Tiriel led the way, through the alley and across the central street to Davorra’s third street, closest to the cliff behind the town. Arndrir walked with her, while Serah and Caveria trailed behind me. They walked briskly, and didn’t speak. I felt extremely uneasy and, to be honest, confused. This wasn’t the reception I’d expected. They seemed hostile and not at all friendly, and the whole thing with the amulet confused me. And where was Thord?

He was waiting for us, I found, when we exited the second alley and turned onto the larger street. He was standing beside a plain, unmarked door, next to a tavern that looked even grubbier than the one I’d found. He nodded at me, exchanged some words with Tiriel, and then opened the door and led us up a narrow stair to a large, almost empty room.

There was nothing in it, except six wooden chairs in a circle. Tiriel walked over and sat down, and motioned to the rest of us to follow. As I did, I looked around the circle and tried to gauge my companions. They wore carefully neutral expressions, and I felt even more uneasy. This didn't look like a friendly chat. It looked like a judgment.

“Peter,” Tiriel said, in a flat, emotionless voice, not at all like her. “We are sorry for these precautions, and we hope they are unnecessary. As you see, these are not our rooms. Before we go there, we need to know more about what happened when you were taken away. Could you tell us, please?”

“Sure,” I said, and smiled at her. She didn’t smile back. “I have nothing to hide. I came back as soon as I could.” She nodded fractionally, and I continued.

“You saw how they caught me in that net, and took me away.” I went on to describe what had happened - the small man who had somehow put me to sleep, the wagon and the farm, the cage, and of course, Lecander. When I described our meeting, Caveria made a muffled sound. I glanced at her. She’d closed her eyes and looked pained.

I told them the rest - how I’d been released, how I’d found the inn and found the rangers and joined them for the journey back to Davorra. I told them almost all, except that I’d told Lecander I’d help him, and what he had told me about Tiriel’s real plans. I wanted to keep that for later. That, and my realization.

“Thank you,” Tiriel said when I finished. “That sounded truthful.” She glanced at Serah, who nodded.

“Mostly,” she said. “But you left some things out, Peter.”

Damn, I thought. Of course she’d be trying to sense if I was telling the truth. Well, I intended to.

“Yes,” I said. “I will tell you that too, when I understand what’s going on.”

Tiriel cocked her head, then nodded. “We also need to understand what’s going on. Perhaps we should start with the amulet. You understand it wasn’t your protection amulet?”

“Yes,” I said, “either that, or it didn’t work.” For some reason, the subject annoyed me. I had found the amulet myself, I’d bought it in that shop in Ambor. The others had nothing to do with it. Even Caveria had been surprised when she saw it.

“You mentioned they had taken it from you, and that a maid gave it back? Did you suspect it had been changed?”

“No!” I said, my irritation surging. What kind of interrogation was this? “It looked the same. Well, it looked a little different, but the chain was the same. The maid said they’d polished it.”

“Polished it,” Caveria muttered. “As if...” She shook her head.

“Will you stop that!” I snapped at her. She was always treating me like a child, and I was fed up with that. “I had other things on my mind, like how to get back to you! That was stupid too, I see - you don’t seem to want me back!” Caveria didn't reply, she just crossed her arms and glared at me.

Serah spoke instead. “We do want you back,” she said gently, “but we are concerned about what happened to you. Especially - the amulet.”

That was enough, I decided. I got up from my chair. “All right, what’s with the damn amulet?” I glared at them, in turn. “You jump me in a dark street like a band of robbers, and you won’t even tell me what you think is wrong!”

“No, and we should.” she said. “Caveria? You know more about it than I do.”

"Yes, unfortunately," Caveria muttered in return, and gave me a hard look. "I really don't -" She cut herself off and looked down at the floor.

I glowered at her, exasperated. I wanted to yell at her, but forced myself to stay calm.

“This amulet,” she said and patted the leather pouch hanging from her belt, “is a very ugly thing. I think Lecander made it himself, and he probably made it for you. It's not something you want to have lying around, radiating influence.¨”

“What. Does. It. Do.” I said, through gritted teeth.

“It manipulates your will,” she said, and looked me straight in the eye. To my right, I could feel Serah’s gaze on me, and realized she was watching me with her magical sense too.

“What?” I said, unable to hide my shock. “I thought it was a fire amulet.”

