Chapter 33 - So Close...

Was three months just the limit or something?
Okay, maybe I hadn’t even technically made it to three months yet, but it was getting close enough at this point that I just had to assume that that very first attempt was the most successful I’d ever get at escaping.
Sure, things hadn’t been perfect or necessarily easy over the last few months, but it was certainly far closer to those private months I’d spent in the monastery all those lifetimes ago than it was to most of my earnest attempts at breaking the prophecy through force.
Gwendoline didn’t linger any longer, instead excusing herself back to Darla’s home, the baby on the cusp of arrival. I watched her go up the road from my cabin, watching her pass the inn, its walls built and the workers actively laying tiles onto the roof.
Sure, the insides still needed to be built and finished, the furniture needed to be placed, and the stores needed to be filled before a single thing could be served… but it was nearly there, even with all the extra work and projects I’d overloaded the crew with.
My brewery was still just foundations and a few initial supports, but Bram’s miniature aqueduct channels were perfectly placed and ready to hook into each of the buildings, even as he continued his work on the larger town system.
“So close…” I muttered, clenching my fists.
I didn’t have to leave… I could stay… maybe try… what?… What could I do this time that wouldn’t make everything start again? Frederick would never listen… he wouldn’t leave the relics alone… and if he destroyed even the first one…
While I didn’t care to return to the world I’d once come from, that didn’t mean I believed it deserved to be snuffed from existence.
That’s what Frederick didn’t understand… what no one ever believed when I tried to make them see reason… After all… how could the essence of an entire universe all be contained in a gem that could fit in the palm of your hand?
I liked Danwood… I wasn’t sure why I felt like I could admit that now… but I did. I just couldn’t trade it for not just my world… but each one the Fates had declared were born from darkness.
Which meant… the offer Gwendoline hadn’t given me… was one I was going to have to take.
Willow could keep the inn, she’d run it better than I ever would and Quiet liked her more than that stubborn horse had ever liked me. Maybe I’d leave the farm and brewery to Garth… there was only so much more woodcutting his body was going to be able to take… and the Gourd… Well, Bram could have it. Make it officially part of the town’s infrastructure. I knew I didn’t need it since there was no point keeping it if I was never going to get a farm really going, and if anything… I had made it once in the past… I could always do it again.
The only question I really had was… why hadn’t I just gone? I’d done the math, I had just enough assorted reagents in my bag to force one more use of Translocate, I just had to pick my destination. It should have been as easy as assigning the ownership, maybe leaving a note explaining I had no intention of coming back and just… going.
Willow stepped out of the tent she’d still been using to manage things and placed her hands on her hips. In place of the longer dress she normally wore, she had on a pair of overalls and her hair was pulled into a twin pair of braids. Should I… tell her?
No… she’d only try to talk me out of it… or… maybe she wouldn’t. If I was being honest, I wasn’t actually sure I wanted to know.
Daniel wouldn’t like that I was making this choice on my own… but it was my choice to leave and he couldn’t physically keep me here even if he wanted to. That said…
A short while later, I was pushing the door to an office in the Danwood Lumber Consortium, Daniel hunched over a desk with a hand running through his hair and a ledger open. He looked up at me with a mixture of surprise and joy, a smile spreading across his face.
“Corbin, what brings you by? You hear we were stuck deciding between power sources for everything here and wanted to give your insight?”
“With the aqueducts, you could probably create a pretty simple loop that powers a water wheel since you didn’t just build this place over by the stream in the first place, though it’d have to be pretty big with what you have planned,” I said, actually considering it for a moment. “I’d avoid burning anything. You’d be wasting the resource you’re trying to sell and Danwood doesn’t need the pollution.”
“Well you’re not wrong… hmm, maybe Bram would like the challenge,” Daniel said, nodding and making a note on his ledger. “That system you helped him come up with really does open a lot of possibilities. The Settlement’s officially upgraded out of a Hamlet and we’ve had three new families request residence from Gold’s Lodge. I’m going to need to get the Town Hall built so we can activate the Polling Place.”
“Sounds like you got a lot on your plate,” I said, looking around the room.
It was sparse, but he hadn’t really had time to put anything up… nor did he really seem like the type to need to. The town was what he was proud of, and he didn’t need stuff on the walls of his private office to prove it.
“Gwendoline came and saw me yesterday,” I said, preemptively stopping Daniel before he could reveal any more of the leaps Danwood had made.
“For… what?” he asked cautiously, the pen getting placed aside as he looked at me with more caution.
“Nothing good,” I said with a dry laugh. “She knows who I am… and knows what I did to Gryphon. She came to let me know that Lord Drake is sending his investigators. I assume he wants my head for the insult against his family or some nonsense. Honestly, if it was just him, I could make the problem go away pretty easily, but he requested Frederick come as well.”
“That’s… wow… okay, why didn’t she bring this to me? I mean, I feel like that’s something I should have been informed about the moment she heard…” Daniel’s arms crossed and he leaned back with a heavy scowl forming.
“I don’t know, Daniel… I’m not sure if she’s trying to get me isolated… or if I somehow managed to get her to actually doubt the prophecy… but while she didn’t say it… she made it clear she was giving me the option to leave. Because if I’m not here, then you just have to point the investigators elsewhere and Danwood can be left alone… All you have to do is tell them where I went and comply with Frederick when he passes through.”
