Lucas was trying to absorb that information.
"Venus... It's not that I was underwhelmed by the Excalibur thing, it was shock, really, I think... But..."
Then it hit her like a ton of bricks.
Your sword is like water...
"Venus... I... You said my sword..."
Venus nodded.
"The power of Excalibur is derived from the lake, Lucas. The original element of water..."
Lucas looked at her sword.
"I am holding the artifact that created life? Why? Why me??? I'm nothing, Venus! I'm a freelance translator, and only that... Thousands of people are better than me... Why...?"
Venus looked tenderly at Lucas for a moment, then giggled.
"Venus, this isn't funny... The power I hold... I'm not worthy of it!" - Said Lucas.
Venus smiled.
"Sorry. That was Arthur's reaction, too. Yet, Lucas, the fact remains you saved the world with that sword of yours. You even died trying. With your wit alone, you changed the face of international politics. You are not perfect, Lucas, but you won't harm the innocent with this power..."
"But... Wait. If you're the Lady of the Lake... That means you gave it to me? Why???" - Asked Lucas.
"I believe I have the answer to that question." - Said a voice.
Lucas looked at the source of the voice. A smirking, unkempt - but clean - man. Since she could sense things emanating from him, she could tell he was likely a god. The feeling was vibrant, ebullient. And, above all, free.
"Lucas, meet Liber." - Said Venus - "Why are you here?"
"Can't the god of freedom be where and when he wishes? You are quite fetching, Lucas..." - Said Liber, smirking.
Lucas blushed. "Er, happily lesbian..." - Then she added as an afterthought - "The sexual orientation, not the island."
Liber smirked. "Pity, you should see the kind of festival they held there for me. Or for Dyonisos, of whom I am another version. Anyways. Venus seems to have transformed the Orb of Water into a sword after I gave it to her. Gutta cavat lapidem. Drops of water hollow out a stone. The element of water, Lucas, is one of potential. So it was back in my temple..."
"You mean you had it?" - Said Lucas.
"My worshippers had it at a certain point, yes. However, the powerful of the time wanted it. In searching for it, they attacked my temple and destroyed it. They killed every last person inside. My high priest, which held onto the Orb in a bottle that went unnoticed by the minions of the tyrant of the day, died wishing for a freer world, wishing for change... This was shortly before the Arthurian times, when Venus fashioned the sword and gave it to him."
"So... Arthur brought about the change your priest wished for?" - Asked Lucas.
"Oh, no, Lucas, not at all. You see, my temples were mostly restricted to mainland Europe. The temple in which that bloodbath happened was my temple... In Massilia."
"That's Marseilles now..." - Said Lucas. She then paused. "...Wait..."
Liber smirked again, the smirk of one that would bow to no king.
"Ah, a quick one. Yes, Lucas. Marseilles. The place where the French Revolution all but began. The wish for societal change my high priest made with his dying breath was brought about. It now permeates most of the civilized world. For your sword isn't only Excalibur. It is also the pike that was pointed at one Bernard-René de Launay."
"I'm sorry, but who?" - Said Lucas.
"The governor of the Bastille. But he was only a man. The symbol is what matters. What the French Revolution started is what matters. Governments that were made by the people and for the people. Freedoms that were once unthinkable and are now considered basic. All of this was touched off by that revolution... Even if only symbolically, Lucas, allow me to tell you: On the tip of your sword are the heads of countless tyrants!"
Lucas looked at her sword and willed it into a pike. She pictured the head of certain men atop it.
She then paused.
"What if I become like Robespierre?"
Liber smiled.
"Well, Lucas, even assuming you run the risk of ever becoming like him, which I very much doubt, we all know what happened to Robespierre once HE became a tyrant, do we not?"
Lucas nodded.
"Point... But I still don't understand why you chose me, Venus..."
"It is your payment, Lucas, for the help with Lilly. And it was fate. It was your fate to ignore all rules... Paradoxical though it may seem, it was your fate to ignore all fate. Necessitas herself saw to it. To be given the power to do what we cannot. You, Lucas, are unbound in a manner that even Liber isn't. There are rules that we must follow, rules of certainty and uncertainty passed on to us by the Universe itself. These rules do not apply to you."
"What have I done that was worthy of this power?" - Asked Lucas.
"You learned what misused power can do. That's what you did." - Said Liber - "Water, the element of potential, is also that of freedom. And you wish to protect that. That's why you were given such power."
"I will try to make you proud, then, Liber." - Said Lucas.
"Don't. I am not your keeper. Try to make YOURSELF proud." - Said Liber, smiling - "I'll be visiting, Lucas. You and I are quite alike..."
The transluscent form of Liber vanished, allowing Lucas and Venus to keep taking in the time and the place where life began.
Lucas blushed a bit at a thought.
"Venus, before we go on, can I ask a rather stupid question and a much more pertinent one?"
"We are only projecting our thought here, so you can't take pictures with your cell phone." - Said Venus, smirking - "You can easily will images of this place into existence at your plot, though. What's the pertinent one?"
"I heard that... being... making a wish on this orb... So, if I make one aloud..."
Venus smiled.
"Lucas, it makes no difference... Not for you. It's part of you now. It works with your will, and with your effort as well. Likewise, people can't touch you and make wishes, either."
Lucas nodded.
