Kings Game

Chapter 20 - Home (1)

Roran sat on his bed hugging his knees. He still had trouble thinking of it as his bed. The room was slowly starting to look lived in. There were spare clothes in the trunk. His sword and a new shield hung from a peg on the wall. A handful of books sat on the desk, left there by Karyn. Also on the desk were an envelope and three sacks filled to the brim with coin. It was the most money Roran had ever had in his life. Inside the envelope was the supposed location of his father, delivered by King Tasos's aide herself. Roran had everything he had asked for.

And he was miserable.

He'd murdered his friend and turned his back on his people, leaving them to rot in the dungeons while he walked away a free man. He hadn't seen Murrin and the others being forced back down below the Crucible. He probably wouldn't see any of them ever again. Roran hadn't gone to visit the people of Sunridge either. He had asked Carrick to send a small pile of money down to help them, but that was it.

Chase had disappeared as well. Roran had looked for him but not very hard. He wasn't sure what he would say if he did manage to find him. Chase had been there from the start, helping him, looking after him, encouraging him. Chase was one of the people that had kept Roran alive down in the dungeons. And Roran had repaid him by killing his best friend.

A knock came from the door, startling Roran.

"Yeah?"

Kell opened the door and came in. She tossed her spear in the corner and sat on the bed, scooting next to Roran.

"Hey," she said.

"Hi."

"Karyn's worried about you."

"Sorry"

Kell shrugged.

"I don't mean to worry her, I just..."

"Need time to process? Need time to adjust to your new life? Need time out of the sun?"

Roran nodded. "I didn't think I would get tired of looking at the sun, not after being locked underground for so long, but it hurts after a while."

"Having trouble sleeping?"

Roran nodded again. "I'm not keeping you up, am I?"

"No, but you have giant bags under your eyes and you keep stumbling into things."

"Only twice," Roran said, pouting.

"It was four times yesterday alone. Stop pushing yourself. You went through some traumatic stuff, it's okay if you need time to adjust. If nothing else you should be sleeping again in another week."

"How do you know?"

"You're not the first dungeon fodder we've worked with. The others all struggled with life on the outside too. You'll get used to it eventually."

"What happened to them, the others I mean?"

"Dead."

Roran nodded, unsurprised. "Tell me about them?"

Kell shrugged. "The first was Ulrick. I spotted him while spectating a Crucible match. He was clearly an ametuer but he was a demon with a sword. I participated the following week and recruited him. He moved in with us a week later. Things went well for a little bit, but he was as dumb as a bag of rocks. If you think I'm boneheaded in a fight, he was ten times worse. In our second team match, the idiot sprinted in headfirst, trying to fight the entire team. They tore him apart.

"After him was Laura. I recruited her the same way I did you. We were a little more judicious with her, taking time to train her, get her used to focus markings, properly arming her. She lasted two months with us. I was getting hopeful until she caught Barron's eye. Barron and I had already fallen out by then so I wasn't pleased that she was falling in with him. Eventually they started hanging out and she got caught up in his drama. She died in a street bawl a month after that."

"Is that why you didn't like Barron?"

"There were a lot of reasons I didn't like Barron, but that wasn't one of the big ones. It just sucked seeing her get pulled into the drama between Champions. There's a lot of it. Anyway, after her was Eren. He was a nice enough guy but never could get the hang of focus markings. Even just activating them was too much for him. The first time he saw me injured and bleeding out, he panicked and ran...right into a pitfall. He may as well have been wearing paint for all the good his focus markings did. Now, we have you."

"What makes you think I'll do any better?"

"You've already killed four Champions and you don't even have focus markings. All of the others moved out of the Crucible within two weeks. You stayed and kept fighting matches, then you went and became a Champion yourself. You're already leagues ahead of the others, and we're just getting started."

Before Roran could respond, Karyn came crashing through the door.

"There you two are. Come on!"

"Why, what's going on?"

"It's the end of founder's month, they're going to do the Queen's Hunt soon!"

Kell grimaced. "No thank you, count me out."

"Queen's Hunt?" Roran asked.

"Yeah!" Karyn bounced up and down with excitement. "It's an annual tradition to celebrate the King's new wives. Every year, at the end of founder's month, all three Kings take new wives—"

"It's a political position," Kell cut in, "They're not like actual wives."

"But to celebrate the marriage, everyone in King's city lights a flying lantern, makes a wish for love, and lets the lantern go. Then, they chase after the lantern. If you can find where it lands, they say you'll find your own queen!"

"It's a bunch of romantic bull crap," said Kell.

"Says the woman that sleeps with more people than I do. And I'm a whore!"

"Sex is different, I just don't like all the gooey romance stuff."

"Then you can stay here and pout, come on Roran, let's go find love!"

Karyn grabbed Roran's arm and dragged him out of the room, stopping only when he protested that he was barefoot. Once he was properly attired, with both boots and his weapons, Roran let Karyn drag him out of the room. Begrudgingly, Kell followed after them. Karyn wanted to drag Nul along as well, but they were conspicuously absent from the apartment. Undeterred, Karyn led the way out into the street to start their quest for love.