Darin looked at the tattoo with something akin to awe. It was gorgeous and looked right on Ridahne’s face. She wasn’t sure she liked the red puffy state of he face, but Darin knew that it would heal quickly enough. Darin felt the corner of her lips twist upwards in almost grim satisfaction. Now everyone, well at least everyone that could read Oijh, would know that Ridahne Torenzi was something that Astra had never seen before or would see again. That was the best news Darin had gotten since this wholed thing had started and she had had a part, a very small part yes, but still a part in making it happen. Now any Azurei that saw the traitor’s mark would had to at least wonder what the new mark meant.

Her voice was a cross between a harsh sound of satisfaction and a hiss of pleasure, “Yes. Perfect. My Ridahne Torenzi Seed-Chained.” She let out a laugh that was nothing but a good sound, “Today is the first day of the rest of our lives.”

It was a phase that Darin thought had meant nothing for the longest time. The elders used it to try to encourage people to do something with their lives or make a change that the elders wanted them to make. It had never made sense to Darin. Everyday was the first day of the rest of her life. That was just how time worked. Yet that was the point. Yesterday was over. The past was something that would be left in the past. While past actions would influence thoughts, it was gone and done Darin could do nothing about it. The choices that Darin made today that would shape the rest of her future. She could only hope to make the right ones.

She held out a foot to show off her boot, “I need to find a cobbler to resole my boots. If I do too much more walking my toes will pop out.” She looked up from her boot to Ridahne’s face, “Do you think we can do that after you finish breakfast? We woke up late and I don’t want to waste much more of the day. There’s a lot to do before we leave Lihaelen and now that we are done with the Archives we should start getting ready to move on. There’s lots to see and lots to do.”

Darin could think of more than a few things. Ridahne had purchased supplies the first day they were in the city, but was it enough? Darin needed to resole her boots and get a new waterskin. A hair cut would not go amiss either. She also needed a chance to talk to regular people even if she wasn’t one hundred percent how to do so. She just knew that she needed to. She knew nothing about city life and she needed to know about as much of Astra and the Children of Astra as possible. There was more than just farming to any functioning society and Darin could only hope that one day she would have the understanding of it necessary to comprehend it all. She had left The Farm to seek a better understanding of culture and walks of life and to do that she needed to talk to regular people and learn from them.