Chapter 14

Coral explains the prophecy to the group, and are reunited with Ryan.

Chapter 14

 

“Now, before we begin...” Coral said in a hard tone, sitting down opposite the four teenagers sat in front of her.  The police chief, accompanied by Ryan and two others, had escorted the children back to Aurin Village while the rest of the team had headed back towards Industrictus.  Lolly had been taken with them to a hospital, along with Reomia to the Praestia Surgery.  Although the other four had sustained injuries, Aoibhin was able to heal them once she had recovered herself. On the way back to the village, Coral had received word that the group had been attacked by agents from Mortalitas, but had escaped into Aurin Forest.  The path was apparently being watched, and Coral had suspicions on reasons, based on what the group in front of her was about to say.  “Can I get you anything to eat or drink?”

 

Tom glanced to the other three.  Aoibhin was fiddling with a foreign looking coin on the desk, looking bored and uninterested.  Anna was watching her with fascination, as if Aoibhin herself was something extraordinary.  Molly meanwhile, looked to him and shook her head, before looking back to Coral.  Tom did the same, and replied weakly, “We’re good, thanks.”

 

Coral gave a curt nod, before drumming her fingers on the desk, closing her eyes deep in thought.  Eventually, dark eyes re-opened and examined them once more, “I am curious... so tell me.  What did one of the leaders of Mortalitas itself want with five ordinary looking teenagers?”  Her eyes hovered over each of them, before lingering on Aoibhin, “...Miss Bryant, I was hoping not to see you again.  Trust one such as you to get involved with something like this.”

 

Aoibhin looked up with a glare at her, “Ahh, f**k off, you stupid woman.”

 

Coral appeared surprise at the hostile reply, before shaking it off and looking back to Tom, “...Regardless, have you any idea what he wanted?”

 

Tom again exchanged glances with Molly, who shrugged, before again to Coral, “God knows.  We were just training our Praedux, and boom... Green haired posh guy attacks us, almost kills Lolly, and nearly cuts my eye out.  Creepy, right?” He shuddered briefly, mind flashing back to the moment where the assassin’s knife was pressed beneath his eye.  His skin lost colour momentarily, before he shook his head and his uncaring expression returned.  Coral stared at him intently, before giving a short nod.

 

“...I see.” She broke off warily, worry flashing on her face, before tentatively saying, “...Two of you seem different...” She gestured to the two teenagers in the middle �" Tom and Molly.  “Am I... right in guessing that you are not from Otellus?”  Silence followed the question, before Molly eventually nodded warily.  “And... the injured girl is part of your group... and the new police officer under my command...?” She climbed to her feet, barely noticing the second nod from Molly as she paused.  “Four...” She turned on her heel to face Anna, “Five...  Tell me, is there another?  One that wasn’t with you, but you know of?”

 

“Er... yes.” Tom replied, voice cautious, “Josh. He stayed back at the hotel to wr... do stuff. Something. Something fun and not nerdy.”

 

“Six.” Coral finished with a nod, approaching the window, opening the blinds slightly to allow a gridded sunlight to fill the room.  “Five of you are from a different world, but one of you is not.” She looked over to them, examining the shock in their faces.  “Eight children in total, seven of them from elsewhere... and only one from Otellus.” She appeared to be talking more to herself than the group as she began to pace back and forth, “...Eight children from another world...  Foreigners... Praedux...” She stopped, leaning heavily on her chair and bowing her head, “How much do you know...?  About the prophecy?”

 

Tom seemed too stunned to reply, so Molly weakly replied, “...Not much... Ethaniel said something about it.  Not entirely sure how it works, though?”

 

“There are two paths.” Coral replied immediately, pushing herself back from the chair and stepping away, “The first is that eight children from another world rise up and destroy the group Mortalitas, led by Xagraver... The other is that Mortalitas defeats you. Few people, myself included, know exactly how he can do that.  Rumours are that it involves killing one of the eight before things go too far.  What I can tell you, however, is that the prophecy is triggered when one of you... the eighth child... meets another. Beside the seventh. It’s all very confusing.” Tom and Molly exchanged perplexed glances as Coral continued, “There are so many rumours about all of this, and I honestly cannot explain it properly. I know that if the eighth child meets someone, then one of you will die shortly after.  However, if the eighth child is killed before he or she meets another, then you are supposed to win.  However, Xagraver doesn’t want that.  The only way for him to emerge victorious is a secret and only possible once the prophecy has been triggered.”

