The tea’s effect had a tendency to last hours, and was one of the few reasons it was worth the high price that many of the more well off people of the world bought it. You could use it before an important meeting and dull any senses of insecurity or stress, before public speeches in order to appear calmer than you actually are, or just as a remedy for certain mental disorders that cause irrational outbursts of emotions such as bipolar disorder and the like.

After he had bid farewell to Dinah, promising to call more often on his way out, he had gotten into his car and drove it home

The effects were strong enough that the trip home had been practically emotionless, listening to the radio the entire way back.

The conversation had helped more than he thought it would, having never truly believed in therapy or even opening up about his emotions before, he’d never really discussed his fears. Even his best ‘friends’ would be hard pressed to tell you if Mark had ever truly expressed his grief over his mothers condition.

Maybe I should talk to someone more often, it’s not like I have much else to do now.

The knee had barely flared up, or at the very least he had hardly noticed it as he had arrived home and sat himself down in front of his television.

Setting his cane off to the side he picked up the small remote that controlled the television and speakers, before browsing whatever shows his bare bones package even had.

When was the last time I even watched a movie? Or a Television show?

The thought was more surprising than the calmness he had been feeling for so long, since he genuinely couldn’t remember. His schedule, if you could even call it that, had been practically scattered since he had started fighting. He would wake up late in the evening or at night, and then go out and find fights or jobs that he was eligible for that night, sometimes even preplanning matches weeks ahead and doing several in the same night. He would get home a few hours after the day had begun and the fights were over before he began his exercise routine in an attempt to keep his body as close to the peak as possible for the next fight.

Years of all this work, with the cash saved up I don’t have to really worry about anything that doesn’t involve a bank again.

As he looked around his small apartment and the things inside, he realized he was almost disgusted in himself more than anything else.

I spent so long juggling all this bullshit that I never stopped to try and live for myself.

After my father’s death I devoted everything to being the person he’d want, and the second my mother fell ill I threw it all away. I never even considered joining the military with how low their pay is, barely even a quarter of what I would need throughout the entire contract.

Is that all I want to be? A dog chasing after the next bundle of cash?

Soul damaged, and practically worthless to anyone who would want an enhanced human. The military will disqualify me for practically anything I’d want due to my knee, if they’d take me at all. Manual labor is practically impossible since I can’t even bend the knee properly, and even when I do the pain is impossible to work with.

An office job then? A driver maybe? There are always companies looking for someone willing to take the risk of driving transport trucks in between the cities nowadays, it would at least be a job I could tell people about.

Would ma want me to keep acting like an idiot, or to grow up?

Looking up from the television he’d practically forgotten about while lost in thought, he looked towards the clock.

I’m going to do better, to be better. This isn’t negotiable anymore. I have put everything on the line for years, and it’s failed.

The best thing I can do now is move on.

I’m gonna do ma, and pa, proud. I’m gonna be better, no matter what. Regardless of my circumstances.

Mark wouldn’t understand now how much that promise meant to him, but he would in time.

Standing up before moving towards his small kitchen, he opened the fridge, before moving towards the cupboards and grimacing slightly. They were practically empty save for frozen vegetables, canned meat and boxes of insta-fry rice he’d forced himself into consuming almost daily for years now. While gathering the ingredients for dinner he made a mental note to order some different types of food for the future.

Breakfast and dinner had always been something he didn’t focus on, the largest issue was always making sure it contained all the different vitamins and other things that he required to stop health issues from cropping up. Boiling rice, frying the vegetables and what was hopefully beef or chicken, then mixing the two in a small pan. Adding different sauces he was sure were only a few days from expiry for taste, and voila he had made dinner.

After shoveling all the food into a bowl and cleaning up his already rather gross kitchen as best as possible he took his food over to the television and sat down. As he began eating his food the television had started up on an episode of some crime drama, between serial killers and feds trying to track them down.

