me it isn’t a coincidence. The League hasn’t even mentioned her, have they? They’re just looking out for their own.” The doubt that washed over the kid’s face was easier to read than first-grade homework. “So maybe I’m not hot on the trail here, but if it’s all the same to you, I’m going to do my job and collect my money till this thing is over.”
He shook his head like a disappointed parent.
“You’re a drunk. You’re a liability. On behalf of The League of Vampires, I am warning you to stay out of our way.”
He blew out the fire in the lamp and the room went dark.
“Wow. Spooky kid. Are you out there creeping around trying to get out without me hearing you? When the League get to town, I’ll tell them how impressive your performance has been. Ten points for concept but only five for execution. I’m going back to sleep now.”
I tried to go back to sleep. I was too full of bile and clotted blood to care about some ancient organization making threats from the shadows, but I knew I’d skipped over something, somewhere, while my mind had been dealing with grudges and rotgut instead of missing old men and runaway girls.
Up in the night sky, somebody turned on the rain real hard. It clamored on the window like an untrained drummer trying to get my attention, but my mind was back in the old days, before I’d made so many mistakes.
The second mark was made by my friends…
My whole life, I’ve been introduced to things that I might intellectually understand but not actually be able to experience myself. Flight was a big one. The first time I saw someone take to the skies, my sense of wonder was crushed beneath a deep, bitter jealousy. I could almost understand Weatherly after that; why someone would build those walls rather than look upon miracles that weren’t meant for them.
Camaraderie eluded me in much the same way. I tried to summon it many times, in every institution I served in: singing anthems and slapping backs and calling people brother or mate. I could say the words but they were always empty. Feeling like part of a group seemed as impossible as soaring into the sky.
Family was another idea that never quite got into my bones. Maybe I could let myself off the hook on that one, circumstances being what they were, but I’m sure someone else could have found a real connection in the Kane household where I only saw nice folks doing me a favor.
Love? Who the hell knows? Does anyone really understand that one? There are a million poets around the world right now still trying to crack that code.
Then, there’s friendship.
I get the idea, of course, but it looks different when other people do it. They seem at ease with each other, while I always feel like a tourist. During my first year in Sunder City, I thought people spent time with me as some sort of charity. I wasn’t witty or insightful or especially interesting, so I thought they only kept me around to be nice. It was only later, looking back at the laughs and the long nights in the bar, that I realized Hendricks might have been different.
I was struggling through my second night as a wash-boy at The Ditch. It was owned back then by a Dwarf named Titan Tatterman, who paid too little, shouted too much and usually passed out drunk before the end of the night. It was only because he was such an asshole that I was able to get the job.
I’d washed up in Sunder without qualification, contacts or experience and on top of that, I was Human. That meant there was always someone who could do the job faster and better than I could. You want a scout? Employ some Elven eyes. In need of excavation? Only a Gnome will do. You need weapons and don’t go Dwarven? When your gear falls to pieces it’s your own damn fault.
All I had was wide-eyed enthusiasm and a willingness to do the jobs nobody else would bother with. Usually, that meant that I was cleaning.
I’d wiped down the tables, rinsed the glasses, stacked the plates, and was tentatively prodding old Tatterman who was asleep in a booth, when someone rapped on the glass pane of The Ditch’s front door.
I turned to see a golden face framed by hair that was the color of copper wire and just as