It was time to get up.
Jeremy opened his eyes, passing from sleep to wakefulness in the space of a second. Dim sunlight peeked between his shutters, drawing a line across the dusty wooden floor of his small, one-room house. He sat up and got out of bed, already dressed, and moved to the center of the room. There, he proceeded to stand motionless for the next hour.
"I have a store near the eastern gate," he said abruptly to the empty house. "We sell everything you could want, at the best prices in Sequestrinous!"
As the sun continued to rise, the beam of light inched its way across the room until it was shining directly onto Jeremy’s face. He didn’t react at all, not even to blink. From outside, the sounds of Sequestrinous waking up could be heard, beginning its daily cycle yet again. Voices and footsteps echoed up and down the street, a shadow occasionally darting in front of the window as someone made their way past Jeremy’s house.
It was time to open the store.
Turning, Jeremy made his way outside, not bothering to close the door behind him. He was greeted by the gray cobblestone streets and looming buildings of Sequestrinous, just as he had every day for the past thirteen years. A chaotic tangle of roads wound and looped its way through the city, each of them lined with three and four story buildings that were all unique, and yet paradoxically nearly indistinguishable from one another. Miles away, the city wall could be seen rising above the rooftops, standing tall and secure against the dangers of the outside world. The sun shone brightly in a cloudless sky, and the streets were already packed as the townspeople flocked to go about their daily routines.
One of them was doing his best to walk straight through the wall of Jeremy’s house, his eyes and expression both vacant.
Jeremy saw all of this without truly seeing it. His eyes remained fixed straight in front of himself, his face frozen in a mask of unenthusiastic contentment as he joined the throng and began to make his way across the city.
“Move along, citizen,” a guard said as he headed in the opposite direction.
“Good day to make some gold!” Jeremy said in response. Words were nothing more than noise that occasionally came out of his mouth. It didn't even matter if anyone was there to hear those noises, because there was no meaning behind them. No meaning behind anything.
