When Andrew fell asleep he woke up in front of a large white house.
The house he grew up in. He walked up towards the front door, pausing to touch the handlebar of a rusty old bike forgotten by the stairs. He looked up to see the basketball he had accidentally got stuck up on the roof above the porch when he was eleven. He climbed up the stairs, past an empty old rocking chair. He opened the door and stepped inside.
He inhaled slowly and then smiled. It still smelled like his mother's cooking.
"Andrew! Jacob!" His mother's voice rang out. "It's time for dinner!"
Andrew looked towards the kitchen, and then to the stairs as two young boys came barrelling down the stairs. "Coming, Mom!"
Andrew watched the boys run past him and towards the kitchen.
"You were such a sweet boy. How could they bear to abandon you?"
Andrew turned, Celeana standing behind him. She looked different.
Well, she looked the same, but she had an eerie glow around her. It was the same blue-green as the smoke from her pipe, with little sparks that disappeared as soon as they appeared, like flecks of starlight.
Andrew grimaced, "...I kind of deserved it."
"There's a bench on the back porch, isn't there? Why don't we sit? Talk for a while. You can tell me all about what happened."
"You mean you don't know?" Andrew followed Celaena as she walked towards the back door.
"I do, but talking is rather therapeutic, no?"
"I don't want to waste your time."
"We have all the time in the world, dear boy." Celaena waved her hand and the door opened by itself. The family sitting at the dinner table didn't seem to notice.
Andrew followed her outside and sat beside her on a creaky swinging bench. "It's probably nothing compared to what you've seen."
"That hardly matters. It hurt you, didn't it?"
"It hurt everyone."
"Then it doesn't matter how much worse someone else's suffering is. Nothing will negate the fact that you were hurt." Celaena blew up a large cloud of smoke.
Andrew looked down at his hand, "I was eighteen. Jacob was fifteen."
"We were just going to go on a drive. We drove the same route a dozen times before." Andrew paused, working his jaw. "Why am I telling you this?"
Celaena reached over and pat his hand with a warm smile.
Andrew glanced at her, then looked away. "There was one particular road. It was always empty, but it was really long and fairly straight. There was this one slow turn where you couldn't see around it because of the trees. But it was always empty, so we weren't thinking about that, and we wanted to know how fast we could go." Andrew grimaced. "I didn't see the truck."
"It was an accident, dear."
"That doesn't change the fact that I did something I knew was dangerous. And that doesn't change the fact that Jacob never got to turn sixteen."
Celaena rubbed his shoulder and Andrew looked at her. "Is there something you need to tell me?"
Celaena nodded, pulling her hand back and taking a deep breath through her pipe. She exhaled slowly, "You've seen Vesia, yes?"
Andrew nodded, "You know how to help them?"
Celaena nodded, "I have a plan that will help everyone all at once. Vesia is the first step in that plan."
"What are we going to do?"
"I want you all to go to the capital. Everyone is to help Lucina appear as if she is performing miracles. Eventually the king and queen will request her presence. She will become their advisor."
"...That's it?"
"For now."
"What if there's nothing for us to...miracle?"
"Make something to miracle."
Andrew was quiet for a few long seconds. "We're going to trick them."
"Isn't it better to trick them to improve the quality of their life than use force to make them listen?"
"...I guess."
Celeana exhaled slowly, smoke curling in the air. "Perhaps it would soothe you to know that it isn't a complete lie. Lucina is a messenger of a goddess. She's just a messenger of a goddess that actually exists."
"...I don't know."
"It's much easier for people to digest part truths rather than the truth that goes completely against what they already believe. Challenging all that they are will only make helping them harder."
Andrew eventually nodded, "...You're probably right."
"You can always back out if you don't feel comfortable with our work. I can bring you home."
"No, no. It's fine. I'm fine. I can do this."
Celaena touched his cheek, "Thank you, dear. It's time to wake up now."
Celaena vanished and the world around Andrew fell away into into darkness like wisps of steam.
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