— James —

Everyone was oddly quiet on the way back to the mayor's manor and I don’t really know why.

We had completed the quest together well... except for Aster he just kind of disappeared. He didn’t have a great time against the monsters. I have to admit I was impressed by his abilities when we sparred but he was useless against anything other than a person. Rot, his knife work could easily have been bested by me if I tried but he is my friend and we did survive the fight with us sort of. Now that guy in the mask really helped, and I've never seen a weapon change so easily before, or was it one weapon the whole time? It was just so hard to tell with that weird mist all around him.

I'm getting a little worried about my friends

"Why the long faces guys?" I asked

After a minute of quiet Aster broke the silence "Have you ever had a quest egg tell you to go somewhere after you fulfilled the conditions?"

I think about this for a moment "...No. No, I have not" An Idea formed "But that could be because we always do low-level quests."

Everyone seemed to nod at this except for Aster who still seemed thoughtful "I suppose…" We remained in silence until we reached the manor. The guards stopped us until we showed them the egg. Suddenly they were very respectful. Bringing us right to the mayor’s office.

We were brought to a sitting room inside the mayor’s office and after a few minutes, the mayor came in.

The mayor burst in excited “Welcome everyone! Glad to see you safe.”

Being the only one willing to talk right now “Yes it was a struggle but we did it.”

"I hate to be rude but can I see the egg?"

Taking the egg the mayor opens the quest and reads and almost jumps for joy "I knew it would be you!"

"Knew what would be me?"

"Why the hero of course!"

"Hero?" Now I was confused but was suddenly reminded of the masked man mentioning I was a hero.

"Yes of course this was a test to see if you were the heroes. Now for the final part." The mayor cracked the egg as five more small eggs fell out. "Only one for each of you; they all contain something for your specialty."

"Specialty? So which is which?" Aster asked

"That’s part of the prophecy. Now choose."

Everyone grabbed an egg and cracked it. Before us the items fell, before I dropped scales, in front of Bay a heart, Violet received a small caduceus, Rowan a yin and yang medallion, and Aster a dark mask, ornate in design, with glitter all over. The mask was confirmed in my heart from the description of the quest. The mask of a fool or maybe it was supposed to go to that other guy in the blur.

I stared at my scales and asked "So what do they mean?"

"Simply put who you are in the prophecy."

Pointing to Bay "The heart”, Violet "The healer", Rowan "the balance", Aster "The fool." he said this last part with a little contempt

"And you, my boy the scales of justice, the Hero."

— Aster —

Wait I'm the what. What blight does that mean? I know my heart stopped when I saw the mask fall out. I knew exactly what it meant "The mask of a Shadow" not just any but my starlight mask. Oddly enough, the mayor gave me the perfect out as to what it meant but it doesn't mean it didn't piss me off. I mean why the hell would that be a fool’s mask? Obviously, a thief’s mask is much more dignified. I mean they don't even know what I did in the fight for them. If anything I should be the hero... Well, I don't know that probably isn’t right.

I did only stumble onto the other shadow wolves but there were so many I was glad everyone survived. That last one was able to pull me away. I lost my mask in the process. Good thing I went back and got it.

I know I'm not the hero but common the fool what does that even mean. This guy is… just something is not right about this whole thing. Needless to say, I was pissed. I don't think I like this mayor, and he seems to be getting close to James, which is a little odd.

I don't think being called a hero is a good thing usually means something is going to come for us. Lost in thought I finally start to hear around me.

"And now for your next leg according to the prophecy, you are destined to free the east from the tyranny of the demon king, of Lotus."

"What now?" I blurted

He looked agitated at my interruption and pointedly looked at me "Well except for you."

"What why?"

"Simple in the prophecy it says you are the cowardly fool so how could you help?"

"Hey I'm no fool or a coward" everyone looks away from me 'is that really what they think of me'

"He will come with us. He is important to the team." James butted in

“Yeah!” Bay added

Bay seemed indigent but the others…

"Whatever I'll tell you the prophecy and you can decide from there, and bring this charity case." The mayor added annoyed.

