37. THE TESTING GROUND (DURAN)
Flying to Forcena, they arrived in time to dine with the King. Richard listened to their news with rapt attentiveness, and a wide streak of concern.
"And next... The God-Beast of Darkness..." As they finished the tale, Lise brought up what was on all their minds.
"If we're lucky," Duran said.
"I wouldn't really call that lucky," Hawk responded.
"But we're not ready yet," piped up Carlie.
They all turned to look at her. If even the young girl could piece that together...
"It's true," Angela added. She confessed the next sentence reluctantly. "I think I've reached the limits of my power..."
"We defeated Fiegmund easily, but only because Angela used fire magic so effectively," Duran assessed. "I think we all can tell that the God-Beasts have been getting stronger, and we don't really have a great attack prepared for the Beast of Darkness."
"Yeah, are we going to heal it to death? That's most of what Lumina has taught us," quipped Hawk.
"Why haven't you done your final class change yet?" inquired Richard.
A long silence.
It fell to Duran to respond to his sovereign. "Your Majesty, I thought it had to wait until we were older. Angela's the oldest here, she's only nineteen... you and my father were several years older..."
"And there's no Mana Stones anymore," added Lise. Oh, yeah, that too.
"It's not by age, it's by strength," Richard interrupted. "But even without the stones... surely the chosen of the Goddess might have a way... Princess of Reason –" he returned to formality, addressing a fellow royal - "may I speak with this fairy?"
A mental poke from Angela, and the Fairy appeared, with a small midair curtsy.
"Fairy," Richard began. "Is there a way by which this group may reach the second change?"
The Fairy paused. "They could, if we return to the statue in the Holyland."
"The statue..." Lise breathed reverently.
"Fairy, why didn't you suggest this sooner! Angela almost died, hitting the limits of her magic power in the fight with Dangaard," Duran blurted angrily.
"And they all would have been much easier." Kevin didn't sound angry, but then again, his temper was much colder.
"Carlie wants to talk to the Goddess again."
Angela finished. "We're already all stronger with only the first Gift of Mana, than anyone else with two." Even as she said it, she wondered if she was right; was she really stronger than her mother? Perhaps she was, at that. "Why didn't you bring this up before?"
The Fairy bore their angry tirade, expressionless, but as the voices faded, she held up one tiny hand. "As Richard says, it is based on strength, not age. But you have hit the truth, Angela. You are all very strong, and had I suggested it earlier, none of you would have taken no for an answer.
"But," she continued, "it is not your strength compared with others, but the potential of the individual themselves. You must master the strengths of the first Gift before you can be allowed to proceed to the second. This is because you can go no further after the change; even if you had survived it, weeks ago, your final change would not have achieved its full potential. Since the potential in all of you was so great, it took much greater trials for this to be achieved.
"And thus the Goddess forbade me to speak of it, until I was sure you all were ready... though it seems Richard has beat me to it."
They were somewhat speechless. Angela saw her own look of wonder reflected in her friends' faces. The Goddess herself was taking a hand in their fates?
Richard only nodded thoughtfully. "Perhaps it is time, Fairy."
"Perhaps it is, at that. If you are willing," the Fairy said, addressing the assembled party, "we will go to the Holyland tomorrow."
--
There was a knock on Duran's door, too heavy to be Angela's, and he wondered who it could be at this time of night. He bowed deeply as he opened the door to find the King of Forcena.
"Duran, I hope it's not too late."
"Never for you, Your Maj-" Duran began.
"Oh, stop it, Duran. I wouldn't open the door for myself if I had a beautiful woman here."
Duran felt himself blush at the King's frankness. He thought they had been properly discreet under the palace roof. Richard continued, "At least the girl has chosen a good man. I might have to have a talk with her otherwise." Duran was puzzled. Why did Richard care? "Anyway, before she gets here, I brought something for you." The King opened his hands to reveal a silver medallion on a chain of bronzed beads. Not metal, though; some sort of gemstone. "As we discussed last time you were here, I have been saving something for you, when I felt you were ready. I think now is that time."
"What is it, my Lord?"
"My Lord. How appropriate," Richard chuckled. "It's the Lord's Medallion. And now it's yours."