The show was rather crap, by most people's standards. But with the tea leaves only barely wearing off by this point and hot food in front of him Mark found himself enjoying the show more than he probably would on any other day.

Near the end of the episode, long after he had finished his food his phone started ringing in his pocket.

Picking it out the caller ID had placed the call from Rebecca Ire, Surprised that she even bothered to call him for a change he answered before laying down onto his back while waiting for the next show to start.

“Mark? I got a call from Dinah saying you visited her, I uh, wanted to talk to you about something and figured… y’know that now would be the best time.” She sounds guilty, or just sad. Mark wasn’t an idiot, he’d dated before and had his fair share of break ups by now. The script wasn’t even really unique for most of them. “It’s not you, it’s me” “I think we should see other people, sorry.” “You’re never around - what do you mean that’s not your fault?”. He had never lied to any of them, his first few partners had been when he had been hoping to get into professional boxing, after the real story about his father’s death it practically became his main drive. He had almost entirely discarded joining the military after he and his mother found out what really happened.

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

The worst one was probably after his mother had fallen ill, she had blamed him because she was being harassed by the media as well, like he didn’t have people spitting on him. She had blamed him and called him so many things he’d almost believed many of them. A few months after her, he’d met Rebecca at a pit game.

Slightly drunk, and probably not thinking straight they’d both ended up at her place before he’d woken up the following morning with a slight hangover. They had started talking to each other over breakfast and had hit it off from there.

While he knew he hadn’t been the greatest boyfriend, he knew he’d never lied to her. Fighting had been his life ever since he started, and it had been at odd hours most of the time. He had done his best for her, with the issues he had. He took her out on dates to better places than he’d ever eat alone, bought her birthday gifts and they spent time together several times a week.

However, maybe the fact that it wasn’t more than that was the problem? Had he put her in the backseat of his life recently? He thought how the days after his accident had been, after she had learned he had possibly crippled his knee.

She had almost turned off from him then, and looking back on it made the situation rather obvious that she wasn’t interested in him as much as he might’ve thought. The injury was just an excuse. When he texted her, she barely replied with short sentences, and phone calls between them had been shorter and far between compared to the past.

They had drifted apart, without him realizing it. And for some reason, even without the tea, that realization simply didn’t hurt. They were friends, he knew that, but he didn’t love her.

“But love, even when we think it unbreakable, it’s something that can come and go from our lives, and we move on and find new people we cherish even more.”

Dinah’s words came back to me, and while I had a feeling from the way she acted that she knew something about Rebecca somehow, he still believed the advice she had given him.

He didn’t love Rebecca.

While she had probably been saving up some kind of speech, Mark realized he just didn’t care.

Rebecca was never someone he was going to spend his life with, he didn’t know if she believed differently, but her actions lately had practically made it impossible for him to believe she did. It just seemed easier for two people who lived like they did to stay together more than anything else.

He looked towards the phone, and where her name was.

I don’t think I ever loved her.

“Mark, I’d honestly just like to get this over with. Can we just-” Her voice cut out for a moment before returning. And he knew what she was going to say before she said it, if he had been angrier he might have even said it before she did. “Can we just be friends? It’s just not working out between us.”

Over a phone call, I can’t tell if that is funny or what. At least it’s not a text I guess.

He hesitated to even reply, half tempted to just hang up and forget about it.

Be better.

“Yeah, we can stay friends Rebecca, just call me if you need anything. I get it really, we’ve been drifting for a bit and I think it’s best if we saw other people.” His voice had remained steady, he had no issues saying the words, but he had a feeling over the seconds of silence that Rebecca hadn’t been expecting them.

When he was about to hang up thinking the call was over she began talking again.

“Thanks, Mark that uh, well it helps that you agree.”

“Goodbye, Becca. Stay safe.” Ending the call after his final goodbyes he placed the phone on the table next to him.

Looking up at the ceiling Mark smiled a real smile in what felt like years.

Be better.

And with those words echoing into his mind he closed his eyes and drifted off into a sleep that would have repercussions for himself, those around him, and the world forever.

