Magical Engineering

While Timon and Roberts handled getting the man we needed, I took some time to have dinner with Elody. I was looking forward to seeing what she knew about golems while we had a quiet meal together. The little time we had started to share had surprisingly proven to be one of the best ways to help me relax, and I hoped that would still hold true despite the added stress of William’s kidnapping.

“So you awakened a stone, and it has immediate access to your soul chat?” she asked after eating another bite of food.

“Yes, though I’m not sure if that’s strange, as all the dungeon cores immediately get access as well. What worries me, and Karlinovo as well, is the strange way it keeps speaking,” I said.

I then read to her some of the messages it had sent, as well as gave her a rundown on the prophecy we had heard before the jester attack had derailed everything. She was the first person to learn about it since our return. We just hadn’t had a lot of time to cover that yet with everything else going on.

“That’s interesting. Well, we do know the Earth is expanding from the dungeon energies, but the speaking part seems a bit unnerving. I’m not entirely sure how to tie it in with what you heard at that gathering,” Elody started.

Two of her eyes rolled back in her head in a way I had never seen before, as the rest of her face looked deep in thought for a moment. The top two eyes returned to their normal orientation just as she started to speak again. “As far as I can remember, I’ve never seen anything relating to the prophecy before. Though, as I’m sure it’s obvious to you, laugher burning from chaos likely refers to the jesters.”

“Yes, it had been nice and stupidly hopeful that the prophecy had nothing to do with us for once. In hindsight, it was an idiotic desire that was far too good to be true. As much as I try to run from it, everything seems to revolve around us. The frustrating part is I don’t understand why. From a pure numbers game, it shouldn’t be happening.” Many of the feelings I had built up over the last couple of days came out in my words.

They were meaner than I had intended. But Elody just continued to smile as she picked at her food. She understood I hadn’t meant the anger at her, at least I hoped she did.

“You’re entirely right there. Sometimes, though, that’s how things seem to go,” she went silent for a moment, biting her lip as though she was debating saying something.

All four of her eyes turned to look into mine, and then she started speaking again. “Sometimes some Olkerfins are born with an odd extra sense. It isn’t widly talked about, nor is even fully understood. But those of us that possess the sense are able to tell when someone they encounter causes a ripple in fate, or probability. There is no consensus on exactly what it is, just that it alters something about reality around them.”

I sighed slightly, having a feeling of where she was going with this. I had no idea how I felt about it. “I take it you have that sense, and you can see me rippling fate?” I asked.

“Yes. The only person I’ve ever seen who pulls fate along in quite the same way is my mentor, and even he pales before what the growing swirls around you have become. I can’t tell you what it means or how it will affect any of us, just that you are almost certainly bound to play a giant role in the future of the Spiral,” she answered with an apologetic look on her face.

“Honestly, I’ll take it as an explanation. It’s better than the nothing we currently have. I know most people would probably hear the idea of being told this like they were the main character, or some victim of cosmic stalking, but I think to me it’s more along the lines of whether we have free will or not,” I replied.

“Interesting view, but I’m not exactly sure what you mean by the last part on free will.” Elody was still studying me as she spoke again.

“Free will is irrelevant. Either we have it or we don’t, and nothing that can be done in regards to that idea can change it. So it just doesn’t matter. If I’m some sort of person who causes fate to ripple, or it’s just that things are happening that we get stuck in, I don’t think it matters either way. We still have to react to it the same way,” I answered, not sure I had done the best job explaining it.

“I think I understand. I’ve never heard anyone react to the news quite that way. It’s generally why we don’t tell anyone of our visions,” she replied, smiling gently at me.

Before I could respond, a message window popped up.