The parade of young adults marched down the street to thunderous applause, the shining embroidery of their guild patches glistening like sun light on the ocean.

  Ambrose watched as one by one each guild passed, following their banner bearer that held their new crest and family name. He saw the white and gold emblem of the healers in their blue robes, the black hammer on red of the smiths, the gold lightning on green of the mages and the bronze chisel on mahogany brown of the carpenters. These and many more celebrated as they passed. He had been rejected by nearly all of them.

  "Ambrose!"

  He suddenly heard a voice shout to him. He looked and saw Simon waving, his leather armor and shield looking huge on his thin frame. They had both trained for weeks before the combat exam for the guardsman guild but he had just not been able to get the foot work down like Simon could. He waved back and gave a genuine smile, he was happy for his friend, at least he had been able to escape their grim existence. As he marched out of sight, Ambrose decided he had seen enough of his betters and realised he should probably try to eat today.

  He pushed his way through the throng of people, made all the more difficult as he seemed to be the only one heading away from the celebration. Once he was out of the crowd, he started making his way to the almshouse. Walking past the war memorial that stood in the middle of the town fountain, he stopped and took a handful of water to drink. As he felt the cool musty liquid flow down his throat, he felt the judgmental gaze of the people around him. He wiped his mouth and looked at the statue, its gleaming white marble reflecting so much of the suns light he had to squint his eyes as he did. Its four figures stood proud each holding a tool of their trade up to the sky.

  The streets of Bramptonburg still showed the scars of the civil war, the ancient buildings that formed the tight roads and back alleys were still patched with wood and stonework mismatched by its untarnished surface. Though the war and its result had literally reshaped the world around him, to Ambrose it had never been any different.

  The nearly silent comments from those around broke him from the small trance he had seemingly fallen into. He splashed some water on his face and caught a glance at his reflection. His long greasy black hair hung down from his face, which to him looked even more gaunt than the last time he had seen it.

  Need to have a wash at some point. He thought.

  As he stood and continued towards his destination, the city grew emptier and more run down as he headed away from the main street and towards the outskirts.

  He emerged from the damp back alleys he had weaved down to the open brick yard where the small state funded building was situated. Ambrose had hoped that most of the usual folk who used the service would be still watching the parade but from the line outside, he realised his hoped had been misplaced. As he waited for his turn at the window, Ambrose looked around to pass the time, this part of the city had only received minor damage in the war, as a lot of the fighting had been focused in the city center and towards the castle. Unlike those areas though, nobody had bothered to fix any damage that had been sustained here.

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  As the last person in front of him got their share and left, Ambrose approached the window.

  "Afternoon Ambrose."

  "Afternoon Tyrus, got anything left?"

  Tyrus had been working at the alms house for the last four years, having used to manage his orphanage when he was younger. Even with only one leg he had been able to keep up with him and the other kids, keeping them in line and helping and managing them with their chores.

  "You're in luck, we have one loaf left." He reached to the wooden crate behind him, pulled out a small loaf of bread and handed it to him.

  Ambrose took it and knocked it against the side of the window, it gave a solid thump as he did.

  "Ah good, I have been needing to remove one of my dodgy teeth." Ambrose said dryly

  Tyrus shrugged. "The parade always brings more people into the city, so the bakeries have less to give."

  Ambrose snapped of a piece and popped it in his mouth. It was stale, but considering how hungry he was, it was good.

  "I saw Simon in the parade." He said as he chewed.

  The older man smiled, "Good lad he is, I'm happy for him."

  Ambrose couldn't help but also smile. "Yeah, I'm glad another one of us has got out."

  He winced suddenly, he hadn't been lying about that tooth, it had been giving him grief for a while now. He moved his hand up to his cheek and focused on it. His hand glowed slightly as he tried to cast some amount of healing magic on it. He was only able to keep the spell up for a few seconds before exhaustion caused him to lose it. His tooth wasn't fixed, but it felt better.

  "Still can't believe they wouldn't let you in to the healers being able to do that." Tyrus said, gesturing to Ambrose's still raised hand.

  "Yeah well, unless you can show you got the potential to close war wounds, they don't want ya." He replied, still rubbing his face.

  Once the pounding in his head from the spell fatigue had faded somewhat, he noticed that Tyrus' attention has moved to behind him.

  "Can we help you lad?"

  He turned and saw a young boy standing patiently behind him.

  "Is, is there any food left?" They asked meekly.

  He was small, his frame so thin Ambrose thought a gust of wind might knock him down. The wrist of his left arm was so tiny he wondered how it held his hand up, on his right, his lower arm was glaringly missing from where his elbow should have been, from birth of from injury he couldn't tell.

  "Sorry my friend, but we are all out for today" Tyrus said with a frown. "You need to try to come a bit earlier tomorrow."

  He wasn't scolding the boy, Ambrose knew, just trying to help him. He looked at the still three quarters of a loaf he had been picking at and sighed.

  "Here." He said handing it to them.

  The boy's face lit up as he took it with his small hand. "Thank you sir." He said, his face gleaming.

  "He is right though." He said to the boy. "You need to make sure you get here early, especially on days the city is busy."

  The boy smiled and nodded at them both "I will, I promise." He then ran off as quickly as his little legs would carry, yelling a final "Thank you" as he did.

  Ambrose watched him leave with a small sad smile, missing an arm meant that unless he developed some latent magical talent, he didn't have a chance at guild acceptance.

  "I do wonder how, being such a soft touch, how you have managed to survive this long." Tyrus said, a poorly hidden pride on his face.

  "It's mostly out of spite at this point." He replied flatly. "Just really want to keep being a drain on society."

  Both of them laughed at his comment, before Ambrose gave a sigh. "Anyway, I am gonna go to the forest to see if I can forage anything, can't keep leeching if I starve to death."

  The two made their goodbyes and he started towards and back down the alleys he had come through. He managed to make it to a point where he thought his old friend couldn't see him before he leant over to vomit. His head was swimming with spell fatigue. Next time you decide to do magic. He thought to himself. Make sure there are no children in need behind you.