There was a beat of silence that passed, Daniel’s scowl breaking slightly.
“Oh…”
“I’ve got plans for how to distribute things… The farm won’t just be an eyesore and Quiet’s Hearth really has become more Willow’s project than mine.”
“Have you talked to her?”
I looked at the sole window in the room, the main road clearly visible. There were a few people moving about, Willem and Hugh pointing at the former’s home and then pointing back toward where a new line of homes had started to sprout up.
“I’m going to pop out of town… leave a trail in Hedgely and then go… well, it’s probably better if you don’t know. Plausible deniability and all that. But you can give them Hedgely at least… that should be enough since I never made a true connection with Dusk. There won’t be traces here…”
“You’re doing it again…” Daniel sighed. “You’re making decisions that you think are the right ones for everyone… What happens if the investigators get here and don’t believe us that you left? Will the Prince be upset if he believes I knowingly hid the person he’s been searching for? What if they connect it to Willow? Will Lord Drake—“
“Daniel!” I snapped, cutting him off. “There’s no good answer! If I stay, I lose. If I go, I lose. It’s only a matter of time when Frederick gets here because I won’t cooperate with him… and then he’ll do what he always does… He thinks Dawn can fix anything. I’ve weighed the options… If I’m here, then one way or another things are going to come to a head. I’m sorry, Daniel. I didn’t come here to give you a vote… just to tell you good bye. And to thank you.”
He stared at me, jaw clenching hard under the rather full beard he’d grown. His arms flexed and loosened periodically and he stayed quiet long enough that I almost decided to just get up and leave.
“I won’t accept any ownership transfer requests you’re going to submit,” he finally said, sitting up and reaching for his pen. “You can leave people in charge… but the places belong to you. That way you have a place to come back to.”
“I’m not coming back, Daniel,” I said, shaking my head. “Even if Gryphon doesn’t establish a guild, Frederick will just decide to establish a Royal Charter and the crown will have a perpetual presence. I can’t risk that.”
“I won’t accept it. There’s no reason for a Royal Charter. We don’t have a member of the branch family here, nor do I think we intend to send our children off to fight for them.”
“They won’t give you a choice! This is crown territory and the crown doesn’t have to ask permission. One way or another, Danwood is going to become a new hand for Frederick’s family. Trust me on this, I know it doesn’t make sense, but I’ve traveled with him to the farthest reaches in other lives and watched him set them up time and time again. And with the growth it’s seen, it might even be where they decide to seat the new Sentinel of the Eastern Expanse once Lord Jesting passes. I have no doubt that the Great Oak here is becoming indispensable to the Crown’s Navy.”
“You can’t know that…”
“I can… and I do.”
Another few moments passed and he stood up from his desk, then wandered over toward the window.
“I can’t change your mind… can I?”
“No…”
“Then I really hope you’re as right as you think you are…” Daniel sighed, and I could see his frown deepen. “I mean it though… I’m not transferring any ownership… and you should at least talk to Willow before you leave.”
“That’s… complicated.”
“Boarshit it is Corbin. She saw you lose control and yes… it’s left her a bit raw, I won’t lie. But she deserves to hear it from you, so don’t make me have to explain to her why you’re suddenly gone. She’d hate you forever regardless of how many businesses you left her in charge of.”
My hands tightened enough that my knuckles hurt, and I stared at him even as he refused to look back at me.
“Maybe that’s better… It’s only a matter of time until I have to retake my title. No one needs to think anyone in Danwood sympathizes with the Lord of Dusk…” I said, starting to take a step back toward the door. “When that happens, whether it’s in a year or fifty… I’ll try to keep things out West this time around… That way, at least Danwood should be able to stay out of it.”
I turned before Daniel could stop me, only hearing the faintest, “Thank you, Corbin… for everything” as I retreated out the door.
I didn’t rush… didn’t go running down the street. Instead, I just meandered… taking my time as I took in the growing changes. Bram had already marked spots for the basins along the main road, and people were actually milling about, talking about various plans. A few even gave me small waves of acknowledgement, but thankfully no one decided today was the day to expand their friendship with me.
As I walked along toward Quiet’s Hearth, I caught Willow exiting the management tent with a rectangular object under her arm. She crossed the road and went up the stairs into the inn without even taking a second to admire the building.
I walked up the staircase, stopping by one of the front windows.
Willow was stepping back off of a stool that she’d placed in front of the large fireplace we had in the main hall, something she’d insisted on having since she hated the idea of only having a fire pit in the kitchen. Hanging in front of the beautiful stonework Bram had installed was a simple, but well done painting… and I felt my stomach drop in a way it hadn’t in lifetimes.
She’d… she’d painted my cabin… up on the hill with a simple blonde-haired figure standing on the porch… There were several villagers on the road in front of it, hands raised in waves, and the forest in the background.
Willow turned, her eyes catching mine. Before she could react… before I could really think it through… I used Translocate. Because apparently… even after lifetimes fighting all sorts of vicious beasts, Frederick, and every other kind of monstrosity this world had available, I was still a coward, and only knew how to run.