Chapter 3 – Part 8 – The Past
“Don’t get me wrong,” Anrui said sternly, folding his hands over his chest. “Summoners are highly prized and have massive potential, but power is only as good as the one wielding it. A healer who yearns to kill is useless to anyone, just as a talented swordsman may go unused at the ploughshare if he is not found and schooled. Imagine where you might be, if you weren’t here.”
Mireya shook her head.
“I’d be stuck in a pub back in Ckuien Penance, worried over things I’d never be able to change. At least here I can be doing something useful for someone other than myself,” she said after a moment’s thought. “Here, I feel at home finally.”
Anrui nodded, smiling softly.
“How long is it since you were put to work in one-arm’s pub, Mireya Maran?”
“Twelve years,” she said, then choked on her own words, suddenly wary of this slender, short instructor who seemed to know far too much and reveal so little of himself. “Why do you ask that question?”
“I half grew up in Namar,” Anrui said just above a whisper. “I was marooned there after I sent a good friend on a fool’s mission to Shadow’s Reach. I believe I know your grandfather, Auss, in fact. Your father and I worked together for a time.”
Always Auss, Mireya thought bitterly.
“Of course you did,” she said aloud, turning to look back toward the compound proper. “Why, it’s likely your fault he abandoned his home in the first place. And came back with me in tow, half dead.”
“Likely it is,” Anrui admitted. “It was about fifteen years ago I was there, though I was only with the Curia’s office a short while. I miss it there. Clean life. Purity.”
“Whatever you say,” Mireya muttered, no longer willing to listen. “I should go find Rhayd. Can’t have him drinking himself to death before tomorrow’s lessons.”
“Yes,” Anrui turned, an amused grin on his face. “Tomorrow we tackle sustaining the weave. You’ll all need your energy up for that.”
But Mireya was already walking toward the compound, presumably toward the public house, leaving Anrui to his thoughts in the darkening evening, surrounded by the sound of the ocean before him.
“Instructor,” he heard, and turned to see Mireya ten spans down the beach, eyes red with caged tears. “What was my father’s name?”
“Thane,” he said with a sigh. “I had heard he left Ckuien Penance shortly after I did. Did he not return with your mother?”
“He returned,” she spat. “She didn’t. He died a week after dropping me on Auss’ lap.”
She swung round again and marched down the beach, leaving Anrui to his own thoughts and a feeling of sick guilt for robbing her of her father’s golden memory. Now, he would be a real person to her, and it was Anrui’s fault. Sparing another short moment for the sea, the Regulator gave up and began his own long way back to the barracks, uttering a soft prayer that he’d find sleep as well. Tomorrow would indeed be a big day.