A/N: Sad to announce my editor/beta reader will no longer be my editor/beta reader because of real life stuff starting to encroach on her time. She did say however that my chapters have progressed very well. This chapter all she needed to do was correct punctuation, but she felt it wasn't too big to give back to me with the fixes. I may or may not find a new editor/beta reader. I'll think about it, but for now, a huge thanks to her for her help on chapters 20-25 :)

Chapter 25

In the night, I had another nightmare. I thought I was done with these? It was the same nightmare as last time, me dying alongside my village. I woke up, but wasn't as freaked out. I'm getting used to these. I groaned out of annoyance and turned over onto my side. I closed my eyes again, hoping to get back to sleep. I just laid there for what felt like hours, but when I looked at the clock, it had only been a few minutes. I sighed heavily and just got up. It's about 2 AM. I went out to the kitchen and splashed water on my face. I laid my hands on the edge of the sink and leaned, mostly putting the weight on my right side. The nightmare took up my thoughts. I started to cry silently, maybe I'm not as used to them as I thought...

'Ianite?' A moment later Ianite came out of her room.

"Oh Lucky, what's wrong?" She wrapped her arm around me and led me to the loveseat.

"I had another nightmare..." She held me to her and gently, slowly rubbed my back.

"What was it about?"

"Same thing... village getting overrun by zombies... I died alongside them... I thought I was used to the dreams but..."

"Of course you wouldn't be used to them... It was a major shock to you that you found out what happened after forgetting about the tragedy. You haven't had time to grieve properly. Yeah, you broke down that one time, but you'll never get used to or get over the death of your whole village. Just know, I will always be here for you Lucky." I smiled into her shoulder.

"Thanks Ianite..." After I calmed down, "I'll always be here for you too, if you ever need anything." She returned the smile.

"Thank you Lucky."

"Can we stay like this? I don't want to leave your embrace... not yet... you being right here next to me is bringing me peace."

"Of course." I settled into her embrace, wrapped my arms around her, laid my head against her shoulder, and closed my eyes. She gently smoothed the hair that falls down my back, which lulled me to sleep. This time I had a pleasant dream. It was peaceful in the world, I was completely healed, Ianite's presence felt more peaceful than turmoil. We must have won against the Darkness. Gandus was with us, I must have gotten through to her. By 'us', I mean Thornar, Hrodi, Ianite, and I. Ianite and I looked even more in love than ever, I noticed. Gandus was using magic, but it was good magic. Thornar and Hrodi must be teaching her themselves. Ianite and I were watching over her.

"Almost Gandus, don't get frustrated. The switch from evil magic to good magic will take your wand time to adjust," dream Thornar said.

"I know... I just wish it wouldn't..."

"I understand." The scene then changed, Gandus, Ianite, and I were all at Adventure Island, sitting on the shore.

"So, how's your magic practice going Gandus, getting any better?" dream me asked.

"A little... it's really tough..."

"I can imagine. All I can tell you is to just keep trying, keep on going, keep with it. You'll be able to get it eventually. It takes hard work and dedication to be able to do something."

"I know. I do try."

"It's all we can ask of you," dream me said, smiling gently. Then the dream ended there and I woke up again. This time it was light outside. Ianite and I were still on the loveseat, but Ianite's head was resting on her hand, her elbow on the arm of the loveseat, and her other hand was resting on my back. My head was in her lap, I'm on my stomach with my left arm at my side and my right arm stretched forward between her elbow and the back of the loveseat. My feet were dangling off the other arm of the loveseat. I heard Ianite groan, her arm and hand must be numb. I don't know how long she's been like that, but a prolonged period of time like how she was, that'll do it.

"Mornin' Lucky... ow..." She took her hand off my back and rubbed her arm. Yup, her arm and hand are numb.

"Mornin' love." I sat up and stretched. I kissed her cheek and she smiled.

"I take it you didn't have any more bad dreams."

"I didn't. I actually had a pleasant one. I believe it may have been a vision of the future. Though... this wouldn't be near future. Dianite said my visions would be of the near future, but it felt so real..." I explained to her what I saw.

"Well Lucky, sometimes dreams can feel very real. Maybe this dream just felt realistic. I mean, I do hope you can get through to Gandus, but I just know she won't listen to you. She sure didn't listen to me..."

"Wait, you tried getting through to her? When?"

"This was well before you came to us." Ianite went on to explain how Gandus came to her in a time of need and how Ianite helped her. Then when Gandus snapped, Ianite tried reasoning with her, but Gandus didn't want to hear it. Ianite then decided it was best not to push Gandus and never went back to try again.

"Wow... well, that's not going to deter me from trying. As I said before, I'm stubborn. I won't give up." Ianite settled for a smile.

"Let's get your bandages changed." I nodded and we went to my room and I sat on my bed.

"Stupid Wot... making me suffer through bandages and crap... He really needs to be reigned in... We need to bring him down. Can Light help us Ianite? Maybe we could win with Light on our side."

"Angrec huh? I wonder if she'd even want to help..."

"Angrec? That's Light's name?" Ianite nodded. "Hmm... do you know where Angrec resides?"

"Of course I do. Angrec's my mother." That surprised me.

"Um... what?" She giggled.

"Yes, she's my mother, and the Darkness, not Wot necessarily, but the person the Darkness infected before, is my father."

