Chapter 767 (1/2)

Randidly condensed himself at the end of the horde of people after he walked away from Alrick. When his body appeared, it was marred by a sour expression on his face.

To his surprise, it was difficult not to take the fact that a living being based upon some reflection of himself had bluntly refused friendship. The grounds on which he did so was, of course, incorrect, but Randidly could sense that no matter how he pushed, he would not have changed the Earth Golem’s mind.

Randidly’s original goal was to rile Alrick up and then reforge his determination with a friendship with himself. It wasn’t a great idea, but when Randidly had detected that the second meeting he would have today was with the scarred and hopeless leader of the Earth Golems, he really had no idea how to proceed.

Cheering someone else up was not his strong suit. But sometimes, there was nothing to do but his best. And to his surprise, he had succeeded.

Somehow, in rejecting Randidly, Alrick had found his piece. And it left Randidly irritable. So he hoped this third meeting would be more pleasing than the others.

Randidly casually walked out from behind a rock and joined the slowly walking groups of people at the rear. Most of the people here were Spriggits who walked aside large carts, carefully checking the equipment within. Making use of his newfound power to sense some of the intentions of those nearby, Randidly quickly realized that most of these were experimental tech related to a giant power plant.

These carts carried the pieces of the engine that was supposed to open up a path out of him. It was oddly disturbing to be near something that likely was meant to damage him. Not that Randidly really believed that it would or could. But just to have this symbolic dagger pointed at his heart…

Randidly did his best to ignore the implications of what the carts carried and let the people and carts around him trundle past. The person he was looking for was even further back in the endless stream of bodies.

Annoyingly, the one Randidly was looking for went out of the stream altogether and was standing still in a small wooded area that hadn’t had the misfortune to be trampled by the wave of bodies. Even though Randidly had already intuitively understood how much damage this many people traveling recklessly could do, it was somewhat intimidating to witness the ruined land they left in their wake.

Perhaps more concretely than he had sensed earlier, this was leaving a scar across his Soulskill on the magnitude of the Ashen Image itself. Glancing upward, Randidly cursed; it had begun to rain.

He found the figure he was following crouching next to a small obelisk that was situated in the middle of the small wood. The figure didn’t look up when he approached, occupied by what Randidly assumed was a prayer. So instead, Randidly closed the eyes of his physical body and felt the figure’s inner world more directly.

Why me?

Slowly, Randidly opened his eyes. The figure had stood and turned to face Randidly.

“...hello. I’ve not seen you before,” The figure said lightly. “But I’m surprised another knows of this old place. My father researched ruins of the Progenitor, you see. So that’s why… I had to stop here. I just wanted... to check, you know?”

“You are… Danz?” Randidly said slowly. The name was somewhat unfamiliar to him, but he found it in the man’s mind. But what concerned Randidly were the deep gashes in the man’s soul. It seemed like someone had dragged a flail through his psyche.

For all that, Danz’s smile was surprisingly even. “And you… must be the Progenitor?”

There was a second where Randidly’s heart jumped in shock, but then Danz chuckled and shook his head. “It can’t be, right? If the Progenitor appeared the first time someone prayed, people would save those moments for dire times....”

His voice trailed off, then he looked upward sharply at Randidly. “My apologies. I’m not… I’m not myself. You will have to excuse me. I have… women troubles. Err, woman troubles. Just one.”

“It seems strange to me that someone whose father researched the Progenitor wouldn’t pray,” Randidly said slowly. Although Danz had given him an obvious in with his prior comment, Randidly didn’t want to address it directly yet. The man was talking about Alta. But Randidly peered at Danz with a bit of apprehension. There was an image hiding in Danz, one that Randidly couldn't’ quite suss out. And until he could figure out why this moment was important…

“Oh? Oh. I suppose that’s true.” Danz scratched his cheek. “My father didn’t raise me. He left us, my mother and my sister, and explored the lands. Very rarely, we would hear from him. Even more rarely, he would send us money. It was difficult, but manageable until my mother died. After that… I was so young and needed to work. So I took the first job I found with pay enough to keep us afloat. A lab assistant. A housekeeper. A… butler.”

Randidly moved and sat next to Danz on the damp grass that surrounded the obelisk. Of the entire forest, this was the spot with the most sunlight, so there were several bushes and weeds that choked up space. But it felt strangely insulated from the droning bass of the convoy only a short distance away. Randidly stared at Danz, studying him for a hint of what he might mean.

“Have you ever…” Danz faltered as he started to speak again, and had to frown for several seconds before he could continue. “Do you think some people are incapable of love?”

But before Randidly answered, Danz shook his head. “No, that’s a dumb thought. Okay, how about… do you believe in fate?”