I laid my head down on a bedroll on the floor of a wooden shack. I then woke up in a boat on an ocean of violet liquid. There was a blue whale swimming through the clouds above me, singing its song. Off in the distance, I could hear the sounds of another whale answering. Lightning crackled through the clouds in his wake.
A flock of nightgaunts flew overhead, making no sound. It was strange, because I’d heard that they didn’t like flying over water. Then again, what water is purple? Maybe they had no problem with this? Still, they made no attempt to fly towards me, so I paid them little mind.
Also, there was a cat on my chest. “Hello, Nebula,” I said.
The cat responded by purring and nuzzling my face. “There are other visitors nearby.”
“Oh? Should we go see what they’re up to?”
“Be careful. With nightgaunts about, Nodens could be nearby.”
I shrugged. “So I’ll give him another wedgie.” Godmother had laughed for ten straight minutes when she found out I’d tricked him by telling him his shoelaces were untied and given him a power wedgie. Or whatever it’s called.
Look, I don’t mind my butt occasionally getting fondled, but not by a creepy old dude with seashells in his ridiculous beard.
The boat had no oars, so I just willed it to move in the direction Nebbie indicated. I had become quite accustomed to the dreamlands, so it didn’t really seem all that odd to me. The rules here are as simple or as complex as you make them.
We came to a tiny island with a stone cottage on it. The area around it appeared to be a farm, but it suddenly ended at the borders of the island, with no transitional beach. So I set my boat ashore on a stand of wheat.
The door to the cottage was ajar and no one answered my call, so I let myself in. The place was ransacked and there were bloodstains everywhere.
Outside, I heard a voice. “Tell me, why are we here?” a young woman asked apprehensively. Wait, was that Terry?
“Because this is the best place to read your future, child,” I heard my godmother say.
From my shoulder, Nebula whispered, “Remember, she won’t see things the way you do.” It wasn’t Nebbie’s voice, but my godmother’s, which issued from the cat. And she wasn’t wrong. Everyone sees the realm of dreams at least slightly differently. It reflects your own mind back to you as much as it has a static form. “While you see a ransacked cottage, to her, it may appear completely different. Perhaps slightly so, or maybe entirely different. So too with you and I. She will not recognize you and any attempt to tell her otherwise may result in psychic trauma.”
“Who is this?” Terry asked as she saw me within.
“My acolyte, a trainee in the mystic arts. I sent her ahead to tidy up the place for our arrival.”
“She’s done a wonderful job. It’s almost as it was before everyone died.” She looked melancholy, but almost happy in a way.
“Come, let us take a seat and I shall read your future using the Harrow. My acolyte shall watch, to better learn of divination.” Suddenly there was a table before us. Godmother traced her fingers on the tabletop, forming a grid of glowing blue lines with nine cells within. She then pulled a deck of cards from her sleeve.
Rather than shuffling it, she flung the cards into the air. They then landed in random order in a stack on the table. “Okay, that was pretty cool,” I whispered to Nebula. Godmother winked at me.
We took our seats. “First, you must ask a question,” she told the girl.
She didn’t even hesitate. “Will I be able to bring Typhon Lee to justice for what he did to my family?” I had heard that name before. When she was talking to that weird guy, Vincent, I think.
“Let us see. First, let us discover your role in relation to your question.” She held out the cards in a fan. “Draw one and lay it face up upon the table.” Terry did so.
It read, “The Beating.” The image upon it was of a figure being dragged into the ground by hands bursting from the earth. It was incredibly ominous looking.
“What does it mean?” Terry asked.
“You will find yourself assailed upon all sides. This attack, fierce and unrelenting, will lead to your undoing, either in flesh or in spirit. Already I can see the cracks beginning to appear within you.” Was she really doing that poorly? Had I not noticed?
“There must be a way to stop it.”
