No Trace

I left Stormwind the same way I entered it, on foot, with more questions than answers.

The Thistle Tea was still working its way through my system. My hands shook less than the first day, but I still felt a strange heat behind my eyes whenever I pushed too hard. The Doctor said it would pass. I wasn't sure I believed him.

I didn't have a destination in mind. I just needed to move. Away from the stone walls, the whispering corridors, and the feeling of being watched even when I was alone. SI:7 had a way of making you feel like you were always on their chessboard, whether you knew the rules or not.

Somehow my feet carried me back to familiar ground. Goldshire. The same tired road, the same weathered sign, the same Lion's Pride Inn standing exactly where it always had.

I pushed open the door and the warmth hit me. The smell of ale and old wood, the murmur of voices, the crackling hearth. It felt like stepping into a memory.

I ordered a drink and let my eyes wander.

She wasn't there.

I told myself I wasn't looking for her. Told myself twice. Told myself a third time while I stared at the empty space behind the bar where she used to stand.

The innkeeper was a heavyset man I remembered from before. I caught him between orders and asked, keeping my voice casual.

"The girl who used to work here. Tall, sharp tongue. Know where she went?"

He wiped a mug and shrugged.

"Left a few weeks back. No notice, no word. Just stopped showing up. Happens more than you'd think around here."

I nodded like it didn't matter.

He went back to his work. I went back to my drink.

An hour later I was still sitting there, turning the empty mug in my hands, wondering why it bothered me. I barely knew her. A few conversations. A walk in the dark. An open door I never walked through.

But I had thought about her more than I wanted to admit. During the long months in Westfall. The cold swim to that island. The fight in Klaven's Tower. She was a thread I kept meaning to pick back up.

Now a mere loose end.

I paid for my drink and stepped back out into the night. The road ahead was dark, and for the first time in a long while, I had no idea where I was going next.

Maybe that's exactly what I needed.