 

“Hey! Hello! Hi.” All eyes, Anna excluded, turned to Aoibhin as she suddenly jumped to her feet, approaching Coral, “Hey. Police woman.  I’m here too... any chance of me being part of this prophecy thingy?  Sounds awesome, y’know.  I wanna help save the world.”

 

“...Save the world?” An arched eyebrow rose on Coral’s stern face, “You seem too intent on robbery and vandalism.”

 

“I’m an artist!” The young girl protested, bottom lip sticking out in a pout, “You just don’t appreciate my work.”

 

“Neither did the owner of the red panda you tried stealing.”

 

“...Yeah... f**k sake.” Aoibhin sighed loudly, before returning to her seat and folding her arms, “I saved all your damn lives, you know.  You’d better take me along on this adventure of yours.”

 

There was a three second silence, before, “I don’t get why there is an adventure!” Tom scrambled to his feet, chair falling back to the floor with a bang as he stared at the police officer with frustration, “Why are we here?!  Why are you telling us this?  Why is this prophecy real?!  I don’t get it!  What do we do?  Who are we not meant to meet? Do we have any control over this or are we just following a load of cruddy clues that don’t make any sense whatsoever?  I think this is a load of crap. Screw the prophecy, and screw you.”

 

“That’s something I’d say!” Aoibhin looked up from the nail she was chewing to smile brightly at Tom, who was now headed for the door. They were all interrupted, however, by the door slamming open and Josh walking in, panting heavily.  “Oh. New guy. Sup.”

 

Josh slumped into Tom’s previously occupied chair, cheeks red, before gasping, “...God damn it, why’d I make this town big... Look.  I’ve been trying to fix all this crap; I didn’t want Lolly to be injured... or Molly to be knocked out. Or any of this stuff... I’ve been trying to keep the story as it was originally intended... if I stray more than a little bit, the whole thing’s ruined. Please don’t hate me... I added in Aoibhin to save you all.” Aoibhin gave a thumbs up to Tom, showing a toothy grin. Josh raised his eyebrows at her, taking a deep breath, before continuing, "I'll save you the effort of asking what happened, Coral. They were going to train, Marcel and co attacked... Cue battle. They had nothing to do with it."

Coral looked at the boy, expression unreadable, "It's lucky that Ethaniel already contacted me about you. Be careful of who you talk in front of, otherwise you'll only confuse and scare by talking about 'writing'." She sighed slightly, drumming her fingers on the desk and taking a sip of coffee that a policeman had just placed in front of her, "I know I am fictional, and as you know... You made me."

"Isn't that just f*****g weird?!" Tom exclaimed with a deep frown, "How can you... Know you don't actually exist? I... I dunno what to even think about it."

"I do exist." Coral replied with a tone of bemusement, "Just only from imagination. Look, my... Job, as such, is to tell you what is going on. Josh, there are things not even you know, so listen as well." Josh frowned, but leaned forward to pay attention along with the others. Even Anna appeared curious to know what Coral had to say. "Things are not going to go to plan, they will not stick to what Josh intended. You didn't finish the story before you were brought here, so the story will take its own course based on what you do, like normal life for you. As Ethaniel has already hinted at, the more you write the more control you have. And as you yourself said, you try to change what happens and things will go wrong. You tried to get your friends away from the battle, right?" Josh nodded uncertainly, "Instead of what you wanted, Lolly was injured.... Removed from the battle. What you meant for it to do, just not in the way you wanted. She could've died." Josh's eyes widened briefly, before back to neutral as the boy waited for her to continue. "No matter where you write it from, you should keep writing as much as possible. Paper, computer... Heck, even on a leaf would work. Though I wouldn't suggest that. It's basically a race against time. It's impossible for you to write everything, because you'll just be stuck writing what's happening now... You must skip 'unimportant' parts to get ahead, but there again lies the risk. You skip to the next day, anything can happen overnight as long as it doesn't directly interfere with what happens the next morning. Skip three months... Everything could've changed in that time-"

Again, Coral was cut off, this time by Molly. "Can we skip this and move on to why we are here? I didn't even know Joshua was writing some book and suddenly I'm in a police station in some random village... Speaking of which, thank you for putting me in it, Joshua." She directed a small smile to the boy, who returned it uncertainly. Before he could reply, the small girl continued to Coral, "Do we have a part in this? Or are we literally just here to do what the hell he wants us to?" She frowned slightly, before looking back to Josh, "Couldn't you have at least given me pink hair or something... Cuter?"

