Chương 22: “The Letters”

He found out on a Wednesday. Lauren opened one. Just one, the one on top, the one she'd been looking at longest. She opened it at the kitchen table after June went to bed and she read it twice and then she put it face down and sat very still with both hands flat on the table. Vorrath could read, and the kitchen window faced the table, and the letter was in a font large enough that he didn't need to strain. Final notice. A number. A date three weeks away.

He stayed on the windowsill and did not think about what he could do about this because there was nothing he could do about this. He was a shard of dungeon core on a windowsill. He had no money. He had no hands. He had thirty-one floors and five reclaimed and three minions and a bond that was sixty-one percent and climbing and none of that was useful for a letter with a date three weeks away. Lauren sat at the table for a long time.

This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. Then she straightened up. Folded the letter. Put it back in the envelope. Put the envelope at the bottom of the stack, face down. Got up. Rinsed her glass. Went to bed. He watched her door until the light under it went out.

Then he went down through the closet to the sixth floor, which he had not yet reclaimed, and he tore it open by force and it cost him and he didn't care, and he went down to the seventh, and the eighth, and he worked until dawn the way he used to work when working meant something, and when the sun came up he was back on the windowsill, wrecked and smaller than he'd like to admit, and June's alarm went off and she appeared from under her blanket and looked at him.

"You look terrible," she said. He did not respond.

"Did something happen?" He did not respond. She looked at him for a moment.

"Okay," she said.

"I'll tell you about my dream on the way to school. It had a horse in it that was also a boat, which I think means something." She got up. Got dressed. Came back and put him in the pencil case. She told him about the horse-boat for the entire walk to school. He listened to every word. System: Bond Strength: 63%. Floors Reclaimed: 8 of 31. You didn't tell her. You went down instead. We noticed. We're not sure yet if that was the right thing. We think you're not sure either.