The Universe's Mixer

Errol's apartment was back where he'd left it, more or less, and the landlord took his long disappearance in stride. All of his belongings, few enough though they were, were inside when he opened the door. While Errol was a habitually neat person and not given to clutter, he noted that the few things that he remembered leaving out--a book on a table, his coat left over the back of a chair--were still there, as if he'd never left. He rested his hand on the black Cleric's coat for a moment before gathering it up and hanging it in his closet.

He stood aimlessly for a few minutes before deciding to go for a walk. He still couldn't quite wrap his head around the idea that he'd been gone for so long. Years, it seemed. Logically, it made sense. If the City was what Beauty said it was, and arriving as he had he didn't have much reason to doubt outlandish claims, there was no reason to believe that something as odd as being sent away and then returned could have happened. But he needed to see the City for himself. See what had changed. Cement it in his mind.

He left his apartment and turned down one of the City's streets with no destination in mind, keeping a brisk pace and looking at everything. If nothing else, he had always enjoyed the sights of the City.