Richard pulled Duran's hand to him, and placed the medallion in his fist. Duran didn't know whether to put it on or hide it in a pocket. "What should I do with this, Sire?"
"Nothing. Just keep it, for now." Richard's mysterious expression turned to amusement. "And take care of your young lady."
--
No one had much to say as they repeated their flight through the gate to the Holyland. Landing, they discovered the places was eerily empty, lacking the rabite infestation they had seen last time, and Hawk morbidly wondered who had cleaned up the corpses.
"There's no monsters, because there's nothing to defend against," the Fairy explained, dejected. "The Sword is gone."
Nothing to defend against, and no reason to maintain the place, either. The aura of joyful life that had permeated the Holyland seemed dulled, the vivid colors now subdued, and the ruined buildings more destroyed that ever. It wasn't doing much to raise anyone's spirits, but fortunately, it was only a short while before they entered the clearing where the ethereal Goddess statue stood, emitting its light calmly as it had before. After the destruction of the Mana Stones, it was oddly reassuring to see that this, at least, remained untouched.
"Before you attempt the final class change," the Fairy told them, "You must be truly sure you are ready for it..."
"Didn't you already tell us that, the first time?" Duran asked.
"Yes... but this time even more so. In the first change, if you are not ready, you will fail. But if you are not ready for the final change... you will die." She paused to let that sink in. "And… I don't want to lose any of you," she added.
That explained a few things. Angela thought she knew what happened to some of those Oracles who never came back. Sorceresses were almost always successful, but the chaotic power she followed now could take you over when you least expect it. A time or two, she felt like it had. She took a deep breath to steady her nerves.
The group looked at each other nervously. What if one of them should fail? This would be the last time they would see that person alive...
"Is there anyone who does not feel ready?"
Angela saw fear change to grim resolve on everyone's face. Except Carlie, who only bounced up and down in excitement. "I'm ready, let's go!" she shouted, as if it was all a game, and that worried the wizard. Could the little girl survive? She had proven to be surprisingly resilient, but this? Angela hated to think what would happen if a child was their only casualty.
You put her in danger, all of you, when you allowed her to come with you, Angela reminded herself. She might be in more danger if she continues without the added strength she came here to get... That was why they were all here, after all. Without increasing their powers, they would suffer sure defeat.
"Is this going to work the same way as the last time, Fairy? And will we be able to see into each other's, like Undine did for us?" Lise wondered.
"Lise, all I can tell you is that the final Gift is only discussed about among those who had undergone it. Knowing more beforehand might taint the choice. You might think you know what you will choose, but you will not know for certain until the moment of. For the same reason, you must be blind to everything that happens to your friends."
"But as soon as the first person finishes, we'll know from their demeanor some of what they have experienced," Hawk objected. "If this is for our own protection, you will have to keep us separated somehow."
"You are correct, Hawk, if we were using a Mana Stone, I would. But the Mana Stones are gone, so we find ourselves at the focus of the Goddess's power. With this much power in one place... you will all be able to receive the Gift at the same time, and return together."
Duran looked at the statue somewhat dubiously. "Well, I guess it's now or never," he said.
They arranged themselves around the statue of the Goddess, looking at one another as they stretched hands out towards the statue. Light filled Angela's vision, and the figures of her friends faded away as it consumed everything...
--
The figure before her was not the hazy image she had seen in the Holyland. Long golden hair framed an innocent face with big emerald eyes, seemingly as real as she herself was, but at the same time she knew this was not another human being in front of her.
"You do look like Lise," Angela blurted without thinking. Then, suddenly abashed, she thought maybe that was not the best way to greet the Goddess.
The woman laughed, a high, silvery laugh so like her best friend's. "Only because you expect me to. Those statues were copied from an Amazon, though, one of the few Vanadis."
"Oh."
Angela paused for a moment, but when the Goddess said no more, she got impatient. "So why are you here, anyway?"
"I'm surprised you, of all my heroes, did not figure it out. I will lead you myself to receive my Gift."
No wonder it was not discussed. She could see hundreds of zealots, desperately trying to class change for their chance to meet the Goddess, and dying because they were not strong enough to endure the intensity of the change.
"Look down in your arms," the Goddess instructed her.
