Role

Chapter 14

The Healer's guild never recovered Serith's body. Instead, they gathered her
journal and prayer beads from her personal chambers and placed them on an
altar devoted to the Gods and Goddesses of the Light. Her possessions remained
atop the altar for three days, and ______ stopped by on the final day to say
goodbye to her friend. As she left, an aging priestess called out her name.
Pretending not to hear, ______ ran back towards the Inn, tears blurring her
vision as she darted through the streets.

Mother's voice rang out from the kitchen as she slipped through the back door
of the Inn. "______, is that you? I need help with these potatoes. Get in
here." Her hour of mourning was over. It had taken a lie for Mother to let her
leave the Inn, and there was no way that 'Erik, the dockhand' would need two
batches of cookies in the span of a week. ______ placed some silver on the
table and muttered something about Erik loving the cookies before she turned
to the basket of half peeled potatoes by the sink. She grabbed the peeler and
focused on the potatoes, desperately trying to ignore Mother's oft-repeated
story of when Tisus and Melirene had stolen a bag of potatoes from the
Sultan's own caravan. Mother didn't like being ignored, so she simply spoke
over ______'s humming until her daughter screamed and threw one of the
potatoes at a collection of pans before stomping upstairs.

Mother's voice followed her as she slammed the door to her room shut,

"You know, I lost my brother when I was your age and you don't see me throwing
a fit. Tisus and Melirene would remember you. You can't stay like this
forever. They knew what they were riski--"

Mother finally stopped when she heard the window above ______'s room shatter
from the force of the chair that her daughter had slammed into it.

______ was left to haunt the Inn on her own for a week. Mother and Father
brought food to her door as she tried to carve small figurines for each of her
siblings and for Serith. The words of a Shaman that followed Rahsael came to
her mind often during that week:

"Those that avoid confronting their Loss bleed more readily than those who
embrace it. Either way, both bleed."