“Well,” Falsie said as he finally came out of the enchanted storage room and Orenda looked up from where she had been playing cards one-handed, sitting on the ground with the others, “I’ve got good news, bad news, and weird news.”

“Bad news first,” Bella said, “It’s easier to digest that way.”

“No,” Falsie said, “Ya don’t get to pick. The bad news is-”

“That’s what I said,” She said.

“The bad news is,” he went on, “That there isn’t any of that armor. But the good news is that I’ve got some water crystals and some blueprints, and it actually looks decently easy to make. The weird news is that it isn’t exactly armor, nor clockwork. It’s textile magic, like the carpet, magic crystals imbued with a spell and woven into fabric. I’ve never seen anyone actually do this before.”

“I think I would count that as more bad news,” Orenda frowned, “If you’ve never seen it before, how can you be sure it’ll work?”

“It’s water magic?” Gareth asked in alarm, “Falsie, you can’t make it then. You can’t cast water spells. You’re a fire mage.”

“Oh now look who’s worried about me,” Falsie laughed, “Broke the mask, didn’t I?”

“Well I mean, no, you can still go fuck yourself,” Gareth said with concern, “But you can’t hurt yourself… why would Helga do that? On such a large order? That can kill you!”

“Guess she was always a little nutty,” Falsie laughed, and went waddling down the hall with his pockets jingling to the playful ‘tink tink tink’ sound of crystal against crystal.

“Where the hell are you going?” Gareth jumped to his feet and sprinted after him.

“Nice to see them getting along again,” Bella said.

“But he’s right, isn’t he?” Orenda asked, “He really shouldn’t cast outside his element.”

“Probably not, no,” Bella agreed, “But I don’t know that he can be stopped. He’s stubborn as a mule when he puts his mind to something.”

She stood and continued, “Well, I suppose I should follow them.”

“Anilla,” Orenda said when they were left alone, “I’m sorry this has gone so poorly for you. We haven’t seen any dragons at all, I don’t think.”

“Well, no,” Anilla said, “But… I’m not completely selfish, you know? I think people think that we’re… that we self-isolate, because we don’t care about other people. But that isn’t the case at all. I know that your people are hurting, Rendy, that your friends are hurting, and I want to help you. I have my whole life to find my dragon; I know that we’ll find each other. I think what you’re doing is important. This empire has hurt you. It took your family, and family is so important. A sense of belonging is important.”

“Thank you,” Orenda felt the soft smile on her face, “You’ve been so kind, and so positive. You had this ability to see the best in people, in situations, that… grates on my nerves a bit, but it’s so refreshing in a world that seems determined to tear one down.”

“There is good in everything,” Anilla said as if saying it made it a fact. “And in everyone. There is good in every heart, maybe buried deep, but it’s there. I think we have to protect it.”

“Some would say that attitude was naive.” Orenda said.

“I’m not a child,” Anilla said, not unkindly, “There is a difference between seeing the world as a place of ignorance and seeing the world for its potential. The truth is that we’ve all worked so hard to get here, and everything is going to be alright. Everything is an adventure, and it’s been so exciting, especially since I left my home. I think that some people may get caught up, in their lives, and they forget that the world around them is amazing.”

“I suppose,” Orenda agreed.

“It is,” Anilla said, “Think of the numbers. Our existence isn’t impossible, but it certainly isn’t very likely. Especially yours. If any one thing had gone differently, you wouldn’t exist, for so many reasons.”

“The way Gareth speaks,” Orenda said, “The Emerald Knight spared his life because of me. One would think he would be a bit more grateful.”

“But that’s what I mean,” Anilla said, “Things like that. The Emerald Knight is supposed to be a monster, but he likes you. He decided to spare your life. You turned a monster away from murder.”

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

“That does strike me as strange,” Orenda said, “Gareth said he didn’t want to kill a baby. But he would have killed hundreds of children in the disasters he caused. None of the stories about the Emerald Knight have ever made any sense.”

“There is good in everyone,” Anilla said, “Like I said. If he is a real person, there must be some good in him.”

“Not enough to make up for what he’s done,” Orenda argued.

“Perhaps not,” Anilla said, “that isn’t what I’m saying. I just… don’t know that anyone sees themselves as a villain. I wonder how the empress and her knight think of themselves…”

“I don’t really care how they think,” Orenda said, “Xandra created a world that destroyed everything about me. It destroyed everything for a lot of people. I don’t care how she’s convinced herself that she’s not evil.”

