As we emerged from the jungle, we were about to swim back to the Schooner when Wraith stopped and said, “hold on. Weren’t you going to give me a kiss when we got out of there?”
Arduwan said,” oh yeah, that’s right.”
She walked over, puckered up, and gave him a big kiss on the lips. Nothing passionate. No tongue. Just a big wet kiss, square on the mouth.
“Excellent! Now, when are we going to go on that date?”
“Umm, there’s a problem,” she said. “Problem?” Wraith asked.
“Yeah. I don’t know what a date is?”
“Arduwan…why did you agree to something you didn’t understand?” I asked.
“Well, Sir Wraith was putting his life on the line, so I figured I’d agree so it would give him courage. Besides, he said there was a 50/50 chance he was right. So I knew there was a 50/50 chance he’d be wrong and die too. So, I figured. What’s the harm?”
That logic was mind boggling.
“Well, a date is a planned activity two people do when they are courting. Like, go out to eat at a restaurant or a stroll through the park. You know, as more than just friends. Does that make sense?”
“Yes, it does, but now I feel terrible,” she said with grief in her voice.
“Why?” asked Wraith.
“Because my Life Debt Code prevents me from courting someone, unless it's the one I’m indebted to. I can either complete the debt or marry them and Eric has rejected the marriage.”
“So? Can’t you just reject her life debt too?” Wraith proposed.
“Tried it. She says if I don’t marry her then she has to find a way to fulfill the debt. But the problem is, that was really ambiguous. And we’re not sure how she’s going to do that.”
“Not so fast, Eric,” she interjected, “I’ve been doing some thinking and I believe I’ve figured out a solution. I can fulfill the debt by saving your life an equal number of times as there are people in my village you helped.”
“But Arduwan, there were dozens of people in your village that we turned back from stone. Do you even have a clue how many times you’ve saved me so far?”
“That’s the part I haven’t figured out yet. I’ve tried recounting all the times but every time I get up to the time I pulled the plug on Celica, I run out of fingers and don’t know what to do
next.”
She seemed discouraged. But we couldn’t spend any more time on this.
“It’s okay, Arduwan. We can find another way for you to reward, Wraith,” I comforted her.
“Oh, there are other ways,” he noted, slyly.
“Can it, Wraith.”
We walked out into the ocean and put the Isle of the Bard’s Tomb behind us. Now we just had to get back to the mansion and bring the girls back to life.
* * *
Several days after leaving the island we had made it back to the canyon spring. We descended into the well and came back to my mansion just as we left it. I had Arduwan go and drop the Brasshaven stone back into the well so it would summon the stone Emily had hidden on the other side. Hopefully she would see it missing soon and make her way back to the well.
I was just about to go use the Rod when Wraith stopped me.
“Eric, don’t do anything yet. I wanna check something out about that Rod.” “Huh? What do you mean?” I asked.
“Just please, give me a minute to go through my things in the attic. We can wait a bit for Emily anyway.”
“Sure. But you don’t think it’s cursed or something do you? It’d be a shame after all that
trouble.”
“It’s not that. It’s just, something has been nagging me and I think I remembered what it was just before we got back. Give me five minutes.”
I waited in the cellar with Arduwan in the room next to where the girls' bodies were. Wraith came downstairs a few minutes later toting an old Game Masters book. He let out a big sigh and said, “yeah, it’s exactly as I thought.” “What? What is exactly as you thought?” I asked, eagerly.
“Eric, look…”
He opened the book to a page that had a picture of a Rod just like this one. It was also called the Rod of Resuscitation. But there was a glaring problem. According to this guide…the Rod can only be used on one person, once.
“This can’t be,” I said, in shock, “how…how can I choose which one to revive?” Arduwan and Wraith just looked at me without saying a word.
“It’s not fair. There must be some mistake. Surely Tolly would’ve warned me about this.”
“Eric,” said Wraith, “he may have not known. Divine magic is outside of his expertise. Or it could be that he didn’t realize we were wanting to resurrect two people.”
“That’s right. We never specified who we wanted the Rod for,” I concurred.
I sat down and put my face into my palms. Just as things were starting to look up again, this happened. I started to cry again, knowing that one of the girls wouldn’t make it back. We waited for a few hours for Emily to get back. But I knew it might’ve taken a few hours just for her to even notice the stone had moved. No telling how long it would take her to get back to the well from wherever she was at either. And honestly, there was no telling if she was even alright. That made the clock tick even more, because now I was anxious about where she was.
