Delver Magic III: Balance of Fate, Jeff Inlo [most popular ebook readers .txt] 📗

Enin gave him more time than he first intended. As the serp moved beyond his sight down the sloping tunnel, Enin waved his hands in front of the shag. Two pure white circles appeared at the wizard’s fingertips and then dissolved in front of the monster’s face.

At first, the shag appeared dazed, as if waking from a long sleep. It peered about the tunnel trying to get its bearings. Finally, it sniffed the air. It caught a scent and turned about. Without delay, it bounded after the serp.

Enin watched the departing monster with a heavy sigh. This signified the true end for everything that had happened. All those that had played a part in the attack on Connel would face the consequences of their actions. It seemed almost as if each and every matter of importance had found a suitable conclusion—from Baannat’s destruction to the dwarves restoring of their own honor. Everything appeared to be as it should, until he thought of the delver and Ryson’s own deliberations regarding what was right and what was wrong. Ryson always seemed to have such a definitive measure of things and the wizard wondered what the delver was thinking at this very moment. Enin turned to his friend and asked the question outright.

“I need to ask you this, Ryson. Do you think I just did the right thing?”

Ryson looked down the tunnel. He knew the shag would catch Sazar, knew that the serp would die. He then looked down at the ground and thought of Lief. He believed the elf would have approved without hesitation, but the question was did he approve.

“Sazar came here on his own,” Ryson offered. “He brought the shag with him. He put himself in this situation, and I think we can all agree he didn’t come here planning to do anyone any favors. No one twisted his arm. All you did was remove Sazar’s control of the shag. You once told me that you can’t keep people from their fate. I’m not entirely sure about destiny and all that, at least not the way you talk about it, but I do understand that you can’t always escape responsibility. Eventually, it catches up to you. And in truth, I think that’s the way it should be. Sazar pushed the limits, and tonight it caught up with him. The only one that gets blamed for that is him. I don’t think it’s a matter of approving or disapproving of what happened here. I just accept it.”

With that, Ryson thought of Lief again. He also thought of Reader Matthew, the old man in Pinesway, and even Edward Consprite. None of them asked for the situation they were placed in. Lief didn’t want to be banished from his camp. Reader Matthew certainly didn’t ask to be sent to the Lacobian desert. The old man in Pinesway didn’t want goblins to attack what was once his home. Even Edward Consprite didn’t ask for the events that led to his removal as mayor—the return of magic to the land.

These were events beyond their control, but their actions to deal with these events were not dictated to them. Each and every one of them made choices. Lief turned his anger outward to the land and on to its inhabitants. He died fighting valiantly against an evil sorceress, but Ryson wondered how much Lief had lost of himself before his own end. Matthew courageously gave his life to save Ryson, and in the process reforged his faith. The old man in Pinesway might be dead or alive, Ryson had no idea. He was living in a dangerous place and that was his decision, but it was a decision based as much on honoring his deceased wife as it was an unwillingness to accept other alternatives, other paths to travel. Finally, there was Edward Consprite. He died when Lief’s arrow pierced his heart, but there was little left to save by that point. He had moved beyond a bitter and angry man and became a deviant dealing death for those he blamed for his misfortune. Ryson always found it difficult to believe that any creature deserved to die, but it was just as difficult for him to believe Consprite didn’t deserve his fate.

In the end, Ryson found it impossible to judge any of them. It was not his place. Everyone can’t determine the circumstances they face. To Ryson, most of it always seemed like nothing more than blind chance. He never understood why one person was forced to face so much adversity while another simply could glide through life without having to face a single challenge. That never made any sense. He knew good people that faced constant misfortune and people of lesser character that somehow found wealth wherever they looked. It didn’t seem fair and that always bothered him, it always would.

He then considered what Enin tried to tell them all, how everyone had a choice. Maybe they couldn’t determine the fortune of their circumstances, but they could decide how to deal with it. He thought of his very own words and how often things came down to simple matters of responsibility and acceptance. He told Enin he would just accept what happened here this night and that is what he was determined to do.