“Let us see. Return the card to the deck and I shall shuffle again.” Once more she did so by flinging the cards into the air and letting them fall into place in the order they desired. She then dealt out nine cards facedown, one in each of the glowing cells. “Let us first see the past.”
She flipped one column. On top was a card labeled, “The Inquisitor”, below that was “The Forge”, and on the bottom was, “The Dance”.
“Interesting! A complete match and two partial alignments! Your past is clear to the cards. Let us start with the strongest match, The Forge, in the section of your past which is hardest to fathom.” It showed a blacksmith in what appeared to be Hell, striking at an anvil with a hammer. “This card represents an event in your past, a trial by fire which you needed many diverse sources of strength to overcome lest you be burnt to cinders. Can you think of such an event?”
“Yes. I believe I know the one.”
“Good. You need not speak of it. Only keep it fresh within your mind as we continue. Next, we will speak of the Inquisitor, who represents a positive aspect of your past.” The card portrayed precisely what it described, a figure in religious garb holding a holy text with chains snaking through the air around him. “The inquisitor represents immutable reality, which cannot be swayed nor denied. To attempt to go against such is to court disaster. Do you know of such a reality?”
Terry bowed her head. “I had a code. Rules I followed when working. As long as I followed them, everything worked out wonderfully. I broke the code only once. It was my last job, and I got sloppy. My family paid the price for my mistake.” Holy crap! Not only was Terry’s family dead, but she blamed herself for it? That was huge!
“I see. Let us then look at the negative end of your past, indicated by The Dance.” This card depicted a woman in flowing garments, whirling about with ribbons twirling around her. “This card tells of the rich and delicate framework of the cosmos, the hypnotic pattern that flows through all things. However, this card is aligned improperly, telling that the pattern while, beautiful, is not necessarily to the benefit of all. In this case, specifically you.”
“I wish I had died at the dragon.” Was all Terry responded.
“Let us see, now, what your present holds.”
The second column was flipped, revealing “The Idiot”, “The Empty Throne” and “The Cyclone”. Godmother pondered them for a bit. “Well, what do they mean?” Terry asked impatiently.
“The Empty Throne,” she began, “is indicative of a sense of loss and the lessons learned from those who have gone. But it is in a weak position, so it has little bearing on your present.” She then indicated the card at the top, depicting a man in a bad disguise trying to walk among goblins. “The idiot normally represents foolishness, but it is misaligned, so it says that you currently hide your true gifts by feigning idiocy.”
“There is some of that, yes,” the girl admitted. That little turd. She was holding back something!
Next was the card with the drawing of a flaming tornado. “The Cyclone tells of a disaster that tears through all it touches. But it is no natural force, but one created by intelligent beings. It is often arson, war, or some other plot.”
“That stupid witch is trying to freeze the world,” Terry said.
“Perhaps that is precisely what it speaks of,” Godmother said. “Let us now turn our eyes to the future, and perhaps the truth of your role and the answer to your question.” She flipped the right column, revealing “The Survivor”, “The Locksmith” and “The Rakshasa”.
“What do these tell of my future?”
“Let us start with the positive aspect of your future,” Godmother said, indicating the card depicting a man seated on a chair, surrounded by the souls of fallen comrades. “The Survivor represents something or someone once thought lost forever that may be found once more.”
“Emily,” Terry whispered in awe, almost no louder than a breath.
“You need not speak more of her. Keep her within your thoughts as we read further.” She indicated the card depicting a man picking a lock. “The Locksmith presents you with the key to unlock your destiny. Often, this key is a strange, ancient or magical object, which will give you a way to access a new place, a clue or even a treasure. But be warned. The Locksmith gives you the key, but he does not tell you how to use it. That is up to you to discern. But discern it you must, as this is the strongest card of your future here.”
“That’s horribly vague.”
“The future usually is. Now, to the negative potential of your future and your question.” She pointed at the final card, depicting a crocodile in a suit sitting on the back of a prostrated slave. “The Rakshasa indicates enslavement. While this could be a literal, physical enslavement, it is most often indicative of enslavement to an idea.”
