23 The Peacemaker's Decree

Keeping track of time is difficult when you're underground, far away from the sun and the sky and the bustle of routine, everyday life. Nel and I probably only wandered aimlessly around the Catacombs for about ten or fifteen minutes, but I could have sworn we had been down there for hours, possibly even days.

Yep. Our fate was obvious: we were lost forever and we were probably going to starve to death down here. There was simply no other way. Our corpses would rot away in the darkness and no one would ever know what had become of us. Our families would mourn and move on. Egretta or Dove would, years, later, take over the duties of running the shop from our old, frail parents, and she would silently dedicate each and every sale to the brother she had mysteriously lost. But with time, even she would pass, and maybe she would tell her children about me, and maybe they would tell their children, but eventually the story of old uncle Corvus who disappeared one day and was never seen again would fade from the tongues and memories of my family and I would be forgotten for all time.

Perhaps it would then fall to one of my friends to preserve my memory instead. No. No, actually, Nel was down here with me. She was going to die too. That really just left Fiora, and she would probably be too busy with other stuff.

Holy shit, I really did not have many friends at all. I was going to die as a lonesome loser. This was it: the end of a wasted life. Snuffed out just as a new destiny was revealed to me, oh cruel irony of ironies! If only there was someone here to witness my final acts on this earth, and record the last words I would ever speak. If only…

"Oh, Peacemaker, there you are."

I blinked and looked down at my feet, where Nirir and Miratus sat on the floor, looking back up at me.

"How did you find me?" I asked.

"I tracked your scent," Nirir explained. "I am a cat, if you would recall. A hunter."

"And uh, what about the snake lady?" Nel asked. "Sarissa, or… what was her real name?"

"Seriin," I said.

"She yet lives," Nirir told us. "She fled deeper into the tunnels. After that, we set out to locate you, Peacemaker."

"Well, good," I said, now feeling more than a little silly about my intricate fantastical visions of death and obscurity and loneliness. "Very good. Good job."

"Can Seriin find us?" Nel asked.

"I don't think so," I said. "She and Sissarha were using a charm to track me. Cordelia destroyed it though, so we should be good."

"Cordelia?"

"The lich."

"Oh."

"Well, regardless," Miratus said, "we should leave the Catacombs. Who knows how many mice are crawling around down here now; it's lucky you two didn't stumble across any."

I nodded. "Lead the way." With that, Nel and I once again found ourselves following small furry creatures through the dark tunnels beneath the city. This was the third time I'd done this today, so apparently this was just what my life was like now.

Surprisingly, it didn't take long at all for us to emerge from the dark and dank tunnels below into the bright and open city above. I blinked several times as the sunlight washed over my face, my body trying to adjust to the revelation that it was indeed still daylight out. I wondered if I had even spent an hour underground; it sure felt like I'd been down there for much longer than I apparently had.

Well, unless it was actually tomorrow now and an entire night had passed while I was in the Catacombs, but I didn't feel nearly hungry for that to be the case, I didn't think.

"Oh thank the heavens, I thought we would be down there forever!" Nel exclaimed, stretching her arms above her head and soaking up the warmth of the sun's light.

I held the Crown up to my eyes. In the sun, it glinted, and the metal seemed to be almost awash with multiple dancing lights. "So what exactly am I supposed to do with this?" I asked.

"Defeat the evil that threatens the city," Nirir informed me.

"Right," I said. "Great. How? Do you guys happen to have any master swordsmen around who can train me in how to not be awful with this thing?"

"Well, no," Nirir admitted. "We just sort of assumed you would know what to do with it."

I stared at Nirir, and then I stared at Miratus. I was suddenly hit with the realization that there was absolutely no one involved in this, not me, nor Nirir or Mraw or Miratus or Giratina, had any idea what they were doing. We were all just blindly flailing around in the dark and hoping that we weren't killed by Serpentfolk or demon-worshipping mice.

What had they sent me to get? A Crown. A magical weapon. They sent me to grab the weapon that had been used to exterminated the Orcs in times long past. Is that what they were hoping I would do? Slaughter all the mice in the city with my new magic crown and magic sword?

Cordelia's words came back to me. I thought of how she had mused about her own motives, how the idea of freeing, saving, and integrating the Orcs into the world would have been more difficult than the genocide she chose. I thought of her fate and the fate of her brother.

And that's when I realized, even if I had known what I was doing, even if I was some kind of badass adventurer who could cut a bloody path through all his foes, I still wouldn't be able to do this alone. At least, not correctly. Not right.

Blue. Cordelia had said my mark was blue, while her brother's had been red. Each of Fate's three heads was a different color, and that meant that I had been marked by a different head than Arcturus. My destiny did not have to be his destiny. I did not have to be stained with blood as he was.

"You call me Peacemaker," I muttered.

"Yes?" Nirir prodded.

"Go get Mraw," I told him, and then I told Miratus: "and you get Giratina. I want them together, talking. I want a treaty. You call me 'Peacemaker,' so it's about time I make some peace."

"You want an alliance?" Nirir asked. "Between the cats and the rats?"

"The royal advisors will oppose that," Miratus noted. "They will fight tooth and claw to keep such a treaty from forming."

"Will they succeed?" I asked.

Rats can't smile, not like humans and elves and dwarves can, but in that moment, I got the distinct impression that Miratus was smiling anyway. "Absolutely not."

Plans were made, a meeting place decided upon. Nirir and Miratus would bring their respective monarchs at the appointed time to a summit, where I, a lowly shopkeeper, would preside over a meeting of nations.

I would not make the same mistakes as Arcturus and Cordelia. I would not damn myself as they had. If I was marked by destiny, then I would fulfill my fate on my terms.

It was time for me to become the Peacemaker.