----------------------------------

He’s Ready

Virasuta had been watching her newest select for a year, judging the plans she could use to make him join her. She had deliberated force, mind magic wasn’t a magic she specialized in, but against a savage it would take her no more effort than breathing to cause him to fall in line. However she also knew the drawbacks, using mind magic to dominate someone had a time limit, and more than that forcing the magic through that limit would cause irreparable harm to the mind and soul of the victim. This was of course unacceptable.

I will not have a mindless slave to spread my words, it’s unbecoming. The fact that Preachers must keep their free mind or else their preaching's have no power doesn’t help either.

It was an irritable flaw of the Faith process, prayers forced out by violence garnered practically no power. You can’t truly Force someone to believe in you, sure you could threaten them into doing your bidding, but they would do so out of Fear not Faith. A true believer was worth a thousand slaves, while a true champion was worth a million of both.

She had devised countless plans on how to draw him in, his mothers life being the easiest. To simply appear before him and demand he follow her in return for his mother being cured would easily bring him into her service, but she knew it would be out of love for his mother, not Her.

Many other plans were simple in the planning phase, but difficult in the action phase.

Mind delving was dangerous for both parties, regardless of strength. A being of strong will could resist someone many times their strength easily within their own minds, however even that had limits. Getting into his mind would be easy, truly convincing him to bend the knee would be another.

His injury, something impossible to cure in his world, would be a valuable bargaining chip. If she appeared and demanded subservience he would simply resist, if she showed kindness by healing him without asking for rewards, he’d believe her more readily. She could easily convince him after he spent time in the waking world that she was true, after all he’d have no choice if his ‘incurable injury’ was suddenly gone.

And she would have to follow through with whatever she promised, always.

Betrayals never ended well amongst immortals, even if the other party wasn’t one.

"You can more easily lead cattle to slaughter with food, than the whip daughter."

Those were the words her father had said to her when she protested a plan of his to end a multitude of enemies he’d created over the years, most of them without any real backing of course.

It had been one of her father’s more cruel acts during his long life to trick several immortals and their families into surrendering to him in the hopes of amnesty for their actions, crimes she had already forgotten over the long years since the incident, and it ended horrifically for everyone involved.

While her father had succeeded in getting rid of dozens of enemies who had fruitlessly done their best to subvert him, the act of betraying them during an act of Mercy had done more harm to his reputation than it was worth. While he no longer had to deal with missing tradesmen or daggers in the dark, he now had thousands of immortals across the universe practically bar their doors to any of his envoys. Any trade requests he had made to other realms were ignored, if not outright mocked with accusing words of malice or knives in the dark.

She learned then that betraying the people under her care could end far worse than the benefits she would get from it, even if the issues came from outside her realm than inside.

And creating enemies amongst the mortals might seem harmless at first, but everyone in the realms knew some form of Avan’s story, of his revenge against the Heavenly Pantheon, and the fallout even amongst the other realms afterwards. It was fine to create enemies, but to leave them alive afterwards was courting destruction.

He’d need proof, reassurances, and a reason to serve Her faithfully, and she would have to force herself into following through with each of them.

I Will not suffer the same fate as my father, not over a single world. And definitely not when I am so close to simply taking it freely.

Gazing down upon the man she had followed so closely over the last year the final iteration of her plan was finally coming together. She would appear to him, and if through their interaction she truly found him worthy she would convince him to be Her Champion, and if he failed the test she would make him forget she ever existed.

Don’t make me find another, I am almost done being merciful as it stands.

Casting the magic required for the spell took moments, but many across the universe would easily recognize the movement of such a being regardless of how small it was.

Such as a small creature covered in bright golden fur in a forest of golden trees, surrounded by broken statues of herself.

Feeling the world around her shake with the unmistakable feeling of her sisters Will would of been a surprise, if she hadn't been waiting for years by this point for it to happen.

“It took you long enough to choose, Sister.”