Sleeping on the Wavechaser was both a joy and a bane. The gentle rocking of the waves, the call of adventure, even the eerie, alien sounds coming from the deep, soothed you rather than alarmed you. You suppose your new companions have something to do with that. But now, finding yourself on dry land once again, so close to your old home, a home that in your lifetime, you saw only a couple of tendays ago, but has been years since any of them saw you.

Is it time to investigate? Perhaps finding answers as to what happened, why the Shadowfire did this and by what power they must have enjoined. Abbott Orist (the head Abbott) is no slouch and you gladly admit he would incapacitate even you in less than 30 seconds. He is a master of the quivering palm, not to mention his in depth study of many Monastic Traditions. But you are also keenly aware that this world is filled with powerful beings just waiting to make a pact.

There are also answers to be found back at the White Citadel as well. At least you hope. You’re not sure why you asked about the King’s Soul, except that your experiences in the Soul Gate rattled you enough to wonder as to its cause? Is it really to go after it? Is it even possible?
Your thoughts naturally turn to Arianna, wondering how she reacted when she learned of the time that had passed. Was she still wanted? What of her father? You have significantly increased your fortunes and your reputation since boarding the Cloud Quintessant.
Of course, you’re not sure who actually knows. Surely the word has gotten out of the brave adventurers who rescued the many of Flora Isle. But what of the prevention of Uk’otoa? And was that really so successful? Arianna would tell you not to be so hard on yourself and remind you of the valor you showed and sacrifice you were willing to make.

Your head pops off the pillow, as you remember something long forgotten in your knapsack.

You rummage around, passed the bag of holding and the bag of transference, push aside a Slaad claw (which smells significantly worse than before) until you find the yellowing envelope. Inside, is a short note, written by Arianna that simply says,
“For luck. And for when you’ve lost your way.”

You fish inside the envelope for the gold coin. Not the Empire’s or the Concord’s. This one is embossed with the elegant profile of a woman, her hair blowing in the breeze and a playful smirk on her lips.

Avandra, The Chanebringer. Goddess of Freedom and Travel. Of Adventurers and the courageous.

Avandra is not a “recognized” deity in the Empire, but in the Clovis Concord, you have heard her name and seen her holy symbol from time to time. But, according to Arianna, these “coins of fortune” are rare.
You flip it in the air and along your fingers, thinking back to the time when you first saw it.

Your father had commissioned you a job cutting branches in a nearby plum orchard. He wouldn’t say it, but he was impressed with your ability to leap from one tree to the next, full saw in hand, as if your were on solid ground. He wouldn’t say a lot of things.

After sawing through a particularly thick brand, you stop for a moment to wipe the sweat out of your eyes.

And you felt her before you saw her.

You felt the electricity of her excitement, the kind of excitement that comes from the naïveté of youth, something you truly miss.

“Hi.”
“Hi,” you say back, smirking, knowing, expecting.
“Can you come down?” she says, bouncing on the balls of her feet.
“Of course,” as you drop, hooking your knees on a lower branch, swinging upside down and flipping to your feet, landing solidly on the ground. As you look up, she’s right there at your face.
“Come with me.”

She leads you to a more secluded place in the orchard, where fellow trimmers have yet to work. She stops, her back to you.

“Arianna, what?”

She whips around, holding a golden coin with the visage of the Changebringer. Your eyes grow wide.

“Where did you get this?!” you ask reaching out for it. She lets you take it.
“You know that old shrine near the Cyrios End Forest? The one I thought could be the shrine from the story?”
“Yeah!”
“There! I found it there. I was piecing some of the old statues together, hoping to reveal a clue or something, and I picked up a hand holding a jar and inside the jar was the coin!”
“That’s amazing!”
“Yeah!” Arianna is smiling, beaming, can’t be happier.
“So, when should we go?”
“Go? Go where?” She asks, pulling the coin back.
“Leave. From here.”
“What do you mean?”
“Remember, we planned that when we had enough, we’d get out of here, start a new life, away from your old man. That can get us passage on a caravan, or at least feed us for a week! This could do it.”
“Oh!” She says, finally getting on your train of thought. “Oh. No. No, we’re not spending this.”
“What?”
“This is a clue, Axel! It’s called a Coin of Fortune and the lore says that they’re only found by those Avandra wants to find them. And I found it. It means we’re on the right track! I think she knows I’m looking for the Soul and–no, don’t make that sound, again.”

