The Adventures of the Junior Phoenixes, Part 5: The Last Pendant

Chapter 16: The Fountain of Fair Fortune

Chapter 16

     Shade stepped into the magnificent courtyard of Morgan le Fay and sat at the fountain in the center. It was a work of beauty; an infusion of magic and art that would make any passerby marvel at its beauty and detail. Shade sat on a stone bench, looking at the water spout up from the dragon’s mouth of the fountain. The water spilled into the first basin, which spilled into the second basin, and then it spilled into the third before falling into the bottom basin. Each basin doubled in size as it went from top to bottom. Morgan le Fay had told Shade that she had seen the real one, the actual Fountain of Fair Fortune, and had taken her time in recreating the one in her own personal garden.
     Behind Shade walked the Prewett brothers, Gideon and Fabian, along with the pastor. The brothers looked at and mocked the funny-looking flowers that were in the garden. The pastor simply walked along the stone pathways and silently stepped from flower patch to flower patch. Morgan le Fay had retired and gone into her private chambers for a spell. She intimated to Shade that she was tired. It threw Shade for a surprise when she said that.
     “Remember, Shade,” Morgan le Fay told him before she left, “Some of us are different than others. Some of us were forced here.”
     Shade sat in the courtyard, thoughts heavy on his mind. His side ached a bit. He was troubled.
     The pastor sat down next to him as the brothers kept laughing and playing around. “How are you, Mr. Shade?” the pastor asked.
     “I’m okay, I guess,” Shade replied. “Got a lot on my mind, sir.”
     “Now that’s strange,” the pastor remarked.
     “Why’s that?” Shade asked.
     “Well,” the pastor explained, “This isn’t a place where one finds someone unhappy or heavy with worrisome thoughts. This is a place where things are generally happy and joyous. It isn’t heaven, but it’s really darn close.”
     “I thought this was the Realm Beyond,” Shade said, “Aren’t they the same thing: it and heaven?”
     “Not quite, son,” the pastor said, “Heaven is the final place after this place, when the world finally fades away.”
     “Oh,” Shade said, “But then, what is this place?”
     “This is the waiting place,” the pastor said, “This is where we wait while the world marches towards finality.”
     Shade nodded. He gave a sigh and kept his gaze on the fountain and the ever-running waters within.
     “You want to talk, Mr. Shade?” the pastor asked. “You look like you need a good ear. I got an ear, if you need one. Two, in fact!”
     Shade nodded with a smile. “Thanks, but I don’t think you will understand some of the things I’m going through.”
     “Son,” the pastor said, “I am kind of an expert in the realm of the impossible and the unlikely-yet-true. Try me.”
     Shade shrugged. “I just feel like a complete failure,” he said, “I was supposed to die. I was supposed to step through this magical door that kills anyone who steps into it. The whole point was to get this Pendant away from the people trying to get at it. I didn’t step through the dang door just to have to step back through it again. Now I have to go back through the door to the land of the living and travel to some hidden realm in some place I’ve never been to or heard of and, not only get my hands on some crazy herb that only grows there so that I don’t die a really sucky death, but also retrieve some kind of gem or something or another that’s supposed to be able to put an end to Easter and Leech once and for all. Gosh, that sounds like a movie tagline or something. So, basically, I have to negate all the stuff that I went through emotionally and physically, put myself in further danger, and do something that may or may not help in the long run.”
     The pastor nodded. “That sounds like a pickle, certainly,” he commented.
     “But for what, you know?” Shade asked, “What’s the point? Why can’t I just stay here?”
     “What happens if you took the Pendant off here?” the pastor asked. “What if you took it off and left it here?”
     Shade sighed. “The gem that I need to grab needs all four of our Pendants to take it off of the Fountain of Fair Fortune. That’s gonna suck, too, because we only have three. The fourth one is around the neck of the guy who I’ve been keeping this one and the others away from. All this time I’ve been trying to keep everyone safe, keep my friends from dying, stay alive just long enough to make sure that the bad guys are stopped but all I keep doing is making things worse. I hate it. I hate this.”
     The pastor said, “Hmm,” and leaned back on the bench. “Tell me about your friends,” he said.
     “My friends?” Shade asked. “What about them?”
     “Tell me about them,” the pastor asked. “What are they like?”
