen, her skirts fluttering around her.
´Nawar! What is that thing doing here?` she yelled. ´Get it out!`
Ranloo stared after her. It? Did she mean him? He had never been called an it before. Confused, he heard her stomp further into the kitchen, heard a slap followed by a groan.
´Get up, lazy boy! Get that thing out out of here!`
´What thing?` Nawar complained.
´That thing!` The woman reappeared, pulling her son by the ear and pointed towards Ranloo.
Their eyes met, and for a few seconds they stared at each other in stunned silence.
´Yes, mother,` the thief grumbled and rubbed his ear as she let him go. She crossed her arms and tapped her foot on the floor. The thief took a deep breath, then hurried past the vampire and beckoned for him to follow.
´And don't bring it back in again!` his mother called behind them.
´It?` Ranloo asked, too surprised to be angry.
Nawar grimaced and vanished out the door. Ranloo followed him while considering biting the young man, hunger pulling at him. They stopped outside.
Nawar rubbed his neck with a hand and sighed, eyeing the vampire warily. ´Sorry about that,` he mumbled.
Ranloo snorted and shook his head. ´Whatever.` He sniffed the air, wrinkled his nose at the smell of the city and started down the alley.
´Where are you going?` Nawar asked behind him.
´Hunting,` he replied and smiled to himself as he heard the thief gasp. He almost turned back, but checked himself. Not a good idea to hurt his helper. He sniggered. Involuntary helper. He started to run.

When he came back to the house, he jumped up onto the flat roof and sat down, his legs dangling over the edge. The city was different, but the view from above was almost the same. He looked up at the stars glittering between patches of clouds, racing each other across the sky. A century, he thought. A hundred years had vanished. Gone, drowned out in pain, loneliness and misery. His friends were gone. His family was most likely still in the Elven kingdom, but he couldn't see them, and his children probably barely remembered him. They'd be adults now. He closed his eyes at the sudden heartache, could almost feel their hugs, like ghosts around him. He sighed. What a mess everything had become. How lonely he had become.
He began humming an elven song, swinging his legs over the edge, pondering his fate. Some time later he heard scraping sounds and panting behind him. He quieted and looked around. Nawar was climbing up over the edge of the roof, his face red from the exertion. He stood up and brushed himself off before looking up and meeting the elf's amber gaze.
´Nice song you were singing. What was it?` the young man asked and flicked his hair back with a quick motion.
Ranloo turned away from him again, not overly interested in conversation. ´An elven song about the stars,` he said. ´What do you want?`
´Well,` Nawar fidgeted nervously. ´I wonder how long you're staying.`
Ranloo snickered. ´I thought your mother said to get it out?`
He heard the thief shuffling about. ´Well, yes, but I didn't think you'd listen to her.`
´I don't,` he said and looked over his shoulder.
Nawar swallowed and bit his lower lip.
´I will stay until I find something better. If you want me to leave, you can help me,` Ranloo continued.
´I thought...`
´What?`
´You look like...` the thief hesitated.
Ranloo sighed. ´I know what I look like.`
´You need a bath and new clothes,` Nawar blurted out quickly and took a step back, as if expecting the vampire to attack him.
Ranloo arched an eyebrow. ´Yes?`
´There's a public bath not too far from here.` He looked at the vampire, a tense air about him. He smelled of fear.
Ranloo smiled, and he took another step back. ´Calm down, I won't harm you. I promised,` he said and stood up. ´Where's the bath? Show me.`
The thief nodded, went back to the edge of the roof and began climbing down. Ranloo jumped and landed with a soft thump in the alley. He heard the thief gasp and glanced up. The young man was halfway down, staring at him.
´How can you just jump down like that?` he asked when he came down.
Ranloo grinned. ´I'm a vampire,` he stated.
Nawar opened his mouth as if to say something, then he closed it again and went down the street, shaking his head.

The odd pair decided the elf needed better clothes before going to the bath and went around looking for a suitable person to rob. When they found a middle aged man of about the right size, Ranloo knocked him unconscious and stole his clothes. Nawar stared. It had taken no more than a minute. They hurried to the bath and Ranloo broke down the door to the big building. The thief was astonished at his strength. They went in and found the baths.
Ranloo had never been to a public bath before. He stood staring at the many pools for a few minutes before undressing and getting in. Nawar hastily turned around and soon left the room, looking for things to steal.
Ranloo enjoyed the clean water and lay soaking for a long time. He avoided looking down at his thin body more than he had to. He hated what his long, self-imposed exile had done to him. But he thought he looked a little better already.
´Hey! Here,` Nawar called to him suddenly and something splashed into the water beside him. Ranloo wiped water out of his eyes and glared at the thief. ´Soap,` he excused himself, before vanishing again.
Ranloo looked into the water and spotted a bar of soap floating there, smelling sweetly of herbs and oils.

Almost an hour later the elf got out of the bath, annoyed. He had tried washing off all the dirt for a long time. But he couldn't seem to get his hair clean. He went about looking for a comb and towels, leaving wet tracks behind him. Nawar found him some time later, naked but for a towel thrown over his shoulder, in front of a mirror, glaring at his reflection.
´What's wrong?` he asked and tried to avert his eyes as much as possible.
Ranloo huffed. ´My hair,` he grumbled.
´What about it?`
´It's grey!` he suddenly raised his voice and the thief started.
´I know,` he said carefully.
Ranloo whipped around and glared at him.
Nawar didn't know where to look and ended up staring at the wall awkwardly.
Ranloo blinked, then realized what the problem was and grinned. ´Am I embarrassing you?` he asked innocently.
Nawar swallowed, shook his head and blushed.
The elf barked a laugh and turned back to the mirror, wrapping the towel around his waist. His smile faded. His hair wasn't black anymore. It had a dark, slate grey colour. He had managed to comb it out after much struggle. It was perfectly shiny and clean, but grey. Maybe it would revert back to black when he had healed properly, he thought. Annoyed he went to the clothes he had placed on a bench. He dropped the towel to the floor and dressed. They fit fairly well. He didn't like to wear other people's clothes, but at least these were better quality than the peasant's had been. They left the bath shortly after.

As they walked around, a thought struck the elf. He hadn't seen any city guards since he'd come back to Jaris.
´Where are the city guards?` he asked.
Nawar watched the elf with his unreadable, dark eyes. ´City guards? You mean the militia?` he asked.
Ranloo gave him an uncomprehending gaze. ´There's no city guard?` he tried again.
The thief shrugged. ´Not really. There's people who guard the streets at night, but no proper knights or anything,` he said.
´Why?` Ranloo asked, remembering the countless times he'd run into the guards in the past.
´I'm not sure. I think the repairs of the wall and the rebuilding of the castle have something to do with it.`
´So, the king removed the guards to be able to afford rebuilding things?` he mused quietly. ´How convenient,` he laughed, and got a confused look from the thief.

Things were looking better already. Apart from the fact that everyone you knew is dead or gone, he thought. He batted the thought aside, ignored the crushing pain. He'd carve a place for himself here, force the city to accept him as a part of it. That was his current goal. He would find a place to live, get new friends, a new purpose. He had come to stay and nothing would get in his way. Jaris would be his home.
This city had created him, it was going to suffer his presence!