Josh raised his eyebrows, "You'd look stupid with pink hair."

"Nice. Real nice." Tom remarked as Molly looked away, annoyed. Josh shifted uneasily, ignoring the slight guilt inside him.

"...It is obviously impossible for you to be completely controlled by it." Coral finally began to explain, "Everything he writes, you do. But that doesn't mean that you only do the stuff he writes. For example, Josh didn't write all the details on the earlier battle. He didn't specify how Tom's Praestia best the crocodile, yet it happened in full detail. If Josh hadn't written what the result of the battle between them, the crocodile may have won. On a bigger scale, if he hasn't finished the battle at all and put in my arrival, you could have all died."

Josh put his head in his hands, several thoughts running through his mind. How on earth could he keep writing under this pressure? If he missed one detail... If he hadn't mentioned Molly or Anna in the aftermath before heading for the station, they could have died? "So... Basically... The parts I don't write mean that anything could happen as long as it leads to the result... I need to round off... Everything?" When Coral nodded, he paled.

"But no pressure." Aoibhin grinned, before asking obnoxiously loud, "But what about me? You say you added me in to this story like... Half an hour ago? Dude, I've been alive over a decade, I have memories. I had a massive row with my parents yesterday and punched my brother!" She broke off, shaking her head vigorously, "I don't know what you weirdos are taking, but all this s**t about that guy making this world and that I'm apparently made up... It's all... Bullshit. I have a life, I am alive, so you can all go to hell if you think you're convincing me otherwise. I'm outta here, freaks." She pushed herself up from her chair, Terrakat hopping onto her shoulder as she headed for the exit.

"You are invited on the journey you know." Josh commented almost monotonously. Aoibhin spun on the spot.

"I thought you'd never ask!" She said brightly, smiling again, "Fiction, s**t-ction, I'm coming with." Tom laughed, and the girl directed her childish grin to him instead.

Molly simply shook her head, arms folded over her stomach, "I don't buy it. No one can write the future, and I refuse to believe that what I'm saying and doing now was prewritten."

Josh shifted awkwardly, "This isn't prewritten, actually. I’ll go back to the computer to find a few pages of stuff I didn't type. This." He looked to the silent Coral, "We can go now, right?"

"Not just yet." Coral shook her head, "One more thing. The prophecy." As if on cue, the sun vanished behind clouds outside, causing the dim light emerging from the barely opened blinds to turn even darker. Coral approached them, opening them wider as she spoke softly, "Eight children from another world will arrive in Otellus and destroy Mortalitas. Each of the eight has a specific role to play. On the other hand, Xagraver will stumble on an opportunity unknown to all that could save him. The prophecy will begin to undo the world if left incomplete for too long. You must either kill Xagraver, or all of you die to save the world and end the prophecy."

Tom looked to Josh, "...Did you write this s**t?"

Josh thought back to what Ethaniel had said about there being another writer, and how he couldn't say anything. He, or rather Coral, had already done the other thing Ethaniel had said not to do. That was to tell others that Josh was the one writing and controlling them... Still, he doubted it could be too bad. "...Who else would've?" He chose to answer with a slight shrug.

"Look..." Coral said with a sigh, turning back to face them, "The only way for the prophecy to be triggered is when the eighth child meets another. No one knows who the eighth child is, but it’s safe to assume you haven't met them yet, or it'd be pointless." Josh nodded, as if confirming this to the others even though he had no idea. "Shortly after the eighth child meets someone, another of the eight will shortly die. The first... You can die at any point before the prophecy begins. At least when it does begin, you have immunity for a while. As I said, all eight have roles, some may involve death. I have no idea."

