“I don’t want that,” Wataru answered, his voice clear. “I’m sorry, but I can’t help you.”
Onba blinked, and her tongue swept across her face. “A foolish choice.” A swollen, green hand slid across the floor toward Wataru. Wataru leaped to the side.
“Why? Why do you run from us? Is it our body you hate? Is something so empty, so devoid of meaning more important to you than a chance to sit upon the throne of a god?”
“That’s not it,” Wataru said, shaking his head. “I don’t run because I think you’re ugly. I run because you tried to deceive me. You should have told me the truth from the beginning. You should have showed me who you were. Maybe I could have found a way to help you. Maybe we could have made this journey together.”
Onba’s mouth gaped. “Such sweet lies! Had I appeared before you as I am now, you would have run without so much as letting me speak!”
“I would have been surprised, sure. But if I had only known the truth earlier, if I had known how you truly feel, I wouldn’t have run.”
“You lie!” Onba spat, slapping the floor with her webbed hands. “Traveler! Betrayer! Your fate ends here! You wish to change your destiny? Fine! I’ll crush you into the very dust of the Dark! How’s that for a change?!”
With a tremendous roar, Onba’s grotesque body lifted off the floor and launched at Wataru. The demonkin in her wet skin rippled with a life of their own.
Wataru drew his sword, leaping to one side to strike at her flank.
Light blazed from the tip of the Brave’s Sword. For a second, it blinded even Wataru. The sword felt light as a feather in his hands.
Onba twisted and opened her mouth, releasing a blast of foul air. The force of it nearly knocked Wataru off his feet, and he found it difficult to breathe. His hands and face stung as if he had been burned. Poisonous breath!
“How many Travelers have you tempted like this, Onba?!!” Wataru shouted, rolling across the floor to stand a short distance away. “How many Travelers have you stopped here, spouting the same pleas and offers of power? You pity me? No, I pity you!”
“What gives you the right, child of man?!” A sickly-green fist connected with Wataru’s side, sending him flying across the room. It hurt to breathe. It hurt even to open his eyes. The poison is going to get me if I don’t do something quick.
“Your life is dust to me. I will swallow you whole!” Her tongue rose like an independent thing, darting through the air with a wet thwap to snake around Wataru’s body. He cut it away with his sword at the last moment. Onba screamed.
Light streaked through the air in the sword’s path. The power of the Demon’s Bane was guiding Wataru’s hand.
At last Wataru realized why he needed the Demon’s Bane to climb the Tower of Destiny and meet with the Goddess. He needed it to fight this last temptation that stood before him and the completion of his journey. He needed to defeat this unwanted thing that whispered to him of another way. This was the final trial.
Once he realized this, there was nothing to fear. Wataru jumped in front of Onba, feet apart, sword raised. “You cannot defeat me. You cannot defeat the sword.”
Onba howled like a wounded beast. The mottled demonkin pattern on her skin swirled like a portrait of madness. “Child!” she screamed, letting loose a blast of foul miasma.
“The time’s come to set right all the wrong you’ve done here, Onba.” The Brave’s Sword—the Demon’s Bane—shone brilliantly in his hand. “It is you whose story ends here! You will not return to the Dark, you will not wander the abyss. Vision is your true home. As you were in the beginning, so shall you return: to fragments, a memory in the hearts of men.”
Onba howled with rage and charged. Wataru met her head on, the point of the Demon’s Bane aimed at a spot directly between her eyes, which burned red with hate.
For an instant, Onba’s entire body gleamed as bright as the sun. The demonkin horde writhed in mortal pain.
And then she exploded into a thousand particles. The pieces scattered, swirling through the air like snowflakes. Not a trace of the giant frog remained. The particles seemed to melt in the air, fading into nothingness.
Only her scream lingered, trailing off through the air until the last particle was gone.
Wataru put the Demon’s Bane back in its sheath. He wiped the sweat from his brow with a hand.
“Thank you,” he said, though he wasn’t sure who he was thanking or why. The words just came to his lips.
Wataru walked across the chamber, stepping over the top of the glowing star pattern on the floor, and passed through the praying hands of the last arch.
Chapter 56
Wataru’s Wish
Another long staircase. This time the stairs climbed not in a spiral but in a zigzag.
He could no longer see the walls of the tower around him. The reflections of images from his past were also gone. He was surrounded by a void—the color of the sky just before dawn. At the top of the stairs hung a circular platform that had to be the Goddess’s throne. It was like Wataru was floating in space, and the staircase touched the outline of some unknown constellation.
Getting closer, Wataru could see someone sitting right in the middle of the disk. He steadied himself. Finally—the last step.
The seat of the Goddess.
A girl was sitting quietly in the middle of that crystal disk. She was wearing a long-sleeved dress of pure white, and she was looking down at her lap. Her long hair was tightly bound on her head, revealing the slender, graceful curve of her neck. An aura of pure light enveloped her body.
She lifted her face and a single curvy strand of black hair fell down upon her forehead.
It was Kaori Daimatsu. Again.
“Wataru,” she called. Her lips were the color of cherry blossoms. “You’ve finally arrived. This is the end of your journey. You have reached the Tower of Destiny.”
