Of Blood and Duty

Chapter Four • Eyes of the Past

-A Stranger-

Mae led him out of the airless and murky room into another one. ,This one that was just as stuffy as the one he had just left. He figured that this was the room he had heard Mae, Evor and Hagan fight over what to do with him. His eyes scanned it in one go, bare walls made out of wooden boards and the floor identically fashioned. This one, also utterly windowless but slightly larger in size.

Why are there no windows? When was the last time I got some sun in my face? He wondered while longing for those rays of warmth and light only being outside could give you.

Seem like some sort of antechamber... He thought as his eyes, in disappointment, ended their quick study of the room all too soon. Having noticed three additional doors in the room apart from that behind them in the process. One to his left, one on the right and one ahead of him and Mae. In the middle of the room stood a round table with four stools around it. Maybe not an antechamber, more like a small common room it seems. A small and poorly lit one. 

"Which one is yours?" He asked as they passed the door to their right, heading for the one straight ahead. Mae hauling him forward with each step. Like a child stubbornly dragging something much to heavy to show its parents. It did not matter how much he tried to make it easier for her, if he took a step too long or moved too quickly it ended up with both of them standing still until he had recovered from the pain it caused him. 

"What?" She asked, clearly confused and stopping mid-step. Nearly causing him to fall forward and right onto his face. Seeming to have misheard him or not heard him at all judging by the blank look on her face. The dark hair was ruffled from their struggles, strands hanging in front of her face. She blew them away with an aggressive puff of air while waiting for his reply.

"Which room is yours?" He rephrased his question and not thinking on it further. Trying to speak clearer despite his aching body. Maybe she had not heard him because every word had been a grunt of pain. 

Mae's gave him a once over, ending it by meeting his gaze. She appeared to trying to read how he had figured out that her room was behind on of the four doors around them by solely from looking into his eyes . After a handful of seconds the confusion ran off her and was replaced with something irked and sullen. 

"That is none of your business." She snarled. Not coming up with anything better or worse to throw at him. "Shut your hole and walk on." 

She is not wrong. Rude? Yes, very much so. Wrong? No... He thought but continued on as told. 

Quite the crude question truth be told. He thought to himself. Feeling a bit ashamed for posing such a prying question without thinking about how it looked or would be received. That would have gotten me sent to a miserable outpost just like it did when-. He felt himself go stiff at the fraction of a memory from his life. There were no images, just the frame of it. Knowing that doing the same thing would have resulted in being sent away. He had spent several hours trying to recall his life by force while being stuck in bed. And now it just flashed past him. Arrogant and mockingly fleeting into being only to dissolve into nothing when he tried to remember the rest of it. 

"My apologies." He groaned as he arduously took another step forward. Sweat dripping down his face from pain and exhaustion. "You are right. It is none of my concern. I should not have asked." 

"All those fancy words and your elegant way of putting them together." She huffed condescendingly. "They will eat you alive if you keep it up." An advice, despite the tone in which it was delivered it was given out of kindness. At least it was given so he would have a chance against the Guild.