Free bread

The following takes place as Aras is walking to the Temple of Desna to speak with the Father.  He set out to the Temple in an effort to find out more about the crypt robbery and the skeletons they had faced the day before.  Aras believes that the goblin attack on the town and the crypt robbery are part of some bigger plot.  The rogue is trying to sort out his thoughts on this place, his new companions and what he might do to make the most of this fresh start.

"Boar hunting..."

"What an absolutely phenomenal waste of time."  

Aras wasn't sure what was more unbelievable, boar hunting with a noble or the fact that he was called to a meeting with a mayor.  It was almost impossible to reconcile how much his circumstances and fortune had changed in such a short time.

As he stood in a pool of the mage's blood, his mind racing for a way to extricate himself from the botched hit, he could have never imagined that within a month's time that he would be cheered as a town hero and called to meetings with the sheriff and mayor.

"Meeting with the sheriff" Aras let slip a wry smile as he thought on that for a moment.  

"Talk about asking the fox to guard the hen house"

Still, despite all of his cynicism, he had grown to appreciate the town of Sandpoint.  It was far from Magnimar and all of its baggage.  He had no history here, no obligations or reputation (for better or worse).  It was a fresh start.

Just the other day, he was offered free bread by a gracious citizen.  A simple gesture like that had shaken him to the core.  He had never been given anything for free before.  He had to earn every scrap of nothing he ever had....or take it.  Now, suddenly, he was faced with a community.  He wondered if his parents had grown up in a place like this?  They died when he was so young, he couldn't remember their faces or stories anymore.  Just passing wisps of memories and images that troubled him from time to time.

Even with his new found sense of appreciation for the town's more kindly aspects, he had wasted no time in finding the people and places he felt most comfortable.  The den of thieves on the waterfront reminded him of what he knew.  He understood these people.  He understood their motivations; greed and lust.  Those kind of impulses were predicable...comfortable.  He had grown up with so little exposure to kindness and charity that it unnerved him.  Down on the waterfront, negotiating with Jubril, he began to understand that he might have found a way to take a little bit of his former life and skills and still find a way to make a fresh start here.

"No jobs in the city," Aras vowed to himself.  Of course he had already slightly broken his own rule when he looted the merchant carts in the square, but then again when do thieves follow rules?  He gave the answer that his old mentor, Brim, had taught him:

"Thieves follow the rules when they are being watched.  When no one is watching there are no rules."

Aras smiled again as he though of Brim.  

"Hopefully the old scoundrel had found some other apprentice to run his numbers racket and collect his protection money for him," Aras thought to himself.

The idea of Brim heading out into the city and collecting himself made Aras chuckle.  Despite everything, he still remembered Brim fondly.  In an environment like the guild, there were never any true displays of kindness and yet Brim had done far more for Aras than he was obligated to do.  That is a close as you will get to having a friend in such a place.

"The cleric keeps bugging us for a story...an explanation." Aras mused.  In truth, he had avoided the topic because for once it was nice to not have a story, to not have a cover.  The other reason he had been avoiding it was because a shared cover would link him even more closely with this group of characters.  He had avoided such connections like the plague in his past life.

"No connections, no obligations, no one to rat you out to save themselves"  Brim had lectured him.

Brim's advice was correct, but it was advice relevant to a certain set of circumstances.  In order to make the most of this new life, he might have to go against some of the old lessons.  Aras finished that thought as he arrived at the door of the temple.  He knocked on the door slowly and softly.

"I'd like to speak to the Father, is he in?"