Before leaving the sanctum Ethan had used the well water to wipe himself down. Until he earned more funds he would have to rely on the vouchers he received from the guild. He got three a week and didn't want to go more than a couple of days without taking a bath so using them all at once wasn't an option. After setting the cart off to the side, and out of the way, he began his walk back to the Lazy Badger for dinner and rest. Physically he wasn't really tired, though certain muscles in his body were stiff now that the cool evening was setting in and he was no longer working them. More so he was emotionally drained and his mind wandered for nearly the entire trip back and also while he sat a small table in the corner opposite of the kitchen entrance.
The boy had been polite upon his arrival and greeting with Ms. Badger but it was clear to the Pul'kin that his mind was elsewhere. They made some small talk about all the events of the day before she went to get his dinner. She glanced at him several times while he ate in silence, and though he did seem deep in thought he didn't seem upset about anything so she left him alone. He thanked her for the meal after handing her the dishes, an act that garnered him a glare and reminder that he was a patron so to watch how much of her job he tried to do. He gave an innocent, though somewhat worried, chuckle while rubbing the back of his head. She huffed and looked away, his cuteness overpowering her annoyance, and said grunted a goodnight before heading into the back with the dishes. A moment or so later Ethan was latching his door and moving to undress. Soon he was laying on his back in his bed while staring at the ceiling.
"The Great Rending and Sacrifice huh?"
He said softly to himself, giving voice to the focus of his thoughts. While he and the other orphans had received some tutelage on the topics back at the Forgotten Oaks Sanctuary they had been simply been parts of an explanation of their current situation and the state of the world. In fact it was the residual effects on the world from the Great Rending that had created most of the orphans at the sanctuary. To them the details of the last 150 years wasn't as important as controlling their powers and coming to accept their situations and emotions. There were so many different origins for the various orphans at the sanctuary that it was amazing the headmistress and other volunteers were even attempting to help.
He rolled over onto his side and rested his head on his bent arm as his thoughts continued to bounce about. There had been babies who lost their parents to various types of attacks, such as monsters, the mindless, and bandits. Others were children who were abandoned when their parents learned they were Afflicted or their powers emerged. Some were even accepted as being Afflicted but were sent sent because the parents perished in some fashion. The Forgotten Oaks Sanctuary was an orphanage for Afflicted children as they really had no other place to go. Though it seemed in certain areas the Afflicted had gained much more acceptance, mainly because of the Adventures Untold Company and the adventurers it employed. After all, to be an adventurer one had to be an Afflicted.
"The Afflicted."
He said in an even softer voice then earlier. It had always been a derogatory term but was the universal term for those that had been mutated by the Inaness brought through the portals by the invading Incra. He wasn't sure about the details regarding the Inaness other then it was used to power the Incra's Autoarms, massive suites of metal with a person inside moving it around, and various other weapons. Whatever the Inaness was it had started to pollute Nelumexa due to the unimaginable quantities they transported in during their invasion. It took almost a hundred years before the Afflicted known today began to appear, something in their bodies having changed to allow them to harness powers similar to the Messengers of old. It was what appeared before that gave them such a bad name though. Before the current type of Afflicted there were the original Afflicted, now referred to as the Mindless, which were creatures with only a taste for destruction and death. They were monsters, animals, insects, and mortals that had become mindless, but incensed, husks that would gather together and then swarm, killing everything in their path. The more they killed the larger the swarm grew until their bodies gradually fell apart and they stopped functioning. Though swarms had become much less prevalent in the last 50 years or so it was a recent one that had orphaned Ethan. He was told it happened a decade before, when he was three, near the frontier fortress town. Both his parents were adventurers and stayed behind with others to try and slow the swarm's advance, giving the residents time to escape. He had been given to one of the fleeing families with instructions to take him to Forgotten Oaks Sanctuary.
His parents had actually been orphans themselves, and before heading to the frontier had grown up at the very same orphanage they sent Ethan to. He wasn't sure if they simply assumed he was an Afflicted or if he had showed some kind of sign before their deaths, but regardless he was beyond thankful to them for sending him there. His only two regrets were that since the region was abandoned due to the size of the swarm and the devastation it brought all of those who died in that battle, including his parents, hadn't received a proper burial and that he hadn't been able to thank the family who managed to deliver him to the sanctuary. He hoped they knew he was grateful but he still wished he could let them know so there wasn't a shadow of doubt regarding his appreciation. The next morning he wouldn't be able to remember when he actually fell asleep, though the last thing he whispered to himself that night was rather interesting.
"Keeper..."
Author's Note: Sorry for the late posting! Some things came up that I wasn't expecting. Will try harder to maintain the schedule going forward.
