The Reluctant Guest at the Edge of the World

"Free to go" doesn't always exactly mean free to go...

The smell was like fresh manure mixed with rancid milk  the best smell Fenn Tibarrien could have wished for. He recognized a few of the noxious odors that penetrated his breathing mask, and spoke in his mind what he knew the translator on his arm would momentarily speak aloud: "Free to go." One day those words would be uttered and he would actually be free to leave, but until then they were merely a cruel, ironic reminder of his imprisonment. The only good in them was that he could get off this God-forsaken slope and rest...