Twenty - It is raining on a sunny day

One month had gone by.

I had fun during this time but I can not forget why I am here. I am getting impatient. No matter how much I try to live this normal life I can not stand still while the rest of the world is crumbling.

Kasamba is acting more and more mysterious. He is making me more and more irritated.

I have been doing his deliveries now.

Everyday.

I like visiting Lady Mai. The problem is not her or the work.

He basically vanishes the entire day and at night he is too busy taking care of the tavern to talk or give any explanation.

I will confront him today.

About everything.

I tried talking to him a couple of times.

Unsuccessfully.

One of the skills for being a good tavern owner is to know how to string people along.

I wake up and go straight to the tavern.

No one is here.

Usually this early, during mornings, he is sleeping and recovering from the past night. But he is not here. The neighbors did not see him after he closed.

Mrs. Lampronia wakes up very early and normally sees him getting rid of the last costumer by the same time.

She knew nothing about his whereabouts.

Has him gone to sleep on someone’s else place?

How am I going to find him?

I went look for him anyway.

I visit the regular places he might have gone. He knows a lot of people. He could be anywhere.

It is already high-noon and nothing.

I look for him on every corner he could have been hiding. I should go back to the Dragons and wait there.

What other choice do I have.

I need to do Lady Mai’s delivery today, anyway.

The tavern is still closed.

He should have been here by now.

I knock at Mrs. Lampronia.

He was there very briefly. He asked her to prepare the meal so I could do the delivery. He was not going to be able to do it himself.

I never spent any amount of time thinking where he goes the whole day or what he does. I do not know too much about his personal life. The majority of the time I met him, we were at work. The other things I know about him was because other people told me.

This is the first time I am making an effort to look for him, really.

I will drop the food and comeback as fast as I can.

“You are here early today.” He says as I enter.

Oh, yes. He is here now. “We need to talk.”

“What is so urgent, boy?”

“What is going on? With you? With everything? You know why I came to Fojstar. You know who sent me. I have not seen anything yet. Or talked about it yet? Why are you stalling so much? I have been enjoying my time here. But I am losing my patient.”

He is smiling at me.

He is smiling at me?

Why is he smiling at me?

I hate that smirk.

“You were here all this days; enjoying our beautiful city; going places, meeting new people; becoming a hero, but you never asked anything about it.”

“I thought I made it clear why I was here. Since day one.”

“You look so happy being here with us all this time I had thought you changed your mind.”

“Never!”

“I like your spirit, boy. The one who blew up an entire fortress and helped the north fight the Council. I had to check how was your head and heart. A lot of the people that come here looking for joining us, are not prepared. We need more than fierce and relentless warriors. Our cause is about heart and how far you are willing to go. Just being good warriors is not enough. They change their mind. They betray their friends for fleeting rewards or flee cowardly when we most need them. We need partners, family, that would fight side by side until the very end. No turning back.”

“This whole time? You know who I am? Have I passed on your test?”

“It is my job to know everything.”

I am astonished.

This whole time he was just playing with me.

“Did I convince you enough to let me help you? Now that you clearly know my intentions, what do we do now?”

“I am opening the bar. Today is going to be a busy day again.”

“What? No.” I advance towards him. To punch that idiotic face.

I stop.

I can not move.

What?

I can not move. What is going on?

He grabs me by the collar and delivers a blow with his knee to my stomach. He grabs me by the vest and throws me all the way across the bar.

I hit the wall and fall down to the floor.

He is staring at me.

With that silly face.

Smirking.

“You faced Olvad and hardly survived. Only by luck. You have the heart to fight, boy. You convinced me a while ago. But you yet not have the head. You are too fiery, too impulsive.”

I struggle to stand up.

My stomach hurts.

“Come on, help me. I will give you as an apology for the kick. We have so much work to today. My back is killing me.”

“I am never drinking again!”

He laughs out loud.

The night goes by without any more commotion.

Maybe he is right.

