Not a Hero

Part 11: The Road

"This crowd! I can't see anything past them. Do you think we'll find her?" said Oliver.
Drodin answered, "Let's just keep going east. Eventually, we'll cross paths again."
"We've been looking for an hour! She could be outside the city by now, or she could have been arrested and taken back to the Empress. Do you think we should split up?"
"Sure, let's split up. I think there are only two roads that lead outside of the city. You take one, and I'll take one. Meet back here in twenty minutes?"
"Yeah. I'll take the low road. You go high."

Oliver and Drodin split up and went on two separate ways. Drodin found a sloping road that led to the high road and was able to easily make his way through the thinly populated, almost empty, streets of where the wealthy lived. Drodin kept a steady jogging pace down the street when all of a sudden, he saw Aster and Sophi walking towards him.
"Where is he?" was the first thing Aster said to him.
"Aster! What are you doing here?" said Drodin nervously. Aster opened her spellbook, ready to cast a spell. "Okay! He's on the low road, looking for this girl here, probably moving east."
"Great. Watch the girl," said Aster as she marched away from them. Neither of them thought of stopping her. Then Drodin asked Sophi, "How did you find her?"
"She saved me from Sabel. I asked her for help, but then she told me that she was here following you two. I told her I knew you, and we followed my cage to find you."
"Your cage?"
"My key is a magical cage. I should have taken it with me before, but I forgot." Sophi held out her hand. Drodin put something she couldn't see in it. "Is it really there?"
"No. I have it in my other hand. Here you go." Drodin smiled as he put the key in her hand. Sophi couldn't feel it, but gripped the key and tucked it away. "Thank you Drodin. Now, why are you here? Shouldn't you be trying to go home?"
"We realized that there's probably a new blockade waiting for us so we can't go back for a while. We figured that we could help you so we can find out how Phanto escaped."
"Thank you again. I didn't think I could get through this on my own. Aster and I found a way out of the city though. Speaking of which, is your friend going to be alright with her?"
"I actually don't know."

