“Hello, Crisanta,” she said as she patted her hair and tucked away a few out-of-place strands. The ruby spiral of her multipurpose ring glistened in the candlelight.
“Lenore,” I said, swinging my legs over the edge of the cot. “I had a feeling you might be checking in on me.”
“Is that so?” the Godmother replied.
“Yeah, well, the wicked never rest, do they?”
Lenore stepped closer. Her heels clicked against the stone floor and I rose to meet her.
“You would do well to at least try and mask your contempt, Crisanta. Do you really want me to dislike you more than I already do?”
“Is that even possible?” I asked. “Weren’t you just here the other night trying to get my headmistress to give you proof that could condemn me to Alderon?”
Lenore shrugged ever so slightly. “I have an agenda. I am not denying it.”
“What about our deal? I thought as long as I kept your despicable Godmother habits a secret you would leave me and my friends alone.”
“I said no such thing. Our arrangement was that I would not harm you or your friends so long as you keep your mouth shut. But that does not mean I cannot actively try to find another way to get rid of you in the meantime.”
“And here I thought you weren’t going to make our conflict interesting.” I put my hand on my hip defiantly. “You don’t scare me, Lenore.”
“Well you scare me, Crisanta Knight,” Lenore replied coolly. “And you know what I do with the things I fear? I make sure they never see the light of day.”
Lenore was four feet away from me and her breathing was even. She reached for her ruby ring and I snatched my wandpin out of my pocket. Both our accessories transformed into wands simultaneously. I instantly morphed mine into a spear.
Our weapons glowed vaguely in the dim light of the infirmary. Lenore raised her wand. “Calm down, Crisanta. I only want to show you something.”
She waved her wand and a streak of red sparks flooded from the tip and levitated between us. The sparks formed the holographic shape of a woman. She had braided black hair and a proud face.
“We were finally able to root out the source the antagonists have been using to learn which protagonists pose a threat to them.”
“Who is she?” I asked, moving closer to the hologram. The woman seemed about forty. She wore a floor-length silver cape with a hood.
“She was one of the Scribes,” Lenore replied. “One of my three most esteemed and elite Fairy Godmothers—trusted to keep all the Author’s protagonist books and serve the will of the twenty-six ambassadors, and my own, in terms of protagonist selection.”
“Was?”
“Now that she has proven to be a traitor, we no longer have use for her services. She was stripped of her Godmother powers yesterday and thrown into Alderon where she belongs.” Lenore waved her wand and the hologram shattered like glass. The sparks rained to the floor and disintegrated the moment they touched it.
“Why did you show me that?” I asked. “You offering me the job or something?”
“Hardly,” Lenore huffed. “I am offering you a reminder.” Lenore took a couple of steps closer. “This woman’s name was Tania. She and I have been good friends and close colleagues for many years. I was very fond of her.”
“And?”
“And I was there yesterday when she was tossed into Alderon. There were several antagonists and monsters near the border at the time. About sixteen seconds after we threw Tania across the boundary of the In and Out Spell, I watched two ogres rip her apart in front of my eyes and I didn’t even blink. That is because I have no tolerance or mercy for people who undermine me and the society I live to serve. So make no mistake, Crisanta Knight—one misstep and imagine what pleasure I’ll take in seeing you destroyed.”
I transformed my spear back to its wand form and crossed my arms. “I guess it’s a good thing I’m known for treading lightly then, isn’t it?”
Lenore gave me one of her classic, intimidating smiles, showing off her pearly teeth. Then with another wave of her wand, she evaporated into sparks. Her swarm of energy zipped out the nearest window. The backdraft extinguished all the candles in the room and caused my hair and the hem of my robe to whoosh behind me.
I stood at the window and stared out at the night, watching Lenore’s red sparks disappear into the stars.
Dream me was running. Daniel was right behind her. The two were bolting across unfamiliar streets and sidewalks. It was dark, but I knew they were on Earth because of the cars that zoomed by.
He was in a suit and she was in a black dress—not a gown, but more like something you would wear to a nightclub. Dream me was also wearing black combat boots, which was lucky given that she and Daniel were barely able to avoid being hit by cars as they ran. She jumped and slid over the hood of a sleek silver one as it halted beside her.
Flashes of Natalie and Ryan Jackson appeared over this main scene. I saw them dancing in the moonlight. I saw them talking on a picnic blanket. I saw them kissing in a stairwell. But then I heard her scream and it was like all of time stood still.
The sky above Daniel and dream me suddenly started to crackle with thunder. The ground began to shake. Coarse winds howled like a violent warning—lifting fallen leaves and trash into the air.
“Knight!”
I turned to where Daniel’s voice had come from, but he was gone. So were the streets and the people and the wind. All that was left was silence and a plaque that read “1890.”
Then Natalie screamed a second time and I woke up.
Sunlight was streaming in through the infirmary window. I was alone except for the company of Daniel (the real one this time), who was sitting in a chair by my bedside, reading.
He hadn’t noticed me stirring at first, but when I hit my head against the headboard, it got his attention.
“Ow,” I yelped.
“Careful there, Knight. Don’t you already have enough of a reason to be in here? No need to add concussion to the list.”
