The Shadow

Chapter 3

Kai watched Northshore fade into the distance. It had happened so suddenly; he wasn't sure how to feel about departing from the city. Was he truly leaving? Could it really be? Northshore was his home. It was where he had grown up, matured, and learned all that he knew. It was the place where he had spent his childhood. A terrible childhood, but his childhood nevertheless. Northshore was also the place where Kai had experienced pain so terrible and guilt so miserable that he tried not to think of it.

As he watched the city disappear under the rising sun, Kai remembered faces. Faces of those he had killed, faces of those he had befriended, and faces of those he hated. Was he truly free of the killing, of the blood and the pain? He could only hope so. But then, he would never see Saif again. The one true friend that he had found throughout the years. The elf was a killer, but not like the others. Kai sighed, pushing away his thoughts.

He set sail for a place that he had never been—a new world, one of opportunity and, most importantly, change. He had not prepared nearly enough for his journey, but that didn't matter to him now. All that mattered was that he was leaving.

The captain of the ship—which bore thirty or so passengers, along with the boat's crew—had told Kai that they would arrive at the continent of Ath in a little over two weeks. Specifically, they were headed to a port city that was mainly used for travel and transporting goods: Sleetshire, which Kai had read up on, thanks to an atlas aboard the boat. What he would do upon reaching Sleetshire, he was unsure. He had enough money for a few weeks of shelter and food, but after that...perhaps he would learn to work leather or pot flowers. He had seen many shops in Northshore, always intrigued by the way people's hands moved as if they were born for their crafts. Some had been, he supposed. He could do it. He could learn something new; work his muscles for reasons other than honing himself into a weapon of death. Kai smiled, watching the hateful world he had always known dissolve into nothing under the salty breeze. A new life stretched before him.

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After weeks of tasteless bread, tough meat, and too-thin gruel, Kai was more than happy to see Sleetshire sparkling in the night before him. They would be moored within the hour, the captain had said. From the looks of it, the town was similar to Northshore; a dock harbored hundreds of ships of various sizes, with houses packed past the docks, gradually growing larger the farther away they were from the cold, shimmering water.

Like Northshore, a section of small, rundown houses could already be seen standing near the docks: the slums. Kai could nearly feel the suffocatingly thick air and smoke forcing perspiration to slide down his forehead, could nearly smell the reek of unwashed bodies and human waste. On the long journey to Sleetshire, he had bought a map off of one of the ship's crew, no doubt paying more than it was worth. After studying it for hours, Kai had begun to gather an idea of what his next move would be.

If the map was accurate, a small town lay a few days' trek past Sleetshire, with other towns spread past it. The next large city, Aria, would take a couple of weeks to reach, requiring more supplies than the single horse Kai planned to buy could carry. Kai decided that he would stay in Sleetshire for a day or two before journeying toward the town that lay past it.

Already, he knew that he could not stay in Sleetshire. The city spread out before him, only a few hundred meters from the glistening sea, reminded him too much of what he had finally left behind. To a smaller town he would go.