“Oh, you’re definitely stuck with this now.” Cedric sat himself down in the shadowy swamp. “You made your monster, now you have to live with it.”

“Glad to hear you’re confident enough to joke about it now.” Andie’s ego smiled at Cedric, shot a brief glare at her shadow, then turned back toward Cedric with an annoyed expression on her face. “Can we skip to the cheesy friendship speech now?”

“Bad news on that front. Dyllan got a friendship speech, I got a warm reassurance…” An affectionately vicious glint flickered briefly in Cedric’s eye. “…but you, you get a lecture.”

“Lucky me.” Andie’s shadow rolled her eyes. “I get to be psychoanalyzed by Dollar Store Freud.”

“Ego, I have a question for you.” Cedric pointedly ignored Andie’s shadow. “I think I already know the answer, but humor me. Why are you so worried about being Arrogant?”

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

“Because heroes aren’t supposed to be arrogant?” The ego tilted her head - wearing a confused expression, as though she’d just been asked what color an orange was. “They’re supposed to be humble and selfless, doing the right thing just because it’s the right thing. Not reveling in their power, and selfishly using it for their own amusement.”

“As I feared.” Cedric clicked his tongue, and sighed. “Please tell me that at least one of you realizes how ridiculous that sounds.”

“I know, right?” The shadow grinned. “What’s wrong with doing whatever we want and showing off? We’re awesome!” She let out a haughty cackle. “Finally, one of you numbskulls says something good!”

“Right. No moral compass. Forgot about that little hiccup.” Cedric sighed again. “Come on, Ego. Andie’s not an idiot - though sometimes she acts like one. Surely you can see that demanding some sort of ‘higher purpose’ is a hundred times more arrogant than just… helping people for fun?”