“It is,” Caveria said. She looked troubled. “I told you about this, back in Ambor. The magical elements aren't just the normal elements. They correspond to part of us as well. Fire corresponds to the will.”

“Okay,” I said, and controlled my rising anger with an effort. “You still haven’t told me what it does. Why you’re so - concerned about it.” I almost used another, ruder, word.

Caveria sighed, and suddenly looked tired. "I haven't investigated it in detail," she said, "and I won't, not here. But it feels like - Lecander." She made a pained grimace. "It feels like him, like his magic." She looked at me, her eyes now tired and sad. "You said he told you a lot of things. The amulet is intended to keep you thinking about those things, to keep drawing them into your mind, until you can't and won't really think about anything else."

I stared at her. "Is that - is that possible?" I demanded, turning to Serah.

"Yes," she said, watching me carefully. "It's not a common or well-regarded thing to do, but it is possible."

This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

Abruptly, I turned away from them, facing the wall and the window. I didn't know what to think. I still felt angry - angry at Tiriel and the rest, but now also at Lecander. And at myself. I'd thought about this meeting, how we would talk through everything and would get back to - normal. Instead it turned out that I had no idea what was going on, again, and there was no way I could know. Again.

"Peter, talk to us." It was Serah, sounding concerned.

"It's..." I said. "I'm fed up with this. I never know what's going on. I never know what to think." My anger was fading, being replaced with a bleak emptiness.

"That's not true!" Tiriel exclaimed, and I heard a thump. She'd probably jumped off the chair to come up to me. I held up my hand to stop her.

"It is," I said. "You know it is." I turned back to face them. As I'd thought, Tiriel was standing a few steps away from her chair, looking up at me with those huge, green eyes. The others were watching me too.

"You know it is," I repeated. "I came here out of nowhere, and I didn't know where I was or why. I didn't even believe it, at first. I just met you guys the first thing that happened, and went along with you because I had no idea what else to do."

They all kept looking at me. Nobody spoke.

"I didn't know anything about - this place," I said. "About Lumaria. I still don't know much, except for what you've managed to teach me. But I thought it was okay, and that I could just tag along with you. And then Lecander kidnapped me, and told me some things that turned everything upside down."

Caveria groaned softly when I mentioned Lecander, but didn't look angry. She looked - hurt.

"That was the stuff I didn't mention before," I said, turning towards Serah. "Lecander - Lecander said that the Dragonblade isn't real. That it's just a tale, and that the real purpose of it is to keep humanity down, in a fake sense of harmony."

Caveria had hid her face in her hands, but her shoulders were shaking. I frowned at her. Tiriel was still looking up at me, expressionless, but I saw her quick glance at Serah, who nodded.

"I don't believe it," I said. "I didn't believe it when he said it, and " - I took a deep breath - "I don't believe it now. But - I don't know what to believe."

To my surprise, Thord chuckled softly. "I understand what you mean," he said. "In the mines, it is simple. Even if it is complicated, it's simple. There is a right, and a wrong. The shaft will be stable, or it will not. The bridge will hold, or it will not. If it fails, there is a reason." He looked at me with a broad grin. "It is not like that, out here." He held out his arms, indicating - everything.

"I - that may be it," I said, frowning. He might be right. Perhaps I was looking for a certainty that didn't exist. It had been so much easier back home, I thought. But had it, really? Or had it just seemed easier? I looked away from them, and then back. I met Tiriel's eyes. She was still watching me, with those large, luminous green eyes.

"When I met you," I said to her, "you were immediately so sure I was a hero. The hero you were looking for." She nodded, her face solemn but laughter dancing in her eyes. "I thought you were - crazy." The laughter in her eyes grew. "And maybe you are. But..." I took a step back, crossed my arms and looked at them all in turn.

"When Lecander told me this, I didn't know what to think. So I tried to find something that I could trust. Something I knew was true."

They were all watching me intently now.

"The only thing I really know, that I really, really know, is that I came here, from my world. I fell into a lake, and landed on a courtyard in Lumaria. That's not possible. It's just - impossible. But it happened. You don't know that," I told them, realizing the truth of it as I said it. They were in the same situation as I was, in reverse.

