My conversation with Luna continued for a little longer, the focus of it shifting from her worries to a more practical thing, namely the question I had been pondering before. What did she want to do and how sad would she be if we left this area behind?

Maybe I shouldn’t have been surprised to learn that she didn’t really mind leaving. If anything, she welcomed it, as she felt like an outsider amongst the kids at the farm. And, to be fair, she was an outsider, not only did she live somewhere else, namely with me, she was also set apart from them by her power and the power she gained from her position as my daughter. The people at the farm spoke of the Pale Lady, making me wonder if I had gained the title because a certain number of sapient beings named me such, and they spoke the name with fear. They knew I was beyond them, and through me, Luna was, too. While I doubted they knew just how powerful I was, I had a feeling that it didn’t really matter, the stories would only be accurate by accident. The old joke about a broken clock being right twice a day applied here, too.

Sadly, the only way to get rid of gossip was to wipe out everyone who could gossip and even then, there likely would be some strange spirit remaining, quietly whispering tall tales to anyone willing to listen. No, rumours, lies and gossip could never be destroyed, they’d never fully die, they would evolve. And eventually, they would return.

Either way, thanks to the tales about my exploits and her own powers, Luna was treated with a mix of awe and fear, making it almost impossible for her to make friends. That she wasn’t able to actively use her powers to help, she was still struggling with the more precise uses of magic, like healing, made matters a little worse, making her appear indifferent to their struggles. We had considered having her walk the fields, radiating Life-Magic, but decided against it. Sure, it would help the crops grow but it would do the same for weeds, insects, fungi and everything else in the field, lessening the assistance. Life-Magic, as a domain, was simply too wide a field to apply narrowly, just like I was struggling with my Death-Magic. Both were sledgehammers, and we had to try to sculpt with them. It wasn’t impossible, per se, but it required a huge amount of practice and experience, neither of which we had. Eventually, yes, but for now, the two of us could only wield those powers in a fairly crude manner.

Our conversation was interrupted by barking noises from outside, indicating that somebody was approaching. Judging by the noise level, I was quite confident it was one of my students, but what they were doing here this early in the day, I wasn’t sure.

Luna and I went to the door, opening it to see a surprisingly haggard-looking Kevin enter. He, just like Luna, had grown a great deal in these last few months, turning from an awkward teenager into a somewhat lanky young adult.

“Hiya, Kev,” Luna greeted him with a chirp, making him grin at her for a moment before he focused on me.

“Greetings, Luna, Greetings Teacher Morgana,” he greeted the two of us with a grin, only for a sombre mood to overtake him moments later.

“I’ve got some troublesome news for you, hopefully you’ll have an idea what to do about it, Teacher,” she continued, as I waved him inside.

“What is it that has you this worried?” I asked, my voice carrying both excitement and apprehension. If it was trouble, it might be a worthy challenge.

“There’s always been a few people who called you a monster, teacher,” he began, the earlier amusement long gone, “But these last few days, the number of people doing so has gone up dramatically. I worry that they’ll soon go from talking about doing something to actually doing something, and if that happens, things will be bad,” he frowned, shaking his head as if to get rid of images in his head.

“I’ve got no doubt that you’d be able to either kill everyone at the farm or at the very least deal tremendous damage to people and, more importantly, to the fields and our supplies. You might not be able to win, I don’t really know how powerful you are, teacher, but I’ve got no doubt that you can make anyone acting against you pay dearly,” he explained, getting a nod from me in return. I was more confident in my ability to devastate anyone attacking me, but I could see that Kevin lacked the information needed for an educated judgment.

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Sadly. I could understand his predicament. He’d have to pick a side, only that there was only one side for him to pick. He had to know that joining me was impossible, I hadn’t allowed anyone to join, with the exception of my daughters. And they hadn’t really joined, they had been adopted, something he couldn’t rely on, something I couldn’t even really offer him. Lia and Luna were special cases, cases I wasn’t willing to casually repeat.

“And what is it that you seek of me?” I asked, curious if he had a solution. I had one, it was what I had been considering the entire time, but that might just be a fruitful coincidence.

“I don’t know,” he admitted, the words almost coming out as a sob, “I just know that Mrs Wu has been doing her best to keep people moving, to keep them moving forward and constantly set new and important goals, but that’ll only work for so long. At some point, there’s going to be trouble and with the way things have been going these last few days, that day is going to come soon,” he finished, before repeating his earlier sob, “I just don’t know.”

“I see your problem,” I admitted, “What else has Mrs Wu done? I doubt the old lady would simply accept that there’s going to be trouble, she’d make some plan to keep her people safe. I just don’t know if she considers me to be one of those,” I admitted, thinking about my teacher. There was no doubt in my mind that Mrs Wu had some plan, but I realised that she wouldn’t share, certainly not with somebody who had divided loyalties like Kevin. At least not unless sharing her plan gave her some advantage, and made her plans more likely to succeed.

“She hasn’t said anything,” his words almost confirmed my thoughts, the old lady had something in mind and, unless I missed my next guess, it wouldn’t be beneficial to me. The old lady liked me, but she undoubtedly felt a responsibility for those living under her leadership, meaning the people at the farm.

Letting out a soft, almost inaudible curse, I realised things on my end had to be accelerated. I didn’t want to find out first-hand what devilry Mrs Wu would come up with to make sure I wasn’t a threat to her people.

“Can you tell me what happened these last few days to make people mad at me?” I came at the problem from another direction. Having been away for a week, there had to be some other trigger for sudden animosity. Either somebody had decided to use me as a scapegoat, to give the people an enemy to rally against, or there was something else. But sudden, random, surges in animosity were rarely that, there was always a trigger.

“There wasn’t anything I saw, I just heard some new rumours,” he admitted, looking a little uncomfortable, “You know how some of your runes are inherently different than those the rest of us use?” he asked, continuing when I nodded, “One of the groups found a basement, filled with broken bodies and those runes, at least that’s what I’ve heard. That somebody using those runes murdered a bunch of people and left their bodies to rot.”

“Well, I can promise you that I’ve not consciously killed any human on Earth;” I replied, “Unless we are counting former humans, like WIthered, Scorched or Shattered. In addition, I can’t positively exclude that one of my large-scale attacks hasn’t accidentally hit somebody hiding out somewhere, but that’s neither here nor there,” I replied, not addressing the fact that a basement filled with bodies and runes was most likely my small laboratory, where I had been experimenting with Mind and Blood Magic.

“That said, I doubt that any promise from me would convince anybody but those already inclined to believe me. A few of my traits are also liable to disrupt any effort from me to keep things civil, leaving me with few options,” I admitted, thinking of the traits I had chosen all those months ago. Lone Traveller, The Road is my Teacher, Unbound, Child of the Wild and, maybe the most impactful of them all, Outsider.

I wasn’t meant to be sedentary and trying to be connected to a community might just be impossible. It was time for me to accept that and, literally, move on.

“Thank you for warning us,” I told Kevin, standing to shake his hand, “I might visit the farm one last time, to get some supplies and say my farewell. If we don’t meet then, Farewell, and keep moving on the Arcane Path. It’s endless and if you persist, we will meet again. Someday, somewhere,” I told Kevin, wishing him the best on his own path.

We all had our own paths to walk.