The Start of a Life After

“You seem to be in good health without any physical side effects from your regeneration. If you happen to feel dizzy, or have muscle weakness, or parts of your body just stop responding, get back here as best you can. We pride ourselves on our work, but regenerating brains is not something to be taken lightly.” The doctor said before having a nurse see James to the door.
 
“I’ll do just that. Hopefully, you won’t be seeing me again any time soon.” James says with a smile.
 
“Mr. Saint Mirth, you’re an adventurer. I’ll likely be seeing you back here before the month is out. Maybe before the week is out depending on how badly you need money.” The doctor states in an exasperated tone.
 
“Well, thank you anyway.” He says back to the doctor, a little sheepishly.
 
The sun was out, and except for a few clouds they sky was clear. As he walked slowly his mind drifted. He knew that he should be more bothered, more upset about going face first into an Illithid’s maw. But even now, with the memory so clear, there was only a slight edge to it, rather than the razors edge he expected to cut to his soul. “Maybe my time in the Harbor helped. Or maybe it was a bit of her, a little gift from the Lady to keep me sane. Or maybe a bit of both. I miss them and that place terribly already, but not enough to want a quick voyage back.” He chuckles to himself self-consciously. “If I came back too soon, they’d probably both yell at me.”
 
He took his time in his walking, feeling different, noticing that colors were brighter, smells were sharper, smiles wider, like he’d been living only a half-life, only partly awake for the last seventeen years. And now, finally, he was awake and seeing the world with eyes opened for the first time. As he makes his way toward the church of Lucetius, and his room, and his friend, and his shark puppy, he grabs a bit of smoked fish from a stall near the river, enjoying the flavor more than he remembers ever having done.
 
“I have changed. Violently. Not in any way I’d recommend to anyone else, that’s for sure. But, I have. And I have no intention of going back to who I was. Not the man who was half asleep. Not the man so drowned by guilt that he was nearly incapable of truly doing anything. No, that man is dead, gone. I…I have to be better than him. I am better than him! And now, I think I can finally leave something good in the world when my time comes again. Alright James Saint Mirth, let’s get to work.”
 
Not long after, he arrives at the church, finding Koren playing with the shark puppy in one of the side yards. Many hugs and much happy yipping commenced as a truly happy smile comes to James’s face. “Well, maybe I’ll get to work tomorrow.” He says quietly, grinning as he throws a stick for the little land fish to fetch.