Prophecy Approved Companion

The hug between Qube, the Chosen One, and Squiggles only lasted a few moments, but it soothed Qube in a way that made it feel like she’d had a week’s rest.

“You guys gonna join the hug-fest?” the Chosen One asked the rest of the party, his voice slightly muffled by the effects of Squiggles’s tentacles. He stuck out a hand and waved the others over.

“I’d be delighted to join you,” Sexy Screamy Spider Briar said, adding her many arms to the mass of limbs. One of those limbs snagged Definitely Bad Guy, pulling the weakly protesting Mage into the clump, while Sencha Bard somehow wound up primarily hugging Sexy Screamy Spider Briar and Qube, with a side of Squiggles’s tentacles.

It seemed his relationships with Definitely Bad Guy and the Chosen One, while much healthier, hadn’t yet grown to the point of the Bard actively moving to hug them.

The Chosen One, however, had no such reservations, and stretched out to make sure he was including both the Bard and the Mage in the group hug, squishing everyone together and causing a few parts to be eaten by Sexy Screamy Spider Briar’s inner pockets.

“You were perfect,” Sencha Bard whispered in Qube’s ear under the cover of the chaos. “None of them would have anticipated you taking control of the narrative in such a way.”

“Never mind what others expect, how do you feel?” Sexy Screamy Spider Briar asked, also quietly.

“You guys know I can hear you when we’re all squished together?” the Chosen One whispered too, his face next to theirs. He’d just emerged from part of the Hunter’s thorax. “If you’re trying to keep this conversation a secret from me, this is maybe not the right time to have it.”

“It’s not you we’re worried about. You aren’t controlling the narrative,” Sencha Bard pointed out, his voice a little louder.

“Plus, we all know that you’re on our side,” Sexy Screamy Spider Briar said, squeezing the Hero tighter and causing him to once more enter her thorax.

Definitely Bad Guy, who’d given up on half-heartedly struggling for freedom, reached into the hug and awkwardly gave Qube a pat on the shoulder.

“While I cannot condone such reckless disregard for your own safety, your dedication to exploring new forms of magic is one of the many things I admire about you,” he said.

“Yes, we’re all very proud of you for exploring yourself,” Sexy Screamy Spider Briar added.

“Once Adored…” the Evil Emperor’s quiet lament broke up the hug. The party, after some careful disentangling and convincing their mascot to release them, turned and looked at the tyrant, who was staring at the throne. He was still kneeling, but the chickens that had been around him had wandered off and were now aimlessly pecking around the room.

Looking at the man in black filled Qube with a complex blend of emotions. Not only did she have her own mixed feelings to deal with, what with him having slaughtered her village and kind of killed her, but the echoes of what he’d done to Once Adored bounced around inside her.

The forgiving, helpful thing to do would be to go to him, and reassure him that the undead version of Qube he’d raised using her severed head was now returned to the Healer, and they were stronger together.

The understandable thing to do would be to yell at him that he had no right to speak mournfully of his foul creation, whom he’d raised just to twist into a mess of hatred and despair in an attempt to hurt the Chosen One.

The thing Qube actually did was neither. Mostly because she’d thought of something odd and was curious about the answer.

“Chosen One, you were really worried about Once Adored and myself being in the same room, weren’t you?” she asked the Hero.

The Chosen One looked away from the picture of regret that was the Evil Emperor and regarded his closest friend.

“Yeah,” he said. “I didn’t get any warning about it, and I didn’t know what would happen if you two interacted. Speaking of which, are you feeling okay? What happened to the two of you?”

“If you were so worried, and needed more time, why didn’t you use your [Save Scum Attack]?”

There were a myriad of reasons why the Hero might have chosen not to use his most powerful spell. He could have been worried about the Evil Emperor not surrendering again, he might not have wanted Qube to re-experience the emotional scene of sparing her mortal enemy, or the curses that Once Adored had been throwing at him might have temporarily damaged his mana pool, disrupting his ability to cast.

Whatever the reason, it was imperative that she knew, so if they were ever in a similar situation (somehow) she would be aware when and if their ultimate spell couldn’t be used to save them (if it was the case that curses had affected him) or to reiterate the importance of not making decisions on behalf of her emotions.

What she hadn’t expected was the blank look that crossed the Chosen One’s face.

“Oh, yeah,” he said, the blank expression shifting into one of embarrassment. “I forgot about that.”

“You forgot about the most powerful spell you have?” Qube asked bluntly.

She shouldn’t have been surprised. After all, it was well within his character. And yet somehow, she still found herself staring at him in utter disbelief.

“It was really stressful!” the Chosen One protested. “And I’m super tired! You can’t blame me for forgetting!”

“I’m not blaming you,” Qube replied with well-trained patience. “I was just surprised that you managed to forget about something like that. Especially since you’ve used it so extensively within the castle.”

“Plus everything was going all crazy and… yeah, there’s no getting around it, I straight-up forgot.” The Hero abandoned his attempt to justify his mistake, and instead gave Qube a sheepish smile. The smile slid away after a moment, and he gave her a more serious look.

“For real though, how are you feeling after… whatever it is you did?”

Qube felt, rather than saw, the Evil Emperor’s gaze fixing onto her.

Having not done the forgiving, nor the understandable, thing, she instead chose the kindest combination she could offer the tyrant: reassurance, and reality.

