Chapter 192: Certain or uncertain future
Irwin and Trimdir walked through the narrow paths of what had once been the outer area of Degonda and was now almost the center.
Although narrower, Irwin recognized the path they were moving along. It was the one he'd taken many times when he was learning smithing at Trimdir's smithy, and it should lead to the crafter's square.
"How are you feeling?" Trimdir asked, looking up. "Things can't have been easy, no matter how much like a minstrel's tale your friend made it out to be."
Irwin was about to say he was good when he saw the actual care and interest in Trimdir's eyes.
Instead of blurting out an answer, he thought for a moment, wondering how he felt. As soon as he thought about everything that had happened, he realized that most of it had been far easier than the first part of his life on Giard. Back then, he had been poor, malnourished, weak, and eventually fleeing.
No, if anything made him feel worried, it was being back on Giard. Part of him was happy to be back, though mostly to save people, which also caused a constant bottled-up desire to rush to Malorin. Another part of him was worried about what Indoutor was doing and what would happen when they went there to save the people. Still, with everything that had happened, they had managed to get back here, and he was an Emerald rank smith. Or Topaz according to the old rules…
How did he feel?
"I feel good," he said.
Trimdir's grin widened, reaching his eyes. "Good, and I imagine you must have learned a great deal of things about smithing?"
"Definitely," Irwin said.
"Well, we have learned and changed a lot too," Trimdir said as he looked ahead.
They reached the end of the street that led to the crafter's district, and as Irwin moved in, he was surprised to say the square was still open, unlike all of the others. More so, Trimdir's building had expanded to cover the entire opposite side of the square, with the adjacent buildings being connected to it.