41 - Falling is the Best (Patreon)

Paul knew his threat was empty and Everin obviously knew it too as the Cleric laughed, “I doubt you’d kill the only other person you know of that can share the burden of knowledge about that accident-prone Wayfarer. Especially, when you know I’m sworn to protect her wellbeing. On that note, however,” the voxen said and added with a rare note of both seriousness and disapproval, “You shouldn’t have lied to her.”

The older noble didn’t look away from the ceiling as he grumbled, “She wouldn’t have listened if I hadn’t. Sometimes children need to hear lies to do what they should.”

Patricia let out a half-hearted laugh, “Now suddenly you think yourself the all-wise parent?” she mocked, then turned more serious, “Even a child doesn’t deserve to be spoken to like that by the one person they’ve learned to rely on and trust above all others.”

“She wouldn’t listen otherwise,” he retorted, gesturing towards the door that had been slammed behind the retreating Wayfarer.

“You’re one to talk. You’re behaving just as stubbornly. Both you and her, throwing a tantrum because you want to get your way,” the priestess chided, “At least she was trying to protect her friends from feeling as inadequate as you just made her feel.”

“I’m trying to protect them too!” he interjected, setting his glare on her now, “I wasn’t lying when I said I couldn’t be there to protect them. There will be multiple Emerald Casters and monsters, all designed for combat, and I have a rag-tag group of priests, crafters, and freshly ascended Emeralds who’ve barely been away from the tundra. We’re going to lose a lot of people, Pati.”

The Paladin’s expression softened and he hung his head as he finally admitted aloud, “Honestly, I’m worried that if their party was there, I wouldn’t be able to focus on the fight I need to be focused on. What if I sacrifice other lives to save theirs? I might be making all of this appear like Phoenix is the one I’m most concerned about, but I care about all of those kids. I don’t want to lose any of them and I’m not sure what extent I’ll go to in order to keep them safe.”

She gave him a warm smile of understanding, “Now that is spoken like a true parent.”

“My goddess doesn’t like you taking away their freedom of choice, Lord Wayland,” the Cleric of Rebel said, fluffy white tails wrapping around the man as he readjusted on the stool. “She worries that you’re stunting their growth.”

“They can’t grow if they’re dead,” he stated flatly, “You don’t understand the threat the Corrupted pose. If the Soul Reapers are willing to stoop to using them, then we’re all going to be fighting an uphill battle to contain the taint while defending ourselves from an enemy that doesn’t seem to care if they destroy the world and leave it a rotting mess.”

“We don’t know if that’s actually their goal,” Everin pointed out, “We haven’t heard any reports about massive outbreaks of Corruption. I think we would have by now if the Soul Reapers were actively using them to spread the taint.”

Paul scowled at him, “Even if they are showing some restraint, that doesn’t make what they’re doing not wrong and twisted.”

“I agree,” Patricia spoke up, “But that doesn’t mean we have to completely shelter our children from the reality of what being an Adventurer is. They have and will continue to face threats that they’re not always ready for and our job is to prepare them as best we can so they will triumph. You’re not even giving them the chance to stumble when sometimes falling is the best way for a child to learn to get back up again.”

“You think dying in battle is a fall worth learning?”

“Don’t try to twist my meaning,” his younger sister retorted, “I think this is a battle that has too much on the line to keep some of our most talented Crystal and Sapphire Casters on the sidelines.”

“They’re a single party,” Paul scoffed.

“It’s not your choice to seize and control, Lord Wayland,” Everin said firmly, “Warning them away, informing them of the risks and danger, explaining exactly why you think it best that they stay behind is absolutely something I would encourage,” the voxen expounded, “But lying and forcing them to comply like some tyrant is almost ensuring open rebellion and strife between them and yourself.”

The human’s eyes narrowed at the Cleric of the Rebel, “Are you threatening to incite insurrection?”

Everin snorted a laugh and gave a sly grin, “I bet it would barely take a full sentence to push them. They may be devoted to you, even love you as a father, but they have shown themselves to be, first and foremost, Adventurers.”

Paul grimaced and was about to retort when the Healer added preemptively, “How about a compromise?” When he didn’t interrupt the Cleric explained, “I’ve been assigned to your side during the initial counter-assault but you’ve been close to hitting Ruby, correct?”

The Paladin nodded, “A couple more adequate challenges to execute and I’ll ascend, if we can take a break for it. Even with the expected days of recovery, I think I can power through it to take out any true remaining threats before resting.”

