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“It’s alright,” he replied good-naturedly, “I wasn’t much to remember, back then.” A little self-depreciation to be sure, but this was also the honest truth. Until his time in Jaded Shadows, Theodoric had lived and worked almost exclusively with members of his own extended family. His years as an apprentice weaver had been strictly regulated in a tight web of familial expectation. By the time he graduated into the journeyman’s expected trip, Theodoric had fairly fled from the scrutiny of his relatives and teachers. Across the sea, he shed the oppression of his family, but he had been unable to free himself from the legacy of their upbringing. He had been paralyzed socially and constantly afraid of breaking rules he only half understood. Where most travelers learn to find similarities between their home culture and the new one they’re visiting, Theodoric found (and dwelt on) the differences.
As crippled socially as he had been, the experience had changed Theodoric profoundly. Yes, he returned home as promised, continued weaving, and eventually earned his master’s knot. Yet while at home, he learned the streets and back alleys of Edinburgh and found joy in unexpected (and sometimes scandalous) company. And at night, he always dreamed of virgin forests and peaks that scraped at the skyline. “I went back home to Edinburgh to finish my education after I left Jaded Shadows,” he explained a touch formally, omitting the emotional upheaval that had been involved. “Home was never the same though, after.” He looked down and away, still uncomfortable with the truth of the statement. The words sounded silly as he said them, but he supposed it was as good and as true an explanation as he could give, without spilling his heart to a near-stranger.
“I came back when I could. I went back to the old packlands, but there was nothing there. So I wandered for a while, and eventually found myself on the AniWaya borders. It seemed like as good a place as any, and so here I am.” A rather inglorious story to be sure, but again, a true one. He left out the initial despair he had felt upon seeing the fertile mountainside reduced to an ash-choked scrubland. Theodoric had almost been ready to turn back when the crossing of Halcyon Mountain again yielded habitable lands. “What happened to Jaded Shadows, exactly? I mean, where did everyone go?” He had seen the evidence of the fire and assumed the worst. Then again, if Tayui had survived, surely others had as well?
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