“I’m fine,” Joan said for what felt like the thousandth time.

“Are you sure?” Korgron asked. “Most of us didn’t come out of that screaming.”

“I was NOT screaming,” Andreas said.

“Shrieking, then?” Hardwin said, earning him a glare from Andreas and a light snicker from Myrin.

“Don’t you start,” Andreas said. “I’m sure Lion wasn’t any better.”

“Lion was oddly fine,” Hardwin said with a shudder. “It was Unicorn. They were judgmental.”

“The God of Temperance being judgmental? Who could have possibly seen that coming?” Chase said with a light snicker. “Boar and Swan were pretty awesome. Absolutely breathtaking.”

“Ahem?” Korgron said before motioning towards Joan. “Are you all forgetting something?”

“I’m fine,” Joan said. “It wasn’t like I was in pain or anything. I was annoyed. The fates suck and, once again, have left me with a whole slew of questions. How’d all of you make out?”

“I think we’re ready as we’re going to be,” Thalgren said before giving a soft sigh. “I hate to follow in the lil missy’s footsteps on this, but I think we do need to go. We’ve got some time for the moment, but…”

“We’re running out,” Myrin said. “And fast. Joan? May I do a quick look over of you?”

“Yes,” Joan said. She wanted to argue, but she knew they’d just argue with her and do it anyway. Better to just get it over with. “The fates just gave me some new information that I didn’t expect and don’t really have any effect on this. Or shouldn’t.”

“What?” Korgron asked.

“It’s not important, we need to--”

“Joan,” Korgron said.

Joan let out a frustrated groan. Why couldn’t she have just been well behaved and less reckless when this journey started, maybe they’d actually believe her when she said it wasn’t an issue anymore. “Fine. My parents are alive, maybe,” Joan said. “Now before you say anything, yes I think it’s important! But not as important as what is LITERALLY waiting for us RIGHT now. As in, end of the world things! That can wait until everything else hasn’t ended. Lich, do you have a name yet?”

“At this point just call me confused,” Lich called back towards her.

“No!” Joan yelled, before glancing to Korgron. “So, current plan. You seven go and fight this army of obsidian trolls, then bring me to you afterwards.”

“Joan, you’re not coming with us to-- wait, what?” Korgron asked. “You’re not coming with us? Willingly?”

“I’m trying that ‘not being stupid’ thing,” Joan said. “I could, maybe, take on one of those. If I was lucky. But there’s an army. For this, I would just get in your way at best. Especially like you all are now. If you all work together, though, I know you can handle it. Besides, I need to figure out something the fates told me.”

“About your parents?” Hardwin asked.

“Nope, putting that aside for now,” Joan said. “Not sure if they’re even alive or not, the fates just hinted at it. But it could mean any number of other things because they suck. And I’m not sure what, exactly, I’m supposed to find. They just said that it is apparently in Lich’s book.” She decided to leave out the fact she’d apparently ‘die’. Maybe it just meant emotionally, or metaphysically, or die and then come back. She didn’t know. The fates were annoying and if she wanted to beat all of this then she’d have to be every single bit as annoying. Which, frankly, she could be. “I’ve got until you wipe out an army to figure out what I need from Lich’s book, learn how to use it, then-- Oh. Right. Lich, I need your spellbook!”

“What? Why?” Lich asked. “Am I allowed to hear what all of you are talking about now?”

“No time to explain!” Joan yelled back towards him. “Fate of the world stuff!”

Lich just gave an annoyed grunt.

“I’ll take that as a yes!” Joan called back to him. “Okay, so. Korgron, I need you to drop me, Bauteut and Lich off somewhere we can be quickly picked up again and I have access to some tools. You need to go stop an army and then come get me. Then--”

“Get you?” Korgron asked. “Shouldn’t we just leave you there until it’s done? What if there’s—”

“Key,” Joan said, tapping her hand. “Trust me. Okay? Please. I’m not hiding anything I don’t need to hide. I’m doing my best to get all of us out of this okay. So please. Just trust me.”