"So your, Mianite, and Dianite's parents are Light and Dark... What?" Ianite giggled again, seems she finds my confusion amusing. I grinned.

"Yes Lucky. How do you think the three of us stands for Order, Balance, and Chaos? Mianite takes more after mother, Dianite takes more after father, and I try to keep the peace between the two. I don't need to with the Darkness reigning powerful right now. Now we all need to work together to, as you said, reign it in. We need that Earth stone. I really hope you and Dec can find it today. That's what your task is today. As your goddess, I'm giving you a job today. Either Mianite or Dianite will be giving Dec the same task. You and Dec are to meet up at Adventure Island and head out together in search of the Earth stone. When you find it, you tell one of us gods and whichever god you tell will tell the other two. Tomorrow Mianite will call to all three heroes to tell them to meet at Adventure Island." I nodded. She'd finished bandaging my shoulder up by now, so I stood up.

"You got it Ianite. I will work together with Dec and listen to his instructions carefully. I'll do the best job that I can." She smiled and gave me a quick kiss.

"I know you will. Now, let's go." She disappeared and a moment later I was teleported to her. We were the first ones here. We sat at the firepit waiting for Dec. It didn't take too long until he showed up. We stood as he arrived.

"Good morning Dec."

"Good morning Lucky. Are you ready to search for the Earth stone with me today?"

"I'm more than ready. Let's go. Sooner we leave, sooner we can find it." Dec chuckled.

"Alright, alright. Well say your goodbye to Ianite and we'll get going." I grinned and embraced Ianite.

"I'll be back later with news of our findings."

"Good luck my brave champion." I nodded and kissed her cheek, then went with Dec to the shore. We boarded a boat, Dec taking the oars. As we went off,

"So, how's life with a goddess as a girlfriend?"

"It's just fine. It feels like a normal relationship. Only difference is she can teleport and make things out of nothing. Oh, and the fact she's immortal... well, actually so am I now, but that's beside the point. She's lived for so long, she's seen so many things that I couldn't even imagine... sometimes it's a little overwhelming, thinking of the things she's seen in her thousand years of life... but I'm glad I get to be there for the rest of eternity with her. I love her so much."

"I'm glad you've found happiness Lucky. You were so alone, so aloof when you first arrived. I've never seen you as happy as you are now that you've got Ianite as your girlfriend." I smiled.

"So, Dec. How do you normally try and find the Elemental stones? Do you just go in a direction and hope to find one?"

"I mean, kind of. It's really sometimes guessing, sometimes I get a feeling of where one could be, but the Earth stone... it's being pretty elusive. Lucky, let me let you in on a little secret. I have a crystal ball that I use to get ideas of where stones are. Though, as I said, the Earth stone is being elusive. Even my crystal ball hasn't been able to give me even the slightest hint."

"Whoa... you have a crystal ball? Dude, that's epic! Wait... doesn't that make you psychic?" Dec chuckled.

"No, it doesn't. I'm not the one telling the future, it's the crystal ball telling me." I thought about that a bit. I mean, makes sense I suppose. After sailing around for a while, we finally came upon something that looked promising. We got off the boat and searched around, splitting up. I found some things Dec might want to see...

'Yo Dec, come to me, I found some things.' I gave him my whereabouts. A few moments passed as I looked at the journal and item in the chest. He came up behind me and I gave him the journal to read first. It's Ianite's. It says part of what she told me before about Olivinite and Oakinite.

"Clues. Clues that the heroes must discover and piece together themselves. Lucky, you may still go on adventures with the guys, I do, but you can't tell them where to go or give them the answers. You must let them figure things out on their own. You can, however, give them hints if they get stuck. I usually do." I nodded. Dec took out the item that was in the chest alongside the journal.

"What even is that?"

"It's a piece of the Earth crystal... I do not have its core this time. The heroes must find all the pieces this time, even the core. They must give it to me so that I, the Priest, can put it together."

"Can I watch you? I'll be High Priestess one day, so I need to watch you do things that I should know how to do too."

"Of course. You don't need to ask. I was going to instruct you on how to piece together the stone anyhow once the mission to find the pieces is done." I nodded, good. I want to learn everything I can and do everything I can to become High Priestess. He put the piece back in the chest and we continued onward. Along the way, we found more clues and items.

"It looks like the heroes will need to find 8 pieces of the Earth crystal plus its core, give them to you, and read Ianite's journals to piece together her history and Olivinite and Oakinite's history," I concluded as we reached the shore of where our boat was.

"You got it." We'd taken all day to find the Earth stone and what we need to do as Priest and Apprentice Priestess. Dec had also changed my bandages for me in a safe place during this time as well. By the time we got back to Adventure Island, it was pretty late.

'My lady, we are back at Adventure Island.' Ianite appeared at the shoreline as Dec and I got out of our boat.

"Welcome back Dec, Lucky. What have you found?" We gave her the run down on everything we found and how the guys should go about the mission. She smiled. "Good job, both of you, and thank you. You may go Dec. Lucky, let's go home." Dec inclined his head and boarded the boat for the last time tonight and went off to his island. Ianite disappeared and teleported me into my room. I laid in my bed.

"You don't need to change my bandages. Dec already did before we left to come back here."

"Alright. Good job today Lucky. I'm proud of you. Good night." She gave me a quick kiss and left for her room. I grinned and fell asleep, happy with how today went.