“Hardy har har.” I grabbed my quill and dream journal off the side table and jotted down more notes from my subconscious.
“How long have you been here?” I asked.
“I don’t know, a few hours.”
“Nothing better to do?”
“Nope.”
“Liar.”
A beat passed between us. I was glad he was here. At the given moment I also envied him, both him and Jason. While five months of detention awaited SJ, Blue, and myself, Lord Channing had not punished Daniel and Jason for going AWOL.
Protagonists from their school left campus all the time because fighting monsters, going on quests, and surviving in the wilderness were considered important extracurricular activities for heroes. In some cases, I think they even got course credit.
The only thing that Jason and Daniel had gotten in trouble for was losing a couple of Pegasi and a carriage. But they had yet to be officially punished for that either. I speculated that they might avoid it entirely given what they had brought back with them in return.
A dragon.
Lady Agnue forbade me from keeping Lucky on our campus. As such, we had to come to a different arrangement. Lucky would live at Lord Channing’s. They had a much bigger campus and were going to utilize Lucky for practicing hero drills.
I was worried about the idea at first, but Jason told me the other day that Lucky was loving it. The boys weren’t allowed to hurt him, so my dragon got plenty of exercise and was keeping himself entertained by taking shots at a bunch of heroes while they practiced dodging his fire.
Sigh.
I really missed that dragon. Hopefully we would see each other again soon.
I tucked my hair behind my ears and turned to face Daniel. “It’s nice of you to check in on me,” I said in all seriousness. “It’s my last day here and I’m feeling much better, so you didn’t have to.”
“Yeah, well, what am I gonna do? We’re friends now, right?”
Now it was my turn to shrug. “Looks like.” A smile creeped at the corners of my lips. “But let’s call it a trial run just to be on the safe side.”
“That sounds fair.”
My eyes drifted to the table where SJ had been doing her homework the other afternoon. She hadn’t come by to see me since our talk about her lack of a protagonist book, and I wondered how she was doing. Then I wondered about the things she’d said about my prologue prophecy in that same conversation.
“Hey, Daniel. You’ve always been brutally blunt with me. Since we’re trial run friends, can I ask you something?”
He looked at me with a raised eyebrow. “I guess.”
“In all honesty, do you think it was stupid of me not to look at my prologue prophecy? I mean, with everything that’s supposedly coming and the role that I supposedly play in it, SJ thinks it was dumb of me not to look. She thinks that I was acting too much on impulse and emotion when I made the decision.”
“I get where she’s coming from, Knight,” Daniel replied. “But I’m on your side in this case; I don’t think it was stupid. I think it was admirable.”
“Really?”
“Yeah. If I had thought that refusing to look at my prologue prophecy was an option when mine first popped up, I would have done the same thing. You’re taking your fate into your own hands and accepting yourself and your future. That’s something to be proud of.”
I opened my right fist and stared at my palm. The mark there was very light, but the brand was still perfectly clear. I’d shown SJ, Blue, and Jason already, but this was the first time I’d had a chance to speak with Daniel alone since we’d returned to school.
“You wanna hear something funny?” I said. “That was my inner strength the whole time—the one the magic watering can needed me to figure out. Self-Acceptance.” I held my hand out for him to see.
“You’re right; that is funny,” Daniel said with a wry grin. “But you want to hear something hilarious? That was my mark too.”
For about the billionth time since our introduction, Daniel’s words caught me off guard. My heart stopped for a second as it processed this precious piece of information.
“Seriously?” I asked.
“‘Fraid so,” he said opening his own palm and stretching his hand in remembrance. “The mark’s been gone a while, but self-acceptance is the inner strength that the witch’s watering can took from me.”
“Hang on,” I interjected. “If you’re so ‘self-accepting’ then why didn’t you show me or any of us your mark in the first place?”
“Because I didn’t care what you guys thought of me. I’ve never really put much weight on the judgment of others. I don’t mean that to be offensive; it’s just the way that I am. I guess it goes along with the whole ‘self-acceptance’ territory. I’m not really all that concerned with how other people see me because I know how I see me—you know?”
“I do, actually,” I admitted. “At least I do now, anyway.”
“The only time I didn’t feel that secure was in the Forbidden Forest,” Daniel continued. “When the witch’s watering can took our sources of inner strength, I tried to put more distance between us because I was afraid of the consequences. I told you that I don’t blame you for any of the stuff that’s in my prologue prophecy, Knight. I’ve always accepted that it’s my problem and that I had to be the one to do something about it, like going with you guys to find the Author. But under the influence of that watering can I blamed you for my problems. So I stayed away from you during our time in Therewolf prison so that I wouldn’t lash out at you. But you still managed to overhear what I told Jason the night of our escape anyway. Remember? About me believing that you ruined my life?”
I remembered. And now I understood.
“You didn’t mean it,” I said.
“No,” he replied. “I didn’t.”
I brought my knees to my chest and hugged them. “You know something, Daniel? Not that you care what I think or anything, but you’re a pretty decent guy. And I don’t know if it goes without saying after everything we’ve been through, but I’ll say it nonetheless. I was wrong about you and I’m sorry.”