“Hey, Eric,” Wraith said, as he put one hand on my shoulder, “I know you were wanting to wait for Emily to get back. But there’s only a few hours until the last day of the lunar cycle. We don’t know the exact cut off for the spell. You know how nuanced these things can be. Arduwan and I think you should go ahead and make your decision soon.”
How could I do it? How could I pick between the person I had loved and cherished for most of my adult life and the innocent woman who I had dragged into this world and who loved me so much. I couldn’t not pick one of them. We’d worked so hard to get this Rod and I knew they both loved life so much that they would want to be brought back.
“I’ve made a decision,” I said.
Arduwan and Wraith looked at me, eagerly awaiting my answer.
“It’s painful, but I have no other choice…I’m going to flip a coin,” I said, as tears streamed down my face once again.
We stood there, in the Butler's quarters. The room that once belonged to Higgins. A harsh reminder of the loss we had experienced again far too soon. And no matter what happened, when I flipped this coin, we would incur another loss. Whoever it did not land on would not be able to be revived since the lunar cycle would be over.
I held out a quarter on my thumb and prepared to flip it. I choked back more tears before saying, “Heads Stephanie…tails Anabel.”
My comrades looked on at me with sorrow and awaited me to flip the coin. I held back just a second longer and then made the flip. The coin went up, the coin came down. I caught it in the palm of my hand and covered it. A second went by and I revealed the answer to the three of us.
Tails.
The tears rolled once again. Not just from me, but from Arduwan this time. Even Wraith was having a hard time. This meant Stephanie was going to stay dead. Shot down and killed by a mobster from another world. All because I wasn’t strong enough to deal with his Devil of a boss back when I was there the first time. Even if I wanted to flip again, or say screw it, and resurrect Stephanie anyway, it was unfair to Anabel. She had won this little contest and was just as deserving of life as Stephanie was.
I got up and started to remove the sheet from Anabel’s face. But then I thought it best to not see her like that since she was likely well on her way to decomposition. I held out the Rod and aimed it towards Anabel’s body. It lit up and magical particles emitted from it and beamed down towards her. You could see a glow coming from under the sheet and after a moment Anabel started to move. I reached down and pulled the sheet back.
“Mmm, mmm…Eric?” she questioned, as she opened her eyes, “what happened?”
“It’s alright, Anabel. You’re safe now,” I reassured her, knowing that she was about to remember what had happened.
She started to feel the back of her head where the gunshot wound was. I imagine it was still finishing its healing reversal at about that moment. Her eyes opened wide, and I could tell she remembered then.
“Ah, Eric, Eric, Eric!” she cried out as I reached to embrace her.
“It’s okay!”
“Oh my god! Stephanie,” she uttered as she turned to the body on the bed next to her.
I grabbed her and stopped her from reaching over to move her.
“Stephanie, no!!!” she cried out.
Anabel reached up and hugged me tightly and we both sat in an embrace and cried together. We cried together so hard. In a sad way, Anabel and I had never been so close. She was alive but the woman we both loved was still very much dead.
“Eric! What happened?!” she screamed.
“We used magic to bring you back, Anabel. We tried to get Stephanie back too but we couldn't. I'm so sorry.”
“Waahhhh, Stephanie! No!” she shrieked and cried some more.
“I know,” I bawled, “I loved her too!”
Arduwan ran over and embraced us both. Wraith couldn’t take it anymore, he started to leave the room when he ran into Emily, who had just come back out of the well. He acknowledged her and moved out of the way to let her into the room.
“Emily!” Anabel cried out, as she saw her come in.
Arduwan and I moved back away from the bed as Emily ran over to take our place. Her and Anabel embraced as she bawled her eyes out. Emily gently stroked her hair to comfort her. I thought it best for us to leave the room for the time being so after a moment I went over to shuffle the girls back out to the main room of the cellar.
We went up to the kitchen as a group and Emily put on some hot cocoa for everyone. Anabel sat at the counter with bloodshot eyes as we explained to her what had happened and brought Emily up to speed on our adventure in Callist. It was time to hear what she had uncovered in Brasshaven.
