Found:
Trestlebridge. Huh.
As days go, this one could have been worse. It could also have been a lot better. Is it too much to ask that I leave this dreary land with a smile on my lips and a spring in my step? No matter. I can fake it better than most.
It started with me spending far more time with Eordion that I had planned. I had wanted something simple, something easy - Hi, bye and done. What I got was a series of apologies and unnecessary assurances that he will always remember me. It almost felt like I had kicked a puppy but a firm and final end to it all is what I need. Why can't he see that? I don't want him to remember me, fondly or otherwise. I don't need him to worry about me. I certainly have no desire to carry with me a ruby ring, a constant reminder of what was and what could have been. What we had is now a thing of the past. I will allow it to have no further bearing upon me. I will allow him to have no further place in my heart or in my thoughts. It is done and there is no going back.
The past does have a way of catching up, however and never in a good way.
I returned to my camp, intent on one last meal before I packed up. I had finished and was enjoying a contemplative peace when who should walk so brazenly into my sight but that little half-sister of mine! One would think that the years I have spent avoiding her might have given her cause to give up her chase, but it seems she is a persistent creature. A few simple truths and a broken nose later, she was only too happy to go on her way. Hopefully, she'll never return. She's lucky. Had it been any of the others, I'd have killed her before she had time to open her mouth. I'm not usually given to such violent fantasy, but each one of my half-siblings, discounting her, deserves no quarter from me.
Let that be the last of it, then. Let my past again be laid to rest, as I had thought it to be. Let me be free to enjoy what comes next!
Of course, half a day's travel later, and it transpires that what comes next is Trestlebridge. What a dump! They've been under attack it seems, though I sincerely doubt that this was the most idyllic of towns even before half of it burned to the ground. Regardless, the people are welcoming enough, if a little suspicious of me. I'll not linger for longer than is necessary.
