Chapter 90: Carriage to Confusion
"Good evening, Sir," Eirin greeted, her tone polite and a practice smile on her face, addressing one of the stable hands standing idly by the cart sheds. "Could we rent a carriage to the entrance of Senerra Academy, please?"
The man, in his mid-30s, with weary eyes and calloused hands, eyed them speculatively, his gaze lingering on Shade’s small, child-like form. "How much will you pay, young lady?" he asked, his voice rough.
Eirin checked her wallet, her finger brushing against the paltry sum. There were no more than 20 copper coins. "Would 20 copper coins suffice?" the teenage girl humbly asked, her voice tinged with a hopeful uncertainty.
The coachman grunted, then nodded, a reluctant acceptance. He pointed to one of the carriages out of the sheds. It was terribly shabby, its paint peeling, wheels groaning, and upholstery torn, looking as if this would indeed be its very last journey before falling apart.
’Better have this than nothing, I guess?’ Eirin thought, a bucket of weariness poured over her.
Eirin and Shade rode in a relative silence as the sky outside grew darker, painting the horizon with deep indigo and velvet black after the sun had fully set. Perhaps it was sheer exhaustion, but Eirin found she could no longer give anything else her full attention.
The teenage girl simply rested her back against the hard wooden carriage, her gaze fixed on the open, sprawling scenery passing by, illuminated now only by the faint starlight and the carriage’s own dim lantern.
The stillness, the vastness of the land, reminded her of the gentle giant, Girak. How it had kept calling a name unfamiliar to her, how it had shown such care and protection despite having no recollection of Eirin herself.
’I wonder who that Nævi truly was,’ Eirin thought, her gaze drifting to the weeping bindweed, safely ensconced in its vase, glowing softly on the seat beside her. It was so small, so delicate, yet imbued with such immense power, and holding such deep meaning for the grieving golem.