For a moment, it seemed like she was just excited to see a flower spirit, being a gardener at all, but a different idea sparked in Ryan’s mind. He carefully leaned forward to whisper into the spirit’s ear.

  “Did Gaia … grow you?” he asked, pulling back a moment later. The spirit’s smile grew larger, as if she was excited, and she immediately closed the distance again. She gave Ryan a tight, excited hug, like when you met an old friend. It seemed like Gaia wanted to come out of her domain, but she was holding back because of the crowd.

  While the hug was still going on, Ryan whispered to the spirit again, “We’ll come back later … so you two can meet properly, okay?”

  Startled, the flower spirit let go and nodded in excited disbelief. Like she was given a wave of excitement that reminded Ryan far too much of a young child, she flew up above the crowd. With a wave of her hand, flower petals rained down onto the crowd. The flower spirit waved at Ryan for a moment and then moved back to her flower. Most of the crowd followed her movement, but the people who were with Ryan were still staring at him.

  “What did you say to her?” Silvia asked immediately, and Ryan laughed awkwardly.

  “I’ll tell you guys later. For now … let’s go; I think Yanna is struggling a bit,” he pointed out, looking up at the minotaur. Of course, the flower spirit had an incredibly powerful scent, and with her literally a step away, it had been too much for Yanna. She seemed quite sick from how powerful the smell was, and so the group pushed their way out of the crowd. Liam was still stuck to Ryan’s hand, actually squeezing tighter than he had before. Once they were in an area where not that many people were, everyone took a breather. Modak was taking care of Yanna, who was squatting while trying to deal with how sick she was feeling.

  “Did you know that spirit?” Ryan’s mother asked him, but he quickly shook his head.

  “No, no, I don’t. But I guess Gaia does,” he pointed out, glancing over to Runar. At this point, he had given up on getting surprised by these new revelations.

  “How nice! Why didn’t she come out to say hello?”

  “Ah, I think she was too nervous to come out in front of the crowd,” Ryan explained. “But I told that flower spirit that we would come back later. I’m guessing she lives here at the botanical gardens?”

  Runar nodded. “Yes, she settled in there maybe fifty years ago when it was first opened, apparently.”

  “Hm, alright. Then we’ll go back when there’s not too many people,” Ryan said. “It does seem like Gaia wants to—”

  He flinched as an uncomfortable sensation invaded the back of his head. It was uncomfortable and “wrong,” as if it wasn’t supposed to be there. It was a familiar sensation. Ryan turned around for a moment, his breaths growing heavier and faster. But the sensation was already gone. Had he imagined it? He could swear he just felt a spark of corruption. Or at least something similar to it. Since it disappeared right away, maybe it was just an uncomfortable glare by someone who didn’t like that Ryan was interacting with a spirit? Corruption usually lingered a lot more.

  But no matter how much he looked, he couldn’t find it again. Ryan should still talk to Runar about it later. For now, though, the group left the botanical gardens. It was far too full, and there in particular, the smell was clearly too much for Yanna. And Runar was trying to hide it, but he had also apparently awakened his perception stat and raised it quite a bit, so he was dealing with how strong the smell in the area was as well.

  But that was fine; there were still plenty of things for them to see. The whole city was decorated with beautiful garlands celebrating Regir, the Great Spirit of Nature. That meant no matter where you went, you could see a new side of the city where you lived. It was actually the perfect time for Ryan’s mother to come for a visit, since she could see so many new parts of the town over the next week. She seemed to be quite excited to do so as well and was talking to Runar about some random, boring stuff that people their age liked.

  But looking over to his friends, it seemed like they were all rather deep in thought about something. Yanna was still recovering from the assault of those scents, and Modak was mentally at work. That was something he had been expecting, but he was a bit surprised about Silvia and Fae. Silvia was biting her nails in thought, while Fae’s confusion was quite literally written on her skin. The patterns adorning her canvas-like body were twirling around and changing rather rapidly, like her thoughts were racing.

