Chapter 24: No More Bad Luck

Dee cooked for three thousand people, and she did not stop until the pots ran dry.

She set her stove in the middle of the street, under the gold wall, and the line of Ironwall players curled around it twice.

"One ladle," she shouted. "Seconds when everyone's had firsts. I will know."

The guildmaster stood beside her in a clean coat, handing out bowls, and he had not stopped smiling since the Hall.

TinyTurnip carried plates.

The girl who could not have been twenty sat on a crate with a bowl on her knees, laughing at nothing.

Her bare wrist was turned up to the light.

The old man ate three helpings and fell asleep sitting up.

Nobody woke him.

I stood at the wall and watched it all with my red coat folded over my arm.

It had been mine since my first apartment, and I had not worn it in years.

It smelled faintly of Kelsey's perfume.

I put it on anyway.

It fit.

Gabe came up behind me with two cups and put one into my hand.

"You're thinking too hard," he said.

"I'm thinking he's gone."

"He is."

"I thought I'd feel more."

"Do you feel less?"

I considered it, truthfully.

The air tasted clean, and my wrists did not ache.

For the first time since I woke on Day 1, nothing in me was waiting for the next blow.

"No," I said. "I feel lighter."

"Then it's about right."

We drank.

Across the dirt, someone started to sing, badly, and a dozen people joined in.

Dee was telling a story about a diner and a flood, and the guildmaster was laughing with his whole chest.

"Gabe," I said. "Show me your card."

He opened it and turned it toward me.

[Player: Gabe Gallagher]

[Strength 9 | Agility 7 | Endurance 8 | Magic 2 | Luck 1]

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