There were only two roads leading outside of the city. There was the quiet and barren high road that the wealthy used, and there was the crowded and chaotic path for the commoners. The tide of commuters didn't cease to stop flowing, and Oliver could barely keep up. It wasn't long before he was pushed into the side of the traffic, at the foot of a table belonging to a fortune teller.
"You are looking for someone, right?" said the old teller at the table. She was shuffling cards with her eyes closed, but she was definitely the one talking to Oliver.
Oliver didn't believe in fortune-telling very much on Earth, but things might have been different since magic existed here. "You're right, but I don't want a reading right now."
"My services are of no charge, and those who cooperate always leave with a better grasp of their future." The fortune-teller laid out her cards on the table facedown. There were many cards in her deck, at least fifty based on Oliver's guess. She flipped fifteen over onto the table. The cards that came up were labeled Roots, Hero, Dove, Trickster, Hawk, Genius, Oracle, Wizard, Earth, Titan, Storm, Blade, Death, Horizon, and a final blank card.
Oliver was surprised. He'd heard of tarot cards, but these were nothing like them. He stood looking down at the spread, waiting for the fortune teller to say something, but she never did. Then he asked, "What does my fortune say?"
The teller said, "Well I'm not sure. First, that blank card wasn't supposed to be in the deck."
"Then draw another."
"I'm afraid not. Seems fate herself has something to tell you, a special occurrence that I've never seen before."
"What does fate want to tell me?"
"I told you I'm not sure. It's your choice like it always is in life."
"Are you asking me to tell my own fortune?"
"That is exactly it. You may have noticed that these don't resemble ordinary fortune-telling cards. That's because I made them myself, and that blank card is actually a spare template card that found its way into the deck. I don't charge because I simply have people interpret the draw on their own as they control their future, not me. There's no magic, no tricks, just your own imagination, what your soul wants you to see."
Oliver looked down at the cards. The first one was the depiction of the roots of a tree. He remembered the tree when he first came to Visterra. The second, Hero, reminded him of Casey, who was meant to defeat Pristime. Oliver was baffled when he realized that the next six were all people he met on his first journey. Drodin was the peaceful dove. Orkus would be the trickster. Aster was the warmonger hawk. Pristime represented the genius. Grace was an oracle. Vylocke was a wizard. The cards were recounting his adventures. What were the odds that the cards drawn would remind him of this?
"What the heck!?" he shouted.
"I assume you found a glimpse of meaning in the cards?"
"Not just that! The cards are telling me everything! Everyone I met!"
Oliver kept looking over the table. The last time Oliver saw Earth was just after Pristime was defeated. He could have gone home but wanted to stay in Visterra. After that, he figured the titan must have been the Hydrolathan. However, the storm card came after that, even though he knew the hailstorm must have happened before. Could the blade have been the person who tried to kill them in the palace? Oliver wasn't sure about that card, but the next was all too threatening.
"This one says death.... Am I gonna die!?" he exclaimed.
"The future is always uncertain, especially when revealed. What you see is just a card with a word on it. Look, there is the horizon just beyond it, so death may only be a symbol. Do not fear the future, take hold of it for yourself. That is why I do this." said the fortune-teller.
"Okay.... Thank you," said Oliver. The young man turned away from the table, waved goodbye to the fortune teller, and walked back into the crowd. Oliver stepped lightly through the crowd when he was surprised to see Aster up the street making her way to him with an angry look in her eyes. Then, he said to himself, "I really am going to die."
Aster called out, "Oliver!" and the young man jumped scared. "You never gave me an answer!" Aster bounded for him, and he dipped into an alleyway. Aster followed closely behind in the passage and tackled him down to the ground. She sat on top of him with his belly down, and he could not get away. "You can't run away from me that easily," she said.
Oliver stopped struggling. He asked, "How did you find me?"
Aster explained, "I was looking for you in the forest around the castle when I found a bloody mess on the ground and a ghost who told me his name was Phanto."
Oliver completely forgot that the Book of the Scapegrace turns its masters into ghosts. If he had remembered, they could have figured out why he took the book in the first place. Unfortunately, he didn't, and now they're stuck in this mess with no way out. "Phanto? What did he say?"
"Don't you dare try to change the subject! I am certain you've had enough air. Now tell me your decision. Would you even care to be with me? Is that it? You want to run away because you don't love me anymore?"
"No! I do love you!" yelled Oliver. Aster's eyes widened. "I was scared of how things would turn out between us. I've never been in a relationship before, and I didn't want to see it fall apart. I don't think I could survive if that ever happened." Oliver's eyes welled up with tears. "After I got here, I realized I shouldn't have done that to you. I wanted to come back, but me and Drodin got thrown in a dungeon, and now we're trying to help a girl, Sophi, so we could find a way home."
Aster got off of Oliver. Oliver stood up and moved his neck around to ease it. Aster said to him, "Does that mean you want to get married?"
"Yes. When we get home, we'll be married. I promise."
"Then let's get home as soon as possible. I met Sophi, and I know where she is. Come on!" Aster grabbed hold of Oliver and pulled him along through the city streets, up steps, and around corners. It was just like when Aster pulled him through the streets of Asbaratus. They kept flying through the low city until they climbed an outdoor set of stone stairs leading onto the high road of Lyzin. The richer streets were barren, and the pair continued onwards until they came upon a horse-drawn carriage with no one looking after it.
"Are you there?" Aster asked the wagon. "We're ready to go."
The inner curtains of the carriage opened for a second, followed by the door swinging open. Aster and Oliver climbed in and sat on one side of the carriage. Drodin and Sophi sat on the other waiting for them to arrive.
"I'm glad to see you're both alright, but I didn't see anyone on top. Who's going to steer the carriage?" asked Oliver.
Sophi answered, "These horses were friends with my brother. They said they were the ones who took him out of the city. We should be leaving soon enough, but we should stay quiet just until we're out."
The group silenced themselves. A moment later, the horses began to walk and the carriage steadily rolled all the way to the end of the city, a gate to the outer lands of the Lyzin countryside. However, a roadblock awaited them just at the gate. The horses stopped just before reaching the guarded area, waiting for a plan to get around.
"Oh no. I'm too weak to use my slow powers again," whispered Sophi. "What should we do?"
"Maybe magic can help us get past them," Oliver suggested. "Do you have anything in the book that can help us?" he asked Aster.
"Hold on. Let's think for a second," advised Drodin. "We need to get past them, but we shouldn't draw any unnecessary attention to the horses. I think we should sneak past on our own."
"You're probably right," said Oliver. "But we still need a way past the guards. Aster, have you found anything yet?"
"I think I have." Aster opened and stepped out of the door. The others followed her out, and she recited, "Cluricent." All four of them started to fade, and disappear from sight. "Be careful," said Aster. "Everyone grab hands so we don't bump into each other."
Though hard, the group managed to grab hold of one another by their wrists. The translucent group, led by Aster, walked closer to the barricade. With light footsteps, they strolled past a pair of guards on the outer layer of the roadblock and crept through a small maze of wooden walls. They snuck past another pair of guards on the other side of the walls and hastened their pace as they got further away. Once the group was inside the forest, they started running as they were safe for the moment.