Chapter 9

Miriana had Roden teleport them from the relatively safe dock out to various rocky outcroppings that jutted out of the sea. He had to cast his spell a couple times before they were out far enough for Miriana’s liking. Roden was not excited about being a few hundred feet from shore just as a storm was rolling in.

“So what’s the plan?” He had to raise his voice over the quite loud crashing of waves and howling winds that tore at their increasingly wet clothes.

Miriana gazed up at the coming storm and smiled broadly, “we take in the storm dear. What did you think we were going to do way out here?”

Roden shook his head, “why would we do that? This does not look like it’s going to be a storm we can just sit through.”

Miriana tutted and sighed, “Roden, no August. You are still thinking like a human from Earth. You are not a human from Earth at the moment. You are Roden, a half-elven adventurer of Mir. You are the champion of the Goddess of Storms and Death. If you can’t sit through a storm, who the hell could ever hope to be able to?”

Roden was stunned by the hint of fire, no…electricity in her voice. Her face softened at his shocked expression.

“Look, I am trying to do what is best for my world here and you have the potential to be the one who can do what is best. I need you to be the best you can be and I don’t know how much time we have to get you there.”

Roden frowned, “okay sure all that is very flattering, but why so much urgency now? Before you were content to let me bumble around with Errrkkkk and Riakon, half thinking I was going crazy because I was in a game.”

Miriana’s mouth twisted up, “Hmmm touché…” She took a deep breath and let it out just as a light rain started to fall.

“Before you knew what was going on, the stakes were low, and Errrkkkk and Riakon could handle just about anything you managed to get into…”

Her intent dawned on Roden as she trailed off, “and now Riakon is powerless and I will need to be the Robin to Errrkkkk’s Batman?”

Miriana bobbed her head as if debating his words, “I always thought of you as fulfilling a more of a Flash-esk role, but yeah that is a big part of it.”

“What’s the rest of it then?”

Miriana rolled her eyes, “you are really pushy sometimes you know that?”

Roden narrowed his eyes and gestured around them to the crashing sea and brewing storm, “I’d say I’m being quite reasonable given the circumstances.”

“Fine, once Riakon lost his powers…I got a sinking feeling that you were in greater danger than ever before… I just want to make sure you are prepared.”

The warmth in her words were a stark contrast to the tempest nearly on top of them. August knew in his core, she was worried for her son. As Roden he could sense her fear and trepidation. He could recognize the uncertainty in her face.

Roden nodded, “I think I understand now…This must be hard for you.”

“Hard? What do you mean?”

“I just mean me being here, instead of your son.”

Miriana smirked, “actually, you two are so much alike I forget about it sometimes and have to remind myself. It’s the nature of the connection between you and him—”

A massive gale ripped through ending their conversation as Roden nearly lost his balance and fell off their rock. Roden braced himself against the oncoming gust and looked to Miriana.

“Can we get to whatever you brought me out here for?”

“This is what we are out here for. You have to start thinking like a Cleric of the Storm Goddess.”

“Okay yeah your platitudes are great and all, but I don’t really think now is the time for metaphors.” He said as he could feel his feet sliding under him.

“You need to embrace what storms symbolize. To be a cleric of storms means to embody the symbolism at work.”

Roden put on his teacher hat and set to work piecing the problem apart.

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“Okay so what? Power, change, the unyielding presence of nature…”

Miriana smiled and nodded, by then the rain had soaked them both through. Her hair clung to her face in dark lines.

“Good, you are starting to get it. That is all for the average person though. You need to come to terms with what it means for you as a champion of the domain. Start with why a god even has that domain.”

Roden felt like he was back in college and Miriana was his professor. The scene would have been uncanny if they weren’t on a rock surrounded by ocean with a monsoon bearing down on them.

“Well the people of Mir don’t exactly worship Zamira, but show deference, right?”

“You would be correct.” Miriana said, begrudgingly.

At that point the storm had ramped up to the point he was shouting.

“Okay so then they want protection from the storms…That protection is me?”

“Exactly, you must be the storm. Be one with the storm. But always remember storms are so much more than power and a source of fear. Storms can be gentle, they can bring people together. They can change a landscape. You must embrace all aspects of them before you can truly own your abilities.”

Roden thought over her speech…

‘It was a good speech.’ He admitted to himself.

“Any suggested methods?”

Miriana smiled like a cat in a canary’s cage. “Easy, ride the storm.”

Roden had hoped that wasn’t going to be her answer, but his abilities fit a method such as that too well.

Figuring he didn’t have much of a choice and being on that rock was getting unbearably uncomfortable. He activated his cloak and cloud. Both materialized from swirls of mist. He stepped onto his Holy Nimbus and looked back at Miriana who looked on bursting with excitement.

Roden shook his head, “you definitely planned this.”

Before she could respond, he leaned forward and urged his cloud into the sky. As he flew the wind and rain pelted him. His first thought was to activate his Grove Armor to avoid the discomfort, but dismissed the idea. That would defeat the point. If he was going to embrace Miriana’s advice he needed to throw himself in the deep end.