“I am unsure what that means, though I can see many potential options.”
“Keep it in mind during the days to come. There will come a moment when the meaning will be revealed.”
“Was that it? I still don’t know the answer to my question.”
“Do you not?”
“Um…no?”
“You know the past that led you here, the present which engulfs you, the paths your future may take and that a key will present itself that will give you the chance to choose which path your future will take. Which of those you take is up to you, including the path you travel along the way.”
“Okay, well, thanks, I guess.”
She handed Terry a lollipop. “Good girls get candy after their fate checkup. Now run along.” Then Terry disappeared. She turned to me. “No questions. Now you hurry along as well. I’ll meet you at the next island.” She disappeared, fading slowly and leaving only her smile behind for several moments before she was gone.
I stepped outside and the wheat was gone, replaced by snaking, thorny weeds. My boat was also gone, replaced by a silver hexagon about five feet in diameter that floated just above the ground, but lowered itself as I approached.
And no more were we at sea level, but on a plateau perhaps seventy feet above the surrounding flatlands. The whales within the skies were gone, but flocks of eyeballs darted through the clouds. Down on the grass below, a swooping shantak snatched up an aurochs, with the poor creature letting out a screech of terror.
I stepped on the platform. “Which way, Nebbie?”
She pawed at the air. “That way!”
“Hang on!” I shouted with glee. “We’re gonna go fast!” We shot off through the sky at breakneck speed. The wind whipped at my hair and the scenery sped past us.
I had been to the Dreamlands many times, but it was rare that I got to fly, and never before had I been able to go this fast. I had to be near to breaking the sound barrier. It was a wonder my hat hadn’t flown off, but that’s dream logic for you. I’m not actually wearing a hat in the dream. It’s simply a manifestation of my sense of self, or something like that. So something so trifling as wind couldn’t do a thing to it.
I arrived at familiar looking monastery a few minutes later. It seemed it was Gregor’s turn. I intentionally jerked the platform to a sudden stop about ten feet from the door and – to poor Nebula’s annoyance – went tumbling off in a beautiful shoulder roll. My cat simply flew above me, giving me a disapproving look.
Cats can do both simultaneously in the Dreamlands.
Inside the Monastery, the table was set as before, the same glowing grid, though now the lines were green. Gregor and my godmother were seated already. “Just in time,” Godmother called to me. Come, stand beside me and watch. As I did so, I felt the reassuring weight of my cat resting on my shoulder once more. “Now, tell me, warrior, what is your question?”
“Will I become strong enough to face the Man Who Would Not Die?”
She fanned out the cards. “Draw the card that will signify your role in the destiny of this question.” He drew one labeled “The Wanderer”. Fitting, since he was exactly that when we found him. “Not all who wander are lost,” Godmother said. “So too with you. As with the Wanderer, you find hidden value in that which others might discard.”
“That was how Sergei taught us. We develop our own styles by finding the value in each technique and cobbling them together to make something that is our own.”
“Very interesting.” She shuffled the deck and laid out the array. “Let us begin with the past.”
She flipped the left row. Before us were the cards for “The Empty Throne”, “The Fiend” and “The Paladin”.
“The Empty Throne is the strongest connection. You feel the loss of your brothers most keenly. But, so too, you feel their presence in the myriad of things they have taught you. And The Fiend compliments this, for it tells of the calamity in which you lost them.”
“This much is true, yes. Continue, fortune teller.”
“The Paladin, in this place, is troubling. It tells of standing strong in the face of adversity, of doing what is right, no matter the cost. But in this position, the cards tell us that this course was foolhardy. This is why your comrades died. And it is why you nearly died as well.”
“I am still unsure why I was spared.”
