A rather short, but mature man stood guarding the entrance of a gate.
He donned a light green colored uniform. A metal plate, colored in a lighter value of that hue was the main form of protection he had. Beneath was a leather sort of shell. Surprisingly, it was made out of snakeskin, which was on the rarer side of armor materials. He was glad that he had such a benevolent lord who truly cared about the people.
He was almost halfway done with his shift. His eyelids got incrementally heavier the further into the night he went. He had enlisted with the hope of being able to take an easy and short day shift. He didn't expect to be half awake, head bobbing, in the middle of the night.
Besides, one of the main reasons he took this job was to pay the bills.
It… had been hard since his daughter left.
"Hey, I heard that your daughter Elis' cohort is stopping by Etris. I heard from a buddy of mine who got some of their wares."
A slender guard remarked from the other side of the gate. There were always two guards standing watch at each gate.
No more.
No less.
The man glared at the guard on the other side of the gate at the mention of his daughter.
The two were shift buddies. Most of the time, they had the same exact shift at the same exact spot.
At first, the two were rather cold to each other. Work was work, after all, and the mature man preferred not to let his work connections bleed into his daily life.
However, after a few weeks of back to back shifts with the slender guard, he dropped his guard. Over the past few months, the two have gotten to know each other, albeit slowly. They would share small tidbits about their life.
The mature man recalled a time where he had told the slender guard about him and his daughter.
The two… didn't always have aligned views. His daughter was an adventurous kid, always wanting to go explore the Etrean wilds. She loved the abnormal, the dissonant.
As she grew older, she also began to grow out of the bounds of Etris. She had already explored the town, memorizing its maze-like streets and roads like the back of her hand. In her room, she kept a weathered map. She would go exploring, out into the Etrean wilds, come back home, and then illustrate new landmarks and points of interests she found throughout the forests.
They had an argument when she was sixteen.
She wanted to leave. She wanted to break free from the finite bounds of Etris. She wanted to see what was beyond the jade shingled walls of the town. Beyond the tranquil seas of the luminant.
Behind her father's back, she had gone to the guildhouse and, after proving herself, had joined a cohort.
Behind her father's back, because she knew that he wouldn't have approved.
And he couldn't have done anything about it.
It was done and dusted.
"I don't know if she'll forgive me."
And since she left, the house was empty. Her map still hung proudly on the wooden walls of their house. He… didn't want to talk about his wife all too much,
"Don't you think she'd understand now?"
"Understand what?"
The slender guard shifted. He rested the end of his mace on the ground, leaning on its end.
"That her father was only trying to protect her. He acted out of good will."
The father… The mature man had regretted some of the things he said.
The lies he had stated to his own daughter's face.
'You're too weak.'
'You're going to get yourself killed.'
'You don't even know how to swing a sword properly.'
'Fine! If you're so insistent, then just go!'
'Leave your poor father behind with no one to keep him company! What an exemplary daughter!'
He stood quietly, sulking in his swirling emotions.
Maybe, maybe he could just get the chance to apologize to his daughter. Even if she rejected him, it would give him closure at the very least.
However, he wouldn't be able to do that.
A hand came out of nowhere, forcing a damp cloth onto his face.
He struggled for a moment.
A moment.
And then, he struggled no more.
In a split second, he was gone.
Valerie had gotten her subject.