Prophecy Approved Companion

Qube had spent her entire life being taught how to be graciously ignored. Entire training sessions had been dedicated to making sure that she never overstepped her bounds as a Companion, and always remembered her place. Which, to be clear, was a few steps behind the Chosen One and smiling supportively. Maybe, if he was being particularly annoying, even smiling understandingly.

Those lessons had been so well taught that it had taken her entering the first Temple to even realise she was invisible.

She understood the point of those lessons. Not everyone could be the most important person, and if someone had to be nominated to be number one, the best candidate was assuredly the individual designated to save the kingdom. And, while she’d dwelt in the village, and taken her first shaky steps beyond, it had helped her help guide the chaotic Hero onto the correct path.

But she wasn’t that Qube anymore. She’d learned her own lessons, and grown, and become someone who knew both when to stand back and let the Chosen One lead, and when it was time for her to take the reins.

And there were few situations where she was more qualified to take charge than when dealing with her own undead counterpart.

Because, despite what the others were saying, the white-haired and tortured looking woman who’d just cast a massive curse on the Saviour of all Human and Human-Adjacent Beings wasn’t Evil.

She was hurting.

In this, too, Qube had learned. Good and Evil, chaos and order, they were none of them as clear-cut as she’d once believed. So although this woman was quite clearly attempting to inflict harm, something Qube had firmly placed in the Evil category, that didn’t mean the whole person was Evil.

Even the Evil Emperor, who had Evil in his title, had turned out to not be intrinsically Evil. In a lot of pain, and doing a lot of damage, he'd just decided to kneel on the floor in despair rather than fix anything, but, when given the chance, he’d done the right thing.

After attempting to murder her friends, true, but he was a work in progress. They would find a way to separate him from his Evil instincts, and teach him how to repair the damage he’d done. Hopefully without having to wipe large sections of his mind, like with the pharaoh.

If the party hadn’t protested her decision to let the Evil Emperor live, why, then, were they overriding her in the treatment of the other Qube, who hadn’t even killed anyone (as far as they knew)?

“[Shield Bash]!” The Chosen One, with his newly-recovered shield, charged at the undead Qube, who was still staggered from the effects of casting her spell. A large, black staff appeared in her hands, which she used to block the Hero’s Sacred Sword. A move that Qube had never even considered.

“You seek to cut me down!” she cried, her white eyes glowing. “Ashamed of your failure?”

“Perhaps we should try [The Bard’s Ballad]?” Sencha Bard asked, as his fingers flew over his lute’s strings, causing everyone to speed up as [Haste] kicked in. His green mana was everywhere, wrapping around the party members, pushing them ever onwards. “Surely that would open her eyes to reality?”

“Certainly it would be less dangerous than directly attempting a [Heal],” Definitely Bad Guy said. Despite the battle music screaming away, neither Sexy Screamy Spider Briar nor he had made any offensive manoeuvres. Squiggles, too, seemed curiously disinclined to engage with the enemy wearing the head of their Healer.

Their reluctance gave Qube hope that she could talk them into standing down, and letting her try. She just had to get everyone to calm down.

“Stop attacking me!” she shouted to the Chosen One. “I don’t need harm, I need help!”

“[Companion’s Curse],” her counterpart cast directly in the Hero’s face.

Qube also cursed, albeit internally.

“[Lesser Shield]!” she counter-cast, only to watch her shield be obliterated by her undead version’s spell.

There was nothing like realising that not only was her inner self capable of casting the curses that she’d long wished for herself, but she was also better at spells than Qube.

“You’re not helping!” she yelled at her other self over the battlefield.

“I won’t let him take you from me!” Undead Qube screamed, nearly wild with passion. Seeing her own face distorted with rage and grief made Qube feel like a monster.

“He’s not going to take me from you!” she called back.

“Keep her away from her,” the Chosen One ordered Sexy Screamy Spider Briar. He dodged a swing from the staff not-Evil-just-misunderstood-Qube was wielding, before sparing a glance at Healer-Qube.

“Do you really think you can defeat me?” Undead Qube sneered angrily at the Chosen One. “Don’t you feel any guilt? You already left me to die once; have you come to finish the job?”

“We don’t know what [Heal] or [The Bard’s Ballad] will do with Qube in the room,” the Chosen One said to the Bard and Mage.

"What difference do you think it would make?" Definitely Bad Guy asked, holding the staff bestowed upon him by the Royal family.

“I don't know.

That's the point. Maybe nothing. Maybe something. They didn't give me any [fiddling] heads up about this and I don't know why. We can’t risk it.”

An entire lifetime of training warred with Qube, fighting against her adventuring experiences.

She had to get everyone to calm down.

She had to make sure no one got hurt.

She had to help her counterpart.

She had to protect the Chosen One.

She squeezed her eyes shut as the conflicting commands within her head screamed at each other.

It was too much. Her inner self was being ripped out of her, her mind was being shredded, her friends were trying to attack a version of herself, the Evil Emperor was looking at her with expectation written on what little face she could see, and this was her resurrected body against her friends and no one was listening to her about it.

“Everyone STOP!” she screamed.