“Perhaps, one day, the cards will reveal that to you. Let us move on to the present.” She flipped the middle cards, revealing “The Carnival”, “The Teamster” and “The Forge”. “Ah, the cards have spoken strongly.” She indicated the card in the center, depicting an orc with some smaller creature on its back, whip in hand. “The Teamster tells me that there is an external force driving you forward. It is a force that will push you to continue, even when you feel you have no more strength.”
“What of the others?”
“The Carnival warns that you should be wary of unrealistic ambitions.”
“So it is not to be? I cannot defeat the Man?”
Godmother smiled. “Not necessarily. That was located in the positive position for your present. And it is tempered by The Forge, which suggests that what you must overcome will require many sources of strength. Rely not on your skills alone. Find other sources of strength.”
“I shall continue to train. And I will find more ways to become stronger.”
“Good. Now let us look to the future.” She flipped the final column, revealing “The Avalanche”, “The Snakebite” and “The Rabbit Prince”. “The future is, as futures often are, murky. But there is still some things we can divine here.”
“Please, tell me what you can,” the fighter said.
“The strongest connection is The Avalanche, which tells of a terrible disaster that comes. But, due to its position, the disaster may still be averted, though potentially at great cost.”
“Sergei taught that nothing of value is gained for free.”
“A wise man. Next, let us consider The Snakebite.” She indicated the center card, which depicted an assassin holding a poisoned blade. “This is the uncertainty of your future. This represents the death of ideas and the turning of friends against each other.”
“My companions… are not the easiest to work with. So we must work on this to ensure our way forward?” It was a reasonable concern, even without the cards.
“It is possible. Now let us consider the final card, the potential darkness that lies before you.” She indicated the card depicting a finely dressed rabbit holding a broken sword. “The Rabbit Prince is the personification of battle, but consider the broken sword.”
“What does it mean?”
“Any warrior, no matter how brave or skilled, may fall. If you do not resolve the uncertainty, that is the future that may await you.”
“That is the way of battle. You do what you can to be stronger. I will be strong enough.”
“We shall see.” Then he was gone and she turned to me. “See you up the mountain,” she said before disappearing.
I stepped outside, and saw that the monastery walls looked cracked and damaged, possibly from the attack. As I approached the hexagonal platform, it flew up and attached itself to my back, becoming great silver wings and a jetpack.
I shot into the sky, going even faster than before as I headed towards the nearby mountain. My passing disrupted the dance of flying figures of light and shadow, drawing their ire. Not that it mattered, they couldn’t catch me. So I laughed and clutched Nebula tighter.
I frolicked through numerous species of evergreen trees. Though some of them were other colors, so I’m not sure that “evergreen” is quite the right way to describe them. I dove towards a river and snatched a leaping salmon from the sky for Nebula.
The mountain air was bracing and smelled amazing – it reminded me of going to Colorado to hike with my parents – as I spotted a stone cottage in a village of the same. The only thing setting it apart was the plume of fluffy white smoke coming from the chimney.
I landed before the cottage, much more smoothly than I had at the previous location. Nebula voiced her gratefulness at that and happily took the fish I offered to her. She was devouring it happily as we went inside.
I had to duck my head to avoid hitting it on the doorway of the dwarven cottage. Godmother and Burin were seated already. Once more, the table – this time a large slab of stone – was prepared. There was a cup of some kind of fruit juice waiting for me at the seat I was offered. Both the others had a clay mug as well.
“What is the question whose answer you seek today?” Godmother asked the dwarf.
“Will I be able to contain the demon within? Will I be a good Burin?”
She held out the fan of cards. “First, your role. Choose.” Burin drew a card and revealed it. It depicted a knight in golden armor. “The Paladin!” Godmother said with a whistle. “You do not back down under any circumstances. You stay the course and do what you think is right, no matter the cost.”
She had just described Burin nearly perfectly. If she had added that he was completely moronic in doing so sometimes, it would have been closer. Burin simply nodded. “The cards seem accurate thus far. Please continue.”