Korgron gave a soft sigh before giving a small nod. “Fine. But we’re taking an hour or two before we do this to take care of some things.”

“Some things?” Joan asked.

Korgron glanced back towards the rest of the Chosen. “Agreed?”

“Agreed,” they said, almost in unison.

“Huh?” Joan asked.

------

“Okay, this is awesome,” Joan said with a small squeal. “Overkill, but you know what? I’ll take it.”

“Is there such a thing as ‘overkill’ when it comes to you?” Hardwin asked.

“Sometimes,” Joan said sheepishly.

“Done,” Hardwin said. “How does it feel?”

“Warm,” Joan said before glancing down at her shielding bracer. She wasn’t sure what, exactly, he had done to it, but she was sure it would be powerful. All of the Chosen had decided to take a few extra steps to ensure she’d make it through this alive. Myrin had apparently enchanted her boots to give her ‘great speed’, Searle and Thalgren had worked their magic together to create some kind of glowing, enchanted armor that was made of crystal. Then Andreas had used his magic to make it stop blinding her and taught her a quick spell so she could adjust his enchantment if she needed to blind anyone. He’d also taken her ring and the anti-poison amulet and, with Korgron’s help, ‘combined’ them. She didn’t know why, yet, but apparently Korgron was working on something with Chase for her. “Soooo, I just want to say something.”

“What?” Hardwin asked.

“Thanks, for everything,” Joan said with a small smile. “This life and the last ones. For trusting me, believing in me even when you didn’t want to. Even hiding it from others.”

Hardwin gave a soft sigh. “It’s fine. No kid should make that face you did. Since then, you haven’t.”

“I won’t have to,” Joan said. “Though, I do want to say one more thing.”

“Just one more?” Hardwin asked with a light chuckle.

“I told you the Troll of Reflections was the minimum,” Joan said, before ducking. However, he didn’t even more to tap her on the head for that one. Instead, he just gave an exhausted sigh.

“Just be careful,” Hardwin said.

“You’re the one who’ll be fighting an army,” Joan said. “You need it more than I do.”

“I was made to fight armies,” Hardwin said. “You weren’t.”

Joan flushed and gave a small nod. “It’s going to be okay. We’re going to get through this, all of this. We’re almost done.”

“And after?” Hardwin asked.

“I am taking the longest nap,” Joan said. “Then, I don’t know. Start sending you all off on grand adventures that don’t have to deal with the world ending and instead just a few thousand deaths. Relatively tame, you know. Kind of. I mean, some might be world ending, but we actually did those ones normally. This one is actually world ending, world ending. So, tame.”

Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel.

Hardwin gave a light chuckle and shook his head. “Nothing about you is tame.”

There was a light knock on the door. Before they could answer, it swung open and Korgron stepped in. “Finished,” she said.

“What did you do?” Joan asked, her eyes narrowed on the amulet in her hands.

“I think what you mean is ‘your welcome’,” Korgron said.

Joan’s eyes just stayed narrowed. She recognized the amulet, it was the same one that had been on the elf who had summoned the Ever Devouring. The same amulet the Demon Lord had worn in her past lives. As well as fragments of a coral flute that had been an ancient, priceless ancestral treasure of the naga. “They didn’t give it to you to break!”

“It’s going for a good cause,” Korgron said before sliding it on her neck. “There, how’s that feel?”

Joan blinked a few times and lightly tapped it. “It feels cold. I’m not sure what it-- gah!” A moment later she was across the room, staring at them. At herself. She was still there, standing between Hardwin and Korgron. Except she was also now on the other side of the room. Oh no. It had separated her from her… no. She still had a body. “You can see me, right?” she asked. “I’m not like, a spirit, am I?”

“Hardly,” Korgron said before she reached out and smacked the other ‘Joan’. It collapsed into a pool of water. “Just try not to overuse it, okay? There’s some delays between activations. It’s not a true elemental like the one in your belt, but it should be a little more subtle than that.”

