Andrew stood outside the closed door and waited.

 

 

 

 

He caught the murmur of conversation but hesitated to interrupt. After a brief period of pacing, he decided to wait for them to finish. However, as time passed without any sign of a conclusion, he grew restless. Impulsively, he knocked a rhythmic "shave-and-a-haircut" pattern with his knuckles on the door to the shrine. "Hey," he called out tentatively, uncertain of his next move. "Should I come back later?"

 

There was a moment when they seemed to discuss things, and someone called out, "C'mon in."

 

Andrew opened the door and poked his head inside. He took a moment to read the room, then stepped in and closed the door behind him. He stood there, staring a Miriam.

 

Eventually, she pointed at herself, "I'm Miriam, by the way."

Andrew frowned, "I'm not that clueless. I can tell you two apart, you know."

Miriam shrugged, "Just making sure."

Andrew leaned back against the door, "Sorry. "

Miriam nodded for a bit, "About what?"

"I dunno." Andrew shrugged, "I figure it's my fault, somehow. Either way, Clearly I pushed you too far. So..." He sighed and glanced away, "Where do we go from here?"

Andy spoke up, "When the path's... unclear."

Mir chimed in, "The battle's done, and you kinda won, so let's have a victory cheer!"

Andy and Mir sang in a duet, "Where do we go, from here?!"

 

Andrew and Miriam just stared at their counterparts with looks of utter bafflement.

 

Andy looked back, then explained, "I've been creating illusions of Buffy episodes for Mir."

"Yeah. That's from 'Once More With Feeling'." Andrew frowned, "What the fudge?"

Miriam sputtered, "Well-well-well I'm GLAD you TWO are just hanging around having FUN while we're-We're-we're..." She stopped, then looked at Andrew, "What have we been doing?"

Andrew replied with a sigh, "Everything wrong."

 

Everyone stared at Andrew.

 

Andrew sank down the door until he was seated on the floor, folding into himself. He crossed his legs and hunched forward, fixating on the knot in the wooden floor before him, oddly mirroring Andy, "I created this character to prove to myself I was a team player. I wanted to prove I COULD work with a group, and if I did, that group would be the most amazing group ever." He clenched his fist and shook it aimlessly. "I'll show them all!"

 

He turned his gaze towards the shrine, frustration etched on his face. "And what's the first thing I do when things get rough? I run off to the middle of nowhere and start grinding levels to try and brute force a special class so I can spend another year AFTER THAT grinding special equipment so I can then go spend ANOTHER YEAR grinding levels before I maybe... eventually... POSSIBLY got back to my original purpose of being a supporting character to a GROUP OF-"

 

He stopped talking and went silent.

 

Miriam tilted her head slightly, "Group... of what?"

 

"Friends."

 

Andrew turned to Miriam, his expression softening. "I wanted to build friendships. To belong to a group. But I struggle with that. My co-workers all hate me and think I'm a backstabber. Nobody at the game shop wanted to play WITH me. Against me? Sure. Plenty of people over at the card tables, but as a group? No. I burned too many bridges." He confessed. Closing his eyes, he lightly tapped the back of his head against the door, a repetitive motion. "Heck, it's the reason Viola left me. Who wants to be with a guy who works a hundred hours a week and loves it?"

 

Andy frowned, his tone firm. "Hey, don't sell yourself short." He gestured towards himself with his thumb. "We're number one in the northeast, Remember? We shattered records! No one else figured out how to funnel appraisals back through the system to pinpoint hot spots until WE did it!" He pointed back and forth between Andrew and himself. "That was us. We pioneered the NINJA loan. We revolutionized an entire industry!"

 

Andrew opened his eyes and rolled his head forward to look at Andy, "And did you forget what happened because of how we... TRANSFORMED the industry?"

 

Andy frowned and furrowed his eyebrows, "Uh... actually... yes."

 

Andrew drew in a deep breath. "The real estate collapse of twenty-ten? That was partly due to what we did back in '08," he admitted. "We contaminated the entire industry with our legal proof framework that allowed the creation of the three-day mortgage. The collapse was the reason we shifted away from mortgages and moved on to credit cards when our employer went belly up."

 

Andy furrowed his brow as he tried to think, "Wait... didn't... something else happen?"

 

Andrew nodded, "The veep asked us to figure out how to save the collection department and we figured out the loopholes in the federal re-age laws that allowed us to bring current millions of dollars of debt that should have been written off."

 

Andy nodded slowly, "Oh yeah... the whole imaginary money thing."

 

Mirian and Mir spoke in unison, "Imaginary money?"

 

Andy looked at Miriam, "It's complicated, but we found a way to make imaginary money come into legal existence that would last for thirty-five to fifty-nine days depending on what point of the debt cycle it had come into existence. It only existed on paper, but according to federal law, it still existed."

 

Andrew nodded, "It solved a problem the bank we were working for had with solvency. You couldn't SPEND imaginary money, but you could use it to replace REAL money that the bank was required to keep in reserve."

 

Andy nodded, "Yeah. Banks have to keep a certain amount of actual cash on hand. This allowed the bank to spend that money on other things."

 

"Like N-Ron and S-mart before those companies went bankrupt," Andrew said with a scowl.

 

Andy curled a lip and nodded sadly, "Oh yeah... and Argenta's oil market right before hyperinflation turned its currency into toilet paper."

 

Andrew nodded solemnly, turning his attention to Miriam. "We- I mean... 'I' tend to tackle problems without stopping to ask whether I should even be solving the problem in the first place" He confessed, gesturing toward himself. "I've got an ego problem. I thrive on being hailed as a miracle worker. So when my boss approached me and demanded a miracle, I delivered one."

