Without Purpose (open)

[Esteban Cavarro]

Timestamp: Early morning, 1st brightening in the month of Junctior

It was a dreary brightening, early on before very much light had reached the streets of Narim. A seaborne fog crept through the town as most of its residents slept soundly. Meanwhile, one lone ex-criminal, recently released from jail, was out on a walk, reflecting on what had been thus far a fruitless existence.

Esteban threw his rusted dagger into the mud and muttered an obscenity as he sat down on a rock nearby. He had been walking by the seaside, with the scent of brine sharp in his nostrils, and it simply felt odd to be out in the world again. Definitely not in a bad sense - prison was not a place to be missed - but it was change nonetheless, and change is rarely an easy thing for humans to contend with. All of the early work of Esteban's life had been undone. Once he was a skilled thief and highwayman - now his skills were as rusty as his knife. Once he had more gold than ordinary men dream of - now that gold had been confiscated and was in the pocket of some accursed Medonian politician, no doubt. Once he had a band of four loyal friends - but now three of them were either still in jail or elsewhere in the empire, and the last...well, Esteban would deal with Joseph if he ever found him.

Reflecting on this empty brightening, Cavarro realized that exacting revenge on the man who betrayed him and his friends was the only real goal he had at the moment. There was only so much an ex-convict could do in the world. And perhaps wisely so. If the opportunity presented itself, would Esteban steal again? Rape again? Murder again? Who could say? Life seemed so dreadfully pointless at the moment. He might have killed himself but for the hedonistic creedo that once fueled and defined his life, ever urging him to make one moment more pleasurable than the next. Of course, at such a low point in his life, it could have only been so hard then. For now, he sat there in Narim without any real motivation or future.

It seemed that 20 patterns of jail was just the beginning of his punishment.

Update, 10/2: My FT has be rearranged a bit. Consider this thread closed.