“If you want to challenge her,” Anilla said, “Perhaps you should try to learn more about how she thinks.”

“Why?” Orenda asked, “I know enough. The earth elves are all cut from the same cloth. They even feel it themselves. Toli says he can feel it inside of him.”

“Wasn’t your mother an earth elf?” Anilla asked, “Sokomaur?”

“That’s what everyone says,” Orenda said slowly, “But I’m not sure I believe it… It makes no sense.”

“I don’t know why they would lie about it,” Anilla said.

“Maybe that’s what’s wrong with me,” Orenda thought aloud, “Perhaps that’s why it was always so easy for me to convince myself that I was… special. They think they’re special, I think, by default. They seem to have some sort of innate drive that makes them think that they’re better than other people.”

“Do they?” Anilla asked, “I haven’t gone among them much. They seem to see me as if they think I’m a curiosity, as if I’m special. I thought that they just saw everyone that way.”

Orenda stared at the cards in her hand, then folded them and began to collect all the hands the others had laid down. She shuffled them into the deck absentmindedly as she thought. Anilla saw what she was doing and handed her the cards she was holding to allow her to clean up, but Orenda wasn’t cleaning up.

In her divination class she had learned that cards were sometimes used to see the future. She didn’t believe any of it, but after she spoke to Gareth about the possibility of a god, it had strengthened her convictions. She had heard that being forced to argue a position often made one realize what they truly believed, and if she really had been having dreams that were prophetic visions, there may as well be a god who gave each elf an individual fate. It was something her father apparently believed.

She laid the cards out in order and Anilla leaned forward to watch her.

“What are you doing?” Anilla asked.

“Some people believe that there are no random occurrences,” Orenda explained, “that everything that happens happens for a reason, and that these reasons are decided by the great god Thesis, who created elves in his image. If that is the case- and I’m not saying it is- there are people who believe that this curtain can be peeled away, and that reasoning revealed, by looking for signs. If you find the pattern in the occurances, you can use it to predict the future. Supposedly. I don’t know if I believe that.”

“Oh,” Anilla said, “I’ve heard of divination. I didn’t know one could do it with cards. Back home we charted the stars.”

Orenda made a noncommittal noise and flipped the first card.

The seven of cups. Orenda realized that this gesture was meaningless, because she had never believed in divination, and could not remember which cards stood for what. She thought that the suite had something to do with love, but could not remember what the individual cards meant. It was all meaningless anyway, so she flipped another card.

The fool. She knew that one, and if she believed in what she was doing, it would worry her. She flipped another.

The six of swords. What did swords mean? She couldn’t really remember. She thought it had something to do with combat or power, but this exercise was quickly becoming even more meaningless than she had anticipated. She flipped another card.

The nine of staves. She knew what staves meant, they were the suite most often associated with mages. If a reading came up primarily staves, that was a good thing for a mage… if she believed that sort of thing. She flipped the last card.

The king of staves.

Orenda looked down at the cards, sitting there on the stone floor, and realized that had she paid more attention, she would know what those symbols meant together, but the truth of the matter was that they would never mean anything. They weren’t going to tell her her future, because her future was not preordained. To prove this, she drew one more card and told herself that it would be the ‘true’ sign.

Morgani Magnus looked back at her.

It was obvious whoever had carved the woodblocks the cards were printed from had never seen Magnus themselves, had only gone off of descriptions, but still, his black eyes stared out from the cardstock, and Orenda could not remember what the card was supposed to mean, because the only thing that she could think in that moment was that Magnus had not lied to her. Magnus had known her parents. Magnus knew her.

“What does it all mean?” Anilla asked.

“Nothing,” Orenda told her, “I can’t remember what they mean, and I never much believed in it anyway.”

“What’s that one in your hand?” Anilla asked.

“The devil,” Orenda said.

“It’s pretty,” Anilla smiled. “He’s cute, with his big eyes.”

“If I put it down it would be upside down, from my perspective,” Orenda said as she did so, “I think that changes the meaning, but I can’t remember. It doesn’t matter. None of this matters. Let’s go find the others.”

She gathered all the cards up, for real this time, and climbed to her feet.