Chapter 573: Humility or Hubris (Part Two)
"Huh?" Ollie said, struggling to understand the sudden leap that the conversation had taken. This whole time, he’d never said no to work that would help, no matter how simple or menial the task, he never once thought himself to be someone who was too important to roll up his sleeves and help the villagers with whatever they needed... so how had his behavior all the sudden become a demonstration of hubris?
"Ollie," the vision of Ashlynn said with a pained expression on her face. "I’ve wondered if you were courageous or stubborn for pressing on even in the face of an impossible task, but I like to think that you truly have a heart filled with the ability to confront your fears and overcome them each in time."
"But now, when you have achieved an outcome that saves the people you were charged to protect and the only people who fell in battle were men who agreed to shoulder the burden and the risk alongside you," she said.
"If you still can’t accept the outcome of the battle because you believe that somehow, if you just work harder or learn more or try just one more time, you could do better... is that the humility of the Ollie I scrubbed pots with? Or is it the hubris of a witch growing drunk on their own power?" she asked, giving Ollie a piercing look that shook him to the depths of his being.
"I know this isn’t the ending that you want," Ashlynn said, reaching out to hold his hands as gently and tenderly as she could. "Anyone would prefer to survive to fight another day instead of dying a heroic death alongside their closest friends. It isn’t wrong to hope for better and to take what you’ve learned in this trial to fight for a better outcome in the real world."
"But what you’ve achieved this time," Ashlynn said, looking directly into his eyes. "Can you accept it as the very best outcome you can achieve with the skills you have developed so far? With everything you know and all that you’ve learned, can you accept this as the best outcome, not forever, but for right now?"
"What happens if I say that I can’t?" Ollie asked. "What happens if I want to try again? Every time I’ve tried, I’ve learned so much that I do better the next time. So, if I take everything that I’ve learned from this time and I try again... If I can achieve a better outcome, isn’t that even better?"
"Ollie," Ashlynn said softly as she stretched up to cup his cheek. "I would love for you to have that, but there is only so much time left for you to face this trial. Already, it’s a precious gift from the world for you to experience months of time in mere days, learning and growing more in this period of transition and transformation than many people will ever learn over the course of years," she pointed out.
"If you want to try again, you can," she said, stepping back away from him. "I can reset the trial and allow you to face it again as many times as you wish. But Ollie," she added with a pained expression on her face. "From now on, I can’t promise you that you will make it back from your trial, no matter the outcome. It might be better, and you could come out of the trial even stronger than you would now. It might be worse, and it would diminish your results, but you would still have a narrow window of escape..."