Her voice rang out across the room, stopping everyone in their tracks. Even the Chosen One and undead Qube looked away from each other to turn and stare at the red-faced and panting Healer.

“No one is fighting anyone,” she ordered, her tone sharp enough to carve her words into flesh. “You are all going to step back, and I will deal with this.”

“But—” the Chosen One protested, taking a small step towards her. His movement triggered a reaction in Qube’s counterpart, who raised her hands as if to cast another spell.

“NO.”

Qube had never spoken like that before. Even when she’d been politely telling the guardians to stay put and mind their own business, or when she’d been mildly yelling at the Evil Emperor about how he wasn’t allowed to die, there had been strength to her words, but nothing like this.

This was absolute. Her word was law.

“This is my body. My counterpart. Taken from my village. And I will choose how we proceed.”

She wanted to add something strong to the end of her speech, like “understand?” or “that’s right” or “tee hee”.

No! Not tee hee!

Ruthlessly suppressing the dreaded nervous tic that bubbled in her neck, Qube stepped forward to prove just how far she’d come since she’d been that naive girl in the village who’d giggled against her will.

“It’s dangerous,” the Chosen One said to her as she got closer to him.

“I know,” she replied, her outer calmness belying her inner turmoil.

“Dreamer,” the undead version of her said breathily, staring at Qube as if she held the secrets to happiness. The naked adoration in her white eyes was a little disconcerting. “You’re real.”

“My name is Qube,” Qube said. “Do you have a name?”

She couldn’t keep calling her inner self “her counterpart” or “undead Qube”. It seemed disrespectful, somehow.

Her own face stared back at her, her expression going curiously slack as she thought about what her name was. As she pondered, strange whispers wormed their way into Qube’s ears. Some of them sounded like the Evil Emperor talking, while others were too quiet to hear — just moments of noise, barely heard.

“The Evil Emperor called me Once Adored,” the woman said eventually.

“Really, dude? Really?” The Chosen One swung around and glared at the Evil Emperor. For a man clad from head to toe in intimidating black armour, the recently deposed tyrant managed to look incredibly embarrassed.

“From the Golden Prophecy,” Sencha Bard explained to the Hero.

“Yeah, I got it, I still — just, really? First you put her in an armoured bikini, now you’re running around calling her Once Adored? What, you sniff her hair while you were at it?” The Hero gained a look of disgust. “[By the Words], you probably did, given you were carrying a lock of it around with you before. Dude. Not cool. Mega creepy.”

“Chosen One, please stop yelling at the Evil Emperor for being creepy,” Qube requested. “I’m sure he feels bad enough about the Evil things the Devs made him do without you pointing it out.”

Definitely Bad Guy was looking at Once Adored with wide eyes.

“I was right,” he said, shocked. “Not entirely, of course, but the core supposition was not as outrageous as I believed.”

Qube didn't immediately parse what the Mage meant by that but Sexy Screamy Spider Briar, who was occasionally surprisingly in tune with the former advisor, reared up onto her back legs and pointed all her weapons at the still-kneeling emperor.

“You dared force a dead version of our innocent little Healer into being your concubine?” she said, hissing every word so hard that green venom flew from her mouth.

Sencha Bard put away his lute and drew his rapier with deadly intent.

“This man shall pay for his crimes with blood,” he declared.

Qube had somehow managed to get everyone to stop attacking her undead self, only to turn them all against the man she’d spared but half an hour earlier.

“You’re not allowed to kill the Evil Emperor either!” she declared. “It’s my village he killed, and my body he concubined, so any vengeance belongs to either Once Adored or me!” She wasn’t sure if concubined was a word, but she was going to use it anyway.

“That weakling?” Once Adored said, her upper lip curling scornfully in a move Qube could never have mastered. “No, I am no concubine of his. I have only two goals: to slay the one who failed me, and protect the Dreamer who saved me.”

“I’m gonna go out on a limb here and guess that I’m the one who failed her,” the Chosen One quietly informed Qube.

“But how am I the Dreamer?” Qube asked Once Adored. “I don’t remember saving you.”

“You came to me in dreams,” Once Adored said and, now she’d been talking for longer, Qube could hear the subtle differences in their voices. Once Adored’s voice was raspier, as if something was stuck in her throat. “When I was nothing but vengeance, I felt you call out to me.” Her eyes searched Qube’s, and once again Qube was struck by how empty the other woman’s eyes were.

“When you’re hurt, I will protect you. I will give you my sadness, and my rage, so you may keep your joy. I will shield you from the world, and slaughter any who cause your light to dim.” Once Adored took a step closer to Qube, the pallid colour of her skin making the crude stitches across her neck stand out even more.

“As I waited in this darkness of death and pain, you guided me out. And now I will follow your light forever. I will surround it, and hold it within me.”

It was certainly one of the heaviest acknowledgements of Qube’s role as a guiding light that she’d ever received, but it wasn’t in Qube’s nature to reject someone seeking help.

The rest of the party was completely silent as Qube took another step forward. Once Adored reached out a hand: in friendship, and in supplication.

“Wait—” the Chosen One whispered, but she didn’t hear him.

Qube closed the distance, and took her counterpart’s hand.