When he opened his eyes, he was not sure where he was. Or why he was there. In the corner his flambard propped up so he could see it. The falchion was on his belt, which hung from a makeshift iron hook upon the door. Along with his knives, and his buckler. And his mask. Eragos wanted to ask where he was, who he was, but there was no one to ask. Only the silence. Only a square of white light that struck the foot of his bed. It was night, then, the silver glow of glass told him that from where he lay. Farmhouse. Or something else? Wooden construction. It was a solid home, he thought, worthy of whatever person lived here. It was not the city that he called home, or the base of his people, or... Eragos did not know what to properly call it. Castel. It was not the Castel. All this viciousness surrounded him, encompassed him, and he was known to it. A battle had been won. A battle he'd hoped with all of his heart to lose for what it meant to him. Badala was gone from this world now. Her, and her child, and the father of that child. Eragos had killed them all in one way or another.

That face, so perfect, a mirror image of her mother's. Eragos did not want to see at that moment - his eyes were squeezed shut, against the pain of it, against the exhiliration of it. He'd destroyed a family with his will to do right. Badala had asked him once what the point of right was if you were dead, and in return he'd asked her a question. Now with awareness a distant memory he knew. What was the point of being alive, if I've wronged to be there? Eragos would rather suffer those eternal pains than face a god knowing he'd turned away from the path a second time. This life, and whatever meaning it had, hinged on doing what was right. He'd given his oath twice, committed to the path twice, and he would not stray again. Was it right to throw down his sword against Palam? Cruelly effective in orchestrating her end. She had died, as her mother and father had died, because Eragos had tried to do something right. This farmhouse.

( These healed wounds. )