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[LUCA]

Shame ate me up from the inside as I left the apothecary, clutching a wrapped package under my cloak.

I walked past the guards and hastened my steps once I got far enough. Reaching the town gates, I unhitched the horse the elder lent me and rode off without looking back, my mind filled with troubled thoughts.

The light was dying in the sky as I headed in the direction where the sun was setting in the distance. I passed by the first village I encountered without sparing it a second glance, urging the horse as fast as it could go and covering as much distance as possible while I could still see.

Eventually, it became impossible to move forward in the dark. After hitching the horse to a tree on a grassy patch in the forest, I sat against a tree and rested my head on my knees, my trembling hands clutching the sack containing the precious package on my lap protectively.