Lilika continued to stare at the ground in the doctor's office and her bloodied ax that sat leaning against the wall near her. Navien sat next to her as she continued staring. Neither of them had sustained any injuries in the battle.

Lilika was ashamed of herself, she’d killed something, lost her temper, and raged. She hadn’t made any progress at all, she was still that angry teenager who had beaten up her boyfriend because he had cheated on her. She could feel the leers of the crowd that day peering down on her now, the looks of disgust and her boyfriend looking up at her bloodied, saying, ‘Hey no one can love a foul temper you know?’

“I’m sorry.” Navien suddenly said at her side.

She jumped up a bit surprised,

“What?” she asked.

“You didn’t want to fight, and I pressured you to kill those goblins, I was also rather rude

with how I said it,” He answered.

“No, you just didn’t want to die, that's fine. It’s just– I feel relieved that they’re dead, my dad and uncle are probably still alive because of it. But I feel good that they’re dead, you shouldn’t feel good that someone’s dead,” she said quietly.

“Maybe not, but, you’re allowed to defend yourself, you have a right to. I still remember my first kill, an orc raider during the battle of Cliffbrook. Yes, I took his life and I’m glad that he’s dead and he didn’t kill anyone, you’re allowed to feel that way, it’s not because you don’t care, but instead because you do,” Navien replied smiling at her.

Lilika stopped looking down and looked up to his smile, she smiled back warmly as they shared a moment.

The moment was cut short though as the doctor came out with her father’s sibling Nargi in bandages, and her father Abel in a wheelchair. The doctor, a middle-aged half-elf, looked up from his smoking pipe at the group.

“Tha’ll be 115 gold, 85 for th’ wheelchair, 15 for y’ fatha’s wounds, 10 for Nargi’s, and 5 fo’ taxes,” he said as he lit his pipe.

“115?! I can’t pay for that, it’s 2 months of work with all of us, and we just lost two of our best workers, that’s also more than double your usual!” Lilika exclaimed.

“Yeah well with the burnouts we need to pay for new bulbs and taxes are being raised for the city bulbs. Most of us middle tier still have to fund the bill to the city council to make sure that wall doesn’t get built around the third tier hiding us from the world.” The doctor said as he gestured to a box full of shattered glass bulbs in the corner of the lobby.

“You’ll have to pay over time unless you have some other solution. But for now, go. It’s nearly midnight. I need my sleep for tomorrow. Pantheon knows how many people will come scratched by glass,” the doctor continued ushering them out.

Outside they all sighed.