Aja opened the door to her house and looked around. She grabbed the broom from the cart and swept the cobwebs away as she went further into the house. Stopping in the kitchen, she looked at the busted window from a tree that had fallen and sighed slightly.
"It's what you get for leaving for so long." She said to herself, her voice echoing faintly in the empty room.
She moved through the house knocking down cobwebs, and taking inventory of damage from years of being left empty. The upper back bedroom also had damage from the tree and Aja wrote that down on the ever growing list she would give the repair men. She turned to leave the room and saw an old cane duct taped above the door, that made her smile a little sadly. One of Miss Lily's canes that Huma probably duct taped up there far out of Lily's reach, done to annoy her.
Aja went back down the stairs and took note of the ones that creaked a little too much for comfort. She'd have them replaced. It would take time, but it would be a fine house again.
She left, dropping the list off at the repair man's place of business then headed to her shipyards. Making sure everything was moving along smoothly, Aja then went off to ancient cork boards to search for news of old friends and family that may be left.
Reading over the boards, there were so many names she didn't recognize, a few she did. But she noticed that she didn't see any from her brother Ajay or his lovely wife Sher. She knew they had been home, rebuilding Ballentine, changing the name to represent the new era of peace and prosperity. Aja also knew they came back to Rhy"Din. But no evidence of that was seen now.
She let her fingers trail against the many missives as she headed for the Red Dragon Inn. Maybe there, she'd find someone she knew from before. But that was not to be.
"It's what you get for leaving for so long." Aja told herself and decided that perhaps, it was best to start over. New era, new friends. What other choice was there" She gave a slow smile and settled back in to being home.