It could be worse.

Somehow, the thought was not comforting as Varian raced past the inn, feet slipping beneath him in the melting slush of early March.

Varian darted into an alley, barely holding back a flinch as the angry innkeeper skidded to a stop a few feet away, screaming “And stay out, criminal!” at the top of her lungs. Varian waited until her footsteps had retreated before he let out a defeated sigh, slinking back further into the alleyways. Just because he was technically free as long as he stayed away from Corona, that didn’t mean people saw him as anything more than a traitor. And that was the only inn in the village, this tiny, insignificant village on Corona’s border. If they had heard of him, then the next town surely has, and the next…

No. He couldn’t afford to think like that right now. He would move on tomorrow, but right now, he needed a place to sleep.