The one I’d grown up in.
It looked the same as it had the day I left. Yes, I’d come back to the slums often, but I’d never dared come here, sure that it’d undo my wish that had somehow come true. I’d been part of something greater than myself, and I’d been convinced that if I returned here, everything I’d been given would fade away as if it were a dream.
This was the first time I’d seen my home since Morgan of Shadows had taken me by the hand and led me to the castle.
And yes, the house itself looked the same, but the piles of freshly cut flowers around it were different. The scraps of parchment pinned to the walls and door were different, scrawled with words I couldn’t make out. The chalk drawing of a heart with a lightning bolt through it on the ground near the doorway was different, the heart green, the lightning bolt gold.
“What is this?” I asked quietly.
“It started a little while after you left,” Ryan said, taking my hand in his. “When the Darks started to come from the woods.”
“People prayed here,” Justin said, coming to stand on the other side of me. “To the gods. To you. To help them. To believe in them. They came here because they didn’t know where else to go. They thought you had forsaken them.” He shook his head. “And no matter what we said, they couldn’t be convinced otherwise. It started with just people from the slums. But then it grew to the other quadrants of the City. And then beyond the City.”
“I don’t understand.”
“You’re their hope, Sam,” Justin said. “It’s as simple as that. And hope can become a weapon when all else seems lost. They’ve been waiting for you to return. And now you have.”
I walked across the street, the others behind me. The doorway to the shack was covered in flowers and notes, and as I read them, I wondered if I deserved such faith, such faith and veneration.
Please come back.
I hope you’re safe, Sam.
I’m sorry for what I said about you, wizard. I just didn’t understand.
MYRIN SUCKS BALLS.
My brother is missing. He believed in you more than anything.
I don’t want to be scared anymore.
Fuck the Darks! Sam of Wilds is the best wizard there is!
HAVEHEART 4 LIFE! :) :) :)
And one, writte
n in a childish scrawl: We will always believe in the light.
I didn’t deserve them. Any of them.
“What if I let them down?” I asked, staring at the dozens of notes pinned to the door and wall. “What if I can’t be what they need me to be?”
It was Lady Tina who said, “You’re not alone, Sam. It doesn’t just rest upon you. We’ll all fight to take it back. And we’ll win.”
For once, I couldn’t think of a single snarky thing to say to her.
Ryan stepped over the flowers and pushed the door open. He looked back at me and held out his hand. “You ready?”
I hesitated, but only briefly. I took his hand and went inside.
“YOU NEED to get some sleep,” Ryan said. He was lying on the floor in my old room, head resting on his pack. Sunlight was beginning to filter in through the slats of the shack, and I knew the room would get warm later in the afternoon. I was busy staring at a collection of rocks piled in the corner. “We’re going to need to be as fresh as possible.”
I snorted. “Just because you can do that freaky thing and fall asleep immediately doesn’t mean the rest of us can.”
“Army training. Learned to sleep wherever and whenever we could.”
“Yeah. Freaky.”