Micah woke up Wednesday evening.

His parents helped him to his sister’s bathhouse, where he could wash his hair for the first time in days and they fed him thoroughly. Prisha cooked up a storm and was happy to see him, but she hovered around him all evening. They all did, even his parents and his brother-in-law with his extended family. Eventually, all sorts of spots on his body showed up from where they had all swatted him throughout the evening while they yelled at him, asking what he had been thinking.

I didn’t think, he told them over and over again. He had other excuses, explanations, but he only really told one person the whole story. The others all seemed disappointed in him, that he had lied, but more that he had gone into the Tower in the first place. Micah had always known that his parents hated the structure and that the local community didn’t approve of it, but this was the first time those feelings felt real to him.

If he actually wanted to become a Climber, he realized, they wouldn’t support him. His sister tried to make him promise he wouldn’t do anything dangerous like that ever again when they were alone and talking, but Micah couldn’t do it. She looked disappointed, too, but he thought she understood.

While they left, Micah waved the whole way he walked down the street until they were out of sight.

Thursday, some people from the Climber’s Guild came to visit and asked him a bunch of questions. His parents were there to defend him, more because they disliked the people from the Guild than out of any need to support him, he guessed, but he would take it.

The people from the Guild seemed surprised when he told them a Kobold had attacked him, because Kobolds weren’t supposed to roam the first floor. They were even more surprised when he insisted that it created a massive fireball that almost killed him. They said Kobolds were powerful mages, but this far down? It didn’t seem likely.

That got a rage out of Micah’s father.

“Are you saying my son is a liar?!”

A lot of placating later, from both Micah and the representatives, his parents made them swear they would at least put up a warning sign, though the men told them nobody would be headed into the Salamander’s Den so soon anyway.

Micah was surprised his parents even cared. They headed off to work as soon as their ‘guests’ left, telling him to stay in bed, to rest, that Prisha would bring him something to eat and they were going to have a talk when they got home.

Micah didn’t.

When midday came, he packed up his finest clothes and forced himself out of the house, to his sister’s again. If he went there, he didn’t have to wait for her to come to him. He washed up for the third time in three days, told her where was planning to go and made himself as presentable as possible. It felt nice, cleaning himself, like he was making up for lost time.

Then it was midday when he knew Linda would be working — he’d asked —- and he marched straight into the Climber’s Guild and prostrated herself in front of her desk.

People stared. Linda stood up to see him from over the counter, a surprised look on her face.

“Please,” Micah begged her. “Forgive me.”

He didn’t budge, didn’t look up as he waited for an answer. But the moment stretched on and on and he began to sweat as he worried that she might be ignoring him, or that she had just gotten up and left.

Then, finally, she spoke. It was only a single, clear word, but Micah knew too well the impact those could have.

“No.”