A Self-Study Within A Broken Mind

I came back the next day to check on Lila’s progress, hoping she did not rush through the whole thing. The sequel saw me in a bad light, then a bit of good, then a lot of bad. I was sure it ended on a bad note, but remembered that Rebecca left behind a laptop of recordings, something I asked her to do to keep track of the things I missed by being away from her. The laptop I disintegrated after Lila put her effort to record my expanded ideas into. I blipped into the library and panned over the whole space to see if Lila came back inside. “Hey,” said a voice from above. I turned to find Kara leaning over the second floor railing, as she often did. I wondered if she had back pain like me. “Seen Lila around? It’s her turn teaching Tarne.” “She’s probably reading in the garden,” I replied. “Teaching?” “What did you do now?” She asked. “What is she reading?” “Just a book, a story from the many I’ve written,” I lied. “Uh-huh, like I’d believe that,” Kara said. “If I had to warrant a guess, yo...

“YOU ARE ARTORY!” A voice boomed in the enormous open space of stone. “AND YOU ARE OUR CHOSEN!” I felt the stones shiver all around me. The ground I stood upon was not so. Beneath my feet was the back of a stone turtle. “Oh, sorry,” I said and jumped off to the equally shaking stone ground of the walled off space. “This is starting a bit confusing.” “Just go with it,” said a voice off to my side. “It’s better if you just lean into it.” It was a girl my age, but ever stranger than me. “TAKE UPON A WEAPON!” Boomed the voice in the space. Six columns rose up from the giant floor. “AND YOU SHALL BE OUR CHAMPION!” “Are you kidding?” I asked. “They’re like two miles apart. It’ll take me half a day to check all six of them before making a choice. Can I get a horse or something?” “That’s after you choose a weapon,” the girl said with a sly little smile. “Get to it. Didn’t you say you wanted to go and fight monsters?” I looked to her. She was a few inches shorter than my five-ten, with mid-len...