Dunn shifted his weight from one foot to the other, his toes curling into the thick carpet as he kept his gaze drilled into the floor. He was a small, hollowed-out version of the boy he had been three weeks ago, clutching a damp, stained bundle of silk to his chest like it was the only thing keeping him from drifting away.
He had wanted to tell someone. He had needed to.
Someone ought to care about it, no?
When he finally stumbled into the city of Freusen, half-mad with hunger and exhaustion, he had brandished the ruined heraldry at the first man in a uniform he could find. He expected a guard to listen, perhaps a clerk to write a note.
He never expected to be hustled into a carriage with blackened windows and whisked away to the capital.
