It was strange, really, an odd sense of dissonance crawling over me as we made our way through the slums. Before Myrin rose to power, before Vadoma and my Destiny of Dragons, I’d made a point of coming back to the slums as often as I could, if only to remind myself where I’d come from. Ryan never came with me, more inclined to forget the past and focus on the future, but I was okay with that. We were just different that way.
The slums looked mostly the same, maybe a little drabber and more run-down, but the buildings stood as they always had, their shutters hanging off their hinges, gutters dripping water onto the broken cobblestone. It was grimy and dark and felt more like home than Camp HaveHeart ever would.
Justin and Ryan had told me that those who had been captured in the City had been relegated to the slums, that it was more like a prison than anything else. No one was allowed out, whether they be rich or poor. All were treated the same here, and while I thought there was a twisted sort of justice to it, everyone here was a prisoner. It didn’t really matter what they’d thought of me or what they’d done before I’d disappeared. They were all the same, and they didn’t deserve any of this.
Candles and torches were lit in windows and doorways as we kept to the shadows, moving through the slums toward our destination where we’d camp out for the day, waiting for dusk before making our way toward the castle.
It wasn’t long before we exited an alley onto the street where I’d—
I stopped.
Ryan crashed into the back of me, and I took a stumbling step forward. He grabbed me by the shoulders, but I couldn’t tear my gaze away from the sight before me.
There, between two dilapidated buildings, was our little house.
The one I’d grown up in.
It looked the same as it had the day I left. Yes, I’d come back to the slums often, but I’d never dared come here, sure that it’d undo my wish that had somehow come true. I’d been part of something greater than myself, and I’d been convinced that if I returned here, everything I’d been given would fade away as if it were a dream.
This was the first time I’d seen my home since Morgan of Shadows had taken me by the hand and led me to the castle.
And yes, the house itself looked the same, but the piles of freshly cut flowers around it were different. The scraps of parchment pinned to the walls and door were different, scrawled with words I couldn’t make out. The chalk drawing of a heart with a lightning bolt through it on the ground near the doorway was different, the heart green, the lightning bolt gold.
“What is this?” I asked quietly.
“It started a little while after you left,” Ryan said, taking my hand in his. “When the Darks started to come from the woods.”
“People prayed here,” Justin said, coming to stand on the other side of me. “To the gods. To you. To help them. To believe in them. They came here because they didn’t know where else to go. They thought you had forsaken them.” He shook his head. “And no matter what we said, they couldn’t be convinced otherwise. It started with just people from the slums. But then it grew to the other quadrants of the City. And then beyond the City.”
“I don’t understand.”
“You’re their hope, Sam,” Justin said. “It’s as simple as that. And hope can become a weapon when all else seems lost. They’ve been waiting for you to return. And now you have.”
I walked across the street, the others behind me. The doorway to the shack was covered in flowers and notes, and as I read them, I wondered if I deserved such faith, such faith and veneration.
Please come back.
I hope you’re safe, Sam.
I’m sorry for what I said about you, wizard. I just didn’t understand.
MYRIN SUCKS BALLS.
My brother is missing. He believed in you more than anything.
I don’t want to be scared anymore.
Fuck the Darks! Sam of Wilds is the best wizard there is!
HAVEHEART 4 LIFE! :) :) :)
And one, written in a childish scrawl: We will always believe in the light.
I didn’t deserve them. Any of them.
“What if I let them down?” I asked, staring at the dozens of notes pinned to the door and wall. “What if I can’t be what they need me to be?”
It was Lady Tina who said, “You’re not alone, Sam. It doesn’t just rest upon you. We’ll all fight to take it back. And we’ll win.”
For once, I couldn’t think of a single snarky thing to say to her.
Ryan stepped over the flowers and pushed the door open. He looked back at me and held out his hand. “You ready?”
I hesitated, but only briefly. I took his hand and went inside.
“YOU NEED to get some sleep,” Ryan said. He was lying on the floor in my old room, head resting on his pack. Sunlight was beginning to filter in through the slats of the shack, and I knew the room would get warm later in the afternoon. I was busy staring at a collection of rocks piled in the corner. “We’re going to need to be as fresh as possible.”
I snorted. “Just because you can do that freaky thing and fall asleep immediately doesn’t mean the rest of us can.”
“Army training. Learned to sleep wherever and whenever we could.”
“Yeah. Freaky.”
“Why are you staring at those rocks?”
I shrugged. “They used to be mine.”
He squinted up at me. “What?”
“I collected rocks when I was a kid.”
“Why?”
“Because we were poor and there was nothing else I could get for free. And they were pretty. Sometimes.”
“You were a strange kid.”
“Right? And look at me now. Collect rocks, kids, because one day you’ll get to bone a knight and do magic and go on adventures.”
He laughed. “Maybe refine that message a little before you actually tell children that.”
I arched an eyebrow. “It’s pretty much true.”
“I think you might be a special case.”
“Heard that before.”
“Come here.”
I sighed and shoved my pack next to his. He opened his arms as I lay down, my head on his chest. He wrapped his arms around me, holding me close. He kissed my fake hair, and I nuzzled his fake beard. It was nice. Mostly.
“You’re still mad at me.”
He snorted. “Yeah, but I’m allowed to be. Doesn’t change the fact that I’ve always believed in you, even when I told myself I didn’t.”
“Leaving you was one of the hardest things I’ve ever had to do.”
He sighed. “I know. But you did what you thought was right.”
“Was it?”
“Time will tell, Sam. But I think so. We’ll get through this. I refuse to believe that villains win in the end. They rise, but so do heroes. And we’ll fight back until we have nothing left. Because that’s who we are.”
“Fancy yourself a hero, do you?”
“I am rather dashing and immaculate, in case you didn’t know.”
“I do. Still sort of douchey, though. In case you didn’t know.”
“And in case you didn’t know, these walls are very thin and we can hear every word you’re saying,” Justin called out irritably from my parents’ old bedroom.
“It’s like they never stop,” Lady Tina moaned. “This is why I shipped Rystin.”
Ryan snorted into my hair.
He fell asleep shortly after.
I stayed awake for the longest time, watching the sunlight stretch across the wall.
NIGHT HAD fallen by the time we stepped outside the shack again. We’d all changed out of the clothes from the previous day and were wearing Dark wizard robes that the Resistance had gathered over the past few months. They were black and heavy, the material scratchy, but they were thick enough to hide weapons, and coupled with my shaping magic, we looked the part quite fiercely.
Ryan went first, making sure the street was clear before signaling the rest of us to follow. Apparently there was a curfew in effect for all residents of the slums, which meant the only people who should have been out on the streets were the Darks themselves.
“There was even talk about forcing the people here to build a wall,” Ryan muttered as we crossed the street quickly. “To keep the people away from the rest of the City. They haven’t gone about it as of yet.”
“Gods, they’re such assholes,” I said as we entered an empty alleyway. “Do they really think a wall would help if people wanted to get through?”
“We did the same,” Justin reminded us. “At Camp HaveHeart. To keep them out.”