Prophecy Approved Companion

The Chosen One gave the Bard a flickering smile.

“I choose to ask the people affected by the decision, of course,” he said. “Hey, you two.” He looked at the ghosts sitting at the table. “I got a nectar that’ll put your spirits to rest. Do you want me to use it on you, or nah?”

“If you can end this agony, then I’ll consider forgiving you for your stupidity,” Warwick’s spirit said haughtily.

“Finish this sick joke played on me, and we’re square,” Ruth replied.

“What do you think?” the Chosen One asked Qube, his gaze sweeping over the group to include them in his question. “We might come across another restless spirit in pain. Should we save a nectar, just in case?”

“One of us might be hit by the same curse and need help,” Sencha Bard interjected, almost angrily. He seemed to be directing his statement towards Qube. Which, given she was the Healer of the party, made sense.

“We can’t leave someone to suffer on the off chance we might need something later,” Qube said. “That goes against everything a Healer stands for.”

“But you’ve already had one curse laid on you,” Sencha Bard rebutted. Qube didn’t think he needed to be bringing up a topic like that in front of Ruth and Warwick, not that the pair could probably see her. “What if the Evil Emperor uses his power to deepen the curse?”

Qube reached out and touched one of the Bard’s flowing sleeves.

“Please don’t let the Chosen One infect you with his need to hoard loot,” she said earnestly. “If such a situation arises, then we’ll deal with it as it comes. I couldn’t stand to deny anyone help for such a selfish reason, never mind leaving two of my childhood friends to suffer on such a flimsy chance.”

“There’s your answer,” the Chosen One said to Sencha Bard. “Not a lot you can argue against there, eh?”

The other man gritted his teeth for a second, before relaxing. “How is it that even when you’re doing the thing I usually want you to, you manage to vex me?” the Bard asked, giving the Hero a bemused look.

“Sheer talent,” the Chosen One replied with a grin. His expression shifted slightly as he continued looking at the Bard. “What are you worried about with the Golden Prophecy?”

“It’s merely a theory,” the Bard said, narrowing his eyes at the Hero. “I’ve read many an ancient text, and find the layers of meaning can be quite revealing.”

“Well, any theories you got, let me know,” the Chosen One said casually. “Maybe not while dealing with ghosts of friends in a lot of pain, though.”

“I just might, once we’ve reached a safe place to rest. I’m sure you would be most helpful in clarifying a few questions I have,” the Bard replied, equally casually.

“As long as it’s in everyone’s best interest, and I can, then sure,” the Hero said.

“I look forward to it.”

The rest of the party watched this interplay between the two, not even Qube daring to intervene. Despite Sencha Bard’s outright stating that the Chosen One had annoyed him, there really seemed to be a bond forming between the two men. While different from the (admittedly sometimes worrying) connection Sencha Bard and Definitely Bad Guy had forged over their mutual love of spell and song craft, or the Bard’s (hopefully) play-flirting with Sexy Screamy Spider Briar, it still gave Qube joy.

Even though the Bard was, if anything, the most normal member of the party, he was still the one she worried about the most when it came to ascending into the Devs’ realm. Given what the Chosen One had said about the majority of the realm being humans, she did sometimes wonder how Sexy Screamy Spider Briar would cope. Probably by flirting a lot, and somehow making everyone fall in love with her. And Squiggles, of course, being a pet, would be adored by all.

The Chosen One, unaware of his companion’s ponderings about the loveability of the multi-limbed ladies looking to enter the Devs’ realm, was busy putting her childhood friends’ spirits to rest.

“Alright spooky ghosts,” he said, reaching into his backpack and digging out both nectars. He slapped the two precious potions onto the table’s surface far harder than Qube would have thought wise. “Time to … move on? Re-die? I dunno, whatever ghosts do here.”

Rather than thanking the Chosen One for putting them out of their misery, which would have been the polite thing to do, the Rogue and the Wizard reached for the potion vial closest to them and, without a word, tilted the bottles back to tip the contents into their mouths. Before the nectar had even left the vessel, however, the former villagers turned a see-through blue, just like the ghost who’d tricked Qube into owning a house.

“Thank you for choosing to free me,” Warwick-the-ghost said. He looked over at Ruth. “Although I regret your fate, old friend. Make the Evil Emperor pay for what he’s done.”

Ruth-the-ghost didn’t seem confused by the Wizard’s statement. Instead she told the Chosen One: “Thank you for choosing to free me,” before turning to Warwick and continuing: “Although I regret your fate, old friend. Make the Evil Emperor pay for what he’s done.”

Ah! That was true compassion and community thinking that had made the village such an amazing place. Neither of them railed against their own deaths, instead focusing on their friend’s suffering. It was, in all truth, a gracefulness that Qube would have expected from their companions, rather than the UnChosen themselves. Clearly their time as cursed beings stuck in a single room with only each other for company had forced them to mature. Or, now she thought about it, maybe learning that they weren’t the Chosen One had made them re-evaluate their un-lives.

She couldn’t even begin to imagine how it must have felt, to discover that you weren’t selected for the role you’d been training your entire life for. She suddenly realised that, back in the village, even when faced with Warwick and Ruth directly after their entire lives had been found out to be pointless (because if they weren’t the Chosen One, then what was the point of them training to save the world?), the thought of how they must have been feeling about not being selected had never even occurred to her.