She hadn't remembered holding the book when she came here, but there, in her arms it was. The Forbidden Book. It had been mere chance she had it with her when they decided to return to the Holyland - she had found it in her mother's nightstand in Altena, and decided to take the tiny volume with her.
She could not read the pages - they were not written in Mana Tongue, but some ancient script she had never seen - but she didn't have to read it. Touching the pages, the script began to glow as red as blood, and she could feel the book teaching her, just as the Elementals had laced their spells into her mind. But these spells were something else, and she became frightened as the feeling became overwhelming. She hadn't looked in the book since.
"You seek the forbidden, then. Tell me why."
Angela had never been asked to formulate it into words before. "I need... something else... all this power, it just keeps building... there's no one to teach me how to use it..." She was babbling. She never babbled.
The Goddess looked contemplative. "I could make you a Rune Master. You would take your spells farther and further, combining all elements into one, holding even the powers of life and death. Are you ready for that kind of power?"
Angela gulped. She felt the lie form, but stopped it. "I'm not sure, but I have no choice. I will have to take what is given."
"You speak the truth, my child. I know now what you will become." The Goddess did not tell her before she began, before Angela felt the tingling through her body. "What's happening?" she cried, as the Mana filled her, more than she could hold, and it changed, changed from the sweet strength she had always felt to a pulsing throb of pain. The pain was building, a hundred, a thousand times more intense than anything she had experienced before, and Angela gasped, terror filling her. This level of Mana… it would destroy her from the inside before she could control it.
Angela fought the raging tide within her, and it fought back twice as hard. Every push brought a backlash, stinging her, burning her, beating her. She was drowning, underwater, in fire, all of them together smothering her under that tremendous flow, and the more she fought, the weaker she felt.
She had failed. She was dying, she was not ready, she knew that for a fact, and she could only accept it. Her lungs felt squeezed, constricted, not allowing a breath of air, and her heart pounded until she was certain it would explode out of her chest. Consciousness dimmed, and red and black filled her eyes where before there had been white light. There was anger on the Goddess's face, now contorted into a brutal visage, and the Goddess said nothing more to her as she receded into the distance, becoming only a tiny point of light in the chaos swirling around.
Angela wondered who the Fairy would choose as her host once she was dead.
Just as she felt the last bit of life fading away, she heard a voice in a silvery whisper, touching her soul as lightly as a feather.
"You know when you are not strong enough, but must endure anyway. This is what is needed to survive the power of the Black Magus."
--
The heat of battle was all around him. Duran, the Warlord, fought with brutal force, his sword cleaving into the bodies of the foes that outnumbered him by far, faceless soldiers. Where they came from, he did not know; he only knew they were enemies, and that was all that mattered. Surrender was not an option; death was preferable to that disgrace.
He healed as many as he could between attacks, but it was not enough. Many died before he could get to them, his allies' numbers diminishing as their enemies pushed forward.
He slashed into the side of the adversary charging towards him, but instead of a manly growl or grunt, he was surprised to hear a shrill, female-sounding scream. As the knight collapsed on its back, Duran suddenly became afraid. He knelt down, and opened the visor to see a woman's eyes, a nondescript, middle-aged woman whose face nevertheless shone with wisdom. Desperately he tried to cast heal magic, but it seemed to slip away from him.
The woman placed her gauntleted fist on his sword arm. "Duran, that won't work on me."
"How did you know my name?" he demanded.
"What is this medallion around your neck?" she asked, ignoring the question. "This isn't really what you want, is it? You don't even know what you are fighting for."
She was right. He didn't even remember why he was here.
"Perhaps you should up the stairs and find out," she suggested. "Someone is waiting for you there." He turned to the stairs. Stairs? He hadn't remembered those being here, but he began climbing them nonetheless, putting one boot in front of the other, more steps seeming to appear out of the air above. He turned around, but the bottom was lost from view. He shrugged, and kept climbing, until finally, the end was in sight.
Koren waited at the top.
Before him stood Angela, and Koren leaned in close to her. Angela remained carefully expressionless, even in her dress tattered and torn, but he saw anxiety in her eyes. It was some sort of magic that held her, that prevented her from fireballing him out of existence. Duran could feel the wizard's strength, though; Koren only had energy to hold one of them. He drew his sword, ready to slice the wizard's throat open.
