make me stay.

twentyseven

♜

"the wreck was examined this morning. i'm still waiting for results," a darker voice stated. it sounded a bit slurred, almost further away than the other voice which answered; "who were sent?"

"harry and emmanuel."

i had come to a sudden halt out in the hall, on the other side of the closed door, making out the entrance of our temporary home.

the sun was rapidly falling behind the trees outside as our fourth day here had come to an end. i had been on my way back to our room, when the conversation between two familiar voices already inside, had stopped me.

"i expect some progress by now, coast." north stated. 

coast had, for reasons unknown, failed to update the king on any progress we made, as he had promised earlier on. at least from what i was aware of, he hadn't even spoken to north since i had as well.

"of course," coast said, respect lacing his voice. he knew his choice to leave north in the dark had not been smart. "we're almost finished. aeston will need quite some rebuilding, but most of the foreigners have left already, so we should be returning in two days, at the latest."

"no complains, then." mercer replied. "and maire-grace?"

"better than i had expected, actually. she gains enormous respect from strangers impressively quick." coast said, and i smiled to myself. 

the second day of our stay, mayor reyes had taken us around the town. some streets had been completely empty, while others were almost impossible to go through due to an overflow of tents, waste and even just people. 

residents and foreigners were arguing everywhere you looked, even some getting into physical confrontations. no children were seen walking alone, no foreigner were seen wearing clean clothes, and no one seemed well in this entire situation. chaos and even further conflicts and issues seemed to appear on every street corner, most people, involved or not,  did not seem to notice us in the slighest. 

coast had seemed to get through to the guards of the town far better than i would ever be able to, so i had let him be in charge of them. the actual citizens of the town were my area. and coast was correct; for some reason, people seemed to listen to me. 

i had no use in raising my voice, or do anything to attain any attention, eyes just fell upon me. 

as the conversation behind the door continued, i turned around on my heel, deciding to give them some space. every joint i had in my body was complaining, exhausted from the current day, but some fresh air did not sound bad, while i waited for them to finish. 

the halls here were shorter and fewer, so i had not had any trouble remembering the short way up to our room. i followed down a second hall after our own, before taking a right and letting the twirling staircase lead me down to the main level. 

the stairs began in the entrance hall, which meant that taking the last step down, i found myself facing the front door.  

my coat, along with gloves and scarf were hanging on a rack to my right, which i simply grabbed in my hand, before leaving. the winds were stronger at night, and even colder in the darkness, so i quickly pulled on the coat before wrapping the scarf around my neck. i stuffed the gloves in my pocket, saving them for a while later.