The rain would not stop.

Storm's been going on since lunch, I reckon. Every time I checked, the roads were a bit too muddy for travel. As much as I wanted to get back home to my compound in Concordia (or what might have been left of it, if the Rangers finally grew some fucking balls and stormed the place in my absence), I couldn't find a covered wagon or a coach that would be willing to drive all the way to the harbor in this weather.

...Honestly, that was fine. I could wait. Part of me hesitated to return to the Ranger outpost.

I was staring at a blank check. I had been given a chance to start fresh. Let everything go. Begin anew. Catch a merchant freighter to Keribas or something, explore the other side of the world. See what I could learn and become when I wasn't being tied down by the litany of mistakes I've made, bridges I've burned, and crimes I've committed against man and nature. Amari was nice enough to give me a couple changes of clothes and have the Hand armorer pound out a new mask for me to cover my hideous face with.

Everyone who would've cared enough to ask would've learned that I was well and truly gone. I could be free of all of them. Nobody had to know that I was back, having risen from the ashes hung around the Ar'Tuel's neck. Philomel, Lichensith, Aurelianus, Vincent Cain, and whoever the hell else shared drinks and problems with my tangled mess of an ass.

Nothing had to change. Well--almost nothing; would just need to get my boat ticked change from Radasanth to Somewhere Vaguely East, I Don't Care Where Thank You.

And yet...

I couldn't.

Had to go home.

Had to make sure. Had to check on Hyperion.

She'd either be there, rooted by the front door, awaiting my return after all these months... Or she'd be long gone, having long since given up hope and moved onto a more peaceful life elsewhere, likely staying far away from monsters such as myself. Maybe she opened up a bakery or an alchemy shop or something. She always did like baking consumables of both kinds.

"Another one, if you'd please," I called out over the deafening silence inside the tavern, raising my empty glass high in the air. The portly man simply nodded and poured another frosty mug of amber ale.

Outside, the rain continued to fall, relentlessly pounding the roof with each drop. Hopefully the storm would end by the morning.