  “You alright?” Ryan asked, and Fae looked at him, a bit startled. She looked over at Silvia, wondering if he was talking to her, but Ryan shook his head. “No, Silvia is just thinking about some new painting she wants to make. But you seem a little nervous about something. Is everything okay?”

  Waves of color flowed over her body in tune with her clearly fast heartbeat.

  “I, uh … I’m just a bit surprised, that’s all. I mean, a spirit just came up to you and hugged you and stuff. And not just any spirit but Maribelle, who’s famous for never giving even a moment of attention to people she doesn’t care for.”

  Ryan raised an eyebrow. “You know about her?”

  “Oh, yeah! My mother is a florist, so I always grew up around them, and I don’t know if you’ve seen my art, but I do use flower motifs a lot. So, when I moved to New Riverside, I immediately came to the botanical gardens and saw Maribelle there for the first time,” Fae explained. “I painted her for one of my classes’ final last semester …”

  Ryan smiled a bit. He wanted to offer Silvia to come with them when meeting her later, but he knew that there were going to be a lot of conversations about things that he didn’t really want too many people to know about. Ryan figured he should probably go alone, especially if Maribelle didn’t usually like interacting with people. But maybe he could ask if he could come back with his friends, and then Fae could meet Maribelle.

  Ryan turned toward Fae with a smile, trying to say he would ask the spirit about this later, but the words didn’t leave his mouth. Rather, he stopped walking altogether as he spotted something unexpected. In the distance, though not too far away, stood a young woman in a white dress. Her skin was light brown, and the antlers on her head were adorned with glass flowers.

  Practically startled, Ryan called out to his uncle. “Runar!” he said, not turning away from the woman in fear of her just disappearing when he even just blinked.

  “What? Is everything okay?” Runar asked, and Ryan nodded.

  “Yeah, yeah, just take Liam’s hand for a second, I need to—I need to check on something …”

  Runar did as asked and grabbed Liam’s hand, and only then looked over to the place Ryan was incessantly staring at. When he saw that woman standing there, he realized what Ryan was about to do, but it was too late. He was already running toward her.

  Ryan was worried that she was going to try and get away, but she just kept standing there. And the closer he got, the more he could see her scowl. Her angry, hateful scowl.

  He slowly stopped in front of her.

  “Uh … hey, are you—”

  “How dare you?”

  “Huh?”

  “How dare you mess it all up? Do you even know how tangled it’s all gotten?” she practically growled at Ryan. “With every step you take, it just gets worse?”

  Ryan’s stomach dropped. “I … What do you mean? Why did you mess with Silvia? D-Did you make her awaken?”

  The woman took a step closer to Ryan. “Make her awaken? Hah, no, of course not. She was never supposed to awaken. It’s all gone wrong, so incredibly, incredibly wrong. I tried to undo the mess you made, but because of all those that were interfering, it just got worse.”

  She glanced down at Ryan’s arm. “Even that symbiote … Do you know what you did by bonding with it? Do you know what sort of ruin you brought to the future?”

  “I don’t … I don’t understand what you’re talking about. How am I messing things up? I’m just trying to help; that’s all I’ve ever wanted to do.”

  She started laughing, “Yeah, well, that doesn’t matter. The only way for you not to have messed up this world was for you to not be born in the first place. Though even before then, things became a true, complete mess.”

  “Well … well, what can I do? If things are a mess, tell me how I can fix it.”

  Despite Ryan’s hopes, the woman just glared at him with more hatred. “Nothing. Just do nothing. Hide away in your home; don’t interact with anyone ever again. Make people forget you even exist, and let things go the way they’re supposed to again. With time, the knots that you created might come undone.”

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about; what am I doing that’s so bad?”

  “You exist; that’s bad enough,” she explained. “The flow of everybody’s lives is like a river, flowing together and alongside each other in a natural, smooth way. Sometimes, the river is blocked, but the water will flow around it. Diverge slightly, but in the end, it will always return to its path. What you’re doing is wading through that river, building a dam, and making it flow the wrong way. Because you’re not a part of the river. You’re just a … a terrible villain that exists to make the river of fate dry up.”

