Breaking Step (Dungeon Runner 3)

Most of the occupied tables had townsfolk sitting at them, with Runners at a few. Like Tibs and his team, they were experienced. The urchins didn't come to the inn. They stayed with the families that housed them. Tibs didn't know what the guild would let them do once they had their element and formed teams.

Kroseph brought food and drinks, paused long enough to exchange a concerned look with Jackal, then moved on to serving other tables. Jackal ate heartedly, while Don barely touched his food. Tibs ate without concern for the tension at the table.

"Alright," Jackal said, leaning back in his chair, his plate empty. "Whenever you want to start, Don." He drained his tankard and motioned for another.

Don moved vegetables around before pushing the plate away. "Like I told Tibs, I was going to be a scholar. My family weren't nobles, but we had wealth enough to mingle with them and not be overtly ostracized. It was a good life. I lacked for nothing, and the inconveniences I had to deal with were minor in comparison. Unlike many in my family's position, I didn't have aspiration of being a noble."

Jackal snorted and Mez glared at him.

"I was going to be a scholar," Don repeated softy. "My dues to the academy were already paid. All I needed was to be of age. I'd demonstrated my aptitudes, and a few of the lower masters had expressed interest in taking me on as their apprentice. My future was set; my dreams were about to come true." He fell silent and looked at his plate.

"What went wrong?" Khumdar asked.

"We were merchants. Our trade was mostly textiles, and we had contracts all the way to the neighboring kingdoms. As I said, we had wealth. That's where it came from. My father had started expanding by investing into clothiers and tailors. The quality he enforced was such that Nobles shopped at those businesses."

He sighed. "What we didn't know was that in doing so, my father encroached onto a noble's business. He had quiet investments in several larger tailor's shops. My father didn't deal with any of them, but our new customers used to be theirs."

Don sipped his ale. "Nobles are not keen on honest competition against a lower statured family. Instead of competing with my father on quality or prices, that noble destroyed him. My father was accused of paying to have other merchant's shipment destroyed or tampered with. Evidence was brought forth supporting those claims. My father's counter evidence was ignored by the magistrates."

His expression darkened, and he took a few breaths to calm himself. "My father's businesses were taking from him as 'punishment' for his crimes. His—our family's wealth vanished with them. My father wouldn't accept it. He was determined to get the magistrates to see he was innocent. He used up the little money we had left, and we were forced to leave the neighborhood I'd spent my life in."

Again, he fell silent, but started again before he needed to be prodded. "It was hard. The house was so small. We could barely afford anything we had taken for granted, and my father did nothing to help us. He was obsessed, and it destroyed him. The drinking destroyed him. But my mother held on to enough no one had to take up menial work. And in only a few months of moving to that neighborhood, I wouldn't be a burden on her anymore. I would be of age to start my apprenticeship, and I would become to academy's responsibility."

"It did not happen," Khumdar stated in the stretching silence.

Don shook his head. "The academy has standards, you know. And I no longer met them. Only the best of the best was allowed into those hallowed halls," he said bitterly. "Only those with the right social status, is what they mean, not the abilities. We had paid," he spat. "Masters had looked at me, at the work I had done to demonstrate I met the requirements. They had judged me good enough, some already considered talking me on. But now, how could even they consider letting someone like me in, letting the rabble in. They called my work subpar." He slammed the tankard on the table. "Of course, they never returned what my family had paid. We could have used the money."