Chapter 34 - Everything He's Worked For

“I’ve already been filled in about this, Sister. Perhaps it’s why you saw Corbin leaving the building in such a hurry,” Daniel said, his hands clasped atop his desk.
Maybe he wasn’t going to actually get to do any work today. There were orders to prepare, equipment to acquire, and a town that was growing like it was planted in Mythic-Quality fertilizer. He should be happy and for a good while, he had been. He only wished he felt good about how things had gone down with Corbin.
That was fine… Willow would talk some sense into him, and then they could figure out what to actually do about the investigators, not to mention Corbin’s unwavering belief that there was no good outcome of Prince Frederick visiting.
“I just… wanted to explain why I didn’t bring you this the moment I received it,” Gwendoline said, sitting stiffly in the chair opposite him.
“You know, Sister. I don’t know if I ever explained how things work around here… I suppose that’s on me for thinking you were here just to help Darla,” Daniel said, leaning forward. “See, I’m not exactly the biggest fan of people making decisions that affect my town behind my back, regardless of how important they are to some royal people that don’t live anywhere near here, and I’m afraid you’ve done exactly that. So, Sister, if you want to explain something to me, it better be exactly what you told Corbin and why.”
“That’s, um…” Gwendoline hesitated, her brow pinching together. “Are you aware—“
“That he’s wrapped up in that dusk-ridden prophecy everyone claims is coming true? Yes, Sister. I’m aware.”
“He… told you? And you didn’t bring it to me?” her eyes widened just a bit, yet Daniel didn’t relent.
“Careful, I wouldn’t want to call a Sister of Dawn a hypocrite now,” he shot back quickly. Maybe he was being a bit short with her, but he really was quite fed up with all of it.
“Daniel… you must understand that keeping something like this from the crown’s attention can look… bad…” she replied carefully. “The crown exists to fulfil the prophecy. Since Graham first fought back the Dusk thousands of years ago, his descendants have done everything they can to prepare for the Tale of Dusk and Dawn. Obstructing it… it won’t be seen as anything other than directly opposing Dawn.”
“And what would you call telling him to flee before any of them could arrive?”
“I never told him to run…”
“You only put the option on a silver platter for him. Had you brought this to me first, I could have approached him, discussed it reasonably. The man is a hair’s breadth away from abandoning this town when we are on the cusp of true growth. He deserves to see that through.”
“Does he? Or is it you who needs him here for that, Daniel?” Gwendoline asked and Daniel felt his frustration grow even more. “I spoke with Mr. Ward about it while he was here and he tells me Danwood was on the verge of collapse before Corbin arrived. Would you keep him here just to prevent that from happening, just to keep your town succeeding? Isn’t that selfish of you, Daniel? Do you think he’d have been able to stay if Prince Frederick came and finally completed the party?”
“He was here and worked with us because he wanted to be, Sister. So I’d have made sure that he felt like he could stay here as long as that’s what he wanted. And then I’d tell the Prince that he could find his final party member elsewhere. No one gets to decide someone else’s future for them.”
“That’s a lofty ideal, Daniel… but you don’t understand what you’re saying about him, or about what your resistance might mean for you. He’s the Stranger, and the Tale of Dusk and Dawn is clear about what his responsibility to this world is. I won’t claim the Fates are fair, but their Tales haven’t been wrong yet.”
Daniel was just about to say something else, when his door slammed open, Willow breathing heavily and a collection of papers grasped in one hand.
“He left… Danny… Corbin, he—“ she stopped once she realized they weren’t alone in the room.
“What? But… he was just here, what do you mean he left?” Daniel said, having gotten to his feet, his hands planted on his desk.
“I don’t know. I was decorating in Quiet’s Hearth and was about to go back to my planning when I saw him in the window and he just… he vanished…”
“Vanished? What, how?” Daniel’s eyes widened as he searched for answers.
“I don’t know!” Willow repeated, stepping in further and pointing a finger at Gwendoline. “Why won’t you people leave him alone? There are plenty of others out there who want to go on adventures. He didn’t. He just wanted peace!”
“It’s not that simple. The Stranger can’t be changed. Without him, the Prince will never be able to find the rest of the Jewels of Dusk,” Gwendoline insisted. Willow took another step forward, managing to loom over the sister in a way Daniel had never seen his sister do to anyone other than a child.
“I don’t care!” she snapped, crossing her arms and staring with true anger. “Did any of you ever consider why you had to follow the prophecy?! Did you consider why Corbin was so scared of it?!”
“I… no… I didn’t. The very fate of our world resides on Prince Frederick defeating the Lord of Dusk and destroying the Jewels he seeks to protect.”