     “Well,” Shade began, “There’s my best friend, Jinx: She’s rude and always leaves a mess, but she’s smart and always reliable when the going gets tough. There’s the Twins, Rain Fox and Sky Heart. Sky and I didn’t get along at first, but she’s turned out to be thoughtful, caring, and very dedicated to her friends and family. Fox, geez, she’s one of the bravest people I’ve ever met. She’s insightful, loyal, and ambitious. Echo. Echo was my old boss’ daughter. She’s so dang tough. She’s gone through so much and yet she hasn’t given up. She’s tough, curious, unfazed by any challenge. She’s got more heart than anyone I know. Cedrique (I call him Dev) is her boyfriend. That kid is smart, like really smart. He’s clever in ways that surprise you, you know? He does things with the big picture in mind. He’s really good at reading people, and he’s very thoughtful. Sam, Samantha Meadows, where do I start with Sam? She’s bold, always speaks her mind, and very adventurous. Teller (I don’t actually know Teller’s first name) is one of my co-workers. He’s stoic; he can come off as cold, but he’s got a big heart and one of the most skilled wizards I’ve ever known. Rider’s my old homey from years back; we played on the same Quidditch team. Rider’s charming, handsome, and the best wand maker in the world (next to Ollivander, of course). Then there’s Ravenus Rouge; him and I used to be Quidditch teammates, too. He and I fell out a while back, but he’s been coming around lately. He’s a beast; he isn’t afraid of anyone. He sticks to his word and never backs down from a fight. Sherman Locke’s a freakin’ genius; He’s the most intelligent person I know. He’s quick, cunning, and intuitive; he sees things on a level I can’t even understand. And then there’s Starkid, my little Star Saoirse. That girl, I swear, is the fiercest little witch I’ve ever known or has ever been. She’s a handful of trouble. She never listens. She interjects herself into danger when she doesn’t have to because she’s so darn fearless. But she’s brilliant for her age, or any age. She’s wild, determined, quick-witted, and snarky. If I were to pick someone I’d want as a little sister, Star’s the one. Echo, too.”
     “You love your friends,” the pastor said.
     “Of course, I do,” Shade said.
     “That wasn’t a question,” the pastor clarified, “That was a statement. You love your friends. That is evident. You started to glow when you talked about them. How many of them are younger than you?”
     “Most of them,” Shade said, “Echo, Star, the Twins, Dev, Sam. I was sent to protect them originally. I ended up falling in love with those kids. Echo and Rain Fox became Aurors after they graduated school because they wanted to do what I do. I was so proud of them. I am so proud of them.”
     “You act like a teacher to them, I take it,” the pastor said.
     “Kinda,” Shade responded.
     “They look up to you,” the pastor remarked, “You’d make a good teacher, you know?”
     “But what kind of lesson am I teaching them by going back?” Shade asked. “What’s the point in going back?”
     The pastor nodded, pondering. He looked forward and asked Shade, “Do you have faith?”
     Shade shrugged. “It’s been a while since I’ve gone to church, sir.”
     The pastor shook his head. “I don’t mean in God, son,” he said, “I mean, do you have faith; faith in your friends, faith in what’s good, faith in yourself?”
     Shade thought for a few moments. “I have faith in my friends. I don’t know if I have faith in the ‘Common Good’ or whatnot. I don’t have faith in myself. I feel like I’ve done nothing but make the wrong choices this whole time.”
     “Why is that?” the pastor asked.
     “Because every choice I’ve made so far has made things worse; for me, for my friends, for everybody.”
     “I don’t believe that,” the pastor commented, “Otherwise you wouldn’t be here.”
     “In heaven?” Shade asked.
     The pastor laughed. “Remember: This isn’t heaven, and that’s not what I meant. I mean you, here, right here, and right now. If you had made all the wrong choices, you wouldn’t be here. From what I understand, you’d probably be dead, like dead-dead. Your friends would be dead, too.”
     “Some of them have died,” Shade said.
     “But not all of them, right?” the pastor asked.
     “No,” Shade answered.
     “Then you’ve obviously done something right,” the pastor pointed out. “People get too caught up concentrating on what they’ve lost instead of remembering what they still have. You have your friends, Shade, and the ones you’ve lost you still have in your heart and in your memories. Have faith in that notion, son. Have faith in your friends, but also have faith in yourself. You’re never going to finish the race unless you have faith enough in yourself to finish it.”
     Shade shook his head. “But what if I make another wrong choice and it costs me my life, or worse, it costs the life or lives of people I love?”
     The pastor took a deep breath. “That’s a good question. Let me ask you a question: Do you believe in destiny?”
     “Destiny?” Shade asked, “I thought churches believed in free will?”
     “Oh, not all churches believe in ‘Free Will’,” the pastor replied, “Certainly not mine. No, I believe in destiny. I believe that there was a plan for me. I don’t know the plan that was set out for me, but I knew that, in the end, what was supposed to happen happened. It’s like looking at the blueprints of a house with your own eyes; not the eyes of the builder, but your untrained, non-carpenter, non-engineer eyes. You buy land, you contract a builder, and you get shown some plans. You may even go so far as to tell the builder what plans you have for your house. But you’re not the builder; you don’t know the specs and you don’t get your hands cut up from sawing, hammering, or soldering things together. You might help out, but the main construction of the house is in the hands of other people; people you trust with the building. As we know, people aren’t perfect. They might make some mistakes along the way: The wrong pipes get installed, or someone cuts a plank too short. Sometimes the mistakes are your fault. You ask for a certain kind of window to be installed but when it goes up it looks terrible and doesn’t look the way you had hoped it would. You might pick the wrong paint and the Wife detests the paint color you chose. Sometimes the mistakes are out of your control or delays happen because no one expects them to happen. Maybe you leave some materials out and someone steals them in the middle of the night. Maybe it rains or snows and your plans get delayed. A whole gaggle of things could happen that stand between that moment when you’re shown the plans before you break ground and that first time you sleep in your home, snug and comfortable, in the master bedroom. But the end result is still the same. It wasn’t perfect, it wasn’t easy, and it took some trial and error, but it still happened. That’s how I see destiny, son. Destiny is looking at the plans, not knowing all the details or the know-how, but having faith that, in the end, the house will be a house.”
