Apparently, the Sprite was back at the sanctuary.

  Honestly, I could have just figured that out. If I had just waited, I wouldn’t have embarrassed myself like that.

  Ah, whatever.

  We arrived at the sanctuary. I softly whistled as I impressed myself again with the renovations. But it wasn’t the time for that.

  I quickly spotted the Sprite on a tree stump. Telling Shade to stay back, I walked over to her.

  She was laying down, watching the night sky with a melancholy look.

  I went to her.

  I didn’t talk just yet though. I simply stayed by her side.

  I watched the small fish dart through the wide, winding stream below, their silvery scales catching the dim light. Just above the water, Neris floated peacefully inside a delicate bubble, fast asleep. Her chest rose and fell in a steady rhythm, and every so often, she murmured something unintelligible in her sleep.

  A little farther off, I heard the deep, rumbling snores of the Fyril, rising and falling like distant thunder. Her campfire crackled and hissed softly beside her, sending up occasional sparks that danced in the night air.

  Overhead, gentle hoots echoed from the birdhouses nestled high in the trees. The owls must’ve been having their own quiet conversation. From the corner of my eye, I spotted the Vayra curled up on the roof of one of the birdhouses, sleeping comfortably as if the hoots served as a lullaby.

  They all slept peacefully.

  Except for the Sprite.

  “I didn’t take you to be the crying type.”

  She blushed, glancing off to the side. “I’m sorry you had to see that. I didn’t mean to lose my composure.”

  I sat down on a tree stump beside her, my tone light. “Something you planned, huh? Like traveling the world with me?”

  She shot straight into the air, her face turning crimson. “How do you—?” Her expression faltered as realization dawned. “Oh. Mother must have told you.” Slowly, she drifted back down and settled on the stump again, folding her wings tightly behind her. “I should have known. Even when I was just a young spirit, I knew that Mother sees everything in the forest. I should have known that she knew what really happened all along.” She hugged her knees to her chest. “Or maybe I did know, but I lied anyway. Maybe that’s why I was so relieved when she didn’t question me further.”

  “Do you resent her for that?”

  “........No. I don’t.” She squeezed her legs tighter. “It’s not her fault.”

  “What makes you say that?”

  “No one can defy fate. Not even her. We were taught that from the moment we were born.”

  “Then why were you so furious with her?”

  She sniffed, her voice low. “I guess I just needed someone to blame. I’ve lived with years of guilt, disgust at myself for what I’ve done. I nearly got my sisters killed because of it. So when I found out it all could've been avoided, if only Mother had stepped in sooner, I-......I snapped.”

  I was quiet for a moment. “Shouldn’t you blame me, then? I was the one who almost got you all killed.”

  She shook her head. “I could feel how hurt you were by the way we treated you. It was karma for what we’d said to you. But even then, that hatred, that contempt toward your kind, it came from me. I can’t blame you or my sisters. I was the one who gave them that anger. I should have been the one to die there.”

  There was only one person left to name.

  “Then, do you still blame yourself?”

  She tucked her head down between her knees. “Am I wrong to?”

  I let out a long sigh. “I suppose not. But it’s not like it was only your fault.”

  She lifted her head slowly, looking at me. “What do you mean?”

  “You could always try blaming fate.”

  She gave a soft, bitter laugh. “No, I could never dare. That would only anger the gods.”

  “Even if it would, isn’t it still true? Aren’t the gods the ones who hold our lives in their hands? Don’t they choose whether we suffer unbearable pain or bask in eternal happiness? Aren’t they the ones who decide how we live and how we die? If anyone’s to blame for how hard life can be, wouldn’t it be them?”

  The Sprite stayed silent, staring into the distance.

  “But you’re also right. Maybe it’s not right to blame fate for every small misfortune. You shouldn’t curse the gods every time you stub your toe.”

  She gave a small, genuine smile. “That would be improper.”

  We sat in silence for a few minutes.

  “Do you want to know a secret?”

  She looked at me with curious eyes.

  “I’m not from this world.”

  Her eyes widened.

  Beric-

  “Sys.”

  ……..Okay. I'll trust you.

  “Have you ever heard of worlds parallel to Zarvendia?”

  The Sprite nodded. “Only in stories, but yes.”

  “Well, the world I came from, Earth, is completely different from Zarvendia.”

