Book 9 Prologue

Chase chuckled and lightly shook his head while he walked away from the keep. Lord Jerard was going to have quite the shock when he woke up from his drunken stupor. He’d made quite a few vows and promises during that period that he’d likely regret. Some of which he would likely find incredibly hard to back out from.

As much as he’d had to drink, it was unlikely he’d realize he hadn’t been the one to actually make those vows.

In the end, they’d all be better for it. Though he always found it to be such a shame he had to go to such lengths for such minimal rewards. Why was offering aid such a difficult thing for most? Especially those who already had so much? Perhaps thinking like that was why he so rarely found himself in a position to offer such aid himself.

Oh well, he had a full belly, a song in his heart and a long walk ahead of him. Perhaps he--

Chase stopped when he felt someone watching him. The smile fell from his lips and he glanced around. “Hello?” he called out.

He was greeted by silence.

Chase gave a soft sigh. “Listen, I know you’re there. Listen, there’s no need to hide.” He held up his empty hands. “I’m unarmed. If you intend to rob me, well, I could hardly be an easier victim. Just--”

“As if you could ever be easy,” a voice said. He heard heavy footsteps and after a few moments a tall, armored figure stepped out from the treeline. Across their back a large dark sword rested, a strange darkness that even seemed to stick out across the shadows of night.

“Listen, if you want my money then--”

“I don’t want your money,” the figure said before walking towards him. He tensed up and readied himself for their attack. Except instead of gripping their sword, they knelt before him. “Chosen of the Gauntlets, please. Help me.”

Chase just stared at the figure, his mouth falling open. “I… what?”

------

“So, let me get this straight,” Chase said before lightly flexing his fingers. The gauntlets felt so strange on his hands. Perfect, like they had been made for him. Comfortable. Almost soft. When he put them on he’d felt so strong and powerful for a few moments, turning all around him to ice in an instant, only to melt it a moment later. As if the gods themselves were at his fingertips. Which, he supposed, they were. “You need my help to kill a little girl?”

“No,” Gil said. “A monster.”

“Who is a little girl,” Chase said.

“A monster who has entrapped the soul of a little girl,” Gil said. “A monster who has trapped Arta and every day gets a little closer to tearing his, her, soul apart. Who comes a little closer to taking total control. For all I know this is just another sign that Arta isn’t in there anymore, that all that’s left is that monster.”

“A little girl monster, then,” Chase said. “I know a few. Have you tried--”

“Yes,” Gil said.

“I didn’t even--”

“Yes, I have tried it,” Gil said. “I have tried everything. I have tried again and again and again. I have believed. I have fought. I have attempted to negotiate. I have tried to save him. I have trusted him to fight it off. I have tried to delay it. I have tried to save him. Over and over and over. I have believed his lies. I have believed that he could do it. That, somehow, he could win. I have had to watch…” A hand moved up over their chest and he cringed when the sound of the metal claws of their gauntlets scratched against the chestplate over their heart. “I have had to watch, helpless, as my friend was devoured and became that monster. I have had my very heart torn out by what he became. I have watched him twist and turn everything good to evil. I have watched him fall apart, again and again and again. I have watched him laugh as he burned the world around them. I have stood their helpless while he begged me to stop him, to not let him do this. I have failed him over and over. You cannot begin to understand what it is I have done. How many lifetimes I have tried to save him. Do not ask me to just believe this time. To trust. To try and find some better way. If there was, I would have found it. The only way I can save Arta is to stop him before he falls. No matter what he says, no matter what he tries to make me believe. This is what he wants. What he needs.”

Chase stared at the armored figure. The more time he was spending with this Gil, the more he was starting to feel he understood them. He once thought that armor they wore was to keep them protected and strong. A dangerous tool. Now he felt he was beginning to understand. That armor was nothing more than a punishment. Almost a visual representation of the chains they’d bound their soul in to protect them from what they felt they must do.

He wished he could help them, but he didn’t know how. He didn’t even know if they could be helped at this point.

------

A banquet unlike any other. Normally he would have been picking at it by now, a nibble here, a bite there. He picked up a berry and gave it the softest squeeze, causing a droplet of delicious juice to drip out. He knew if he licked it then it would be the best he had ever tasted.

Odd how unappetizing it looked. He tossed the berry back onto the table.

“Few would turn away from a feast of the Boar,” a deep, cold voice said.

Chase didn’t answer for a few moments, instead staring at the feast. Finally he lifted up a foot and kicked the table over, scattering the food across the ground. “I’m not hungry,” he said, unable to keep the bitterness out of his voice. He never would have thought he’d feel so affronted by the gods. Offering him food at a time like this.

The table and food vanished, leaving him alone for a few moments in that white, empty void. “You are our Chosen,” a new voice said. “Anger, rage, they are not yours to wield. Yet--”

“Joan is going to die, isn’t she?” Chase asked. “We’re going to stop this, we’re going to save the world. But she’s going to die. She’s going to be the sacrifice for all of this? Do you really expect me to be hungry after what she just showed us? Well? Answer me! Is she going to die?”

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

For a long while there was silence until, finally, the voice returned. “We do not know,” the voice said. “But we believe so.”

“Is there anything we can do?” Chase asked. “There has to be something. We--”

“We have done all we can do,” the voice said. “You understand naught what you ask. What would happen were we to do more. You are our Chosen. The extent of what we can do.”

“Then how am I supposed to fix this? How are WE supposed to fix this?” Chase asked.