“I’ll take care of her,” she told the Evil Emperor, not answering the Hero’s question. “And help her heal from the damage done. But this doesn’t repay your debt in any way.”

The Evil Emperor bowed his head.

“Speaking of debt,” she said, peering around, “can we use the gauntlet to restore the village?” Given she’d absorbed the fragments of Once Adored, she didn’t know if that was still possible, but she had to try.

“Yeah, about that,” the Chosen One said, and pointed to a small pile of ash on the floor. “The gauntlet turned into that mess while you were, uh, doing whatever it was you were doing.”

“Getting in touch with herself,” Sexy Screamy Spider Briar helpfully suggested.

“Does that mean the guardians’ connection to the gems has been destroyed?” Qube asked.

“We should go and observe them, to determine if it has affected their powers at all,” Definitely Bad Guy said. “It is possible that, by combining their power with the remaining gems not mounted on the gauntlet, we may be able to replicate whatever Grand Working the gauntlet was supposed to perform to restore your home.”

“I fear we may have some difficulty in achieving that,” Sencha Bard said, pointing at the entrance.

They collectively turned and looked at the entrance.

Ah.

The grand double doors that they’d used to enter the place were still closed, and there was no sign of a Save Point. It was just them, the Evil Emperor, and a bunch of chickens. How were they supposed to get out of this room? Even the numerous side doorways were closed off. There weren’t even any windows for them to try jumping out of.

There was an uneasy silence. Similar to how they’d once had to try and think of how to continue in the Light Temple while Scissors the scorpion was still alive, no one wanted to be the first to suggest murdering the Evil Emperor to make things move forward.

Which meant Qube was waiting for the Chosen One or Definitely Bad Guy to bring it up. She would have instantly shot the suggestion down, of course, given she’d ordered the tyrant to repay his debts to society, but it at least would have been something.

Instead, everyone was looking at her for what to do next.

“Well, what’s supposed to happen next?” she asked the Chosen One. Technically, they’d fulfilled all the requirements. They’d overthrown the Evil Emperor, the King and Queen were in the dungeon but capable of being fetched out at any moment, and she’d merged with her other self so Once Adored was technically “slain”.

The Chosen One looked at the Evil Emperor, then back at Qube. She could practically see his desire to suggest murdering the man.

“I think what’s supposed to happen is once we’ve, uh, tidied up the loose ends,” the Hero said, jerking his head towards the Evil Emperor in case Qube had missed his hint, “then the King and Queen show up, and probably some sort of nonsense about order versus chaos, and we get an ending.”

“We’re not tidying up this loose end,” Qube said firmly. After a beat, she added: “Unless you meant something other than killing the Evil Emperor. Then we might tidy that up.”

“If my death is required…” the Evil Emperor said slowly. Qube glared at him.

“No, we can find some other way to break it,” the Chosen One said. He rubbed his chin in thought as he slowly started to circle the still-kneeling man. He crouched down until he was eye-level with the tyrant.

The Hero narrowed his eyes as he regarded the Evil Emperor.

“Can you get naked?” he asked.

There was a gurgling sound from Sexy Screamy Spider Briar’s direction.

“What do you mean?” the Evil Emperor replied.

“It’s pretty obvious what I mean,” the Chosen One said bluntly. “I’m trying to figure out what counts as a defeat. We weren’t supposed to be able to spare you, so the narrative is freaking out over you still being here, and won’t move on until the sequence of events is completed in the correct order. We need to find a way to force it to move on. It’s called sequence breaking.”

“The narrative?” the Evil Emperor put his hands up to his head and cradled it. “Is that what you call this compulsion?”

“Yeah, the story that controls this whole thing. That’s why she doesn’t blame you for everything,” the Chosen One said, jerking a thumb at Qube. “Cuz the Devs wrote the story and made you do those bad things, but it also means that the story won’t continue until you’re dead.”

“Then, just as you were condemned to death by the narrative, so too am I,” the Evil Emperor said, looking at Qube. “There is justice in that.”

“No, justice is the problems getting fixed, people getting healed, and it not happening again,” Qube snapped. “And I didn’t actually die, so you don’t get to die either. Stop trying to sacrifice yourself.”

Honestly, he was as eager to self-sacrifice as a prophecy-approved companion!

“So, given the gauntlet is important, maybe it’s tied to your armour? I dunno, I’m just throwing out ideas. We could try rubbing against the walls and seeing if we can glitch through,” the Hero offered. “Or maybe we could try hitting him with a [Revive], just to see what happens?”

“When has rubbing against the walls ever worked?” Qube asked the Hero, slightly exasperated. She remembered when he’d tried rubbing her against all the walls in the village, succeeding only in getting her stuck in an invisible hole. And when he’d tried rubbing against the glass in the Water Temple to insert himself into the middle of an ongoing battle between the Deep Ones and the mermaids.

“Well, you know what they say: third time’s the charm!” the Chosen One said brightly.

Qube forced herself to think. It had been a really, really long day, where a lot of things had happened. Even though the hug had been refreshing, it wasn’t the same as having a proper break from the madness that enveloped her entire life at the moment.

Squiggles reached out and wrapped a comforting tentacle around Qube’s ankle. The light contact jolted the Healer, and, as she stared at her pet, a plan formed.

“You can try rubbing against walls if you want,” Qube said graciously to the Hero. She took a step towards the Evil Emperor, a hand reaching out to him. “But I have a different idea.”