"I wouldn't do that if I were you," the crimson wizard cackled maniacally. Koren slid one arm around her waist, pulling her body against his. "I'll stop her heart before you get that sword near me. But I will spare her, if you put yourself in her place."
Angela's eyes widened in fear as Koren spoke. "Duran, no... I'll do what he wants... just don't leave me, I can't lose you..."
It hurt to hear her plaintive cries, but Duran knew what choice a true Knight would make. He would have made it for any of his friends, but seeing Angela in Koren's clutches made the choice easier to bear. His sacrifice would allow her to live.
Duran stepped before Koren, and knelt before his enemy to lay his sword on the floor in front of him.
Koren shoved Angela harshly away from him, she stumbling before catching herself and running to the far end of the throne room. Unseen men grabbed Duran's arms. He could have fought them off, but he did not object as Koren chained his hands together with a magic bond.
His head was pushed to the floor to lie prostrate before the wizard, his body contorted painfully. He could see out of the corner of his eye, Angela, tears now running down her face. "Don't... please... Koren, have mercy..."
"No, Angela," he forced out. "You forget, I can feel his magic now as well as you... one, and only one, will leave here alive..."
Koren raised the Sword of Mana. Somehow fitting he should die by the Sword Angela had released. Angela screamed as the blade shone above Duran's neck...
...and he was back in Forcena, outside the Inn.
An ordinary, middle-aged woman approached him, her face careworn above the roughspun dress she wore. But there was nothing plain about her as she stood before him, eye to eye. The plain brown hair covered a power emanating from him. She reached to lay a hand on his breastplate.
"What is this medallion around your neck?" she asked.
He reached up to reassure himself the medallion was still, in fact, there. "The Lord's Medallion. The stone is rare, and a necklace like this has not been made for hundreds of years."
"Yes, it is." She fingered the coppery beads appreciatively.
She grasped the chain with a firm hand. With a sudden yank, she tore the chain apart, and as the precious beads bounced to the ground, they glittered in the suddenly fading sunlight.
--
Lise clutched the necklace she had been instructed to bring with her; she hadn't understood when the Fairy had told her to take it with her from Rolante, all those months ago, but it was now clear. She had been holding it in her left hand, close to her heart, when she touched the stone with her right, her spear hand, and the touch of both items was reassuring.
The Goddess greeted her warmly, a being of light, not substance, shimmering in a vague depiction of a female form. "Amazon Lise... Queen Rieszella... it seems only yesterday your mother was here to see me."
"Queen Minerva is no longer with us," she said sadly. Belatedly, she realized that the Goddess must already know, as she had addressed Lise as Queen.
"But though you did not know her well, I can tell you that you are your mother's daughter. She, too, faced every possible sacrifice thinking of the good of her people, and it was her son she died for. She would have been proud to see how well you took after her." Lise wasn't sure if tears were possible in this place, but she felt them anyway.
"Do you know what it is you are holding, Amazon Queen?"
Lise did. "The Briesingamen, the necklace of the last Vanadis, two hundred years ago. My great-aunt."
"Ah, so you would be a Vanadis. It is the strongest class for you. Your power will be that of a demi-goddess. They are the most divine of the Amazons, and I stay close to them always."
Lise had not told anyone what she had decided, least of all Hawk. Her time with him had been wonderful, but she knew he would try to talk her out of her decision. She had stayed up most of the last night trying to decide this, when she realized the second change was imminent, but she only regretted that this would hurt him too. "I need the strength to protect my people. I can never let the disaster that befell us happen again."
"And you would have it. You would have more power than the entire Amazon army combined." The Goddess did not have true eyes, but to Lise it seemed that they narrowed nonetheless. "But you know the sacrifice, don't you? Why the last was your great-aunt, not your great-grandmother?"
"Yes... but... I have a brother, the royal line would survive..."
"It's not enough to know. You must say it here, to know what you will give up."
Lise swallowed. She recited the words she remembered her teacher telling her as a young girl. "A Vanadis can never have children, for the divine cannot be reproduced. A Vanadis can never take a man as a lover, for he will die. A Vanadis can never take a man in marriage, for both will die." Lise looked at the Goddess. "You did that on purpose, didn't you? It's too dangerous for that much power to be given to humans for more than one generation."
