Touch of Fate

Chapter 310: Unsurprising Twist

Guessing that she probably wanted to keep this between the two of them, Mike led Sera into the basement lab and had her take a seat on one of the workbenches.

"What's on your mind?" He asked once they were settled.

She spent a few moments watching him silently, seemingly building up the courage to speak. Finally, she took a deep breath and said her piece. "When we arrive in the Riverlands, I am planning on leaving the party."

Mike was surprised. This was not the method he'd expected her to adopt, and it meant he would need to revise his plans.

Perhaps he'd been silent too long, because Sera continued with a veritable rush of words. "Don't get me wrong, it's not that I hate you all or anything, and you've certainly done a lot for me...a lot more than I've done for you anyway. But I just can't take it anymore. Over and over again, I've either been the damsel in distress or the lodestone dragging you all or the reason we've gotten tangled up in a mess, and...and I've had enough of it."

There was a hint of tears in the corner of her eyes, but she appeared to be holding them back.

"Is this about the thing with the Cabal? That tracking device?" He asked.

"That's part of it." She replied quietly while glancing down at her hands that were idly rubbing the grip of the hero relic bow. "But it's more than that...it's...well, I don't...likewhat I've become."

He frowned, but waited silently for her to continue.

"I...have something to confess. We didn't meet by chance."

"I already knew that. Didn't your mother tell you to come find me?"

"She only said that in the city of Wyrport, I would find someone destined for great things. Someone who I am supposed to guide using my own foresight."

"Well, you have given me some great advice."

Her face screwed up in something between despair and anger. "That's just it. While I may have been following my mother's last words, I also sought you out for my own purposes. I wanted to use you as a weapon to bring about my revenge against the Cabal."

"I see...I didn't notice at all."

Sera stood up suddenly, turning away and wiping at her eyes. "That's because I'm pathetic! I had every intention of making you into my tool, but I stumbled right from the beginning. Not only was I incapable of directing your actions, even on the small scale, but I ended up getting caught up in your pace, merely following along as you went on your adventures. Pretty soon, I became little more than baggage."

"Hey, come on. Don't say that. You've helped us out on plenty of occasions."

"Name one!" She yelled, whirling on him in a sudden fit of anger that seemed only partially directed his way. "Sure I've given you a few pieces of advice that you largely ignored, only to end up succeeding spectacularly anyway. Maybe a few of my visions have helped out a little, but beyond that, the most meaningful contribution I've given to this party has been telling you what silverware to buy when outfitting a room we never ended up using!"

"What about that whole situation in Wyrport? Without your foresight, we wouldn't have known how to stop the summoning. Who knows what would have happened if you weren't there?"

She grimaced, but seemed slightly mollified. "Maybe, but it's not like I really helped stop the ritual. It was you and Tal and Brenden that did all the heavy lifting. I just got in the way."

"Come on. You can't compare yourself to them. Tal's an elf who's been practicing her skills for decades, and I'm pretty sure Brenden was some kind of bandit before he became an adventurer. They've both been in a lot more fights than you."

"I notice you didn't say anything about yourself." She muttered under her breath before continuing. "Anyway, that's not the point! I'm trying to tell you that I only approached you in the first place in order to use you, which I have failed utterly to do, and I've done nothing besides be a burden to you since!"

Mike was suddenly reminded of a very similar conversation he'd had not too long ago, back when they were still idling through their University days. He remembered promising to help train his party members, allowing them to stand by his side without feeling like they were useless.

"Shit" He muttered.

Looking back on it, he realized that he'd done nothing more than make a few halfhearted attempts at training them since. It had always been his intention of getting back into it, but he'd been distracted by events. Sure, the war ended up taking most of his attention, and there always seemed to be some new crisis that he needed to solve, but it was clear that he'd been neglecting them again. Taking them for granted...again. What must his ascension to Tier 4 have looked like to them in that context?

[Tal's always been patient with me, but I think I'm finally beginning to see why Brenden chose to leave us.]

Misinterpreting his quiet curse, Sera seemed to wither a bit, but then took a deep breath and said. "Which is why I've decided that it is time for me to make my own way. From the beginning, I never deserved to be a companion of the Hero, and nothing I've done since then has changed that." She paused for a few seconds, evidently having a hard time squeezing out her next words. "Thank you for everything, but I can't do this anymore. I'm returning the bow. It's not like I was worthy of it in the first place."

Thinking quickly, Mike tried to come up with a way to derail the course of this conversation. If he allowed it to continue, it could only result in heartbreak. He could tell that the girl was mostly motivated by guilt, and it would be hard to completely change her mind without altering that. In order to do so, he would have to be a bit unfair.

"Are you sure you want to let it end like this?" He asked coldly.

