Book One – Chapter 19

After these first impressions, Yu climbed back down.

He could not focus. It did not distract him. Not like last time, when the old memories of his life with Tria had risen on their own and pulled him back into himself. Now, there was no past sense of self to tether him. Only new and raw feelings.

For a long while, Yu just stood and stared at the bottle across the room, lost inside himself.

He did not know what would become of him if the spoke to him again after the Witching Hour. If she touched him. If she did even more than before.

                    What would he do, in turn?

                      What would become of him?

Well … he was supposed to be a pretend guard. That was the one him he needed to be right now. And so, eventually, Yu forced the uppermost mask back into place and prepared seconds for the krynn and the borman. He had not asked whether they wanted more, but simply assumed they would, with how gaunt the krynn looked and how much bormen normally ate.

He carried out the first of the new bowls, intending to serve the krynn first. However, as he found the beastkin still bent over his initial portion while the borman was all done, Yu had to leave it with the latter. Then he returned with a second bowl, which he placed beside the krynn.

Thus concluded a second round of steaming wapa for the new arrivals, only for Yu to realise, far too late, that he still had no idea how portioning or payment worked. When that thought surfaced, he decided to drown it immediately. Asking anyone now would be way too awkward. Besides, he was already overrun by the rising tide of requests, because, as it turned out, Harrow’s fireplace cluster still had not had enough. The original five had finished their first portions; Bawal and Jerakill had come down; basically everyone except Imbiad was present — and of course they all wanted more food. Well, all but Harrow, who had her own odd rations. She had begun licking something white that Yu swore was a stone from outside. No one went to bed. Everyone seemed well awake after the witch scare, hungry for seconds and thirds. So Yu kept ferrying bowls in and out of the kitchen, again and again.