The Great Defeat (Part 2)

Leonard turned over and sat up. He rubbed his eyes and looked around, blinking. He was outside, in the middle of the glade within the woods. Nearby, the fire was still burning, its flame radiating heat. Charred logs crackled. It took him a few moments to realize he was dreaming about the past.

Kasian was sitting in the grass on the opposite side of the fire. Mira was sleeping next to him, her head in his lap. Her dry lips were slightly open. Her eyelids were twitching, she was probably also dreaming about something. Kasian was staring into the fire absentmindedly, his fingers running through Miras' long silver hair.

Leonard bit his lips. Those two were always bickering in their friends' group. He sometimes wondered if they had a thing for each other. But they both swore they would rather die than date. Looking at them now, he wasn’t so sure about it anymore. They always kinda matched each other.

Once Kasian realized he was awake, he turned his purple eyes to him.

Their gazes met. Kasian was so different now, it was hard to grasp that it was the same person. Not only did his physical characteristics change, but his demeanor was the opposite of that flirty office worker. He looked… empty. Were in this world no skirts to be chased? Or was Mira ordering him to behave? She said before, he was her servant. But since when did Kasian even listen to someone if he didn’t want to?

Leonard was expecting an awkward silence between them. After all, he hit him and was about to make him pay for everything, until Mira appeared and threw that dead fox's body at him. Remembering the smell, he had to force down the urge to vomit again.

But Kasian was not minding the awkwardness at all. “You can't sleep?” he asked him.

“How can I?” Leonard asked. “The ground is hard, and my whole body is sore. What about you? You aren't going to sleep?”

“I don’t need to sleep,” Kasian replied. “And someone needs to stay awake to keep watch. Woods are not particularly safe at night.”

Leonard kept getting embarrassed. He lay down immediately after their fight, angry. “Yeah, right. Sorry for not thinking about that.”

Kasian studied his face. “Why are you getting worked up again?” he asked him. “I didn’t say you need to be the one to stand guard.”

He was still playing with Mira's hair. Seeing that, Leonard grew overwhelmingly irritated. Anger blazed in him.

“I just didn’t expect to meet you here,” Leonard said, “and I cannot say I am happy I see you again.”

“Why?” Kasian asked him.

No emotion, just a pure question.

“I told you, you made a move on Selena. You knew I liked her!”

“I already explained to you why I did that.”

“That does not make it right!”

“So you were too big of a coward to ask her out, but instead, you got jealous and pretended to be an overprotective hero, trying to control who would be able to date her?”

It stung hearing him put this so bluntly.

“Not only that,” his mind quickly brought him another argument. “I always had to do all that work instead of you. While I was working on your agenda and then did not have time to finish mine, I had to stay working overtime, and meanwhile, you were outside drinking beer with our colleagues or our friend group. You took advantage of me, used me.”

“I didn’t take any advantage of you,” Kasian said calmly. “I always asked you if you could do that stuff. And you always agreed. I did not hear a single complaint from you. You could just say no.”

“How could I refuse you, when we were friends?”

“You could refuse exactly because we were friends. Why didn’t you just say you don’t want to do it? I would probably shrug it off and ask someone else for help.”

“But I got this job because of you.”

“Did I ever hold that above your head? No.”

Leonard opened his mouth, but no words were coming out. He was desperately trying to remember the occasion when Kasian was putting him down because of his status, but the fact was, he had not encountered such situations.

“We have known each other for years,” Kasian continued when seeing that Leonard had nothing to say. “We met as kids in kindergarten, and we stayed friends despite the fact that our social circumstances have changed. I never once said I am better than you just because my father got rich. You and Mira were both the unlucky ones, losing the stability, being forced to take care of yourselves. Instead of abandoning you because you were no longer part of our circle, Selena and I tried to help you both have a better life. Mira refused, of course, being a proud woman, but you accepted. Did I ever use that against you? Never.”

Kasian and Selena both preferred an extravagant lifestyle. But they never expected both their friends to pay for anything, instead, they took care of them because they both understood, they were the unfortunate ones.

“But instead of saying anything, you just went ahead, slowly building the resentment over time, like an immature kid. What are you expecting will happen? Do you think some savior will appear and free you from this? Or are you expecting someone will pat you on the shoulder, saying you had it hard?”

Soren's words echoed in his head. People were not taking advantage of you, you let them do it.

“If you are too afraid to do something, why are you making it other people's fault? How about you start to be accountable for your own actions?”

“Could you two just shut up? I cannot sleep.”

Kasian went quiet and looked at Mira. She was still lying in his lap, but her red eyes were now open. She was fully awake, staring at him.

“And what were you two talking about? Do you know each other? And who is Selena?” she asked.

“Do you really not remember?” Leonard asked her.

“Remember what? I must say, the name Selena does sound familiar to me, but I just can't put my finger on it.”

Kasian sighed. It was the first time Leonard had seen that calm face of his change under the waves of emotion. Was it sadness or pity? Disappointment?

“And you mentioned Mira? Mira is my name, right? You call me that. But now you were talking about some other Mira. Who is she?”

Kasian did not say anything.

“Let me tell you more,” Leonard broke his silence, “I was just talking about my companions from the world I came from. You wouldn’t believe this, but two of my friends were sharing your names. Mira and Kasian. There was also Selena. We have known each other since childhood, and all four of us used to meet frequently. Actually, I would say my friend Mira was very similar to you.”

“How so?” Mira asked him. “Was she also a necromancer?”

“I would say she was a witch,” Leonard explained. “She knew a little bit of magic. Her biggest talent was to read the future from the cards.”

“From cards.”

“Yes. She had many people coming to her to ask for help or advice. She would make them pick a card, and then she would tell them what they should expect in their future.”

“So she was an oracle.”

“You could say that,” Leonard agreed with her. “She was a very proud and strong-willed woman. And I must say, some of her friends did not believe in her powers at first. For example, her friend Kasian was quite skeptical when talking about the card readings.”

“No,” Kasian said, “why did you have to choose this story?”

“Why not?” Leonard laughed. “It is a vivid memory of mine.”

“Stop interrupting him already,” Mira said. “What happened between them, Leo?”

“They made a bet. If the oracle can foretell his future, and it will in fact happen, he will have to work as her personal slave. If not, the oracle will be serving my friend personally.”

“That’s pretty stupid,” Mira said. “I can already tell that Kasian from your world lost.”

“Yes, you are right. So they made this bet, and the oracle then started telling him his future. She was able to see everything. He was utterly defeated and humiliated. So he had to work like a slave and run all kinds of errands for the oracle.”

“Right,” Kasian answered, “and there he learned how real fortune reading works and what kind of things that scary woman is able to find out on the internet. The amount of things people are oversharing on social media is insane.”

Leonard looked at Mira, but she was already asleep, not listening to them anymore.

“Not to mention, all his friends found this kind of bet hilarious, and they helped her gather more information so her fortune-telling was as accurate as it could be.”

“I couldn’t say you did not enjoy running errands for her,” Leonard said. “Even though you two were always bickering. It was entertaining, watching you.”

“Thanks.”

Leonard added more logs to the fire. “Say, Kasian, do you think we will be able to return to our original world to meet again in the pub and drink some beer?”

Kasian was not looking at him. The golden flames were reflected in his eyes.

“We won't.”