#rivervale_lodge

She nods.

"And sometimes I was off.. sometimes I missed it completely" A thought "But most often when I did have them, I like to think I helped. I made it better. Most of the time I couldn't talk about it. It would mess up the good. " A look at Dagmar "Also... it makes folks nervous. If I go around looking young wilders in the eyes and says 'I have seen your destiny and danger awaits' but then can't tell them what the danger and destiny is, it's kind of a dick move right?"

"Well, yeah."

"Have you had big visions about any of us?"

"Big? Yes. " A nod "But It's best you don't know"

"Because.. yeah. Can mess you up, like the dude who fucked him mom..."

"Bluntly put, but good to see you're studying the classics. Look, the houses aren't on the best terms now, but do you know how Gwydion and Beaumayn met?"

She shakes her head.

"You should hear it. " He says "Wish I had Torrin or Tove's gift." A deep breath and he explains as he puts the last of the course away...

She listens, helping clean up at the same time.

"A long time ago, when the world was still in it's first spring... legends and heroes began to rise, none greater perhaps than Gwydion the Grey." A nod as if accepting this "and with that rise, word spread far and wide of the rise of Gwydion the Grey and his band of noble warriors, who brought order and justice to ands where there were none. On one of the very first journeys Gwydion and his entourage made, they came across a village of mortals slaughtering another village, putting women and children to the sword and burning the buildings of their enemies with whole families trapped inside. What amazed Gwydion, though, was that a sidhe warrior was watching the destruction from a nearby hilltop, weeping as though his heart would burst and yet making no effort to stop the carnage. "

Vali pauses to gauge her reaction so far. He knows the girl is big on justice.

She scowls. "Well, I'd be mad too! He just watched?"

"That ticked Gwydion off too. " Vali says and continues "Thinking him a coward, Gwydion's band made to ride past him and save who they could, but at the sound of their approach the young noblesprang to his feet and blocked their path!"

"Naturally, Gwydion was outraged and demanded "What manner of warrior do you call yourself, that you can watch the slaughter of innocents and yet do nothing but weep?""

"Hmph!" Jaw jut, nod - clearly she agrees.

Vali spreads his hands out as if opening another page of a book "At this, the young sidhe drew himself up nobly, his eyes flashing wih light like twin moons riding over a haunted moor, his words ringng with distant thunder. "I am the warrior Jalendrel, strange lord, and I am no coward, but weep only for the knowledge that it was destined to be thus." He raised his blade, and the assembled nobles saw that one of his hands was twisted nd blackened, as if by flame. "Know this: Neither you nor I nor any of your knights may change that, on the pain of my life, else the greater evil be served.""

"Well, Gwydion was about ready to consider that a fair deal and blow through this young punk," Vali says, ""What greater evil is there than the deaths of innocents while warriors stand by and do nothing?" Gwydion asked." ready to draw his sword and MAKE this guy move"

"Who is this guy to decide those innocents deserved to die, or that nobody be allowed to save them? What gave him the right?"

"Ah, but remember, Gwydion knew lies when he heard it, so he was very puzzled when, without lying, Jalendrel looked him square in the eyes and said with neither sword nor voice wavering before the sidhe the world had ever seen, ""The greater evil, strange lord,is that a good man should act at all, if he knows his actions would serve only to advance a wicked design further.""

"But..." Huff, scowl.

"Yup, Now you get what Gwydion felt.. Before the puzzled lord could demand more details, or for that matter even give a hearty "What the hell , dude?" , a terrible monster leapt out of the flames of the burning village, its ancient lair at last uncovered by the destruction around it. Roaring fire and dripping poison from its jaws, the ferocious creature began striking down attackers and defenders alike in itsrage. Gwydion and his followers fell back, dazzled, but Jalendrel was prepared and averted his eyes in time. He then fell upon the monster with equally savage fury, wielding his great sword one handed as he hacked into the beast's stony hide. Round and round they dueled, with blood spilling from both combatants, but in the end the young warrior prevailed and slew the monster with a final, tremendous thrust through its heart."

"NOW could they save the goddamn villagers?"