Confused, Wataru shuffled his feet. He didn’t want to step back, yet he was afraid to go forward. Kaori smiled brightly. “As it was with Onba, mine is also a borrowed form. I took her shape from among the people of the real world that you hold in your heart. But I am not Lady Onba. I do not wish to deceive you, nor harm you in any way. Be at ease.”
I am the Goddess of Destiny.
It was the same voice, yet filled with an incredible presence.
“Why…” Wataru opened his mouth. He felt like his soul was melting and running down his legs. “Why Kaori?”
The Goddess smiled again. “I believe you already know the answer to that question. Lady Onba told you.”
“Because…” Wataru put a hand to his chest. “Because she has been in my heart?”
The Goddess nodded. “She, like you, is an innocent soul who became victim to a cruel fate. As you traveled to save yourself, you wanted to save all those who suffered as you did. That was your true objective, whether you knew it or not.”
“‘Those who suffered’? Does that include Mitsuru?”
“Of course. He was in your heart as well.” Then she added in a whisper, almost too soft for him to hear, “From the very beginning.
“If you speak the wish that is in your heart now, I can make it come true. That is why I’m here. Do you understand?”
“I understand,” Wataru replied in a squeaky voice. His forehead felt like it was on fire, and his body was trembling.
The time has come at last. The time when my wishes will be granted.
“Then, come to me,” the Goddess of Destiny called to him. “Take my hand, and put your wish into words. Give your wish unto me.”
Then those long, slender arms—Kaori Daimatsu’s arms—reached out toward him.
All was silent. Wataru found himself wondering at how such pure silence could be so calming. Only his steady breathing marked the passage of time.
One, two, three. His heart beat with each breath. I’m alive. I’m here. Me.
Me…and everyone else.
Wataru took a jerky step forward, then another. No one had t
aught him the proper procedure. Even Wayfinder Lau hadn’t told him how to behave in the presence of the Goddess. Wataru went down on one knee, took her hand and placed it on his chest, and bent his head.
“My…wish…”
“Yes?” Her soft voice seemed to stroke his hair.
Make your wish into words.
From long before he had realized what his true wish was, Wataru’s heart had already known. It had been waiting patiently for this moment. When the words came, they came without a moment’s hesitation.
“Goddess of Destiny. With your power, destroy the Mirror of Eternal Shadow. Break it, like the Mirror of Truth, into countless fragments, and spread them through the land. Please, destroy it. Cut off the paths of the Dark and save Vision.”
The Goddess’s white fingers were motionless in Wataru’s hand.
“Is this your wish?”
“It is.”
“Do you understand the entire nature of your wish?”
“Yes, I do.”
“Do you understand that I may only answer this one wish, this one time. You will never have a second chance.”
“I understand.”
“Will you not regret this? If I grant you this wish, your destiny in the real world will not change in the least. Can you tell me that you walked the long road to the Tower of Destiny, overcoming many hardships, all for the fulfillment of this one wish?”
The Goddess’s words wrapped around Wataru like gauzy ribbons of silk. Wataru grabbed each one of them and held them close.
“You are certain? Even if Vision is saved, your fate will remain as it was.”
Wataru looked up. The smile had faded from the Goddess’s face, her expression was stern, and her black eyes were focused on Wataru.
“No,” he said. “I think you’re wrong. Save Vision, and you will save me.”
The Goddess’s head tilted slowly. “On your way here, you saw the disaster that has befallen Vision. You saw the demonkin hordes attacking your traveling companions. That is why these things are burned so strongly into your mind now. You think only to help your friends and save Vision, above all else. But, Wataru, think again. You will never return to Vision. You do not live here. Nor will you ever meet your friends again. You go from here back to the real world. And when you do, you will realize. Once again, you will face the cruel destiny that has found you, and you will find it not a bit changed from when you left. Will you not curse your fate, and be ravaged by regret?”
Wataru managed to smile, surprising even himself. “Like you say, I first came here to change my destiny in the real world. I swore to myself I would do it when I started my journey.”
But it’s different now. Everything is different. I can see that now. “I was wrong. I was looking at it the wrong way. This Vision, it’s my Vision. I walked its roads. And as I did so, I created it around me. I made this world. It’s me.”
Protecting Vision from the demonkin is the same thing as protecting myself. “When I go back to the real world, my fate will be waiting there as it has been this whole time—I know that. But it’s not like it was when I left. I’m not who I was before I came to Vision.”
“So you say you have grown stronger?”
Shaking his head, Wataru continued. “I don’t think I’ve gotten stronger. In the real world I’m still just a kid. That’s why all I could do when things went bad was cry. Because I’m powerless.”
And I still am. I can’t do anything by myself. I cry when I’m lonely, and I tremble when I’m scared. I fear that what I loved will be taken from me, and I’m afraid of being hurt.
“The time just before I came to Vision, I was sure that I would never be so sad in my whole life. I thought I would never hate another person so much, or get so mad. I wanted to change my fate because I knew then I was the unhappiest I could ever be.
