Lucas's Dream
Lucas's dreams had been much better since she established a rapport with the goddess responsible for them. For one thing, they were always lucid.
Which was why Lucas, right now, was enjoying a bit of an orgy in her dreamscape.
Yeah, reader, like you wouldn't do it.
Said enjoyment was cut short, however.
"Having fun?"
Lucas raised her head.
"Liber? What are you doing here?"
"Apparently, interrupting." - Said Liber, smirking - "I am most unique among the gods, Lucas, in that I don't have to ask for permission to be wherever or whenever it is that I want. Not that I abuse this anyways."
Lucas shrugged and willed away the women, willing herself in her dream clean and refreshed.
"Eh, I can go back to that tomorrow. What is it you need?" - Asked Lucas.
"Wow. You automatically assume we need something. Tisk, tisk, my siblings have been overtaxing you." - Said Liber, smirking.
"It's not like that, I do it because I want to." - Said Lucas.
Liber chuckled.
"I know. And you have, so far, stayed true to my request, that you make yourself proud. It was mostly a joke. See, in a dream, it's easier to reach a sleeping deity. So, I want to invite you to come with me and to meet the other part of that little story I told you about... The one that told me to give the element of water to Venus. The one, Lucas, that ensured that your fate would be the ability to destroy all fates!"
DUN DUN DUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUN!!!
Liber blinked at the sudden sound that rang through the dreamscape.
Lucas giggled a bit.
"Sorry. Even though it's a lucid dream, my unconscious sometimes gets the best of me in my dreamscape and it seemed appropriate."
Liber smirked.
"I'll have to tell you sometime of the time I released fifty cats in the middle of an assembly. Anyways. I speak of Ananke. Or Necessitas..."
"Wait. SHE made me able to..." - Lucas began.
"Yes indeed. I and Necessitas don't always see eye to eye, but my respect for her grew when she decided to grant to one who would be free the power to alter fate."
Lucas nodded, suddenly serious.
"How I waited for this moment when I was younger. For such different reasons. Lead the way."
Liber nodded and Lucas's dreamscape changed slightly.
An elegant middle-aged woman with graying copper-hued hair appeared. She wore a toga and sat on a throne - one that overlooked the world, and from which infinite strands descended and ascended.
"I had been waiting for this moment." - Said Necessitas.
"I... Why? Why me, Necessitas?" - Asked Lucas.
Necessitas smiled lightly.
"Why not?"
"I know at least one guy more worthy of this power than I am. He's a tree. He's content with his fate, but he has precious little power of his own. How is that fair?" - Said Lucas.
"He is, indeed, very wise and very benevolent. However, he wouldn't have crafted a plan to prevent countries from supporting dictatorships. He wouldn't have exited reality and visited the Outer Realm. In so not doing, he would not have met the gods. Lucas, you are looking at this the wrong way. You are saying he is wiser than you, and on that I agree. You are saying he is a better person than you, and that is debatable." - Said Necessitas.
"I'm pretty sure he is..." - Said Lucas.
"Anyways, Lucas, only one person in this world would do the things you did. Think about it. Relatively few would be willing to visit the outskirts of reality. You did so. Among that universe, just part would care about freedom the same way you do. The same way Liber does. You do. From that part, I would say five or six people would be able to actually establish a rapport with gods due to both knowing someone who might indirectly warn them, in your case Robert and having a past history with a deity, in your case Selene. From that universe of five people, Lucas, you are the only one with the kind of thinking necessary to do all the things you did."
"So... It's like I'm a 'chosen one', only I'm chosen by exclusion?" - Asked Lucas.
Necessitas chuckled.
"More or less. If I did not believe you are qualified for this job, Lucas, I would not have given it to you. Also, it is true that, in direct terms, Maxwell is powerless, but he has your ears and a lot of wisdom to impair. So, not so powerless..." - She then turned sullen - "And as for... What you once wanted to ask me... Yes. Your past is a huge part of what taught you valuable lessons to perform your fate. I apologize."
"I figured as much." - Said Lucas, sighing - "It's okay, I guess."
"It is?" - Said Necessitas.
"Look" - Lucas sighed - "I won't lie to you. I rued some things about my past for a long time. And for a long time I dreamt of getting a response from fate itself about why. But now... Look." - Lucas smirked a bit, obviously joking - "If you want me to turn my sword into a paddle and spank you while you tell me how naughty you were and that you'll never do it again, by all means, but consider the things I got now. The things I did. Heck, one DAY of my last week makes up for everything. It's always going to be a part of me, it's never gonna be 'okay', but it was VERY worth it."
Liber smirked.
"Getting softer, Necessitas? I haven't seen you this apologetic in a while. I'm glad to see you care..."
"She is of you, of Venus, of Hermes and of Selene, Liber. And she is of me as well." - Necessitas suddenly looked very tired and very sad. - "And she was brought right before me. Before me, I see a person who, even though in a relatively minor fashion, suffered due to, well, fate. I never met one personally. I feel for all fates, Liber... I do."
Liber fell silent, noticing he had struck a nerve.
Lucas sighed.
"Get up, Necessitas, and come here, please?"
Necessitas obliged.
Lucas hugged her.
Lucas felt warm drops hitting her left wing. Embracing the one able to destroy and change all fates, Necessitas now cried, not for Lucas, who had just "forgiven" her, for many of the fates she had dealt. For all that was so hurtful, so sad, and so necessary. For all the harsh lessons, for all the events where the needs of the many outweighed the needs of the few. For the ones dealt a bad hand because of... necessity.
The two stood up for a while, Lucas herself silently shedding some tears of her own, though much less than Necessitas, for the time when she, Lucas, had wanted to question her own fate, many years ago.
Lunar surface.
Waking up, Lucas only remembered the dream up to that part. She was greeted by something resting on her lap.
A delicate, silver-on-black framed embroidery of an ace of spades. She turned it around and took a look at the back.
Below the hole for the nail, she saw yet another embroidery, this time as words.
Liber told me you would appreciate this gift. Thank you. Necessitas.
Lucas nodded, smiled and, silently, proceeded to choose the best place to hang that gift.