“So would a falling castle,” Joan said in a flat tone. “Not that I’m objecting! It seems really cool. Though I wish you hadn’t destroyed the flute for it. The naga are going to be furious if they find out.”

“They can take it up with me if they have a problem with it,” Korgron said. “Besides, the core is still there, that’s what made it valuable. Now, if you try to filter illusions through it you can probably do some other ones, though they aren’t very solid and won’t stay together long.”

“Cool,” Joan said, reaching up to run a finger along it. She had more enchantments and magic on her than… Actually, if she was anyone other than her it might have been pretty humbling. She had so many pieces of magical equipment that most would have given all of their possessions to have, even before knowing they came from the Chosen. She really was lucky. She felt her eyes starting to well up and she took a slow, deep breath. “You… should go now. I think we’re good. Right?”

“Joan,” Korgron said softly. “We’re--”

“I know,” Joan said softly. “I know. But you’ve got a job to do. All of you do. So do I. We’ve already spent a lot of time doing them. We can talk after, okay?”

“Joan…” Hardwin said softly.

Joan didn’t listen, though. She turned and walked away from them. She had work to do. They all did.

She just didn’t want them to see her crying again. She did that far, far too often as it was. They just had a little bit longer to go. A little more work. A little bit more. If she just pushed through this last, final hurdle, they’d be done. The world would be okay. Everything, everybody, would be okay.

Just a little harder. She just had to work a tiny bit harder. Then she could rest. Then she could process everything.

For now, she had an old spellbook to study and find out exactly what in it was so important that she’d need it to defeat the Hungry One once and for all. It could take days, so the sooner she started, the better.

------

“Huh,” Joan said, staring at the page. “I didn’t know you could do that.”

“What? Am I allowed to look at my own spell book now?” Lich asked, his voice filled with sarcasm. She had to give him credit, for being literally just bones, he managed sarcasm quite well.

Joan rolled her eyes. She felt for him, she really did. Having been locked away for so long, given up who knew what, finding out that the whole reason he’d done it to begin with didn’t really matter in the end. Not to mention the fact he was kind of isolated to one small room, as every time he left the room everyone tended to scream and run away. He was just a skeleton, she didn’t see what the big deal was. Granted, maybe she’d just run into far too many liches over the years and it was nice to have one not trying to kill her or others. But there was limited time to get all of this done and she still didn’t know if she’d survive and so she hoped she could be forgiven for not spending a bunch of time trying placate him. “This spell, how hard is it to do?”

Lich glanced at the book before sighing. “I don’t know. It was only ever theoretical.”

“Theoretical?” Joan asked. “How?”

“The Realm of the Gods is closer to the Realm of Dreams than it is to our realm. Tapping into it from there was a lot easier,” Lich said.

“But something like this?” Joan asked. “It’s almost like using it as a weapon. Is it safe?”

“Not in the slightest,” Lich said. “It was just one of the methods I’d tried to escape with.”

“Did you ever make it?” Joan asked.

“To the Realm of Dreams? Once or twice,” Lich said. “But I wasn’t able to stay for long. Not to mention it’s weird there. It’s leaving any way but the way you came in that’s the issue.”

“Do you think it would work here?” Joan asked.

“Probably,” Lich said. “It might kill you, though.”

“Could I bring someone with me?” Joan asked.

The lich glared at her. She didn’t think you could glare without skin or eyes, but apparently it was doable. “In theory.”

“Well, then it’s time to put this theory to the test,” Joan said.

“I’m not going there,” Lich said.

“Of course you’re not,” Joan said. “I am. Well, me and the Demon Lord.”

“What are you?” Lich asked.

“I told you, I--”

“No, you haven’t,” Lich said. “All I get is more confusing answers. None of it explains anything. How did you enter the Realm of the Gods? You’re obviously not a child. The Chosen listen to you, no, they seem to almost obey you.” Joan couldn’t help but snort at that. “What?”