“What sound?”
“That sound, that huhhhgghghghg sound every time I talk about the Soul.”
“I didn’t make that sound.”
“Axel, you made the sound.”
“Look you spend so much time on the search for this Soul thing, we hardly spend time together anymore unless it’s looking through some dank cave or pretending to read a scroll we can’t possibly decipher or putting statues together. I’m glad you have a passion, Arianna, I just don’t share it.”

It was honest, but you knew it would be a shock.

“So you don’t want to look for the King’s Soul? A massive ruby that holds the key to peace on Exandria?”
“Not really.”
“Uggghhhh, you can be exasperating!”
“I’ll tell you what. You show me some real evidence that the King’s Soul exists and I’ll go on every half-brained adventure you want me to.”
She holds the coin up to your face.
“What am I looking at, here? Does this coin tell us where it is? Who has it? How to use it? Can it find a phantom Knight of Vasselheim?”
“Patience, tree trimmer.”
“Right. Look, I don’t doubt that this, “fortune coin” is rare, and that it could be a blessing to find it, (though a good meal, hot bath and the best night’s sleep I ever had sounds like a blessing)” you add under your breath. “But does it get us closer to the ruby?”
“…no.”
“Can you tell if it is directly related to the ruby?”
“No, but–“
“Are we going to leave here as soon as we get enough coin to pay for it?”

Arianna begins to speak and then stops. And stays stopped.

Now it’s your turn to be shocked.

“Hang on…we are still planning to leave, right? Right?”

Finally, Arianna says, “I know that was the plan we made when we were eleven. But now that I’m in school and the things I’m learning, and I’m seeing how the world works, and Axel, I can make a real difference here.”

“We.”
“We can make a real difference here.”
“Of course,” she says, nodding and swallowing. But you caught the hesitancy.
“So you think I’m just a laborer’s son, too, then. A tree trimmer.”
“NO, Axel, don’t you dare. You KNOW that’s not what I think.
“Then what?! I’m holding you back?”
“No, I’m holding YOU back!”
“What?”

Arianna sighs and paces around before sitting on an old stump, pushing her hair back from her face before she talks.

“You would wait for me.” She stares at you, daring you to deny it. But you don’t. “If I kept telling you we’d leave soon, we’d leave soon, you’d wait for me, no matter how much coin you saved.”

“What’s your point?”
“My point is, Axel, is that you are far more than a laborer’s son!” She stands up giving the statement more weight. “And I can’t hold you back anymore. You have to go. You have to go and find out what you’re meant to be. Maybe it isn’t searching for the King’s Soul, but I do hope it’s changing our world a little bit at a time so we can leave it better than we found it.”

“But…” you say quietly, almost at a whisper, “not together.”

She pulls out a small leather bag, with small jingling sounds coming from within.
“I’ve been saving this for the right moment. I didn’t expect this how today would go, but when you visit the Shrine of the Changebringer, I guess you have to be ready of the unexpected.”
“So this is it then?”
“That’s entirely up to you.”

You shake your head, sitting on the bed back in the small village on the outskirts of The Vezdaweald, where you teleported just hours ago. You can’t help the images from spilling forth of the final time you saw her before you left to seek your fortune. It was raining, a sweet summer rain that fell like pouring mercy in the heat of the afternoon. Your bags were packed, you had said goodbye to your mother and little sister. Your father said you’d be back before the harvest. You made it around a corner and then another before seeing Arianna standing there in the street, a deep green umbrella clutched in one hand, and the envelope in another.
Even through the dampness and drops of rain on her face, you could tell she had been crying. She opened her mouth to say something, but somewhere the words got stuck in her throat. Instead, she threw her arms around your neck and held you for a long time. You could feel her missing you. A deep missing.

Finally, she let go, stuffed the envelope into your hand and hurried off into the rain, her head hunched under the umbrella. You let her go. And it took more effort than ever to put one foot in front of the other.