 

Andy winced, "It's all coming back now." He scratched the side of his head, "If I recall correctly, the miracle we supplied was far worse than the problem."

 

Andrew closed his eyes as he sadly shook his head, "I've always been this way. But not..." Andrew opened his eyes to lock on Andy, "YOU."

 

Andy blinked and looked surprised, "Huh?"

 

Andrew hooked a thumb over his shoulder at the door, "You had a visitor. Some guy who was the head of a group called the Silver Hounds."

 

Andy blinked, "Otto came by?"

 

"Yeah," Andrew began, recounting the conversation. "He told me it's fine if you choose to leave, but everyone hopes you'll stay. They believe you're a valuable asset to the community." He pointed at Andy, "You are DOING the very THING I came here to do in the first place." Andrew had a thin-lipped smile as he shook his head in a fashion that indicated he was disappointed, but not in Andy.

 

In himself.

 

"I'm such a screw-up," Andrew muttered as he turned away.

 

"No. You're not."

Andrew looked up a little surprised by who was talking to him

 Miriam continued, "I'm the one who screwed up, not you."

 

Andrew blinked, "Huh?" He pointed into the corner, "May I remind you that you were in tears not but a half-hour ago because of me? Remember that?"

 

"I'm the one who's supposed to be making sure YOU stay on the straight and narrow, Remember THAT?" Miriam interjected with a self-critical tone. "And what have I been doing other than giving you lousy advice?"

Andrew attempted to interrupt, but Miriam talked over him, "Your gut instinct was to NOT teleport those elves home, and if we had only listened to you, none of that mess would have happened! The reality is, I don't understand you, and because of that... maybe... I think... I don't TRUST what I understand. I keep trying to control you when the truth is..."

Miriam paused, closing her eyes, "The truth is, the one thing I'm supposed to do is make sure you're doing what's right, and... I don't know the first thing about GOOD! I don't know-"

 

Andrew finally had enough and cut Miriam off, "Shut. Up." 

 

Miriam blinked at Andrew.

 

"Did those kids deserve to be slaves?" Andrew's gaze bore into Miriam. After a moment of silence, she silently shook her head. Encouraged, Andrew pressed on, "Then saving them was the right thing to do. And aiding that woman... was also the right course of action. Yes, she betrayed us, but let's face it—she'd endured four years of Hell. We should have anticipated her doing something irrational." He jabbed a finger at Miriam. "We placed our trust in the wrong individual, but trusting someone isn't inherently wrong. We still made the right choice."

 

Miriam's facade started to crumble as all the self-doubt she had been feeling bubbled to the surface, "But... but I..." She shut her eyes tightly, struggling to articulate her feelings. "This is the first time I've ever attempted to HELP someone, and all I've done is mess things up! I don't know what I'm doing!" Gesturing towards the door, she confessed, "During those weeks we spent out in the middle of nowhere? I was utterly USELESS. You didn't need me for anything except for channeling a spell or two."

 

"I think..." Andrew spoke gently, his tone filled with understanding, "The problem is... I failed to explain anything, and... you were never given a choice in any of it." His expression softened. "So, I'm offering you one now. If you want to bail, that's fine." He motioned vaguely in a direction. "I can find a way to revert you, or send you back to Hell, or simply let you go your own way. Or if you prefer, you can stay here with these two." He shrugged, averting his gaze. "No hard feelings, whichever path you choose."

 

The room went quiet.

 

Miriam stood up and walked over to Andrew, which took a while, given her size. Andrew avoided looking at her when she finally reached him. She cleared her throat, "Look at me." Andrew sighed as he turned back to her. She flicked him in the nose, "Stop being stupid!"

 

Andrew flinched and just stared at her in puzzlement.

 

"THIS. This right here is your problem! You give up far too quickly! All this self-deprecating, 'I'm-just-an-asshole-give-up-on-me' nonsense? No wonder she left you! It's not because you're a jerk. It's because you don't PUT IN THE EFFORT!" Miriam asserted. She hopped up to perch on his knee, her expression intense. "I'm not saying, 'I don't know what I'm doing so I want to give up'!" She jabbed a finger at his face. "I'm saying, 'I don't know what I'm doing, PLEASE HELP ME'!"

 

Miriam stole a glance at Mir before returning her gaze to Andrew. "I think... I'm... happier?" She hesitated as if grappling with the right word. Eventually, she nodded once. "Yes, I am happier with you. I have to admit, you've rattled and scared me more than I ever was in Hell, but... I'm also... I don't know?"

"I've learned more in the past two months than I have in my entire life." Miriam offered Andrew a half smile. "It feels like everything I thought I knew is wrong, and... it's terrifying when your very understanding of reality itself is turned on its head... but it's also really... something?" She appeared confused by her own words, then shrugged. "I don't know how to put it. I don't want to leave, but..."

 

She sighed, then took a deep breath and stiffened her resolve.

 

"But things need to change."

 

Andrew sat there, staring at the diminutive woman on his knee, then nodded once, "Alright." He offered her a hand. As she took him by a single finger, he gently bobbed his hand in an imitation of a handshake, "Let's both try changing for the better... together."

 

Miriam smiled with a hint of blush in her cheeks, "Together." She fluttered into the air to hover in front of his face, "Well... I guess we're right back at the beginning then." She shrugged and gestured aimlessly, spreading her arms wide, "As you put it..." 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

"Where do we go from here?"