A Jaded Life

Even after sleeping for most of the morning, I hadn’t made a decision about what I wanted to do about the World Tree and the claim that I was connected to it by Fate. The biggest question was, did I believe in Fate, as Mima so obviously did and if I decided that I believed in it, did I accept her words as genuine and prophetic instead of something muttered by somebody who had too much to drink? Or maybe too little to drink, depending on what the drink in question was, the dryad might simply be insane. Or she might feel the connection I had to Nidhögg, thanks to the Dragon-Touched Trait and my Draconic Sorceress Class, and that connection might make her think I was somehow destined to destroy the World Tree.

Either was possible and I doubted anyone could actually tell locally. The Gods might have an idea but I doubted even Lady Hecate would share that kind of information, simply because it wasn’t a lesson of some type. I had noticed that in our communications, the Lady Hecate had openly given me lessons, both when it came to child rearing and when it came to magic, but She had only once given me a straight answer, and that was when the answer to my question was a boon given to me by Her. Her lessons always focused on having me discover the information I was searching for, mostly by showing me examples and letting me work them out myself. If I asked Her about the possibility of Fate being real and a potential connection to the World Tree, I’d most likely get a lesson on looking into the Astral River so I’d eventually find the information myself.

So, instead of worrying about the plausibility of there being some sort of predetermined Fate, I would simply go about my life and live it. If I eventually happened to be in a situation where destroying the World Tree was advantageous to me, I would do so and not worry about the words said by Mima, but I wouldn’t deliberately go out of my way to destroy the tree. In essence, I would treat it as if I had never heard her words, or at least I would try to do so. Prophecy, especially of the self-fulfilling kind, could really be a pain in the rear.

Regardless of that decision, I still wanted to know more about the World Tree. Amusingly, I had disregarded one fact, namely that Mima was completely and utterly unconcerned, to the point that her attitude, if bottled, would most likely be considered a controlled substance, simply because it made people so mellow. Maybe I should try to see if I could either get some leaves off her tree or hairs off her head, I had a feeling that the attitude was at least partially caused by her magical nature, nothing else made sense to me. If that were the case, it might actually be possible to extract the effect and turn it into some sort of magical drug.

The idea brought a grin to my face, remembering old jokes about druids in Craft of War and that their utterly chill nature came from smoking their own leaves, giving them the perfect, mellow buzz. If that was true for dryads in general, or maybe only for Mima, it might explain why the entire community was comparatively chill, they were getting habitually drugged.

Now, keeping the knowledge that Mima was this chill in mind, I made the decision to go with the easiest and most direct approach to getting information on the supposed World Tree Sapling. I went to ask her.

Finding her was quite simple, a few questions to the locals and I knew where to go, demonstrating to me just how strangely calm and mellow these people were. Normally, if somebody, anybody, were to ask about one’s leader, there would be a degree of caution but here? Here, I was given directions and that was despite a few suspicious looks that most likely came due to that prophecy Mima had given.

“Good Afternoon, Mima,” I greeted her, after finding her as she was walking along the inner ward line, likely inspecting the subtle wards we had overcome on our way here.

“Good Afternoon, Jade. Why do you seek me out?” she asked, her tone as calm as always, bringing with it the temptation to do something to break that calm.

“A request. As you know, I am deeply interested in learning all sorts of magic and to further that quest, I would like to inspect the tree you are bound to. If you need additional promises, beyond the one that I do no harm except in self-defence or the defence of others while in the village, we can discuss them,” I explained and for once, the pleasant smile faded just a little. Not enough to make her look concerned but it went from the smile one would show to a friend to one that a sales-person would use on the job. It was lacking sincerity, even if it remained polite.

“What it is that you want to understand?” she asked in return, her eyes trying to weigh and judge me. Somehow, after being judged by the eyes of Hestia and weighed by Lady Hecate, the stare of a somewhat strange dryad lacked the intensity to bore into my soul, leaving me just a little amused at the attempt.

“Now or in general?” I didn’t even try to hide my grin, borrowing her previous expression of amused calm, “In general, I want to understand Magic. To put it in Faustian Terms, I seek to understand what ties the foundations of the world together. Alas, discovering those secrets will be the work of an immortal’s lifetime but you’ve got to start somewhere, both when it comes to immortality and when it comes to general knowledge,” I explained, giving a truthful and even fairly complete explanation while concealing the actually important parts. Luckily, neither my short-term nor my long-term goals were anything that would throw up red flags, it was the mid-term goals that could be considered problematic.

“And now?” she prodded, one of her eyes twitching just a little, allowing me to notice a faint annoyance in her expression.

“Well, I can feel a,” I paused for a moment, trying to find the best word to use, “A weight to your existence, for lack of a better term, a significance beyond that of a Bound Dryad. I would like to investigate the reason and, if I’m being honest, I’d like to know more about that bond you claimed to exist between us. Why I would destroy your tree, as I have no reason to. I would like to know if there is such a thing as Fate and if there is, I would like to understand how it binds us,” I shook my head, looking past Mima and letting the magical concealment I usually used to keep some of my more problematic traits under wraps fade just a little.

“I detest the idea of being bound and forced to act in certain ways. For you to say that I would destroy your tree can have two meanings, at least to me. One is that you are planning to act in a way that would make me hate you to the point that I would seek you out to destroy you. The most obvious way would be harming Luna or trying to take her from me but we have exchanged rites of hospitality with your people. If you tried to act against Luna, there’d be a Divine Judgement without any need for me to act.

“Or, the other meaning, is that there is some sort of twisted Fate that you think will force me to act against you, without any additional interactions between us. That, to me, is tantamount to saying that I’m a slave of that Fate, bound to whatever mystical decree there is and that, as I said, is an idea I just cannot accept. I would rail and rave, trying everything in my power to destroy that idea of Fate, simply because it is so tied to the idea of slavery,” I finished my explanation and quickly drew the concealment around me again. There was no need to frighten Mima and I had a feeling that Titanic Ambition would be a frightening trait, as would be my Ruthless and possibly Dragon Touched Traits, I wasn’t sure how much she had been able to perceive past my concealment.

“I think I understand,” she nodded, suddenly looking incredibly young, her calm and collected mask shattered as inexperience and worry shone through. The shift was quite profound, making me wonder if she had used some magical skill to pretend before and was now letting me see what was hidden underneath.

“Give me a few hours to think, I cannot make a decision on the spot,” she added before turning away, moving towards the clearing I had visited during the night, walking quite fast.

Now, I would have to wait and see.