  “Earth.” She repeated the name like it was some ancient relic, long buried and newly unearthed. “Earth.”

  “Let’s see.........Ah! You remember those houses you were so surprised by?”

  Her eyes lit up with a spark of curiosity. “Yes?”

  “Picture those, but imagine them reaching as high as your oak tree.”

  This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

  She released her knees as she stared at me in wonder. “They rose that high in your world?”

  “Yep. And guess what? We had things called cars, which were made of steel, that could take you anywhere you wanted. Think of them like super-fast wagons, except they didn’t need animals to pull them.”

  “Woah.” Her voice was barely a whisper. I could almost hear the gears turning in her head as her imagination scrambled to keep pace. “What kind of magic did you use to build them?”

  “Uh—” I cleared my throat. “Actually, we didn’t use magic at all.”

  She blinked, stunned. “No magic?”

  I shook my head. “None whatsoever.”

  Her jaw slowly dropped. “Then how did your people create such amazing things?”

  I tapped a finger against my temple. “With these. Our brains.”

  She tilted her head slightly. “Just that?”

  “The human brain is powerful. It’s been used to create entire worlds, machines, medicines, cities, even ways to fly through the sky.”

  Her eyes widened with awe. “What an incredible world!” She flew up and gazed at the oak tree that stood towering. Her expression was visibly brightened by such an interesting world, but it then fell again upon another realization. “Then why are you here?”

  Ah.

  I awkwardly laughed. “You see, I didn’t……..really like my life back there.”

  She flew to my shoulder. “Why?”

  I scratched my neck. “I didn’t really have that many friends, and I couldn’t exactly do what I wanted to.”

  “What did you want to do?”

  “I wanted to be an adventurer, but sadly, that didn’t work out.”

  “Why not?”

  “When you become so advanced, eventually, there’s not much left to do. Earth had already been explored almost entirely. There wasn’t really anywhere new to discover. And people, well, they stopped caring. They didn’t care about the deep oceans, the frozen mountains, or even the vast caves that spiraled down into the abyss. All they cared about was money, popularity, and themselves.”

  I laughed quietly. “As for my parents? They were totally against it. They thought I’d end up homeless chasing such a reckless dream, or worse, that I’d get seriously injured, maybe even die. After all, we didn’t have magic to shield us from danger. All we had were our brains.”

  The Sprite gently fluttered down onto my shoulder and sat there, wings slightly droopy. “I’m sorry to hear that.”

  “But I guess it’s alright. After I…….died, I met someone.”

  Her eyes widened slightly. “Who?”

  “Death.”

  A cold shiver ran down my spine. Was it a coincidence?

  “Death?” Her voice wavered. She looked nervous.

  “Oh, don’t worry. He’s actually a pretty chill guy. If anything, he’s just kind of pitiful.”

  She blinked, clearly not expecting that. “Pitiful?”

  “Yeah.” I gave a small shrug. “Anyway, we struck a little deal, and after that, I ended up here.”

  She swallowed softly. “What kind of deal?”

  “Well, I can’t reveal everything but, when I die here, I’ll have to take his place.”

  A chill breeze slipped through the sanctuary, rustling the leaves above us.

  “You……you’ll take his role?” she asked, almost in a whisper.

  “Yeah. As soon as I die here, I’ll become the new Death.”

  She shifted uncomfortably on my shoulder.

  “You probably think I’m an idiot for agreeing to that, don’t you?”

  She hesitated, then slowly nodded. “A bit.”

  I let out a long sigh. “You’re not wrong. What kind of reckless fool trades his soul for eternity, to become the new Death, all just to live one more life in a different world? It’s stupid, right?”

  “I would say so,” she said honestly.

  “But still, I can’t say I regret it.”

  “Really?”

  I nodded. “Yeah. Because of this second life, I’ve met so many people I never would’ve otherwise. People I care about. People I can say I truly love, even if I didn’t mean to at first. They made someone as edgy as me smile. And not a single day has gone by where I haven’t laughed, even just a little.” I brought my hands together, clasping them gently. “I really do love this life. I cherish it.”

  She smiled. “That’s nice to hear.”

  “And you know,” I said, leaning back slightly, “I feel like thanks to this new life, I’ve……just enjoyed everything more.”

  My thoughts drifted back to the bandits.

  “Did you know a group of bandits kidnapped a family near here?”