  “I …” Ryan looked back at her, trying to figure out what to say. But she didn’t care anymore. She wasn’t even really looking at Ryan, rather focusing her eyes on something around him.

  “All those threads clinging to you when you don’t even have your own … I hope you’re happy.”

  Chapter Thirty-Eight

  Flower Crowns

  I…” Ryan looked at the woman in front of him, but she wasn’t looking back at him at all. He could feel her anger and the hatred that was coursing through her body. But that wasn’t all; Ryan could feel her fear at the idea of things going out of control. This fear was the foundation for her anger and hatred. But how did Ryan even know that? Sure, when it came to people, he was a bit more apt at figuring out what they were feeling, but it was never something this strong. It was almost like …

  “You’re a—” Ryan started, but the woman’s glare interrupted him just a moment later. She turned around and went on her way.

  “I can’t stop you. I can’t get rid of you to make things go right again. I can’t do anything but ask that you do the right thing,” she said, then turned and walked away. Ryan was left standing there, staring at her back. He wanted to run after her and ask her to explain, but his feet were practically glued to the ground. Heavy as lead, too heavy for him to lift. The woman left, dragging her fear-filled fury behind her.

  Once she was out of sight, disappearing in the crowd, Ryan could feel the weight lift from his body as Runar’s hand was placed on his shoulder. “Ryan, are you okay?”

  “Yeah, I’m fine, just … she said that I’m messing up fate,” he replied, staring at his uncle. “Runar, why is a spirit telling me that I’m messing up fate?”

  Taken aback by the question, Runar looked into the direction the woman had left. “A spirit? What do you mean?”

  “She’s a spirit, some kind of nature spirit I guess, but that’s not important right now.”

  “Not important? Yes, that’s absolutely important. You were speaking with her, right?”

  “Yeah, so?”

  “Spirits can’t speak; they communicate through magic and mystic means— Even the seven greats can’t speak,” Runar pointed out. “So really, are you absolutely sure that she’s a spirit?”

  “… She felt like one. Or at least something like a spirit; I don’t know. Seriously, I think you’re focusing on the wrong thing here … It’s like you … you knew.” The realization slowly came to Ryan. “You knew that I was messing up fate with every single step.”

  Runar let out a long sigh. “You’re not ‘messing up’ fate; you’re just … altering it. Fate is a fickle thing anyway; it’s not that deep. But to a being that can see fate like her, changes like that are catastrophic.”

  The heat that he felt in his face earlier only got stronger. “You knew who she was beforehand. Just not that she was a spirit, I guess. That’s why you’re so surprised.”

  “Well … maybe, but—”

  “No but, dude; what the actual fuck? You promised me that there would be no more lies, that you wouldn’t keep things that directly relate to me hidden from me anymore. So, what, you decide that this whole ‘fate’ business wasn’t important enough? And you just hide that you knew who the person assaulting my best friend is?”

  “I just thought—”

  “Don’t you fucking dare,” Ryan barked back, stepping closer to his uncle. “I swear, if you don’t stop hiding shit from me, I’m seriously going to fucking scream.”

  Seeing his mother approach with concern, Ryan pushed past Runar, bumping into his shoulder on purpose as he passed. Mary looked at her son, trying to reach out to his arm, but Ryan shook his head and silently walked past her.

  When Ryan got this mad, he often struggled to find the right words, lashing out at those around him. So, rather than do something he would regret afterward, he decided to just stay silent around his loved ones. His mother knew that, quickly recognizing Ryan’s expression. So, instead, she approached Runar.

  “What happened?” Mary asked with a concerned frown, but Runar just scratched the back of his head, unsure what to say.

  “It’s complicated. I’m sorry. Just … since he moved here, he learned a lot of things that sort of changed his view of the world.”