"So you need to trust me," I said slowly, trying to think and speak at the same time. "The same way I need to trust you. And I... trust you." I did, I knew. They felt - they felt like family. Including how they annoyed me. Some of them at least. I glanced at Caveria, who had lowered her hands and was looking at me with an expression I couldn’t read.

"You don't know either, do you." I looked at Tiriel again. "You've never seen the Dragonblade. It's a story for you too."

"Yes," Tiriel said, looking intrigued. "Almost. We have many stories about it. It's not just a sword in a tale."

I nodded. "Still, you don't know." This seemed important to me. Maybe it was only important to me, but so be it, then. "Your plan," I said to her, "was to find the sword, and somehow hide it away, so that nobody would use it, and become the most powerful person in Lumaria."

"Yes," she said. "This is a tense time, among the kingdoms. Among the human kingdoms, and elsewhere. We believed that the Dragonblade could only add to it, and spark a war."

"We discussed it among us," Thord said. "As I remember it, nobody was very happy with the plan."

"Good," I said. "Because I don't think it was a good plan, and I think it has failed now anyway."

"Why do you think that?" Tiriel said, looking even more intrigued.

"Because the war is already starting, even if nobody has the Dragonblade. It's enough they think it's out there. Look at what Lecander did, and the Duke of Mezz - something."

She nodded. "That was one of the risks we saw."

"So what's the plan now?"

She sighed and looked suddenly troubled. "It hasn't changed. The war is bad in itself. It would be much, much worse if someone had the Dragonblade."

"You said the dragons created it, with the help of the gods."

She nodded.

"Doesn't that mean they let it be found? Couldn't they have let it stay hidden?"

Now she smiled, a sharp-toothed smile. "Yes. It wasn't found by chance."

"Will the gods be happy if we hide it again?"

From other side of the circle, Caveria laughed softly. "They will be very annoyed. But they are already annoyed with us."

"What does that mean?" To my right, I saw Serah shake her head slightly, but with an amused smile.

"You haven't heard the stories," Caveria said. "There are so many stories of humans, and others, doing all kinds of things in complete opposition to what the gods wanted. Even when they knew what the gods wanted."

"In my world," I said, "there are stories like that too. It doesn't end well."

"It doesn't end well here either," she replied. "But it doesn't end. The gods keep trying, until we learn."

"I don't understand," I said. She shrugged, but she was grinning, not scowling.

"Do you think we should change our plan?" Serah said, still with that amused smile.

"I don't know," I said. "I really don't," I said and looked at Thord. "It's all very complicated." He chuckled and nodded. "All I know is that I was sent here," I continued. "Maybe the sword wasn't found by accident, but I am absolutely sure I didn't come here by accident. I was sent here. By your Moon Goddess, perhaps, or perhaps not. Someone sent me here, for a reason."

"What is the reason?" Tiriel sounded like the laughter in her eyes had kept growing, and she was now struggling to suppress it.

"To -" I stopped and swallowed. It would sound - stupid. Preposterous. So be it. "To stop the war," I said. "I don't know about the Dragonblade, but I know there is nothing else for me to do here. I am here to stop the war."

I had expected laughter, or ridicule, or at least sarcastic silence. I had not expected solemn nodding. Especially not from Caveria, but she too nodded solemnly and stared at me with a strange hunger in her eyes. I looked away, uncomfortable.

"Good," Tiriel said, and I looked back at her. Her eyes were shining, and sparkling with joy, but she managed to keep her voice fairly level. "I told you so, when we met. You are our hero. You are the hero we need."

I stared at her, then dropped my gaze. "No," I groaned. "I'm no... hero."

"Hero is what hero does," Arndrir said. His eyes were dancing with laughter too, but he was stroking his chin slowly. "In the stories," he went on, "most heroes are quite ordinary, until they do something heroic. Usually with no warning, and no planning on their part. Isn't that so?" He looked at Serah, who nodded.

I just shook my head. "You guys..." I muttered, but I couldn't help smiling too. I felt like I was back - home. We still hadn't answered the important questions, though.

"So, what do we do?" I said. "What is the plan now?"

Tiriel looked suddenly thoughtful. "I think we still need to find the Blade. It cannot be allowed to fall into the wrong hands. Although... you may be right that it's too late to hide it." She frowned and looked towards the window. "What's that noise?" she said suddenly.

I turned towards the window. There were voices shouting outside, voices and sounds of men marching.