  “Really?” the Sprite asked, concern flickering in her eyes.

  “Yeah, and guess what?”

  “What?”

  I cleared my throat dramatically. “I saved them.”

  Her eyes widened. “Really? How?”

  I turned away, cupping my hands over my face, then spun back and did the eyelid trick.

  “AHH!” she shrieked, flinching back and zipping a few feet into the air.

  I laughed loudly at that.

  She looked at me with an angered look.

  “I used this little trick, while also covering myself with blood, to convince them I was a vengeful spirit. Somehow, they actually fell for it and handed the family over without a fight.”

  She slowly regained her composure, cheeks slightly red as she settled back down and cleared her throat. Despite herself, a bright smile broke through. “That sounds…….incredibly dangerous.”

  “It was-” I admitted, “but it was also exhilarating. I never had moments like that on Earth. That’s why it’s moments like this that make me feel so grateful to be here. I don’t regret it, not even a little.”

  I paused. Something darker pulled at the edge of my thoughts.

  “But that’s also why I was so terrified when I fought that orc.”

  The memory overtook my mind.

  My mind flashed to its grotesque figure, the brute strength in every blow, my breath strained as I tried to avoid every hit. I remembered the agony, the helplessness. The terror of dying not just in pain, but in the shadow of everything I’d come to love. The thought of being ripped away from this life-

  It terrified me.

  “I almost died to that orc.”

  The Sprite gasped, a sharp inhale of breath that sounded too small for the weight of those words.

  “I remember hating myself,” I continued, my voice low. “For losing to such a mindless, stupid monster. What was even the point of surviving? How could I have made that promise to Death, to trade away my soul, if I was just going to die there? I had so much to do, so much to see, so much I still needed to say to my family.”

  I felt her tiny hands gently patting me, trying to console me. They trembled against my shoulder.

  “I remember blaming the gods,” I said, almost in a whisper. “Why give me this opportunity, only to rip it away? Why dangle my dreams in front of me just to crush them? Was I just some plaything? Was it fun to watch me fail like that?”

  I heard a quiet sniffle.

  The Sprite was crying.

  “I was terrified,” I admitted. “I didn’t want to die yet. But more than anything, I was furious. I was seething with rage—at the gods, for giving me something so precious only to destroy it. At myself, for being too weak to fight back. And I let that hatred blind me. I let it take everything. Until…….I started to believe it really was the end. That I couldn’t do anything. That it was already over.”

  I paused, taking a slow, steady breath as I looked up at the sky. It was wide, endless, but yet, comforting.

  “But that was wrong.” My voice steadied, grounded now in something stronger than anger. “Even if it’s pathetic, I’ll grab onto any shred of hope that’s left. Even if it’s ugly, I’ll bite and claw and tear through whatever I have to, if it means living one more day. Even if it’s wrong, I’ll do anything to make sure this life, my life, continues.”

  I gently cupped the Sprite in my hands and lifted her closer. Her tiny frame trembled softly as I turned her to face me.

  “As much as we hate it, it’s true that fate has power over us. And yet, we can’t blame it for everything. We are the ones that make the choices that hurt ourselves and others. But we also can’t keep punishing ourselves for being imperfect. And we can’t despise those who fear fate and try to follow it, because they’re no different from us. We’re all just trying to survive in this cold, uncertain world. Every moment, we live in fear of whether fate has decided it’s our time.”

  The Sprite sniffled and slowly nodded, her small hands grabbed onto mine.

  “But we can’t live like everything we do is useless. We can’t throw it away just because some things are out of our control. We can’t loathe ourselves for not being able to fix everything. All we can do is move forward. Be there for one another……..and yet, maybe even that is dictated by fate.”

  Perhaps even this conversion is-

  “But so what?”

  I brought her closer, my voice soft but firm. “Fate isn’t the being who mothered you. Fate isn’t the sisters you’ve grown up with and loved. Fate isn’t the young boy that you have mourned for so long. And it’s not the one speaking to you now.”

  I held her higher, gently lifting her to meet my eyes.

  “We are us. And you, Sprite, are yourself.”

  We are more than fate.

  Her lips quivered. She wiped her eyes with the back of her hand, though the tears kept slipping down.

  “B-but then what?” she whispered. “What can we do? How are we supposed to continue?”

  I gave her a weak but confident smile.

  What else?

  “By living.”