They shall come, a group shall come. They will win a difficult task that is past their abilities. They will be young and new. From the nursery they shall come, fighting monsters of fire and scales. They will fight the horde of shadows and shall be marked. Surrounded by shadow the hero shall appear among them to guide us all free. Guided by the hands of the caretakers will they free us.

The scales will weigh the world with his heart, finding a true balance as the world is healed back. His mask will fall, and hinder him, causing him to stumble and fall. Hidden he will fight, but while his mask is there he will stumble and fall. The mask is a foolish thing that can only be removed for us all to be guided back to the light.

Seriously? was All I could think after listening to the mayor but James was all gung ho about stopping the “evil east” and their dark way guiding us all into the light.

I mean his class is luminary how could he not think it was him.

The fool? He even called me a charity case. I was livid about being called that. I'm not sure if it was better or worse for me that he thought it was a jester’s mask but I knew. According to him, I will be nothing but a burden on James. Blight, I killed a fucking queen. Sure it was an accident but I have her jewel but I didn’t tell anyone about it.

I also only fell on its head killing it by pure luck. I did take out those other elite drakes.

Who was sleeping, and still I almost died.

Well, those last three were sure awake, but I did die using some skill I didn’t even know how to use well at the time.

— Aster - One Week Ago —

We had just left the mayor's house to prepare for the quest and split off. I was lost in thought as I had learned so much on skills that no one told me before. Why did everyone seem to know how to use the skill? I know James said they teach you once you reach level five but they didn’t give me any information at all.

Why would they not tell us anything?

It would just weaken the guild.

I think I need to talk to some people in the guild. But for now, let’s take a break, I went back to the inn since I still had the room for a few more days.

I made it to my room and decided to lay down and think about falling.

It felt almost like a form of meditation thinking on the word falling.

Let’s see, first to fall, to fall down. Seems simple enough.

Ok falling to fall is the act of going towards the ground.

That seems too simple hm...

What about the other meaning? Used in to fall from grace, to become lower than one once was. To fall away.

Not sure this is getting me anywhere. But I continue to think. To fall away.

I like that; to fall away from myself. To not have any of these worries and just do what I want. Be the rogue I know I can be. For a while, I dwelled on the idea of falling away from myself and suddenly I was falling. Everything about me was just falling away. The world, my everything. All around me were smaller bits of myself falling away. I've never felt so free. I wonder if this is how people feel with no baggage. While in this state of bliss I stand to take a look in the mirror to see if what I'm feeling is true. I quickly found the mirror to only see myself, well not as myself everything was falling away from me. As though a cloud of multicolored mist was blurring everything about me. But as soon as I thought about how odd this was I came into crisp focus. Feeling the small flow of energy around me stopped. I didn’t even realize I was using energy. It happened so suddenly that I wasn't even sure it happened. I wonder if this was because my eyes hadn't focused yet.

I tried to find that falling feeling once more. It took a while for it to come but when it did I focused on the feeling and myself. In this state I was open and free I was myself and not myself, and when I had focused on myself I looked at the world around me with my sharp cat eyes to see everything in sharp contrasting detail. Once I confirmed myself I looked into the mirror to see what I looked like. Again I was watching pieces of me or images of myself falling away. Like a blurred mist of hundreds of different images of myself dispersing all around. But after just a few moments of seeing this, the image of myself came into sharp focus. Hmmm... How am I going to keep this state? It was a true feeling of freedom, I had never felt that before.

I began to think about this for a while and started to do a few more tests.

I returned to that blissful feeling of falling and focused on it. The more I did the less I felt I was falling.

I began to search for myself for any reason. There I felt the trickle of energy that had me falling away. As I found that thread I focused on it as I sat up and looked at myself in the mirror. As I did I noticed the stream of energy suddenly kink like a hose and quickly stop.

I did many more experiments on this new falling ability and each time it took less and less time to reach. After many hours I slowly found the rules of falling.

1. If I focus on myself it the mist as I will call it dissipates and I return to focus but this can take a moment. If I look away fast enough it will continue.

2 if I wear a mask the mask will stay in focus while the rest of me falls away and I can see myself while falling.

3. If I focus on my body while I wear the mask I will come into focus. ‘I think this has to do with my eyes needing to see the world in focus.’

4. Everyone other than me can look at me without me coming into focus. I did a few walks around outside to confirm this.