“They only listen to me when they have to,” Joan said. “I get it. The thing is, well, there’s a lot of explaining to do and not a lot of time to do it.”

“Make the time,” Lich said, his voice cold.

Joan gave a soft sigh before reaching up to pinch the bridge of her nose. She was getting a headache. But at least it wasn’t one of those magically induced headaches. “No.”

“Then—”

“Do you know why I got you out of there?” Joan asked.

“What?” Lich asked.

“Do you know why I got you out of the Realm of the Gods?” Joan asked. “Why I prioritized escaping with you, even though I hated it, even though I had to go through all of… that? Even though I didn’t really know if it would directly help us in the long run?”

“What does that--”

“Because there is a decent chance I won’t make it out of this,” Joan said. “The Chosen will, but I might not. Once this is over, if I die? What I am is going to not matter anymore. Sure, I was hoping you’d have some information we could use. But honestly? The most important reason? You’d been trapped there for who knew how long. You didn’t deserve that. I knew if I didn’t rescue you now, I might never be able to. So I made it a priority and pushed other things back a bit. I get it. You want answers. So do I. But there’s not a lot of time for them. I don’t know how long I have until the Chosen get back. When they get back, we might have to go immediately. This spell? Might be able to help ensure I come back alive. It might be what I need to fix everything. So please, I need you to help me with it. If for no other reason than you owe me. I know you’re confused, we’re all confused. But I need you to trust me like everyone else. There’s a lot on the line and not much time to do it.”

Lich continued to glare at her. A strange feeling receiving that from a skeleton. “And after? If you do survive?”

“I’ll tell you whatever you want,” Joan said with an exhausted sigh. “Hell, I’ll tell everyone. If we manage to all pull this off it won’t matter if everyone knows what I am. It’ll be too late to damn the world again.”

“Again?” Lich asked.

“It’s a thing,” Joan said with a sigh.

“Are you from the future? The past? Is that why you were able to enter the Realm of the Gods?” Lich asked.

“Ehhhhh, something like that,” Joan said with a shrug. “Listen, focus. Spell. Can you help me with this or not?”

Lich gave a sigh before reaching out to take his tome back. He stared at it for a few moments before turning towards her. “If I aid you in this, my debt is repaid?”

“So long as you don’t try to destroy the world or anything, sure,” Joan said.

“Why would I try to do that?” Lich asked.

“I don’t know,” Joan said before shaking her head. “Yes, we’ll be even. Then I should actually have time to explain things to you and get you all acclimated.”

“And if you die?” Lich asked.

“Well, then one of the Chosen will,” Joan said with a shrug. “I’m not planning to die, though. I’m planning to get through this. I know of at least two, maybe three, people who will bring me back if I don’t just so they can tan my hide.”

Lich just stared at her with a hollow, blank stare.

“Okay, you know what? That’s a little creepy,” Joan said.

Lich gave another sigh before shaking his head. “Leave. I’ll let you know once I am certain this will work.”

“Don’t you want my help to—”

“Go,” Lich said, his voice cold and almost vicious.

Joan gulped and got to her feet, quickly retreating from the room. Well, at least that was easy eno--

Joan barely had time to stop herself when she turned the corner, nearly slamming into Bauteut.

Her healer merely let out a low squeak, before giving a sigh of relief. “Uhhhh… so you were in there? With Lich?” Bauteut asked softly.

“Yeah, did you need him for something?” Joan asked.

“What? No. No. Definitely not. No,” Bauteut said, giving a light shudder. “Actually, I was looking for you. We need to talk.”

Joan blinked a few times before sighing. Yeah, that filled her with dread. But she supposed she needed to talk with Bauteut as well, so it wasn’t as if she could just run and hide. Though a part of her wanted to. “Yeah. I ummm… need to talk with you too.”

“You do? Oh… good,” Bauteut said before she started walking away.

Joan couldn’t be sure, but she swore Bauteut was walking just a little faster than normal. At least she wasn’t the only one nervous.