He rose higher and higher in a gently circling route. The clouds were just above him, heavy with rain and the promise of lightning. Roden plunged into the dense blanket of clouds, which unlike his Nimbus were entirely permeable. He would be lying if he said flying through clouds wasn’t a fantasy of his.

He expected the clouds to be wet. He barely noticed the extra dampness on his skin and clothes. What he didn’t expect was the palpable current of energy. He could feel every aspect of the storm around him. The crackle of lightning yet to be unleashed. The force of the wind driving the entire thing forward toward the shore.

In a flash of unbelievably bright light, he lost all orientation. A shudder ripped through him, the wind on his skin was no longer cold. He felt nearly nothing. His body vibrated and hummed with energy. He wasn’t sure just how long it took, but when he regained his senses, he was falling.

His cloak of clouds flapped as he plummeted to the roiling waters below. His most pressing issue however, was the sheer amount of energy rippling over him. He reasoned out he had been struck by lightning, that much was certain.

The tricky part was what to do with that information. He called for his Nimbus and saw it trailing him too slow to keep up with him in free fall.

‘This is going to hurt…’

With the waves rapidly approaching he did the only thing that made sense to him. He waited until just before impact and activated his Pilgrim’s Rebuke.

The shockwave dashed any remaining surface tension to ribbons. His dive into the water didn’t hurt nearly as bad as he expected, but it was then he realized the damage the lightning had done. His skin burned as soon as the salt water touched it. He nearly sucked in a mouthful of water at the sudden shock.

When he managed to breach the surface, he was tossed around by the waves until he was able to climb aboard his Nimbus. He sprawled out on the cloud face up lying on his back. Multiple casts of Triage later and his wounds were much more manageable.

In that moment, lying on a cloud in what might as well be the middle of the sea, looking up at a raging deluge of rain and lightning. Something about it all clicked for him. His approach to this world had always been surviving long enough to get home. He never knew he was living someone's life until Miriana told him. He had thought Roden and his life was all a backstory he had hastily imagined in his first trip to his mind space.

Part of him still wasn’t sure what exactly Miriana expected him to understand by coming out in the middle of that storm. It was all very mysterious and fantastical, but real people don’t do that. Sure, they might sit in the rain or watch lightning, but people don’t fly up into thunderclouds to ‘ride the storm’ or whatever nonsense he imagined.

He had been so concerned with his powers, abilities, and fighting he had started to see himself as a character rather than a person. Roden wasn’t numbers on a page or a random collection of ideals. He was a real person, who should be living a real life.

Being an adventurer is part of that, but it is a job like any other. A dangerous job to be certain as it meant getting struck by lightning some days, but in the grand scheme of things it was just a job to the majority of people in this world. He knew he had lost sight of that with the impending holy dragon slaying mission. Being told, only he could save that world was overwhelming to say the least, but the more he felt a part of the world the easier it was to shoulder that burden.

He had to take things one step at a time. His abilities were always just an extension of himself, a tool he used to survive, but it was his decisions that had actually done what was necessary. Roden never really considered himself overly brave.

He had always hoped he would be brave if a moment ever arose that he needed to be brave to protect his family or those he cared about, but bravery in the real world wasn’t fighting monsters. Bravery in his world was getting up early every morning and going to work. Bravery was doing the things needed to be done day in and day out. Every day at his job he could see the fear in his students. The fear of becoming an adult and having to hoist up their responsibilities. In a way, journeying to slay a dragon was easier.

He had a clear goal with a clear end in sight. Adventure was easy, living was hard. Living had no clear end goal. Everyone just had to do it and do it well, whatever the hell that meant. Determining victory in life wasn’t clear cut. He did plenty of hard things during his life. He’d slayed all of the metaphorical dragons life had thrown at him so far. He was at a point in his life where his biggest worries were behind him, until now.

Roden took in a deep breath and let it out slowly. He felt a little silly lying on a cloud thinking existential thoughts, while possessing a body of what to him was an alien.

‘My life has gotten awfully weird…’

He picked himself up, and stood on his cloud again. He flew back to where Miriana was standing on the rock. She seemingly hadn’t moved from where he left her. She was soaked through. Her clothes clung to her every movement. When he was close enough to hear she spoke over the storm.

“Did you figure it out?”

Roden nodded, “I think so…This wasn’t about being a follower of Zamira was it?”

Miriana smiled and held her hand up giving the gesture of a teetering scale,

“yes and no. I hoped you would discover what you needed through my philosophies, and maybe come to see your place here a little differently.”

“Yeah I think I got it now.”

“Then it is time I ask you…” She paused for a long moment. She gathered her breath and spoke resolutely, “August, will you as Roden be my champion. Will you take up the divine mission to save this world from the forces set to destroy it, by my own folly. Will you accept the quest I have laid out for you?”

Being expressly asked to shoulder the burden of a world by a magical apparition of the collective unconscious of the world’s inhabitants made for a heady feeling. Roden couldn’t keep the smug grin from his face as he answered,

“Fuck yeah.”