The Chronicle of the Worthy Son

The Man About Town

The sunrise stretched through the window to pierce Able's slumber. The room looked as blurry as his thoughts, but he had hoped for an early start, so he forced himself out from under the strangely fluffy and excessively warm blanket and rubbed his eyes clear on the way to the washbasin. After breakfast, he asked the innkeeper, an older woman, about a bath, but as nice as the inn was, a bucket and sponge was the best she could offer. Disappointing, but after over a week at sea it was still a good sight better than nothing.

Once clean and dressed, he went to find the inn girl, whom the innkeeper had identified as her daughter Tranquility. He felt a little skeevy that he had asked after the daughter instead of asking the mother a question she could have answered herself, but he wanted to ease into a conversation with her, keep her friendly. As it was ever so clear that he needed someone friendly in this town.

"Hey," he called as came up to her in the yard behind the inn where she was hanging laundry to dry.

"Hi," she replied over her shoulder. "Can I help you with something?"

"Ah, yeah." He shuffled a bit. Great, even though he had prepared for this? "I was wondering how long I might leave my stuff in the room and hang on to this key before I'm charged for another night?" Why the fluster? She wasn't all that pretty.

"About suppertime." She shrugged then pulled another sheet from her basket. "You leaving tonight then?"

"I don't know, still." Able looked at the ground instead of her while he regained his composure. "I was going to head out and ask around town to see if I could pick up any leads, and chances are even if I find anything I won't leave until tomorrow, but, yeah. I guess we'll see. But thank you for not making me carry my things all over the city."

She only chuckled. Maybe she wasn't interested after all.

"I did have one other question. About something you said last night."

"Oh?" Tranquility turned halfway towards him from the clothesline and fixed him with her gaze. Huh.

"About Lackaday. You said he's different now than he was before? Am I remembering that right?"

"I might have said that." Her demeanor relaxed with an amiable nod and she looked back down at her basket. "It's true."

"Can I ask what he was like before?"

"Sure." She set her hands on her hips instead of returning to her task and rolled her eyes up thoughtfully to the blue sky. "We all called him Lackaday because he mostly talked about the bad things that happened on his travels, and if he ever had something to add to a conversation it would be about the worst possible outcome imaginable. Nobody much minded, of course. Almost everyone lost someone to the war, and no one expects optimism from someone who lost more than others. But as you can see, now..."

"Yeah, I wouldn't describe him that way at all." Able turned his own thoughtful gaze over the green expanse to the north. "Say...what do you think of the Shadow Warrior?"

"I hope I never meet him." She shrugged again with a tiny smile. "The people he helps tend to be in a lot more trouble than I'd like to be in myself."

Able chuckled. "Fair enough."

"But I'm glad for him," she added firmly. "I think he gives people hope."

"If you hear a lot of stories like the ones I heard last night, that's an understandable conclusion."

"You sound like maybe you're not going to agree, now."

"Oh—" He hadn't meant to be obvious about that. "It's just...well, people like the mayor might say he causes more problems than he solves."