When I woke up, I felt amazing. Like I just slept for a perfect amount of time, and woke up when I was ready. No grogginess, no tiredness, just perfection. I didn't even have a stiff neck from sleeping in a chair, it was great. I was the only one who was awake, so I just sat there quietly and waited for the other two to wake up.
I was a little worried about what was going on overall, but at that moment I felt comfortable. I was safe, with friends, and I was sure we would get through everything alright. Marcus was in a bit of a bad state, but he was Marcus the Magnificent. I wasn't worried at all, even if this wasn't a game, and he might have fried his brain. We had magic. Magic fixes everything.
So I wasn't worried about Marcus, but what did bother me was getting home. We couldn't logout. We didn't have Marcus in the game world to summon us back. We were pretty much stuck here, unless we found some way to leave. All we needed was some way to use magic to get us back. The problem for me was, my magic had nothing to do with traveling to other worlds, so I had to rely on someone else.
I wasn't too sure about what Lily could do, but I was pretty sure Marcus didn't do interdimesional travel. If it was even interdimensional. For all I knew we were on some planet in the same universe as Earth, or we were in a completely different universe, or we were in the 5th dimension. I had no idea, and I had no idea how to figure out where we were.
The more I sat there, the more hopeless my thoughts became. I had a hard time seeing a way out. A way home. I started to cry, just a little. It was the whole single tear thing, plus a couple extra tears, but I didn't make any noise. So when Lily, put a hand on my shoulder, I was completely surprised.
"Bwyd, he'll be fine."
"I know, I was just thinking about what we're going to do now." I wiped my tears away.
"That's easy. We wait for him to wake up, then tease him, with no mercy." She had a mischievous smile.
I laughed, quietly, "No, I mean about getting home."
"Oh." The smile disappeared. "What if we can't?"
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"That's why I was crying. Unless you can create a portal that takes us home, I don't think the rest of us can."
"Oh, I summon things, in a way. I think it only goes one way, and only from one place. They also die."
"What!" I realized I was a little loud, and quickly glanced at Marcus, but he kept sleeping.
"I just found that out. Those pretty lights I summon, are actually fey creatures. They said they have no personality until they come here, but once they do come here they only have a limited amount of time to live."
"Are they ok with that?" I wasn't really sure how to feel about Lily mass murdering a bunch of tiny fey.
"Yes. The way they described it was, they were nothing until I summon them, and then they get to be someone, even if it is only for a few hours. It is the best time of their life, and they would never be able to experience it if I refused to summon them. I guess it is almost like they would never be born if I did not summon them, and they know their life is going to be short, so they make the most of their lives. Living to the fullest, while doing what I ask, becuase they owe everything to me." She stopped to wipe her eyes. "I don't want to be the reason they die, but they're so happy when they are here. I give them life, and they love every moment of it, and they love me for giving it to them. Even if they know that I also cause their death."
"Um, that sounds complicated. I guess they sound happy, and it's not like you're killing them. You give them life, and they just naturally die."
"But I feel bad giving them life just for them to die. They should love someone better than me."
"Whoa, Lily? You are an amazing person. It's not your fault they die. They're kind of like, children. You don't blame your mother for giving birth to you just so you can die eventually. Right?"
She seemed a little shocked by what I said, "Why would I blame my mother? That's completely different."
"Well, I guess it wouldn't be just your mother. It's both parents. Together they gave you life, and the end result of life is death. So unless you blame your parents for your eventual death, you cannot blame yourself for the death of the pretty light fey people. You are not killing them, death is a natural part of life. Everything just has a different lifespan. Cats and dogs don't live as long as humans, but do we stop them from being born, just becuase we will see them die? No, we cherish the time we get to spend with them, and we take care of them as best we can. If you really feel bad about the short life of the light fey people, then practice enough so you can give them a longer life. Don't give up on them because they will die. Support them because they are alive."
I might have gotten a little carried away with my speech, and by the end of it both Lily and I had tears streaming down our cheeks. She held her arms out, looking for a hug, and unlike last time, I hugged her. We stayed like that for a bit before we were interrupted. By applause, and Marcus' hoarse voice.
"Nice speech Bwyd."