She shuffled the deck and laid out the array. “Let’s begin with the past.” She raised an eyebrow. “Let us start with the negative aspect of your past.” She indicated a card depicting a laughing giant. “The Joke tells of a terror that must be overcome by trickery or artifice, not by physical means. But in the negative, the joke is at your expense.”
Burin nodded. “That is the burden of being a Burin. It is a cruel joke fate plays on one person each generation. That our future be sacrificed to contain this demon.” And in all that time, had they not considered finding a way to destroy the demon once and for all?
“The position of The Uprising tells me that you didn’t mind your role so much. And The Desert suggests that you at least did not have to carry the burden alone.”
Burin nodded once more. “The duty of the Burin is the duty of the entire clan. Everyone is there to support you. I didn’t mind having to do it, but I did worry that my presence was a burden on those around me. So I set out on a journey to become strong enough that they need not help me so much with my own burden.”
“I see. That leads us to the present.” She flipped the middle column. She then indicated the top center card. “The Foreign Trader indicates that you have made a bargain of some kind, one that will conclude true, should you fulfill your part.”
“We have become the Black Rider, agreeing to save Baba Yaga in exchange for some later favor.”
“And what do you hope to gain from this favor?”
“I can’t rightly say,” he replied. Dammit, Burin! I was kinda curious about that. “As long as we can save everyone, and the little girl makes it out of this safe, I’m not sure there’s anything the witch can give me that I’d really want.”
“I see. The other two cards talk about the flux of fate. The Juggler tells of those who hold the fates of many in their hands and must be deft lest it all come crashing down, while The Dance tells me by its position that fate’s pattern may be beautiful, but in some way relating to you, is not to the benefit of everyone.”
“Then what of the future?”
She smiled and flipped the final column. “Oh my, an auspicious event!” I looked and saw what she was talking about almost immediately. Burin’s card from earlier, The Paladin, sat directly in the positive position of his future.
“What does that mean?” I couldn’t help but ask.
“It means that Burin, you will find happiness in continuing to do what you know to be right. That continuing down your path will improve your world.”
Burin chortled. “I didn’t need the cards to tell me that. A Burin must be a Burin, or all goes ill,” he said jovially. Knowing him, that was a family saying handed down through the generations.
“But the other cards tell of potential pitfalls in the future. The uncertainty lies within The Courtesan.” The card depicted a masked woman. “The danger to the future lies within the social niceties that must be followed, or perhaps in a woman of power who shapes events. How she is treated will decide your fate.”
“So, Baba Yaga maybe? Perhaps I must be careful not to offend her if we meet her?” Oh please God, please let that lesson stick.
“Perhaps. And there is The Idiot, who represents grave foolishness and greed. It also warns not to be so trusting and good-hearted that you cannot see evil before you.”
“I think I understand. And thank you. You’ve put much of my worry at ease.”
“Of course. Go forth, good dwarf, and stay the path.” I couldn’t believe she had just told Burin to be Burin. I wanted to get mad and yell at her, but she winked and disappeared.
“There is one more place, higher up,” Nebula told me.
The outside of the cottage looked no different. There was no doomed home in Burin’s past. He still had a place to return to, unlike the other two. The silver hexagon had shifted, though, becoming a pair of six sided forms. One hovered about eight feet above the other.
I stepped onto the lower one and instantly they activated. Glowing light enveloped my body and I shot straight into the sky. I was going even faster than before. Much faster. Fractional-light faster.
It took only moments before I was in space. I shot past the moon and continued onward until I reached what appeared to be a space station of some kind, which drew me into some kind of bay.
Several very attractive alien women of various species wearing space suits so tight that I could see everything – EVERYTHING – were waiting for me. “Greetings, Commander,” one of the women told me. “The Lieutenant apologizes for his tardiness. He will be here momentarily to greet you properly and escort you to the Admiral’s quarters.”
A near instant later, the door opened and a bare-chested man in pants made of the same material as the women’s uniforms stood before me. He walked over and saluted by pounding his fist to his chest. He looked human, mostly, aside from his pink skin and the antennae coming from his forehead. He was about a foot taller than me and built like a Viking. His white hair and beard were even done in a Viking style.
