Chapter 2

Decisions

After I buried Fiona and returned home, I had not the will to leave. Each day I would sit in the chair that faced Fiona's body mirror. I would remember the times she would look into it before she left to her shop, making sure she was ready. I would gaze at her from this chair and become taken away by her beauty. These memories would give me the illusion that my beloved was still here, still doing what she loved, still in my arms. I had lost all sense time. Before I knew it, two weeks had passed since Fiona's death. I was still sitting in that chair until I was pulled away from my waking dream.

There was a pounding at my door. I believed that it was another mourner and it had seemed that they had lost their patience. Not wanting to see anyone that morning, I ignored the pounding and proceeded up the stairs to escape the noise. However, I had stopped midway when a familiar voice called through the door, "hey Razio are you in there?" It was Nazak. As I turned around I saw Kyri was peering through the window. She noticed me on the staircase and gave a small wave before joining Nazak at the door. Knowing they had no idea of my grief, after not hearing from him and Kyri for months, I had not attempted to tell them of Fiona's death, I decided to let them in.

As they entered, I noticed that they were dressed differently than usual. Instead of their usual robes, they were wearing crude bronze armor with swords at their hip. Seeing the puzzled look on my face, Kyri began her explanation, "it has been a while hasn't it. We decided to become adventures." Still puzzled I closed the door and asked why. Kyri took a moment plan out her speech before she spoke, "well as you might have noticed, the past few years it has been harder to sell our goods," I nodded in agreement as she continued, "we found out that this is because adventurers are starting to sell goods on the side. They are able to mine huge amounts of ore from the Palborough mine, while were stuck with what ever we can find in

Zer-."

Nazak cut her off and said, "to make a long story short, the merchant business was going bad so we became adventures to continue making Gil. We didn't tell you because we were busy preparing for this." So they had finally succumbed to the allure of the life of an adventurer. I was expecting this from Kyri who was 26 and still youthful, but to see Nazak, now like me, 41, go along with this showed me that either he is very confident old man or Kyri is more convincing than I thought.

Nazak, seeing that Kyri was a little angered by his interruption, changed the subject, "well enough about us, how are you and Fiona doing? Speaking of, where is she? Is she at her shop?" As usual, Nazak brought back my pain.

I slowly clenched my fists and said, " Fiona…is dead." Kyri gasped as her eyes began to tear while Nazak's usual smile left his face as he grimaced and looked at the floor. Painfully, I continued, "she went into Ronfaune without me and an orc killed her." Suddenly, the emotions that were lost to me when I held my Fiona to my chest on that day had found me. I punched the wall and yelled, "she knew it was dangerous! Why did she leave with out me? I should have been there! I should have protected her!" Tears began to run down my face as I cried out her name. I began breathing hard, these emotions were overwhelming me. I was mad at myself for not being at her side that day. I wanted go into Ronfaune and kill every last orc I could find. The pain I felt for Fiona's death grew to a level that I had never felt before. Seeing my pain Nazak walked up to me and put his hand on my shoulder to console me. Not being myself, I struck Nazak away from me. Kyri's face turned from sadness to anger as she walked up to me and smacked me across the face. This gave her my full attention, she had not acted this way before. She had always been very calm and caring. Now, the anger that was on her face would frighten any man or beast. I looked to Nazak and saw what I had done, I could tell that he was holding himself back. He may kid around a lot but he is not to be taken lightly. I lowered my head and said, "I am sorry. When Fiona died, I couldn't even express my love to her…all I could do was question her. I can never forgive myself for that and for what I have done to you. So please leave." I walked to my usual chair in across from the mirror and looked at it.

Kyri, not satisfied with that, continued to look sternly at me and gave me an offer, "I wasn't going to ask you because of your loyalty to San d'Oria but I want you to join us. Come to Bastok and become an adventurer." I gave Kyri no response. She came close to me and said boldly, "you have nothing here! Your not a knight, your wife is dead, and soon you'll lose this house. On top of that you'll lose us…we helped you before and we're doing it now. You may say no now, but when you change your mind, you know how to contact us. Until then, goodbye Razio." Kyri turned quickly, placed something on the table, and left the house, followed by an still angered Nazak.

Now I was left with myself. I looked in the mirror and tried to see Fiona but I was not able to. Instead I saw was an old Elvaan man with long hair just like mine but it was white. He seemed to have not aged well for his body looked very frail. He was sitting still with his eyes closed and his hands on the chair's armrests'. I felt sorry for him, most likely his old bones rendered him unable to move. I wanted to go up to him, to speak with him, but I was in able to rise from my seat. As much as I tried, I could not move an inch. Then it occurred to me that I was still looking into the mirror. The old man was me! Had I let time slip by me that badly!

I woke with a fright as shot up from the chair and looked around. It had turned out that I must have been so drained of energy from my outburst, that I had fallen asleep in the chair. However, I wasn't convinced of that and looked to the table to see if their visit wasn't a dream as well. Sure enough I found a note on the table that Kyri left as a reminder to give her my decision. I thought about her offer, her words, and my dream. I was not going to let this mirror chain me to that fate and my sorrow. Also, it became clear to me that progressing this way would only hurt Fiona. She would look down upon me from paradise and see only a broken man.

I looked out the window and I saw that I was dark outside. I was asleep for longer than I thought. Knowing that Kyri and Nazak were long gone, I wrote a letter instead:

Kyri,

I must apologize again for how I acted. I would never

want to raise my fist at you or Nazak for any reason. However, I have

decided to take up your offer. If I am to continue with my life, I want

to have someone to do it with. Before it was my wife, now it is with you

two. I shall arrive in Bastok two weeks from now. I need some time to

get everything in order. I pray to Altana that our journeys through

Vana' diel are safe ones.

With your forgiveness,

Razio