18
I walked out into the crisp evening air. The sun was setting, slowly tucking itself into the horizon for the night. The few trickle of tourists had left the grounds as the attractions closed at 5 pm. Most, if not all, of the town's people were inside the Great Hall, sitting down for the nightly community dinner. I'd lost my appetite.
That was a lie.
I could eat. I just couldn't stomach walking into that room full of people as a failure.
I closed my eyes, shutting out this magical world. But the loss of sight didn't help. The magic was inside me.
I wanted to run across the drawbridge. I wanted to hightail it out of this town. I wanted to escape back to my life of transience. But I couldn't move.
My feet felt rooted. My gut felt settled. My heart felt heavy, but not sad heavy. The w
