Chapter 189: Shifting Paths
Simon woke up in bed, in a dark room. At first, he feared he’d returned to the cabin, but when he didn’t feel the familiar lumps in that straw mattress, he calmed down. Well, woke was perhaps not the right word. His dreams tore at him violently, and he would have sworn that he’d woken up and fallen asleep for a week's worth of nights, but when he asked the gray-robed priestess about it, she said he was brought back only a few hours ago.
His clothes and other things had been folded and stacked neatly beside him in the dim room. Part of him felt like what had happened last night was just a dream, but he knew that it wasn’t. Even without the headache, he would have known that.
Food was brought to him evenings and mornings by Diara, and when he asked her how long he was supposed to stay there, she just smiled patiently before explaining, “Seeing through the mists of time can be very hard on even the most prepared.”
“But I didn’t look through time,” he insisted. “I just had… strange dreams.”
“That is what they all say,” she agreed, “But if such things were easy, then they would not be valuable.”
Simon meditated on her words and on those dreams. He even explained as much as he could remember to his mirror. Still, it was two days before he rose once more.
When he emerged from his room armed and armored, she asked, “Will you be leaving already?”
“That depends,” Simon answered with a smile, “Is there any chance I could get a tour of the city before I go?” Even before she opened her mouth, he knew the answer was going to be no, but some part of him had to ask.
“You could,” she said, “If that is what the mists showed you, but our city… it’s not a place people come back from. Those who stay must stay forever.”