He was greeted by silence, then.

“Well?” Chase asked.

“That only the fates can know,” a far softer, gentler voice said. An apple appeared in the air in front of him. Compared to the ones on the table it might as well have been a dried out husk. He took it with a sigh.

“There are no guarantees,” the second voice said. “There are no promises. Not for you. Not for us. Not for her.”

“For Gil?” Chase asked.

“Not even for the Child of the Fates,” the second voice said. “We offer what aid we can. What protection we can. From here, it lies in your hands alone. We hope, we believe, you can save them.”

“And if we can’t?” Chase asked.

“This weight should never have been yours to bear,” the second voice said. “But it is the one you asked for, lest the world be crushed by it.”

“This isn’t fair,” Chase said. “This shouldn’t by our burden.”

“It should not,” the first voice said.

“Yet it is,” the second said. “Would you abandon it and leave it to another?”

Chase sighed and took a bite of the apple before shaking his head. It tasted warm, in an odd way.

“Neither shall she,” the first voice said.

“She was not Chosen by us as you were,” the second said.

“She was not made for this, as the Champion and Guide were,” the first said.

“Yet she’ll keep trying, won’t she?” Chase asked. “I’ve only known her a few days and yet…”

“You’ve all known each other for lifetimes,” the first voice said.

“She looks to all of you just as you look to her,” the second said.

“Chosen by the Champion,” the first voice said.

“Shaped by the Chosen,” the second said.

“And tempered by the Guide, then?” Chase asked. He took another bite of the apple before sighing. Now just to see if this new weapon would be as strong as they needed, or if it would break.

------

“Just calm down and let me talk to him,” Chase said before lifting a hand to rub his forehead. He thought he knew how to deal with demon children. Joan had to be simple in comparison, right? Ohhhh, he was so wrong. No wonder the Hungry One never stood a chance. Just a few days with this small child and he was already wondering how Hardwin survived this.

Hell, how did JOAN survive this?

“I can’t believe you know Old-man Gozrug,” Joan almost yelled. “I can’t believe he actually has both legs this time.”

“What?” Chase asked.

“Oh, don’t worry about it. Oh. Oh my gosh, yessss!” Joan said before running off ahead.

Chase rolled his eyes before glancing up ahead at Gozrug. The ogre looked good, all things considered. A smug smirk on his lips. He glanced at Joan when she ran past him, but quickly looked back up at him. “Well well well, finally had a kid have you?”

“Please,” Chase said. “I wouldn’t condemn anyone to a life with me. I’m just trying to keep her out of trouble for the time being. I hear you have something for me?”

“Indeed I do,” Gozrug said before giving a light chuckle and then motioning behind himself towards the maze-like structure. “If you believe you can get ahold of it.”

“What did you do?” Chase asked before cringing when he saw Joan go running inside. Well, she seemed to know what she was doing, it would probably be fine.

“My masterpiece,” Gozrug said. “No thief, even you, could ever hope to get through these traps.”

Chase cocked an eye when he said that. “Traps? What--” The words died in his throat when he saw a pair of spears jam through the side of the wall. A part of him almost ran forward to try and drag her out of it. But he could still hear her giddy, excited squeals. “What kind of traps?”

“You’ll just have to experience it to find out yourself,” Gozrug said with all the confidence of a man who had obviously never met Joan. “After those pirates, well, I knew I was going to have to truly challenge myself to ensure I didn’t have another incident like that. Then finding out you were one of the Chosen? Ha. It all made sense then.”

“I wish I’d known,” Chase said before cringing when he saw fire rise out from one of the rooms. What in the world? “Are you sure it’s safe? I mean, traps don’t sound--”

“Of course it’s not safe,” Gozrug said before reaching out to pat him on the shoulder so hard he was almost knocked over. “Nothing I do is safe! These are the kind of people who want to ensure nobody can get a hold of their treasure. Half of them try to kill me once the job is done!”

Chase cringed when he heard some loud thumps, then another giddy squeal from inside. Just what in the world was that girl up to? “You’re absolutely certain I can’t get through it?”

“Nobody can,” Gozrug said with a light laugh. “But, I am a man of my word. If you get to the end, you’ll find the Silver Beetle waiting for you. Just like--” The words died in his throat when he looked back in time to see Joan leap out from the other side of the maze, holding a large silver beetle in both hands over her head in victory. “That… that… how? That’s… impossible. How?”

“Ohhhh I haven’t done one of these in ages,” Joan said before stretching out. “I mean, sure, it’s wayyyyy easier than the later ones, but it’s nice to know I can still do them.”

“It may be Chosen-proof,” Chase said before giving a light chuckle. “But I don’t believe anything is quite Joan-proof.”

“That’s not… how did… she couldn’t… she’s a child… she… how?” Gozrug asked.

“Trust me,” Chase said before walking towards her and holding out his hand, which she dropped the beetle into. “All of us ask ourselves that almost daily.”

“This was a lot of fun, Old-man Gozrug!” Joan said giddily. “Can I come back and try again when you finish it?”

“Finish… it?” Gozrug asked.

“Yeah,” Joan said. “I mean, it doesn’t even have the pendulum blades yet or the spiked crushers. Those were my favorite!”

“Uhhhh… sure… kid,” Gozrug said before giving Chase a look that he, himself, so often wore these days. Chase just shrugged.

How could he possibly explain Joan?

Still, it was nice to see her so excited again. Without the world ending.