Chapter 56
Wataru’s Wish
Another long staircase. This time the stairs climbed not in a spiral but in a zigzag.
He could no longer see the walls of the tower around him. The reflections of images from his past were also gone. He was surrounded by a void—the color of the sky just before dawn. At the top of the stairs hung a circular platform that had to be the Goddess’s throne. It was like Wataru was floating in space, and the staircase touched the outline of some unknown constellation.
Getting closer, Wataru could see someone sitting right in the middle of the disk. He steadied himself. Finally—the last step.
The seat of the Goddess.
A girl was sitting quietly in the middle of that crystal disk. She was wearing a long-sleeved dress of pure white, and she was looking down at her lap. Her long hair was tightly bound on her head, revealing the slender, graceful curve of her neck. An aura of pure light enveloped her body.
She lifted her face and a single curvy strand of black hair fell down upon her forehead.
It was Kaori Daimatsu. Again.
“Wataru,” she called. Her lips were the color of cherry blossoms. “You’ve finally arrived. This is the end of your journey. You have reached the Tower of Destiny.”
Confused, Wataru shuffled his feet. He didn’t want to step back, yet he was afraid to go forward. Kaori smiled brightly. “As it was with Onba, mine is also a borrowed form. I took her shape from among the people of the real world that you hold in your heart. But I am not Lady Onba. I do not wish to deceive you, nor harm you in any way. Be at ease.”
I am the Goddess of Destiny.
It was the same voice, yet filled with an incredible presence.
“Why…” Wataru opened his mouth. He felt like his soul was melting and running down his legs. “Why Kaori?”
The Goddess smiled again. “I believe you already know the answer to that question. Lady Onba told you.”
“Because…” Wataru put a hand to his chest. “Because she has been in my heart?”
The Goddess nodded. “She, like you, is an innocent soul who became victim to a cruel fate. As you traveled to save yourself, you wanted to save all those who suffered as you did. That was your true objective, whether you knew it or not.”
“‘Those who suffered’? Does that include Mitsuru?”
“Of course. He was in your heart as well.” Then she added in a whisper, almost too soft for him to hear, “From the very beginning.
“If you speak the wish that is in your heart now, I can make it come true. That is why I’m here. Do you understand?”
“I understand,” Wataru replied in a squeaky voice. His forehead felt like it was on fire, and his body was trembling.
The time has come at last. The time when my wishes will be granted.
“Then, come to me,” the Goddess of Destiny called to him. “Take my hand, and put your wish into words. Give your wish unto me.”
Then those long, slender arms—Kaori Daimatsu’s arms—reached out toward him.
All was silent. Wataru found himself wondering at how such pure silence could be so calming. Only his steady breathing marked the passage of time.
One, two, three. His heart beat with each breath. I’m alive. I’m here. Me.
Me…and everyone else.
Wataru took a jerky step forward, then another. No one had taught him the proper procedure. Even Wayfinder Lau hadn’t told him how to behave in the presence of the Goddess. Wataru went down on one knee, took her hand and placed it on his chest, and bent his head.
“My…wish…”
“Yes?” Her soft voice seemed to stroke his hair.
Make your wish into words.
From long before he had realized what his true wish was, Wataru’s heart had already known. It had been waiting patiently for this moment. When the words came, they came without a moment’s hesitation.
“Goddess of Destiny. With your power, destroy the Mirror of Eternal Shadow. Break it, like the Mirror of Truth, into countless fragments, and spread them through the land. Please, destroy it. Cut off the paths of the Dark and save Vision.”
The Goddess’s white fingers were motionless in Wataru’s hand.
“Is this your wish?”
“It is.”
“Do you understand the entire nature of your wish?”
“Yes, I do.”
“Do you understand that I may only answer this one wish, this one time. You will never have a second chance.”
“I understand.”
“Will you not regret this? If I grant you this wish, your destiny in the real world will not change in the least. Can you tell me that you walked the long road to the Tower of Destiny, overcoming many hardships, all for the fulfillment of this one wish?”
The Goddess’s words wrapped around Wataru like gauzy ribbons of silk. Wataru grabbed each one of them and held them close.
“You are certain? Even if Vision is saved, your fate will remain as it was.”
Wataru looked up. The smile had faded from the Goddess’s face, her expression was stern, and her black eyes were focused on Wataru.
“No,” he said. “I think you’re wrong. Save Vision, and you will save me.”
The Goddess’s head tilted slowly. “On your way here, you saw the disaster that has befallen Vision. You saw the demonkin hordes attacking your traveling companions. That is why these things are burned so strongly into your mind now. You think only to help your friends and save Vision, above all else. But, Wataru, think again. You will never return to Vision. You do not live here. Nor will you ever meet your friends again. You go from here back to the real world. And when you do, you will realize. Once again, you will face the cruel destiny that has found you, and you will find it not a bit changed from when you left. Will you not curse your fate, and be ravaged by regret?”
Wataru managed to smile, surprising even himself. “Like you say, I first came here to change my destiny in the real world. I swore to myself I would do it when I started my journey.”
But it’s different now. Everything is different. I can see that now. “I was wrong. I was looking at it the wrong way. This Vision, it’s my Vision. I walked its roads. And as I did so, I created it around me. I made this world. It’s me.”
Protecting Vision from the demonkin is the same thing as protecting myself. “When I go back to the real world, my fate will be waiting there as it has been this whole time—I know that. But it’s not like it was when I left. I’m not who I was before I came to Vision.”
“So you say you have grown stronger?”
Shaking his head, Wataru continued. “I don’t think I’ve gotten stronger. In the real world I’m still just a kid. That’s why all I could do when things went bad was cry. Because I’m powerless.”
And I still am. I can’t do anything by myself. I cry when I’m lonely, and I tremble when I’m scared. I fear that what I loved will be taken from me, and I’m afraid of being hurt.
“The time just before I came to Vision, I was sure that I would never be so sad in my whole life. I thought I would never hate another person so much, or get so mad. I wanted to change my fate because I knew then I was the unhappiest I could ever be.
“But, when I came to Vision, I made friends and I had fun—a lot of fun. Sometimes so much that I forgot why I had set out on my journey in the first place. At the same time, I encountered things that were so sad they tore me apart, and times so scary I thought I might die from fright. I cried. I cried out loud. And I shook with fear. Sometimes I was so frightened I couldn’t even stand. But I couldn’t run away. I still had to continue my journey. I still wanted to reach the Tower of Destiny.
“And now that I’m finally here, I understand. My journey through Vision wasn’t to reach the Tower of Destiny at all. The journey itself was the point. It taught me that even if I relied on your power to change my destiny, it would only be this one time. I’m sure that I’ll know many more happy times, and many more sad times. I can’t avoid that. That’s life. And I can’t go asking to have my destiny changed every time something sad happens to me.”
Wataru never thought he would cry as hard as he did that night he crawled under his bed. But he cried when Kutz died. And he cried when Mitsuru faded into the mist.