It took me too much time to do something or ask something directly about it. Have I gone soft? Is my head still on the same place? So much happened this past months.

I still want my revenge.

I want to take down the Council.

No matter what.

I can never forget my objective.

The next day is a day off.

I try to sleep a little bit but I can not now.

Kasamba sent me to the hostel to rest.

I do not want to be here right now.

The morning sun rises.

It is still too much early.

I am pretty sure today he will be still sleeping.

He will be sleeping for a while.

Maybe I should sleep too.

Why am I not sleeping?

Since that night I have had problems to sleep.

Vivid nightmares from that day. Like I was over and over again.

I was awake for four days straight until I passed out. Right after that night.

I could not close my eyes without remembering everything.

It took something like a year or so like this until I finally had a proper night of sleeping.

The no ones taught me a technique to induce sleeping.

We have to sleep to receive our missions.

Once we are on a safe space; we just do it.

We do not rest well after. It makes our mind heavy.

I do not like using.

Maybe I should use it now.

But I do not want to sleep.

I want to talk to Kasamba.

Why can not I sleep?

It is evening.

I passed out on the bed.

Working all night has its effects on my body.

Even with my head being restless I dropped.

I am not well rested at all.

My body is still aching from the trashing I got.

That stupid guy is very strong.

Time to get up.

I head straight to the tavern.

Kasamba is doing some accounting.

He did not changed his focus when I entered.

I entered already making a lot of noise. “What are we doing today? I can not have any more days of waiting!”

He nods and keep looking at his paperwork.

“Did you heard me? Kasamba!”

“Boy, I am busy now. But my friend here is going to help you on my behalf.”

Friend?

I look around.

There she is.

I have not sensed her at the slightest when I came in.

The old lady from across the street is looking very ominously from the front door.

“Mrs. Lampronia has just arrived.” He says. “Let me formally introduce you two. This is Mrs. Lampronia Tiburtia. She is one of the elders and head of our whole mobilization.”

She was always the nice neighbor lady from across the street. To be fair, why and old lady would living next to a tavern? Maybe Kasamba is right and I got very distracted.

“Mrs. Lampronia? What does that mean? What is going on?”

She approaches and sit across the table from Kasamba. “Sit down too. We have so much to talk.”

I sit.

“Where should I begin? I have been living in this city for almost ten years now. I have met my belated husband at the Capital decades ago; He was from this mountains. He always wanted to comeback here but his job as a sailor did not let him do it. We lived on the coastal city of Manarfell for many, many year together. I was born there.” She pauses. “It was until nine years ago or so, the Council began to move. A lot of blockages and unfair laws were being implemented. Ships were being controlled more and more. They were being audited and inspected daily. People were being blamed for crimes that never happened. The Council wanted to create imaginary enemies and problems that had never existed. They needed scapegoats to justify acting in the name of the continent's defense. Ships' cargoes were being detained by the authorities without any explanation. Slowly and without much notice we were being taken hostages.”

She stand up start walking to the bar. She grabs a bottle and a glass. Pours it.

“When the Eternal Rain came the coup came right after. People attribute the Council take over to the Rain. To protect us from another disaster happening. But people were already making moves before that. The pieces on the board were already in motion. No one knows if the rain was truly an unfortunate accident or if it was all planned to look like a coincidence. You were probably too young to remember. We were all very scared. The coastal cities were the first ones to fall. They were taking control of the exits and entrances. My husband got assassinated in one of the many random inspections. He was a little hot-head like you. As his last wish, I brought his ashes here to the mountains where his soul would rest where he was born.”

She takes a sip of the drink.

“The mobilization started at the very beginning. We tried to prevent the Council action years before it happened. With time yet we were not capable of ceasing it. The resistance became a rebellion.”

She brings the bottle to the table.

“It pains me a lot until today. All across the continent we saw cities and villages falling, one by one. It has been almost a decade now. Our plan is to strike on the tenth year celebration of the coup. We are taking back the Capital.”