"Woah, woah, woah." Tom jumped to his feet, laughing weakly, "Guaranteed death for someone?! I'm not going on some damn crazy adventure knowing that to defeat this Xagraver guy, I might die before I do anything!" He spun around to look at Josh with anger, "Why the hell did you plan to kill at least one of us?! We win, right? You can just go and write the ending right now! Mention all of us being alive and going home."

Josh shook his head with exasperation, "It doesn't work like--"

Tom snorted, "Of course it does! Coral said that what you write happens, but the middle bit is unknown. We may come out at the end missing a few limbs or whatever... Wait. No. In the ending, write 'Tom waltzed up, looking perfect with all limbs attached. He even got a new, awesome hair do'." He snorted again in disgust, "Write the ending, it'll be fine."

"...I’ll do my best." Josh lied, knowing that whatever he did, the other writer would change.  He looked around at the taller boy, who simply shook his head and readjusting his glasses, looking back to Coral. “But I mean... it won’t... I can’t guarantee anything... and... I don’t want anyone blaming me when�"if things go wrong. I’ll already be blaming myself anyway.” He shrugged awkwardly, before sighing deeply, “I never meant for any of this to happen, guys.  I was gonna like... change all the names when I finished so it wasn’t you in the story... I was just doing this for fun.”

 

Oddly enough, Anna was the one to answer Josh by skipping over and hugging him. “Well, don’t worry, Woshy!  We still love you!”

 

“...Woshy?” Molly asked with confusion, eyebrows rising, a scowl on her lips. “Only I can give him nicknames, kay thanks.”  Anna pouted, while Josh rolled his eyes.

 

“...Back to the matter at present.” Coral quickly moved the conversation along, dismissing the nickname matter with a flick of her hand, “But to be honest, we’re done here...  Stay away from Mortalitas, watch out for anyone you meet here that you know already... and be careful.  Particularly you.” Her eyes rested on Josh, who gave a stiff nod.  “Anyway... I believe I have something that belongs to you.  I believe it will... um... help you in your journey.” All pairs of eyes rose in curiosity, looking for what item Coral was talking about.  All heads then turned to the door as Coral gestured to the guard, and in walked Ryan.  “Not entirely sure why he ended up joining, but I’m sending him as an official guard on your journey.  He seems rather knowledgeable on your story, Josh.”

 

Josh got to his feet, approaching the blonde boy, “...Are you telling me you actually read it?”

 

Ryan shrugged slightly, “I wouldn’t go that far.  Anyway... Ladies and gentlemen, I am Officer Ryan, and I will be your guard and guide for the duration of this quest.  It is my duty to see you through fulfilling the prophecy safely, and if you have any questions about this land... Feel free to ask me, for I consider myself an expert.”  There was a slight shuffling noise to break the awkward silence, of Aoibhin shouldering her pack boredly.  Ryan sighed hopelessly, “Excuse me for doing my job properly... In simpler words... Do as I freaking say, this place is awesome, and thank god I’m not alone here. Now get a move on!”  Josh stared at the boy, before simply shaking his head and slipping past him into the main hall.  Molly and Anna followed, not before Anna gave him a hug.  Ryan’s response was to frown and ask, “Who the f**k is she?  ...And who are you?”

 

Aoibhin stretched with a yawn as she approached the boy, before staring at him lazily, “I’m amazing.  And apparently fiction. But I think they’re on drugs, so it doesn’t matter.  See ya, Mr. Cop Guy.” She then began whistling as she walked out the room, leaving Ryan alone with Coral as the door swung shut.

 

“...Look after them.” Coral said softly, looking at the boy, “No-one else can know what you know.”

 

Ryan appeared uncomfortable as he leant against the doorframe, “But why did you tell me?  Why send a guard to... kidnap me? Er... why me, in other words?”

 

Coral smiled slightly, “Because in the coming events, you’ll be looked to as leader of the rebellion... You’re the only one I can trust with the roles of the eight.  But should the worst happen, and you don’t think you’ll survive... Then trust only Tom. Nobody else.”  Ryan gave a slow nod, before saluting half-heartedly and leaving the room after the others.  Coral sighed as she finished the rest of her coffee, staring at the door he’d just vanished through, before shaking her head and returning to the various paper work on the desk.