They were not the only ones who’d grown up in their time away from home.

“When we make the Evil Emperor restore the village, we need to make sure that he brings Ruth and Warwick back too,” she informed the Chosen One.

Before he could reply, Warwick and Ruth evaporated into nothingness.

Her heart clenched for a moment as she saw her two friends disappear. Only the knowledge that they would soon be forcing the Evil Emperor to bring them back kept her relatively calm. If he could bring them back. No! She had to stay positive! She could feel the immense power of the castle all around her and, even if the Evil Emperor wasn’t powerful enough to bring them back, then she would challenge the Devs themselves to make sure they were restored.

The instant the two potentials were gone a wooden door appeared on the damp stone wall behind where the table was.

“That’s weird,” the Chosen One said, staring at the newly-formed entrance.

“It seems perfectly normal to me,” Qube said, confused at his confusion. No doubt as soon as the curse was dispelled, whatever power had held the room sealed shut was also dispersed. Sure, it wasn’t clear why the Evil Emperor would allow an entrance to be created like that, or how feeding a nectar to a ghost would cause a spell on a door to be affected, but no doubt the Royals had made the doorway back when they’d owned the castle.

It did, however, mean that the Evil Emperor was probably aware of their underground approach. In fact, Qube suddenly realised he'd probably known about the secret entrance all along. Why else would he place their friends at the end of this corridor? No doubt it was some kind of sick mind game, or intimidation tactic. He’d wanted to lure them in with a false sense of security by not guarding the maze correctly, only to spring their dead friends on them the instant they thought they’d outwitted him.

More concerningly, they’d only been able to find the heart of the maze by using one of the sacred items given to them by a Temple guardian. Did he know about those as well? Had that information been fed to him by Definitely Bad Guy?

“Definitely Bad Guy,” Qube asked, causing the Mage to jump a little. He’d been examining the open doorway, his eyes blue and red with a spell. “Does the Evil Emperor know about the items the Temple guardians gave us? I don’t want you to feel bad if he does, or like I’m scolding you for betraying us, I just want to know what information he has.”

The Mage flushed at the kind reminder that he’d secretly been working against a group of Good people trying to save the world.

“I am not aware of the extent of his knowledge,” he replied with remarkable evenness. “However, outside of the times we met as a group, I had not seen him or given him any information since I left my tower.”

“He may, nevertheless, have layered spells upon you, rendering him capable of using you as a spy even without your knowing,” Sencha Bard said. Neither he nor Sexy Screamy Spider Briar had attempted to flirt with Warwick and Ruth, which Qube was rather proud of them for. “We must be cautious, and assume the tyrant knows as much as we do.”

“If he knew we were coming, why wouldn’t he stop us?” Sexy Screamy Spider Briar asked. Sencha Bard hesitated.

“I suspect he wants a final showdown with us,” he said. “And a man as proud as he seems to be would find it more… satisfying… to defeat us face-to-face.”

“But then why have any obstacles at all?” the Hunter asked, her many faces frowning. “Why not face us in the streets or, if he wants to use the castle’s protection, why not just let us directly into his chamber and take us down there?”

The Bard, knower of many sagas, and believer in a greater narrative, was stumped.

“I fear I have not the answers, wild rose,” he said at last. “It’s simply the way it’s done.”

“It’s probably part of a ploy, to wear down our spirits!” Qube said indignantly. “I think he’s trying to break us, by making us do all these things, so we’re weak when we arrive before him.” It was like he’d learned of the trials of the Temples, possibly through spying on his Mage Advisor, but reached the totally wrong conclusion. The difficulties of the Temples were designed to make sure that only the worthy would receive the items and gems, while this was just a sick facsimile of those noble places.

“He didn’t even get the moral choices right,” she continued, forgetting she’d neglected to mention the Temple part out loud. “His arrogance will be his undoing!”

The anger of her inner self exalted as she contemplated how she was going to make the Evil Emperor pay for both his crimes, and his hubris. She wasn’t sure how, exactly, she was going to do it, but when she faced him, there would be a reckoning!

---

In all this, the Chosen One and Squiggles had been hanging out by the ghost-death-powered entrance. The Hero, who still hadn’t explained why he was confused by the doorway, was looking between the dark tunnel it opened into, then back at the mascot.

“Why,” he asked the attentively listening pet, “is there only one corridor?”

Squiggles nudged him, and looked up, wagging her shark’s tail slightly.

“Yeah, I’m guessing there’s gonna be a big mess down there,” he agreed. The sharktopus, however, didn’t seem pleased with his statement. Instead she nudged him again, harder.

“It’s not the best time for it,” he replied.

She started climbing him, hooking her tentacles around his backpack and tugging.

“Fine,” the Hero sighed, unslinging his backpack and rummaging around in it. “But no chewing on it. Yes, even just nibbling the edges counts. I saw those teeth marks, young lady.”

So it was that, just as she’d finished swearing terrible but unspecified vengeance on the man who’d murdered her entire village, Qube looked up to see Squiggles, carefully balanced on the Chosen One’s shoulder, gently using her tentacles to turn the pages on her hungry caterpillar book.

Qube felt the hard rage within her melt slightly as she stepped up next to the Hero, taking her rightful place by his side, ready for whatever horrors lurked ahead. Not even more dead friends would stop them from saving the world!