The Butterfly Effect

{-Tevie-}

“I don’t sense anything else, but let’s do one last scan of the area,” Hayze announced. “I want to make sure we haven’t missed something. It keeps us from having to go back later.”

“Do you think it’s safe to split up a bit?” Tevie prompted. “Seems like Talia’s gone and none of the Skiá seem too interested in us anymore. We could probably handle whatever else might happen on our own.”

Kaius considered it, then nodded. “I believe so. After all, we’re all quite capable, and I’m guessing we’ve gotten through the bulk of any possible conflicts.”

“We’ll meet back here in a couple of minutes,” Hayze decided. “The two of you won’t be able to sense any enchanted objects, but just keep an eye out for anything else suspicious. If it seems like something that doesn’t belong in the forest, then it’s probably safe to get rid of it.”

With that, they all went their separate ways, at least for the time being.

Tevie, frankly, had little intention of seriously searching for anything. Given the show that Talia had put up, and given that she’d left already, he guessed that there wasn’t anything left for them to try to find. He took the opportunity, instead, to simply spend some time in a peaceful mortal forest. The gardens of Thalis in Sanctuary did lack a certain kind of tranquility that only the mortals’ lands could create, after all. Maybe Tevie would find some small plant to bring back, too. Wouldn’t hurt to try.

Disrupting his peace and quiet, though, was a voice he hadn’t realized he’d been hoping to hear.

“Hey, guys, it’s Kiri. Sorry it took me so long, I… was busy with something else. What’s the situation? Do you still need me to talk to Micah?”

“The situation has been handled,” Kaius responded. Though they were physically far away from each other, Tevie could hear him perfectly; the charms picked up on his voice. “To a degree that I hope is satisfactory to the gods, as well.”

“What happened?”

“We encountered Talia,” Hayze explained. “She was here because of an order from Eldrianna—she didn’t want us to continue with our own mission. We were able to distract her long enough to complete it, though. No one was hurt, so I doubt there will be any lasting tensions between us… at least none that weren’t already present.”

Kiri was quiet for a little bit, then said, “Sorry I wasn’t there for you guys. I… wish I could’ve done something to actually help…”

“Well, whatever else you were doing must’ve been important,” Tevie remarked. He shrugged even if no one could see him. “What matters most is that you’re doing your best and taking care of yourself. We’re able to be on our own for a little bit, so you don’t have to worry.”

“Yeah, I guess you’re right…”

“I can’t say I’m not a little curious, though,” Kaius said. Tevie could tell that he was beginning to walk back to where the Messengers said they would reconvene. “What were you doing? Did a Fos need something? Usually you give a little bit more warning than that, if the other team or the Fos ended up needing you. I suppose if it was something serious, though, you wouldn’t have had time to…”

“It was… definitely something sudden. I wasn’t able to give you any kind of warning. Any other Fos who was here wouldn’t know how to operate the charm.”

“But you’re not going to say anything about what it was?”

“It’s handled now, and that’s what matters. Maybe we can all talk about it later. Were you able to complete the mission?”

As Hayze walked closer to where the other two were, she nodded. “We’ve just finished a final sweep of the area, so we’re going to start heading back now. Do you know if the others could use our help?”

“I haven’t checked on them yet, but I think they’ve got it handled. Or, at the very least, it’s not a problem that’s capable of being solved with more Messengers being present. Just go on and return to Sanctuary, we can all meet up there.”

“We’ll see you there, then.”

Then there was a little beep to signal that Kiri had disconnected.

“This place is a little too open for us to return to Sanctuary here,” Kaius said. “Well, without sacrificing some mystery, that is. Besides, there’s still a lot of Skiá in this area, and we don’t want them catching a ride back.”

“The area I was looking through barely had any Skiá, compared to this,” Hayze offered. “We can return from there.”

Tevie shrugged. “Fine by me. It gives us some time to talk about stuff that only really matters to Messengers, anyway.” He figured he might as well be honest outright with what he was thinking of, so he explained, “The root of the problem of having to fight Talia. I know it probably sounds stupid to the two of you, and I”m old enough that I should know better, but I’ve just kept thinking… We only had to do that because her orders conflicted with ours. Even the gods within Sanctuary might have conflicting goals on occasion. So…”

Kaius grew a bit more solemn. “You fear that we’re one day going to have to set aside our personal connections, in order to achieve the goals of our individual gods?”

“Yeah…” Tevie let out a nervous chuckle. “Sounds pretty stupid when I say it out loud, though. I should know a lot better than that.”

“Neither of us can really blame you,” Hayze remarked. The topic had made her a bit quieter as well—another reason that, perhaps, it wasn’t worth bringing up. “But it’s not something worth worrying over. After all, it’s not something we’ll ever be able to control—we’re only here now because of the will of our individual gods, after all. We owe them for everything they’ve done for us, whether or not we agree with everything they ask us to do. It was our choice to serve them, but their will keeps us going.”

“If it’s any comfort at all, I feel as though we’ll have much bigger problems if something like that ever becomes a possibility,” Kaius said. “After all, it’s not like one of us is working for Darkness—for the most part, the goals of the gods of Sanctuary tend to overlap with one another. Even besides that, they try their best to sympathize with their Messengers, and they understand the friendship between us.”

Tevie didn’t know if he felt better or worse decoding that out loud. “So, unless there’s a serious threat, we probably won’t ever need to worry about it? And ‘serious threat’ as in, something that definitely threatens probably every mortal, along with possibly the gods?”

“That was a bad example,” Hayze remarked. She nudged Kaius. “Wasn’t it? I feel like you’ve just worried him more.”

“N-no, it’s fine.” Why did all of this make Tevie so nervous? Of all the things that they’d done together—all of the things that would terrify a mortal—why was this the one that stuck with him the most? “I probably shouldn’t have brought it up anyway. Let’s just head back and forget about it.”

“Oh, you’re not going to have the last say that easily,” Kaius remarked. “You know why? What we have is more than just ‘temporary team members.’ Even if we one day have to cross each other, like we’ve turned against other Messengers whose goals conflicted with our own, it’s only for a mission. And once that’s over? We can pretend like it all never happened.”

Hayze nodded. “That’s something much better. A brighter note to consider, at least. Either way, a day like that is far, far away from now—there’s no point in dwelling on it now. Let’s simply enjoy this time we have together, without worrying about what the future might hold for us.”

Finally, Tevie was able to manage a smile. “Yeah. Thanks, you two. It means a lot.”

Kaius smirked. “Well, we’ve got to look out for the youngest of us, don’t we? We’re a team. It’s going to take far more than even the direct conflict of the gods to ruin everything that we have together.”

So they continued to walk to a better place to return to Sanctuary, and came back with the same kind of casualness as they had left. The fear of one day having their gods’ goals conflict, so much so that they would be turned against each other… it wasn’t gone. THere was likely nothing that could be said or done that would completely remove the possibility, after all.

But it was clear that, whatever happened, even if their gods wanted them to stay apart… they would figure it out together. After all, they’d done so much together; they’ve come back from worse situations.

So they would be able to conquer anything like that, too. Their bonds weren’t so easily broken.