“Well, how about once you break and ascend to Ruby, I take over babysitting the kits to make sure they won’t die from tripping?” the Cleric offered, “You can always come find me for a pick-me-up should you need it but at Ruby the remaining work should be inconsequential. That’s why we requested a Ruby Caster from the capital, after all.”

Paul grumbled, “I doubt they’ll get here before the fighting starts. That’s if the Queen even allows relinquishing one. They’ve also been fighting greater threats than we have during this blood moon. I’m honestly surprised the gods have been offering what help they have been in this small remote area of the world. But you and I both know that the higher the Caste, the less likely a Caster being a combatant is. They too often die chasing immortality, which makes the living ones all the more invaluable during a blood moon.”

“Well, giving them some hope that they’ll be called in as reinforcements might help allay the kits’ fears of being useless,” Everin pointed out, “Explain that you don’t want to worry as you focus on pushing past the threshold and that they can join you when you’re Ruby may help mend the rift you just caused.”

Patricia gave the voxen a side glance and asked, “Do you have children, Cleric Starlark?”

Everin laughed, “No, but I remember being a rebellious teen that fled to a temple in an effort to escape the vice grip of my parents,” the man said, giving Paul a pointed look, “I wouldn’t want to see them follow in my footsteps this time.”

The Paladin gave a resigned sigh and nodded, “I’ll try talking to them before they refuse to speak to me. I have another guest I’m expecting soon, however, so it will have to wait.”

Paul smiled as a soft knock came from the door to his study and he called for the visitor to enter. Patricia and Everin had left him alone a while ago to get some actual work done and things situated before he left for the tundra at dawn to confront the enemy while the monsters were weakened by the lack of moon power.

A young woman with soft brown hair that fell to the base of her neck cautiously opened the door and he gestured for her to come sit, “Camilla, I’m glad you decided to come and visit before I left in the morning. I have a feeling I’ll be too busy for the next few days.”

She nodded quietly and walked over to carefully take a seat, pushing her glasses further up the bridge of her nose, “You wished to talk about Tulisuda?”

“I wished to talk about you and see how you have been,” he corrected, then pulled out his journal that her soft brown eyes flicked to momentarily before returning to the floor.

He had become practiced at this over the years and learned that while most might think he was being inconsiderate by writing while talking, as if not paying attention, it put his cousin more at ease. The expectation of social conversation lessened.

“I-I’ve been well,” she said softly, “Busy. W-which is good. Not bored.”

“That’s good,” he said, scratching down random notes on the paper, “Teras seems to appreciate your efforts. Do you enjoy working with him?”

“Yes,” she answered promptly, which made him smile more, “He is kind like you.”

“I’m very happy to hear that,” the Paladin replied, “Do you want to talk about what you’ve found so far in Tulisuda?”

Camilla didn’t smile nor look at him but the way she seemed to sit up straighter let Paul know that she was excited about the topic, “Yes. The Rift is not odd anymore. Lord Teras did well enough and I finished fixing the ley lines that run through them.”

She paused and Paul understood the signal she was giving as he prompted, “Good to hear we didn’t break anything too badly.”

“The Identification Orb was able to inform us of what the anomaly you discovered within Tulisuda was. This was fascinating as the orb did not have much information to give. It called the anomaly a ‘Corrupted Pseudo-Reality Seed’ but only gave the assumed information that it converts the ambient mana into a higher Caste while slowly corrupting it.”

Paul frowned but didn’t interrupt as she added with rare confidence, “The Reality Seeds are a bad oddity.”

He nodded absently but wrote more notes in his journal. Questions that came to mind for him to ask Ethan Teras later instead of bombarding his cousin with them. The Paladin was surprised when the Magi seemed to suddenly hesitate and ask him a question instead, “I hear some people say Paul's heir is a bad oddity, others say a good oddity, and some say she is not odd enough. What is Paul’s truth?”

His chest tightened at the question like it always did when she asked him with those exact words. It always brought back the wave of memories that had driven them to get to this system of mutual understanding.

Her foolish father, his mother’s younger brother, thought that buying Camilla Aspects and forcing her to become a Caster would ‘fix’ her but there was nothing to fix; at least, not in Camilla’s case. She was different, not the norm, an oddity. But that didn’t mean she was broken; just that it was harder for others to understand her perspective.