The Goddess nodded. "Indeed. Reproduction is self-sufficient; I have very little power over the matter, now, and I wished to be able to choose my adopted daughters and sons. You say you are willing to make this sacrifice?"
"Yes." Lise thought her voice rang clear and true.
The Goddess did not agree. "I hear doubt, my daughter of the wind. Have you considered this?"
Lise saw herself, placing the royal cloak around the shoulders of her eldest daughter's fiancé, making them husband and wife. She herself had wrestled this man almost to the ground, to prove he was worthy of her daughter.
"Or this?" asked the Goddess.
Again. Her two elder daughters, twelve and nine, practicing the spear together, the youngest new to the skill, but her sister easing her into it, teaching her, pushing her without overwhelming her.
She tried to shake her head to clear it, but still, the possibilities swam before her, and she could not avoid them.
Again. She saw her sitting with Angela, on the terrace in the palace of Altena. Angela's daughter played with her youngest, the girls chasing each other through the snowy palace gardens.
Again. Hawk, her husband, holding her at the top of the Rolante tower.
Again. Hawk with her, surrounded by their friends, Amazon and civilian, celebrating another year of Rolantic freedom.
Again. Hawk with her seeking the dawn in Navarre; Hawk kissing her by the stream in Forcena; Hawk holding her in Altena, gazing into her eyes in Diorre.
She remembered the promise she had made to him, but never told.
The Goddess stood before her. "Well, Amazon, will you make this sacrifice? Will you take my power, for your people? Will you give yourself up yet again, this time forever?"
Lise fell to her knees, barely noticing the necklace sliding out of her fingers to land on the ground before her. Who was she kidding? She was not a goddess. She had met a man who belonged to another, gotten close to him, slept with him, fallen in love with him and kept wanting him until the day he finally was hers in truth. And now, she wanted him still, wanted him more than her brother, her people, her kingdom. Let him go? She couldn't. She wouldn't. Even as guilt wracked her, she knew she'd do it all over again.
Whatever tears meant here, they were streaming down her cheeks. She knew what she should do, but she knew what was going to come out.
"Noooo!!"
She felt the Goddess's gaze on her, and she looked up. "Knowing what you cannot do is as wise, and as honorable, as knowing what you can. You will keep this lesson with you... forever."
The visions faded, and Lise heard the Goddess's last words. "Amazon Queen... you will never have the power of the Goddess, but you will always have the power of the stars."
--
It was a cool, but not freezing, desert night. Inside the fortress, celebration was brewing. The sensual desert music drifted through the air.
Friends and acquaintances surrounded him, drinking, laughing. The thieves, the ninja, the dwellers of the night. Here it was that he felt most comfortable.
It was his first sight of the woman that drew him to her, laying on a bed of cushions. Her dark bluish-green hair lay in elaborate curls above her head and covered her naked breasts. Her left arm lay across her wispy skirt of desert silk, and her right hand, adorned with a golden bracelet that wrapped the length of her arm, teased the snake curling next to the pillows.
Of all the women he had been with, Hawk was sure he would have remembered this one. More than that, he felt like he had known her all his life. He walked towards her.
"Hello, Hawk." Her voice was a seductive purr that would have put Angela to shame. Wait, where did that thought come from? Who was Angela? Other names flitted through his skull. Lise. Jessica. Rydia. Women he'd known, women he'd laughed with, women he'd cared for, but still no name matched.
"I've come to see you, because..." his voice trailed off. Why was he here?
"What did you bring me, Hawk?" As she stretched towards him, her body shifting in a way that made his body stir, he stretched out his hand before he knew it. In it was a black die. Where did he get it? Why did he show it to her? Somehow, through the narcotic haze, it surfaced.
"I want the Gift of Mana."
"So you do. The Nighteye Die, from obsidian mined in the deepest caves of the Valley of Flames. Eagle gave this to you many years ago, keeping the other for himself, yet you did not follow his path."
Memory came back slowly, like a single line pointing from him to her. He had kept his die, even while in jail for his best friend's murder.
"Most of your kind choose the Ninja Master."
