That night, after the meeting, Quinn had his ban's mark tattooed on the inside of my wrist. It was a bleeding star.
"The mark of Cal… He died," he said. "He corrupted the idea and lost the end goal. I have been perfecting it here. We deserve to live like everyone else, Jaspen."
I nodded. "Aye."
"It was hard to find a place to tattoo on you. What do all these marks mean?"
"They meant something to me … in another life," I whispered.
Quinn lightly chuckled, amused.
"You talk as if you are an old man, Jaspen."
"I do age slowly," I said quietly, meaning no disrespec.
I chanced a glance up at Quinn. In all my life, I had never feared anyone other than Bane and Rentook, but fearing them was obvious. Why was I afraid of this werewolf? I knew that, if needed, I could take Quinn. That wasn't what scared me about him. It was like my old life could be stripped from me without hesitation.
"Stop looking at me in fear," he said, placing on hand on my shoulder.
"Sorry," I murmured, looking out the window.
He was a bit intimidating with the heavy scarring on his face and the amount of power he weilded here in the Lower City.
He chuckled. "I didn't take you for timid after accomplishing your boastful task."
"I always keep a promise."
"Then why do you look at me in fear? My own men don't fear me nearly as much as you do."
I finally looked at Quinn.
"It's what you can take from me. I've been stripped of my whole life. I don't want that to happen again."
He was a good man. Perhaps a bit too harsh with his son, but we all had our flaws. "Jasper-"
"Jaspen," I corrected quicky.
"Jaspen, you would have to give me a really good reason for me to exile you from my ban. You are my right hand man and that does come with benefits. Honestly my son could stand to learn a thing or two from you."
I glanced away awkwardly.
"You don't take praise well," he noticed.
I sucked in a breath.
"Nay."
"It will come in time, Jaspen. For now, let's grab a drink."
That was something I noticed more and more about northern culture. They drank. Not on special occasions or because their water was bad, but because they could. Granted, they lived in a collapsing city. Who wouldn't drink to forget that for a few hours?
Hopefully all that would change soon. If Quinn's plans could happen, we may just help our poor race after all. The first priority was to get rid of the wall. After that we would see.
My biggest worry was would that lead to the Keltcher attacks rising. Would it start making them look like heroes to the mortals? I really wished I could talk to Alistor on this, but I needed to have faith in Quinn.