“Then why did you tell him the Prince and Lord Drake’s investigators were coming?” Daniel said, jumping in to help his sister. “If you cared about the prophecy, why would you let the companion your Prince is after leave?”
“I… he just… he needs time to accept it… it was a kindness,” Gwendoline said, her eyes shifting between the siblings.
“Kindness,” Willow spat, smacking the papers in her hand on the table. “He’s literally giving everything away… Everything he’s worked for to try and stay out of this nonsense and whatever you’ve done has made him throw it all away.”
“Willow, I haven’t done anything to him. I warned him about the people who were coming… that’s it,” Gwendoline said, her defenses returning. “And ‘this nonsense’ is literally a matter of the survival of our way of life. Do you really care more about the peace of one man–”
“Yes!” Willow cut her off. “Do you know what he believes is going to happen?”
“Willow…” Daniel warned, causing her to look back at him.
“What? Why shouldn’t I tell her? Maybe it’ll be the difference,” she said. Daniel felt his stomach turn… he’d heard her like this before… when they’d gotten their news about their father. That didn’t make it easier.
“Because… if that’s what he wanted… he would have told her himself.”
“He left. Why should I care what he wanted?”
Daniel sighed… he didn’t have a good answer for that even if he didn’t agree with it, and he could hear the clear hurt behind the words. Still… harboring the Prince’s missing companion was one thing, but harboring the Lord of Dusk? That was offering up an entirely different reason for the crown to take issue with Danwood.
Daniel hadn’t been sure how much of all that he actually believed. Corbin clearly believed it, and his eccentricities were nearly impossible to place without the history that he’d suggested. But this idea that Corbin simply was the Lord of Dusk and that was the end of it? That just didn’t add up to him.
The Lord of Dusk was the harbinger of darkness… he was cruel, impatient, reckless, blood-thirsty, and most importantly, completely lacking in empathy.
Corbin was definitely impatient… and reckless… but the rest? No, Daniel didn’t believe that the man he’d grown to trust over the last few months truly embodied those other traits.
“Because what good will it do? He told me he’s not coming back, Willow… If it could change something, don’t you think he would have tried it?” Daniel finally said, then looked over at Gwendoline. “And we have a prince to–“
“Corbin thinks he’s the Lord of Dusk,” Willow said, ignoring what Daniel was trying to do. He tried not to swear, his sister was stubborn to a fault and he’d never been able to stop her when she thought she was in the right… even if he and many people didn’t agree. “He’s convinced that no matter what he says or what he does, your Prince won’t listen. He’s convinced that he’s seen all of this nonsense so many times, he knows better than all of us and knows how everything is going to go down. But if that were the truth, he wouldn’t still be doing this, would he? So maybe telling you this does nothing… but maybe having it come from someone else matters.”
Gwendoline’s eyes went wide and she jumped to her feet. Daniel looked at the fallen chair behind the Sister and felt an odd annoyance that he couldn’t quite place.
“That’s impossible… I felt Dawn’s Light within him when I last sat with him. I needed to make sure he hadn’t been corrupted into avoiding us and as far as I could tell he hadn’t. It’s why I told him to give him the time to come to peace with it all. The Lord of Dusk… he knows only darkness,” she argued, clearly unsure. “But… but the way he spoke… Dawn help me, has Dusk swallowed this community?”
“What? No, that’s ridiculous,” Daniel said, cocking his head to the side as she looked around, closing her eyes and muttering a few brief prayers.
“There’s Dusk… but no more than any one place usually has,” she murmured after a few moments. “Willow, what is he trying to avoid?”
“The prophecy… the fighting… umm… Oh! He said something about some Jewels? That Prince Frederick would stop at nothing to destroy them and it was something he just couldn’t let happen?” Willow said, clearly eager that Gwendoline wasn’t shutting her down.
“That’s… not necessarily good. The Lord of Dusk wouldn’t want them destroyed… did he say why that was the sticking point?”
“No… he offered to, but I didn’t think it was important at the time,” Willow said, scowling and looking down.
“Hmm… I’m… going to need to pray on this…” Gwendoline said. She turned, picked up the chair she had knocked over, then looked at Daniel. “I’m… sorry for how I’ve gone about this… I hope you can overlook the decisions I’ve made…”
“We’ll see,” Daniel said, crossing his arms. “If you help make sure the Prince doesn’t try to set up a Royal Charter here, and make sure Lord Drake’s investigators leave us alone… then we’ll consider forgiving you.”
Willow cleared her throat.
“Sorry… I’ll consider forgiving you… I can’t speak for my little sister,” he sighed. “But that’s only if we make sure Corbin has a place to come back to.”