He had spent time with the girl when she was much younger and found a system that helped bridge the difference; to help her understand him and him to understand her. He explained that most people were “not odd” and rarely changed. These people saw anything different from that as either a “good oddity”, that should be accepted and strived towards, or a “bad oddity”, that should be shunned or destroyed.

It broke his heart when she had come crying to him a few days after that to proclaim that she must be a “bad oddity” since everyone was being mean to her. It took him a while to calm her down and explain that oftentimes people got those labels mixed up and that their truth wasn’t everyone’s truth; that people often disagreed about what was good or bad and that she needed to decide what her own truth was.

“What do you think I am? Am I like everyone else?” he had asked, wiping away her tears.

“Paul is an oddity?”

“Very much so.”

“Paul is a good oddity,” she had declared, and he had been hit once more by the similarities the girl had with his youngest sister whom he had lost almost two decades beforehand.

He knew that he had to correct her, however, despite being a Paladin of the Purifier and claiming to be righteous, he knew that he butt heads with too many people that didn’t always deserve his ire, “There are a lot of not-odd people that would disagree and say I’m a bad oddity.”

“Paul is kind. Kind is not bad. Paul is good,” she had managed to point out through her sniffles.

“I’m not always kind. I often hurt others who stand against me.”

“Paul is kind to me. Paul is good to me. That is my truth,” she had logically concluded and surprised him by wrapping tiny arms around him.

He had returned the rare gift of a hug as he assured her, “And my truth is that you are a good oddity, Camilla.”

Paul’s mind returned to the present, shaking away the memories, and saying with a gentle smile that he knew the now-grown adult woman before him would see in her periphery, “Phoenix is a good oddity, like me, and like you. I hope you will agree to meet her soon, she likes enchantment puzzles like you do.”

The researcher nodded ever so slightly as she struggled to promise, “I-I will try.”

“I will be there to help,” the Paladin reassured, “I don’t think she will overwhelm like some of the others.”

“Others?”

“Her party, King’s Dream. They’re mostly all good oddities.”

“Mostly?”

He gave a crooked smile, “I’m still debating on one of them but the others seem sure of him being good, despite any evidence to the contrary.”

“Is he… is he a mean one?”

Paul stopped jotting down questions regarding Tulisuda to think about that before saying, “No. He’s actually putting the others before himself quite often.”

“Is he a stupid one?” she asked with a slight scrunch of her nose towards the floor before glancing towards the wall of books to his right and Paul chuckled.

“I’m not sure, to be honest,” he admitted, “He rarely speaks in my presence which may be a point towards being not stupid.”

“Is he a lazy one?” the Magi inquired, apparently having cultivated a list in his absence of what she qualified as deserving of the “bad oddity” category.

Paul gave a relenting sigh, “No, despite all the cards stacked against him, he still managed to make friends and become an Adventurer. Even if I didn’t witness it myself, I know accomplishing that would have taken a lot of dedication and hard work.”

“So he is a good oddity too,” she concluded.

He laughed and admitted, “I think there’s a bit more than that to consider but-”

Another knock at the door interrupted his rebuttal but he called for it to open and his head steward, Roger, peeked a head in to say, “Apologies, m’lord, but Mister Uriel Karislian wishes to speak with you; though, he claims it’s not urgent but needed before you leave for the front.”

“Speak of demons and they appear,” he muttered with a nod before ordering, “Tell him I’m with another visitor but will call for him when I’m done.”

“Of course, m’lord,” Roger said, quickly retreating.

Camilla was staring at the ceiling now but asked before he could resume what he was saying, “This Uriel Karislian is the oddity you were speaking of?”

“Yes, we have a bit of a history. I found him while doing some work for the Purifier,” he explained.

Her eyes went wider in surprise as she asked, “So you think he is a bad oddity because he is a demon?”

Paul blinked, rewinding over his words for a brief moment then chuckling and shaking his head, “That’s not exactly what I meant but feels like it’s not far off.”

“Can demons be good?” she asked but the way she said it made it sound more like an academic inquiry rather than an accusation against Karislian.

“Not if the stories are to be believed but they are so rare it’s hard to know for sure,” he admitted and theorized, “It might be that we only share stories about the bad ones because the good ones live peacefully without our notice.”

She nodded and then finished her logical conclusion to the topic, “Then he is a good oddity until he is not.”

“I guess I’ll have to wait and see then,” he agreed, having only a vague suspicion about why the young cinderen was finally seeking him out now.

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