LOREN
At Melita’s words, Loren flinched and looked away, eyes downcast. She was right, and he was totally, totally wrong. Ever since he was a child, he’d been trained to fight savagely, to use overwhelming force and everything he could to take down his opponent. Mostly, he was able to check those instincts, but sometimes they got away from him. And when they did, he hurt people. ”You’re right. I-I’m sorry. It...it won’t happen again.” The last thing he wanted was to hurt people.And yet he kept seeming to do just that, in every single way imaginable. So he’d stay away from people so he could only hurt himself.
He didn’t move as the redhead stood up, scooping her squash up as she did. As Melita kept speaking, Astra gave a worried bleat and trotted over to him, but the summoner didn’t react even to that. Instead, as the redhead stood above him, he just screwed his eyes shut. ”I know. And I don’t expect you to ever again.” He was just so tired, and he knew that Melita was right. After all, he’d broken so many people’s trust over his life, with his disappearance, and then again upon his return. And unlike others, he had no one to blame but himself. So he did, indeed, blame himself for the untold harm he'd caused. Luckily, Melita walked away before he could hurt her again.
FIN
A beggar's book
outworths
a noble's blood