     Shade nodded.
     “I don’t know anything about magic,” the pastor continued, “And I don’t understand what you’re supposed to do or what you’re supposed to accomplish, but I do know that good always triumphs, life always means so much, and that you have to have faith in yourself before you can have faith in anything else. Don’t be bogged down by your choices, Shade. As long as you made the right choice for yourself, then it wasn’t a wrong one. Life is not about what happens to you; it’s about how you react to the things that happen.”
     Shade smiled. “Huh. That’s a good way to look at it.”
     “It’s one way, certainly,” the pastor said. “Just have faith, son. Everything else will fall into place according to the plan.”
     Shade nodded again. “Thank you, sir,” he said.
     “You are welcome, my friend,” the pastor replied.
     Morgan le Fay appeared once again. The Prewett brothers walked to greet her as she made her way towards the fountain and the bench where the pastor and Shade sat. She smiled as the Prewett brothers joked with her. She was elegant, as usual. She stepped up to the bench. Shade and the pastor stood and bowed to her in respect.
     “My lady,” the pastor said.
     Shade looked at her. She bowed back to the pastor and thanked him and the brothers for bringing Shade to her. “You’re kind men, all of you. If there is anything in my garden thou desires, then please take it. I keep none for myself. I welcome any traveler to take of my garden. Take of its delicious fruit and vegetable yield. You will find nothing like it anyplace else other than here.
     “Thank you, fine lady,” Gideon said.
     “Likewise,” Fabian added.
     Morgan looked to Shade. Shade shook the hands of the Prewett brothers and thanked them. “I’m glad I met you two.”
     “We agree,” they both replied.
     Shade turned to the pastor and shook his hand as well. “Thank you for the words, kind sir.”
     “Don’t thank me yet,” the pastor replied, “You still have a job to do. Keep the words and do something amazing with them. Then you can thank me.”
     “Yes, sir,” Shade said.
     “Come, Shade,” Morgan le Fay spoke. She directed Shade to walk before her towards a darkened corridor. He walked down the corridor, away from the three men that had traveled with him, and into darkness. She strode behind him, tall and elegant, her dress flowing, her long hair as black as the darkness about her. They walked for a long while until they came to an opening. They stepped through the veiled opening and looked out among a great precipice. There was neither a bridge nor a battlement; the pathway suddenly stopped. Over the ledge was a great forest marked by a single road a mighty distance below.
     “Your journey is not over, Shade,” Morgan spoke. “What I’ve told you, you must keep with you. Remember it, in your heart and in your mind. From here you must journey back through the Veiled Archway. It will not lead you back to London. There is another doorway; a doorway meant for returning, not arriving like the one you stepped through. There you must go.”
     “How will I know where it is?” Shade asked.
     “You will have a companion to guide you a little ways,” Morgan answered. “He will take you a ways towards it. He will be waiting for you at the bottom of this mountain, next to the road below. Be warned, Shade. This is not heaven. There are some that await the End of Days here that were not benevolent in their time among the living. Some may remember you and hold a grudge against you. Some may even try to destroy you here. You are not immortal here; you can still die. You must be brave.”
     Shade nodded. “I’m ready. Now how do I get down from here?”
     Morgan looked over the ledge and spoke, “You have to jump.”
     “Jump?” Shade asked, “You mean, I have to fall!”
     “Call it what you will,” Morgan said, “Nevertheless, you must go. There is no other way down.”
     Shade looked over the ledge and gulped. “Yeah, no pressure. Just leap down a massive castle, fall to certain doom, and find a doorway in an immeasurable, massive, heaven-like realm. Yeah, no pressure at all.”
     Morgan patted him on the back. It made Shade jump.
     “Whoa!” Shade hollered, “I don’t need help!”
     “I wasn’t going to push you, child,” Morgan spoke, “Unless you wanted me to help you-“
     “No, no,” Shade said. “I can do this. I can do this.” He turned to Morgan le Fay with concerned eyes. “You sure I can do this?”
     “I have faith in you,” Morgan spoke. “Have faith in yourself.”
     Shade nodded. He looked back over the ledge. He took a deep breath, exhaled, closed his eyes for a moment, and then opened them. He bent his knee for a second. He then pushed off from the ground, leapt, and fell for what felt like forever.