The sun's uneasy arms roused Brax from his drunken slumber. He was in his bed with a bleating brain. He hadn't the faintest idea of how he'd gotten there, since all he could remember was blacking out at the bar, but he didn't question it. There was something else on his mind. Usually when he woke up, he was tired and worn out, but on that peculiar morning, he was refreshed. He recalled the dream and the encounter with Aziel's "spirit" vividly. The dream was more like a memory. He wondered if he had gone mad as he dressed himself in his usual wool tunic and pants. They were tighter than normal. As he struggled to bring the trousers to his waist, he knew if he wanted to fit back into them, he'd have to do something different. Take up running, or stop drinking so much. Or perhaps, take a long walk. A journey. He recalled something from the dream.
The path you take is the one you pave.
The phrase came from his own drunk subconscious, yet it still stuck. He shook his head, and something deep within his brain snapped. That idea blew up and sent shivers down each nerve of his body as it began to walk, talk, and move on its own, telling him there was a way to save his daughter and escape his dreadful life.
Brax hurried to the kitchen, where Christa was making the usual stale bread. He walked up to her and stared down at her tired eyes. When he opened his mouth to speak, nothing came out. He had something to say, but the words were caught in his throat, lumping up beneath his chin. He'd thought it would be easy, but reality came in and began suffocating him. Christa immediately knew something was amiss with her husband. He was not the same beaten man he was the day before.
"Yes, Brax?" she asked, hesitation in her voice.
"Christa. I… I need to go for a while," Brax started.
"Go where?" she asked.
"A journey," he said. "I can't explain why, and I know you're going to call me mad, but I feel like it's something I need to do."
"How long will you be gone?"
"I don't know," Brax said.
Christa glared right at Brax.
"No," she said, her voice becoming stern.
"Christa I-"
"You're not leaving," she said. "You're not going to abandon us while you go off who knows where and get yourself killed."
The day before, Brax would have dropped his hands and turned around. He would have apologized, said he didn't know what came over him, and hugged her. That's what he should have done, yet he didn't.
"No, I want… I have to go," Brax said, his words low but firm.
"And what about us? How will we survive?" Christa asked in a quiet yell, trying not to wake Nora. "We're already barebones on money, and without you, we'll be dead within two weeks."
"I have some money saved up, money I'd been saving for Nora's treatment," Brax said. "It ain't much, but it'll get you through the month. I'll be back before it runs out, I promise."
"If you've got money to spare, then you can keep saving," Christa said. "It may take a while, but we'll eventually be able to afford it."
"Faust is dead," Brax said. He looked at the last bottle of medicine the doc left behind. "That bottle's the last we got from him. When it runs out, Nora's health will go back down."
"If that's the case, we've got to figure something out. Together. You running off to the gods know where won't solve a thing," she said. "What could have possibly sprung this insanity onto you? Are you crazy?"
"If I had been crazy, I don't think our lives would have turned out so bad," Brax said.
"Our lives aren't glamorous, but we have each other! That's how it's always been!" Christa's yell was no longer quiet. "We can find a way, but I need you to stay."
Brax went quiet, peering down at the creaky boards. They were rotting away like him.
"Do you love me?" Christa asked.
"I do," Brax said. He loved her dearly. She and Nora both. He would do anything for them.
"Then stay."
"It's because I love you that I must leave," Brax said. "You're so strong, and you've given me so much that I can't bear it any longer. I want to make you happy, and for that, I gotta change something. It won't be long, I promise."
"If you walk out that door and aren't back by evening, you likely won't have a wife to come back to," Christa said as she tossed the toast in the disposal bin.
"I understand," Brax said. "It's selfish, and I'm awful for doing it, but for the first time in years, I have something pushing me forward. If you're not here by the time I get back, I'll understand..."
Christa turned her back to him.
"...But if you are," Brax continued. "I promise to save Nora and give you everything I had once vowed. So please, while I don't expect you to, stay."
Christa did not cry or utter a single word more as she walked to the other room where their daughter slept. Her silence was everything. Brax knew how terrible he was for what he was about to do, but his body kept moving without any regard for the life he had spent a decade enduring. He went to the loose floorboard under his bed and pulled out a chest of gold and silver coins, which he had been saving for many years. He'd hoped to one day use it to treat Nora inside the walls of Wunderdum, but that day wouldn't come soon enough. Nora could die before then. If he truly wanted something to change, he had to make a change himself. He placed the coins in a bag on the table and headed out the door. His stomach was shuddering nervously. It felt empty. Not because he didn't eat the breakfast Christa had thrown out, but also because of the terms he was leaving on. He then remembered something the girl had told him the other day. He knew it probably meant nothing, but even so, he reached into his pocket and found the two-piece pendant the trader had given him. He detached the white side from the black and placed it next to the gold. He nestled the black side gently back into his pocket.
"If you do choose to stay, these two pendant halves will unite us again," Brax said into the quiet house. "Because… I love you."
His eyes were unsteady as he walked out the door, but he dared not cry. He would not cry for his own selfish actions. His brain was telling his legs to stop and go back and make things right, to find a more rational solution, but they wouldn't stop. He was out of the dusty frame and into the fields of new beginnings. That's when he heard her. It was a faint whisper, but he heard it.
"Come back safe."
Brax looked back, but she was already gone. Though it wasn't the encouragement he had hoped for, those words were enough to strengthen his resolve and turn his stroll into strides. He couldn't hold the tears back anymore as they streamed down his face, curving back towards the house as he glided forward in the bright green fields. With a youthful energy he thought he threw out long ago, he ran for the first time in years, hoping to somehow catch that crazy eastern girl.