“I’m not afraid, exactly.” The words seemed to come hard. \u00a0“I just wouldn’t be very good at it. \u00a0I’m happy being a small fish.”<\/p>\n
“Don’t tempt her,” the Questor grinned.<\/p>\n
“Bah. \u00a0There’s no room in the tank,” she said. \u00a0She leaned back and looked at me. \u00a0“Really?” she asked, with an eyebrow cocked high.<\/p>\n
“Why doesn’t anyone believe me when I say I’m uncomfortable with the power I have?” \u00a0I said. \u00a0I hadn’t really ever said it that way before, and I was surprised it had come out that way this time.<\/p>\n
She nodded slowly. \u00a0“You should be. \u00a0We usually think of Openers as dangerous. \u00a0Incanters, summoners, taking from the Outside, but you, you crippled and nearly destroyed a Dragon. \u00a0Not to say there aren’t other Powers, but even the word Dragon summons, if you forgive the term, images of the fears of mankind. \u00a0A Dragon makes many enemies and few friends, but those friends are now warned about you. \u00a0Your name is spoken in places that speak languages even the wise fear, Gandalf might say.” \u00a0She smiled a little.<\/p>\n
“So you’re saying I have powerful enemies? \u00a0I kind of got that one on my own,” I rolled my eyes.<\/p>\n
“Wouldn’t being a wizard tap you into the kind of power to handle them? \u00a0Or are you more scared of yourself than you are of anything that might strike at you?” \u00a0There was a smile hinting at her lips.<\/p>\n
I got the feeling that there was some kind of test in this. \u00a0“I don’t even get the choice of fading and leaving for the West.”<\/p>\n
“California’s too delicately balanced. \u00a0It’s a minefield.” \u00a0She shook her head. \u00a0“You’re not getting the One Ring, E. \u00a0Have you tried to close the door, such as it is, on your mark?”<\/p>\n
That was an interesting idea. \u00a0I shook my head. \u00a0“Could I?”<\/p>\n
“You could ask me to wipe it out, or find someone to transfer it to, willing or unwilling. \u00a0Play your enemies against themselves. \u00a0You could do a lot of things.” \u00a0She didn’t answer my question. \u00a0“The Questor,” she waved at her husband, “gave you several free answers. \u00a0That in itself could worry your foes.”<\/p>\n
I hadn’t thought of that. \u00a0We were just folks making good conversation, but on one level, she was absolutely right. \u00a0“So what’s the advice?”<\/p>\n
“Honestly, I’d like to counsel you to become a wizard, but I don’t take apprentices and it’d be irresponsible otherwise. \u00a0 That leaves me with an old saw. \u00a0Be yourself.”<\/p>\n
“That’s easy enough to say,” I pointed out. \u00a0“After all, I don’t really know how to be anyone else.”<\/p>\n
“Easy with the scare quotes, mister. \u00a0We are human beings and we have a choice. \u00a0We can work with, against, or just surrender to the flow of things. \u00a0Each of those things are important at the right time, at the right instant, and none of us know what that time is.”<\/p>\n
“The whole mythology of free will?” I asked.<\/p>\n
“Good choice of words. \u00a0If you’d just said myth, I would have kicked you in the knee.” She gestured with her foot. \u00a0“I think it might touch on that, but even without the context of soul and the behaviouralism inherent in that system, that’s a lot of what makes us human to each other. \u00a0It’s how we act when we get to that crux. \u00a0You had to free the fire. \u00a0It didn’t do Prometheus or Dog or the Sparrow any good, did it?” \u00a0It was a sad smile. \u00a0“And what comes from outside our worlds has no reason to play by our rules. \u00a0They are outside the system, immune to the flow, not part of our cycles, not with the interests of our world in mind. \u00a0Like, um, literally. \u00a0So, for me, in defining that good or evil thing, I have the good of my world in mind. \u00a0You’re a force for it. \u00a0Suck it up.”<\/p>\n
I grinned. \u00a0“Does that mean I get a superhero emblem and maybe a theme song?”<\/p>\n
She mock-glared at me. \u00a0“I’m sure I could get the kids to whip something up, if you don’t mind being called something as obvious as Hero Man of the Hero Kingdom of Hero Men in Hero World. \u00a0I blame it on their father and his inability to find names for his characters.” \u00a0She turned the mock glare over to him.<\/p>\n
He shrugged, grinning.<\/p>\n
“Yeah, yeah, `Nothing wrong with heroes that Batman or the Green Arrow can’t solve.’ \u00a0That’s practically a motto.” \u00a0She sighed. \u00a0“Alright, it’s long past time for dessert. \u00a0I’m going to make some ice cream sundaes, and then start the kids on their baths.” \u00a0She got up and moved towards the kitchen.<\/p>\n
“Um, she is aware that they’ve both been members of the JLA, right?” I asked the Questor.<\/p>\n
“She had too early a Frank Miller influence on her superheroes, I think,” the Questor.<\/p>\n
“It was the smartest question I had brainpower for, I think.” \u00a0I yawned.<\/p>\n
“Just don’t bring up Superman,” he warned, still smiling. \u00a0“She has opinions.” \u00a0He stretched out his legs for a moment, then took the dishes into the kitchen.<\/p>\n
“Do you like chocolate syrup?” she asked from the doorway.<\/p>\n
“Yes. \u00a0What, no `eye of newt’ and `wing of bat’?” I teased.<\/p>\n
“Dragon’s-blood orange?” she teased.<\/p>\n
“Just like mom used to make,” I retorted.<\/p>\n
“I can also burn you a grilled cheese sandwich if you’d like. \u00a0I’m good with that.” \u00a0She disappeared back into the kitchen, in a purely mundane fashion. \u00a0That, at least, was like most of the wizards I knew. \u00a0I’ve seen some lairs, and some labs, but you still needed the occasional PB&J. \u00a0Even wizards had to eat. \u00a0Invisible servitors still had to be taught how to scramble your eggs just right.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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