  Mary turned around, looking at her son’s back as he stood by his friends’ side, silently tapping his foot on the ground. He was clearly trying not to show how mad he was feeling, particularly because Liam stood right in front of him, but you could still see that he wasn’t okay right now.

  Ryan stood there with his eyes closed, trying to take deep breaths and calm himself down. He could feel Tiar squeezing his arm, trying to help calm him down. Of course, the symbiote could feel that Ryan was upset. And that was when Ryan remembered what that woman had said. That Ryan was bringing ruin to the future by having bonded with them.

  “Don’t listen to her. She was just speaking complete nonsense,” Ryan whispered into his hand. He didn’t know what that woman had meant, but there was no way that bonding with Tiar was a bad choice. Was Tiar supposed to bond with someone else? Or were they supposed to never bond with anyone in the first place?

  Either way, none of that mattered right now. Fuck fate, and fuck the idea that Ryan was messing up the world just by existing. It wasn’t as though he was trying to do any of this.

  “You alright? Where did you go just now?” Silvia looked at Ryan. It didn’t seem like she had seen that woman earlier, which Ryan was rather glad about. She was pretty messed up after what had happened at the restaurant.

  “I’ll tell you later, alright?” Ryan suggested. Even though he was glad Silvia hadn’t seen her, she and Modak should still know about this. He promised to keep them up to date, and he always kept his promises.

  “If you’re sure,” Silvia replied, briefly patting Ryan’s back. As she did, Ryan looked over at Fae. Judging from her expression, though, she had seen that antlered woman. All the color had been drained from her face, quite literally. Usually, she had some patterns of color on her cheeks, but right now, that wasn’t the case. Clearly, she knew that something was going on, but she didn’t want to mention it. Maybe she knew something else about this too, but Ryan didn’t care about that right now.

  He just wanted to move on for a bit and have fun with his friends. He wanted to forget about the fact that he had apparently made a mess of everything. But things didn’t always go as you wanted them to.

  Around when Runar and Mary came back to the group after speaking for a few moments, loud applause and cheers sounded out from the direction of the botanical garden’s entrance, where Maribelle and the employees were putting on a show for the visitors. But together with that came a wave of … discomfort.

  A deep headache came over Ryan as his gut feeling told him that something was wrong. That something was going on. He was about to run back there and check it out when it simply faded away again. It was an instant of discomfort and wrongness that disappeared before he knew it. Maybe Ryan was just a bit too sensitive right now because of his continuously heightened intuition stat, and his bad mood certainly wasn’t making that any better. Ryan took a deep breath and tried to calm himself down again. It was fine. He would be okay.

  Ryan carried a crate down the stairs to the basement ruins. Maximus, Gregor, and Gaia were also helping out, as were the sub-golems. Inside those crates were flowers, garlands, decorations, and some music players, which would be put up downstairs. This was the compromise that Runar and Ryan had decided on.

  While most of the people down there couldn’t exactly leave and join the celebrations outside, making sure that they had an opportunity to celebrate a bit more was still something important to Ryan. So, over the weekend, they had started some preparations. With the help of the dryads, as it was much easier to convince them than Runar had implied it would be, they decorated the cave with bright flowers and plants of all sorts.

  There was a tradition amongst some of the people living down there, who came here for refugees after fleeing the country they had hidden in in the past, to wear flower crowns during the day of Regir. And those were what Ryan was currently bringing downstairs, as he had finally finished putting it all together. Together with those, Ryan was bringing downstairs some flowers that were bought from local shops and stands, other Regir-themed trinkets, and even some flowers from Gaia’s garden. That actually included the copper wildflowers. Since they still hadn’t found another use for them, using them as decoration for the time being seemed like a good-enough idea. Now that they had blossomed, they were made of practically normal copper and wouldn’t wilt anyway, so they might as well.

  Ryan pushed his way through the stone door at the bottom of the stairs, soon encountering some of the dryads who were waiting for him.