Chapter Text
Have you ever looked back and realized you walked right into a trap?
I have. But I don't think I ever had the choice not to.
It was so peaceful, the early afternoon I stepped off the ferry. Feeling steady ground beneath my feet, cobblestones after hours of shifting waves. The strap of my bag, carrying all the belongings I had cared to bring, weighing safely against my shoulder. The wind rushing past my ears, without any long hair to shield me. The relief, the feeling of lightness, of finally having cut it all off. Every step I took after that felt energized, charged. Purposeful. And the rest played out like the beginning of a movie. One of those movies you hate to watch but would give anything to star in. A forested, idyllic world, full of quiet bristling life and free of the noise and stress of the city, free of brand names, corporate monopolies and digital fatigue. Paradise. A perfect chance at a new start, unbound from everything that used to hold you down. A setting sun over a glittering, endless sea. And a black horse, with eyes only for you.
I wish I could say that I already knew it was too good to be true, then. But I didn't. How could I have known? Conspiracies don't happen in real life, after all. Every so often you get lucky, land that one-percent chance and find yourself where you needed to be on pure accident.
That doesn't mean it was ever your fate to come there. That's what I thought.
Now I'm not religious, I don't consider myself religious, not at all. The way I see it, if you really know something exists, it can't be a religion anymore because faith stops mattering. Religion is all about faith, and I have none for higher beings.
That's why I consider it a statement of fact, not superstition, to say that Lady Fate had it out for me from the start. Fate is a force, or a person, or a god, and right when I thought I had finally taken control of my life, turns out, I had only listened to Her call. Her voice led me on. Out of the city. Into the sea. Onto this island. Every step I took.
It was too good to be true. You, especially. And I wish I could say that if I had the chance to go back, I would never have left Stockholm. In fact, I wish I could've stayed.
I wish I had the option to just run for it. Turn tail and flee, go back. Back to the city, where I could scrape my knees on the asphalt and leave traces of myself behind. Existing with the rest of the world. But it's not that I would go back if I could. It's not even that I stay because I have a duty, to protect people, to protect you. I do have a duty, that's true, but there's more to it. It's not that I don't want to. I can't.
It's not just that it has to be me, us, because we're 'special', because together we have something nobody else has ever had before. We do, that's true. But it's not just that. It's that it has to be us two, because that was Fate's plan from the very start. We had no choice in it. None at all.
Every step we take together. Every time the sun sets over the glittering sea. Every time someone meets my eye, or touches their hand to your wither, they notice something's wrong. Every glimmering explosion of brilliant light, the magic that guides us, the Riders, the Keepers, our friends, the island itself, doesn't know what to do with us. It reaches out carefully for us and bounces back, like a scared animal. Sometimes I feel like none of it is really there at all. Sometimes I wake up and wonder if I'm dreaming. And all the while everything, everything from the branches of the trees, the raindrop trails on our windows, the swirls in your coat and the sound of the sea curves inward, warping in on itself. Forming arrows. Or a tunnel. Creating a path, with only one way forward.
We have to try. Not because we're good people, or because we care about our world and see the beauty in every blade of grass or gust of wind or something stupid like that. We do, some days. Of course. But that's not the point. We have to try; and that's simply how the world works. As sure and as obvious as forces of space and gravity. A world-rule. A hidden law of physics. For us, unlike them, although we know we're doing good work, although we know we're doing the right thing, there is no escape from the path of Aideen.
For us, unlike them, there really is no choice.
Please take care, Dragontooth. I'll see you again soon.