“Not surprising,” Daniel commented. “You’re wrong about a lot of things.”
“You certainly seem to think so,” I scoffed.
“It’s more of a general consensus.”
“All right then, Mr. General Consensus,” I countered. “Since you’re so keen on telling me how wrong I am regardless of my feelings, then tell me whether or not I’m wrong now.”
“About what?”
“The other big issue that’s hanging over my future. SJ told you guys about the Mark Two that Liza sent me. Our former Author wants to know what I have decided to do in regards to Natalie. So tell me, Daniel Daniels, in all your infamous directness—do you think I have a chance at controlling my Pure Magic enough to send a warning to Natalie but still keep my heart from turning dark like my disease foretells? Or am I wrong about that too?”
Daniel was quiet. He seemed to think on the question heavily. When he finally responded it came across without a hint of doubt. “You’re not going to turn dark. You don’t have it in you.”
Shame passed through me as memories of recent events haunted my thoughts.
“But I think that I do,” I responded. “Actually, I know that I do. Helping Nadia and the antagonists succeed wouldn’t be one of my Inherent Fates if it wasn’t. Besides that, think about all the things I’ve done. I almost killed Arian in Alderon. I didn’t just go back to my step-grandmother’s house in the Valley of Strife for closure; I went back for revenge. Even you were surprised by that. And do you remember what happened in Hann. Münden? The Pied Piper’s music was only able to fully hypnotize people with pure hearts, like Yunru and those other kids. As you so keenly pointed out, the fact that I wasn’t entranced in the same way means that my heart isn’t pure.”
“So?” he replied with a shrug. “Who cares if you’re not pure of heart? Practically no one in the world is, but that doesn’t make us bad people. I wasn’t fully hypnotized, which means I’m not pure of heart either, and do you think I’m a bad person?”
“No.”
“Then there you go. Purity is not a requirement for goodness. It’s just another factor. And if it’s any consolation, I think it’s probably a good thing you’re not pure. It makes you more relatable. And it makes you more interesting.”
“Um, thanks?”
He nodded. “Plus, all this purity vs. darkness stuff aside, I know that if you set your mind to it and keep your magic in check, you’ll be able to fight against your disease.”
“What makes you so sure?”
“Because you’re stronger than your impulses. Think of it this way: how many times since we first met have you wanted to punch me?”
“Hundreds.”
“And how many times have you actually done it?”
“None,” I responded. Then I remembered our time in the genie lamp when he pushed me to the brink of my patience. “I did kick you once though.”
“Yeah,” he admitted. “But I probably deserved it.”
“Yeah, you did,” I huffed and then smiled. “But hey, if you can promise not to annoy me so much then I can promise to never do it again.”
Daniel looked at me like he was sizing up a sparring partner. That smirk I knew so well crossed his face. “You know what they say, Knight. Don’t make promises you can’t keep.”
arious ends were coming.
It was my last night in the infirmary, fall semester at Lady Agnue’s was finishing up, and more than anything it felt like a big chapter in my life was coming to a close. As acceptance of all three settled in, I couldn’t help but ponder on the bigger quandaries that had defined my path up ’til now.
My mother had always told me I was going to be a great protagonist. However, the rest of the world had spent years trying to convince me of the opposite, or at the very least attempting to sway my belief about what type
of protagonist I could be.
But the question that had been hanging over me since I’d come back from my adventures was what kind of protagonist did I want to be?
Protagonist was a weighty word that meant many different things to many different people. I’d spent so much time trying to make my life mean something on those terms—on everyone else’s terms—and what had it gotten me? A protagonist journey characterized by regret, confusion, and unresolved fears; and more than anything a protagonist journey defined by everyone else.
But no longer.
Now only I would define my protagonist journey.
When the morning came and I was finally discharged from the care of the school nurses, I would have to return to the world and brave all that was to come. But that did not scare me. I accepted myself now—who I was and who I wanted to be. Coming to terms with this had given me strength. And if I let it, I knew it would continue to give me strength going forward.
As a calm settled over me, I listened to the light December rain beat against the In and Out Spell surrounding the school.
Our school’s force field was weird when it came to weather. While sunshine and breezes could get through just fine, the ordinarily invisible In and Out Spell around Lady Agnue’s prevented bad weather from assailing us. Rain, snow, and any other kind of drastic fluctuation in the atmosphere was repelled by the spell’s magic. I guess the Godmothers cast it that way so that our shining school would always look perfect.
As I glanced out the window, I saw the normally invisible force field flash with a bright patchwork of multi-colored lights as it worked at maximum capacity to keep the detrimental weather out. I watched the rain pummel the dome and slide down its sides to the tune of a beautiful rhythm.
Soon enough the weeks would change that rain into snow and a new year would begin. Actually, this was already in motion for me. It was my birthday today. I was now seventeen.
I’d asked my friends not to make a big deal about it, but after dinner they’d snuck into the infirmary with a cupcake and a lit candle, insisting on the tradition. They’d even made me a new dartboard for my room as a present, as the old one that Blue, SJ, and I used to have had been confiscated during our absence.
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