Yes, she was right. Once a thief chose the path of the Ninja, the goal was mastery. But there was a small minority who went the other way. Few talked about them; their speed, their stealth, made them deathly feared, even among Ninja Masters. Even in a thieves' guild, this path was frowned upon. The Nightblade was an assassin, plain and simple, death walking.
But their skills were incomparable. "I made my choice already. Now I can only follow it through."
The turquoise eyes of the seductress locked into his warm brown. "A Nightblade would have been able to kill Eagle."
It shot him through the heart. His people could see it that way. He did not know how many people understood, and how many people blamed him still.
He straightened, and looked the woman in the eye. Saying the next words was one of the hardest things he had ever done. "If a Nightblade killed Eagle, then he did so for a reason."
The woman swung her legs off the couch to stand, walking towards him. She was even more beautiful close up. "And so it would be. But it was not a Nightblade who killed Eagle, nor was it the man who stands before me."
She leaned in closer. She was of a height with him, and she stared into his eyes, and it seemed his soul. "Deal death when you see fit, Nightblade."
And she kissed him.
--
"Alright Kevin! We've got him now!"
The beastmen of the Beast Kingdom had welcomed him back, the hero of the Moonreading Tower, who had gone with only a small party to defeat the God-Beast. And now, he had gone with them to conquer another hated adversary...
Deathjester was in the center of the circle, held by chains. Up close Kevin could see his face was not truly a skull, but had grayish skin drawn tightly over the bones underneath, giving his face a gaunt and rotted appearance.
This was the monster who had killed his wolf friend, who had taken the lives of the Altenan sorceresses at the Tower, and who knows how many countless others. Worse still, he drained their lifeforce into himself. It disgusted him.
The Beast King stood over the prisoner. "My son... such anger... I give you the honor of disposing of this garbage." The beastmen rarely used weapons, except in ceremonial sacrifice; his father handed him the sword nicknamed the Deathbringer, taken from a defeated Forcenan Duelist long ago.
As Kevin reached for the sword, it began to glow with a faint light. Moonlight, like the cool light which bathed their forest. Kevin was suddenly afraid.
"What did you do, father?" he demanded.
"I did nothing. It was you, your desire for punishment, for revenge. Luna gave us this spell, to take the soul and strength of our enemies into ourselves to make us stronger."
Kevin hesitated. "Do it, Kevin," his father urged. "Luna knows that one life is much like another. Take this creature's life for yourself, and the lives of all he sacrificed."
A small flicker across the clearing, behind but above the crowd, caught his attention. The glowing figure was too small to be Luna.
The Fairy.
No expression showed on her tiny face, but he knew what she was thinking anyway. He turned back to the assembled beastmen.
"It's not right... killing for need is one thing, but to kill in order to steal life away..." In the wolf language, Kevin was far more eloquent than he had ever managed in Mana tongue. Growls were heard from the crowd. Among the beastmen, questioning the word of Luna was utter blasphemy.
The Fairy spoke, but it was not her voice he heard. It was a deep ethereal voice he had heard, that he had only heard once before in the Holyland.
"Life is precious, and limited." He had heard that somewhere before as well. It seemed, though, he was the only one who heard her voice.
"This is not the way the Goddess would want it," he shouted to the angry crowd. "This is not the plan She designed. Fighting is how we conquer fear, not how we derive pleasure. Humans violate the Goddess's pattern with wild abandon, will we stoop to their level? This is what we get for that."
He held up the metal ring he wore around his neck. He had told none of his friends when he made this, from one of the beastmen he had been forced to slay inside the moonlight tower. A beastman made this from his first real kill; it might have been Lugar, had Luna not regenerated him. It was supposed to show strength, what a beastman was supposed to be; but Kevin kept it to remind himself what he did not want to be as well.
In the center of the ring, a glass bubble held a sliver of a beastman heart.
The crowd shrank back from the amulet. Few of them owned such an item. It was said to house not only the heart of the deceased, but the soul as well.
Kevin put down the sword, and cupped his fists with the glass ball inside. "If the soul of this warrior chooses to give me his power, I will accept," he announced, addressing the crowd but looking past to the Fairy. "But I will not take it by force. If we are to survive, we cannot allow ourselves to lose compassion that way."
