[color=yellow]"That's not even where that goes!"[/color] Criston yelled, running over to the workers who were putting together the new building. It was a meeting place for the group to use as well as a training facility for those who wanted to use it. It was all self-serve though he assumed Annie would be willing to help anyone wanting it. 

[color=orange]"How's it going?"[/color] Maria asked, rounding the corner. She'd just come from seeing Brako off, the poor sob. It would take him at least a few days to reach the dragon nation and they agreed that he would take it slow to avoid overtaxing himself. 

[color=yellow]"Hey Mom. It's been better. They have a hard time listening, but it'll be done in the next day or two. Just putting on the final touches, yanno?"[/color] He explained, smiling as he turned to look at her. The smile faded, however, at her expression. [color=yellow]"Hey, hey! What's wrong?"[/color] He asked, rushing over to grab her face and force her to look at him. Her eyes were red, something very uncharacteristic for Maria Cross.

[color=orange]"I'm fine, Criston. However, we need to carry out what we talked about yesterday."[/color] She told him, brushing him away. She wasn't in the mood to be taken care of, she needed her moment. [color=orange]"I hope you can take care of it. I'm going to go visit him."[/color] She told him, already walking off, headed towards the coast.

[color=yellow]"It's... hitting her pretty hard... But still... Who is [i]he[/i]?"[/color] Criston spoke aloud before being interrupted by a loud yell. He huffed and rolled his eyes before going to help the poor soul. 

[hr]

A few hours later, Criston found himself seated in the community inn, a well known meeting place for the Athalia group. Those willing to help were invited to meet him tonight. It wasn't for another hour or so, but Criston wanted to go ahead and be here. The new meeting place was almost done and he didn't really want to go back to his own home. Britnia might be waiting for him there and there was no telling what she would want him to do. He'd have to go home eventually...

He sighed and took another sip of the beer in front of him. He hoped that he had the fluency of words to get everything he needed to get across across clearly. They didn't need everyone to go, but it would certainly help.

...What was wrong with his mother? He hadn't seen her act like herself since they'd come here. She put on a good game face for the old students and some of the new, but he saw the sides of her no one else saw, sides he never thought he would see. Part of him wanted to ask what was wrong but the other part of him knew she needed her space. She looked... so much older now and she'd lost a lot of weight. 

Criston swallowed another sip of beer and set the glass down to run his finger through his long white hair. Since the attack, he hadn't cut it. He'd decided to keep it long as a testament to the oath he made to get back at Marcus for everything he'd done.