“But, when I came to Vision, I made friends and I had fun—a lot of fun. Sometimes so much that I forgot why I had set out on my journey in the first place. At the same time, I encountered things that were so sad they tore me apart, and times so scary I thought I might die from fright. I cried. I cried out loud. And I shook with fear. Sometimes I was so frightened I couldn’t even stand. But I couldn’t run away. I still had to continue my journey. I still wanted to reach the Tower of Destiny.
“And now that I’m finally here, I understand. My journey through Vision wasn’t to reach the Tower of Destiny at all. The journey itself was the point. It taught me that even if I relied on your power to change my destiny, it would only be this one time. I’m sure that I’ll know many more happy times, and many more sad times. I can’t avoid that. That’s life. And I can’t go asking to have my destiny changed every time something sad happens to me.”
Wataru never thought he would cry as hard as he did that night he crawled under his bed. But he cried when Kutz died. And he cried when Mitsuru faded into the mist.
And there would be more partings, more losses, more wounds, over and over, again and again. He could change his destiny a hundred times, and each time another loss or separation would be waiting for him on the other side.
As long as there is happiness, there will be sadness. As long as there is fortune, there will be misfortune.
“The joy and the sadness on my journey through Vision taught me that you can’t wait around for your fate to change. What’s real is something that not even the strength of the Goddess can change. The only one who can change it is me. If I don’t change my own destiny, if I don’t cut through the obstacles in my path, then no matter where I go, I’ll always be standing in the same place, doing the same thing over and over again, for the rest of my life.”
That’s why I have to protect Vision. That’s why I can’t let the demonkin win.
“But I—we are powerless to defeat the demonkin. Left as it is, the darkness will swallow Vision whole. That’s why my wish to you is to save Vision. Give my Vision a future. Give my friends a future.”
Wataru stopped talking and looked at the Goddess’s face. Her eyes were closed, though her eyelids were trembling, as though they might open at any moment and return his gaze.
But the Goddess’s eyes remained closed. Her white hand in his was motionless, without feeling, like the hand of a finely crafted doll.
“Even should this invasion be stopped, it does not ensure that Vision will have a future,” she said, slowly shaking her head. “You know this as well as I do. I fear that the Northern Empire and the Southern United Nations will not find harmony. The war will continue. Nor will the discrimination you saw on your travels end easily. Knowing this, would you still use your one chance to change your destiny in the real world to help the people of this Vision?”
Wataru was sure. “Yes. Absolutely.”
The endless, foolish, and stupid waging of war, the narrow minds that could only see what they believed and nothing else, impatient hands that reached only for the nearest, most convenient pleasures, all of this was part of Wataru’s Vision too.
It’s all in me.
“There’s a point to all the mistakes, the comebacks, the rethinking, the living—the living for all you’re worth. There’s a point to finding our own path. Please, give the people of Vision a chance to find theirs.”
Inside, Wataru was perfectly calm. He had said all there was to say. He was now filled with a soul-satisfying contentment.
He bowed his head again deeply.
Then he felt the Goddess’s slender fingers tighten around his own.
“Very well.”
The Goddess leaned forward and lifted Wataru’s chin in her hand. The smile had returned to her face. The aura enveloping her was dazzling to behold. “I shall grant your wish. Stand.”
Wataru stood, straightening himself as best he could.
“Give me your sword, the Demon’s Bane you have completed.”
Wataru drew the sword from the sheath at his waist, handing it to her with both hands.
The Goddess stood without a sound. “Look at your feet.”
Wataru lowered his eyes and gasped. Images were swirling across the circular dais beneath them.
Where once the Crystal Palace stood, the Mirror of Eternal Shadow now floated. It was supported on mist-like wings the color of night. Darkness swelled along its edge, and from that portal swarmed the demonkin armies. Even though it was just an image, the sight filled Wataru with unspeakable dread. He found his eyes glued to it, even as he stepped backward.
Demon’s Bane in her hand, the Goddess stepped forward, sweeping back the hem of her white dress. She thrust an arm straight before her, holding the blade directly above the image of the mirror. “Traveler Wataru. Here is your answer, from the Tower of Destiny given to the land below.” The point of the blade lowered, and the Goddess quietly released her grasp on the hilt. The sword began to fall, falling through the dais, into Vision, toward the Mirror of Eternal Shadow.
Down in Vision, everyone turned their eyes toward the sky.
A single beam of light came down from the heavens. It was the sword of light and it split the sky in two.
Then the piercing light sank into the Mirror of Eternal Shadow.
The great dark wings supporting the mirror flapped twice as if they were desperately clawing at the sky. After that, they began to fade. Without their support, the mirror tilted to its side. And just when it seemed as though the darkness brimming in the mirror might spill out, a bolt of lightning cracked the mirror to pieces.
The residents of Solebria witnessed the Mirror of Eternal Shadow splinter. First into two, then four, then eight, each crack spawning new fissures of its own, until it had broken into a thousand pieces.
The mirror now destroyed, the demonkin hordes were pulled back into the Dark from whence they came—their bodies reduced to black ash falling from the sky.
Everyone saw the source of their terror disappear in the blink of an eye. And before they could react in any way, the dusty remains quickly vanished.