Kael left the docks when the fog started to turn yellow under the lanterns. Cold soaked through his coat, boots scraping over wet stones as he wound through alleys and uphill slopes
He didn't look behind him but he walked like he might need to run
The inn he stayed at wasn't much, just three stories leaning hard to one side with a cracked sign that read "the rook's nest" it smelled like fried unions and cheap soap. The kind of place people paid for a bed and didn't ask questions about who slept in it before them
He stepped through the front door and gave a nod to the tired barkeep who barley glanced up from his book. Kael climed up the stairs making sure not to step on the creaking ones
His room was a box with a bed and a crooked table, window stuck shut and a lock that barely worked.
He sat on the edge of the bed sword resting across his knees, finally he let his shoulders drop
He was out.
Not officially. No words said but Torvins little gesture was enough. The blood slick rag, the three young howlers stepping through the red curtain to talk with him. There was nothing else it could mean
He wondered if they'd come for him tonight or wait a day or two, let him breathe before they snuffed it out
They'd think it was easy. A kid with no friends, just a blade he didn't know how to use and a room above a piss stained bar
Kael didn't undress didn't lay back, he sat on the edge of the bed, with his sword on his lap and his eyes on the door
The room was quiet but not the good kind, the walls creaked now and then. Once footsteps passed outside and paused just long enough to tighten something in his chest, but then kept going
He stayed like that for hours, barely moving
The rag over the hook meant one thing, he wasn't a howler anymore. Not even worth the message. Just a loose end.
The three young ones would be the ones to do it, make a name off his corpse. Climb a little higher over his body
He gripped the sword tighter. Told himself he'd stay up eyes open, blade ready
But the room stayed quiet, too quiet. Eventually, his body gave in. He fell asleep watching the door waiting for someone to break it open. Sword still across his legs and the weight of the city pressing through the walls