I barely managed to keep my jaw off the floor and my drool in my mouth.
“I apologize for my tardiness,” he said, bowing his head.
“I, uh, wha, um,” I said, suppressing an urge to pounce on him.
“It’s quite alright, Lieutenant,” Nebula said. “My mistress forgives you.”
“Thank you. Perhaps I could make it up to her some time? Privately?” His hand stroked my cheek and my brain shut off for a moment. I couldn’t even stammer a response.
“I believe she would like that,” Nebula replied. Thank God I had brought a wing-cat with me. And thank God I had given her that salmon. I needed to get her a whole truck full of them later. “For now, though, I believe that the Admiral is waiting for us.”
“Of course. This way.” Nebula had to bat my face to snap me out of staring at the man’s toned backside, then I followed him down the halls. The floors were made of solid gold and the path was lit with citrine lights, though most of the light came from the star we orbited, filtering in through the enchanted glass.
It only took a couple minutes to reach a door labeled “Admiral.” “I must take my leave here,” the Lieutenant said. “None of us are permitted to see the Admiral, but you are expected.”
As he turned to leave, my brain reasserted itself. “Wait!” I said. He turned and I literally flung myself into his arms. “Will I see you again?” I asked.
“That is up to you, Commander,” he said. “We live but to serve you.” His hand was under my coat, his finger tracing a line down my back. It was a dream and I was in danger of literally melting in his arms. He then pulled back. “But you mustn’t keep the Admiral waiting. Perhaps later” He immediately saluted and turned and took his leave.
I actually whimpered once he was out of sight.
The door opened behind me, so I turned and entered. Inside was a room with walls covered with glowing arcane diagrams and drawings of constellations. The walls themselves appeared to be made of some dark, glass-like material. In the center of the room sat a lone table and a pair of chairs, the only furniture in the room. Seated on the far side of the table was my godmother, holding a deck of cards.
“My turn?” I guessed.
“Yes, dear. I figured there would be no better than this place I created for you.”
“For me?”
“Yes. Everyone here exists to serve you, so you may enjoy yourself whenever you wish. Call it an early birthday present.”
Neat. “Alright, I guess we should get this reading over with.”
“You don’t sound enthusiastic.”
I shrugged. “I’m an Earthling. I’m not so sure how much fate even applies to us, considering that we’ve been invested with absolute free will.”
She laughed. “You do have infinite possibilities, but even so, you are more likely to choose some than others even then. This may not represent an absolute fate, but it will give you hints. Besides, it may not be able to tell you what you’ll do, but it can certainly suggest what others might do.”
“Fair enough. Let’s get it over with so I can go find Lieutenant Tight-Pants before I wake up.”
I took my seat. She shuffled the cards and held them out before me. “Speak your question and draw a card.”
“Okay. Will we be able to defeat Queen Elvanna and save the world?” I took a card and showed it to her.
“The Mountain Man,” she stated. “It signifies survival as paramount against a force outside one’s control. Regardless of what comes, if you survive, not all is lost.” She put the card back in the deck and shuffled it, then laid out the array. “First, the past.”
“Okay, so what do ‘The Idiot’, ‘The Waxworks’ and ‘The Hidden Truth’ mean for my past?” I asked.
“You feigned ignorance – though through no design of your own, your memories were hidden from you – to disguise your gifts. Your power was hidden there, within your untapped potential, but was imprisoned within the chains of ignorance that we bound you with, in order that you could have a normal life. And most strongly, when the secret was revealed, it hurt you dearly, at least for a time. Do not attempt to deny this, for I saw how much it hurt you when people talked about you. And your fear that you weren’t the child of your father hurt you more than you can even admit.”
“It all worked out in the end, though.”
