Joan

Chapter LVI

"So are you feeling any more...magical than before?" I ask Dhisnaek, absently waving my hand for effect.

He gives a slight shrug. "Nothing as of yet, but I trust whatever potion you gave to me."

"Can I just record all the times you say you trust me because it is like the greatest thing, I swear."

I mean, seriously, he puts as much trust in me as some people put in Jesus. The others back home need to be taking notes from this guy.

Brent rolls his eyes at me before addressing Dhisnaek. "I'll admit, this is the most I've heard the word 'trust' referred to her."

"She makes it awfully hard to trust her sometimes," Chasan mutters.

"I can attest to that," Nimu quietly adds.

"But you guys ended up trusting me," I beam cheesily.

"For better or worse," Chasan adds.

"Hey, it at least turned into the better, right?"

As he mumbles a half-hearted, reluctant agreement, we finally emerge from the palace, back into the radiant, yet still red-tinted sunlight of the outdoors. Our descent down the hill is definitely faster than our previous ascension, that's for sure. I'm relieved, though, to see Kaos sitting exactly where we had left him, unaware of our return.

"Hey, Kaos!" I cup my hands to yell up to him.

While my voice registers to him, Brent goes back to two-year-old ogle mode and stares up in amazement at the giant man, his eyes widening even bigger when he stands up.

I glance over at Dhisnaek, making sure he's feeling 100 about this since this relies heavily on him.

"You got this," I whisper to him, giving him a thumbs up.

Though some traces of doubt lingers still, I can sense some renewed encouragement spurred on by my words.

"I assume you were successful," Kaos bellows down at us.

"Yup," I reply. "And seeing as I'm a woman of my word, I kicked his ass and have a way to reverse whatever curse he put on you."

I can tell he's trying to suppress the hopeful anticipation mounting inside him, probably not wanting to get his hopes up, but I'm not here to crush hopes, I'm here to fulfill them.

"Is that so? And how are you going to do such a thing?"

"Well, technically, I'm not, but he-" I step aside to give Dhisnaek the floor. "Is going to."

Though he's still trying to put on that façade of cynicism, his eyes tell a different story- he's eager to see what happens.

"If you believe it will work."

"I know it will."

It's make it or break it time for Dhisnaek. Though one could argue that even if this doesn't work, however disappointing that would be, we can wash our hands of this and say we tried- and maybe I would have done that in the past- but I'm not going to turn my back on Kaos. I don't think it's fair to let Tymos continue to affect someone else's life even after he's out of the picture. I'd even be willing to stick around until I found a cure for this, but it begins to look like I might not have to.

As Dhisnaek stands before the giant, he raises his staff upward, bowing his head slightly as he mutters something to himself several times. Soon, the staff starts to glow. As the dark blue aura around it continues to brighten, I notice the staff beginning to tremble even though his hands appear unmoving.