The witches were good company while they waited for their friends to return. The witches told stories of people who had come to make deals with them; once they had owed a debt to a small tribe, who used it to make a young woman suffer because she had killed their leader. Many young women had searched them out to make their ex’s regret breaking up with them.
They talked for a few hours, the sun began to set before they heard a loud roar like thunder from outside.
“Ah, they are back.”
Hudson and Jocelyn rushed outside. They looked around for the source of the sound. Jocelyn pointed up to the sky, “Look!” A beam of light was descending from the heavens, it stuck the ground, a brilliant display of yellow, pink, and blue.
Hudson leaned to Jocelyn, “Looks like the bifrost from Thor.” She chuckled lightly, he was right.
The column of light finally collapsed, standing in its place was Dante and Haile, standing side by side.
“What took you so long?” Hudson asked.
“Listen here buddy,” Dante replied, walking towards Hudson “You aren’t any better than me just because you survived the fight against the giants.” Dante reached Hudson and paused for a moment, they began laughing, they laughed for a while.
“Oh, It’s good to have you back buddy.” Hudson pulled him into a hug.
“It’s good to be back.” He pulled away.
“I assume you’re Dante then.” Jocelyn said, approaching Dante.
“That’d be me, and you are?”
“Jocelyn, I met your friends on the way here.” They shook hands briefly.
Dante looked back to Hudson, “So you already found a replacement for me.”
“Yeah, turns out you’re pretty easy to replace.”
“Oh, you know that isn’t true.” Haile responded, putting her arm around Dante’s. She looked up to meet his gaze, “Nothing can replace him.”
“Is that it for the two of us then?” Hudson asked.
Haile’s eyes darted to Hudson, she’d barely thought about that, “Hudson, I-”
“Don’t worry about it, I’m glad I had you for as long as I did.”
“Are you sure?”
“Absolutely, I’m glad you can be happy with him.”
Haile walked forward and hugged Hudson, “You’re still one of my best friends, you know that?”
“I would hope so, you can’t get rid of me that easily.”
“I’m confused,” Jocelyn said, “what is your relationship like?” Pointing to Haile and Dante.
“I’ve been crushing on her for as long as we’ve been friends.” Dante responded.
“Can you really say crushing? You fell in love with me the moment you laid your eyes on me.” Haile responded, releasing Hudson.
“Okay, that’s not true, it was a few hours after we met, but I didn’t realize the extent of it until a few days later.”
“You’ve really thought this out, haven’t you?” Jocelyn said.
“There hasn’t been a single day that has gone by since we met where I have not thought of her, I’ve had a lot of time to go over this in my mind.”
“What’s your side of the story?”
“Hudson introduced us one Wednesday during lunch, her and I ended up in the same area afterwards and we talked a little over the duration of the event. As we were talking, I thought to myself ‘she’s different, what is it?’ My previous crushes were all based on looks, but it wasn’t that for her. The next night, we were doing a thing that got all three of us emotionally charged. I turned to look at her once we finished and almost forgot how to breathe. It’d be a few months after that until I’d put the word love to it.”
“How long ago was this?”
“Depends, if we go home and no time has passed, about a year and nine months, if we go back and your months travel translates to real time, it’ll have been close to two years.”
“Dang, it took me three years to realize I had fallen in love with one of my boyfriends.”
“One of? How many have you had?”
“Twelve I think, but only three of them were ever serious.”
“Twelve?! How old were you when you started dating?”
“I was seven or eight, but that only lasted for like, an hour; I was thirteen when I dated a guy for more than a week.”
“If we’re official now,” Dante looked at Haile, “then I’ve had one.”
“Is ‘had’ the correct tense to use there?” Haile asked.
“Does it matter? Point is you are my first.” Dante responded.
“May I ask why you haven’t dated?” Jocelyn inquired.
“I’ve never really wanted to, it may be fun or whatever, but it always seemed like a great way to ruin friendships for me. There were a few people I thought I’d enjoy dating, but I found I enjoyed being their friend enough to not bother.”
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“You are also kinda awkward with girls.” Haile added.
Dante chuckled, “That too.”
“Really?! I thought you were such a ladies man.” Hudson said.
“I’ve been told I can be, I’m just generally nice to people, but when it comes to actually asking girls out, all bets are off. I was also a little sheltered as a kid.”
“If you weren’t sheltered, how many girlfriends do you think you’d have had?” Jocelyn inquired.
“Probably somewhere between four and six. There were a few girls who flirted with me a lot freshman year of high school.” Dante responded
“Nah, you’d be at least ten, you are such a charmer.” Hudson said.
“Please, I was so awkward in middle school. I’d be averaging one every couple of months to have at least ten.”
“I think you could do it.” Hudson said.
“Maybe, I think he could be at ten.” Jocelyn added.
“How about we stop talking about my love life and figure out where we’re headed next?” Dante suggested.
They stopped talking for a moment before Hudson continued, “Nah, I’d like to continue.”
“Yeah, me too.” Jocelyn added.
“You do you I guess.” Dante walked over towards the witches. “Good evening, thank you for providing a method for my return.”