Vali chuckles, then goes on, reciting what was obviously a story crucial to his own House membership "At once, the fascination that had falledn over Gwydion and his soldiers was broken, and they gave a cry of triumph as they rushed to Jalendrel's side. Their joy was muted, however, when they found him weeping once more. "You have slain the beast, noble sir, and for that you should be proud, for if you had not lain in wait for it as you did, a monster such as that one would have taken ten thousand innocent lives rather than just the population of this humble village.""

"I sense a but."

"You have a good gift for knowing how a story bounces" Approving "yes, there was a but"

"Jalendrel raised his head at this, and the sunset light of his eyes washed over Gwydion in a wave of grief. Yet his words were calm and measured as he replied, "That is true, strange lord, but the folk of this humble village were my kin. If others have been saved by my actions, I must carry to my death the knowledge that my family's lives were the coin this victory was paid in. The future has always been my curse," he whispered, 'for though I see what must come to pass, with that ability comes the knowledge that I am sometimes powerless to stop things from happening so." Mustering the last of his will, he raised his blackened hand. "I tried once before, and earned this for my folly, for it was not the destined time to slay the beast, and I knew it." With that, he slipped to the ground, mingling his essence with the blood and ashes."

She scowls. "That's... that's bullshit. What about free will?"

"Hey now, let's not step on the story too fast, let me finish up then gripe mm?" Vali says "Moved by such devotion to duty, Gwydion summoned his greatest healers, who used their magic to restore the noble young warrior to health; only his hand, burned by the fire of the beast long ago, could not be saved. Gwydion welcomed his company, and in time Jalendrel the Good Handed became one of the greatest knights of the age, renowned not only for his courage and strength at arms, but also his compassion for the common folk, mortal and fae. When he at last passed into the Dreaming, a shower of stars fell from the sky in homage, and blue flowers bloomed where they blasted the earth away. To this day, it is said among the wise peoples of the world that when the blue flowers bloom once more, Jalendrel will rise again and lead his house against the evils his prophecies foretold long ago."

She folds her arms, scowling.

"How could he know he couldn't... couldn't have gotten his kin out of the village and then let the stupid monster run rampant? How did he know some other way wouldn't have shown up to kill it?"

"How could he just SIT there?"

"He tried, remember? That's how his hand got ruined. Destiny, Da'an, is a force in our world, and triple so in the age of legends. The more he tried to push before it was time, the worse it got. The future is not as malleble as we often think. Free will can only do so much."

And Vali believes it.

"He tried before to kill it, but didn't try to get his family out of the village?"

"I don't.. I don't think you should just accept that you can't change the future. That's like giving up."

"I mean, the monster was raging and the village was on fire, how would it have hurt to allow Gwydion's knights to at least save some lives?"

"It was the attack that woke that beast at the time, the fire and the carnage... now , if his village was empty... what would have happened? His family would instead been killed fleeing on the road... the monster would not have woken....then, and instead would have risen at a different time to do even more damage."

"But it was already on fire!"

"Oh, now don't blame Gwydion. The monster had a power...remember that bit about 'fascination'? They were bespelled"

"Couldn't move for a bit?" Reminding

"And what if it was prevented, maybe he'd see a different vision? Why did he get to decide THOSE lives were worth less than some other lives..."

"Gwydion himself said it, THOUSANDS more would have died if that creature hadn't been put down there." Vali says "Jalendrel the Good wasn't deciding who was worth more or less...hell, they were his family, he was trying to save as many as he could period."

"Maybe!"

"You can't know! Not for sure!"

"It's not always about who deserves saving and who doesn't" Vali sighs "And it wasn't maybe for him. He DID know, that was his curse and his gift"

"That means nobody has a choice, though. That it's all... poof, written, so nobody is responsible for nuthin' because it's fate."

"That somebody HAD to suffer for the 'greater good,' that's what you're saying. That it is acceptable to do NOTHING because there's some PLAN."

"No no... you're thinking of it... " He sighs "You're thinking of it as absolute consistency, as if it's always one way or the other. Think of it like a great river... SOME parts are white water, some parts have big blocks of stone that you just can't move... and the bends in the river, where it happens?You can't change that"

"But other areas... you can move about a bit more, you can handle it..."