The Fairy nodded, and with a twirl and a flutter of wings, winked out of existence.
--
Carlie held the hand of her mother as she played in the flower meadow. She looked up at her mother's laughing, elven features. She giggled, and threw her arms around her mother.
But just as her mother bent down to hug her back, she began to melt away like a snowman in the sun. Carlie tried to hang on, but suddenly her arms were waving though thin air.
"Mama! Please come back!" she cried. "Too soon! Goddess, bring her back to Carlie!"
She thought her prayer had been answered, but the tall, beautiful woman who looked down at her was not her mother, though there was a resemblance. Where her mother had long, curling brown hair, this woman had the same hair in a coppery red. The delicate elven features were similar, but this woman's eyes were the same blue of Carlie's, not Shayla's hazel. The height and the figure were similar, but it was still not her mother.
"Wh... who are you? You aren't Carlie's mom!" she yelled, angrily, stepping back.
"Of course not," the woman said, giggling. "I'm you, Carlie."
Carlie was suddenly very confused, but she liked this woman anyway.
"How that happen?" she demanded.
"You're in the realm of the Goddess now, and she has a special message for you. She needs your help, maybe for a long, long time. Did you bring her a present?"
Carlie had been carrying her vial of holy water for as long as she could remember. Her Grampa said her father, his son Leroy, had gone all the way to the Holyland to get it when she was born, to bless the child of his forbidden love with the elven girl Shayla.
The grownup-Carlie sat down in the grass, playing with the bottle of pure, clear water. "This is a really great gift for the Goddess. She will love it. In return, she will help you figure out your Gift."
"What do I do next?" little-Carlie wondered.
"Well, you think about what you want! You could be a Sage, like your Grampa. You would be closer to the people that way. Or you could be a Bishop, and you will be closer to the Goddess. It all depends."
"On what? What does the Goddess want?" Carlie demanded of her big-self.
"Why, the same thing she wants for all her creations! To be happy, of course!" The big-Carlie laughed, and stood. "Well, Carlie, look at me, what do you want me to be?"
--
The Holyland had barely faded into view before Lise fell sobbing into Hawk's arms. "Hawk," she cried, "I've done it too many times already! I won't give you up ever again!"
There would be plenty of time later for Hawk to ask what she had seen to upset her like this, but for now he could only hold her while she cried, cried like she never had before. "There, there, Lise," he soothed her. "You'll never have to."
And he no longer was afraid she'd want to. Even as deadly as he was now, he understood they were on the same side, and would do whatever needed to be done.
--
Angela was angry. With no other outlet, she shot a fireball away from the group. It was much bigger than she had anticipated, and it veered crazily above the trees.
"Goddess, what's with you, Angela?" Hawk's sarcasm was only for her. The way he was holding Lise, snuggled forlornly in his arms, showed nothing but tenderness.
"The bitch tricked me! She said she would give me one thing, then she gave me the other!"
"You shouldn't talk about the Goddess that way," Carlie told her gravely.
"And who are you to tell me that?"
"I am a Bishop now. When the Goddess speaks, she speaks through me."
Angela's jaw dropped. That was a little more than she could handle right now.
--
Kevin looked at Duran. "Light again. Only Carlie picked the same. Why?"
Duran looked back. "I could ask you as well why you chose dark first, but light now."
The two fighters looked at one another for a moment. Finally, Kevin said, "You first."
"I didn't like what I might become on the dark side," admitted Duran. I hadn't thought I could become a Paladin, he thought to himself. A holy warrior of Light. I didn't think I could overcome my anger enough. But it seems we all have changed.
"Now, you?" Duran finished.
"In the first change, I realized I could not deny my heritage, I could only learn when to use it. But I needed to keep the light, to use it only when needed, and never to take." Kevin looked at Hawk. "In what we do, we must all decide when to choose life, and when to hand out death."
--
The sky looked the same as when they had landed in the Holyland, on Gnome's day.
"That wasn't so bad, it was right quick," said Hawk "Took only a few minutes."
"That's what you think," said the Fairy. "It's been a whole day. You couldn't think the Goddess would transform her heroes on any day other than the Mana Holy Day, did you?"