She flinched at his tone, but glared back at him before answering. "I don't see any other way.."

"So, that's it? You're just going to give up?"

"What do you want me to do? The longer I'm with you, the more likely it is that the Cabal will target you. If I go it alone, at least I'm the only one that will suffer."

"You don't understand." He shot back. "I'm asking if you are giving up on your revenge."

"...What?"

"Didn't you say that you only joined the party in order to push me into destroying your enemies and avenging your mother? Have you forgotten what they did already? Have you decided to forgive them, then?"

"That's not...no I" She trailed off, too flustered to give a coherent answer.

"Really? Because it sounds like you've decided to let them win. More importantly, it sounds like you've decided to make your mother's sacrifice worthless."

Sera blanched at that. "No! I-I...that's not what I"

"Isn't it? If you left us and went out on your own, how long do you think you would be able to survive before they caught you? A month? A week? Isn't keeping them out of your clutches exactly what your mom died for? Do you want her to have suffered for nothing?"

Tears began spilling out of her eyes. "Ah...no..."

Feeling slightly guilty, he allowed some warmth to enter his voice and gave her a sad smile. "Then don't give up just yet. After all, even though you haven't succeeded in turning me into your revenge tool yet, that doesn't mean it's hopeless."

She looked at him, obviously confused.

"That being said, I have a better idea. Rather than becoming your weapon and bringing an end to those Cabal bastards, wouldn't it be much more satisfying to do it yourself?"

The Oracle laughed bitterly while wiping at her eyes again. "Of course, but you seem to be forgetting what we've been talking about up to this point. If I could do that to begin with, we wouldn't be having this conversation."

"That's because I have been doing a shit job of helping everyone grow. Which is honestly something I need to apologize for."

"It's not your responsibility." She muttered quietly.

"Regardless, I promised to do so, and yet, I haven't really followed through on it. So, in many ways, your current doubts are a product of my negligence." He stood up and moved towards the door, before turning back and regarding her. "Which is why I would like to ask you for a favor."

Sera blinked again, a bit taken aback. "What's that?"

"Could you place your trust in me again? I swear that this time I will be truly dedicated to helping you improve, and I promise that when you feel ready, I will be there at your side when you finally put an end to the Cabal's threat." He softened his expression. "Can you do that for me?"

For a moment she didn't say anything, and he started to get worried that he may have chosen the wrong tactic, but finally she nodded. "Alright."

Before she had a chance to say anything else, he exclaimed. "Excellent! Then let's get started."

As he grabbed her arm and began pulling her outside, she managed a confused, "Eh?"

"Well, believe it or not, I've actually been giving the issue some thought, and I've come to the conclusion that there are fundamentally two ways of improving one's skills. The way I see it, you can either practice on your own, slowly perfecting your abilities through sheer effort, or you can use a faster way."

"What faster way?" She asked. By this point they'd arrived at an empty patch near the dried up lake.

Judging that they were far enough away from any of the others to not risk causing undue harm, Mike muttered a brief chant and created a series of earthen walls, enclosing a circular area roughly a hundred meters in diameter.

Perhaps sensing that things were moving in a dangerous direction, Sera began to look worried. "Mike? What faster way are you talking about?"

"Over the course of my admittedly limited experience in skill improvement, I've noticed that my biggest advancements seem to occur when I'm fighting in life or death battles and end up overcoming dangerous opponents. While we can certainly do that in the future, I'm thinking we should get started in a more controlled environment."

"What are you planning" She started to ask before trailing off as he finished another chant, causing a quartet of summoning circles to appear on the ground nearby.

Their light quickly resolved into a group of spiders, each of which was roughly the size of a small car. To make matters worse, they appeared to be composed of solidified flame. Sizzling drops of liquid fire spilled from their twitching mandibles as thirty two eyes glowing eyes focused on the Oracle.

[Well, that wasn't quite what I was aiming for, but I suppose it works.]

Sera was horrified, staring blankly at the terrifying monsters for a few seconds before the realization dawned on her. "You aren't thinking of-"

"Don't worry. I'll be here to heal you if you get hurt, although I suggest you start running. They look a bit hungry."

As if to emphasize his point, the four flaming arachnids began to slowly advance in her direction. Blanching, she turned and tried to put some distance between herself and the monsters. "Dammit Mike! I'll get you back for this!"

Chuckling, he sent a mental command to his summons, ensuring they would hold back just enough to avoid doing too much harm.

[If I get her to start practicing that precognition ability of hers, I bet it will make her a much more formidable opponent. In the meantime, however, I suppose I better get to work as well.]

With that thought in mind, he muttered another chant, summoning a lizard that was a little bigger than a mid-sized dog. Activating his Life Magic, he pushed his mana into the creature and began experimenting with just how far he could apply his newly discovered abilities.