“It did. Now on to the present.” She flipped the middle column. “The Courtesan tells of the social niceties that you attempt to enforce, in an attempt to keep things from taking an unexpected turn. The Sickness is the corruption of the soul. You fear it in your allies, from the girl’s brutal tendencies, to the dwarf’s inner demon, to the monster within the fighter’s dreams.”
She wasn’t wrong. “What if we get a wish from Baba Yaga, but they use it to hurt others. At least, others that don’t deserve it?”
“But more than the corruption, you fear that those around you make your situation impossible, and perhaps it is, as evidenced by The Demon’s Lantern.”
“If we fail, a lot of people are going to die.”
“Perhaps. Let us look at the future.” She flipped the final column. “Your future is indeed uncertain. The cards are weakly connected at best. ‘The Inquisitor’ tells me that reality is immutable and that this is a good thing. ‘The Midwife’ says that there will be good, no matter how bad the situation, if you can but find it.”
“That is hopelessly vague.”
“It gets even more so. The final card, ‘The Twin’, at its face, means that indecision or divided loyalties will lie at the darkest path of your future. But that’s just at its face. The presence of The Twin means that entire reading may have a hidden, or even a reversed meaning.”
What the hell? “So this whole thing was a waste of time? What was the point?!” I took a breath, attempting to calm down. “You can see the many possible futures. Using that, what can you glean? What happens if we fail?”
“If you fail, the world is blanketed in ice. If your father succeeds back on Earth, this situation will last two years before he can put his attention to fixing Golarion. At which point, he will gather an army and defeat Elvanna and return the world to normal.”
“And if he fails?” I didn’t want to consider it, but I had to know.
“The Rangers will likely take nearly fifty years to right the situation. They will slay Elvanna and summer will return, but Irrisen’s new mistress will inherit a land nearly three times the size. In the end, things more or less return to normal.”
“So if we just gave up, nothing would really change? So what’s the point of us doing all of this?!” I was getting angry, my frustration finally reaching a boiling point.
“In the long term, yes. But if you fail, hundreds of thousands will die who did not need to. Is that not a worthy goal?”
Ugh. “Yeah, I guess it is. It’s just, I’m struggling to find the motivation to keep working with these people.”
Godmother got up and gave me a hug. All the frustration I felt began escaping as tears. “Lyriana, may I offer you some advice and counsel, as your godmother?”
“Sure.”
“Why are you doing this?”
“To save people.”
“No, I mean, why did you want to become an adventurer in the first place?”
Oh. That. “Because adventuring sounded like a lot of fun,” I admitted.
“Are you having fun?”
“I’m… No. Not really.”
“And why not? Does the danger not excite you enough? Do the challenges not thrill you?”
“No, it’s not that. It’s just… they seem to want me to lead them. Terry has outright stated it. But despite everything, I’m not my parents. I don’t know how to lead. I don’t know how they do it.”
Godmother kissed me on the forehead. “Then don’t. If you’re not having fun, why bother?”
“But if I don’t lead, who will?”
“Does anyone really have to?”
“Won’t we fail if no one leads?”
Godmother shrugged. “I don’t know. But I do know that if you keep trying, you’re likely looking at this frustration you feel causing the team to fall apart entirely. Better a chaotic mob that’s still working towards a common goal than a semi-disciplined group that’s ready to kill each other, no?”
“So, what? Just do whatever it is I’m going to do and let the others do the same, then hope things work out? Won’t that be incredibly challenging?”
Godmother grinned. “Absolutely. But it’ll keep you on your toes, and it sounds like a lot more fun than what you’ve been doing.”
She wasn’t wrong. “Okay. I’ll give it a shot. We’ve already got a plan for entering the city, but after that, I stop worrying about what everyone else is going to do.”
“That’s my girl.”
“Now point me in the direction of the good Lieutenant.”
“Oh, yeah, about that. Sorry, but we took too long.”
“What do you mean?” I asked. But before she could answer, I was awakened by the sound of Terry screaming about a goat.
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