Chapter Seven- A Safe Bet

"Every failure brings with it the seed of an equivalent success." - Napoleon Hill

As soon as the bell rang Patricia asked, "What's wrong Eddie? And don't say 'nothing'; you squeezed my hand so tight I thought I lost circulation for a second. Something's up." Patricia could read him as easily as a book. She knew exactly how to tell if he wasn't saying something.

"I had a vision…" he said quietly and almost insecurely. He proceeded to tell them what he had heard.

"What do you think it means by 'He/she is vulnerable to influence. He/she has always been.'?" KT asked.

"Well," Fabian started, "obviously part of it means just what it's saying, yet the other part you have to infer what it means."

"In English?" KT asked.

"Pretty much," Nina answered in a less riddle-like way, "it says that the Knowledgeable One is vulnerable. However, we can only guess at what they are vulnerable toward. I'm guessing since it's 'vision worthy' that he/she is more vulnerable toward evil than either the Chosen One or the Osirian."

"So, in Alfie terms, on a scale of one to ten, how much do we have to worry? With one being 'Alfie, there's a spider on your shoe' and ten being oh I don't know… 'Alfie, all of our friends have been turned into evil Frombies, and we can't trust anyone because the world is going to be taken over by the dark forces of Ammut who has turned a good man into and evil man; the same man who was asleep for decades, but came back to life thanks in part to you'."

Nina rolled her eyes at Alfie's comment and Fabian responded with, "About a five."

"So it's like 'Alfie climb up the chimney to get your artifact even though you're afraid of dust, small places, and getting caught by a Frombie'."

"Maybe slightly lower than that," KT answered with a laugh.

Fabian, Alfie, KT, and Nina went off but Eddie slowed down behind them and Yacker followed his pacing. "Eddie, what's wrong?" she asked.

"I just feel so powerless… you know. I thought, well actually we all thought really, that we knew everything. Now we don't. I should be the one to have answers, yet I'm just as dumbfounded as everyone else. I'm a bad Osirian. I haven't done my job." He sounded so unsure of himself, so vulnerable. He was supposed to be the protector and everyone assumed that meant that he was supposed to be strong all of the time, but it wasn't so. The worse thing about all of it was that, he felt like he couldn't even talk about his weak moments because he felt like he was letting everyone down.

"Eddie, you know that's not true. I mean the Osirian before you tried to take over the world a few times; so by default you aren't the worse." She smiled a little at that comment, but he didn't think that it was all that funny. "I'm not really good at this whole sympathy thing, but I'll try." She paused for a moment to gather her thoughts.

"Eddie everyone fails, it's a part of life. The most important thing is to not dwell on it, because dwelling on it will only over shadow all of your successes. You have been a huge part in saving the world… twice. I'm betting that's not something many people can say."

He smiled, "That's probably a pretty safe bet, Yacker."

She continued. "It's okay if you don't have all of the answers. We will have this figured out eventually, and that's all that matters. I know you can do it." She hoped that this was enough of a confidence boost.

He gave her a soft kiss on the lips. "Thanks Patricia," he said and they walked with their arms around each other to catch up with the others.

"What happened to you guys?" KT asked slightly making fun of them. She assumed that they had probably been off somewhere snogging. Patricia's rebuttal was just to stick her tongue out at KT, which received some laughter from the crowd.

The drama teacher, Ms. Saunders, walked into the room. She was in her late forties and still single, but she had enough cats to give each one a job doing one chore in her house and she'd never have to lift a finger again.

"Sit down children," she instructed. "We are going to be reading Julius Caesar…" The teacher went on, but no one was really paying any attention. The couples were in their own world and KT was buried deep inside her thoughts about the Knowledgeable One. It wasn't until Ms. Saunders clapped her hands, her usual sign to begin working, that everyone realized that no one knew what was going on.