“You are very welcome.”
“Do you know anything about the gate, perchance?”
“We do, what have you to exchange for this knowledge?”
“Oh not this again.” Haile walked to stand next to Dante, she sighed, “What would be a fair trade?” She asked sarcastically.
“The knowledge of the gate is ancient, it holds much value.”
“That doesn’t answer the question.” Dante said, feeling annoyed.
“I see your rings, they are important to you, give them to me.”
“Oh, these.” Dante took his rings off of his right index finger and thumb, “Take them.” He tossed them up to the witches.
“Very well, far east of here is an island, once part of the main continent, but broke off long ago, legend tells of a doorway that stands alone in the center of that island.
“Is the doorway the gate, or does it lead to the gate?” Jocelyn asked, she and Hudson got bored of taunting Dante after he left.
“No one has gone through it and came back to say.”
“I’d bet a fiddle of gold that there’s another thing after this doorway.” Dante said under his breath.
“Good luck, travelers, I hope you make it to your destination.”
“I do too.” Hudson said under his breath, “May your Threads guide you, or whatever they say around here.”
The witches chuckled, “And yours as well.”
“Well, let’s get an hour’s walk in before we bed down, I kinda don’t like it here -no offence.” Haile said.
“None taken.”
“Fine by me, let’s go.” Dante said he turned to begin walking but stopped, “Which way is east, I wasn’t paying attention when we arrived.”
They all laughed, Hudson walked forward and patted Dante on the back, “This way. Follow me, loser.”
----------------------------------------
Sleep came easy to all of them that night, they were almost home, they had Dante back, things were good. The Thread-weaver watched as they slept, his work was nearly complete, in a few days they’d be going home.
Dante was the first awake, he walked to the cliff and sat down, looking over the ocean.
“Not tired, are we?” The Thread-weaver took a seat next to him.
“I’ve been resting for over a month, I don’t really want to sleep.” He looked outward towards the horizon, “Are there other continents, or just this one?”
“What a curious question; yes actually, most groups never travel there, they mainly exist for trade and things like that.”
There was a long pause, as Dante looked out over the waves“What’s the longest someone’s been in this world?”
“It’s a tie between Jocelyn and her ex-boyfriend, they’ve been here for two and a half years now.”
“How will that translate when they go back?”
“Well, I doubt he’s ever going to go back, but time passes at the same rate it does in your world. Her family has been searching for her for this time, and have mostly given up. His family is mostly dead, and those that live don’t talk to him that often.”
“Couldn’t you just send him back?”
“I could, yes, but he was in a terrible place when I brought him here, he will be better as long as he stays here. I brought both of them so he would stay, and Jocelyn would return with you.”
“Do you plan all of this out?”
“Sometimes, other times I just do things and hope it works out. I imagine it’s a little like writing a book, I keep the big picture in mind, and work on the details as they arrive.”
Dante paused for a moment, “Wi- will Hudson and Jocelyn start dating in the future?”
“It’s possible, there are many girls Hudson may end up with back home, Jocelyn is his friend for the time being, I brought her here to help with his recent breakup. You’ve asked many questions, may I ask you one?”
“You just did.”
The Thread-weaver ignored his comment, “Are you happy, now that you are dating Haile?”
Dante let out a long sigh, “I’m not necessarily happy, I suffered a lot because of choices she made, I don’t know how long it will take for those wounds to heal.”
“Have you taken time to consider your role in your own suffering?”
“What do you mean? My only role was falling in love with her, was it not?”
“It was not, you were very jealous of her, despite her not being yours. She suffered from your love as well. Every time you would pour your heart out to her, she would have to find a way to shoot you down, but not in a way that would cause you to never fly again. She rejected you cleanly, your emotions remain your own.”
“I guess that makes sense, I tried so many times to let go, but something always told me she would fall for me one day, I just had to be patient.”
“You may have been right, she did fall for you, but that does not justify your actions, there are many possible worlds where you were wrong. Would you say you became depressed from her and Hudson?”
“I think so, I talked to some of my friends who were medically diagnosed, and they told me I was depressed.”
“You always threw the fault of that depression onto her, and it wasn’t entirely her fault. The initial part of it was, but you kept holding on to what was hurting you. There are many worlds where you let go, making there no reason to bring you three here.”
“So what does it matter, that's in the past, I can be happy with her once the wounds heal.”
“You need to apologize to her, the wounds will never heal without it.”
Dante was silent for a while, “I know I can say the words, I know I can tell her I’m sorry, but I don’t think I will mean it.”
“Then you are not ready to date her.”
“How do I do it then, how do I mean it?”
“I don’t know, that’s up to you, don’t rush through it though, take your time so you can truly mean it.”
“I’ll try my best.”
“Good, I’ll see you at the doorway.” The Threadweaver stood and stepped off the cliff, he vanished from sight, leaving Dante sitting there thinking about what he said.
“Thinking about home?” Jocelyn approached and sat on his right.
“Something like that.”
“Don’t worry, we’ll be back soon enough.”